Bad Deeds for 5-10-2011

 

The Republican Plan to Mess With Texas Teachers

THE PLAN:

• Craft a budget that would lead to the layoffs of thousands of teachers and school employees.
• Cram more kids into classrooms by permanently getting rid of the 22:1 class-size law.
• Giving districts the ability to cut teacher pay in addition to (not instead of) laying off teachers.
• Gut teacher contract rights and timely notice of proposed non-renewal, shifting the notice date to the last day of instruction, so teachers must wait five extra, anxious weeks before they know if they are employed for the coming year.

What? You don’t like the plan? Call now to urge your lawmaker to stop HB 400.

Call and tell your State Rep. to Vote “No” on HB 400

We’ll automatically connect you to your state representative’s office and provide you with talking points to nix this plan.

You can also send your rep. an online letter here.

 

Republicans Don’t Want to Make Banks Pay for Mortgage Fraud They Committed – House Financial Services Chairman Spencer Bachus (R-AL) explained in December that, in his view, Washington’s role is “to serve the banks.” The rest of the Republicans on his committee have embraced that mantra wholeheartedly, trying to roll back key parts of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law while collecting big donations from the financial services industry.

To that end, Republicans are riding to the aid of the country’s biggest mortgage servicers, which are currently negotiating a settlement with a bi-partisan group of attorneys general over abuses that came to light during the foreclosure fraud scandal (including the widespread use of “robo-signers“).

The AGs have suggested having the banks pay a penalty by reducing loan principal for troubled homeowners by a certain amount (potentially $20 billion). But Republicans in both the House and the Senate, as well as eight Republican attorneys general, have sided with the banks against homeowners, saying that the banks should not be forced to pay for their past misdeeds.

 

Welfare for Big Oil Companies – As Americans continue to struggle with outrageous, unstable gas prices, big oil continues to benefit from them. Last week, the five biggest oil companies reported a massive $30 billion in first-quarter profits, a 38% increase from last year.

Despite these astronomical profits, on Thursday, House Republicans voted unanimously to block consideration of a Democratic proposal to end some of the tax breaks and subsidies we give to big oil every year.

As recently as this March, House Republicans – while simultaneously pleading poverty and fighting for crippling budget cuts elsewhere – voted unanimously against repealing these oil subsidies, at a total cost to us of 45 billion over 10 years.
It’s outrageous that our government continues to reward these oil giants with an additional $4 billion a year of our money in tax credits and subsidies.

Tell Congress: End oil subsidies.

 

John Cornyn Holds America Hostage; Expects Democrats to Come to the Rescue – Senate Republicans shouldn’t lift a finger to raise the nation’s debt limit, argued Sen. John Cornyn on Tuesday. The Texas Republican, who is in charge of the GOP’s political strategy for 2012, made the case that his Republican colleagues should leave it to Democrats to do the politically unpalatable, yet economically crucial, deed.

Republicans in both chambers have said they will not vote to raise the debt ceiling unless Democrats agree to major spending concessions, including cuts to entitlements. Vice President Joe Biden is meeting with leaders from both parties to discuss a deal on raising the debt limit.

But even if major spending cuts are made in connection with the debt limit increase, Cornyn said it may not be politically palatable for Republicans to vote to raise the debt ceiling.

Cornyn said he thinks the Senate will eventually vote to raise the debt ceiling, but he is willing to let Democrats do it alone so they will be attacked for allowing the government to go further into debt.

“There’s not going to be a default on the debt. We’ll just let our Democratic friends vote to raise the debt limit in the Senate,” he said.

That’s right: Political advantage in the next election is more important to Republicans than the economic survival of America.

Regards,

Jim