HUGE

If the Bush tax cuts are extended, progressives are hosed—we need to start campaigning now to make sure that doesn't happen. And Tax Day is the right moment to launch. Can you help get our creative new ad campaign on the air and ask the 1% to do their part? I'll Chip In $5

Dear MoveOn member,

The whole ballgame. The whole kit and kaboodle. Game over for progressives.

That's what December 31 could be. On that date, 1.1 trillion dollars in tax breaks for the rich will expire and force a major re-jiggering of our tax code.¹

Unless we all mobilize, the wealthiest 1% will get yet another round of tax breaks, which will basically bankrupt our country and likely lead to HUGE cuts to schools, Social Security, health care, clean energy, or environmental protection.

But if we fight hard enough, the expiring tax breaks can be our leverage to finally win fair taxes on the very rich—enough to fund better schools, Head Start, clean water, and everything else we care about.

This end-of-the-year fight is one we have to win. But right now progressives are barely even talking about it.

We need to get on the ball, and make fair taxes an issue every day between now and November. We need to make sure the election is a referendum on taxing the 1%—and that it goes our direction.

Now is the time to launch this campaign. The Senate will vote tomorrow on the "Buffet Rule" to make millionaires and billionaires pay fair taxes, Tuesday is Tax Day, and Mitt Romney, who wants even lower taxes for himself and other millionaires, just clinched the Republican nomination.²

MoveOn's creative team is putting together a very funny, memorable ad campaign highlighting the insanity of a tax system that makes secretaries pay higher taxes than their billionaire bosses. And if we raise $200,000 today, we can get it on air by Tax Day. Can you help?

Yes, I can contribute $5 to make sure millionaires pay their fair share.

If progressives play our cards right, we have a real chance to make sure not just that the Bush tax cuts for the rich expire, but that we close all the other loopholes that allow giant corporations and millionaires like Mitt to pay lower taxes than the rest of us. That's because all the expiring tax cuts, plus automatic defense cuts required by the debt ceiling deal, give us a lot of leverage. So it's a huge opportunity.

But it's also a moment of enormous peril. Republicans are pushing to extend all the tax breaks for the rich and even add new ones, using their normal hostage tactics.³ They did the same thing two years ago, and even with Democrats in charge of Congress, they won.

And on top of that, the debt ceiling deal triggers massive new cuts to vital programs, right at that same time. If those automatic new cuts kick in, and the rich get new tax breaks, good-bye American Dream. Every program the middle class and the poor depend on, from student loans to Medicare, will see the axe. There. Will. Be. No. Money. Left.

That's why we need a major campaign to expose how the system is tilted to benefit the 1%, and to get the 99% fired up and fighting back.

This is the moment to launch this fight! The media and the public will be focused on taxes over the next week. If we can raise $200,000 to launch this campaign, we'll make it MoveOn's top priority, and starting raising a ruckus for fair taxes. Can you help?

Yes, I can contribute $5 to make sure millionaires pay their fair share.

If we're going to get the 1% to pay their fair share again, we have to expose the system they've created to benefit themselves. It starts now.

Thanks for all you do.

–Justin, Milan, Wes, Elena, and the rest of the team

Sources:

1. "Decision Time: The Fiscal Effects of Extending the 2001 and 2003 Tax Cuts," Pew Charitable Trusts, June 24, 2010
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=274321&id=&id=39386-10220574-H4T7zax&t=5

2. "Buffett Rule Set To Fail In Senate Vote Despite Obama's Campaign," Policymic, April 11, 2012
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=274318&id=39386-10220574-H4T7zax&t=6

"Wealthy would cash in under Romney tax plan," CNN Money, March 1, 2012
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=274314&id=39386-10220574-H4T7zax&t=7

3. "Buffett Rule Set To Fail In Senate Vote Despite Obama's Campaign," Policymic, April 11, 2012
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=274318&id=39386-10220574-H4T7zax&t=8

"GOP weighs tax vote push," Politico, March 29, 2012
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=274322&id=39386-10220574-H4T7zax&t=9

"Statement of Robert Greenstein, President, on Chairman Ryan's Budget Plan," Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, March 21, 2012
http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3712

Want to support our work? We're entirely funded by our 7 million members—no corporate contributions, no big checks from CEOs. And our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. Chip in here.

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PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION, http://pol.moveon.org/. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. This email was sent to eddie alfaro on April 15, 2012. To change your email address or update your contact info, click here. To remove yourself from this list, click here.