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Emergency Update Post: Fight the GOP Tax Bill, Still, December 4 Edition

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This is an emergency update post on fighting the GOP tax bill from December 2-4, 2017.

So we’ve been telling you to follow @Celeste_Pewter, over and over, for weeks now.

Around noon on December 2, she tweeted a thread of actions that you can take, right now, to fight the GOP tax bill. Yes, it’s passed the Senate, but there’s still time to push back, and we need to push back forcefully and firmly over the next 72 hours.

We are just going to paste her tweets here. We don’t want you to miss any of them. (We didn’t copy over the first as it’s more of a throat-clearer.)

Update, later on December 3: Scroll down for a script from Celeste for calling the governor of your state. The GOP tax bill would remove the SALT deductions, aka State And Local Taxes. Right now, you can deduct them from your federal tax bill. If the GOP has its way, you won’t, and certain blue states will be hit doubly hard by that. Your governor will be alert to this and terrified by it, regardless of her or his party affiliation. It’s worthwhile to call.

Also, here is a Storify link that includes all the tweets below, plus later updates, which you can post to your Facebook page:

https://storify.com/Celeste_pewter/steps-on-how-to-fight-the-tax-bill

And we stress again–if you’re not following @Celeste_Pewter, do it, and follow @roadto2018, which she’s involved with as well.

Read.

Learn.

Act.

NOW.

Thanks.

 

Ok, massive thread coming up. Mute as needed. 1. Yes, it passed the Senate last night. Yes, you should be mad about this. However, this doesn’t mean it’s over. 2. The bill still has to go to conference committee, where they reconcile the House and Senate versions.

3. No, we don’t know if the House is just going to pass the Senate version. It’s possible, but they’ve traditionally been more conservative than the House. Without having a crystal ball in front of me, I believe they’re not going to like the sweeteners in the Senate version.

4. Per CSPAN, the House is going to vote on going to conference on Monday, at approximately 6:00 PM. (This is schedule to change. I’ll update once their calendars update) This means you have about 72 hours to take a stand. So these are your next steps.

5. Begin by calling your Senators, and responding appropriately to however they voted last night. Scripts below for GOP/Dem Senators. Yes, your Dem Senators need to hear from you. Validate what they just did. They worked pretty damn hard against near impossible odds.

6. Then call your House member, and let them know you want them you oppose both versions of the tax bill as it stands. Demand they strip out as many of the egregious amendments as possible.

7. Yes, we’d prefer it if these bills were killed completely. But we need to be prepared that the GOP is desperate, and needs to pass something, anything to run on for 2018. If we can at the VERY LEAST minimize the harm, then it’s still something.
8. Californians, with GOP House members – (Royce, Issa, etc.) – you are critical to this. The tax bill is going to hit California hard, and you need to work that angle for all you have. Do what others can’t do. Work your powers as a constituent.
9. If you’ve called your Senators and your House members, great! Start calling/emailing/Facebooking friends, family, colleagues, and get them to call. Make it easy for them: Give them talking points, numbers and names. The more people you can recruit to call, the better.
10. Grad students and those who will be impacted in specific areas, write OpEds for your local papers, and email them in. You need to drive as much attention to this as possible, and you can also correct misconceptions about the bill(s).

11. Attend a protest in your area. and the team have you covered. If you know of random events taking place, respond to this tweet and hashtag w/ :

Friends, let’s use our collective power and boost rallies against the taking place this weekend. Reply to this thread with events, and don’t forget to hashtag w/ our usual hashtag +
12. FAQs: Do not call electeds who don’t represent you. Here’s actual research stating why it’s ineffective: Or put this another way, Murkowski voted yes because of ANWR drilling. That’s an Alaska-specific issue. Doesn’t factor in say, California voices.
13. Use Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, what have you, strictly as a means to share information and empower your followers. It will have zero impact on your electeds. Their social teams will shrug and move on.
14. Yes, calls are best and should be the one mechanism you use this weekend, if possible. I can’t stress how critical and time sensitive this is.

15. Other thing to do: Donate to the Democratic senators who stood AGAINST the tax bill last night, including several who are in very pro-Trump states. If you don’t want scenarios like last night to repeat, we need to hold their seats.

16. But your first donation should be to . There are ten days until the election in Alabama. Any seat removed from the GOP majority will be an achievement for the balance of power. (Google “Douglas Jones Donate” to get resources for this.)

17. Remind everyone that is still ongoing. Get everyone to enroll.

18. Correct misinformation. I’m seeing a lot of misinformation going on about the , from the legislative process, to how much individual taxpayers stand to benefit.

Start here:

19. If you’re an editor/writer who can volunteer your time, reach out to , who is organizing a group to help proof read OpEds before sending them in. That’s it. Get to the phones. If you don’t want our economy to go off a cliff, this weekend is THE weekend to act.
20. One more: please hashtag all of your tweets re: calling your electeds w/ . will boost you. Share tips (e.g. which VM box is full? Who’s picking up?), encourage each other, vent if needed. This is a community. We do this together.
…Got that? Then get on it. And thank you.

And here is the script to use when calling your governor, also courtesy of Celeste:

 

Find the contact info for your governor:

 

https://www.usa.gov/state-governor

 

Here’s a script from Celeste that you can use: