Punishers of the Poor

Aug 25, 2008
Several Politicians Named as Punishers of the Poor at Press Conference

Denver, CO"A coalition of leaders from the African American, civil rights, faith-based and veteran communities this week blasted several Members of Congress as “Punishers of the Poor,” saying that they all scored a perfect zero on an affordable energy voting scorecard. The six politicians who earned top honors as the “worst of the worst” among those supporting higher energy prices"and who were memoralized in a Punishers of the Poor deck of playing cards"are these:

Joker: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
Joker: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
Ace of Spades: U.S. Senator Dick Durbin
Ace of Diamonds: U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer
Ace of Clubs: U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA)
Ace of Hearts: U.S. Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA)

Streaming video of the press conference to unveil the “Punishers of the Poor” at the Democratic National Convention in Denver can be seen here.

http://stopwaronpoor.org/Default.aspx?tabid=1724

“These six politicians are the leaders and generals in charge of waging an unprecedented war on the poor,” said Niger Innis, National Spokesman for the Congress of Racial Equality and co-chairman of the Alliance to Stop the War on the Poor. “By pushing policies that restrict American energy supply and thus push prices higher, they are delivering daily punishment to low-income and poor families across the nation. What these politicians are doing is immoral, and we intend to wake up the American people to the fact that this war being waged in every city in America today.”

“We call this a war on the poor because high energy prices disproportionately impact America�s poor and low-income families,” said Bishop Harry Jackson, Chairman of the High Impact Leadership Coalition and national co-chair of the Alliance. “With prices expected to rise this winter from 25 to 50 percent, we are in a true crisis. These prices are actually a highly regressive tax on America�s most vulnerable citizens. The war on the poor must stop. To do that, we must increase our supply of all energy resources, including coal, oil and gas, nuclear power"and encourage greater conservation.”

“High prices hit poor families hardest,” said Bishop Phillip Porter, Chair of Colorado Consumers for Affordable Energy and the founder of All Nations Pentecostal Church of God in Christ in Aurora, Colorado. “A recent study shows that while median income families have to devote five cents on a dollar of their income to energy costs, poor families have to devote upwards of 50 cents on the dollar. That is fifty cents they can’t spend on health care, or education or food.” “The poor are being decimated by high energy prices, which are also driving up food costs and other necessities of life,” said Ralph Conner of the non-partisan Heartland Institute

Dennis Sykes, Chairman of Colorado Veterans for Energy Security, “Unless we as a nation become energy independent, we will have to continue sending U.S. troops overseas to die on foreign soil defending our access to foreign energy. That is unacceptable.”

The coalition leaders said the ongoing “punishers of the poor” expose will be bipartisan, with both Republicans and Democrats named as punishers.

Recently in Washington, D.C., leaders from the civil rights, African American, faith-based, senior, agriculture and consumer advocacy communities launched a national campaign to publicly unmask more than 100 politicians and 50 environmental extremist groups that are waging an immoral “war on the poor” by pushing policies that limit America’s ability to produce more America energy and drive energy prices skyward. See more here.