I apologize for jumping back into the fray so late this week. I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!
Action Items to choose from (or do all of them: your choice!) Scroll down to the matching number of your option:
- Push for the impeachment and removal from office of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth
- Keep pushing for an extension of the ACA tax credits
- Oppose the Trump administration’s dismantling of the Department of Education and its vital programs and workforce
- Sign a petition to keep our air safe from fine-particle pollution
- Have a copy of the constitution sent to a congressmember in your name
- Don’t let our representatives in Congress think we’ve forgotten or no longer care about the Epstein files
Reminder: When you call vs when you email via our reps’ websites (best way to contact them in writing), don’t forget to begin with: “Hi, my name is [name] and I’m a constituent calling from [zip code]. That is important, because if they don’t know you’re actually a constituent, your opinion will be ignored.
Contact info: Angus King
DC: (202) 224-5344
Augusta: (207) 622-8292
Susan Collins
DC: (202) 224-2523
Augusta: (207) 622-8414
Bangor: (207) 945-0417
Chellie Pingree
DC: (202) 225-6116
Portland: (207) 774-5019
Waterville: (207) 873-5713
Jared Golden
DC: (202) 225-6306
Bangor: (207) 249-7400
Caribou: (207) 492-6009
Lewiston: (207) 241-6767
Find your State Representative:
By name: Here
By district: Here
(Please note that for those of you receiving this email who are not represented by Senators or House members in our district, I have to leave it up to you to find the contact info for your own representatives.)
Actions
1) Push for the impeachment and removal from office of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth:
It’s beyond unacceptable to have a Secretary of Defense who rejects the Geneva Conventions and orders war crimes. Trump’s Teflon seems to have protected Hegseth against any real blowback from Signalgate, his demands for loyalty oaths from journalists, and every other ridiculous thing he’s done, but his excitement about killing is seriously sick and cannot be ignored. Senator Mark Kelly, whose death for “sedition” both Trump and Hegseth have demanded, gets right to the point: https://newrepublic.com/post/203827/mark-kelly-pete-hegseth-donald-trump-playing-army
Contact Senators King and Collins and Congressman Golden to call for impeachment proceedings on Hegseth. (Hakeem Jeffries has said the House Dems will NOT pursue impeachment against Hegseth because there’s zero chance it would pass with Republicans in charge, even if it were to make it to the floor, which he is sure it won’t. I think we can still ask Jared Golden to speak up about and get involved with any and all ways to make clear to America that Hegseth is massively unqualified for the job.)
Related: Urge Jared Golden to support the No Unauthorized Force in Venezuela Act, which would prohibit the executive branch from spending any federal funds on the use of military inside Venezuela or against Venezuelan forces, including remote or intermittent strikes, unless Congress passes a specific Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF).
2) Keep pushing for an extension of the ACA tax credits:
Remember how the Democrats in the Senate allowed the shutdown to end by giving up on their demand for an extension of the ACA tax credits and accepting, instead, the promise of a vote on the subject? That vote looks like it could happen next week, and given the way the GOP members of Congress freaked out at Trump’s plan to extend those credits for 2 years, they seem pretty determined to stick with their own plans to continue screwing their own constituents out of affordable health insurance. Almost everyone wants—needs—those credits extended: Without those subsidies, millions of Americans will face financial or health disaster—or both—and the resulting diminished market will raise costs further for everyone else, possibly even collapsing the entire healthcare system in this country.
Contact Senators King and Collins and make sure they know you want those tax credits extended. Susan Collins has called the extension of these credits a “poison pill,” so we know she’s not planning to vote for it. Let her know this is a slap in the face to all her constituents who will be directly affected by her obvious lack of compassion.
On the House side, Hakeem Jeffries has introduced a discharge petition to force a vote in the House on a bill to extend the ACA premium tax credits by three years. Contact Congressman Golden to thank him for signing on to this discharge petition and urge him to keep fighting for affordable healthcare for Mainers.
3) Oppose the Trump administration’s dismantling of the Department of Education and its vital programs and workforce:
Another nasty measure sneaked into the One Big Disgusting Bill now coming to light: The hugely diminished Department of Education now programmed to eat its own tail and consume itself entirely has announced changes to the degrees that are considered “professional.” Whether a degree is considered “professional” will influence how much reimbursement a student receives for their higher education and decrease the student loan caps for these degree programs.
Not included in the newly proposed list of professional degrees are nursing, physician assistants, physical therapists, educators, social workers, audiologists, architects, and accountants.
This is absurd. As those of us in rural parts of the country already know, we need more well-trained professionals, not fewer. Our state—really, most of our country—is already experiencing a decline in healthcare providers, teachers, social workers, etc. This is a complicated issue with many varied and valid explanations, but the bottom line is that adding to the problem is not a reasonable response. It will help no one to make it harder for less-wealthy but smart and talented students to train for these high-demand professions.
Contact Senators King and Collins and Congressman Golden to make sure they know that we know about this development and are outraged by it. We need our representatives to push back against these revised qualifications and limits to related student loans. I’m sure solving the overall problem will take some thinking out of the box, but preventing more people from being able to study for high-demand jobs is not the way to change things for the better. If you have any personal stories related to this issue, from your own experience or that of family or friends, share them. That’s one of the best ways to reach whatever these politicians might have left of their heartstrings.
4) Sign a petition to keep our air safe from fine-particle pollution:
The Trump administration just announced it will abandon a critical rule that strengthened limits on deadly fine-particle pollution (PM2.5) — a move scientists warn will lead to dirtier air, more asthma attacks, more heart and lung disease, and thousands of preventable deaths. Petitions aren’t a great way to affect government behavior, but they’re better than nothing and are easy to sign. https://civicshout.com/p/tell-the-epa-no-backsliding-on-clean-air-and-climate/
5) Have a copy of the constitution sent to a congressmember in your name:
https://www.defiance.org/swag/p/constitutions-for-congress
6) Don’t let our representatives in Congress think we’ve forgotten or no longer care about the Epstein files:
Yours in Civic Action,
Bold Coast Civic Alliance
