The way you know a movement is starting to have an impact is when the powers that be start to respond to it. This has been happening for quite a while now with the 99er Movement (it's Occupy but a lot more than Occupy). Republican politicians have been lashing out, and corporate and Republican insiders have been starting to worry and plotting strategy to respond. Democrats have been responding cautiously but more positively than not, and have sure been noticing and watching with a lot of interest.
Now, though, even more tangible -- and more positive -- responses are starting to pop up. The Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) leadership has introduced a bill this week that is about as direct a response to the flowering 99er movement as a piece of legislation could be, from its name to its messaging to its content: the Restore the American Dream for the 99 Percent Act.
Check out the materials and messaging from the press conference: this is all-99 percent, all the time. The content flows from the movement as well: it taxes Wall Street and the 1 percent to pay for more than 5 million jobs for the 99 percent. The 99 Percent Act includes every economic provision from The Contract for the American Dream, which was crowd sourced from hundreds of thousands of Americans. Tonight, the leaders of the CPC will be talking about what the bill does on this webcast that is worth checking out as well.
This legislation could turn into a big deal. The conventional wisdom will be that a bill introduced by progressives in the minority party in the House doesn't matter because it can't pass, and of course as long as the Republicans control the House it won't. But the 99er Movement is rising, and I think there will be a lot of interest in this bill by the movement -- groups like Rebuild the Dream, MoveOn.org, and the AFL-CIO are pretty excited about this bill. If there is a push by those groups, I think it could easily pick up enough co-sponsors over the next few months to have a solid majority of Democratic House members, and a majority of the candidates challenging Republicans endorsing it as well. If the Democrats retake the House (which is not at all out of the question), a solid majority of the new House caucus is supporting this bill, and the Democrats have won sounding as populist as they are sounding today, the 99 Percent Act will be at the center of the economic debate at the start of 2013. That would be a pretty impressive achievement for this movement given where the political and legislative dialogue the first 11 months of this year has been.
There are a lot of important rumblings going on in American politics right now. People have taken to the street, bank lobbyists and Republican operatives are nervously trying to figure out how to respond to the 99er message, and a lot more Democrats are even beginning to sound like Democrats again. On issues I am working on like the bank settlement talks, I am seeing policymakers far more nervous than they have ever been before about looking they are cutting sweetheart deals with Wall Street. And can I just say something? It's about freakin' time. Census numbers came out today showing that half the country is now considered poor or low-income. The middle class in this country is being crushed, and God help any young or poor person trying to climb their way into it.
Politicians who just operate on the business-as-usual model are making a huge mistake. The ones who are bold and respond positively to the 99 percent are making a good bet. Now is the time to respond to the tide that is rising.
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the 99% voters in 2012 PRICELESS
BYE BYE REPUBS AND T-PARTY
are there no democrats who fall into the 1% category?? or do you just plan on remaining blind and hypocritical?
Never mind the teenagers who get all grossed out with tents and urine and can't find anything better to do than mock earnest people who are speaking and have a right to speak and be heard, laughing to see people have their heads bashed in, could care less about what is happening in this country.
OWS was no fringe group. Many people couldn't make it down to the square but supported in many other ways.
I am further divorced from MSM as a result of their lack of coverage, questioning, and so impressed by the many citizens, and the journalists who started asking and had been asking questions.
When I read about Congress messing up our rights, attacking the internet for the MPAA and cyber military contracts banking 5 billion dollar contracts, buying new military equipment for the police and bringing war tactics home, its very sad, unbelievable really.
Where our mind goes, so creates reality.
I am inspired by Americans, of both parties, who also recognize something is wrong and it must be corrected if we are to have a shot at leaving a great country to our grandchildren.
POTUS has turned his back on it, mayors and city councils have forcefully removed their presence,
the media has all but forgotten about it.
If that is rising...then I would hate to see what receding looks like.
Is this really the best that the "99%" can do? A blatantly partisan bill submitted by a distinct minority in the House that has absolutely no hope of passing? Please. The spin that Progressives are putting on OWS is so obvious that the movement is suffering for it. What change? What victory? Alright, a few more of you have police records now. What have you really accomplished?
"We changed the dialogue in the country!"
You're a mob in the middle of NYC, of course you're going to get coverage. Your message wasn't too bad, although it did suffer from a lack of focus, but the abhorrent behavior of the protestors themselves was what took center stage, not your ideas.
Occupy Wall Street: just another protest.
What did the protests in Selma and Birmingham, or Kent State achieve?
More than Occupy Wall Street?
Really? How old are you, like 10?
At the root of America's economic crisis lies a moral crisis: the decline of civic virtue among America's political and economic elite. A society of markets, laws, and elections is not enough if the rich and powerful fail to behave with respect, honesty, and compassion toward the rest of society and toward the world. America has developed the world's most competitive market society but has squandered its civic virtue along the way. Without restoring an ethos of social responsibility, there can be no meaningful and sustained economic recovery.
This society, this world, must reach some level of mutual concern and guarantee. Its all too interdependent and interactive today. When I am the nose on my brother's face, a basic law of my own survival is that I am my brother's keeper.
The Fortune 1000 workforce has shrunk, not expanded in the last 30 years. The argument, (aka lie) for fattening the top -in reality- shrinks everything else.
19th century narrative is no match 21st century, 20/20 hindsight accounting statistics. You'd be fired from a corporation for substituting past philosophy over numbers. Even Republics respect the value of numbers and historic trends, if only in business.
As for macro-economics: Supply-side economics works when the problem is a supply-side problem. The converse is also true for demand-side economics when the problem is on the demand side. The trick is knowing which is which.
I hadn't noticed that commonality until you point it out. I suppose if it worked for Lenin & Co. ...
The Tea Party was a wave the 99ers are a tsunami. The silent Americans that have carried the burden of keeping America Great finally have a voice and that voice is getting louder and louder.
We are the 99% and we expect to be heard. The 1% have been listened to long enough this is the 99%'s country. Money Should Never Rule it should be the Majority that rules. We are the people spoken of in the constitution that begins in bold letters WE THE PEOPLE of the United States of America. Politicians made an oath to follow protect and defend the Constitution of the United States that means they are suppose to listen to WE THE PEOPLE and not banks,, corporations, lobbyists or special interests.
The People of the United States must be heard by their Representatives in Washington first and foremost.