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A passel of Occupy Wall Street activists will meet with leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus today, specifically about legislative issues:
Ten organizers from New York’s OWS group will speak to the caucus about their legislative priorities, according to an email sent to Members and obtained by Roll Call.
“This is the very first meeting of national occupy organizers and members to discuss specific legislation in the country,” the email to Members states.
An aide with knowledge of the meeting said the protesters “are uniquely concerned with getting money out of politics and with a jobs agenda.” The aide also said OWS representatives “may be reaching out to other caucuses both Republican and Democrat in the future.”
(UPDATE: Apparently this meeting has been cancelled, because of pressure from other Occupy members over how these 10 came to represent the movement. “Somebody’s taking the reins in terms of representing the group to Congress. But the rest of Occupy’s not ready for that yet,” said one protester.)
For a protest movement with allegedly no agenda, they sure are doing a lot of agenda-setting. Without setting foot in Washington, the Occupy movement changed the conversation around inequality in America, putting that issue at the top of the agenda. They led to a prioritization of jobs over deficits, as the Super Committee petered out with a whimper while stimulative measures (albeit inefficient tax-side ones) have become the dominant debate in Congress. Issues of corporate governance and campaign finance have advanced, as Occupy protesters railed against Citizens United. A coherent agenda about reforming a country and economy that only works for a privileged few has emerged. And it’s worth seeing whether there are any allies in Congress to carry the flag for that agenda.
As it turns out, the Congressional Progressive Caucus just released today a new bill called the Restore the American Dream for the 99% Act, a combination of stimulative job creation measures, progressive taxation, a funding cut to draw down current wars and reduce the Pentagon budget and other measures popular with the mainstream of the country. It’s obviously message legislation, but it sets an important marker for the future. The sponsors of the bill, co-chairs of the Progressive Caucus Raul Grijalva and Keith Ellison, claim that it would create 5 million jobs over the next two years while saving $2 trillion over the long term. Here are some of the highlights:
• Direct job spending to hire 2.2 million public safety, education, maintenance and construction workers. There’s also an infrastructure bank to leverage private capital on more construction projects, with a $50 billion up-front investment in infrastructure.
• A Buy America provision for all government-contracted materials.
• The Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans would expire, saving $800 billion.
• Ending “unnecessary” weapons programs and other defense spending for $280 billion, and accelerating withdrawals from foreign wars to save $1.2 trillion.
• Canceling fossil fuel subsidies for the oil and gas industry.
• A financial speculation tax to capture $350 billion with a tiny 0.03% tax on all trades.
• Changing the payroll tax extension to a Making Work Pay refundable tax credit, similar to what was in the original Obama stimulus, and extending it for two years.
• Instituting a robust public option to compete in the exchanges with private insurance.
• Allowing Medicare to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies on the price of prescription drugs.
• Scrapping the Social Security payroll tax cap (with a donut hole between $106,800 and $250,000) to fully fund Social Security over the long term.
This legislation defines the progressive agenda in a variety of ways, even if it’s not fully comprehensive. And it sounds like the kind of agenda an Occupier could support.
You can see a wider explanation of the legislation here. You could see this being used as a Contract with America-style expression of principles for a progressive agenda.
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I have refrained from commenting on any issues thaat the OWS has deemed important to them. Otherwise, taking the spotlight off the OWS would indeed harmful to their overall cause and effort. Therefore, discounting all the people and who are adamantly engaged in this overall effort, are to be commended, given the snow and rain that never ceases.
Therefore, all this is good news, indeed. And which will capture the imagination of all those, including myself, for having resided on the sidelines while waiting for the OWS to achieve a sizable level of gravitas, and which they have now done. To wit, the FDL is to be congratulated, as well, for adding to this national effort.
Jaango
There is no such thing as the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
There is, however, a thing called the Lying Piece of Shit Phony Faux Pretend Progressive Sellouts Caucus.
They know they don’t have the votes. It’s all for show. They have to do something to rally the troops.
I wonder how they voted on the defense bill that makes us all subject to the whims of the executive disappearer.
Are the members of the Progressive Caucus, “phony”? And will they vote for the annual defense reauthorization bill? No, to the first question, and yes to the second question.
If anyone has spent any time of capitol hill lobbying the members of Congress, you will find that the members of the Progressive Causus are far more willing, to open their door and “listen” to you than say your member of Congress. And that speaks to ‘receptivity’ both figuratively and literally.
As to…”subject to the whims of the excutive branch…, If you’re a current member or a former member of the military, having done so,,,means you have a “legitimate” complaint. To wit, earlier today, at my dental appointment, I met a Marine avaiation mechanic and who served on the same aircraft carrier where McCain destroyed two aircraft, we held our grins in quiet abeyance.
Jaango
Actually, McCain didn’t destroy two aircraft on the carrier. An engine warming motor attached to a neighboring plane “cooked off” a missile under the wing, causing it to hit another plane which burst into flame and then it was “game on” in one of the worst carrier accidents in history. In the film you can see McCain crawl out on the nose of his plane and leap past the flames to the deck. McCain’s a jerk and an asshole but this one wasn’t on him.
