The right to vote is under attack. From discriminatory “voter ID” laws to inconsistent and unequal provision ballot counting techniques, many voters around the country — especially those from low-income or minority backgrounds who are most targeted by voter suppression — are asking whether they even have this right anymore.

To rectify this, freshman congressman Mark Pocan (D-WI) along with fellow congressman Keith Ellison (D-MN) has introduced a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to a vote. It reads simply as follows:

SECTION 1: Every citizen of the United States, who is of legal voting age, shall have the fundamental right to vote in any public election held in the jurisdiction in which the citizen resides.

SECTION 2: Congress shall have the power to enforce and implement this article by appropriate legislation.

Want to support this proposed amendment? Call the Congressional Switchboard atAi??(202) 224-3121 and ask your Member of Congress to support the Pocan-Ellison amendment to the Constitution guaranteeing the right to vote.

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Last night, almost a hundred Montanans attended anAi??early organizing meet-up in Missoula. Among the attendees were progressive Democratic State Representative Ellie Hill,Ai??Pat Noonan, Bryce Bennet, and former Democratic congressman Pat Williams.

The gathering attracted the support of 75 additional Montanans, who signed a petition in support of a Schweitzer run for Senate. Additionally, the house party raised over $1059 to put towards Schweitzer’s run that he would get on day one of his campaign.

Here are some pictures from the event:

Click here to join our Draft BrianAi??SchweitzerAi??for Senate campaign.

(OrAi??donate $3 that Brian will receive on Day OneAi??of his campaign, so he can hit the ground running.)

Jason Furman

Bloomberg reported late yesterday that President Obama plans to nominate Harvard economist Jason Furman as his next head of his Council of Economic Advisers.

This would be very bad news for progressives because of Furman’s advocacy for right-wing policies. Here’s five reasons why Furman shouldn’t be Obama’s top economic adviser:

He’s An Advocate Of Job-Killing “Free Trade” Deals:Ai??In an article in the Harvard Law & Policy Review, Furman criticized the growing opposition to so-called free trade deals — which have trade rules rigged in favor of big corporations and do not actually enact unfettered trade. He criticized this oppositionAi??as a “serious threat to our economic well-being” and offered support for more job-killing trade agreements with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea (those agreements are expected to cost the United States over 200,000 jobs).
He Supports Wal-Mart’s Anti-Worker Practices: Ai??Furman wrote an article calling Wal-Mart a “progressive success story,” and praised the “progressive benefits of everyday low prices” — which are subsidized by the low wages of not only its American workforce but Chinese workers in factories earning as little as $120 a month. He said that the”mere fact that more than 1.3 million Americans work at Wal-Mart demonstrates thatAi??its compensation is at least as good as the alternatives” — despite the fact data shows that the company’s workers earn “12.4% less than retail workers as a whole and 13% less than large retail workers in general.”Ai??He dismissed criticism from progressives, saying, “Some have pointed to Costco (which has higher wages and more generous benefits), Ai??arguing that if Wal-Mart were more generous with its employees it would do better at attracting, Ai??motivating, and retaining them, increasing its total profits. I have no ability to judge whether or Ai??not this is true, …

The past six months has seen numerous one-day strikes by fast food workers across the country, in cities like Chicago, New York City, and Detroit. The point of these strikes is to draw attention to the low wages and little to no benefits that fast food and other retail workers receive.

Today, this strike wave hits Seattle, as workers at dozens of stores have started walking out.Ai??ai???Iai??i??m sick of seeing my co-workers and me essentially get pushed and pushed and barely be able to eat,” saidAi??Taco Bell employee Caroline Durocher to labor journalist Josh Eidelson. “And I think itai??i??s time that we pushed them back.ai???

Activists on the ground are taking pictures from the scenes of the strikes. Here’s a sampling:

Crowd chanting “we’ve got your back” (photo credit: @Molly_O)

Qdoba workers (photo credit: @GoodJobsSeattle)

Sign outside of a Taco Bell. (photo credit: @RaiseupMKE)

Arby’s workers on strike (photo credit: @Molly_O)

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Late last year, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) held a seven day strike that won more money for arts and music education, more compensation, funding for supplies and textbooks, among other concessions.

