We’ve got a special post State of the Union podcast for you today, complete with extended conversations with most of our congressional delegation about President Obama’s speech last night. Unfortunately we weren’t able to catch up with Senator Whitehouse, but we did speak with Senator Reed and Congressmen Langevin and Cicilline.
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Rhode Islanders sent Sheldon to the Senate to fight for us and against the big special interests and thats just what he has done. We know that we can count on Sheldon to support our priorities creating jobs, protecting families, and ending special deals for billionaires and big corporations. Sheldon has led the fight against moves to severely cut Social Security, Medicare benefits, and Pell Grants because he knows how much we in Rhode Island count on these programs. And he has opposed giving more tax breaks to billionaires and multinational corporations while middle class families continue to suffer.
SHELDONS PLAN
Putting Rhode Islanders Back to Work. Sheldon has fought hard for legislation to create jobs, support small businesses, and revitalize our manufacturing sector.
Protecting Medicare and Social Security for Rhode Island Seniors. Sheldon will always be committed to preserving Social Security and Medicare benefits, and will continue fighting to reduce the cost of prescription drugs for seniors.
Getting a Straight Deal for Middle Class Families. Sheldon has heard from so many Rhode Islanders who are frustrated with the special deals enjoyed by big corporations and billionaires. He shares that frustration and is working to restore the straight deal that middle class Americans expect and deserve ending tax giveaways to Big Oil, combating unfair credit card interest rates, making sure millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share in taxes, and putting a stop to unlimited and anonymous spending by big corporations in our elections.
Supporting Education. Providing our children with a good education is the most important thing we can do to give them the opportunity to get the best jobs in the future.
Protecting our Environment and Coastal Economy. In Rhode Island, the strength of our economy is strongly tied to the health of our environment. Sheldon recognizes this, and is leading several bipartisan efforts to better protect our oceans and coasts and the jobs they support. Hes working with Senator Snowe (R-ME) to establish a National Endowment for the Oceans, collaborating with Senator Vitter (R-LA) to re-authorize the National Estuary Program, and is co-chairing the Senate Oceans Caucus with Senator Murkowski (R-AK). Sheldon will continue fighting to advance these priorities in 2012.
Stay in Touch: whitehouse.senate.gov, facebook.com/SenatorWhitehouse, twitter.com/SenWhitehouse
]]>“This is an important speech—one you, your friends and your family can’t miss,” says Devin Driscoll, Rhode Island state director with Obama for America. “President Obama will be talking about the issues and values that are central to his vision of an America that will out-innovate, out-educate and out-build the world.”
Rhode Island’s watch parties will be taking place in homes in Warwick, Cranston, Providence, Pawtucket, Newport and East Greenwich. Students will gather at Brown University’s Wilson Hall and state and city Democrats will head for McFadden’s Restaurant in downtown Providence.
Folks will be renewing neighborhood connections, making new friends and talking together about the next important event on the Rhode Island campaign calendar: forming teams to collect signatures to get President Obama on the ballot for November. For more information and to find the watch party nearest you, go to www.barackobama.com/state/ri and click the “Find an Event” tab.
For more information about State of the Union watch parties and to volunteer with the campaign, please contact Devin Driscoll at ddriscoll@barackobama.com.
]]>Can you have a few people over to watch? All it takes is a little bit of time to prepare and some enthusiasm for bringing people together.
Click here to host an event – sometime before the end of the day tomorrow if possible, so we can ensure you get email support from Chicago. You’ll need to be registered as a user of barackobama.com to sign up to host, which you can do here.
These parties are easy to put together. You’ll be able to decide how many people you can comfortably host, and we’ll provide you with tools to promote the event. We’ll talk you through what to expect and how to prepare for that night — including a conference call with other hosts beforehand to share tips and ideas.
This requires a basic commitment from you, but no previous experience doing this kind of thing — even if you’ve never hosted an event like this before, the campaign will make sure you have the tools and resources you need to make your party successful.
A party in your neighborhood is one big way to energize the campaign where you live. We’re aiming to have thousands of parties like it across the country.
You can email Devin Driscoll, Obama for America Rhode Island state director, at ddriscoll@barackobama.com with any questions.
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