Influence Alley

With the deadline for the Super Committee to come up with $1 trillion in spending cuts fast approaching, the AFL-CIO is asking 700,000 activists to call lawmakers today to ask them to protect entitlement programs from the ax. In a conference call with reporters today, AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka said the union, along with other progressive groups like the NAACP and MoveOn.org, is also considering an ad campaign and will publicize which lawmakers vote for cuts to the programs. 

Trumka argued for the importance of preserving funding for programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. He said the programs are vital to the working and middle classes and pointed to rising rates of inequality and the Occupy Wall Street movement as signs that it is time for Congress to "stand up for the 99 percent of America" and not continue "the business as usual approach" of protecting the 1 percent.