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Keith Ellison

Rep. Keith Ellison Introduces Bill To Tax Wall Street Transactions

Ellison introducing his bill today.

Six years ago, Wall Street’s misdeeds led to a global recession that plunged over 60 million people into poverty worldwide. Since then, the Big Banks and their profits have only grown.

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), the co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, today introduced legislation to make Wall Street pay America back. The “Inclusive Prosperity Act” would tax the following financial transactions in the following ways:

A 0.5 percent tax rate on stocksAi??
A 0.1 percent tax rate on bondsAi??
A 0.005 percent tax rate on derivatives or other investmentsAi??

Additionally, the bill would provideAi??an offset for households with incomes below $75,000 a year and individuals whose incomes are $50,000 or less.

ai???A lot of people in Washington like to talk about reducing the debt and deficits. Well if you really care about reducing the deficit, how about asking Wall Street speculators to pay their fair share?ai??? Ellison said in a released statement. ai???This bill will add a tax of a fraction of a percent on transactions made by the same Wall Street firms and stock traders who crashed our economy in 2008. This tax alone will generate up to $300 billion a year in revenue, stabilizing the deficit and allowing us to invest in the things that matterai??i??education, roads and bridges, and health care for our seniors and veterans.ai???

 

REPORT: Sean Hannity And Fox News’s History Of Anti-Muslim And Racial Incitement

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 …

Congressman Keith Ellison: With Plan B Defeated, Any Deal Needs Progressives To Pass

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN)

Following the failure of the House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-OH) “Plan B,” it’s clear that any plan that passes the House will not be able to pass with only Republican support.

Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) made this clear in a statement that re-iterated that House Progressives have leverage and should use it: “With Republicans in Congress unable to even ask millionaires to pay their fair share, any agreement to meet our year-end deadlines will now need the support of progressives to pass.”

Recall that Congressional Progressive CaucusAi??released a statement earlier this week saying that they will believe that “Social Security to chained CPI is a benefit cut and members of the CPC will not vote for a deal that cuts the benefits that millions of Americans rely on.”

We set up an ActBlue page to highlight and reward bold progressive members of Congress who are speaking out publicly today.Ai??Check them out and donate $3 to them here.

Click hereAi??to pledge to hold any Democrat who agrees to a deal that cuts Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits accountable.

Click hereAi??to call your Member of Congress and demand that they oppose this bad deal.

Congressman Keith Ellison: ‘We Will Not Be Voting For Any Cuts’ To Social Security Benefits

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN)

There are now multiple press reports that President Obama will agree to a fiscal deal that enacts a so-called ai???Chained CPIai??? to calculate Social Security and veteransai??i?? benefits. Under this plan, beneficiaries would get cuts in their cost of living adjustments.Ai??Outraged Congressional DemocratsAi??have been speaking out for days against these cuts. A defiant Congressional Progressive Caucus — with 75 Members in the House — vowed to vote against such a deal, calling it a definite “benefit cut.”

During an interview on The Young Turks’ Cenk UygurAi??last night, Progressive Caucus Co-Chair Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) reiterated his opposition to chained CPI and benefit cuts, saying that his caucus will not vote for a deal that has them:

ELLISON: Well the first thing that we can do is to let them know that we will not be voting for any cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. We’ve already fired off a whole number of missives on that exact point, we’re making our position very clear, we’re organizing caucus members, we’ve got a letter with 102 people on it, saying that we will not vote for anything that cuts Social Security, communicating that to our leadership and the White House. We’re firm on that. We’re talking internally to make sure the people are going to stay strong. And that’s what we’re doing, we’re letting folks know where we stand so they can go back and recalculate and come up with something else. Because we’re not going to solve these fiscal problems of the backs of the seniors, of the disabled, of the survivors.

Watch it:

There has been intense unity among progressive organizations on this point of opposing a deal that cuts Social Security benefits. The AFL-CIO said Congress should ai???reject any cuts to …

ROLL CALL: Colleagues, Family, Friends Celebrate Legacy of Paul Wellstone

On the eve of today’s 10th anniversary of the death of Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.), family, friends, former Congressional colleagues and average Americans who were touched by Wellstone’s work gathered on a conference call to share their memories of one of the icons of the progressive movement, vowing to continue to champion the causes he fought so hard for… This is a person who understood his moral compass,” Progressive Change Campaign Committee Co-Founder Adam Green said on the call. “And even when he was an isolated voice in an out of touch Senate, he voted his conscience and was very much the tip of a spear of an entire movement across this country.”