Take Action | Oil Change International. Rural Suicides Follow Medicaid Cuts. Suicide is on the increase in rural America--nowhere so much as in western mountain states like Idaho, Wyoming and New Mexico. Mental health professionals attribute it in part to cutbacks in Medicaid funding, to the recession and to the culture of the rural West. In Idaho, somebody kills himself every 35 hours, according to a 2009 report to Idaho's governor by the state's Council on Suicide Prevention. Their report calls suicide "a major public health issue" having a "devastating effect" on Idaho's families, churches, businesses and even schools: 65 students aged 10 and 18 killed themselves in a recent five-year period. Recently, a county sheriff in Bonneville told the Idaho Falls Post Register that his department was getting more suicide calls than in 2010—a year in which 290 Idahoans took their own lives.
Historically the suicide rate in rural states has been higher than in urban ones. "I personally know people who lost Medicaid who've attempted suicide," says Garrett. White Papers. DOUBLE STANDARD: Congress Can Legally Trade On Insider Information While Wall Streeters Go To Jail. It turns about that being in Congress is not about power or politics. It's about making money. Congress is looking more and more like Wall Street these days as Peter Schweizer, author of Throw Them All Out, and reports by CBS's 60 Minutes reveal that Congress elected officials have been selling and buying stocks on insider information they learned about in private meetings with public officials.
But while traders on Wall Street go to jail for such practices, in Congress, gaming the markets is perfectly legal. Why is Congressional insider trading not shaking up America as it should? Watch below. Produced by Kamelia Angelova & Robert Libetti Don't Miss: • Why Evicting OWS From Zuccotti Park Is Reasonable • How Herman Cain's Crisis Management Strategy Is Working Out • JOHN MAULDIN: Here's How We Should Cut Spending To Get The Economy Back On Track. 1148: Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act. Order determined by social media popularity Endorsing Organizations Common Cause 40,223 Facebook fans 11,159 Twitter followers The STOCK Act has a broad base of support from organizations dedicated to government reform including Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), Common Cause, Democracy 21, Public Citizen and U.S.
PIRG. Read full position statement. * This organization’s position on this bill was entered by POPVOX. Public Citizen 30,321 Facebook fans 15,513 Twitter followers Read full position statement. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) 17,420 Facebook fans 6,644 Twitter followers Read full position statement. US Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) 3,746 Facebook fans 3,409 Twitter followers Read full position statement.
Democracy 21 1,099 Facebook fans 1,365 Twitter followers Read full position statement. Other Statements ProCon.org 13,975 Facebook fans 16,826 Twitter followers Read full position statement. Health Sector Groups Most Aggressively Lobby the Supercommittee. During the third quarter of 2011, more than 400 companies, unions, trade associations and other groups reported lobbying the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction , popularly known as the debt supercommittee, according to a new analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics of reports filed last month with the U.S. Senate. These 400-plus groups represent a broad range of interests, but the No. 1 interest area among the clients with their sights on the supercommittee was the health sector . About 30 percent of these organizations -- 118 groups in total -- were from the health sector, according to the Center's research, an area that is facing steep cuts from the supercommittee.
Among these 118 organizations were deep-pocketed groups such as the American Medical Association , the American Hospital Association and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America . Behind the health sector, single-issue advocates and ideological groups ranked second. Big Banks Still Have Friends in Congress. October 24, 2011 By CREW Staff Outrage in Washington only seems to extend so far. While Americans across the country are taking to the streets to protest the behavior of the big banks, it seems our politicians can contain their anger as long as the donations roll in.
Take the case of Credit Suisse, UBS, and HSBC — three of the big banks, all either under investigation or already indicted for tax evasion. Read about the cases against them: You would think the scarlet “I” for indicted painted on these companies would make them unpopular among lawmakers. Collectively, the three banks gave $111,000 in the month of September to various politicians , and in one instance, Credit Suisse gave Rep. This is nothing new for Rep. People can disagree about campaign finance laws, but can’t we all get behind the idea that politicians should not accepting contributions from companies accused of cheating the U.S. government?
