Progressives Ready To Greet Pope
Moral Action on Climate Justice Rally to coincide with Pope Francis' Sept 24th congressional address: Join the Moral Action for Climate Justice Rally to demand urgent action on the climate crisis – and a strong response to the cry of the Poor. Join the rally between 3rd and 7th Streets on the National Mall, September 24th, 7:30 AM to 12:30 PM. More info at FollowFrancis.org and #followfrancis on Twitter.
Low-wage federal workers seek audience with Pope. National Catholic Reporter: "Written by people 'who cook and clean at the U.S. Capitol and other federal buildings,' ... the letter states: 'We want you to know that even though we serve the wealthy and the powerful in the Congress, we earn so little that we live in utter poverty.' ... The letter was signed by some 40 low-wage workers organizing under the banner of Good Jobs Nation."
Republican Shutdown Scramble
Republican leaders to give "show" votes to anti-abortion die-hards. W. Post: "The House is expected to vote this week on a bill ... that would defund Planned Parenthood and another ... that would offer legal protection to an infant who survives a failed abortion ... But holding those votes appears unlikely to satisfy the most ardent Planned Parenthood opponents, particularly those in the House, who believe the fight is as much about Boehner’s leadership as it is about cutting off federal support for the group."
One Republican proposes to defund some Planned Parenthood clinics. NYT: "...Representative Charlie Dent, a moderate Republican from Pennsylvania, says he has come up with a way to avert a possible government shutdown over Planned Parenthood funding: a bill that would take away money only from clinics involved in selling tissue from aborted fetuses ... about seven [clinics] in three states ... [The bill] would make it even more difficult for health care workers to change the way they perform abortions to help extract tissues for sale."
Sen. McConnell worried bill to keep government open will increase spending. The Hill: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), however, is leery about setting up talks that would likely result in higher spending levels and wants the continuing resolution to go into December, which Democrats fear would let the air out of potential talks ... Senate Democrats and some GOP appropriators question if he’s really interested in anything other than a yearlong continuing resolution that keeps spending levels within the [sequestration] caps."
Trump v. Carson
Carson rises in CBS/NYT poll: "The proportion of Republican voters favoring Mr. Carson rose to 23 percent from 6 percent in the previous CBS News poll, which was taken just before the first televised Republican debate in early August. Over that same period, Mr. Trump made modest gains, to 27 percent from 24 percent."
Trump to give national security address today. W. Post: "..., the Republican front-runner will speak at a fundraiser for the conservative 501 (c) 4 nonprofit Veterans for a Strong America aboard the USS Iowa, which is now a museum."
Club for Growth to attack Trump. NYT: "The political arm of the free-enterprise advocacy group will announce on Tuesday its plans for a 'major' television ad campaign in an early primary state."
Republican tax plans would increase deficits. The Hill: "[Jeb Bush] released a tax plan last week that would cost anywhere between $1.2 trillion and $3.7 trillion over a decade ... GOP lawmakers insist that negotiations ought to start with the premise that tax reform should end up being a tax cut ... They’re aided by the fact that the yearly deficit has dropped from well over $1 trillion early in Obama’s presidency to $426 billion this year."
Martin O'Malley pushes gun control. The Hill: "... he favors increasing the minimum age for handgun ownership and possession to 21 as part of a comprehensive plan to curb gun violence in the U.S."
Spotlight On Prison Policy
The Atlantic's Ta-Nehisi Coates investigates how decades of mass incarceration oppressed African-Americans: "Mass incarceration 'widened the income gap between white and black Americans,' writes Heather Ann Thompson, a historian at the University of Michigan, 'because the infrastructure of the carceral state was located disproportionately in all-white rural communities.' Some 600,000 inmates are released from America’s prisons each year ... enough people, according to Pager, to 'fill every one of the fast-food job openings created annually nearly five times over.'"
New Ella Baker Center report shows how incarceration hurt families economically. NYT: "A survey of families that have a family member in jail or prison has found that nearly two-thirds struggle to meet their basic needs, including 50 percent that are unable to afford sufficient food and adequate housing ... costs associated with incarceration, like traveling for prison visits, had pushed more than one-third of the families into debt."
Breakfast Sides
Business lobby pushes for Ex-Im Bank restoration. The Hill: "The Business Roundtable (BRT) argued in a letter to House and Senate leaders that U.S. companies have lost international sales and put hundreds of thousands of jobs at risk because Congress failed to reauthorize the bank before its charter expired June 30."
US, China to announce municipal climate pledges. NYT: "The meeting this week in Los Angeles is to be attended by Todd Stern, the United States’ senior climate change negotiator, American mayors and governors, Chinese mayors and other municipal leaders and Chinese climate change officials ... to demonstrate that both countries were moving forward to meet the terms of their agreement."
