Long story short: tell your state Governor to protect child labor laws, and tell your Congressfolk to cap insulin prices for all Americans, fund Medicare better, and reject any effort to roll back investment rules that protect pensions from climate change. Use the tools in the upper right-hand corner of this page (or, if you're on a cellphone, the bottom of this page) to find your Congressfolk's phone numbers and/or use the email/petition tools in the following paragraphs.
Patriotic Millionaires helps you tell your state Governor to stop any efforts by your state legislature to gut child labor laws. You’ve heard of young kids enduring slave-labor conditions to make chocolate? Consider that our government has caught several big corporations breaking child labor laws in America – and consider, also, that right-wing state legislators are trying to loosen child labor laws in several states. I’m sure they’ll say it’s about kids getting $10 from grandpa for reformatting their hard drive, but that’s a load of horsedoodle – this is about exploiting 14-year-olds in dangerous construction jobs so you can pay them less. The children are our future – unless they’re just another workforce.
Civic Shout helps you tell your Congressfolk to cap the price of insulin at $35/month for all Americans. Currently folks on Medicare get that cap – Democrats could only get that cap through reconciliation last year, since it concerns government spending – but all Americans deserve it, and don’t tolerate any nonsense about how “price controls are bad.” You say “price controls” to Americans suffering 6% inflation and they’ll likely say that sounds like a great idea! And certainly don’t tolerate any nonsense about how “folks just have to eat better” – not in a nation that subsidizes sugar like we do, and not in a world where kids are born with diabetes.
Americans for Tax Fairness helps you tell your Congressfolk to pass the Assuring Medicare’s Promise Act, which would ensure that certain taxes mainly paid by rich folks (including the Net Investment Income Tax and the Self-Employment Contribution Act) actually find their way to the Medicare Trust Fund. The bill wouldn’t actually raise taxes on anyone, and though I’m certainly game to do that to ensure Medicare is always there for us, the bill certainly deserves our support. More than the right-wing fools who whine about TEH LOSTZ JOBZ!!!! every single time someone tries to do the right thing in America, that’s for sure.
Finally, Americans for Financial Reform helps you tell Congress to reject Republican efforts to roll back a Department of Labor rule requiring big corporations to keep our retirement savings safe from climate change risks. If that sounds a little inside baseball to you – which Republicans are counting on! – consider that if climate change makes our planet unlivable, you won’t have a pension! Our laws mandate that our government protects investors – which you are, if you have a pension plan – and putting the “rights” of polluters above the rights of all Americans sure is some real short-term thinking. Naturally Republicans, being “conservatives,” are all about the short term. No reason we need to be, though.
Comments