Let me tell you about Jim Toomey: Jim was a regular working American. He had a degree and a good job at a big magazine publisher in New York. But when the recession hit, Jim got laid off like nearly one-in-10 Americans as part of the Great Recession we’re still climbing out of.
Thankfully, an emergency package of aid helps Jim pay the rent and lets him keep buying health insurance. Without it, Jim wouldn’t be able to get the blood pressure medication he needs and might not have insurance at all.
But those emergency benefits are about to expire.1 And even though they had a chance to extend them last week, your senators walked out on a vote that Jim and millions of unemployed Americans need, so they could take a four-day weekend.2
If you’re sick of politicians doing more for Wall Street than for Main Street, click here to tell your senators it’s time to vote on the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act of 2010.
The House has already passed the bill, but without Senate action, millions of people like Jim will fall through the cracks. Here’s what Jim says this bill means to him:
“Without [these benefits] I don’t know how I could have kept up my health insurance coverage … and the thought of losing health insurance coverage terrifies me because I know how costly one accident or one major health crisis can be and don’t want to be bankrupted by a medical emergency.”
People like Jim shouldn’t have to live in fear. But Republicans have been blocking a vote on the Senate bill because it will raise taxes on oil companies and Wall Street executives.3
We can break the logjam. Click here to tell your senators to get back to Washington and vote on this emergency extension so people like Jim can keep their insurance, keep paying their bills and get back to work ASAP.
– Cassandra
Cassandra McKee
Program Director
TrueMajority / USAction
