Over the weekend, over 25,000 of you met in nearly 1600 living rooms across America to share your stories and to discuss the next steps toward taking back the American Dream. You held meetings in every single one of the four hundred thirty-five congressional districts in this country. From Missoula, Montana to Midtown Manhattan, from Santa Monica, California to Van Jones’ hometown of Jackson, TN, many of you showed up for the very first time to engage in politics.
That’s huge!
By comparison, the Tea Party held only 800 meetings on its first organized day in April 2009. And that was with a full on blast of two months of promotion by Fox News. You organized your meetings strictly through e-mails from our partner organizations, word of mouth, and the good will of all the great hosts out there to open up your homes – no national cable news network necessary.
And while the numbers are impressive, that alone wouldn’t have been important if you hadn’t shown up ready to work on the hard task of reclaiming the American Dream for ALL of us. At the meetings, people introduced themselves, shared what was personally important about the American Dream to them, and then picked which of the top rated 40 ideas in the crowdsourced Contract for the American Dream (you can see for yourself which ideas made the top 40 at the Contract website.) This feedback will be instrumental in deciding which ideas will go into the final draft of the Contract for the American Dream.
Looking at the response from the meetings in e-mails and on social media, most people were thrilled to fight back for a change. Many of you were surprised at the number of like-minded individuals who showed up on a beautiful summer weekend. And even given the huge upswell in political participation since 2004, many of you reported that this was your first time to engage in any political activity beyond voting in your entire life.
All of this is hugely important. We already know that at a baseline, we’re incredibly strong – 150,000 rallied in a single day in Wisconsin, thousands have rallied in the last few months even in places like Utah and Montana. But if we’re going to change the conversation from cuts back to jobs, if we’re going to stop the corporate takeover of our political process, if we’re going to make sure that we have healthy, thriving communities, and if we’re going to make sure that those who do well in America do right by America, we need to have as many people as possible involved and on the ground and focused on the task at hand to make it happen.
So many of you meeting all over the country was a huge step, but these first Rebuild the Dream house meetings were only just the first of many steps on the way to regaining the American Dream. More to come in the next following days – stay tuned!
THIS SENIOR CITIZEN NAILED IT!
Alan Simpson, Senator from Wyoming, Co-Chair of Obama’s deficit commission, calls senior citizens the Greediest Generation as he compared “Social Security” to a Milk Cow with 310 million teats.
August, 2010.
Here’s a response in a letter from an unknown fellow in Montana …
I think he is a little ticked off! He also tells it like it is!
————————————————
“Hey Alan, let’s get a few things straight..
1. As a career politician, you have been on the public dole for FIFTY YEARS.
2. I have been paying Social Security taxes for 48 YEARS (since I was 15 years old. I am now 63).
3. My Social Security payments, and those of millions of other
Americans, were safely tucked away in an interest bearing account for decades until you political pukes decided to raid the account and give OUR money to a bunch of zero ambition losers in return for votes, thus bankrupting the system and turning Social Security into a Ponzi scheme that would have made Bernie Madoff proud.
4. Recently, just like Lucy & Charlie Brown, you and your ilk pulled the proverbial football away from millions of American seniors nearing retirement and moved the goalposts for full retirement from age 65 to age 67. NOW, you and your shill commission are proposing to move the goalposts YET AGAIN.
5. I, and millions of other Americans, have been paying into Medicare from Day One, and now you morons propose to change the rules of the game.. Why? Because you idiots mismanaged other parts of the economy to such an extent that you need to steal money from Medicare to pay the bills..
6. I, and millions of other Americans, have been paying income taxes our entire lives, and now you propose to increase our taxes yet again. Why?
Because you incompetent %^%&**^&& spent our money so profligately that you just kept on spending even after you ran out of money. Now, you come to the American taxpayers and say you need more to pay off YOUR debt.
To add insult to injury, you label us “greedy” for calling “bu—-it” on your incompetence. Well, Captain Bu—-it, I have a few questions for YOU.
1. How much money have you earned from the American taxpayers during your pathetic 50-year political career?
2. At what age did you retire from your pathetic political career, and how much are you receiving in annual retirement benefits from the American taxpayers?
3. How much do you pay for YOUR government provided health insurance?
4. What cuts in YOUR retirement and healthcare benefits are you proposing in your disgusting deficit reduction proposal, or, as usual, have you exempted yourself and your political cronies?
It is you, Captain Bu—-it, and your political co-conspirators called Congress who are the “greedy” ones. It is you and your fellow
nutcases who have bankrupted America and stolen the American dream from millions of loyal, patriotic taxpayers. And for what? Votes.
That’s right, sir. You and yours have bankrupted America for the sole purpose of advancing your pathetic political careers. You know it, we know it, and you know that we know it.
