Newsflash:
House debates $20.5 billion cuts to food stamps Tuesday afternoon marked the beginning of the general floor debate for the 2013 House farm bill, which includes $20.5 billion in cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), more commonly known as the food stamps program.  Read the Full Story
Former Obama Campaign Staffers Protest Keystone XL Pipeline Read more: Former Obama Campaign Staffers Protest Keystone XL Pipeline Elijah Zarlin, who worked as a senior email writer at Obama campaign headquarters in 2008, was back in Chicago yesterday—in the First Precinct jail, following a peaceful sit-in in protest of the Keystone XL pipeline. Read the Full Story
Medical Debt: A Curable Affliction Health Reform Won’t Fix Millions of Americans are deep in medical debt. Unfortunately, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will throw a lifeline to very few. According to the Congressional Budget Office, even after health reform is fully implemented in 2014, 30 million to 36 million people will remain uninsured. Read the Full Story
Message to Congress: Immigrants Pay More Than Their 'Fair Share' of Medicare Immigrants don’t just pick our fruit, deliver our take-out food and design our computers — they pay for our medical care. Read the Full Story
Alan Grayson On Trans-Pacific Partnership: Obama Secrecy Hides 'Assault On Democratic Government' WASHINGTON -- Progressive Democrats in Congress are ramping up pressure on the Obama administration to release the text of Trans-Pacific Partnership, a secretive free trade agreement with 10 other nations, amid intensifying controversy over the administration's transparency record and its treatment of classified information. Read the Full Story
Activists Protest Possible Cuts To Food Stamps Activists held a series of demonstrations across the country today to call on influential Democratic members of Congress to prevent cuts to the food stamp program.  One of the demonstrations was in Springfield, Massachusetts. Read the Full Story
Barbara Lee: AUMF Was Wrong in 2001, and It's Wrong Now A renewed debate of the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force is long overdue. I was the only member of Congress to vote against the authorization when it came to the House floor in 2001 after the horrific events of September 11th, and I have been pushing for its repeal ever since. Read the Full Story
The War on Terror Has Not Made Us Safer Two days after the horrific attacks of September 11, 2001, I was sitting in front of my institute's office around the corner from the White House. We had just been evacuated again. Read the Full Story
Congress Checks and Balances on Afghanistan—Will It Do So With Syria? The US House of Representatives took an important step last week toward the restoration of the separation of powers that was established so that Congress would check and balance presidential war-making. Read the Full Story
Dems Press Neal on SNAP Cuts Next week, the U.S. House will take up the federal farm bill, which includes potentially devastating cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP (the program once known as food stamps). Read the Full Story
House Overwhelmingly Votes to Speed Afghan Withdrawal By a 305-121 margin, the House of Representatives voted to accelerate US troop withdrawals from Afghanistan by the end of 2013, to strike previous language supporting a post-2014 US military presence, and insisting that any such presence be authorized by Congress by June 2014.  Read the Full Story
Congresswoman Barbara Lee Hails Passage of Amendments Supporting Ending War in Afghanistan, Modernizing Discriminatory HIV Laws Washington, D.C.— Today, Congresswoman Barbara Lee released the following statement on the passage of two amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act on the floor of the House: Read the Full Story
image House debates $20.5 billion cuts to food stamps
image Former Obama Campaign Staffers Protest Keystone XL Pipeline Read more: Former Obama Campaign Staffers Protest Keystone XL Pipeline
image Medical Debt: A Curable Affliction Health Reform Won’t Fix
image Message to Congress: Immigrants Pay More Than Their 'Fair Share' of Medicare
image Alan Grayson On Trans-Pacific Partnership: Obama Secrecy Hides 'Assault On Democratic Government'
image Activists Protest Possible Cuts To Food Stamps
image Barbara Lee: AUMF Was Wrong in 2001, and It's Wrong Now
image The War on Terror Has Not Made Us Safer
image Congress Checks and Balances on Afghanistan—Will It Do So With Syria?
image Dems Press Neal on SNAP Cuts
image House Overwhelmingly Votes to Speed Afghan Withdrawal
image Congresswoman Barbara Lee Hails Passage of Amendments Supporting Ending War in Afghanistan, Modernizing Discriminatory HIV Laws
Friday, 01 February 2013 20:05

Jim McGovern's Constitutional Amendments To Repeal Citizens United Gain Steam On Reddit (VIDEO)

Written by  John Stephens | Huffington Post
Jim McGovern's Constitutional Amendments To Repeal Citizens United Gain Steam On Reddit (VIDEO)

Democratic Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern last Tuesday proposed two Constitutional amendments on the House floor that would overturn the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, which lifted limits on political spending and unleashed a flood of funding into political organizations starting in 2010.

Speaking with HuffPost Live on Wednesday, McGovern said his two amendments received an outpouring of attention after his staff posted them on the social media site Reddit.

"We're trying to reach out in different ways to communicate with people and posting it on Reddit was suggested to me by my staff as a way to reach a whole new audience," McGovern told HuffPost Live's Jacob Soboroff. "We did it and the response was incredible -- we've gotten calls from all over the country."

McGovern's first proposed amendment would tackle campaign finance reform, while the second would overturn Citizens United outright.

From McGovern's press release announcing the proposed amendments:

The first amendment, HJ Res 20, advances the fundamental principle of political equality for all by empowering Congress and the States to regulate political spending. It will allow Congress to pass campaign finance reform legislation that will withstand Constitutional challenges.

The second amendment, HJ Res 21 , would overturn Citizens United and put a stop to the growing trend of corporations claiming first amendment rights. This “People’s Rights Amendment” not only addresses corporate rights as they pertain to campaign finance, but is broader in scope to clarify that corporations are not people with Constitutional rights. Importantly, the amendment clearly protects the people’s rights of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, free exercise of religion, freedom of association, and all other such rights of the people.

Watch the Full Interview on HuffPost Live.

Link to original article on Huffington Post

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