Lake County Democratic Party: News

Welcome to the Lake County Democratic Party!

Barbara Boxer 2010

Support Senator Boxer's Re-election campaign
http://www.barbaraboxer.com/home

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We are the Majority -- We Can Fix the Budget Now!

Do you want to save California?

Take Action
www.fixthe budgetnow.org

1. Reverse three expensive tax concessions to businesses.

The three breaks are:

allowing corporations to share credits with affiliated companies;

allowing companies to use this year's losses to obtain rebates (!) on prior-year taxes;

and allowing multi-state and multinational corporations to choose among different formulas that will reduce the taxes they owe California.

2. Tax the extraction of oil.

3. Update the administrative rules governing the assessment of
commercial property.

4. Impose a sales tax on medical marijuana.

5. Tap the rainy-day fund

Californians deserve real solutions to the budget deficit. Responding to our economic crisis with deep cuts will only make the state's problems worse. They would undermine our economic recovery and President Obamas investment in economic stimulus, disproportionately harm the most vulnerable Californians, and go against our core values.

Is $24 billion in cuts what California residents really want? Two recent polls (Binder, www.docstoc.com/docs/6220193/Reasons-Prop-1A-Failed-memo, and Field Poll, www.field.com/fieldpollonline/subscribers/Rls2306.pdf) reveal that Californians in fact support some revenue increases and do not favor drastic cuts to education and other essential services. These polls counter the interpretation that the failure of the special election measures represents voter rejection of any and all new revenues.

74% of California voters support increasing tobacco taxes on tobacco.
73% of California voters support an oil extraction tax on oil companies that every other oil producing state has.
63% of California voters support closing the tax loophole that allows corporations to avoid reassessment of newly purchased property.
63% of California support raising the state income tax for top earners (ten percent for individuals earning more than $272,000 a year & eleven percent for individuals earning more than $544,000 a year.
59% of California voters support prohibiting corporations from offsetting more than fifty percent of their taxes through tax credits.

Our legislators should fight for increased revenues from those who can afford to pay. Progressive tax increases need to be on the table.

Yet we understand the reality of Republican politics.

Therefore we also believe that reasonable and fair fees that can be passed by legislative majorities should be submitted to the Governor to sign into law. The Democrats found $18 billion could be raised in this manner last December. Those proposals should be brought back to the table. As Senate Pro tem Steinberg said at the time:

"... but there is an even greater responsibility than practicing bipartisanship and that is to govern. And that is what we intend to do here today."

Read more for real budget solutions

Read the rest ...

The Pachamama Alliance

In recent years concern over the destruction of the world's tropical rainforests has reached global proportions. Alarm about the extinction of species, the permanent loss of potentially life-saving medicinal plants, the irreversible damage to the delicate balance of the Earth's climate control system and the tragic disappearance of indigenous cultures has captured the attention of millions of people around the world.

Read the rest ...

Servicemembers Legal Defense Network - Keep up The Pressure

Servicemembers Legal Defense Network is a non-partisan, non-profit, legal services, watchdog and policy organization dedicated to ending discrimination against and harassment of military personnel affected by "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT).

We provide free, confidential legal services to all those impacted by DADT and related discrimination. Since 1993, our in-house legal team has responded to more than 9,000 requests for assistance. In Congress, we are leading the fight to repeal DADT and replace it with a law that ensures equal treatment for every service member, regardless of sexual orientation. In the courts, we work to challenge the constitutionality of DADT.

Congressman Thompson's June Report

Thompson Introduces Children’s Health Bill

Congressman Thompson supports a public option for health care.
Read more about the public option at Stand With Dr. Dean

As broader health care reform moves forward on Capitol Hill, on May 6th Congressman Thompson introduced legislation to protect our nation’s children from preventable illnesses, which he believes will help save lives and reduce health care costs. The bill requires individual and group insurers, employee benefit plans, and health savings accounts to cover preventive benefits for children without copayments or deductibles. The President has set an October deadline for passing health care reform- and has asked the House to pass legislation before the August recess to make sure there’s enough time
to work out differences between House and Senate versions of health care reform.

Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights
The President signed into law tough new protections for consumers that ban unfair rate increases, abusive fees, and penalties—such as retroactive rate hikes on existing balances and double-cycle billing -- giving consumers clear information, and strengthening enforcement. It will also require 45-days’ advance notice of interest rate, fees, and finance charges hikes, require payments to be applied fairly to the highest interest rate balance
first, and strengthen credit card protections for young people.

Military Procurement Reform
Signed into law this month, this will crack down on Pentagon waste and cost overruns, which GAO says amount to $296 billion just for the 96 largest weapons systems, by dramatically beefing up oversight of weapons acquisition, promoting greater use of competition, and curbing conflicts of interest. This bill is estimated to save taxpayers tens of billions of dollars.

Mortgage Assistance
Building on the President’s housing initiative, this new law provides significant
incentives to lenders, servicers, and homeowners to work together to modify loans and to avoid foreclosures, which cost families their homes every 13 seconds in America. The bill reduces the current fees for homeowners and lenders that have discouraged them from participating in the Hope for Homeowners program; offers new incentives for lenders to negotiate loan modifications with borrowers at risk of foreclosure under the Hope for
Homeowners program; and expands the President’s loan modification program to FHA and mortgages in rural areas.

Congressman Thompson's webpage & email alerts

Regarding the proposed "May Revise"

CDP Chair Sen. John Burton

Cruel doesn’t even begin to describe the cuts proposed in the revised May budget to eliminate California’s $24-billion budget deficit.

Nearly two million Californians will lose health insurance if the Healthy Families program for children is eliminated and Medi-Cal is cut by $1 billion.

More than 1 million women and children will be left without any means of subsistence if the CalWORKS program is ended. California kids and young adults will suffer if the Cal Grant program is axed and billions more dollars are cut from public education.

Another 5,000 people will land on our unemployment rolls, struggling to pay rent and buy groceries, if plans go forward to lay off 5,000 state workers. The grim list goes on.

The defeat of five budget-related propositions on the May 19th special election ballot was not a mandate for a cuts-only or mostly-cuts budget that will force the aged, blind, and disabled further into poverty. Nor was it a mandate for a budget that will hurt everyone from school kids to park lovers.

Rather, California voters sent the message that they want lawmakers and the governor to work together toward a budget that realistically looks at the services we all need and how to pay for them.

Last December, legislative Democrats passed an $18-billion plan to reduce the state deficit. If the governor had not vetoed that sensible package, California would have no need to even discuss the Draconian proposals now on the table.

This only underscores why it’s so critical to elect a Democratic governor in 2010. The California Democratic Party will do everything in its power to make this happen.

California Democratic Party 2009 Convention

Democratic Women of Lake County
Theresa Thurman, Wanda Harris, Jennifer Popovich
Sunol Westergren, Heather Powers

For more convention photos, visit the "photo" tab on the menu bar

Sunol Westergen, Lake County Delegate submitteed this Convention Report:

CALIFORNIA DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION
APRIL 24-26TH, 2009 SACRAMENTO CALIFORNIA
Sunol Westergren Lake County DCC Delegate

CAUCUSES-FRIDAY
After arriving at the motel, we descended upon the nearby Convention
Center to register as delegate, observer or volunteer.
Pre- Statement regarding all caucuses in which I participated:
2009 is an internal party and caucus election year. This meant that
besides declared or un-declared primary candidates, office-seekers for CDP
leadership as well as each caucus position were allowed to speak,
apparently without regard to the agenda! This fragmented the order of the
meetings, and I would like to see that practice curtailed for the good of
the party. Perhaps those candidates should condescend to work the halls
where the people are congregating. Bright Idea: Candidate sponsored COFFEE
in the early morning caucus?

Read the rest ...

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