Category: My Work

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Congressman Fitzpatrick’s diversionary tactics

  By Health Care, Penn ACTION

One of the most effective speakers of our citizen’s rally in Harrisburg was Barb Stakes of Bucks County. Look for her in the video. For years, she went without health insurance because of a pre-existing condition. The cheapest insurance offered to her would have cost $10,000 a year. Now, because of the ACA, she has good health insurance for $283 a month. The day after we were in Harrisburg,  our Program Director, Robin Stelly, along with Barb Stakes and other activists demonstrated outside the office of Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick, who voted to repeal the ACA. Congressman Fitzpatrick, to our disappointment, saw us but got in his car and drove away. When a video of his doing so appeared on the website of the papers and on youtube, the Congressman, had his district director write an op-ed attacking Robin and Barb. Congressman Fitzpatrick attacked us for being funded by George Soros.… Continue reading

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Tell Us Why You Want to Protect Social Security

  By Penn ACTION, Social Security

Penn Action and the Strengthen Social Security Campaign have been working to get calls into our Senators in support of the Sanders/Reid Protect Social Security Amendment.   Click here to find out how to call if you haven’t already.  While calls are flooding D.C., we’re also asking you to tell us why you made your call.  Why do you want to protect Social Security? I called because my grandfather died when my mom was only eleven years old and her younger brother was three.  Social Security survivor benefits helped keep my mom’s family afloat during that difficult time.  Social Security survivor benefits are part of the reason my grandmother could keep her home and my mom and her brothers were able to go to college, helping to secure their families’ place in America’s middle class.  I owe a lot to Social Security, which is why I made the call to protect… Continue reading

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Help Save Your Social Security: Call Today

  By Penn ACTION, Social Security, Take political action

Penn Action is proud to be part of the Strengthen Social Security Campaign.   We’re eager to continue the fight against the deficit hysteria used to call for benefit cuts to the most successful social program in the history of country.   Make no mistake: They are coming after benefits you earned. On Monday, March 28, the Strengthen Social Security Campaign joined U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on Capitol Hill to demand a halt to needless attacks on Social Security and the citizens who receive it.  We can stop these cuts but all of us we need to take action to do it. Please call your Senators today and demand that they vote for the Sanders/Reid Social Security Protection Amendment. Please call now: 1-866-251-4044 ACT NOW!  Your voice needs to be heard. Senator Sanders and Majority Leader Reid are leading the Senate with an amendment to protect Social Security from drastic cuts.  Their amendment simply says: Social Security benefits for current… Continue reading

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Let Rep. Gerlach Know: We Won’t Go Back!

  By Penn ACTION, Sexual and gender equality, Women and Health Care

On February 18, Rep. James Gerlach voted to: prohibit funding of the Affordable Health Care Act cut the entire $317M of federal funding for family planning services deny Planned Parenthood federal funding for any purposes Every one of these votes is a vote against women and prevents them from accessing a full range of health care services. On February 23,  Penn ACTION visited the Trappe office of Rep. James Gerlach (PA-06) to discuss the Congressman’s disappointing participation in the recent attacks on women and health care.   On Wednesday afternoon, two Penn ACTION staffers met three constituents of Rep. Gerlach at the Congressman’s Trappe office.    Two of the constituents chose to talk privately to Rep. Gerlach’s staffer about the Congressman’s recent votes threatening women’s health.  While that meeting was happening, we stood on the sidewalk outside the office with the third constituent, Mary, protesting Rep. Gerlach’s participation in the… Continue reading

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The Right Wing War on Women and Health Care

  By Penn ACTION, Women and Health Care

t’s a classic case of bait and switch. The Republican campaign of 2010, nationally and in Pennsylvania, focused on the economy and jobs. But since taking office Republicans have instead been appeasing right wing extremists who want to roll back the advances women made in the last forty years. It began, in both Washington and Harrisburg, with legislation that would make it harder for women to use their own money to purchase health insurance that covers abortion. Having claimed, dishonestly, that the Affordable Care Act provides government funding for abortion, Republican legislation supposedly fixes the problem the invented. However their radical legislation goes much farther than the existing ban on government funding of abortion. Evidently, the Republican regard for the free market ends when it comes to women choosing how to send their own money. These new attempts to limit abortion rights are, however, just the beginning of the Republican… Continue reading

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We Won’t Go Back!