CREW and Broad Coalition Call on Congress to Reject Misguided Tax Holiday Scheme. October 20, 2011 Washington, D.C. – Today a coalition of good government groups and global financial integrity organizations joined with Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) in calling on Congress to firmly reject a scheme that would allow corporations to avoid paying taxes on billions of dollars in profits. The so-called “tax holiday” would permit some of the world’s biggest corporations to repatriate their profits to the United States tax free. Click here to read CREW’s letter. “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and hoping for different results,” said CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan. “Congress went down this road in 2004 and the results were dismal. The world’s biggest corporations don’t need another hand out from Congress. There is no reason for history to repeat itself.” “It’s demonstrably untrue that another tax holiday will stimulate the economy and produce more jobs,” Sloan continued.
INSTITUTE INDEX: The political assault on reproductive health care. Date on which U.S. Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, notified Planned Parenthood he was opening a sweeping investigation into whether it improperly used federal funds to subsidize abortions: 9/15/2011 Date on which Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), ranking members of the committee and subcommittee respectively, wrote to Stearns questioning the basis for his far-reaching probe: 9/27/2011 Date on which Americans United for Life, a group opposed to abortion rights, released a report calling for just such an investigation into Planned Parenthood: 7/7/2011 Minimum number of false claims made in that report, including the claim that abortion is linked to suicide: 7 Year in which the American Psychiatric Association released a report that found no reliable evidence that abortion is linked to suicide: 2008 Percentage increase that number represents over the previous year: almost 300.
Bailed-Out Capital One Marshals Democratic Allies to Push Merger Deal. Thursday, Sep 29, 2011, 4:15 pm BY Mike Elk Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine (pictured in October 2010) is one of Capital One's major allies. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) WASHINGTON, D.C. —After protests from labor and community activists, the Federal Reserve announced in late August that it would extend the public comment period by 51 days on the proposed merger between Capital One and the online bank ING Direct, which would create the fifth largest bank in America.
The Fed also announced that it would hold three public hearings on the deal around the country; activists hope to use these hearings to show that Capital One is a bad bank that should not be allowed to get bigger. Capital One received $3.5 billion in bailout funds, yet it has refused to lend to qualified low-income borrowers, requiring them to show credit scores that are higher than the minimum qualifying scores mandated by the Federal Housing Administration.
What Do Reactionary Plutocrats Do In Blue States... Like California? Norman Solomon won't accept any corporate cash... period You're probably aware of Blue America's ongoing war against conservative Democrats who, as a matter of political DNA, sell out the values and principles-- not to mention working families-- at the root of the Democratic Party. We even have an ActBlue page dedicated to Blue Dog eradication. Wealthy special interests pour millions of dollars into the campaign warchests of Blue Dogs and other ConservaDem outfits, like Harold Ford's and Joe Lieberman's DLC, and they're all funded by the same folks who fund the Republican Party. That's because they're not about red t-shirts and blue t-shirts; they're about gaining advantages for their interests regardless of which party is temporarily in office.
The three founders also plan to form and help fund an independent expenditure committee that will act "in support of courageous candidates regardless of party and from any part of the state" in the upcoming elections. " Should We Let Bygones Be Bygones? TARP mastermind John Boehner recently sat for a portrait by Matt Hedlund Last year David Korten laid out the entire raison d'etre for #OccupyWallStreet in a book he'd been working on about the financial meltdown, Agenda For A New Economy. Early on he mentions a stat he got from Bloomberg in March 2009, five months after Congress passed Bush's TARP bailout of the failed banksters: "[T]otal federal bank bailout commitments and guarantees topped $12.8 trillion, nearly the equivalent of the total U.S.
GDP. Yet private bank credit still wasn't flowing into the real economy more than a year later. " It's now been three and a half years since the bailout, and the banksters have gotten fabulously wealthy because of those tax dollars and still haven't opened up the credit spigot to Main Street or to American taxpayers. The TARP vote was one of the most disastrous mistakes of the American political elite in our lifetimes. There wasn't one vote in the House on TARP; there were two. Bernie Sanders Slams Eric Cantor's Hypocritical Socialism For The Rich. Sen. Bernie Sanders was on MSNBC today where he said that the GOP’s job is to represent the wealthiest people, and he pointed to Eric Cantor’s support of the bailouts and socialism for the rich.
