Last week’s circus on the House floor was an absurd means to an inevitable end: Kevin McCarthy is the new Speaker of the House. This week, the McCarthy era began with a grossly predictable assault on federal spending. The first vote of the Republican controlled chamber is to defund the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) which successfully passed in the House.1 They specifically want to undo recent investments made to the IRS designed to strengthen the agency’s ability to crack down on millionaire, billionaire, and corporate tax cheats. In other words: they want to issue handouts to their wealthy donors. Sign the petition: the US Senate must reject House Republicans' attempt to undermine the IRS for the benefit of the rich and powerful. Who will benefit from a weakened IRS? Notably Donald Trump. His recently released tax returns expose a strategy of overseas bank accounts and manipulative real estate evaluations that effectively allowed him to dodge taxes.2,3 This is exactly why Democrats included an extra $80 billion in funding for the IRS in last year’s Inflation Reduction Act.1 To go after ultra-wealthy tax cheats like Trump. Republican’s response has been to paint the I.R.S. investments as “militarizing the IRS” and creating “hordes of armed IRS agents” that would target small businesses and working Americans.4 They pretend to be serving the interests of working Americans when really, they’re just following the classic GOP playbook of catering to the ultra-wealthy. This hypocritical fear mongering is also on display in the name of their bill, “The Family and Small Business Taxpayer Protection Act.” A more appropriate name might be something like “The Millionaire, Billionaire, and Corporate Taxpayer Protection Act.” Claiming their legislation will help working Americans when in reality it will only benefit the top one percent is about to be the status quo for the McCarthy run House. We need to rely on the Democrat-run Senate to hold the line and prevent this harmful legislation from becoming law. Sign the petition: Tell the US Senate to reject House Republicans attempts to defund the IRS! Sources: 1. NY Times, “House Republicans Vote to Rescind I.R.S. Funding,” January 9, 2023. 2. The Independent, “Trump had foreign bank accounts in China, UK and Ireland as president and one year paid more foreign tax than US,” December 30, 2022. 3. CNN, “Key takeaways from six years of Donald Trump’s federal tax returns,” December 30, 2022. 4. Reuters, “Fact Check-The IRS is not hiring thousands of armed agents, job ads show opening for specialized unit,” August 17, 2022.

Thousands of vulnerable individuals are at risk to lose Telehealth for psychotherapy as of February 28, 2023, as noted in detailed letter above. It should not be a choice between risking grave illness versus psychotherapy, whether patients or therapists. It should not be a choice between being poor and having access to psychotherapy through Telehealth.

In the last three years, nearly 1.1 million Americans have died from COVID-19 and over 100 million more have become ill. This huge, unnecessary price increase for the Moderna vaccine would have devastating impacts and will cause needless deaths and severe, long-term health challenges for so many due to millions of Americans not being able to afford the vaccine. It will make the vaccine unavailable and inaccessible for many millions of uninsured and underinsured Americans (especially low-income people, people with disabilities, and communities of color) who won’t be able to afford it. How many people will die from COVID-19 as a result of limited access to these life-saving vaccines? In the midst of a deadly pandemic, restricting access to this much-needed vaccine is unconscionable. The COVID-19 vaccines were jointly developed in partnership with scientists from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a U.S. government agency that is funded by U.S. taxpayers, and the federal government, who directly provided $1.7 billion to Moderna for research and development. If Moderna more than quadrupled the price of the vaccine, it would make it unaffordable to the very residents of this country who made the production of the vaccine possible, not to mention the fact that this decision will make the vaccine inaccessible to countries across the world. That is not acceptable. It will also have a significantly negative impact on the budgets of Medicaid, Medicare, and other government programs that will continue covering the vaccine without cost-sharing for patients. It will cost taxpayers BILLIONS of dollars, and the outrageous price boost will increase private health insurance premiums. And in the midst of the worst public health crisis in the U.S. over the last two years, Moderna made over $19 billion in profits and used those profits to provide incredibly extravagant compensation packages to the CEO and other top officials at the company. The Moderna CEO even became a multi-billionaire as a direct result of Moderna’s COVID vaccine, and several Moderna chairmen, co-founders, and investors are now billionaires, too. Let’s be clear: The purpose of the recent taxpayer investment in Moderna was to protect our health and lives, not to turn a handful of corporate executives and investors into multi-billionaires. This is why we are urgently calling for Moderna to NOT increase the price of the people-funded COVID-19 vaccine!