  By Health Care, Penn ACTION, Women and Health Care

Penn ACTION teamed up with Raising Women’s Voices of Southeastern PA on Thursday, February 17 when over 100 supporters of women’s health and health care reform rallied in Philadelphia in view of City Hall. Chants of  “We won’t go back!” punctuated addresses from State Sen. Lawrence Farnese, State Rep. Babette Josephs,  Carol Tracy from the Women’s Law Project,  Brenda Shelton Dunston of the Black Women’s Health Alliance, Dayle Steinberg from Planned Parenthood Southeastern PA, Kistine Carolan of the Maternity Care Coalition and Penn ACTION’s Marc Stier. As Stier pointed out, the attacks on women are not confined to attempts to role back access to reproductive care to the dark ages of back alley abortions, the attacks also extend to repealing the Affordable Care Act, which does more than any law in recent memory to bring women’s access to quality care into parity with men’s. With Planned Parenthood the target of possibly unconstitutional… Continue reading

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Penn ACTION joins Gas Truth Protest

  By Marcellus Shale, Penn ACTION

Members of Penn ACTION joined a few hundred Pennsylvanians from all over the state at the Gas Truth protest at the inauguration of Governor Tom Corbett. Organized by Gas Truth and Clean Water Action, the rally called on Corbett to protect the state from the potential dangers of the drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale. A variety of opinions were presented by the speakers at the event. Many called for a moratorium on all drilling. All called for a moratorium on drilling in the state forrests. Many called for a severence tax on natural gas. Penn ACTION Executive Director, Marc Stier, was the closing speaker at the rally. Stier focused on the political danger of natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania saying that our democracy is one of the few things more important than our water. “Just as as the hydrofracking process have polluted our waters, the natural gas drillers have… Continue reading

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Pennsylvanians say no to repeal!

  By Health Care, Penn ACTION

Yesterday the Republican leadership in the House made good on their campaign promise to roll back the progress made by the Affordable Care Act.  This is be frustrating for those of us who worked so hard for health care reform last year, but keep in mind three things. First, this was a political show that is likely to have no long term negative consequence.  Repeal legislation will not pass the Senate or be signed by President Obama. Second, the repeal effort gave us an opportunity to talk more and, after Arizona, more calmly, about the new protections and rights that the ACA created. The more people hear about the bill, the more they like it. Polls are clearly trending in our favor.  People know that was a vote against affordable health insurance for Americans with pre-existing conditions – including children.   It was a vote against making sure that greedy… Continue reading

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Good news on filibuster reform: thank Senator Casey

  By Filibuster, Penn ACTION

I have really good news on filibuster reform. First, Senator Casey has announced his support for the filibuster reform package introduced by Senators Udall, Harkin, and Merkley. Second, it looks like serious reform is on the way. Majority Leader Harry Reid has taken advantage of the rules to draw out the first “legislative day” for a few weeks to build support. But we are hearing growing optimism on the part of reform minded Democrats. Thank Senator Casey and each other! We’re very grateful for Senator Casey’s support. And I want to thank all of you who signed our petition to Senator Casey. After meeting, along with Common Cause, SEIU, CWA, and the Steelworkers, with his legislative director, we thought Senator Casey was leaning in our direction. But it was just hours after I forwarded the list of signers of the petition to the Senator’s office that I received word that… Continue reading

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HCAN PA / Penn ACTION statement on the shootings in Arizona

  By Arizona Shootings, Penn ACTION

The shootings yesterday in Arizona are a personal tragedy for Congresswoman Giffords and her staff, for Judge Roll, for the other six people killed and for the many people injured. We pray today for them. The shootings are also a tragedy for our political process. Democratic government is the means by which we resolve our disputes, and come to some agreement about the common good, without a resort to violence. Any time violence disrupts our democracy, we all lose. It seems that the man who fired the bullets suffers from a serious mental illness. He and any accomplices are responsible for their actions. But these shootings, like many acts of property violence against Congressional offices over the last two years, have taken place in the context of a long right wing campaign against health care reform that has been characterized by ideological extremism, an intolerance for progressive views; a willing… Continue reading