Speakout for Good Jobs Tour

1. Speakout for Good Jobs Tour - Congressional Progressive
Caucus
2. House Progressives Plan Big Summer Tour To Wrest The Jobs
Debate From GOP

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http://speakouttour.com/?page_id=2

The Speakout for Good Jobs Now tour will feature stops in
numerous cities across America giving Americans the chance
to speak out about how the economy is affecting them.
Members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus will listen
to what everyday Americans have to say and take that back to
Washington with them as they continue to fight to
reinvigorate the American Dream - the ability to put in a
day's hard work for good wages and benefits so we can
provide our children with a better future. Get Involved

Learn more about tour stops, visit our Events Page
http://speakouttour.com/?page_id=8

ProgressiveCongress.org was built at the intersection
between the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) and the
progressive movement to connect the progressive movement,
ideas, and Congress.  Founded by the leadership and staff of
the CPC and key leaders in the progressive movement, the
board includes a broad cross-section of the progressive
community in the United States and the leadership of the
CPC.

Like the CPC, ProgressiveCongress.org focuses its efforts
around four key policy areas:

* Peace and global security; 
* Energy independence and environmental sustainability; 
* Civil rights, civil liberties, and human rights; 
* Public health, education and economic opportunity.

http://www.progressivecongress.org/
http://cpc.grijalva.house.gov/

The Progressive Congress Action Fund is our 501(c)(4) non-
profit advocacy organization dedicated to engaging the
American public with progressives in Congress.

ProgressiveCongress.org is a not-for-profit, 501(c)(3)
organization dedicated to research and education connecting
the progressive movement, ideas, and Congress.

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House Progressives Plan Big Summer Tour To Wrest The Jobs
Debate From GOP

by Evan McMorris-Santoro

TPM - TalkingPointsMemo.com
June 14, 2011

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/06/house-progressives-plan-to-wrest-jobs-question-from-gop.php

Republicans have pulled off a neat trick since taking over
the House back in January -- they've repeatedly attacked
President Obama on the languishing job market while shifting
government focus away from job creation and toward the
deficit and debt.

Now, the House Progressive Caucus is planning to turn the
government's attention back toward eliminating unemployment.
Starting Wednesday, caucus members will fan out across the
country on a summer tour that will attempt to push the focus
away from spending reduction and toward using government
resources to create jobs.

"The media and the right wing and, of course, some Democrats
have been talking about intangibles like the debt ceiling or
the job picture," Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair
Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) told TPM in an interview previewing the
announcement. "We wanted to do a tour that really talks
about what matters to people."

To Grijalva and the CPC that means discussing a government
that makes "a commitment to the middle class" and pushes for
an economic package that focuses on middle and working class
people -- "not just the wealthy and not just the CEOs,"
Grijalva said.

Earlier this year, the CPC put forward their own federal
budget proposal that raises taxes on the rich and
corporations (as well as ends the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan) and plows the increased revenues into new
education, health care and other middle class-focused
domestic spending.

That's the kind of government Americans want, Grijalva said.
He faulted the White House and other Democrats for veering
away from the kind of solutions the CPC intends to highlight
on the tour and driving the national agenda headlong into
the Republican-friendly territory of tax decreases and
spending cuts.

"I think it comes from being timid," he said. "It really
does. Part of job creation, historically how we've gotten
the economy back on its feet is that the federal government
stepped in and supplemented job creation...and here we're
sitting around, still talking about the possibility of job
creation in some amorphous way."

Tuesday, members of the CPC will kickoff the tour with press
conference on Capitol Hill. The first stop on the tour will
come at the annual Netroots Nation conference this weekend
in Minneapolis. Future stops will take the tour to major
cities spanning the country, from New York to Detroit to
Oakland, CA.

"Our tour is about letting the American people vent,"
Grijalva said. "It's about letting the American people tell
us, 'we're out of work and you have to do something.' And
hopefully that will resound back here in Congress and
Congress will take the idea of job creation and how we deal
with the idea of the debt ceiling and the deficit and all
that and deal with it in a much more realistic way."

The stops will feature members of the CPC sitting down with
workers to hear about the employment situation and how it
can be improved. Some events will be town halls, some will
be rallies, some will be hearings and all will be open to
the public. The caucus has been planning the tour in secret
for months, and say that it could help shift the focus back
to job creation and away from the federal bottom line.

In the web video announcing the tour, the CPC makes it clear
it's ready to tap into worker frustrations in states like
Wisconsin and elsewhere that have also defined the economic
fight over the past year. The official name of the summer
sweep is the "Speakout for Good Jobs Now Tour." 

Take a look:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHnIriO3vzg&feature=player_embedded

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