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80 years ago today, Democratic Party president Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) was inaugurated for the first time. The country was in the midst of its Great Depression, but FDR along with a powerful progressive movement that organized workers and the unemployed rebuilt the nation and virtually eliminated voluntary unemployment.

This all began with FDR’s inaugural address on March 4, 1933, where he laid out an agenda of tackling the excesses of turbo capitalism and the idea that the pursuit of profit should come before the pursuit of happiness.

Roosevelt first began by condemning the philosophy of greed he saw creating the Depression:

The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit.
Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men.

He then laid out a progressive agenda of restoring employment, saying that the government must tackle it with the same urgency it would tackle a war with a foreign foe:

Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. This is no unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and courageously. It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the Government itself, treating the task as we would treat the emergency of …

Congressional Republicans are digging in their heels and claiming we don’t need to raise taxes rates on the rich any further after they went up to Clinton-era levels for families with incomes $450,000 and above.

But the fact is, income tax rates on the richest Americans are still lower than they were under Republican presidents Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, and even most of Ronald Reagan’s presidency. Here’s where rates were under them:

Dwight Eisenhower: During Ike’s presidency, the top rate was between 91 and 92 percent.

Richard Nixon: In 1969, when Nixon took office, the top rate was 77 percent. It dropped down to 71.75 in 1970 and finally to 70 percent for the rest of Nixon’s presidency.

Ronald Reagan: The top rate was Ai??69.125 percent when Reagan came into office, and he soon cut it to 50 percent, where it stayed through most of his presidency (it was cut again in 1987).

By every measure, taxes on the rich are still historically low, despite the partial restoration of the Clinton tax rates. Yet some right-wing lawmakers continue to demand sharp cuts to the benefits of programs like Social Security and Medicare in order for any kind of increased revenues.

Help us push for a balanced approach that cuts Pentagon waste, asks the rich to pay their fair share, and protects Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits from cuts.

You should follow BoldProgressives on Twitter here.

Earlier this week, progressive champion Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) called out Fox News’s Sean Hannity for his disinformation around the sequester, telling him he was the “worst excuse for a journalist” he had ever seen.

Last night, Hannity responded by smearing Ellison when he wasn’t there to defend himself. He implied that the Congressman held anti-semitic views, and brought up debunked attacks used against Ellison during his 2006 campaign.

But this behavior is nothing new for Hannity himself along with the network he belongs to. Hannity and the network have a history of inciting islamophobia and racial and ethnic animosity. Here are a few examples:

-Ai??Fox Host John Gibson Said We ai???Need More Babiesai??? Because The Majority Of Americans May Be Hispanic In 25 YearsAi??[5/12/06]

-Ai??Fox Host Steve Doocy Claimed Barack Obama Went To A ai???Madrassaai??? And Was Possibly A Muslim ExtremistAi??[1/19/07]

-Ai??Fox News Managing Editor Said Barack Obama Had ai???Fairly Controversialai??? Views About ai???The White Raceai???Ai??[3/28/08]

-Ai??Fox News Host Brian Kilmeade Suggested ai???Special Screeningsai??? For Muslim American Soldiers After The Fort Hood ShootingsAi??[11/7/09]

-Ai??Fox News Host Blamed Desecration Of A Tennessee Mosque On The ai???Stubbornnessai??? Of Muslims Building A Community Center In New York City[8/24/10]

-Ai??Fox News Immediately Hired Disgraced NPR Commentator Juan Williams, Who Was Let Go For Making Insensitive Comments About MuslimsAi??[10/21/10]

-Ai??Fox Host Glenn Beck Said The 3/5 Compromise Was A ai???Way To Take A Step To Abolish Slaveryai???Ai??[1/6/11]

-Ai??Fox Host Sean Hannity Repeatedly Suggested That Middle East Uprisings Are Signs Of ai???World War IIIai???Ai??[2/8/11,Ai??2/10/11,Ai??2/22/11]

-Ai??Fox Host Glenn Beck Claimed That The Pro-Democracy Movement In Egypt Was Evidence Of A Muslim-Marxist Conspiracy To Establish An Islamic CaliphateAi??[2/11/11]

-Ai??Fox News Radio Reporter Todd Starnes Published Tweets About ai???Blacks Riotingai??? At A Burger King And Asking If Muslims ai???Will Stop …

Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH)

Last week, PCCC memberAi??Patricia Kerekes went to Rep. Carol Shea Porter ‘s (D-NH) office to ask the Congresswoman to sign onto the Grayson-Takano letter promising to vote against any cuts to Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits.

Shea-Porter’s staffer,Ai??Carol Perry, took the letter Kerekes gave to her and then assured Perry, “She’s not going to compromise. She’s not going to take any cuts.” Watch it:

Click here to sign on as a citizen sponsor of the Grayson-Takano letter against Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefit cuts.

You should follow BoldProgressives on Twitter here.

Will Congress act to stop economic — and human — calamity?

With Republicans lined up to defeat any replacement that would’ve increased taxes on the wealthiest Americans and corporations, the budget sequester went into place today.

$85 billion will be cut from the federal budget this year if Congress does not act, and next year spending caps will go into place. While some of this cut is from wasteful defense spending, much of it is from productive infrastructure.

Some economists are warning that if the sequester is not cancelled or replaced, that it could over time lead to a recession. This will not only cause job loss and economic calamity, but it also has a human cost.

Last year, medical researchersAi??studied the suicide rate in the United States during the Great Recession that began in 2007 and published their results in The Lancet. They concluded that during the length of that recession, there were an additionalAi??4,750 “excess” suicide deaths that likely would not have occurred if the country was not in such economic turmoil.

