U.S. Poverty Weekly Update November 14, 2017
U.S. Poverty Campaigns
Weekly Update | November 14, 2017
“With one in eight Americans below the poverty line, the tax proposal is both bad public policy and just plain wrong.”
– RESULTS Bernardsville, NJ volunteer Bill Baker in a November 10 letter to the editor in the Newark Star-Ledger
Quick Action: Tell Congress to Reject Tax Cuts for the Wealthy
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Got Two Minutes? Get Ready for Tonight’s U.S. Poverty National Webinar
Join us tonight at 8:00 pm ET for the RESULTS U.S. Poverty National Webinar. With the House voting on their tax plan this week with the Senate to follow after Thanksgiving, we’ll spend time reviewing what’s in these bills, their impact Americans in poverty, and what you can do to influence the process over the new few weeks. We are happy to have Rafael Collazo, Director of Political Campaigns at UnidosUS (formerly the National Council of La Raza) as our guest speaker for the webinar. He will talk to us about the new tax bills and their impact on low-income immigrant families. We’ll also hear stories about how tax and anti-poverty programs benefit families we know in a “virtual roundtable” with our Experts on Poverty. We’ll also talk about the Virtual Thanksgiving Feast fundraising campaign, which began yesterday.
TAKE ACTION: Take two minutes to remind your local RESULTS group about the RESULTS U.S. Poverty National Grassroots Webinar tonight, November 14 at 8:00 pm ET. Remind members if your group is meeting for the call or if group members (and Free Agents) are calling in on their own. To join online, login at http://fuze.me/32255914 or dial in by phone at (201) 479-4595, Meeting ID: 32255914#. Plan to log in or call in no later than 7:55 pm ET. The webinar slides will be available on our National Webinars page before the webinar.
Got Ten Minutes? Write Letters Urging Congress to Reject Unfair Tax Cuts that Put Low-income Americans at Risk (November Action)
The House is expected to vote on their tax bill this Thursday. The Senate will mark-up its bill in the Senate Finance Committee and plan to vote on their version after Thanksgiving. This means we have just a few short weeks to let them know why these plans are bad for families, bad for workers, and bad for America.
The Senate released its bill last week and sadly, it follows the House’s lead in rewriting tax policy for the worst. Both bills will:
- Hurt low-income Americans by:
- Threatening the future of critical basic assistance programs such as SNAP and Medicaid
- Denying 10 million children in low-income families an increase in the Child Tax Credit (CTC) that wealthy families will get
- Taking the CTC away from3 million children of taxpaying immigrant parents (most of these children are US citizens and or DREAMers)
- Help the rich by:
- Slashing corporate taxes from 35 percent to 20 percent
- Repealing the Alternative Minimum Tax, which prevents rich taxpayers from using loopholes to avoid paying taxes
- Lowering the “pass-through income” tax rate to 25 percent giving wealthy business owners another loophole to pay less taxes
- Exempting more income from the estate tax (from $11 million to $22 million per couple)
- Allowing wealthier families to claim the Child Tax Credit by increasing the income limit from $110,000 per couple to $230,000
Momentum is building for Congress to pass a tax bill and soon. We need your passion and know-how in demanding that Congress reject these bad proposals that explode the wealth gap and put programs that help reduce poverty at serious risk. Instead, Congress must work to expand opportunity for all Americans by investing in tax policies that help, such as significantly expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax Credit (CTC).
TAKE ACTION: Take ten minutes to write letters to your representative and both senators urging them to reject these extreme tax plans. Use the talking points in the November Action to write your letters. In addition, set up conversations with your House and Senate tax aides in Washington ASAP to tell them why his/her boss should reject these bills. Your group point persons for each member of Congress should make the calls. Again, use the November Action talking points for those conversations (if you need additional coaching before calling, contact Jos Linn or Meredith Dodson for assistance).
Finally, RESULTS will be sending out an action alert tomorrow urging you to call your representatives and tell them to vote NO on the House bill when it comes up for a vote on Thursday. Please call and then forward the alert to everyone you know urging them to call as well.
Got Twenty Minutes? Give the Gift of Empowered Citizenship This Holiday Season
RESULTS volunteers and staff are not taking a holiday break from expanding our grassroots network. With outreach and advocacy presentations planned over the next month, we are doing our best to raise awareness of our issues and bring new people to the cause. Here are the events we have planned so far:
MAINE: Racial Justice Presentation & Advocacy Workshop, Wednesday November 15 at 6:00 pm ET. Rice Library, Kittery, ME. Presented by RESULTS Seacoast. Find out more and RSVP at: https://www.facebook.com/events/282695462219478/.
ALASKA: End Child Poverty in Alaska Training, Saturday, November 18 at 9:00 am AKST. BP Energy Center, 900 E. Bensen Blvd, Anchorage, AK. Presented by RESULTS Anchorage.