The United States government has hit the debt ceiling, which is the amount of money it is allowed to borrow. Without raising the debt ceiling, the federal government cannot pay its bills. We risk a global financial crisis, 6 million Americans losing their jobs, and devastating families who rely on lifesaving benefits. Instead of governing for the people, MAGA Republicans are holding our economy hostage at the expense of the working people who uphold it. Under McCarthy’s cowering leadership, they are refusing to vote to increase the debt ceiling—something they’ve done hundreds of times—unless major cuts are made to Social Security and Medicare. Instead of making the wealthy few pay their fair share in taxes to help fund the government, Republicans want to fill the pockets of the rich even more. This is their latest attempt to execute their decades-long agenda of gutting these programs under the guise of reducing spending. Millions of Americans, many of whom are already living paycheck to paycheck, rely on these programs to protect their livelihoods and families. Congress should work together to focus on strengthening and expanding popular programs like Social Security and Medicare that make our lives better. Millions of people will suffer and some will even die as a result of this callous greed. McCarthy traded everyday Americans’ health and survival to be speaker of the House. By conceding to the far-right Freedom Caucus’s demands, he committed to prioritizing tax cuts for the rich while gutting the programs that keep our families and communities able to survive. Our lives depend on fighting to save Social Security and Medicare. Congress must pass a clean debt ceiling increase immediately. Photo Credit: Al Drago / Bloomberg / Getty

Why is this important? It seems that communities are being led to believe that fracking will be a golden goose while the real economic, human, and environmental impacts are being downplayed using tactics similar to the tobacco industry. Consider who would be impacted by the immediate and long-term adverse effects. We are concerned for our health, our reservoir, and our community and refuse to be the next Hinkley, Dimock, or Flint. We want clean water. We want clean air.

It seems that communities are being led to believe that fracking will be a golden goose while the real economic, human, and environmental impacts are being downplayed using tactics similar to the tobacco industry. Consider who would be impacted by the immediate and long-term adverse effects. We are concerned for our health, our reservoir, and our community and refuse to be the next Hinkley, Dimock, or Flint. We want clean water. We want clean air.

In August, the Biden administration announced an historic student debt cancellation policy, which would transform the lives of tens of millions of borrowers across the country. Despite President Biden possessing the authority to cancel student debt as per the HEROES Act, passed by Congress in 2003, right-wing MAGA Republicans have filed numerous lawsuits challenging the legality of student debt cancellation. Now, a Trump-appointed federal judge has officially blocked the cancellation program, and the Biden administration has been forced to stop accepting cancellation applications. While the case is currently being appealed to a higher court, student loan debt cancellation appears to be in jeopardy. In trying to kill this program, Republicans and their right-wing minions are trying to deny critical relief for tens of millions of families that have suffered under the crushing weight of student loan debt. This is absolutely unfathomable, and that’s why we’re demanding that they drop all litigation regarding student debt cancellation.

In 2010, Ticketmaster and Live Nation merged (which should’ve never been allowed) and now we’re all suffering: from consumer to artists to venue themselves. The only winners here are Ticketmaster and corporate influence. Ever since, tickets have been steadily raising in cost, coupled with exorbitant fees and a flawed user experience that leaves working people less likely to want to partake in the experience again. We’ve seen this so clearly with Taylor Swift tickets recently, because of the dynamic ticket system Ticketmaster has in place, the more desire there is for tickets the higher the price goes. When Taylor first announced the tour, the prices were to be capped around $499. But after the “troubles” with the queue (that Ticketmaster sent out codes for in ADVANCE), ticket prices were going up and changing as people were checking out. Third party corporations make an entire industry of scalping these tickets and buying them in waves that forces people to pay thousands of dollars to see their favorite artist. It doesn’t have to be this way. Whether you’re a swiftie or not, you know this is wrong and disappointing for people everywhere who just want to see their favorite artist or go see live music. We refuse to be silenced any longer!

