Month: March 2011

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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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It’s about security for working people and the middle class

  By Social Justice, US

  Our 2011 Program: It’s about security for working people and the middle class or Why and how we must expose and fight back against the dirty little secret of right wing economic policy As a multi-issue organization, Penn ACTION will be taking on a lot. But while we will be engaged in many different struggles—health care, women’s health, unemployment insurance, fair taxes, education, and starting this week, the fight to preserve Social Security—there is a core commitment and a unified strategy that lies behind all our work. The core commitment is to provide security for working people and the middle class. Market Economies and Insecurity We know that a market economy can be a great generator of income and wealth. But from the beginning, capitalism has also been a generator of uncertainty and insecurity. Capitalism initially generated great wealth not just by creating opportunities for entrepreneurs but by generating insecurity, specifically… Continue reading

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Citizen’s hearing and rally celebrates the anniversary of the signing of the Affordable Care Act

  By Health Care

Harrisburg, PA (March 23, 2011) — While members of Congress convened in Pennsylvania’s State Capitol to consider a plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act, real Pennsylvanians held a “consumers’ hearing” in the Rotunda to tell the true story about the landmark law. Consumers testified to the benefits of the Affordable Care Act — from ending preexisting conditions and other abusive insurance practice to covering preventative care services for seniors to expanding access to quality, affordable health insurance for small businesses and individuals. “My husband and I were able to put our 24-year-old son back on our family’s health insurance plan because of the provision in the Affordable Care Act that allows us to do so,” said Theresa BrownGold, one of the consumers to testify. The “consumers’ hearing” took place while the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce held a field hearing at the State Capitol focused on repealing… Continue reading

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March 23 Citizen’s Hearing and Rally for Health Care Reform

  By Health Care

On the anniversary of President Obama’s signing of the Affordable Care Act, March 23,, the House Energy and Commerce Committee is coming Harrisburg on March 23 to take testimony about why it should be repealed. Governor Corbett is scheduled to testify. Some corporate CEOs are scheduled to testify. Some Republican state legislators are scheduled to testify. You haven’t been invited to testify. Nor have any of the people of Pennsylvania who will benefit so much from health care reform. But we intend to be heard. CITIZEN’S HEARING AND RALLY FOR THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT The Capitol         Harrisburg PA, March 23, 2011          10:30 am From Wisconsin to Washington, DC, right wing extremists are trying to roll back the programs, policies, and protections that support working people and the middle class in America. The attack on the Affordable Care Act is just one more example. On March 23, the right… 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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Wisconsin Politics Comes to Pennsylvania: Huge tax cut for corporations

  By Pennsylvania Budget

Late last week, when many of us were focused on the struggle in Wisconsin between working people and the middle class on the one hand, and the corporate backed governor of Wisconsin on the other, that fight came to Pennsylvania. Republican Governor Tom Corbett’s Department of Revenue adopted new tax regulations that will reduce the corporate income tax by $200 million in 2010 and $833 million over two years. (If you don’t need to read more to know what you think about that, sign the Penn ACTION / Keystone Progress petition against this corporate giveaway here. And, at almost the same time AdultBasic, which provides health insurance for 42,000 working Pennsylvanians who do not qualify for medical assistance, ran out of money. Governor Corbett did nothing to save AdultBasic. What would it have cost to extend AdultBasic for another year? Just a bit less than the $200 million in Tom… Continue reading

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Don’t let Corbett sneak through his $833 million corporate tax giveaway!

  By Pennsylvania Budget

While Pennsylvania is facing a $4 billion deficit, Gov. Tom Corbett approved a corporate tax break of $833 million last week. He did it with almost no notice, hoping that Pennsylvania’s citizens wouldn’t find out.  It was done with such little notice, that even reporters and PA legislators were unaware of this giveaway until we told them. Well, we found out and we’re outraged.  Just this week Corbett told us we couldn’t afford to continue healthcare for the working poor.  But somehow he can find $833 million for billionaires and CEOs, sticking middle class families with the bill. Tell Corbett and your legislators to stop this outrageous giveaway! This is not only a giveaway to special interests, it’s a job destroying tax break.  It could cost Pennsylvania another 5-15,000 jobs.1 Politicians like Corbett are using our real economic problems as an excuse to pay back their corporate donors at the… Continue reading

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Corbett’s Unconscionable $833 million tax cut for corporations

  By Pennsylvania Budget

No money for Adult Basic but millions for big business Budgets are moral documents that set for the priorities of our government. Late last week, the Corbett Administration made clear that its top priority is helping American corporations not Pennsylvanians when it adopted new tax regulations that will reduce the corporate income tax by $200 million in 2010 and 833 over two years.1 With the state facing a $4 billion deficit that may lead to massive cuts in spending on education and health care, and with the AdultBasic program expiring at the end of the month, a reduction in corporate taxes is simply unconscionable. The Governor of the Commonwealth should not be putting the profits of corporations over the needs of people. The $200 million that the Corbett administration is giving away to corporations is more than the amount necessary to continue AdultBasic, which provides health insurance for 42,000 Pennsylvanians… Continue reading