As the CTU strike was occurring, some commentators and Mayor Rahm Emanuel claimed that it would harm kids because it reduced the number of days they were in school. But if students were harmed, it certainly isn’t showing in graduation rates released today. Chicago Public Schools announced that it had record graduation rates this year, with 63 percent of high school students graduating. That’s up five percent from the 2010-2011 school year.

Unfortunately public education continues to face hurdles in Chicago — as the city moves ahead with plans to close almost fifty public schools. Check out our friends at Progress Illinois for updates on the continuing movement against the school closures.

You should follow BoldProgressives on Twitter here.

The Draft Brian Schweitzer for Senate campaign has set its first Missoula organizing meet-up for 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the Montgomery Distillery in downtown Missoula. Members of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee in Montana and nationally launched the effort after Baucus announced last month that he would retire from the Senate. The committee said more than 18,000 people nationally have urged Schweitzer to run at DraftSchweitzer.com.

Since news broke that the IRS inappropriately audited a variety of grassroots tea party groups, Congress has started a number of investigations aimed at figuring out why the agency engaged in this behavior.

But a bigger question is, why did the IRS target such small, mostly grassroots organizations for audits and ignore massive political players? As the Conservative Intel’s David Freddoso points out, the median income of the groups targeted by the IRS was $16,700.

While the IRS was looking at groups with such a small budget, it ignored the groups with the most money. Here’s the top 3 501(c)(4)s from election 2012:

Crossroads GPS: Karl Rove’s dark money organization spent more than $70 million in election 2012, all of it undisclosed.

Americans For Prosperity:Ai??This Koch Brothers-founded organization spent over $33 million, mostly to attack Obama. It can be assumed much of this money came from the Kochs, but we actually have no idea where it came from exactly because it is not required to be disclosed.

American Future Fund: This pro-Romney group spent nearly $24 million, not a penny of it disclosed to the public.

Following the IRS revelations, there have been calls on capitol hill for increased scrutiny of how IRS grants social welfare tax status to groups. Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) said that “we need to examine the root of this issue and reform the nationai??i??s vague 501(c)(4) tax laws,” and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) complained that “the lines blurred between [political organizations] and 501(c)(4), and [the IRS has not seemed] to have done anything about it.”

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Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and David Vitter (R-LA) have introduced legislation that would lay the groundwork for breaking up the biggest banks — a cause Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has been fighting for since she took office.

To understand why this legislation is so important even though Congress already passed into law a financial reform bill, recall that the biggest so-called “too big to fail” banks on Wall Street are now actually bigger than they were during the financial crisis where they were bailed out.

Neil Barofsky, a New York University academic who served as the watchdog for the Trouble Asset Relief Program (the bank bailout), appeared on CNN last fall and explained how the banks are bigger than ever and that they continue to believe they’ll be bailed out if they fail:

BAROFSKY: If you just look at the map, the fact is the banks are 20 to 25 percent bigger than they were before the crisis. And that we haven’t changed the incentives. The way the incentives are “too big to fail” because of the presumption of bailout is it drives these institutions into taking more and more bigger and bigger risks. Again, the presumptions are they’ll keep the profits, and the taxpayers will eat the losses.

Watch it:

Weai??i??re launching a campaign to pass the Brown-Vitter bill that would break up the Big Banks. Click here to join.

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As we wrote in March, the city of Chicago unveiled plans two months ago to close over 50 schools, mostly in the poorest areas.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan has sparked fierce protests, with thousands of protesters hitting the streets last weekend to oppose the school closures –arguing that they would put children at risk by having to travel further to overcrowded schools.

But while the city insists it must close these schools to close budget gaps, it has just announced that it will be dedicated as much as $100 million in public funds for the construction of a new basketball arena at DePaul University — which is about a third of the cost of the project.

Emanuel justified such a large public investment by saying that building the arena and surrounding event center will bring “huge opportunity” to the city of Chicago in the way that it would attract business and tourists.

This statement came at around the same time the Board of Education — despite desperate pleas from city residents as, Progress Illinois documents here — voted in favor of the mayor’s plan to shutter 50 schools. The Board, it should be noted, is not elected like it is in some municipalities. It was appointed by Mayor Emanuel.

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Yesterday, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) aggressively questioned Treasury Secretary Jack Lew about efforts to break up so-called “too big to fail” banks. She noted that under the previous Treasury Secretary, the administration failed to support a Senate amendment to break up these banks.

