Take Action: Sabotage

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Read how your voices made a difference last week

UPDATE: Read our statement on the Las Vegas shooting. 

Sabotage

In a week when Trump issued a revised Muslim Ban, went on several racist tweetstorms about the Mayor of hurricane-ravaged San Juan, and fired HHS Secretary Tom Price — oh, and Trumpcare was killed, and there is still no DREAM Act — it’s hard to know where to focus.

But we’re going to try.

The Affordable Care Act is still the law of the land! But…Trump and the GOP are actively sabotaging it. (The Center for Public Policy Priorities (CPPP) has a great writeup on this sabotage).

The next open enrollment period for the ACA Marketplace begins on November 1 and ends on December 15. The Cover Texas Now coalition (of which CPPP is a member) is enlisting volunteers to get people enrolled–in other words, to do the job that our government is failing to do.

Here are two ways to help this week:

  1. Register for this Oct. 6 webinar: “Become an ACA Coverage Champion: Marketplace Outreach and Enrollment 101”
  2. Fill out this volunteer form from Cover Texas Now; let them know you’re interested in helping

Call #1: Puerto Rico & the U.S. Virgin Islands

President Trump’s tweets attackingSan Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz and all Puerto Ricans were racist and indefensible. Congress must act on three fronts:

  1. Censure the president for his comments. We cannot ignore his racism and misogyny while he golfs and Americans die.
  2. Provide an emergency relief package for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands — just as Congress did for Texas and Florida after Hurricanes Harvey and Irma.
  3. Lift the Jones Act permanently. Your calls last week helped get this antiquated law lifted for ten days–but recovery from Hurricane Maria will take much longer than that, and the Jones Act inhibits supplies from reaching Puerto Rico.

Hufflington Post: Here’s How You Can Help People In Puerto Rico

Call #2: Trump Tax Scam

Last week, the White House unveiled a draft of a tax scam framework, building off their one-page memo from this spring. Republicans are, once again, trying to ram this bill through using the budget reconciliation process just like they did with TrumpCare. Here’s what you need to know:

The House will vote on its budget resolution on Thursday and the Senate will mark up its resolution Wednesday and Thursday. These budgets cut critical services and would force deep cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security down the road. All to give massive tax cuts to the rich and corporations.

Here in Texas, the plan gives 52 percent of Texas’s tax cuts to millionaires even though they only make up 0.3 percent of the population—an average tax cut of $445,000 per millionaire or 10.4 percent of their income. Meanwhile, the 46.2 percent of Texans that make less than $45,000 would only get 3.7 percent of the total tax cut—an average of $240 per person or 0.9 percent of their income.

Get sample scripts at the Indivisible Project’s “Trump Tax Scam” website

Call #3: CHIP

Congress failed to fund the Children’s Health Insurance Plan by the September 30 deadline. CHIP gives modest-income families that earn too much for Medicaid an affordable coverage option. What does this mean for the 400,000 Texas children covered by CHIP? According to the Dallas Morning News, a lot of uncertainty, especially for Harvey survivors:

“As…the system absorbs new applicants made eligible by Harvey, some experts fear that between rising demand for care and unpredictable reauthorization, these families will have nowhere to turn for health insurance.”

CHIP has broad, bipartisan support, and the only reason it hasn’t been funded is because of Congress’s ineptitude, and its zeal for repealing the ACA last week. Call your MoCs in both the House and Senate and tell them to fund the CHIP program before more Texas children and pregnant women lose coverage.

Call #4: No Wall / Clean DREAM Act only

Last week, House Republicans, including our own Michael McCaul, unveiled a plan to fund Trump’s stupid border wall. (Which Mexico was going to pay for, but whatever.) While unlikely to pass the Senate, some version of “border security” is likely to be used to hold DACA recipients and the DREAM Act hostage. Call your reps and demand a clean DREAM Act now. Here are some talking points:

  • Our Members of Congress should not be wasting their time and energy on a border wall when the country has other urgent matters to address, namely, passing the DREAM Act.
  • Our Members of Congress should vocally, publicly signal support for a clean DREAM Act, which would provide permanent protection and a pathway to citizenship to undocumented immigrants who came to the country as children.
  • There are 138,440 DACA recipients in Texas alone, and each year they contribute $313,095,000 in State and local taxes. Furthermore, passing the DREAM Act, and placing all of the eligible workers on a path to legal status, would add a total of $22.7 billion annually to the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP).
  • Any bill that compromises the integrity of the DREAM Act with language that would allow a “wall,” increased militarization, or deportation forces, is unacceptable.

Monday, October 2

Tuesday, Oct. 3

  • Various times: Deputy Voter Registrar Training. Travis County Tax Office, 5501 Airport Blvd. For further information or to schedule a group training, call (512) 854-9473.
  • 6 to 8 p.m.: What Now? The Status of Health Care for Young Women, in.gredients, 2610 Manor Rd.
  • 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.: Austin Justice Coalition general body meeting, Terrazas Branch, Austin Public Library, 1105 E Cesar Chavez St.
    Little Walnut Creek Branch, Austin Public Library, 835 W Rundberg Ln.

Wednesday, October 4

Thursday, October 5

Friday, October 6

Sunday, October 8

Monday, October 9

Thursday, Oct. 19

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