TOP NEWS: Fetterman Calls for Assault Weapons Ban After July 4th Parade Massacre

 

July 05, 2022 Top News Top US Nurses Union Urges Senators to Suspend Filibuster to Protect Abortion Rights "Reproductive health services," says National Nurses United, are "fundamental to ensuring economic justice for women across the country." by Brett Wilkins 'Win for Wildlife' as Federal Court Restores Endangered Species Protections Gutted by Trump "In the midst of a global extinction crisis, the court's decision to vacate the rules will help ensure that imperiled species receive the protections they desperately need," said one advocate. by Julia Conley Fetterman Calls for Assault Weapons Ban After July 4th Parade Massacre The Democratic candidate for Pennsylvania's open U.S. Senate seat also demanded the prosecution of "gun dealers whose weapons routinely wind up at crime scenes." by Jake Johnson More Top News • 'Grave Injustice': Judge Rules Against West Virginia Community Devastated by Opioids • Nearly Two Dozen GOP States Attempting to Use Covid Relief Funds for Tax Cuts • Jayapal Warns GOP Will Enact Federal Abortion Ban If It Retakes Congress • GOP Senator Defends Guantánamo Bay Prison as 'Absolutely Vital Institution' • Doctor Describes Gruesome 'Wartime Injuries' at Highland Park Shooting • Senate Urged to Block Biden's Pro-Privatization Nominee for Social Security  Board Defenders of Social Security on Tuesday urged the U.S. Senate to block President Joe Biden's little-noticed nomination of Andrew Biggs—an American Enterprise Institute senior fellow with a history of supporting Social Security privatization—to serve on the independent and bipartisan Social Security Advisory Board. Social Security Works, a progressive advocacy group, is leading the charge against Biggs, highlighting his role in the George W. Bush administration's failed attempt to privatize the New Deal program in 2005. At the time, Biggs worked on Social Security as an associate director of Bush's National Economic Council. "Andrew Biggs has advocated for Social Security cuts throughout his career. And now, he's been nominated to oversee Social Security," Social Security Works tweeted on Tuesday. The group, whose president currently serves on the Social Security Advisory Board (SSAB), is also sharing a sample call script for those who wish to contact their representatives about Biggs. "The Senate can, and must, block this terrible nomination," the organization wrote. "Please call your senators at 202-224-3121 and tell them to vote NO on Andrew Biggs." The White House announced Biggs' nomination to the SSAB in May, a move that drew little notice at the time. Last month, The Lever's Matthew Cunningham-Cook called attention to the president's pick and warned it suggests "there could soon be a coordinated push in Washington to cut the Social Security program, which provides retirement, disability, and survivor benefits to 66 million Americans." While Biden vowed on the campaign trail to back an expansion of Social Security, he has previously supported cutting the program's benefits. Biden was vice president when former President Barack Obama proposed a "grand bargain" with the GOP that would have entailed cuts to Social Security. Biggs, too, has a long record of advocating Social Security cuts. As Cunningham-Cook wrote last month, "For years, Biggs has been a vocal critic of expanded Social Security and workers' right to a secure, stable retirement free from the vagaries of the stock market." "He has dismissed the retirement crisis as a non-issue and as recently as 2020 blamed problems with the Social Security system on 'older Americans' game of chicken,'" he added. "While the seat on the bipartisan board is by tradition assigned to a Republican, Biden could have chosen a moderate candidate—or even leaned on precedent to avoid the nomination process altogether. Former President Donald Trump routinely refused to nominate Democrats for seats on boards and commissions." Simmering outrage over Biggs' nomination to serve on the SSAB, which was formed in 1994 to advise the president and Congress on Social Security, comes as progressives are demanding an expansion of the program's modest benefits—while Republican lawmakers, per usual, eye cuts. Last month, Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) led the introduction of the Social Security Expansion Act, which would lift the cap on income subject to the Social Security payroll tax and boost the program's annual benefits by $2,400. "At a time when half of older Americans have no retirement savings and millions of senior citizens are living in poverty, our job is not to cut Social Security," Sanders said at the time. "Our job must be to expand Social Security so that every senior citizen in America can retire with the dignity they deserve and every person with a disability can live with the security they need." • 'Congress Must Do More NOW,' Sanders Says After Mass Shooting at July 4th Parade VIEW ALL NEWS Opinion Susan B. Anthony Was Rolling Over in Her Grave This July 4th The great suffragist would surely be appalled by the Dobbs ruling and the radical logic behind it, which repudiates a century of progress in human rights and democracy. by Jeffrey C. Isaac Hell on Earth: From Tired Metaphor to an Increasingly Accurate Description When will the pain of climate change become too great to ignore any longer and will it then be too late? by Tom Engelhardt What Is Wrong With Us? We are habituated to the notion that deadly interpersonal violence is somehow normal and is to be expected anywhere and everywhere. Of course, this is not true. by Thomas Meisenhelder VIEW ALL OPINION Call 207.775.0488 to donate by phone or mail a check to: Common Dreams, PO Box 443, Portland, ME 04112, United States Common Dreams is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Your contribution is tax-deductible. EIN: 20-3368194