She then probed Lew about if he would support such efforts.

LEW: I think we’re on a path now which is the right path, which is to implement Dodd-Frank and then to take stock when we’re done implementing Dodd-Frank. […]

WARREN: Ai??The question is though, Secretary Lew, this is about concentration. We all said back in 2009, 2009, the problem that caused the financial crash in part was concentration in the banking industry. And what do we see now? We see more concentration. […] How big do the biggest banks have to get before we consider breaking them up? They’re thirty percent larger now than they were five years ago. Do they have to double in size? Triple in size? Quadruple in size, before we talk about breaking up the biggest financial institutions? […]

LEW: There are many things going on and I’m not trying to avoid addressing the question of “too big to fail,” I’m trying to address quite clearly that that’s an unacceptable policy. But I think we have to take in account all the factors that together add up to systemic risk.

WARREN: Fair enough, Mr. Lew, Secretary Lew. But I really think the evidence suggests that concentration is one of those factors. And that when we see the largest financial institutions getting bigger and bigger, it tells us we are not clearly on the path to resolving “too big to fail.”

Watch it:

We’re launching a campaign to pass the bipartisan Brown-Vitter bill that would break up …

As Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has said, the nation’s biggest banks have essentially gained “too big for trial” status, and the federal government has failed to prosecute any executive at a Big Bank for financial fraud.

While Wall Street has escaped prosecutions, thousands of Americans have been arrested in the course of protests against the banks. Yesterday, at protests at the Department of Justice, at least 17 Americans were arrested — and there were more arrests today. In October 2011, one month after the start of Occupy Wall Street, at least 1,000 Americans had been arrested in these protests. As of May 2013, that number is 7,736 — according to the website Occupy Arrests, which tracks arrests.

Help us stand with these protesters.Ai??Click here to sign our petition to the Securities and Exchange Commission asking it to end ai???too big for trial.ai???

This afternoon, dozens of homeowners who have faced abuses by Big Banks rallied outside the Department of Justice (DOJ) in Washington, D.C. They demanded that the agency finally prosecute Wall Street banks who have become, as Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has said, “too big for trial.”

The march, consisting of well over a hundred demonstrators, started at Washington, D.C.’s Freedom Plaza. The marchers came from as far as Portland, Oregon, and large contingents came from cities plagued with foreclosures, such as Atlanta and New York City.

“We’re really excited over the last two and a half days we’ve had residents from around the country who’ve lost their homes or who are fighting to save their homes, come together toAi??commitAi??to training for change, to bring the movement back to their community, to keepAi??fightingAi??for their homes, and also to risk arrest today as we march to the DOJ and refuse to leave until we get a meeting with Eric Holder, until we get aAi??commitmentAi??that he’s going to start going after banks,” said Tim Franzen, who works for the quaker social justice group American Friends Service Committee. “And it’s not just about jailing bankers, it’s about bringing resources back into our communities. Wealth that has been stolen. Trillions of dollars of wealth has been stolen from our neighborhoods and you can just drive through them and see the consequences. The boarded up homes. People on the street. We are not on a crisis of economic resources, it’s one of priorities. And that’s what we’re here to say today.”

The demonstrators marched to the Department of Justice, where they rallied outside the main entrance. At that entrance, several police armed with pepper guns and other crowd control weapons at first pushed the demonstrators back, …

Ai??Progressive Change Campaign Committee co-founder Adam Green was on MSNBCai??i??s The Ed Show yesterday, and part of what he discussed was the organization’s Draft Brian Schweitzer campaign. Schultz asked Green what the main difference between Schweitzer and current Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) would be. Green explained how he would have a game-changing presence in the Senate and be a bold economic populist:

GREEN: Brian Schweitzer, if he decides to run for Senate, which he’s considering, would be an absolute game changer. He is kind of a prairie populist, a farmer who ran for governor, got re-elected and just finished his second term. And his bedrock principle is standing up for the little guy against big corporate interests. That’s what he did as governor and he’s named people like Teddy Roosevelt and Paul Wellstone as his political icons. So we’re working with thousands of people across the state of Montana on a Draft Schweitzer movement.

SCHULTZ: Is he kind of the model Democrat in the middle of the country?

