We encourage the Mayor and Town Council Members of Apex, NC to join with the 14 other North Carolina municipalities who have already moved to defend democracy by calling for a stop to anonymous or unlimited political donations and supporting a U.S. Constitutional amendment establishing that: (1) Only human beings are people endowed with constitutional rights, not corporations or any other type of organization. (2) Money is NOT speech and regulating political spending is necessary to preserve equitable and transparent democracy.

Yes, I have been personally affected. I have been laid off twice in four years, and I know people who have been laid off three times during the same time period. I have since relinquished my residence, and I have changed my lifestyle, still seeking, someday, to return to fulltime, permanent employment.

How is Grover Norquist, who has not been elected to legislate a thing, being allowed to dictate policy? Supposedly, legislators are elected to look out for the American people. Taking crumbs from the "least of these," while allowing the rich to continue to get richer, is a shameful contradiction of this principle. How long will we allow our government to be bought by the highest bidder?

It is time to limit the corporate tax deduction to wages included in the Social Security wage base and tax the excess as a dividend. Why do we only pay on the first $117,000? Why not all wages? Why are corporations allowed to deduct this excessive salary but exclude it from social security? Does that seem fair? Limit the deduction and tax the excess as a dividend. And include all income, not only salary. Why is interest exempt? And legislators need to pay as well, no one, except our Veteran's, should be exempt from social security. We also need to limit the corporate tax deduction for travel, meals and entertainment. Why are we subsidizing private corporate jets and lavish meals, parties and "meetings"? Limit the tax deduction to the Federal Per Diem and tax the excess as a dividend. It is time we redefine entitlements. Social Security is a lifeline for many seniors, and it is time we protect them and ensure they can retire with dignity and financial security.

Raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour would boost the paychecks of over 30 million workers in the U.S. The majority are adults with full-time jobs, and nearly half have some college education. If the minimum wage had kept pace with inflation since 1968, it would be $10.60 today. Tell Congress you support this fix.

Today, the Rich pay no Social Security taxes on earnings above $113,000. This means that millionaires pay NOTHING on almost all of their earnings! And yet, the President and Congress want to reduce Social Security payments to the elderly, who can least afford it. If the President and Congress would simply eliminate the cap on Social Security contributions, there would be no need to steal seniors' monthly SS payments from them, and SS could be solvent forever!

The biggest fiscal issue facing American's today is income inequality and nearly no one in government is talking about it, so let's make it an issue. Millions of American's are falling deeper into debt and poverty while the most affluent of us all are increasing their total share of America's wealth. Since 1979, the top 5% took home more than half of total income growth. The top 1% took nearly 40%.

We're petitioning Amherst's Town Board to support WNY's food trucks, as they face onerous proposed regulations that would stop them from doing business in Amherst, New York. Public support of the trucks will help the Board make the right decision - to allow them to serve our community, just as they have successfully operated in Buffalo.

Full across the board pay cut and slash of "Fringe-Benefits" to ALL members of Congress in order to pay down the national debt!

The country's current debt is atrocious at $16 Trillion dollars. We all hate taxes and taxes getting raised. It's about time everyone pays their fair share, including churches, non-profits, and other tax exempt organizations.

Seniors need to have more respect. When we retire we loose much of our income, we cannot stay in the homes we loved because of the high property taxes. The economy has been awful for many years now. We have lost our savings because of the greed of others and the government that is unwilling, or unable to do anything about it. They are either in it for themselves or they are inept. Either way we have lost out and the least they can do is stop taxing us.

USPS laid off 100s of employees in the Chicago District because of low retiree count! Our families have been affected by this and we can't even file for unemployment!