One of the consequences of nearly 40 million Americans losing their jobs during a pandemic? They'll pay less into Social Security this year, and thus get fewer benefits when they retire. But H.R. 7499, the Social Security COVID-19 Correction and Equity Act, would help improve that situation by increasing benefits by 2% across the board, increasing the "special minimum benefit," and expanding benefits for (among other vulnerable folks) grandparents who are raising grandchildren. So, to sum: politicians like Sen. Ernst of Iowa would get Congress "behind closed doors" to cut Social Security benefits, and politicians like Sen. Rubio would rob Social Security benefits to pay for paid family leave -- while others, like Connecticut's Rep. Larson, would put Social Security on a sounder financial footing while increasing benefits. Gosh, I wonder which approach is better? Social Security Works helps you tell your Congressfolk to protect working families' retirement by passing the Social Security COVID-19 Correction and Equity Act.
Meanwhile, the Sanders-Markey-Warren amendment to the defense authorization bill would divert $74 billion away from defense spending and toward investing in communities with a high poverty rate. I hate to sound like a broken record (full disclosure: I do not actually care whether I sound like a broken record), but we already spend more on defense than the next eight countries combined, and for what? For foreign soldiers to use improvised explosives to flummox our efforts? Too many folks think power is all about whom you can hurt, but it's really all about whom you can help, and civilizations that don't get that die. And they deserve to die! We've been going backwards for almost my entire lifetime, and if we keep going down this path, we'll eventually join Babylon and Assyria and all those other nations history classes barely cover anymore. We can take a small step toward avoiding this collapse by letting Win Without War help us tell our Senators to invest less in weapons systems and more in people.
Finally, People for the American Way helps you tell your Congressfolk to protect our U.S. Postal Service. You'll be telling your Senators to do this again tomorrow when you tell them to pass the HEROES Act, but our Congressfolk often need extra reminding about what's important. Our Post Office performs essential services for its owners, the American people -- and will be particularly important this coming Election Day, when a lot of good Americans are going to be mailing their votes in for the first time, so as to avoid getting COVID-19 from waiting in line for hours on end. (Have you seen that meme on Facebook that goes "I wait in line for Walmart, etc., so why shouldn't I wait in line to vote?" Stupidest. Argument. Ever. Like COVID-19 isn't even happening! Have I mentioned how much I hate stupidity?) Of course right-wingers like our President want to privatize our Post Office, which would be an utter disaster, as privatization efforts are. Tell your Congressfolk to save our Post Office, and we can avoid such a disaster.
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