Liberal MOVEON.org says CALL CONGRESS today to OPPOSE TAX CUTS (Barf Alert)

Another leftist group (in addition to the DNC and NEA Teacher's union) is asking it's minions to call Congress TODAY, May 14 with a NO TAX CUT message.

From: Peter Schurman, MoveOn.org Subject: Call Washington: Who gains from the tax & budget cuts? Date: May 14, 2003

This is it -- the culmination of our countdown. We need your help. Today, hundreds of thousands of people will call on their Senators to vote against new tax cuts for millionaires, so we can save our kids' schools and other vital programs from the budget axe. Will you join us and call today? The final votes could come as soon as tomorrow.

Many members of the Bush administration stand to benefit handsomely from the new cuts: "Treasury Secretary John Snow tops the list with a $275,000 windfall... Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld could pocket an extra $184,000. And not far behind is the $181,000 that could go to Secretary of Commerce Don Evans," according to AFSCME.*

In fact, many Senators themselves are likely to reap enormous windfalls. For example, Bill Frist, the Senate Republican leader, has an estimated net worth of $20 million.** What do these Senators and their well-off friends stand to gain from these cuts? Let's ask them.

Make sure the staffers know you're a constituent, and urge your Senators to please OPPOSE all new tax cuts. Then, if you like, ask them how much they will personally pocket if these cuts pass.

Or, if you prefer, tell them some of the reasons you're personally opposed to the cuts.

The IRS has a special form for tax refunds of one million dollars or more. Why not download it from the link below, and fax it to your Senators, with a note scrawled across it, saying:

Our "Pain and Gain" campaign this week has been a terrific success. All week, Americans have stepped forward to demand that our Senators and Representatives take care of our schools, our fire departments, our local hospitals, and our economy, before creating hundreds of billions in new tax breaks for millionaires.

A powerful coalition of organizations has rallied to the cause, including the Campaign for America's Future, the Children's Defense Fund, the Sierra Club, People for the American Way, True Majority, USAction, the Service Employees International Union, Working Assets, the AFL-CIO, the Democratic National Committee, and many other members of the Fair Taxes for All Coalition. Collectively, we are directly reaching more than 5 million people in this campaign.

- Run TV ads telling the story of parents in Oregon who gave blood to cover a teacher's salary as their local school grappled with budget cuts. These parents literally opened their veins to make sure our schools are funded. MoveOn members contributed more than $200,000 in 48 hours to make sure Washington heard their story.***

Our special thanks go out to the members of Arizona Citizen Action: Cox cable in Arizona initially refuse our ad, but these folks swung into action, drawing attention to Cox' censorship and winning a reversal -- Cox is now airing our ad.

- We've gathered and delivered the personal stories of more than 50,000 Americans opposed to new tax and budget cuts, among more than 100,000 signatures, on our petition to "Save our Schools from Budget Disaster."

- We've sent more than 50,000 faxes to Senators and more than 500 letters to newspaper editors.

- We've generated news stories on CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, FOX, and the Associated Press. See below for one recent story.

Thanks for making all this possible. It's been an amazing campaign. Please help make the final impact as big as possible by calling your Senators now.

P.S.: Here's a great article about our campaign from yesterday's edition of the newspaper The Hill:

Tax cut opponents mobilize to combat all-out lobbying efforts by White House MAY 13, 2003 By Michael S. Gerber

With the tax debate due to reach the Senate floor this week, a coalition of groups that oppose cutting taxes has launched an all-out lobbying effort to press key lawmakers on the issue.

Members of the Fair Taxes for All Coalition, a group of labor unions and progressive activists, have planned a weeklong blitz of television, radio and newspaper ads here in Washington and in the home states of key senators, as well as grassroots and lobbying activities on Capitol Hill.

The highlight of the grassroots efforts should come Wednesday, when activists hope to enlist half a million Americans to call their senators and representatives to voice an anti-tax-cut message.

Organizers say this week is the culmination of months of mobilizing against the White House’s plan for a $726 billion tax cut. The House approved a $550 billion bill last week; senators were scheduled to take up a $421 billion proposal Monday.

"It’s all coming to a head," said Marge Baker, a co-chair of the coalition’s lobbying group and director of public policy for People for the American Way. "This is a massive coalition with millions of members. Many of these organizations are ones that typically don’t get involved with financial issues. We’re concerned about [the tax cut] crowding out other priorities."

As many of the coalition’s members learned in 2001, fighting President Bush and a GOP-controlled Congress on a tax cut is an uphill fight. But that’s not stopping them from trying to get their message out, even as the president uses the bully pulpit and Treasury Secretary John Snow makes the TV talk show circuit.

The White House also has powerful allies in the business community who have organized their own grassroots effort.

"We just had 850 people take a day off of work and come to Washington to rally for tax cuts [last week]," said Dan Clifton, a spokesman for Americans for Tax Reform, an anti-tax group. "We had 150 people from North Carolina come on a bus at one in the morning to hear the president. We went out and found average American families. We had small businesses here."

