Over the last eight months, we’ve fought to stop President
Bush from getting rid of overtime and to stop the FCC from changing its media
ownership rules. Amazingly, we’ve won. But today, both of these victories are at
risk.

Bush is now pushing Congress to approve one of the biggest
spending bills in its history — 820 billion dollars. He’s also cutting lots of
last-minute, back-room deals that would reverse our victories on overtime and on
media ownership, while taking corporate giveaways to a whole new level.

And he’s trying to force votes on this 400 page bill before
Democrats have had a chance to read it.

Join us in calling on Congress to stop this bill, at:

   http://www.moveon.org/looting/

Giveaways in the bill include:

• Allowing media giants to monopolize even more local media
  outlets than before. Companies like Fox that have bought more outlets than
  current law allows would now be allowed to keep them. In fact, this bill
  raises the limit to just the amount that Fox needs. (Washington Post, 11/30/03)
  
  
  
• Rolling back rules requiring that people be paid for
  overtime. Eight million hard-working families count on these fair compensation
  rules.

These terrible provisions, and others, were added at the
last minute by top Republican negotiators. The final bill was first shared with
Democrats the day they were leaving for Thanksgiving (Tues., Nov. 25th), in an
obvious attempt to force an immediate vote, sight unseen.

Instead, Congress is returning for a special session next
week. The House is expected to vote on the bill on Monday, December 8th. The
Senate is being asked to approve it on Tuesday the 9th.

But as Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) said, “A legislator would
have to have rocks in their head to agree to something they haven’t yet read.”

We couldn’t agree more.

Especially when you consider that majorities in both houses
of Congress have already rejected both the media ownership change and the
overtime rollback — with strong support from MoveOn members in both cases.
President Bush couldn’t get what he wanted through a straight democratic
process, so now, once again, he’s trying to force his agenda down our throats
with strong-arm tactics.

Process aside, the spending itself is also outrageous. It’s
part of a long pattern of Bush spending billions of our tax dollars to reward
his friends and campaign contributors, a pattern the Nobel prize-winning
economist George Akerlof has described as “a form of looting.” (Der
Spiegel, 7/29/03)

And our nation is suffering as a result.

Congress recently approved $87 billion for the Iraq war,
much of it going to contractors like Halliburton through expensive no-bid deals.
Now, other countries won’t help fund the Iraq effort because they know their
money will go to American contractors — not reconstruction. And when we could
be developing a real middle class in Iraq, 60% of Iraqis can’t find work because
multinational corporations are sucking up all the jobs.

We’re hurting at home too. While Bush deals out giant
subsidies to corporations and tax cuts for the super-rich, our kids go without
healthcare, our teachers get laid off, and the deficit gets bigger and bigger.
So the kids we’re shortchanging today will get stuck with the bill tomorrow.

You just can’t govern a nation this way. And even the
Republicans know it. That’s why John McCain and other Republicans will likely
vote against the bill. This isn’t a partisan issue. It’s common sense.

Please join our call to Congress to stop the looting, at:

   http://www.moveon.org/looting/

Thanks for all you do.

Sincerely,
- Carrie, Eli, James, Joan, Noah, Peter, Wes,
and Zack
  The MoveOn.org Team
  December 3rd, 2003