You beat me to it.
I once believed in the Progresive Caucus. But then I once believed in the tooth fairy. It’s been decades since the tooth fairy showed up. In fact, the tooth fairy disappeared about the same time liberals became “Progressives” and decided pretending to stand for something was a lot easier than standing for it for real and taking the heat.
I’ll believe in the Progressive Caucus when it does what the tea party R’s do, i.e., lies down in the aisle and stops the other side. In the meantime, back to the crowns, root canals and extractions.
One simply CAN NOT vote for the indefinite detention, without charges or rights to a lawyer or any rights at all, and call yourself a progessive.
Well, one can, but one would be a lying asshole.
If they vote to indefinitely detain American citizens without any formal charges forever then they’re not progressives, period.
Nothing, absolutely NOTHING is as important as habeas corpus. Without that, any and all other “rights” are meaningless. There are some things that can be compromised on. This isn’t one of them. There is simply no way a person could vote to end habeas corpus for US citizens and credibly call themselves progressive.
Or even American, IMO.
Thank you…..
This is a sham caucus…these creeps use progressive as a way to garner re-election yr after yr.
You know it’s all for show when the co-chair,Keith Ellison is labeling Obama as a “progressive”…..I heard him mouth this garbage on the ultimate Corporate Progressive ,Bill Press radio show.
And for the many of yous who have been deceived by BPress over the yrs and somehow still think he is one of us,just remember his stance on NAFTA & GATT…Press was on CNN at the time with Pat Buchanan ,”Crossfire”.Buchanan was opposed to NAFTA ,Press was championing NAFTA.
To save time and trouble, I hope the pre-cave-in language was included in the bill.
A waste of time. Blocking the ports for a bit was a better idea.
Careful, OWS! The corporatist factions will do their best to co-opt you, like they did so many other political and social movements.
Our entire SYSTEM, political and economic, must be transformed to effect real, lasting change. Talking to a bunch of mostly sellouts does no good right now and comes with substantial risk to what you want to see happen.
So where does one start ?
Mitch and John ?
One person, one soul at a time. Are the militant progressives ? Not yet . Is there no hope among any of them ?
If my teacher Al Crass, who has passed , born a Jew converted to preach Christianity and led an effort to engage Muslims on trips to the Middle East with Christians and Jews, taught me one thing it’s plant seeds for others to harvest and don’t expect to see the fruits of your efforts.
To: OWS – BE CAREFUL
The para-militarized police departments across this country haven’t been able to crush the OWS movement and the media’s contempt and disdain hasn’t been able to crush you. BUT, getting involved with the so-called Congressional Progressive Caucus can be the end of the movement. These people are anything but progressive and if you get involved, your movement will be unrecognizable. I so support all of you involved in the OWS and don’t want to see you disappear into the cesspool of the US govt.
Let’s not forget repealing the draconic bankruptcy “reform” act of 2005 — what a travesty
And debt forgiveness — clean slate
or
give everyone with income under 100k/year $25k each. Certainly Americans are too big to fail — even more so than the banksters.
I am not here to defend the Progressive Caucus.
However, I will raise the Question of, “Who in Congress will give the time of day to the OWS Movement and where anyone of substantive consequence will “listen” to this political dissent?”
And when it comes to the political ‘end of day’ counting the votes is all that matters. Thus, starting the conversation for the OWS Movement means that the Progressive Caucus will cast their votes in favor of the OWS, provided a ‘hearing’ can be established and votes takens. Therefore, the ‘gita’ is to be found in the process and which starts with a formal hearing. Can the Democrats create a ‘hearing’ and where the Republicans don’t block this possibility of such a hearing?
Jaango
The Progressive Caucus: Where activism goes to die.
Plus, like most things the PC have done these days, it was pre-compromised. $50 billion for infrastructure? Seattle could use a quarter of that quite well all by itself. I’d imagine an East Coast city like NYC or Philadelphia could make good use of that entire fund all by itself.
The update is what matters. The “progressive caucus” can go bleep themselves with their crash and burn co-opt attempt. And those ten who must know well enough how OWS works, but tried to step over or under all process and any consensus votes can also go bleep themselves, too.
Amen. That they even have to consider such a bill just shows how totally useless they’ve been these last 30 yrs. In fact they all spent decades destroying it and now they want us to believe they want to resurrect it? I don’t think so. It’s all just so much political posturing before 2012′s election circus show.
The Atlantic piece is pretty snotty (‘Rogue Occupiers Nearly Do the Unthinkable: Meet with Congress; bah!), and John Heilemann’s quote shows he and Martin seriously don’t grok the Democracy Movement.
“Occupy denied that it was sending a delegation, but our sources confirmed that yes, a few individual organizers did agree to speak to the CPC about what Occupy wanted, though not as official representatives of the group. Official or not, however, they were the ones getting an audience with members of Congress. That annoyed enough occupiers and drew enough attention to the planned meeting that the would-be unofficial delegates canceled it.