But the Fair Taxes for All Coalition has more members and more money than tax-cut opponents had in 2001, funds that can help bring people to lobby Congress and pay for advertising campaigns in key states. A television ad paid for by MoveOn.org began running on cable news networks in the D.C. area and in 22 cities in 11 other states, including Maine, Nebraska and Ohio, homes of three of the debate’s key senators - Olympia Snowe (R), Ben Nelson (D), and George Voinovich (R). The ad tells the story of parents in Eugene, Ore., who sold their own plasma to raise money to cover the salary of a schoolteacher whose job was in danger because of budget cuts.

MoveOn.org also is coordinating the national call-in day on Wednesday, working with other coalition groups to encourage several hundred thousand of the groups’ members to phone Congress in opposition to the tax cut. Earlier this year, the group organized a similar grassroots phone drive to oppose the war in Iraq.

Other members of the coalition are holding press conferences to highlight issues - from healthcare to education - that they say would be affected by the tax cut.

Business leaders who oppose the tax cut will be on Capitol Hill as part of an effort by Responsible Wealth, a group of affluent people who oppose the White House tax cut.

"We share a common agenda that this tax cut is unwise, unaffordable and unfair," said Jeff Blum, executive director of consumer advocacy group USAction, and co-chair of the grassroots efforts of the anti-tax-cut coalition. "There’s no surplus.

Nobody can think that their program can be funded if we give hundreds of billions more dollars to a bunch of millionaires."

He said the funding issue was why the National Education Association, veterans’ groups and MoveOn were "putting in their own resources to do expensive things from very different constituencies."

Activists who oppose the president’s plan remain upbeat even as Congress appears ready to pass a tax cut. Already, they say, their efforts have been successful in cutting the proposal by hundreds of billions of dollars. And they take some credit for the infighting now occurring among several business constituencies because of offsets in the Senate Finance Committee’s legislation.

"Every poll right now shows that Americans think this tax cut is fiscally irresponsible," said Zack Exley, the national organizing director for MoveOn.org, which originated during the 1998 impeachment as a website for constituents to tell members of Congress to censure President Clinton and "move on."

"We’ve gotten a huge response from our membership. This isn’t an anti- tax-cut movement," Exley added. "It’s a fiscal responsibility movement."

The Fair Taxes for All Coalition grew from a smaller organization that fought the 2001 tax cut to one composed of more than 300 member groups.

Coalition leaders said the group has been energized by what they see as evidence of success, like the president’s plan being slashed in half by the Senate. They also have more money invested than two years ago, including enough to fund a small full-time staff.

After seeing news reports that the administration would pursue major tax cuts every year it remained in power, opponents of the tax plan said their efforts would only get more powerful and more vocal.

"To the extent that they continue to push further tax cuts," said Chuck Loveless, another coalition co-chair and legislative director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, "there is very much room for this coalition to continue."

Forget your stupid calls. They only understand POWER & that would evaporate if you only would vote for another outside of the box. You got a primary & every conservative can vote that budget-busting half-a$$, free-trading,open border RINO out at that time. But you won't & you'll get more of this.

Run TV ads telling the story of parents in Oregon who gave blood to cover a teacher's salary as their local school grappled with budget cuts. These parents literally opened their veins to make sure our schools are funded. MoveOn members contributed more than $200,000 in 48 hours to make sure Washington heard their story.***

I'd say $200,000 would cover more than one teachers salary, but then of course they couldn't demonize BUSH, their only goal.

Run TV ads telling the story of parents in Oregon who gave blood to cover a teacher's salary ...

I saw this story a few days ago.

I was under the impression there were no more "paid" blood donors anymore, due to the risks of AIDS and the various strains of hepatitis, among others.

I know there are still paid plasma donors, but the story specifically said these were blood donors, not plasma donors.

YALL (Yet Another Liberal Lie)?

Isn't this a private matter between us taxpayers and the government.
Can't we all just MOVE ON with the business of running this country?

The IRS has a special form for tax refunds of one million dollars or more.

Actually, the "special form" is just if you want your refund "direct deposited". A large refund by check requires no special form.

YALL.

The AFL-CIO has its own toll-free number to call Congress:

(888) 280-6279

Let's go and drive their phone bills sky high.

It's important to note that MoveOn's intention is to clog the congressional switchboard, not to make their "voice heard". It's the electronic equivalent of blocking a bridge in protest, and as such it is criminal. Their hope is to make congressmen feel the pain, rather than persuade them. MoveOn's malicious orchestration of this crime should be prosecuted. There is a cost associated with clogging the switchboard and MoveOn should be made to pay the fine. If it wishes to avoid the fine, MoveOn has the responsibility to coordinate with its members to space out their calls so as not to block other citizens from contacting their representatives.

I've got a great idea.............if these leftists don't want a tax cut, then they may sign a piece of paper saying that they don't want one, and subsequently won't get one.

I want one.

"We’ve gotten a huge response from our membership. This isn’t an anti- tax-cut movement," Exley added. "It’s a fiscal responsibility movement."

Hitler wasn't anti-Jewish either. He was simply pro-German.

After the tax cuts, any liberal that so wishes may legally use the 2002 tax schedules. There is no law that says you cannot pay more than your fair share to the government.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.