President Obama’s Memorial Day Message Honors the Fallen

How To Help Our Troops This Memorial Day

Note: Want to help our troops this Memorial Day? VoteVets has a way you can help …

For weeks now, we’ve watched oil gush into the Gulf of Mexico. But, did you know that over 11,000 National Guardsmen have been sent to clean it up? 11,000 men and women that signed up to protect America, not clean up an oil company’s mess. Well, we’ve got a $1.5 million ad campaign making that point, and making clear that only by clean energy reform can we get off this addiction to oil that has us drilling so much, and so close to the shoreline.

The new ad features a veteran of the Louisiana National Guard, who served in the clean up effort. In the ad, he says, “When I signed on with the National Guard, I did it to help protect America from our enemies… Not to clean up an oil company’s mess here in the Gulf of Mexico… But America needs a new mission. Because whether it’s deep-drilling oil out here, or spending a billion dollars a day on oil from our enemies overseas, our dependence on oil is threatening our national security.”

By passing a clean energy plan, we can cut our foreign oil dependence in half, invest billions in new energy technologies, and set up new rules that govern off-shore drilling. That’s a fight worth taking on.

Memorial Day Honors Generations Who Served and Serve Our Nation

Across our country and around the world Americans will take time out on Memorial Day to honor generations of men and women who lost their lives in service to our nation. We will also remember and thank those serving in our Armed Forces today.

DNC Chair Tim Kaine Video Update

Happy Mothers Day!

Note: I hope every mother enjoys this special day … check out this video of our  First Lady, Michelle Obama welcoming special guests to the White House for an event honoring mothers and daughters everywhere …

Senator Jim Webb Pushes Legislation On Taxpayer Fairness

FYI: Webb to Offer his Amendment to Tax Excessive Corporate Bonuses During Financial Regulation Debate

Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) plans to reintroduce his Taxpayer Fairness Act as an amendment to the financial reform bill, S. 3217.  “During this debate on financial regulation, nothing seems more fair or appropriate than to make the American taxpayers whole after they infused our financial markets with capital in 2008 and saw them to recovery,” said Webb.

Webb’s measure, which he first introduced with Senator Boxer in February and again as an amendment to the tax extenders bill in March, puts a one-time windfall tax on bonuses paid in 2010 to executives of financial institutions that received $5 billion or more of taxpayer support under the TARP (Troubled Assets Relief Program) or the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008.  CBO conservatively estimates that this amendment will raise at least $3.5 billion, revealing the enormous bonuses handed out by the 13 institutions that received the largest bailouts.

“Our political leaders should have the fortitude to require that excessive bonuses from these companies be repaid to the American people,” said Webb. “It is a targeted, sensible approach to ensure that the taxpayers who made possible the success of the biggest financial institutions benefit from that success—not just the executives of those institutions.”

Webb’s amendment, which has the support of Senators Boxer, Durbin, Murray, Lincoln, and Sanders, will place a one-time, 50 percent excise tax on bonuses above $400,000 paid to individuals working for institutions that received at least $5 billion in taxpayer bailouts. Webb does not favor recurring taxes on windfall profits.

Said Webb: “This situation is different than most. The risks were mitigated, if not eliminated. There is no risk or inventiveness to reward. These executives got lucky, to the exact degree that our middle-class taxpayers got the shaft.”