This has enabled secret money to lobby and make advertisements to advance a political agenda on the right or left. This is the root cause of the IRS "scandal"

Illinois now has the lowest credit rating in the country due to the lack of action on pension reform. Springfield lacks the leadership and political will to get this state in order and become economically competitive again. In order to pressure them to solve the pension crisis, all Illinois legislators' salaries, benefits and other perks should be frozen until they come up with a solution.

The long term unemployed have become invisible in the US economy and seek to have our concerns addressed.

Please help start a petition to stop the furloughs. Wether you have a democrat or republican representing your district commit to voting for against the incumbant next election. If federal employees get furloughed congress will be looking for a new job after the next election.

Corporations and their political allies are trying to prevent the Senate from confirming President Obama's nominees to the National Labor Relations Board. Why? So that they won't have to worry about the laws that protect your rights at work, including your right to use Facebook, Twitter and other online forums on your own time to discuss things like unreasonable hours, a bad boss, or other workplace problems. You see, the National Labor Relations Board enforces the National Labor Relations Act, the law that protects the right of private sector workers to discuss their working conditions and try to make things better. The NLRB makes sure that workers get their jobs back if they have been illegally fired for airing their opinions of their employers on social networks. Republicans plan to stop the NLRB from enforcing the law by abusing the Senate rules and using silent filibusters to prevent confirmation of President Obama’s nominees. The Democratic majority has the power to close the loopholes in the Senate rules to stop these filibusters on qualified nominees. But they will only act if we demand action. Sign the petition to demand that the Senate take the necessary steps confirm all five members of the National Labor Relations Board.

Those with money, resources, and unlimited opportunity insists an increase of minimum wage would be disastrous to unskilled workers, and unemployment would increase. The bottom line is centered on reducing poverty and increasing standard of living; but failure is resulting due to power structure insistence on the effects of loss of profits or increase in expenses. The wealth gap has expanded in favor of the 'Haves', while the 'Have nots' were introduced to Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) to curve Public Opinion and offset low income living wage.

Grand Coulee damn produces irrigation water and power to benefit a few rich farmers in the Columbia Basin who should pay more for both to help the financial condition in this country.

As the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) nears final implementation, large, low-wage employers are trying to exploit a loophole. Obamacare requires large companies to provide their workers with healthcare, but if those workers are paid so little that they qualify for Medicaid, taxpayers are stuck with the bill. Companies like Walmart are already cutting hours and eliminating benefits, so they can make taxpayers pick up the cost of healthcare for their employees. The solution: Assembly Bill 880 which would penalize companies like Walmart that have workers enrolled in Medi-Cal -- California's version of Medicaid -- instead of covering those workers themselves, as mandated by Obamacare.

A software monopoly is extremely dangerous in a world controlled by computers (government, military, voting, business, personal records). Stifling competition reduces innovation, job creation, price lowering, all hurting the economy. They're so powerful that, for more than a decade, the US and UK have failed to break them up or fine enough to affect them. They're rude, retaliatory, and capricious in business practices.

Last year, Connecticut became the first state in the country to give workers earned paid sick time off, so they didn't have to choose between their health and their job. But now, corporate interests and big business lobbyists are trying to take away the days workers have earned to go to the doctor, or take care of a sick family member. Masquerading as 'technical fixes' to the paid sick days law, a bill in the General Assembly would actually exclude more workers from the paid sick days law, allow companies to skirt the law by temporarily reducing their staff, and make workers use more time off than they need, forcing them to use up their earned time. We should not allow our historic paid sick days law to be eroded. Tell your state representatives to oppose SB 1107!

America asked military personal to defend our country. Now we need to step up and help them. They put their life on the line for us, now we need to put our money on the line for them. It is only fair!

Today millions of Americans take part in an annual ritual of filing their income taxes. The willingness of millions of families to plod through this ritual rests in part on the understanding that their burden is shared. Today, though, some of us are bearing a higher burden than ever, while others, particularly our most profitable corporations, sometimes pay no tax at all. Sen. Carl Levin