On Twitter Tuesday, some Occupy organizers scorned the idea that those ten people could represent Occupy Wall Street. “Which #OWS group is meeting with lawmakers? your article gives impression it is an official delegation. it is not,” tweeted Dicey Troop, who regularly tweets minutes from Occupy’s general assemblies, in a message directed at Roll Call reporter Jessica Brady. “This maneuver is against consensus,” he wrote later.”
Yeah; those ten were doing a run-around of the GA, and should not have done it. It really undermines the whole group, and even ALL occupies to put themselves forward as ‘negotiators’ or something.
Bad form, IMO.
The Roll Call article is ambiguous about where the email came from. Read the wording in Brady’s article carefully. My guess is that it came from the staff of a member of Congress seeking to co-opt the 99% and not from anyone purporting to represent Occupy Wall Street. Unless someone produces the email with the ten names on it. Or…it came from “Occupy the Capitol”, MoveOn.org and RebuildTheDream’s copycat operation.
Glad it was canceled.
The People’s Budget, proposed in April 2011 by the Progressive Caucus, is worth a read. I would love to see it implemented.
http://cpc.grijalva.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=70
This story doesn’t track. Very hard to see OWS falling for this. It’s the kind of thing van jones would pull.
Exactly…could’nt have said it better myself.
Bravo ! Great advice.
So who are the 10? My hunch is that they are DKos-style OWS poseurs desperate for a way to sell-out OWS to the Democrats.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/13/1045051/-Progressive-Caucus-Introduces-Legislation-OWS-Members-Cancel-Controversial-Meeting-With-Them?via=siderecent
I have no idea who these 10 people are. There was nothing at General Assembly about choosing a delegation, therefor, they represent no one but themselves.
Sometimes, I have found GA to be the most frustrating procedure in the world, especially now that the temperature in NYC has dropped, standing around in Zuccotti park for 4 hours to wiggle my fingers ain’t half the fun it was a month ago. It has it’s uses though; it kind of acts as a firewall against cooptation — if you want to coopt us, you’ll have to stand around int he cold all night and wiggle your fingers, too!
Come have a peek inside: http://occupyyourbrain.tumblr.com
Late to this party, but I think your question of “Who in Congress will give the time of day to the OWS Movement” is totally irrelevant. OWS doesn’t care if Congress gives them the time of day, and Congress (including the so-called Progressive Caucus) has demonstrated time and again by their voting record that they care not one iota for the 99%).
The OWS Movement must make an end-run around Congress and the Executive, and make them and their sycophants irrelevant and illegitimate to the national discussion this country is experiencing right now. OWS will make the new reality, and Congress and the Executive will be forced to follow. OWS doesn’t need them; THEY need OWS.
Despite all the whining and complaining by self-acknowledged “leaders” in the progressive community, it’s become quite apparent that NO ONE is calling for the establishment of a Progressive Caucus in the Senate’s Democratic side of the aisle. With a Progressive Caucus in the Senate, adds more balance and greater opportunity to achieve, even a small modicum of success that’s important to all of us. But, if you’re shortsighted and much prefer trashing the existing opportunities, so be it!
As such, we and who reside in America’s “racial and ethnic” are doing it and have for several years, especially when Bush gained the Oval Office. Perhaps, white Progressives are not “listening” to the brown Progressives? If so, white Progressives have to go a long ways to catch-up with us.
Jaango
Please point us in the direction of who you believe among those presently in the Senate would comprise this ‘progressive caucus’ in the Senate.
Now, permit me to express this Rant!!!
When I hear the “old and tired white dudes” gainsay the media outlets and go on to espouse their talking point on “leaners” and “swingers” I find this behavior to be a self-ascribed twitch representing their mental masturbation.
In taking a quick gander at history, in 2004 Bush won because of his ‘connect’ to Hispanic Republicans. However, this subtlety and nuance was directed, not at Hispanic Republican men, but at Hispanic Republican women. Thus, these women would take their parents to the ballot box and subsequently, got a ‘rant’ on why is was important for these parents to vote for the Republican candidate.
Today, when the ‘tired and old white dudes’ talk today, as in Newt Gingrich’s “connect” to the Hispanic voter, he is utilizing Bush’s successful strategy and thusly, tactic. And the white Progressive has yet to devise an “alternative.”
To wit, here in the Sonoran Desert, the majority of white Democrats were highly supportive of SB 1070 and HB 2281, and during the next forty years, with the majority of the voters being “racial and ethnics” our America will become concretized as Progressive, given that that Native American, African American and Chicano communities are inherently Progressive, our America won’t be looking back at today’s political artifacts.
Jaango
pastfedup,
Today, there are none. Howcver, almost two dozen Democratic Senators are up for re-election. Encouraging these Senators to do so, would be a good start. My Senators, McCain is not up for re-election, but he has went off and into the political abyss. As for Kyl, he is retiring, and that presents an “opportunity.”
Jaango