'Put the Middle Class First' Bus Comes to Nashua

Americans United for Change has hit the road with the national “Put the Middle Class First” bus tour to help drive home the clear choice before voters on Nov. 4 between having a Democratic Congress that works for them or a Tea Party Congress that works for corporate special interests like the Koch brothers.

With the backdrop of a 45’ long ‘fair shot advocate on wheels’ and with invaluable support from the NH Democratic Party and Alliance for Retired Americans, the tour kicked off in Manchester and Nashua, NH today.

Highlights from Remarks Made at Nashua Stop:

Nashua State Senator Bette Lasky: “There’s been a lot of talk lately by a former Senator from Massachusetts about the issues he thinks are important, or aren’t important to the citizens of New Hampshire. What Brown doesn’t is realize that not only are women disproportionately affected by the minimum wage, many are mothers trying support families and feed their kids. So encourage everyone to get out there and vote for the people that will keep New Hampshire moving forward, not backwards.”

Alderman, and Candidate for Executive Council Diane Sheehan: “It’s important that we remember what’s at stake in this coming election. And what’s at stake is us, in the middle class, and those trying to get into the middle class. My opponent has defunded Planned Parenthood. I’ll tell you that I lost my mother to breast cancer which was discovered at stage four, and I understand the importance of early detection for cervical and breast cancer and the important role that Planned Parenthood plays. My opponent also called Medicare and Medicaid “welfare”. We need to remind people that good early access to healthcare costs everyone less and leads to better outcomes.I’ve been getting things in the mail saying “right to work”. If my mother was not a member of a union when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, she would have lost her job and lost her healthcare and I would still 14 years later be paying off her medical bills. There is a reason we have unions. We need to remind people of the stakes so that they show up on November 4th.”

United Steelworkers District 4 Director, John Shinn: “We’re tired of corporate greed. The Koch brothers have enough money, I think we can all agree on that. CEO’s are more concerned about Wall Street, but this about Main Street. This is about hard working people getting their fair share.”

Brad Woodhouse, President, Americans United for Change: “A healthy economy depends on having a strong and growing middle class. And while we’ve seen the economy pick up speed the last 5 years, many American families still feel like they’re spinning their wheels. And it’s no wonder why: incomes have been stagnant or even shrinking for more than a decade at the same time the cost of food, child care, college, housing, retirement security, and basic necessities has soared. The good news is it’s a problem we know how to fix: by making critical investments in education and infrastructure that will create more jobs, opportunity, and an economy that works for everyone. But instead, Tea Party Republicans have stood in the way of every reasonable proposal made by President Obama and Democrats to move the country forward and instead have made sure this Congress has been the least productive and most beholden to the special interests in U.S. history. This election is about a choice between having Democratic Congress working to level the playing field for the middle class versus a Tea Party Congress willing to shut down the government and hurt the economy to keep the game rigged for the wealthy special interests.”

Four years in a row, House Republicans passed a budget plan that voucherizes Medicare, slashes Medicaid, Pell grants and child care services, and shortchanges badly needed repairs to America’s crumbling bridges and roads. At the same time the Ryan budget, which Frank Guinta voted repeatedly for, protects Big Oil subsides and gives away $5 trillion in new tax breaks for millionaires and corporations that outsource U.S. jobs. Not to be outdone, Republican Governors are enacting their own Robin Hood in Reverse policies, from tax breaks geared towards the super-wealthy, to gutting public education, to refusing to accept available Medicaid resources to cover thousands of vulnerable citizens including Veterans who living one health emergency away from bankruptcy. The Koch brothers, Big Insurance and Wall Street are clearly satisfied customers judging by the millions of dollars they continue to funnel into Republican campaigns like that of Guinta and Scott Brown.

In contrast, Democrats in Congress have a detailed set of proposals that put the middle class first, giving more Americans a fair shot at getting into the middle class and achieving the American Dream, including: Ensuring women receive equal pay for equal work; Making college affordable; Raising the Minimum Wage; Creating jobs by investing in infrastructure; and Protecting Social Security and Medicare from benefit cuts, voucherization or privatization schemes.

Submitted text.