Once Again: Stand Fast, Don't Surrender to Shutdown Blackmail
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Email (use your own words): Rep. Pelosi’s email contact form
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DC Office: (202) 225-3531
Email (use your own words): Rep. Mullin’s email contact form
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Call Script
My name is __________. I am a constituent, and my zip code is _______. I am a member of Indivisible SF.
We strongly support your continued rejection of Republican poison-pill demands in appropriation bills or Continuing Resolutions (CR). Their threat to shut down the government if we do not surrender to extreme demands is a form of political blackmail and hostage taking. Rewarding them with policies and provisions that they cannot enact through the normal legislative process will result in even more blackmail threats.
Background
This is yet another rerun of the Republican blackmail and intimidation strategy. Their goals remain clear:
Reduce taxes on the very rich and the big corporations
Support, subsidize, and expand the fossil fuel industry
Oppose unions, roll back wage increases, and take away public health care and housing
Demonize and scapegoat people of color to energize their white-nationalist base
Further restrict abortion access to gain votes from religious extremists
Suppress and restrict voting by people of color, the poor, and students
Suppress, silence, and eliminate ideas that don’t fit into their extreme right-wing ideology
They know that they cannot enact these and similar anti-people, anti-democratic policies through normal legislation, and they’d never win an election if they honestly campaigned on their true agenda. So they try to ram it through with backroom deals, disinformation, and political blackmail.
Since appropriation bills require Democratic votes to pass the House and Senate, Democrats have the power to stand fast against any further cuts to domestic spending or inclusion of any MAGA poison pills—if they have the backbone to use that power. We must urge them to stand fast.
References
Lawmakers race to avoid looming shutdown as blame game begins, The Hill, 2/26/24
Spending Impasse Persists Amid G.O.P. Resistance as Partial Shutdown Looms, NY Times, 2/26/24 (hopefully no paywall)
Republican Demands and Divisions Drive Impasse Toward a Shutdown, NY Times, 2/27/24 (hopefully no paywall)
This Week's US Congressional Call Scripts:
Tell President Biden and our Members of Congress: continue to stand firm against MAGA government shutdown blackmail
Tell President Biden and our Members of Congress: Stand fast, don’t surrender to MAGA Republican shutdown blackmail!
Republicans are playing brazen, dangerous hardball in order to force Trump-era immigration policies in exchange for support for Ukraine, and Democrats are considering caving to their demands. Tell your Senators to reject these draconian policies.
Thank you for standing strong against MAGA Republican extremism in favor of protecting a functioning government by providing enough votes to pass a Continuing Resolution without the draconian cuts MAGA extremists were seeking. Please remain strong in protecting our values in the second batch of bills in February.
Tell your Members of Congress: Support the Biden Administration’s supplemental funding package!
We repeat: Call President Biden and your Members of Congress and tell them: "Hold fast! Do not surrender to political blackmail—even if it means a government shutdown!"
We’ve enjoyed decades of online life with strong protections for freedom of speech. It’s a complicated subject of rights and responsibilities, just as life—online and off—is complicated. But while the current state of things is not perfect and there may still be room for improvement, it’s a pretty good balance on the whole.
A bill introduced in the previous Congress and reintroduced in this year threatens to upset that balance. As is so often the case, the proposal is ostensibly “for the children;” the new bill is called the Kids Online Safety Act. It would force messaging services like iMessage, Signal, and WhatsApp, along with social media services like Twitter, Facebook, and Mastodon, to gatekeep who can participate in online life and to monitor what we say.
This is a dangerous, poorly-thought-out bill with a dangerously high number of bipartisan cosponsors in the Senate. We must stop this bill from becoming law.
As the House and Senate begin debating the ransom deal legislation today, it is possible that Republicans will raise new extortion demands. Our response has to be: “Not one penny more! Not one policy retreat further!”
Tell the President and our senators that President Biden should withdraw the nomination of Elliott Abrams because it is antithetical to the Biden administration’s diplomatic support for democracies worldwide.
Contact your Members of Congress and tell them: pass the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act of 2023 and show that they are serious about binding the Supreme Court to a code of ethics.