GREEN: He is absolutely the model Democrat. Particularly on economic populism issues. And to have someone from the perceived red state of Montana out there talking about trust busting, out there saying that the corporations own this government and we need to take it back again, will be a game changer. He will be an amazing partner to Elizabeth Warren.

Watch it:

The Draft Brian Schweitzer campaign has alsoAi??gotten local media coverage in the Missoula Independent:

ai???We look for game changers,ai??? Green told the Indy during one of several stops in western Montana early this week. ai???People who will both represent their state well and have a systemic impact on the culture of politics in Washington. Brian Schweitzerai??i??s authenticity and economic populism is something that the Democratic Party sorely needs …

Progressive Change Campaign Committee co-founder Adam Green was on MSNBC’s The Ed Show yesterday, explaining how Democrats shouldn’t embrace politically disastrous cuts to Social Security benefits and instead should follow the lead of Sens. Tom Harkin (D-IA) Mark Begich (D-AK) and talk about expanding benefits. Green also covered the growing Draft Brian Schweitzer campaign to get the former Montana Governor to run for Senate:

GREEN:Ai??In 2012, oneAi??presidentialAi??ticket explicitly ran on the idea of cutting social safety net programs like Social Security and Medicare, and that ticket was soundly defeated by Barack Obama. He does not have a mandate to cut Social Security benefits […] We’re actually getting ready to go on offense in the Senate, rallying around people like Tom Harkin from Iowa and Mark Begich from Alaska who are not only saying these cuts are on the table, they want to expand Social Security benefits. So it’s in the best interest of the Democratic Party not just to help millions of people right now, but to make sure their base comes out and that they don’t commit political suicide by supporting Social Security benefit cuts right now.

Watch Green’s appearance:

Call your Member of Congress and ask them to sign onto the Grayson-Takano letter vowing to vote against any cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security benefits.

Sign on as a citizen supporter of the Grayson-Takano letter.

PCCC’s Adam Green was a featured guest on MSNBC’s Ed Show on Sunday, May 19th. He discussed the Draft Brian Schweitzer campaign in Montana, and the efforts of progressives across the nation to protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits.

This week, PCCC co-founders Adam Green and Stephanie Taylor were in Montana. They personally informed Brian Schweitzer that thousands of people want him to run for U.S. Senate, and kicked off an on-the-ground effort to recruit others to the draft effort.

The Missoula Independent’sAi??Alex Sarkariassen wrote thisAi??great articleAi??covering this growing movement to Draft Brian Schweitzer for Senate:

Schweitzer:Ai??Drafting a “game changer”

Adam Green has been following Brian Schweitzer from afar for years. Even before he co-founded the Washington, D.C.-based Progressive Change Campaign Committee with former union organizer Stephanie Taylor in 2009, he saw Schweitzer as “an authentic guy who says what’s on his mind and generally stands up for the little guy.” Now Green and Taylor are trying to draw Schweitzer out of his post-gubernatorial life on Georgetown Lake and convince him to run for the U.S. Senate in 2014. They’re already primed to hand him $24,000 in contributions the moment he declares.

“We look for game changers,” Green told the Indy during one of several stops in western Montana early this week. “People who will both represent their state well and have a systemic impact on the culture of politics in Washington. Brian Schweitzer’s authenticity and economic populism is something that the Democratic Party sorely needs right now, and could have huge ripple effects across the nation if he has a bully pulpit in Washington, D.C.”

PCCC has collected 16,000 signatures from supporters of its “Draft Brian Schweitzer” campaign, and Green and Taylor have already talked directly to Schweitzer about their initiative. “They’re taking note,” Green says of those around the former governor, adding that mounting grassroots supportai??i??and the money raised so farai??i??could sweeten the pot as Schweitzer makes up his mind. …

PCCC has been successful before in recruiting winners. The organization convinced Sen. Elizabeth Warren …

With the resignation of the acting head of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) over a series of audits of conservative organizations, the agency is under intense public scrutiny. Ai??But this furor ignores little-noticed numbers released last month — they show that the IRS’s audits of wealthy taxpayers revealed massive tax-dodging by the richest Americans.

In 2012, the IRS ramped up its audits of wealthy taxpayers, and shockingly found a massive rate of under-paying taxes. It audited one in eight tax filers with incomes over $1 million, concluding that about 75 percent of these millionaires failed to pay the taxes they owed. Altogether, the agency collected an additional $4.8 billion in taxes from these taxpayers after the audits were conducted.

