VICTORY ON ESTATE TAX VOTE!         

 

Thanks to your calls and the work of thousands of advocates across the country, the Senate rejected H.R. 5970, the bill that sought to blackmail supporters of a minimum wage increase into voting to gut the estate tax.  Proponents needed 60 votes to move the bill forward.  The vote was 42-56 (Majority Leader Frist, a committed supporter of repealing or gutting the estate tax, changed his vote to “no” in order to give him the right to bring the bill up again in September). To find out how your Senators voted, click here.

 

This was a critical and difficult victory. Special interests were pressing hard for the tax cuts in the bill—and a minimum wage increase is long overdue. But the price demanded in exchange for an increase in the minimum wage was too high. The $750 billion cost of the estate tax cut—which would only benefit a tiny fraction of the nation’s wealthiest families—would force even deeper cuts in services vital to women and their families and add to the debt we pass on to our children. Because this was such an important vote, and a hard one for many senators, we want to be sure to thank all those Senators who took a stand for fairness and for the common good by voting "No" on this cynical election year ploy!

 

          ACTION NEEDED:         

 

Find out how your Senators voted on HR. 5970 and, using the toll-free number -- 800-459-1887*-- call and thank your Senators if they voted "No" on H.R. 5970.  The following is a short sample script you can use, if you wish:

 

"I am calling to thank Senator _____ for taking a stand for fairness and fiscal responsibility by voting "No" on H.R. 5970. I am glad she/he recognized a cynical election-year ploy when he/she saw it. This bill was a transparent attempt to dangle a minimum wage increase for families struggling to make ends meet to secure yet another enormous tax handout for the wealthiest among us. I hope the Senator will continue to oppose attempts to repeal or slash the estate tax this fall and will continue to fight for a vote on a clean minimum wage."

 

*The toll-free number is provided courtesy of the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization whose work for social justice, peace, and humanitarian service includes campaigns for a moral budget and a fair minimum wage (www.afsc.org/economic-justice/).  AFSC welcomes groups to circulate and use the toll-free number in support of non-partisan budget goals and without linking the alert to a website soliciting donations or actions which may be used to support partisan lobbying or work.

 

          SIGN UP FOR POVERTY, ETC. DATA TRAINING:  AUG. 17         

 

On August 17th, the Coalition on Human Needs will be hosting a conference call training session, with online visuals and simple explanations of how to find, use, and talk about the new poverty data that is going to be released on Aug. 29th.  This call is especially designed for state and local advocates because this year's Census bureau data will have more state and local data than in previous annual surveys - news you can use. On the call you will hear from experts from the Coalition on Human Needs, Connect for Kids, and Voices for America's Children

 

Training Details:

 

Call-in #:  800 214 0694

Passcode:  274855

 

Thursday, August 17, 2:00 p.m. Eastern time (11:00 a.m. Pacific, noon Mountain, 1:00 p.m. Central) The training session will last for an hour and a half.

 

What you will learn:

 

-Exactly where you can find data about child, adult, and family poverty and income, health insurance coverage, numbers of adults who have not finished high school, number of people with disabilities (including school-age), and more – for the nation, states, cities and towns over 65,000, and congressional districts.

 

-How to put the new data in context:  what are several-year trends, are we seeing as much progress as we should?

 

-How to connect the data to important policy choices, federal and state.

 

Please RSVP for the call by clicking here.

  

          NOTE:           

 

Members of Congress are now home for the August recess, so stay alert for local meetings and forums that you may be able to attend and in which you can ask questions!