And you can take that to the bank, you miserable son of a bi–h.
This would change everything and should be retroactive!
No one has been able to explain why young men and women serve in the U.S. Military for 20 years, risking their lives protecting freedom, and only get 50% of their pay. While politicians hold their political positions in the safe confines of the capital, protected by these same men and women, and receive full pay retirement after serving one term. It just does not make any sense.
On Fox news they learned that the staffers of Congress family members are exempt from having to pay back student loans. This will get national attention if other news networks will broadcast it. When you add this to the below, just where will all of it stop? I guess when you make the laws you can steal right in front of us.
35 States file lawsuit against the Federal Government
Governors of 35 states have filed suit against the Federal Government for imposing unlawful burdens upon them. It only takes 38 (of the 50) States to convene a Constitutional Convention.
This will take less than thirty seconds to read. If you agree, please pass it on.
This is an idea that we should address.
For too long we have been too complacent about the workings of Congress. Many citizens had no idea that members of Congress could retire with the same pay after only one term, that they specifically exempted themselves from many of the laws they have passed (such as being exempt from any fear of prosecution for sexual harassment) while ordinary citizens must live under those laws. The latest is to exempt themselves from the Healthcare Reform…. in all of its forms. Somehow, that doesn’t seem logical. We do not have elite that is above the law. I truly don’t care if they are Democrat, Republican, Independent or whatever. The self-serving must stop.
Proposed 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution: “Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and/or Representatives; and, Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators and/or Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States.”
Has anybody thought about the Billions of dollars we “GIVE” away in Foreign funding? $1.3B alone to Egypt.
STOP tax breaks to companies like Exxon and BP who have been reporting record quarterly profeits during the recession.
If we cut all foreign funding and stopped corporate tax breaks we could reduce the deficeit and save Medicare, Medicaid, and aide to Vererans.
It’s time Congress open their eyes and got off their ASSES and look at the mess this country is in. They need to see just how bad many of their constituents(middle class) are in.
I am asking us to make a Move On this situation. I won’t ask for just Dems & Progressives to march on the Capitol. We need to help our president, to keep Obama from twisting in the wind of the radical Republican’s voices. Which is ALOT of Bad Breath. It’s time to make a Move On this situation.
All Americans who want a simple, unencumbered debt ceiling raise, good through 2013, need to march on the Capitol. If there were ever a time for all US citizens to come together, it is NOW. We need to Move On this!
Yes, we need revenue from the millionaires, the corporate “personhoods”, the hedgefund managers, the corporate “welfare” recipients, the offshore company tax dodgers, the outsourcers who decimated our manufacturer “Made in America” brands. Now is not the time for that battle. We were bullied into this battle. Right now, we need to be able to just pay our bills. Let’s Move On this!
Let all the “budget reform” battles be fought in the elections of 2012. We know how to win an election. Truth and accountability will defeat the lies and the lying liars who tell them.
We need to get our walking boots on. We have to go to the Capitol to make our voices heard on this bullsh** “debt ceiling kidnapping”. The “gun to our heads” approach, by teabaggers, is being used to achieve radical budget reform. Do we want budget reform to occur under duress? This is not my country at it’s best, it is politics at it’s worst.
Thousands of brave middle eastern citizens risked DEATH to march on their capitals for their Democratic dreams. We are supposed to be the example of how Democracy works. This is our example? Let us Move On this!
Obama asked us to make our voices heard. Why are we still on the couch when US bankruptcy looms? WTF? Come on, people, this is laziness, plain & simple. Texting & tweeting will not change anything. If we make a visual, for cable TV & thus the planet, teabagger congressional majority or not, we may be able to shame the Republicans to holster their budget guns & do the right thing. A SIMPLE & CLEAN raise in the debt ceiling. NO BUDGET REFORM under duress. We should not give the radical right ANYTHING. It’s simple parenting. Do not reward bad behavior with budget reform we do not want! We need to march. There is power in numbers. Let’s Move On this.
How do these people sleep at night? How can WE sleep at night after doing NOTHING? This situation is not going to look better in the morning. Daylight is only going to make this situation look worse. We can’t just bit** & piss & moan. We have to DO SOMETHING! We have to Move ON this.
Let’s march!
YES! We need to show up en masse! Let’s go ASAP. I was looking for info on the rally on the capitol steps but it’s nowhere to be seen on the website and I’m ready to leave for Washington right NOW. I am so fed up!
