A leading credit union trade association came out against a compromise draft proposal on a controversial measure that would allow judges to rewrite the terms of home mortgages. Senate Democrats, led by Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Illinois), have been trying to strike a deal with a handful of financial industry players, but the issue has been stalled in the upper chamber for more than a month. The policy, known as "cramdown" in the industry, is strongly opposed by major parts of the industry. The board of the National Association of Federal Credit Unions on Wednesday unanimously opposed the cramdown policy.
After the jump, read the letter that the association's president, Fred Becker, wrote to Durbin.
The National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors (NAW) has sent a letter to members of Congress opposing President Obama's proposed budget.
Pleading with members "in the strongest possible terms" to oppose the budget, the letter states that Obama's proposal is "not a budget but a roadmap for unprecedented restructuring of the U.S. economy."
Specifically, NAW takes issue with what the letter describes as "punitive tax increases" on top of an "already progressive tax code."
"These tax increases would have a profound negative impact on the economy," the letter reads, "affecting the successful small businesses which create the preponderance of new jobs every year--the capital they would use to create jobs and make investments will instead be sent to the Federal Treasury."
NAW is also a strong opponent of card-check legislation.
A new ad from liberal activist group Americans United for Change and labor union AFSCME hails the passage and signing of the economic stimulus package, using footage of President Obama signing the bill in Denver.
The ad will run nationally on MSNBC and CNN. It was produced less than four hours after Obama signed the stimulus, according to Americans United for Change.
In it, the groups encourage viewers to thank Obama "for putting jobs first" by successfully passing and signing the package.
Americans United for Change and AFSCME have aired TV and radio ads throughout the stimulus's legislative journey, pressuring 13 GOP senators with TV ads in their home states. The groups are part of the Campaign for Jobs and Economic Recovery, a massive coalition of liberal groups formed in December to advocate for Obama's stimulus.
A new national TV ad will target Republican lawmakers who voted against Democrats' economic stimulus package, using House GOP Whip Eric Cantor's (Va.) comment that Republicans should "just say no" to the stimulus.
The ad will be coupled with a slew of radio spots encouraging GOP lawmakers to change their minds when the stimulus comes back to the House or Senate for further consideration once the two chambers' versions are reconciled.
Liberal activist group Americans United for Change and labor union AFSCME financed the ads and the $200,000 purchase of air time.
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After launching a campaign of TV ads last week pressuring GOP senators to vote for a Democratic-backed economic stimulus package, liberal activist group Americans United for Change will start running radio ads tomorrow that ask if GOP senators will side "with Rush Limbaugh" in voting against a stimulus measure in the Senate.
The ads open with the radio host's recent controversial quote about President Obama's economic agenda--"I hope he fails."
"We can understand why an extreme partisan like Rush Limbaugh wants President Obama's jobs program to fail, but the members of Congress elected to represent the citizens in their districts? That's another matter," the narrator says.
"Now the Obama plan goes to the Senate. And the question is, will Sen. Jim Bunning side with Rush Limbaugh too?" the narrator says in one of the ads.
The ads will target Republican Sens. Jim Bunning (Ky.), Richard Burr (N.C.), and Mel Martinez (Fla.), airing in their home states.
The ads close by asking listeners to call each GOP senator "tell him he represents you, not Rush Limbaugh."
The group has also expanded its TV campaign to target Sens. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) and Kit Bond (R-Mo.).
Backers of legislation that would make it easier for unions to organize are launching a campaign to convince people that the Employee Free Choice Act does not technically eliminate secret-ballot elections.
Business groups and Republicans have strongly denounced the legislation, also known as card-check, because it would allow unions bypass holding a secret ballot election and form a union simply by having workers sign petition cards. Current law allows business leaders to insist on holding a secret ballot election and that right would disappear if the bill is signed into law.
Pro-labor action group American Rights at Work, which announced a $3 million TV ad campaign supporting the bill earlier this month, says that for the time being it will air ads attacking the notion that the bill eliminates secret ballot elections
"Greedy CEOs want to prevent workers from joining unions to level the playing field. Their new scheme to keep wages low? Spreading lies about the Employee Free Choice Act," a narrator says in the new ad.
"The truth is the Employee Free Choice Act absolutely protects workers
Most of the tax cuts that reportedly make up 40 percent of President-elect Barack Obama's stimulus package won't actually spur economic growth, according to the Club for Growth, a leading D.C.-based group of economic conservatives.
The group issued a statement today supporting Obama's decision to include tax cuts for businesses, but in the same statement it said the rest of Obama's proposed cuts won't do much.
"We are delighted to learn that the President-Elect is proposing to expand the expensing of capital purchases by businesses
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Leading liberal groups--24 of them--formed a new coalition today to push for passage of an economic stimulus plan, pledging a massive effort that will include field events and an ad campaign. The group includes unions, healthcare action groups, environmental groups, community organizing groups, women's advocacy groups, and progressive political organizations.
The coalition will support "whatever President-elect [Barack] Obama and congressional leaders come up with," Americans United for Change President Brad Woodhouse told reporters on a conference call this morning. ""This campaign is about getting as many votes in the House and the Senate" as we can, Woodhouse said.
The coalition, dubbed the Campaign for Jobs and Economic Recovery Now, includes the following liberal and progressive groups: AFSCME, SEIU, AFLCIO, NEA, Americans United for Change, USAction, Campaign for America
Labor unions railed against Senate Republicans today after the proposed auto bailout's failure last night in the upper chamber, accusing the GOP of scapegoating autoworkers in the name of conservative ideology.
United Auto Workers (UAW) President Ron Gettelfinger began the salvo this morning at a news conference on the vote.
"Quite frankly, we wondered if we were being set up," Gettelfinger said, adding that discussions over UAW wages were "just simply subterfuge on the part of the minority in the Republican Party who wanted to tear down any agreement that we come up with."
Gettelfinger accused the Senate GOP caucus of treating unions unfairly by demanding wage cuts as part of legislative negotiations, while leaving the Big Three's corporate fates up to an executive-appointed "car czar." Gettelfinger pointed to a February, 2007 Detroit Free Pressstory claiming American employees of foreign automakers earn higher wages on average than UAW members.
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Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and other Democrats on the committee today called on President Bush and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to use some of the $700 billion to help prevent foreclosures, pressing the president for swift action.
"The fact remains that the Administration has not dedicated the time, attention or resources needed to address the cause of the crisis -- the historic levels of foreclosure," the senators wrote in a letter to Bush and Paulson.
The group of senators--comprised of Dodd, Charles Schumer (N.Y.), Jack Reed (R.I.), Tim Johnson (S.D.), Tom Carper (Del.), Robert Menendez (N.J.), Daniel Akaka (Hawaii), Sherrod Brown (Ohio), and Robert Casey (Pa.)--proposed the administration modify existing mortgages to help keep homeowners in their homes.
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