(Welcome back Representative! – promoted by Bob Brigham)

We have a problem with our economy. The raw numbers say the economic pie is growing, but the larger pieces are all going to a small minority of Americans — meaning that for most Americans, wages are barely keeping pace with inflation.

We see this rising income inequality clearly in recent IRS data, which show that the share of income going to the wealthiest Americans is the highest it has been since before the Great Depression. To pick but one example of this disturbing trend, last year the average CEO made more in one day than the average worker made over the entire year.

Clearly, it's time to reconnect the economic fortunes of front-line workers to those of their CEO's — who are commonly making making tens of millions of dollars annually — by cutting off tax subsidies for these enormous compensation packages if they are more than 25 times the salary of the lowest paid worker in the company.

When the economy is growing and the only people who are benefiting are the wealthiest among us, we have a problem with our priorities.

When the share of income going to the wealthiest Americans is growing, and the number of people living in poverty is rising as well, we have a problem with our priorities.

When issues like income inequality and poverty are not part of our national political debate, we have a problem with our priorities.

It is time to finally put to rest the ridiculous idea that if we just take care of the wealthy then the rest of the economy will take care of itself. The evidence is overwhelming: it is just not true.

That's why I have introduced new legislation designed to fight income inequality in America starting at the top: by reconnecting the economic fortunes of those in the executive suite with those of their frontline employees.

My bill, the Income Equity Act of 2007, is a simple, common sense piece of legislation that would limit the amount of executive compensation corporations can deduct as a legitimate business expense to 25 times the pay of a company's lowest paid worker.

It's not the government's job to tell corporations what they can pay their executives, but American taxpayers have the right to choose whether or not to subsidize these out of control executive salaries. If a corporation chooses to provide compensation packages that are disconnected from the wages of average workers, then I believe we should have a say over how much of that compensation is tax deductible.

If you'd like to help us build support for this legislation in Congress, you can click here to email your Representative today.

While this particular driver of income inequality can be slowed through specific legislation, it speaks to a larger trend that will require comprehensive changes to fully address. In short, the basic assumptions of the Bush “ownership society” have been shown to be bankrupt: the culture of individualism; the conviction that people who aren't getting ahead “just aren't trying”; the belief that government's only responsibility is to protect business and the wealthy, and the rest will magically take care of itself — these ideas are not just unsustainable, but fundamentally at odds with the sense of collective responsibility that is a core part of who we are as a nation.

On a very basic level, we understand that our fates — rich and poor alike — are ultimately connected.  I believe that we should aspire as a nation to be judged not by how well we do by the wealthy, but rather, in the words of gospel, by how we treat “the least of these.”

I hope that this legislation is something that will start a conversation about the best way to address widening inequality here at home, and best wishes to everyone for a wonderful Thanksgiving!

(Absolutely! – promoted by Lucas O’Connor)

Cross-posted at my DailyKos diary

As many of you may know, just over six years ago I cast the lone vote against giving George Bush an unchecked authority to wage an undefined war against an undefined enemy for an unspecified period of time, an authority his administration has invoked in going into Iraq, in the establishment of military tribunals, even in conducting warrantless surveillance of Americans.

Thankfully, today I am no longer a lone voice, as evidenced in no small part by vibrant communities like this one. The majority of Americans want to end the occupation of Iraq and bring our troops home, but despite the fact that George Bush refuses to change course in Iraq, Congress has not taken the necessary steps to end his administration’s failed policy.

So how do we change this?

With the emergency supplemental debate looming (the precise date is still unclear), it is critical that we lay the groundwork beforehand to ensure our momentum heading into the debate.

To that end, I have joined with my fellow co-chairs of the Out-of-Iraq caucus, Reps. Lynn Woolsey and Maxine Waters, in writing to President Bush to tell him that when Congress takes up the next emergency supplemental for Iraq, we will not provide another dime for his failed policy. Our letter makes it clear that the only funding that we would vote for is funding to protect our troops and contractors and bring them home, and 77 other Representatives have already joined us in signing this letter.

This is what we call “Fully Funding Redeployment,” and while we’re off to a strong start with 80 signers, we are trying to reach 100 by the end of the month to put us on strong footing for the coming debate.

But we’ll need your help to get there. You can see a list of current signers here, and if your Representative is not on the list I hope that you’ll click here to email your Representative and urge them to sign on to the Lee Letter. And if your Representative has already signed the letter, then you can still click here to invite friends and family that live in a different district to email their Congressman.

The coming debate on the emergency supplemental promises to be among the most important we’ve seen in Congress in decades, and I can’t thank you enough for the amazing effort you are putting in towards ending President Bush’s failed policy in Iraq — both here, on your own blogs, and in your own communities.