The model for American Dream should be inclusive and not spring from Left doctrine. Paralleling the Tea Party will repel their members when we benefit by undermining their views instead of directly opposing them. Similarly we should not be unquestioning supporters of President Obama’s policies. For example:
The Taxing the Rich idea starts with Millionaires as opposed to President Obama’s picking $250K as “rich” which is a important improvement. Many families making $250K are struggling financially and 60% of the U.S. can see themselves earning $250K as their American Dream. We undermine their dream if we insist on their giving it to the government. If Obama had said “Nobody earning less than $1million would see their taxes increase,” he’d have had a universal response instead of “No New Taxes.”
U.S. Healthcare costs twice what it should cost, yields an inferior result which Healthcare Reform does little to fix. We spend 16% of our GDP on Healthcare when 35 advanced nations spend 8% and have higher life expectancies. Blindly supporting President Obama’s compromise is not rational when proposing reforms that specifically address life expectancy and quality of life would reduce Healthcare costs by $1.2 Trillion per year. Fee for service healthcare does little to prevent our chronic diseases or tightly monitor them and it drives the care to expensive specialists. There are better ideas that were dropped.
Nobody wants the government in their lives but everyone wants the government enforcing our laws on the perpetrators who have cost us our jobs, our homes and our savings. The Justice Department has failed to indict the insurers, who lied to sell subprime mortgages and securitized them, the rating agencies who over valued them and the financial institutions who bought and sold instruments that cratered their corporations and our economy. We give credence to “eliminate regulations to improve the economy” when we let those dirt bags off the hook.
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We need to get to D.C. ASAP in droves, I mean thousands of us. We can not let these shortsighted republican A holes set the current tone of our country to be seen by the world as OUR overall citizens voice. The tea baggers do not speak for me.
I speak for me. Fellow dems & progressives speak for me. I want to see THE PEOPLE march to the steps of the Capitol in support of our President. He has done everything, including bending over backwards to try and compromise with these freshman morons. I DO NOT WANT HIM TO BEND OVER & GRAB HIS ANKLES!!
I did not elect him to stand alone in all matters. This is one time he really needs our support. Get off the couch, put down the remote, put away your bongs, if you smoke… I know not everybody smokes, but most of my fellow baby boomers do. It’s NORML. That’s another law we need to change. Anyway, stop being lazy! Let’s MOVE ON!
So, LET’S MARCH to get this usually simple debt ceiling raise handled. I am pissed off & tired of yelling at the TV. Let’s coordinate this march. For those of us who can’t go to D.C. we should march on the same day to our local representatives offices.
We have to DO SOMETHING! POWER TO THE PEOPLE! RISE UP & MARCH! STAND UP FOR SOMETHING!Screaming at the TV doesn’t work. I’ve been doing it for weeks. My throat is sore. This is getting sad. We all want this s*** over with. But we don’t want the weak, poor, old and young f***ed over either, so we need to get a MOVE ON!!
I would be interested in seeing what is developed by this movement. Whether I stay with it depends on this contract you all will be developing. First priority is, of course, working on the debt ceiling (even though 50-60% is owed to ourselves (Federal Reserve)). Second is the government working within it’s budget. Third is review of tax regulations and a flat tax for all.
Fourth, probably a long range goal, term limitations for everyone in politics (Legislative and Judicial).
Thank you Ivo for expressing your opinion.
If more on your side (and there are of course folks on your side) would care to have a conversation… it would be had.
There are some admittedly on our side who, like the majority on your side, want nothing to do with a conversation.
I’ve been politically active long before the tea party existed and know from experience that very few on your side would even consider a conversation.
A lecture, yes.
A conversation, not so much.
Why does world think that Americans are stupid? Because you people think that opinion is information. Your education is based on opinions of your teachers and not on facts of the subject they are ” suppose ” to teach. Left or right. And why we don’t like you? Because you trying to change the world because you have an idea but not a pinch of knowledge. And world HATE those of you when you actually leave your country on your little MISSION to change the world without knowing anything, without want to understand. Just want to change to better.
Every thing for you is black or white. Please open your eyes. We DO want to like you.
And educate yourself so we CAN have “Conversation” with you and not just listen to your opinion.
We studied your moveon for 2 years and here are hardly any informations just opinions.
Thank you
Ivo:
Please give a new organization an opportunity to fornulate its ideas and don’t assume that you will only hear a mirror image of the Tea Party only coming from the Left.
I don’t see Left or Right addressing exorbitant healthcare costs, indicting the perpetrators of the Financial Crisis who profited from it, or tax reform that will collect more taxes from Warren Buffet thsn his secretary when he’s willing to pay them.
I agree with the spirit behind the 1773 Tea Party which saw a corporation exempted from taxes on tea that Boston merchants had to pay.
Please stay tuned.
The Tea Party did not launch in April 2009.
The ‘launch’ was March 27th 2009 on which date several thousand Tea Party events across the country took place and and estimated 1.5 million plus attended.
Further, your new organization is the result of a carefully planned very well promoted (not that there is anything wrong with that) agenda.
