Let’s Stop the Republican Debt Slavery Act in the House

http://democrats.com/debtslavery

Many
progressives are mourning the failure of Senate Democrats to filibuster
the Republican Debt Slavery Act of 2005, commonly known as the
Bankruptcy Bill.

As Mother Jones said, Don’t Mourn, Organize!

Let’s stop the Republican Debt Slavery Act dead in the House.

What’s that I hear out there? Is someone insisting, "House Democrats can’t stop Tom DeLay’s brutal legislative steamroller!"

The hell we can’t.

House
Republicans are already running for their lives over Social Security
privatization. When Tom DeLay ordered them to hold town hall meetings
on privatization two weeks ago, two-thirds of them flatly refused. When
George Bush took Air Force One for a Bamboozlepalooza rally in Alabama
– Alabama - six of the seven rightwing House Republicans announced they suddenly had to attend urgent Congressional hearings!

It’s
only going to get worse for House Republicans, because George Bush is
determine to march them off the cliff for privatization. It is
important to remember that 2006 is an off year, and the people who turn
out most reliably in the off year are Social Security recipients! And it is essential to remember that every House member is up for election in 2006, compared to just one-third of the Senate.

If Bush and DeLay keep marching House Republicans off the ideological cliff, pretty soon they will be begging voters for forgiveness.

Meanwhile,
on the House Democratic side, I see absolutely no reason for anyone to
support this bill. In the Senate, a significant chunk - 5% - of the
Democratic caucus represents MBNA (Delaware Senators Joe Biden and Tom
Carper). In the House, that figure is 0%. So there is no good reason
for even one House Democrats to whore his or her vote.

Of course, there are a few corporate whores in the Democratic caucus. But of the 39 members of the House New Democratic Coalition, only 18 begged Speaker Hastert

to bring the bill up for an immediate vote, and only 2 other Democrats
joined them. I’m pretty sure those 20 Democrats could be persuaded to
switch their positions if we formed Democrats.com chapters in their districts, threatened to run primaries against them, and created a PAC (DebtPac?) to show we’re serious.

The
issue of debt slavery unites all Democrats across ideological lines.
Progressives are naturally livid - but even centrists like the New Republic-ans are outraged:

This magazine
and multiple other opinion outlets on the center-left have written at
length about how the bill in question is a truly contemptible piece of
legislation... The only way a congressman [sic] could possibly support
it is through a craven and reflexive willingness to do the bidding of
big business... [Supporting this bill] could set back the cause of
moderates within the party for months, if not years. It really is a
colossal, inexcusable mistake.

It also unites Democrats with moderates - and lots of conservatives
too. Conservatives claim economic liberty is the absolute foundation of
America. So how can these conservatives possibly support debt
slavery?

With powerful support across the ideological spectrum, we can absolutely win this battle at the grassroots.

Let’s start with the progressive blogosphere. We can count on Josh Marshall (and Harvard Prof. Elizabeth Warren) at TalkingPointsMemo, who are kicking Bush’s ass on Social Security. Atrios is fuming. So are the folks at DailyKos, DemocraticUnderground, and everywhere else Dems hang out.

But
that’s just the start. Let’s reach out to internet moderates,
libertarians, and conservatives and make this a full-spectrum campaign,
just like the opposition to FEC regulation of blogs at The Online Coalition.

While
we reach out to the bloggers, we need to enlist large grassroots
organizations like Moveon, True Majority, People for the American Way,
Working Assets, Campaign for America’s Future, Common Cause, etc. We
need the unions - all of them. We need the churches too - because every
religion cares about the poor. We need feminist groups like NOW and the
Feminist Majority; ethnic groups like the NAACP, Urban League, and
Council of La Raza; veterans groups like the American Legion and the
VFW; mainstream groups like the League of Women Voters and the PTA.

In other words, we should get every group in America involved and create a national firestorm like Congress has never seen.

contact your Representative
http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWW...