Last day to stop a very bad thing

House Republicans will force a vote tomorrow on a set of bills that would cut $700 million from Medicare, make it easier to pass job-killing corporate trade deals, and undermine financial regulations, environmental protections, and consumer rights.

Dear MoveOn member,

House Republicans will force a vote on Friday morning on a set of bills that would:

• cut $700 million from Medicare,
• make it easier to pass job-killing corporate trade deals, and
• undermine financial regulations, environmental protections, and consumer rights.

The centerpiece of this package—the Trade Promotion Authority or "Fast Track"—is not about trade. Not really. It's about enabling a massive corporate power grab.

But Friday's vote isn't a done deal, thanks to passionate and growing opposition, including hundreds of thousands of MoveOn members from coast to coast. And Democrats have the power to stop it. We have less than 24 hours to reach Democrats in Congress one more time with our unequivocal demand: Say no to Fast Track.

Can spread the word immediately about the Fast Track votes—by sharing this graphic on Facebook or over Twitter? (Not on either? Then please simply forward this email!)

 

 

Corporate lobbyists are counting on the fact that most Americans know very little about these bills. That's why the more we can grab the attention of our friends and families, the closer we'll come to defeating Fast Track on Friday.

It's going to come down to a handful of members of Congress who will make a choice between siding with their constituents, or choosing corporate interests instead. And many of those representatives imagine that their constituents aren't paying attention.

But if we can make enough noise—ringing their phones off the hook, blowing up their Twitter feeds, jamming their Facebook pages with messages, and flooding the media airwaves—they'll realize that their vote on Fast Track will be noticed. And we'll send a message: if you side with corporate power over regular Americans, we will not forget or forgive this vote.

So, call your member of Congress, knock on his or her office door, or just share this graphic on Facebook or on Twitter or forward this email to five friends—so that your friends, neighbors, and online contacts hear why you are passionate about stopping Fast Track in its tracks.

Thank you for all you do.

–Justin K., Victoria, Matt, Robert, and the rest of the team

Want to support our work? We're entirely funded by our 8 million members—no corporate contributions, no big checks from CEOs. And our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. Start a monthly donation here or chip in a one-time donation here.

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This email was sent to eddie alfaro on June 11, 2015. To change your email address or update your contact info, click here. To remove yourself from this list, click here.

TONIGHT: Special call with Elizabeth Warren

Don't miss out on tonight's call with Sen. Warren explaining how progressives can work together to win the key fights ahead and keep shaping the Democratic Party.

Dear MoveOn member,

I wanted to make sure you saw Anna's message from Monday. We're hosting a special call with Senator Elizabeth Warren tonight to discuss how progressives can unite around fighting for student loan reform, against the TPP, and in support of the rest of the Warren agenda. Click here to RSVP if you can make tonight's call at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT/7 p.m. MT/6 p.m. PT.

Thanks for all you do.

–Ilya and the rest of the team

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Dear MoveOn member,

I'm writing to invite you to an important call with Senator Elizabeth Warren this Wednesday night at 9 p.m. ET (8 p.m. CT/7 p.m. MT/6 p.m. PT). Click here to RSVP for the call right now.

Though she's not in the race, with the help of efforts like the Run Warren Run campaign, Sen. Warren's fight against economic inequality has helped drive the presidential debate and move the issue to the forefront of the national political conversation—alongside other key progressive priorities, like pursuing diplomacy over war, getting money out of politics, addressing climate change, answering the call of the growing Movement for Black Lives, acting on the need for immigration reform, and more.

That's why we're excited to have Sen. Warren join us for our first joint effort since the suspension of the Run Warren Run campaign to discuss how progressives can fight together on important issues in the months ahead—including tackling our student debt crisis and defeating Fast Track for the job-killing Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Will you join Senator Elizabeth Warren, me, other MoveOn members, and Democracy for America members on Wednesday evening?

MoveOn members have stood alongside Sen. Warren time and time again as she's fought for the middle class—from organizing for her proposal to charge student loan borrowers the same low interest rates that banks receive, to backing her successful effort to create a strong and independent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to amplifying her call for expanded Social Security benefits.

When Sen. Warren ran for the Senate in 2012, MoveOn.org Political Action bundled more than $1 million in small contributions to her campaign, and nearly a thousand Massachusetts MoveOn members turned out to volunteer for her.

Suspending the campaign to draft Sen. Warren into the presidential race is the right call at this moment. It'll allow both MoveOn and our partners at Democracy For America to shift our focus to fighting alongside Sen. Warren on key issues and advancing an agenda that puts working and middle-class Americans over corporate interests.

Wednesday's call at 9 p.m. ET is our next big step in this new direction. We hope you'll sign up to join us.

Thanks for all you do.

