Working families aren't fooled. There's nothing "fair and balanced" about the Bowles-Simpson budget plan that would ultimately increase unemployment, cut Social Security benefits, tax workers’ health benefits and scapegoat federal employees while giving more tax breaks for sending jobs overseas and lowering tax rates for Wall Street and the wealthiest 2%. Yesterday, Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.) introduced an amendment to H.R. 444, that would direct President Obama to follow the budget recommendations of Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, known as the Bowles-Simpson plan. 

Last year, 350 economists wrote a letter explaining that austerity measures, like the Bowles-Simpson plan, are the exact opposite actions we need to take in order to get people back to work. Not to mention all these austerity plans being floated target Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries for benefit cuts while hypocritically showering the wealthy and corporations with more tax breaks they don't need. 

Republicans in Congress are threatening to shut down the government in March so they can get their way and enact the same economic agenda voters overwhelmingly rejected in the last election. The Republican ransom demands are the same as always: cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits; tax cuts for the wealthy and Wall Street; and budget austerity for the rest of us, which is already causing the economy to sputter.

Call your representatives at 888-659-9401 and urge them to reject austerity plans like Schrader's amendment and:

• Protect Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid from benefit cuts.
• Repeal the “sequester” and close loopholes for Wall Street and the wealthiest 2% of Americans instead.

Learn more at www.aflcio.org/protectourfuture.