NEW JERSEY: Advocacy Training, Tuesday, November 28 at 0:00 am ET. HomeFront, 361 Scotch Rd, Ewing, NJ. Featuring RESULTS Expert on Poverty Asia Bijan Thompson. More details soon. Contact Kristy Martino for more information.
WEST VIRGINIA: Let’s Put Kinds First Storytelling Workshop, Thursday, November 30 at 6:00 pm ET. Morgantown Public Library, 373 Spruce Street Morgantown, WV. Featuring RESULTS Expert on Poverty Pamela Covington. RSVP at: https://www.facebook.com/events/147178689242270/.
MISSOURI: Ending Poverty Advocacy Training, Thursday, December 7 at 6:30 pm CT. Keystone United Methodist Church, 406 W. 74th St, Kansas City, MO. Presented by RESULTS Kansas City. Contact Jos Linn for details.
PENNSYLVANIA: Storytelling Workshop and Media Training, Saturday, December 16 at 9:00 am ET. Featuring RESULTS Expert on Poverty Asia Bijan Thompson. Misericordia University, 301 Lake St, Dallas, PA. RSVP at: https://www.facebook.com/events/126506608021972/.
INDIANA: Advocacy Training, Monday, December 18. Indianapolis, IN. Featuring RESULTS Expert on Poverty and RESULTS Grassroots Board Member Maxine Thomas. More details soon. Contact Kristy Martino for more information.
We are also working on doing events in Des Moines, IA and Cedar Rapids, IA (contact Jos Linn for details) and other outreach work in Oregon, Mississippi, and Arizona (contact Kristy Martino).
TAKE ACTION: Take twenty minutes to connect people you know to our outreach efforts. If you know people in any of these areas, invite them to attend these events and learn more about how they can help end poverty in America. Or better yet, put on an event yourself. RESULTS has outreach resources online and our staff are happy to help you with planning. Share the gift of RESULTS with people you know and help grow the movement to end poverty!
Quick News
The Virtual Thanksgiving Feast Has Begun! The Virtual Thanksgiving Feast (VTF) Friends and Family Campaign is a peer-to-peer, online fundraiser to benefit RESULTS. The campaign officially runs from November 13 – 28, 2017. The VTF is an opportunity to raise needed funds to support trainings, resources for volunteers, and staff who support advocates and provide research and expertise on our issues. Your participation in grassroots fundraising is an important part of making RESULTS’ work possible. The VTF is also a chance spread the word about the work you do ending poverty and to grow your network of advocates and supporters. It’s not too late to join in. Go to our VTF page to download our helpful guide and get started.
Use New Media Resource to Generate High Level Media on Taxes. Make sure your paper is telling the full story about the tax plan and the threat it poses to low-income Americans. As a first step, send in a letter to the editor – you can use our template. Ready to go a step further? Try submitting an op-ed or asking your newspaper to editorialize against the plan. Here’s a short memo to share with journalists or use as a starting point for your writing.
ACA Open Enrollment Continues. Open enrollment for insurance through the ACA’s federal exchanges has started, and it is surging. Based on the recent attempts to gut the program in Congress, people are signing up at a frantic pace this year. If you or someone you know needs health coverage, go to https://www.healthcare.gov to find a plan that works for you. The enrollment period runs until December 15.
Upcoming Events
Go to the RESULTS Events Calendar to see a full list of RESULTS events. Also, find a list of the RESULTS U.S. Poverty staff with contact information on the RESULTS website.
Staff Vacations: Meredith Dodson, November 23-27 and December 21-January 1. Jos Linn, November 22-26 and December 21-January 7. Kristy Martino, November 23-24 and December 23-January 1.
Upcoming Congressional Recesses: House and Senate: November 20-24; December 18-29.
RESULTS U.S. Poverty National Webinar, Tuesday, November 14 at 8:00 pm ET. Participate at http://fuze.me/32255914 or (201) 479-4595, Meeting ID: 32255914#.
RESULTS Introductory Call, Friday, November 17 at 1:00pm ET. Register for an upcoming Intro Call on the RESULTS website.
U.S. Poverty Free Agents Calls, Thursday, November 16 at 1:00pm and 8:00 pm ET. To participate, login at http://fuze.me/32256018 or dial by phone at (201) 479-4595, Meeting ID: 32256018#. Note the different day for November’s calls.
Thursday, November 23 – Happy Thanksgiving! All RESULTS offices closed on November 23 and 24.
RESULTS Holiday Break, December 23-January 1. All RESULTS office closed.
2018 RESULTS International Conference, July 14-17, 2018, Grand Hyatt Hotel in Washington, D.C. Save the date and keep an eye out for more details.
If you have a question, comment or suggestion for the RESULTS/RESULTS Educational Fund Board, please e-mail them to RESULTS Grassroots Board Member Steven McGee at [email protected]. You can view the most recently published minutes from Board meetings on the RESULTS website, as well as download RESULTS’ most recent Annual Report.