Ours [the Tea Party] was not and remains very much grassroots (despite the claims of folks on ‘your side’).
Very few (perhaps 2%) of the known Tea Party groups are funded outside of their immediate membership.
The launch of your new organization and its success is impressive and I am thankful for the competing voices as there is much we all need to debate.
It is not however, what the Tea Party began as or is now.
I’m hoping that we are starting complementary voices.
The Obama administration’s Justice Department should indict the perpetrators who lied to sell subprime mortgages and securitized them, the rating agencies who misrated them and the financial banks who bought and sold them and cratered their corporationa and the economy for their personal gains.
Healthcare doctrine is about government takeover versus more competition, when the issue is that it is 16% of GDP and increasing at 2X inflation. The solution is prevention and management of chronic diseases which our fee for service doesn’t foster. Left and Right are irrelevant to the solution.
Our tax code has Warren Buffet paying lower taxes than his secretary and it needs fixing. No new taxes needs adjusting when 700 Americans make more in a day than 60% of Americans do in a year and in some cases pay no taxes. We had to bail out their corporations with a bonus for some of them.
The 1773 Tea Party was held by 50+ men dressed as Mohauks as a non-violent protest against the taxes levied by Members of Parliament, who made their fortunes by investing in the British East India Company who they exempted from the taxes. Some corporations pay 35% taxes and GE paid none in 2009 and 2010. No new taxes for GE when they are decreasing jobs in the US and increasing them abroad?
Keep looking at this web site and you may see more agreement and less doctrine.
We need to go to Mica’s office in Palm Coast FL this weekend!! How do I find out who else in Palm Coast is going?
Since you are online reading these comments, you can go to http://www.house.gov and http://www.senate.gov find your legislators, send them an email telling them exactly how you feel about the crisis the Repubs are creating, be clear on what you feel matters to you, why it matters and where possible, offer clear solutions on responsibly ending the crisis. Be polite and respectful, even if the same respect is not returned. Be assertive without using curse words (or telling them what idiots you think they are.) As it will be less likely to be dismissed as some crankpot crazy instead of heard.
It is very easy, your voice is heard and every time (except once by McCain’t), I have received a response, albiet a canned form letter reply.
If possible, write your letter in Word, after checking for grammatical and spelling areas, proof read it, then copy it into the legislator’s contact page. Then print out that Word doc, fax or mail it to the same legislator.
Great info, Kat. I urge everyone to speak up! Your representatives don’t know how you feel until you tell them and they DO listen. The President urged everyone last night in his address to call their congressman. Let’s tie up the phone lines in DC and let them know how we feel.
Term limits for senators and congress. Six years max. Must be done with signatures for each State referendum. Get it going NOW in each State. This measure most can agree on and it will stimie some of the Greed and Graft. This is our first step in getting Boehner, Mitchell and Cantor out as well as any representatives who are weakening our Government. These are serious times and we are fighting for our County. We must not let a Super Congress be established.
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Speaker Boehner just informed me that he has the same responsibilities as the President of The United States. This is news to me, and I am frankly shocked–and scared.
Without Republican demands for cuts to exceed the increase in the debt limit, no new taxes, and permanent changes to the government and Constitution.
The Democrats offered more spending cuts than even the House “Cut, Cap and Balance” plan. The Republicans keep spouting the words “The President has not offered a plan.” If this is true, what did Speaker Boener walk away from, and stop working with the “Bowl of Jello” that he says is occupying the White House?
He’s gone utterly crazy and the press is calling him on it. He wants his plan only. He doesn’t care about anything but his own damned job. America hangs in the balance.
This is absolutely a pivotal morning in American History. Anyone who would agree with Speaker Boehner, and would be pleased to see the default of the American (and world) economy, is standing on the brink of disaster which he alone would cause, for his own purposes–to take the office of the President for himself, without election. What is this called? Think about it.
We had a tremendous meeting, with twice the number of people show up as we planned. Pass the agreement to raise the debt limit, alone, with nothing else attached, because it is the responsible thing to do for the nation. Leave your other disagreements for tomorrow.
How difficult can it be?
Our organization is now known as The Columbia Council. We have only begun. It is my prayer that the American people will find a meeting next week that is close enough for them to attend. This is a clarion call. It’s NOT about politics. How dense can you possibly be. The press corps just toasted Boehner’s butt in his press conference. He said some really scary stuff. Find his words at http://www.cspan.org. They are on the front page. READ them!
Come to Columbia, Tennessee, and join us in our council’s work. Better yet, find out how to form your own council with MoveOn.Org, or join the American Dream movement with us. This is an AMERICAN issue. We cannot sit by. “What are you going to do about it?” is our motto. What is yours?