GO, Teddy, Go!

[elshiva]

E-mail update from Teddy Kennedy:

Dear friend,

For the last week, my colleagues and I in the Senate have been fighting hard for fair bankruptcy reform. The deeply flawed bill the Republican leadership is pushing will be a bonanza for the credit card industry and a nightmare for average families. It will make it much more difficult for working Americans who fall on hard times to make a fresh start.

Shamefully, it does nothing to end the corporate abuses that plague our current bankruptcy laws. Instead, it targets people who have a serious medical problem, a sudden job loss, or even members of the armed forces whose families suffer financial hardship because their loved ones were called up for duty. We can't stand by and allow the interests of these innocent men and women and their families who have done no wrong to be victims by changes in the bankruptcy laws.

To learn more about the bankruptcy bill, click here: http://action.democraticmajority.com/ctt.asp?u=2592397&l=6246

Senate Republicans are doing everything they can to defeat our efforts to protect the elderly and ill who find themselves overwhelmed by debt. They've rejected our proposal to allow the elderly to at least keep their homes, even if they are having difficulty with medical bills. They defeated our proposal to require credit card companies to be honest with consumers about how much it really costs to make the "minimum monthly payment" on their card. They've refused to crack down on corporations that cheat employees out of their retirement savings by declaring bankruptcy. They voted against relief for soldiers who have returned home from war with families to support. Supporters of this outrageous bill are ignoring these realities of bankruptcy and are trying to make the federal government a collection agency for the credit card industry.

Join the fight for working Americans!
http://action.democraticmajority.com/ctt.asp?u=2592397&l=6247

One of the reasons so many people working in America are in debt is because the minimum wage has not been raised since 1996, when it went from $4.25 to $5.15 an hour. At the current level, a person working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year earns $10,700 annually. For a family of three, that's $5,000 below the poverty line. I've proposed raising the minimum wage in three steps over the next two years to $7.25/ hour. That increase will truly make a difference in the lives of many low-income Americans, including the more than 4 million who have been fallen into poverty since President Bush took office. The current minimum wage is not high enough to afford adequate housing anywhere in the United States. Raising it will make an immediate impact for more than 15 million workers.

Members of Congress have raised their own salaries seven times over the last eight years, resulting in a total increase of over $28,000. It's time that we paid attention to those in greatest need - the hard-working Americans who struggle every day to survive on minimum wage. Join me in fighting for America's workers and for fairness in our policies for working families. Go to http://action.democraticmajority.com/ctt.asp?u=2592397&l=6247 to join the fight today!


Thank you for your support!

Senator Edward M. Kennedy

[karynnj]

1. Kennedy's speech in the Senate that was just on C-SPAN

was great. He ended by quoting Leviticus on helping people who fall into bad times and condemns usury. Maybe the Republicans want to ban the Bible as they put out literature accusing the Democrats of.
That and his example of a woman who tried to pay off credit card debt but ended up further in debt because of high rates and penalties should make any decent Senator vote against it.

[elshiva]

2. Leviticus 15? I have to look that up.

Thanks for the update.