This figure should inform policymakers as they seek to stop this sequester before it harms the economy in a severe way.

George P. Bush

Last month, George Prescott Bush, the nephew of former president George W. Bush, announced that he had raised $1.3 million — before even deciding which office in Texas he wanted to run for.

While Bush has still not made up his mind about which office he wants to run for, a batch of elite lobbyists in Atlanta will be throwing him a fundraiser next Wednesday. We’ve exclusively obtained a fundraising invite to the event, which we uploaded below:

As you can see, hosts pitch in $1,000, while you can join the general reception for $250 or pay $500 for a photo with Bush.

The exploratory committee is notable for the presence of so many lobbyists. Here’s a few listed:

Rufus Montgomery: Montgomery, the Chairman of the fundraising event, is a prominent Georgian lobbyist, being the managing director of Government Affairs at Hall Booth Smith, P.C. Rufus “stays mum on the details of his lobbyist work,” but is known to represent Fortune 500 corporations, among others.Ai??ai???I fly under the radar,ai??? he told Georgia Trend Magazine, ai???but I derive a lot of satisfaction from influencing public policy.ai??? Disclosures show he has held accounts with chemical lobbyists at the American Chemistry Council and with the for-profit online education company Edison, Inc.
Brad Carver: Carver is the senior managing directorAi??of Government Affairs at Hall Booth Smith, meaning that he is another Georgia lobbyist.
Jason Anivitarte: Anivitarte is the Atlanta lobbyist for health care giant Kaiser Permanente.
Brian Hudson: Hudson’s lobbying client list in Georgia includes anti-labor Home Depot, Time Warner, and Quick Click Loans, llc — a loan shark.
R.J. Briscione: Briscione is a lobbyist for health insurer Wellpoint.

Again, Bush has not even …

Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA)

This morning, Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe and, in response to a question from a host, went through a long list of Medicare and Social Security benefit cuts that he endorses:

WARNER: Let me start with chained CPI which is a more rational way to measure inflation, deals with both the entitlement programs and Social Security, lets look at raising the cap on Social Security, let’s look at phased-in raising the age of Social Security, let’s look at means-testing Medicare, let’s look at combining the various Medicare programs into a single deductible, so everybody’s got at least a little bit of skin in the game in terms of the services they use.

Watch the Senator:

Recall that utilizing chained CPI would cut benefits for seniors by up to $1,611 a year. Raising the Social Security age would harm blue-collar workers the most, whose jobs have not gotten less physically demanding and whose life expectancy has only barely improved in the last few decades.

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee did polling in Warner’s state of Virginia and found that 66 percent of people there oppose reducing Social Security benefits. 68 percent oppose reducing Medicare benefits.

If you live in Virginia, click here to call Sen. Warner and tell him to oppose these cuts to Medicare and Social Security benefits.

PCCC members

21 House Democrats have signed the letter by Reps. Alan Grayson (D-FL) and Mark Takano (D-CA) vowing to vote against any cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits.

Last Friday, Progressive Change Campaign Committee members in Oregon presented a petition signed by 1,372 constituents asking Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) to sign onto the Grayson-Takano letter.

“I’m the widow of a federal employee and 78 years old. So I have been on Medicare for quite a few years,” explained Margaret Wills about the importance of opposing cuts. “If I didn’t have that Medicare…I would probably be either dead or on the streets by now.”

“I look upon it as, this is not really about balancing the budget as much as it is part of the campaign from the time Medicare and Social Security were put in place to get rid of them,” she concluded about those advocating for benefit cuts.

25 people attended the event to petition the congresswoman. Marshal Jevning, one of Bonamici’s staffer’s, says it was the most people that had ever visited the office at one time for a constituent visit.

Watch the visit:

Click here to sign on as a citizen sponsor of the Grayson-Takano letter against Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefit cuts.

The Defense Department is the most wasteful part of the federal budget. We spend more on our military than the rest of the world combined, and the Pentagon has never been fully audited.

In Washington, D.C. today, dozens of demonstrators organized by USAction converged outside the lobbying headquarters of Lockheed Martin, calling on the government to “pull the pork” and cut down on defense waste in the budget. To demonstrate this, they inflated a giant pig:

Help us push for a balanced approach that cuts Pentagon waste, asks the rich to pay their fair share, and protects Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits from cuts.

You should follow BoldProgressives on Twitter here.

UPDATE: Here’s a video from the event:

Today, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke testified before the Senate Banking Committee. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) asked Bernanke about the $83.5 billion subsidy that Big Banks get every year from American taxpayers.

Warren suggested that Bernanke support a policy of ending this subsidy. After a back and forth with him about the question of “too big to fail,” Warren suggested that Big Banks — backed by the government — are causing smaller banks to get “smashed.”

WARREN: $83 billion says that there really will be a bailout for the largest financial institutions if they fail.

BERNANKE:That’s the expectation of markets, but that doesn’t mean we have to do it. […] Too big to fail is not absolute. […]

WARREN: It is working like an insurance policy. Ordinary folks pay for home owners insurance, ordinary folks pay for car insurance, and these big financial institutions are getting cheaper borrowing to the tune of $83 billion in a single year simply because people believe that the government would step in and bail them out. And I’m just saying, if they’re getting it, why shouldn’t they pay for it?

BERNANKE: I think we should get rid of it. […]

WARREN: I know we’re both trying to go in the same direction, I’m just pointing out that in all that space in between what’s happening is the Big Banks are getting a terrific break, and the little banks are just getting smashed on this, they’re not getting that kind of break, and that has long-term impact for all of the financial system.

BERNANKE: I agree with you 100 percent.

Watch it:

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