Our Revolution NJ and Allies Held a Rally at Rep. Pascrell’s Office in Paterson
Our Revolution NJ and Allies Held a Rally at Rep. Pascrell’s Office in Paterson to Demand His Support for Progressive Priorities As Congress Finalizes $3.5 Trillion Budget Plan
PATERSON, NJ – On Monday, September 13th, Our Revolution New Jersey, the NJ state chapter of the largest grassroots funded progressive organization in the country, alongside Food and Water Watch NJ and other groups, held a rally in front of Rep. Bill Pascrell’s office in Paterson to urge him to support the Democrats’ $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package and clear the way for progressive priorities.
As Congress finalizes the budget package, Our Revolution is organizing to end fossil fuel subsidies, expand Medicare, and to protect workers’ rights to organize.
“There is something wrong with our national priorities when in the richest country in the world we don’t have basic programs like guaranteed healthcare, paid sick leave, parental leave that are common among developed nations – yet, we give out billions of dollars every year in corporate handouts to Big Oil, basically incentivizing them to destroy our planet and our people,” said Anna-Marta Visky, Northeast Organizer for Our Revolution. “We are calling on Rep. Pascrell to stand with our communities and fight to Build Back Better, with a tax plan that finally makes the rich and the large corporations pay their fair share, so we can invest in much needed progress here in NJ and beyond”.
“From the flooding of our home to the devastating loss of our neighbors’ lives, we will never get back what we’ve lost to this storm,” said Passaic City resident and member of Make The Road NJ. “But we must learn from this climate-fueled disaster by getting off fossil fuels as quickly as possible, and Congressman Pascrell must use his position to end fossil fuel subsidies and put that money back into our communities with investments in clean energy and energy efficiency.”
“As the climate crisis obviously intensifies all across the planet, our government is actually subsidizing climate-wrecking corporate polluters to the tune of at least $15 billion per year,” added Sam DiFalco, NJ Organizer with Food & Water Watch. “As Democrats plan a bold proposal to rebuild our infrastructure, we simply cannot keep handing over money to the oil and gas giants that have created the problem in the first place. Politicians have long talked about the need to get rid of these absurd handouts. It’s time for leaders like Rep. Pascrell to do the right thing and end subsidies for fossil fuel polluters.”
The rally was part of “Revolution Recess,” during which progressive activists are targeting Senators and House Representatives who are obstructing crucial pro-people policies, or play significant roles in the process and content of the budget bill. Rep. Pascrell sits on the powerful Ways and Means Committee, which is scheduled to start marking up the tax partition of this bill tomorrow.
Dozens of events are scheduled for the next 30 days to push members of Congress to support the agenda of working Americans.
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Our Revolution is dedicated to organizing a political revolution strong enough to challenge the structural forces that threaten our survival as a society. Together, we are building a national grassroots network of powerful local groups who are fighting to win progressive issue fights, elect progressive champions, transform the Democratic party and get big money out of politics.
