Congress

Vermont Calls For Constitutional Convention

May 3, 2014 Morgan True, www.vtdigger.org Create! Congress, Money As Speech

On Friday Vermont became the first state to call for a convention to amend the U.S. Constitution to reverse the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, which precipitated a flood of cash into politics. Mike Monetta, 37, drove from Boston with a colleague and spent more than 10 hours Thursday in the House gallery waiting for the lower chamber to vote on the Senate-passed resolution, which — as lawmakers race to wrap things up before the end of the biennium — was taken up at the end of a marathon floor session. He was back in the gallery Friday morning to see Vermont’s resolution get final approval from the House. Monetta is the organizing director for Wolf PAC, which he described as a political action committee to end all political action committees. “We exist for only one purpose and that’s to get a 28th amendment to get all money out of politics,” he explained. Wolf PAC was founded by Cenk Uygur, host of The Young Turks online newscast. “(Uygur) has this thing where in almost every story he keeps coming back to ‘whoever has more money wins,’” Monetta said. “But he didn’t want to just be negative, he wanted there to be a way to fix it.”

In Washington, DC The Poor Are Not Allowed To Testify About Poverty

May 2, 2014 Bryce Covert, www.thinkprogress.org Resist! Congress, Poverty

On Wednesday, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) will hold a hearing on poverty called “A Progress Report on the War on Poverty: Lessons from the Frontlines.” While it will feature three experts, none of them are actually low-income Americans who struggle to get by. But that’s not for lack of trying from some poor people themselves. Witnesses to Hunger, an advocacy project that shares the stories of low-income Americans, has tried and failed twice to have some of their members who live in poverty speak at Ryan’s poverty hearings. “When Ryan had his first hearing last July,” Director Mariana Chilton told ThinkProgress, “we wrote to his office to see if we could testify, but they weren’t interested.” While Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) tried to get one of their low-income members to speak, it was too late. They were asked to submit written testimony instead. Chilton’s organization stayed in touch with his office and immediately called his press team when they saw the announcement for Wednesday’s hearing. “They said, ‘It’s too late, we’ve already chosen our people.’” There was one slot left to be filled by Democrats, but that went to Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children’s Defense Fund.

Weak Minimum Wage Bill Defeated In US Senate

May 1, 2014 Alan Fram, www.bigstory.ap.org Resist! Congress, Minimum Wage

Senate Republicans derailed a Democratic drive Wednesday to raise the federal minimum wage, blocking a cornerstone of President Barack Obama's economic plans and ensuring the issue will be a major feature of this fall's congressional elections. Facing the threat of a GOP Senate takeover, Democrats have forced votes on a procession of bills designed to amplify their message of economic fairness. Republican senators accused Democrats of playing politics by pushing a minimum wage measure designed to lure voters but too expensive for employers and sure to result in lost jobs and higher inflation. "This is about trying to make this side of the aisle look bad and hard-hearted, and to try to rescue this midterm election," said No. 2 Senate GOP leader John Cornyn of Texas. The legislation by Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa would increase the $7.25 hourly minimum wage for American workers in three steps until it reached $10.10 after 30 months, with annual increases for inflation afterward. The minimum has been at $7.25 since 2009, with 3.3 million Americans — including disproportionate numbers of women and younger people — earning that figure or less last year.

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