Republicans in the House of Representatives continue to attack basic civil rights and support policies that make life harder for working families.

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by Alice Benson, Member, La Crosse County Democratic Party Communications Team

If we want to protect our planet, our health, our unions, and our basic civil rights, we must do all we can to elect Democrats in November. Democrats will continue to pass policies that improve the lives of working families.

The US House of Representatives Republican Study Committee (RSC) released a budget document in June 2022 that details the group’s priorities. Nearly 75% of Republicans in the House are RSC members, so these priorities are shared by a majority of the GOP caucus.

Highlights of the Republican Study Committee budget document include plans to do the following:

  1. Raise the Social Security Eligibility age by three months per year through 2040, at which point the new age requirement to receive full Social Security benefits for people.
  2. Lock prescription drug pricing reform and stand in firm opposition to any government-led efforts to bring down pricing.
  3. Gut programs to help low-income families by taking away programs that:    *help poor families to heat and cool their homes;                                                 *allow schools in very low-income areas to provide free meals to all students;                                                                                                                   *allow challenged families access to needed healthy food; and,                       *allow children access to vitally-needed healthcare.
  4. Eliminate the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance program that helps poor families heat and cool their homes and eliminate an initiative that allows schools in very low-income areas to provide free meals to all students. RSC members favor converting other programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Program and the Children’s Health Insurance Program into block grants with less federal money, requiring states to pay more.
  5. Ban and restrict abortions across the entire county. The RSC wants to prohibit Planned Parenthood from receiving Title X grants that help clinics provide cancer screenings and birth control prescriptions to low-income and uninsured individuals. The group also endorses bills that would prohibit fetal stem cells from being used for research and would give legal rights to fertilized eggs.
  6. Attack Unions by eliminating the National Labor Relations Board, an independent federal agency that protects workers’ rights to organize, oversees union elections, and steps in when employers attempt to use union-busting tactics.
  7. Eliminate sensible gun protections by removing silencers from regulation and blocking state laws that regulate silencers.
  8. Eradicate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which enforces consumer protection laws and supervises financial institutions to ensure they’re following financial regulations.
  9. Attack transgender rights by codifying under federal law that “sex refers to the biological sex of an individual at birth.”
  10. Roll Back Climate Change Initiatives and continue to hamper the EPA. The RSC opposes Biden’s decision to reenter the Paris Climate agreement and supports a bill that would prohibit federal dollars from reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The RSC also wants to stop all EPA grant funding and close all regional offices.

These issues are so vital! We need to tell everyone we know to make sure they are registered to vote, and to make a firm plan to vote Democratic across the board in November.