For a good laugh (or cry), watch CSPAN

First in a Series of Random Dispatches from in Front of My TV Set

Who knew watching CSPAN could be so entertaining? 

If you watched last Wednesday, you may have seen U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) on the House floor, ripping the Affordable Care Act:

If you just do simple multiplication, 12 million [insured individuals] into $108 billion, we are talking literally every single [Obamacare] recipient would be costing this government more than $5 million per person for their insurance. It’s staggering….$108 billion for 12 million people is immoral. It’s unconscionable.* 

At first all that righteous indignation over numbers that do not actually exist is entertaining. Then - let's face it - it's disturbing. This guy is making decisions about how to run the country? How many more like him are in Congress? And what other decisions are they making?

Well, this week, in the Senate, the Budget Committee approved a resolution that would:

• cut funding for Pell grants by 31 percent for FY 2016, and  
• remove 110,000 children from Head Start over 10 years,

among other things.

Of the 22 Committee members, 12 Republicans voted in favor of the cuts, and 9 Democrats and 1 Independent voted against.

I followed the Republicans' explanation for the budget on CSPAN and other news sources. It went something like this: "Oh no! National debt! .... Good Hardworking Americans!...kitchen table!...hard choices!...Our Children! ...Our Children's Children!...going forward...weeks and months and years and decades ahead! ... commonsense budget!...protect us!...disaster!"

Our Children, and  Our Children's Children – because they will have been “protected” from education spending – are going to end up sounding like this guy

Representative Pete Sessions, R-TX

every time they open their mouths. 

Watching CSPAN – a radical act of finding out just how messed up Congress really is.    

* Both the figures cited and the "multiplication" of the incorrect figures are incorrect. Twelve million "into" 108 billion is 9000 - not 5 million. When accurate numbers are used, the number is $4130.

What to Do If Congress Votes on Repealing the Affordable Care Act a 57th Time

So yesterday, House Republicans voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA)  - for the 56^th time.

If there is a 57^th attempt to debate and overturn the ACA, here’s what we should do: We should form a fund and get friends, neighbors, etc. to chip in a nickel for each minute that members of Congress waste “debating” what they’ve already “debated” 56 times. And we should spend the money on voter registration and get-out-the-vote efforts.

  

Here’s how it could work:

Let’s estimate (based on prior “debates”) that Congress (and staffers) spend 450 minutes on “Debate” 57:

If I get 20 people to donate an average of 5 cents per minute, I raise: 450 minutes x  5 cents per minute per person x  20 people, or 225 dollars.

If 99 Seattleites do the same, we generate 22,500 dollars.

If 9 other cities in  King County follow Seattle’s lead, we generate 225,000 dollars.

If 5 other counties in Washington State follow King County’s lead, we raise over one million dollars.

It just might be enough to ensure that in Washington, in 2016, pro-repeal electeds don’t get back into office, and pro-repeal candidates don’t get on the ballot.

Fortified Activism!

I recently read an editorial about the current grim economic and political picture confronting Seattleites. It only gets grimmer as one’s field of vision expands to include the entire nation.

Case in point: In 2009, while United Healthcare’s CEO was earning $102 million, Americans were dying at the rate of one every 12 minutes due to lack of health insurance (according to a 2009 Harvard Medical School study). And while the recent Supreme Court ruling on the Affordable Care Act is encouraging, the Act will leave approximately 27 million Americans uninsured – through 2016 and beyond, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Case in point: In 2010, Walmart’s CEO paid its associates an average annual salary of $13,650, about what he made per hour. Per. Hour. And yet, GOP Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney has expressed opposition to raising the minimum wage.

It’s enough to make you sick. But you can’t afford it.

Here’s what each of us can afford to do: Take a cue from the Occupy movement. Call attention to economic and other injustices; participate in organizations demanding change; and make your issues and demands impossible to deny or ignore. 

Whatever you think of Occupy, it’s hard to deny that its bold, persistent demands for change caused our political leaders to focus less on how to reduce the national debt and more on how to reduce income inequality.

It is that level of assertive, insistent activism that is needed to attract and involve enough unemployed, underemployed, overworked, underpaid, uninsured, and underinsured people to kick-start a movement of, by and for the 99%, and to sustain it for the long haul.

Suppose a state representative supports a bill that cuts food stamps, despite a local campaign waged by food stamp advocates to oppose it. The opponents’ strategy includes blitzing the representative’s office with calls before an upcoming committee hearing on the bill and testifying at the hearing; they want to fortify their message. There are many ways they can do so. Picture this:

The bill’s opponents recruit 100 people to go to the state capitol on Hearing Day. At noon, they gather in front of the entrance to the cafeteria where legislators, press, et. al go for lunch. They hold signs saying, “$1.50/meal in food stamps doesn’t cut it!” and “Can’t finish lunch? I’ll take your leftovers!” and “Thanks for the suggestion, but I already have a job!” They hand to-go containers (bearing food stamp information) to legislators and reporters entering the cafeteria. Shortly before the 2 p.m. hearing, they re-position themselves right outside the hearing room, so that committee members will see them.

Food stamp advocates hold a bake sale to raise money for the local food bank. They hold it outside of the representative’s office (capitol or in-district), or close to the House Chamber right before a vote. Or they hold it in front of the exclusive hotel where the representative will speak at a $1000/plate dinner-fundraiser for his re-election campaign; they sell their goods to the event’s guests as they arrive at the hotel.

Each member of the food stamp advocacy group asks 25 people to pledge $1 - to support the advocates’ work - for each time in a given week the representative is in the news, pushing his cuts. The group creates a web page that features a “Gruel Gauge” (which tracks the number of times the representative has promoted food stamp cuts, total funds raised to-date, etc.) and allows supporters to register to join the pledge drive.

Picture grassroots activism. Color it bold.