–Anna, Milan, Nick, Jo, and the rest of the team

Want to support our work? We're entirely funded by our 8 million members—no corporate contributions, no big checks from CEOs. And our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. Start a monthly donation here or chip in a one-time donation 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 June 10, 2015. To change your email address or update your contact info, click here. To remove yourself from this list, click here.

#9, and this one is a biggie

What would happen if our nation divested from carbon polluters, made the polluters pay a price to pollute, and then collected the money?

Dear fellow MoveOn member,

Here's a big-picture idea: instead of investing in dirty fuels, let's start charging polluters for poisoning our skies and then invest the revenue so that it benefits everyone.

Every ton of carbon that's released into the atmosphere costs our nation between $40 and $100, and we release millions tons of it every year.^1,2 Businesses don't pay that cost. They pass it along to the rest of us—in the form of more extreme weather and all the costs to our economy and health resulting from it. What's worse, we've actually invested more than $6 trillion in fossil fuels since 2007.³ Yikes!

 Watch Make Polluters Pay to see what would happen if our nation divested from carbon polluters, made the polluters pay a price to pollute, and then collected the money.

Make Polluters Pay is the latest in the "Big Picture" series I'm working on with MoveOn. And MoveOn members will campaign together on the ideas that we're all most excited about.

If you're looking for a win-win when it comes to tackling climate change, you won't want to miss watching and sharing this video.

Thanks for all you do.

–Robert Reich

P.S. This is the ninth idea in our "Big Picture" series. In case you missed the first eight, once you've watched Make Polluters Pay, be sure to check out the rest of the videos. Remember, by watching and then sharing individual "Big Picture" videos, you're showing that you're excited about a particular idea—which will help us hone in on what to work on in the coming months.

Source:

1. "Social Cost of Carbon Pollution Fact Sheet," CostofCarbon.org, April 2014
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=304698&id=119508-10220574-F7Z1CAx&t=1

2. "World carbon dioxide emissions data by country: China speeds ahead of the rest," The Guardian, January 31, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=304699&id=119508-10220574-F7Z1CAx&t=2

3. "G20: fossil fuel fears could hammer global financial system," The Telegraph, April 29, 2015
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=304700&id=119508-10220574-F7Z1CAx&t=3

Want to support our work? We're entirely funded by our 8 million members—no corporate contributions, no big checks from CEOs. And our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. Start a monthly donation here or chip in a one-time donation here.

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This email was sent to eddie alfaro on June 9, 2015. To change your email address or update your contact info, click here. To remove yourself from this list, click here.

You + Elizabeth Warren + me this Wednesday

Will you sign up for this call with Sen. Warren on Wednesday evening? Don't miss out on Sen. Warren explaining how progressives can work together to win the key fights ahead and keep shaping the Democratic Party.

Dear MoveOn member,

I'm writing to invite you to an important call with Senator Elizabeth Warren this Wednesday night at 9 p.m. ET (8 p.m. CT/7 p.m. MT/6 p.m. PT). Click here to RSVP for the call right now.

Though she's not in the race, with the help of efforts like the Run Warren Run campaign, Sen. Warren's fight against economic inequality has helped drive the presidential debate and move the issue to the forefront of the national political conversation—alongside other key progressive priorities, like pursuing diplomacy over war, getting money out of politics, addressing climate change, answering the call of the growing Movement for Black Lives, acting on the need for immigration reform, and more.

That's why we're excited to have Sen. Warren join us for our first joint effort since the suspension of the Run Warren Run campaign to discuss how progressives can fight together on important issues in the months ahead—including tackling our student debt crisis and defeating Fast Track for the job-killing Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Will you join Senator Elizabeth Warren, me, other MoveOn members, and Democracy for America members on Wednesday evening?

MoveOn members have stood alongside Sen. Warren time and time again as she's fought for the middle class—from organizing for her proposal to charge student loan borrowers the same low interest rates that banks receive, to backing her successful effort to create a strong and independent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to amplifying her call for expanded Social Security benefits.

When Sen. Warren ran for the Senate in 2012, MoveOn.org Political Action bundled more than $1 million in small contributions to her campaign, and nearly a thousand Massachusetts MoveOn members turned out to volunteer for her.

Suspending the campaign to draft Sen. Warren into the presidential race is the right call at this moment. It'll allow both MoveOn and our partners at Democracy For America to shift our focus to fighting alongside Sen. Warren on key issues and advancing an agenda that puts working and middle-class Americans over corporate interests.

Wednesday's call at 9 p.m. ET is our next big step in this new direction. We hope you'll sign up to join us.

Thanks for all you do.

–Anna, Milan, Nick, Jo, and the rest of the team

Want to support our work? We're entirely funded by our 8 million members—no corporate contributions, no big checks from CEOs. And our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. Start a monthly donation here or chip in a one-time donation 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 June 8, 2015. To change your email address or update your contact info, click here. To remove yourself from this list, click here.

