Lucas,
The 12-member Super Congress is in the process of figuring out how to reduce the national deficit.
So far, the deficit discussion has been dominated by nonsense. Much of it has focused on huge cuts to Medicare and Social Security as well as other important programs.
We're going to introduce some sense to the nonsense.
Tell the Super Congress: Tax Wall Street and cut fossil fuel subsidies.
Fossil fuel subsidies are a commonsense place to make cuts.
The polluting profiteers in the oil, coal and gas industries do not need taxpayer money. Over the last decade, the largest oil and gas companies alone reaped more than $1 trillion in profits.
Ending fossil fuel subsidies would reduce national debt by $122 billion over ten years.
Wall Street is a commonsense place to increase revenue.
A very small tax on short-term speculation on Wall Street would boost federal revenue by $100 billion a year.
This financial transactions tax would also create a disincentive for Wall Street's riskiest practices - many of which continue despite the fact that these risky practices led to the economic collapse in 2008.
Combined, these two smart policies could reduce the deficit by more than $1.1 trillion over 10 years.
Sign the petition to the Super Congress.
Thanks for all you do,
Allison Fisher and Rick Claypool
Public Citizen's Online Action Team
action@citizen.org
P.S. Forward this message to anyone you know who is concerned about the federal deficit.