As the press and politicians look at the IRS’s conduct with regards to auditing political nonprofits, it’s important to remember that these audits can be a powerful tool for making sure that wealthy taxpayers are paying what is legally required of them. If last year’s numbers are any indication, increasing audits of wealthy taxpayers will reveal under-payment and help us raise the money needed to fund the government.

With the retirement of Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), Montanans have a chance to elect a real progressive — former. Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer. The Progressive Change Campaign Committee has spearheaded a “Draft Schweitzer” movement that held its first house party in Billings, Montana yesterday.

The event was held at the home ofAi??Hans and Deborah Abbey, and it is the beginning of a campaign that plans to recruit 500 volunteers, identify 5,000 supporters, and raise $50,000, which Schweitzer would get on day one of his campaign should he choose to run.

We talked to Barb Skelton, one of the organizers behind the event. Skelton has actually known the Schweitzers since she was a child, having grown up near their ranch. She’s worked in politics for 40 years, partly thanks to the influence ofAi??Kathleen Helen Schweitzer, Brian’s mother.

“I think he’d do what’s absolutely good for Montana,” she said, explaining her enthusiastic support for a run by Schweitzer. “I think he’s a real progressive thinker.”

She cited his work after leaving office as evidence that he’s committed to progressive, populist causes, saying she’s “glad he got involved in Stillwater Mines, saving 1,700 jobs there” — referring to an effort by Schweitzer to oust the leadership of a local mining company that was wasting money on foreign projects rather than domestic development.

Here’s are some pictures from the event last night:

Click here to join our Draft BrianAi??SchweitzerAi??for Senate campaign.

(OrAi??donate $3 that Brian will receive on Day OneAi??of his campaign, so he can hit the ground running.)

Adam Green has been following Brian Schweitzer from afar for years. Even before he co-founded the Washington, D.C.-based Progressive Change Campaign Committee with former union organizer Stephanie Taylor in 2009, he saw Schweitzer as ai???an authentic guy who says whatai??i??s on his mind and generally stands up for the little guy.ai??? Now Green and Taylor are trying to draw Schweitzer out of his post-gubernatorial life on Georgetown Lake and convince him to run for the U.S. Senate in 2014. Theyai??i??re already primed to hand him $24,000 in contributions the moment he declares.

ai???We look for game changers,ai??? Green told the Indy during one of several stops in western Montana early this week. ai???People who will both represent their state well and have a systemic impact on the culture of politics in Washington. Brian Schweitzerai??i??s authenticity and economic populism is something that the Democratic Party sorely needs right now, and could have huge ripple effects across the nation if he has a bully pulpit in Washington, D.C.ai???

As the provisions of the Affordable Care Act — referred to as Obamacare for short — begin to come online, congressional Republicans haveAi??continuedAi??to obsess over repealing the law altogether.

The New York Times looked into the numbers this morning and concluded that House Republicans have spent a whopping 15 percent of their time trying to repeal all or parts of the new health care law.

Republicans don’t seem to have any regret over the fact that repealing Obamacare has taken precedence over other issues, like jobs.

ai???Itai??i??s something that we wanted to move up on the list of priorities,ai??? said Representative Steve Scalise (R-LA) to the New York Times. ai???And Iai??i??m glad they listened to us.ai???

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Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR)

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) thinks its wrong that Big Banks get interest rates on their loans that are seven times lower than America’s students. That’s why she introduced a bill to make the rates exactly the same for one year.

Today, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) announced that he will be co-sponsoring Warren’s legislation, called the Bank On Student Loan Fairness Act:

Proud to cosponsor @senwarren‘s bill to give our students the same loan rates our biggest financial institutions get from the Fed

ai??i?? Senator Jeff Merkley (@SenJeffMerkley) May 14, 2013

Help us keep up the momentum.Ai??Weai??i??ve started a petition to support Warrenai??i??s bill. Click here to sign on and help us get started on ending the student debt crisis.

This past January, we reported on two Seattle high schools that were boycotting a particular standardized test — the Measure of Academic Progress (MAP) — saying that the focus on testing was crowding out time for teaching. “Weai??i??re not opposing any of the high-stakes testing that are kids are required to take. Weai??i??re only opposing this test, the MAP,” the testing coordinator for one of the schools told us.