Bye-bye, American aristocracy

If you believe our nation needs to tackle growing inequality, you won't want to miss watching and sharing this video.

Dear fellow MoveOn member,

To prevent the rise of a new aristocracy, we need to raise the estate tax—a tax on inherited wealth. And we need to do it now.

The richest 1 percent of Americans hold 42 percent of our nation's wealth.¹ We haven't seen this concentration of wealth since the Gilded Age of the late 1800s. Raising the estate tax on the wealthiest Americans is one way to fight back against growing inequality.

Yet some lawmakers in Congress actually want to eliminate the tax on inherited wealth.

Well, that's just crazy.   What if Congress restored the estate tax to the level it was in the late 1990s? Watch Raise the Estate Tax to see how much revenue that would generate, and what that new revenue stream could fund.

Raise the Estate Tax is the latest in the "Big Picture" series I'm working on with MoveOn. And MoveOn members will campaign together on the ideas that we're all most excited about.

If you believe we need to tackle growing inequality—and we need to do it now—you won't want to miss watching and sharing this video.

Thanks for all you do.

–Robert Reich

P.S. This is the eighth idea in our "Big Picture" series. In case you missed the first seven, once you've watched Raise the Estate Tax, be sure to check out the rest of the videos. Remember, by watching and then sharing individual "Big Picture" videos, you're showing that you're excited about a particular idea—which will help us hone in on what to work on in the coming months.

Source:

1. "How Unequal We Are: The Top 5 Facts You Should Know About The Wealthiest One Percent Of Americans," Think Progress, October 3, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=304637&id=118938-10220574-UDHHwdx&t=2

Want to support our work? We're entirely funded by our 8 million members—no corporate contributions, no big checks from CEOs. And our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. Start a monthly donation here or chip in a one-time donation here.

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This email was sent to eddie alfaro on June 5, 2015. To change your email address or update your contact info, click here. To remove yourself from this list, click here.

MoveOn members: Urgent call on TPP/Fast Track needed today

Dear MoveOn member,

The Senate has passed the dangerous Fast Track bill for the massive Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal—which means it's now up to the House of Representatives to stop this job-killing corporate giveaway.

Fortunately, we have a chance to stop this legislation. A vast majority of House Democrats and a significant number of Republicans have committed to rejecting Fast Track.¹ The fate of this bill could come down to a handful of votes.

Can you pick up the phone, call Representative Gregory Meeks, and ask where he stands? When you call, say something like this: "Will you please reject Fast Track for the TPP—and side with the interests of regular Americans over corporate interests?" 

If he is committed to saying no to Fast Track, thank and applaud him. If he is already planning to say yes, demand to know why. And if he isn't sure, let him know he has the chance to do the right thing—by committing to reject this job-killing legislation.

Here's where to call:

Representative Gregory Meeks
Phone: (202) 225-3461

After you call, click here to tell us how the call went so we know where we stand in this fight.

That's why we're joining together with partners representing more than 15 million Americans in a national day of action to stop Fast Track for the TPP. As part of a diverse coalition of dozens of organizations, we'll be working with Democracy for America, CREDO, Daily Kos, SumOfUs, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Fight for the Future, and others to make calls to Congress today.

If the House approves Fast Track, it would allow the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal to be rushed through Congress, without amendments or sufficient debate.²

Given that the TPP is being negotiated behind closed doors—with the input of hundreds of corporate representatives, but shielded from the American public—we should make sure all details of this massive deal, and others like it, are given close scrutiny before rushing Congress to vote.³

It's frightening enough that we've already learned TPP contains provisions that would allow multinational corporations to challenge America's laws protecting consumers, workers, and the environment—and that these cases would be decided by unelected international tribunals of corporate lawyers.⁴ 

But just as scary: the next president and Congress could use this Fast Track authority to undermine Dodd-Frank financial regulations.⁵

Literally thousands of organizations—representing the labor, environmental, family farm, civil rights, digital rights, human rights, public health, consumer, faith, student, and other movements—have united to say NO to Fast Track.  

The House doesn't yet have enough votes to pass Fast Track. And if the House doesn't pass Fast Track, we win. 

Can you call Rep. Meeks now?

Representative Gregory Meeks
Phone: (202) 225-3461

After your call, click here to report back on how it went.

Fast Track proponents want to move quickly. That's why we have to act just as fast. Let's make sure every member of Congress—whether for Fast Track, against it, or undecided—hears the national outcry today.

Thanks for all you do.

