Take action today to block tax cuts for the rich!–and some notes on where we stand on the tax issue

The Senate is scheduled to vote today on the tax cut plan President Obama negotiated with Senate Republicans. Click here  to send an email to Senators Casey and Specter to urge them to vote no and encourage President Obama to stand united with Democrats in the House and Senate to seek a better deal. Urge them to seek a deal that continues extended unemployment benefits, that stimulates the economy, that cuts taxes for working people and the middle class and that stands against unnecessary, wasteful tax cuts for the rich. Click here  to send that message now. An interesting week This has been one of the more interesting weeks since I began at Penn ACTION in June. Our actions and emails about President Obama’s tax compromise have created more controversy among the people on our email list than anything else we have done. So this is a good opportunity for me… Continue reading

Pennsylvania leads the way to extended unemployment insurance!

Last week, it seemed likely that extended unemployment insurance would lapse at the end of the year or only be continued for three months. But then our national partner, US Action and the AFL-CIO held a press event with Speaker Pelosi and a number of Senators. Hearing from the unemployed themselves, brought the human dimensions of unemployment home to our political leaders. You can get a feel for the impact of those stories by looking at the first video, which the AFL-CIO put out. These stories stiffened the spines of the Democratic leadership and led them to insist that the unemployment insurance extension be included in any deal over taxes. In the course of the debate over the issue, Senator Casey referred more than once to how his meeting with the unemployed moved him.   Penn ACTION, along with the Philadelphia Unemployment Project and AFL-CIO brought half the unemployed people… Continue reading