The Seattle school district has just announcedAi??that it will not be administering the MAP next year thanks to the protests by teachers.

“Finally, educatorsai??i?? voices have been acknowledged,ai???Ai??saidAi??teacher Jesse Hagopian, who teaches at Garfield High, the site of the beginning of the test boycott. ai???This is a great moment in the movement for quality assessment.ai???

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On Saturday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) gave the commencement speech at Kentucky’s Murray State University. A group of students is opposed to McConnell’s address, pointing to his record voting against support for higher education. Recall that McConnell, for example, opposed a student loan overhaul that removed big banks as a middleman in federal student lending.

TheyAi??started a petition that has 913 signatures and held demonstrations on campus against the pick. I talked to Murray State senior andAi??politicalAi??science major Devin Griggs, one of the organizers against McConnell who is starting a new progressive student group called CORE — Campus Organization for Racer Empowerment (the Racer is the mascot of the school).

“McConnell’sAi??voting record is completely anti higher education, anti education in general,” explained Griggs in his opposition to McConnell’s commencement address. CORE not only campaigned against McConnell’s address, but will also work to change the Board of Regents policy in the future regarding speakers.

CORE will be asking every Board of Regents member to in the future make sure that no public official Democrat or Republican can be featured as a commencement speaker to ensure that the event is not politicized.

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Last week, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) introduced a bill that would guarantee that, for one year, the federal government would charge the same near-zero interest rates for student loans that it does now for Big Banks.

Warren’s bill has received praise from activists, and for good reason — student debt has become a crisis in the U.S. Here are five facts about that crisis:

Student Loan Debt Is Over $1 Trillion: As of last year, student loan debt exceeded a whopping $1 trillion. “Young consumers are shouldering much of the punishment in the form of substantial student-loan bills for doing exactly what they were told would be the key to a better life,” said Rohit Chopra of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau at the time.
Student Debt Has Surpassed Most Other Types Of Consumer Debt: As of 2010, student loan debt outstanding surpassed auto loans, credit cards, and revolving home-equity loans, as this graphic from the Wall Street Journal shows:Ai??
The Average Debt Burden Is Double What It Was In 2003: In 2003, the average student loan debt burden wasAi??$10,649. Now it’sAi??$20,326.
It’s Very Difficult To Discharge Student Debt Thanks To A 1976 Law:Ai??You can discharge various forms of debt by declaring bankruptcy such as credit card and auto loans. But in 1976,Ai??Congress passed a lawAi??to make it very difficult to discharge student loan debt under a similar process. Reps. Steve Cohen (D-TN) and Danny Davis (D-IL) have repeatedly introduced legislation to reverse the 1976 law.
It Wasn’t Always This Way: For many in today’s generation, student debt is a fact of life — a necessary burden to getting a college degree. But the situation wasn’t always so dire. In California, universities up until …

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) won’t commit to voting against benefit cuts.

40 Members of the House of Representatives have signed onto the Grayson-Takano letter promising to vote against any cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security benefits.

But one congressman who has not is Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA). Local Los Angeles resident Kim Kaufman attended a recent town hall event with him and asked him to sign the letter. This was his response, where he compared the Grayson-Takano letter to Washington lobbyist Grover Norquist’s anti-tax pledge:

I would not sign onto any letter that says under no circumstances would I vote for a bill that had that in it. It’s like the Republicans pledge they’ll never vote for tax increases. I don’t want to sign onto a pledge that under no circumstances will I ever do something. Ai??I’ll express my feelings not to do certainAi??things but I don’t want to make that kind of a pledge. I can see possibilities that some things thatAi??we don’t like may be in a final budget and that will get us a lot of things we do want. So I’m not going to sign an unequivocal pledge — for a bill maybe, but not against it.

Kaufman uploaded this video where she read off Waxman’s statement and offered her own response. “Taking a pledge not to cut Social Security is not like taking a pledge not to raise taxes on already rich people. One is a moral response in how to govern and one is not,” she says. Watch it:

Last month, Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) held a briefing call with PCCC members where he explained his own take on how the Grayson-Takano letter is very much not like the Norquist pledge:

“I had a reporter ask me recently ‘Is this just …