–Justin K., Milan, Stephen, Maria, and the rest of the team

Sources:

1. "The dozen Dems who'll decide Obama's trade deal," Politico, May 28, 2015   
http://www.moveon.org/r/?r=304629&id=118639-10220574-yusJGsx&t=3

2. "ANALYSIS: Hatch Bill Would Revive Controversial 2002 Fast Track Mechanism that Faces Broad Congressional, Public Opposition," Public Citizen, April 16, 2015   
http://citizen.org/fast-track-2015

3. "Full speed ahead on secretive trade deal," Al Jazeera America, December 17, 2014   
http://www.moveon.org/r/?r=304634&id=118639-10220574-yusJGsx&t=4

4. "The Trans-Pacific Partnership clause everyone should oppose," The Washington Post, February 25, 2015   
http://www.moveon.org/r/?r=304635&id=118639-10220574-yusJGsx&t=5

5. "Why Obama Is Wrong and Warren Is Right on Trade Bill Quarrel," Bloomberg Politics, May 15, 2015  
http://www.moveon.org/r/?r=304469&id=118639-10220574-yusJGsx&t=6

Want to support our work? We're entirely funded by our 8 million members—no corporate contributions, no big checks from CEOs. And our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. Start a monthly donation here or chip in a one-time donation here.

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This email was sent to eddie alfaro on June 3, 2015. To change your email address or update your contact info, click here. To remove yourself from this list, click here.

Suspending the Run Warren Run campaign--here's what we accomplished

The campaign we built together has been a win, even without getting Sen. Warren into the race.

Dear MoveOn member,

Last December, MoveOn members set out to do two things when we launched our Run Warren Run campaign: illuminate and broaden the path for Senator Elizabeth Warren to run for president in 2016, should she decide to do so; and build a grassroots movement to fight alongside her.

Six months after starting this journey, we've helped demonstrate the tremendous base of grassroots support and energy—not just for Elizabeth Warren, but for her vision of a democracy restored and an economy that works for everyone.

Now, we're shifting our focus to support that vision.

Next week, we'll visit Sen. Warren's office in Washington to deliver our final petition, with all 365,000 voices calling on her to run for president—and then we'll suspend the Run Warren Run campaign.

The National Journal stated that Warren's "power lies in her outsized influence, not just for a freshman senator, but for virtually any elected official in Washington."¹ Together, we've been part of a movement that's helped build that power and propelled Sen. Warren to the forefront of the Democratic Party.

MoveOn members, Run Warren Run supporters, and our partners at Democracy for America and the New York Working Families Party all helped ensure that Warren's name and populist progressive agenda stayed present in media coverage and polling about the presidential race.

Over the last six months, MoveOn and DFA members came together to host hundreds of rallies, house parties, and other events in nearly every state. In Iowa and New Hampshire specifically, our massive field presence prompted an op-ed in The Huffington Post declaring that Run Warren Run had "a better operation on the ground in Iowa than any campaign."² And prominent progressive organizations, leaders, elected officials, celebrities, and other allies joined in.

By generating thousands of news stories elevating Warren's voice, vision, and stature in the Democratic Party, we've helped make it conventional wisdom that the "Warren Wing" of progressive populists is the ascendent wing of the Democratic Party—the one speaking to and for ordinary Americans of all political stripes.

We've put forth our best arguments to convince her, but the decision of whether to run ultimately rests, as it always has, with Sen. Warren. Now, our people-powered force is changing course and making it our top priority to join her in the big fights ahead—like stopping Fast Track authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership and fighting the student debt crisis.

This has been one of the most chronicled campaigns MoveOn has run in years. The effort has already changed the presidential race and shaped the policy fights that will impact every American for years to come. And we're going to keep building power from here.

What thoughts do you have about the campaign? And what do you think should be next for the MoveOn community?

Just hit "reply" on this email and let us know what you think. Your ideas will add texture to the lessons learned and successes won in this campaign, and help us plan our next steps.

Thanks for all you've done in recent months to combat special interests in Washington, to build an economy that works for all, and to fight for our collective future. We can be proud of all we've achieved—even as we know there's so much left to do. Let's go.

–Ilya, Mark, Victoria, Manny, and the the rest of the team

P.S. I wrote this op-ed, published today in Politico, with Democracy for America executive director Charles Chamberlain, to lay out more about what I believe we've accomplished together with Run Warren Run. Take a look, and if you like what you read, please share: http://www.moveon.org/r?r=304627&id=118502-10220574-6IRQkYx&t=1

Sources:

1. "Is Elizabeth Warren an Effective Senator?" National Journal, May 26, 2015
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=304625&id=118502-10220574-6IRQkYx&t=2

2. "The Sanders Challenge," The Huffington Post, May 1, 2015
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=304619&id=118502-10220574-6IRQkYx&t=3

Want to support our work? We're entirely funded by our 8 million members—no corporate contributions, no big checks from CEOs. And our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. Start a monthly donation here or chip in a one-time donation 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 June 2, 2015. To change your email address or update your contact info, click here. To remove yourself from this list, click here.