Help in a Bad Economy

from Friends Committee on National Legislation:

The US government is acting swiftly to keep wobbly financial giants from collapse, putting billions from the US Treasury at risk. This week, the federal government loaned $85 billion to American International Group, and earlier this month the government gave Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac $200 billion in loan guarantees.

Unfortunately, Congress has been slow to protect the people hit hardest by the economic meltdown.

High unemployment and low wages mean that many workers don't earn enough to put food on the table and to keep their families housed and safe.

DO SOMETHING! Congress talks about legislation to help the poor, but the House only plans to be in session for one more week before adjourning for the election. Before Congress leaves to campaign for re-election, urge your representative to do 3 things:

1. Expand the Child Tax Credit to reach 3 million additional children in low-income families and increase support for 10 million more.

2. Expand food stamp benefits to provide immediate help to low-income families and instantly stimulate the economy where food stamps are spent. Each $1 spent on food stamps improves local economies by $1.73.

3. Extend unemployment insurance for those who have been unable to find work in this failing economy. In August, the unemployment rate was 6.1 percent, the highest it's been in a decade.

Why do people need help now? It may be news to many of us that the economy has actually been growing in the past year - by 3.3 percent. But most people haven't benefited from this growth. The prime beneficiaries have been people whose incomes are in the top 1 percent in the United States. Between 2002 and 2006, the income of 99 percent of people in the United States rose by an average of 1 percent per year, while people in the top 1 percent saw their incomes rise by an average of 11 percent a year. For people already living on the edge, this means less food on the table, less money to pay for doctors visits, more difficulty paying the rent or mortgage, and less time with their kids because they are working harder.

Find out more about the Child Tax Credit.

Find out more about rising unemployment rates.

ALERT: Urge Override of Bush SCHIP Veto

George W. Bush's veto of SCHIP – the State Children's Health Insurance Program – prevents the provision of basic health coverage to nearly 4 million uninsured children in the United States.

On Thursday, October 18, the US House of Representatives will vote on overriding the President's veto of the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (H.R. 976). The Act would reauthorize SCHIP, while also improving the quality and efficiency of the entire health care system.

Background

SCHIP has significantly improved children's access to health care, and has made great strides in covering racial and ethnic minority children.

After the inception of SCHIP, the uninsured rate for African-American and Asian and Pacific Islander children dropped by half: from 20 to 12 percent and from 17 to 8 percent, respectively.

For Latino children, the uninsured rate dropped by nearly one-third, from a high of 30 percent to 21 percent.

Despite the program’s success, nine million children remain uninsured, more than five million of whom are racial and ethnic minorities. And President Bush’s solution: to veto the reauthorization act that would have added enough funding for approximately 4 million more children. We cannot let Bush's solution stand, a solution that could deny millions of children access to health care if the SCHIP program is not extended.

Call 202-224-3121 TODAY and URGE your representative to continue the bipartisan tradition of support for SCHIP and pass the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (H.R. 976). Don't let Bush's veto of SCHIP stand in the way of insuring one of our country's most vulnerable populations: poor children.

ALERT: World Poverty Day

From Womens' Funding Network and UNIFEM

Today is United Nations World Poverty Day. The Women's Funding Network and UNIFEM invite you to participate in an extraordinary one-day action in support of gender equality to eliminate poverty.

Click the e-card below to learn how you can get involved. After viewing the e-card, sign the online petition TODAY by 5 p.m. ET.