All Out In Boston

The Budget for All! campaign calls for an emergency protest over the government shutdown and threat of default:

Wednesday, October 16

12 noon, Massachusetts GOP Headquarters
85 Merrimac St, Boston
North Station "T" stop

• No to a Republican shutdown: too many people get hurt
• No to defaulting on the debt: even more of us will get hurt
• No to a bad Grand Bargain: The president must stand firm against cuts to Social Security and other vital programs
• Yes to the Budget for All! agenda supported 3 to 1 by Mass. voters in last year’s election:

1. Prevent cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Veterans benefits, or to housing, food and unemployment assistance;
2. Create and protect jobs by investing in manufacturing, schools, housing, renewable energy, transportation and other public services;
3. Provide new revenues for these purposes and to reduce the long-term federal deficit by closing corporate tax loopholes, ending offshore tax havens, and raising taxes on incomes over $250,000; and
4. Redirect military spending to these domestic needs by reducing the military budget, ending the war in Afghanistan and bringing U.S. troops home safely now.

Gather at the offices of the Republican State Committee for a protest. We will deliver a Cease & Desist Order to the state Republican Party urging them to repudiate extremist leadership and tell them to raise the debt limit, stop the shutdown, stop sequestration, and support the Budget for All! platform.

GOP Approval Rating At All Time Low

Just 24 percent of Americans have a positive opinion of the Republican party, according to a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released Thursday. The survey reflects a record low in approval for the GOP for NBC/WSJ poll, which dates back to 1989… A Gallup poll released Wednesday found that 28 percent of Americans view Republicans favorably, also an all-time low for that poll. More

STRENGTHEN SOCIAL SECURITY. DON'T CUT OUR BENEFITS

The Republicans broke our government, and are about to break our economy. First they demanded Obamacare as their ransom. Now they're coming after Social Security.

50 House Republicans, led by Rep. Reid Ribble of Wisconsin, just sent a letter to Speaker Boehner urging him to make cuts to Social Security benefits before the debt ceiling is raised and our government re-opened. And yesterday, Rep. Paul Ryan published an op-ed calling for cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Enough is enough. On Tuesday, we will be taking your message to GOP offices across the country as part of a National Day of Action. Take Action: Strengthen Social Security. Don't cut our benefits!

“Deficit Hawks” Want Seniors to Take a Hit to Keep Doctors and Drug Companies Rich

The story on Social Security is of course bizarre. Few people think that seniors have too much money. Most must face sharp reductions in living standards when they reach retirement. The median income for a person over age 65 is less than $20,000 a year, that's a day or two's pay for your typical Wall Street high flyer. Furthermore, Social Security is entirely funded from its dedicated tax for the next two decades… The real story of budget deficits is in health care. And here the problem is that people in the United States pay way too much for the care we get. Although the quality of health care is no better in the United States than in other wealthy countries we pay more than twice as much per person as the average in other countries. If this gap persists, in the long-term it will create serious budget problems, since more than half of our health care is paid by the government. There are two ways to reduce costs. One is to get our costs in line with what people pay in every other country. This would mean taking on the health care industry. More

The Chained CPI: A Zombie Benefit Cut Still Walks

It happens every time: Republicans and Democrats get into a standoff over the federal budget, and their best plan for wriggling out of it is to nickel-and-dime people on Social Security and Medicare… The chained CPI has risen to walk among us again in the muttering and jawboning around the government shutdown/debt limit standoff and the search for an exit. We're hearing again about a "grand bargain" on the government deficit -- never mind that the deficit is falling, not rising. More

A Federal Budget Crisis Months in the Planning

Shortly after President Obama started his second term, a loose-knit coalition of conservative activists led by former Attorney General Edwin Meese III gathered in the capital to plot strategy. Their push to repeal Mr. Obama’s health care law was going nowhere, and they desperately needed a new plan. Out of that session, held one morning in a location the members insist on keeping secret, came a little-noticed “blueprint to defunding Obamacare,” signed by Mr. Meese and leaders of more than three dozen conservative groups… The current budget brinkmanship is just the latest development in a well-financed, broad-based assault on the health law, Mr. Obama’s signature legislative initiative. Groups like Tea Party Patriots, Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks are all immersed in the fight, as is Club for Growth, a business-backed nonprofit organization. Some, like Generation Opportunity and Young Americans for Liberty, both aimed at young adults, are upstarts. Heritage Action is new, too, founded in 2010 to advance the policy prescriptions of its sister group, the Heritage Foundation. The billionaire Koch brothers, Charles and David, have been deeply involved with financing the overall effort. More

Absolutely everything you need to know about the debt ceiling

The federal government is shut down. But there's more mayhem to come: Congress still has to deal with the debt ceiling. If lawmakers don't vote to raise the nation's borrowing limit by October 17, the U.S. government won't have enough money to pay its bills. A debt-ceiling breach could be the most serious crisis yet. The U.S. Treasury Department says that failure to raise the borrowing limit could trigger a default, which would lead to "a financial crisis and recession that could echo the events of 2008 or worse." Republicans in Congress say they don't want a default, but many members also don't want to approve any new borrowing until the Obama administration agrees to make certain policy concessions (say, changes to Obamacare). It's a standoff. More