Recently, Kroger and Albertsons announced plans to merge. Together, Kroger and Albertsons own dozens of chains, including Safeway, Vons, Harris Teeter and Fred Meyer and reach a combined 85 million households. The new mega-deal would have a huge impact on grocery shopping in America and almost certainly put more rural towns and Black and Latino neighborhoods in cities at risk of becoming ‘food deserts’ as more local grocers are driven out of business. The National Grocers Association, which represents small retailers and wholesalers, said the merger would put smaller competitors at an “unfair disadvantage” and increase “anticompetitive buyer power over grocery suppliers.” Please join us in demanding that the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division block the Kroger and Albertsons $25 billion merger.

We are in the middle of a deep and growing housing and homelessness crisis. While we are devoting unprecedented resources toward helping people move from the street into housing, we also have to make sure that those people don't lose their housing and slip back into homelessness because they can't afford the rent. No one should ever receive a $400 rent increase. Poor people living in city-subsidized affordable housing should never receive a city-sanctioned $400 rent increase. A $400 rent increase is not "affordable", by any metric. In 2012, the city incentivized developers to produce over 1800 of "MULTE" units, giving up millions in property tax revenues and waiving development fees that would otherwise go toward our parks, roads, street lighting and sidewalks. In exchange, developers agreed to set aside some of their units to be "affordable". We don't know why the city decided to exempt MULTE landlords from the policy limiting affordable housing rent increases to 5%. But we know they have the tools to fix it. We don't know why the city hasn't increased relocation amounts since 2016, but Median income (and hence affordable rents) have increased by 45% over the same time period. We know that they are okay with MULTE landlords increasing rents by this amount, so we trust they will agree to increase relocation payments as well. We don't know what the city was expecting when they only required affordability for 10 years, or what they thought would happen to low-income people living in those buildings when they expire and get $1000+ rent increases. But we know they have the tools to fix this now. Winter is coming. If the city doesn't act, urgently, more families will be sleeping outdoors. The city talks big about addressing homelessness and "anti-displacement". Now is the time to act.

this has effected many of the AP students, further pushing the weight of stress of the AP classes, Bringing the Stream back would help many of our students, it would also be really funny.

Corporations love to make big sweeping public announcements about “going green” and then taking victory laps in the press without making real, concrete changes to address climate change. Take General Motors for example. Last year they unveiled their plan to become carbon neutral by 2040. Which sounds good on paper until you realize the process to make aluminum for cars generates about 1.1 billion tons of CO2 emissions.1 And with the rising adoption of electric vehicles, demand for aluminum is expected to explode in the coming decades.2 Tell General Motors CEO to walk the walk when it comes to climate change and commit to sourcing only carbon-free aluminum! Sign the petition! Right now China is the biggest aluminum producer and they use coal-powered electricity to drive the process. This generates a massive carbon footprint for a country that is already the world leader in greenhouse gas emissions.3 But it doesn’t have to be this way. Suppliers can make aluminum using renewable energy-powered electricity and stop relying on coal. They can also use recycled aluminum which generates only 5% of the carbon emissions.4 Not only are the current aluminum supply chains dirty from a climate perspective, they’re also dirty from a human rights perspective. Early this year, General Motors was found to have ties with Chinese aluminum suppliers in the Xinjang region, known to use forced labor from Uyghur muslims.5 Just as bad, the bauxite needed to make aluminum has created a strip mining industry that has devastated the health and livelihoods of Indigenous communities across Africa, Asia and Australia.6 General Motors is a world leader in the automotive industry. If they demand their suppliers to decarbonize, the industry will follow. And when it comes to climate, we can’t afford to wait for corporations to just decide to do the right thing. We have to push them. Tell General Motors CEO to walk the walk when it comes to climate change and commit to sourcing only carbon-free aluminum! Sign the petition! Sources: 1. Center for Strategic & International Studies, “Decarbonizing Aluminum: Rolling Out a More Sustainable Sector,” February 25, 2022. 2. Ibid. 3. BBC, “Report: China emissions exceed all developed nations combined,” May 7, 2021. 4. BloombergNEF, “Green Aluminum is Competitive Today. It’s Time to Start Transforming,” June 16, 2021. 5. Washington Post, “Automaker suppliers linked to controversial labor programs in Chinese aluminum industry, report says,” April 8, 2022. 6. Human Rights Watch, “Aluminum: The Car Industry’s Blind Spot,” July 22, 2021.