Here is the video: Sen. Sanders was asked by Martin Bashir characterize the Republican thinking, if it was lunacy or idiotic. He answered, “No, no, it is not lunacy, and it is not idiotic. Later Sen. Sanders also hammered the hypocrisy of Eric Cantor, “As it happens, it’s interesting that you mention Mr. Bernie Sanders made the case against the Republican Party is a simple, clear, and direct way. Although Sen. The Republicans don’t care about regular people, which is why they must be voted out office.
Cenk Uygur: "Washington is infested" Volcker Rule Draft Gives Banks Ability To Hedge Risk: Report. WASHINGTON (Dave Clarke) - A draft proposal of the Volcker rule that cracks down on banks' proprietary trading gives firms flexibility to hedge risk, and sets stringent limits on such trading beyond U.S. borders to address fears the rule will put U.S. firms at a disadvantage. The draft posted online by The American Banker publication and widely circulated by the financial industry on Wednesday also contained an exemption for market makers, but an industry group immediately said it was concerned the exemption may not be broad enough.
The Volcker rule, named after former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, is part of last year's Dodd-Frank financial oversight law, designed to avoid a repeat of the 2007-2009 financial crisis. It aims to prevent banks from recklessly engaging in risky trades by prohibiting them from trading for their own profit in securities, derivatives and certain other financial instruments.
"That's crap," the supporter said. Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Americans see Republicans as favoring 'haves' over 'have-nots' No-Tax Pledge Is Paralyzing Congress. No-Tax Pledge Is Paralyzing Congress Posted on Oct 4, 2011 A House Republican spoke out against anti-tax advocate Grover Norquist on Tuesday saying his no-tax pledge and demands for “ideological purity” are responsible for “paralyzing Congress” during a time when a discussion about tax reform should be a high priority.
Virginia Rep. Frank Wolf is one of only six House Republicans who have refused to sign the pledge put out by Norquist’s group, Americans for Tax Reform, which asks all candidates in office to promise not to raise taxes. The pledge, Wolf said, keeps members of Congress from having an open, honest discussion about how tax reform might help reduce the deficit. Los Angeles Times: “Have we really reached a point where one person’s demand for ideological purity is paralyzing Congress to the point that even a discussion of tax reform is viewed as breaking a no-tax pledge?”
More Below the Ad New and Improved Comments If you have trouble leaving a comment, review this help page. A Congress Gone Mad - Major Garrett. Remember the time when being a political junkie meant you had an insatiable curiosity about the twists and turns in the policies, personalities, ideas, debates, and outcomes in Washington? Now it means you just sift junk. Today’s daggers-drawn standoff over disaster funding and keeping the government open is but the latest tragic-comedy manifestation of a legislative and political system mired in madness.
By all accounts, the Disaster Relief Fund within the Federal Emergency Management Agency will run out of money as early as Monday. It may stay afloat until Wednesday. That means by the middle of next week, the world’s most powerful economy, sickened and weakened by declining consumer confidence and persistent unemployment, will consciously decide not to help its citizens and businesses recover from natural disasters—thereby prolonging economic and emotional misery in dozens of states. From National Journal: PHOTOS: Members of Congress Without Bachelor's Degrees The Trojan Horse? Shutdown Averted, but DC's Antics Are Getting Absurd - ...and costly: Ezra Klein. Congress Could Pass a Bill That Would Giveaway 50 Million Acres of Publicly-Owned Wildlands to Oil, Gas and Mining Companies | News & Politics.
September 27, 2011 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. Woody Guthrie put it best when he sang, "This land is your land. " Until, that is, someone steals it from you. And from the redwood forests to the New York island, that's exactly what could happen if we don't stop an extreme bill in Congress that would essentially turn over 50 million acres of publicly owned wildlands to oil, gas, and mining companies for drilling, mining, logging, road construction, and other destructive development.
Wilderness that represents the historical, geological, and ecological diversity of the United States, from iconic red rock canyons in Utah to ancient temperate rainforests in Alaska to scenic mountains in New Mexico, could be lost forever. Introduced by Rep. No one deserves the gut punch of coming home to discover that they've been burglarized. Michael Brune is executive director of the Sierra Club. Taxation and class war: Hunting the rich. P.ost. Patent Reform Bill Passes Congress After Final Round Of Votes On Special Interest Favors.