Corporate Accountability

March Forward for Fairness

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Big Banks are Getting Richer at Our Expense. Elected leaders are calling for shared sacrifice.

Bank of America -- Connecticut's largest bank -- paid virtually no state income taxes last year. They practically stopped lending to local small businesses, stunting job growth.And they have done nothing to help local communities afflicted by the foreclosure crisis.

Aren't you tired of big banks profiting without pitching in? Then join us and take action at a Bank of America branch near you:

When: Saturday, March 12 at 10:00 AM.

Where: Demonstrations are planned at 5 Bank of America branches --

  • New Haven: the Long Wharf branch at 250 Sargent Dr
  • Middletown: the Main Street branch at 267 Main Street
  • Norwich: the route 82 branch at 590 West Main Street
  • Bridgeport: the North End branch at 2500 Main Street
  • Waterbury: the Chase & Cooke branch at 992 Cooke Street

How: Bring your homemade signs and tell Bank of America --

  • Pay Your Fair Share to Grow Our Economy!
  • Bailouts are for Jobs, Not Bonuses for Bankers!
  • No More Dragging Down Our Property Values!
  • Renegotiate Mortgages and Keep Families in their Homes!

2010 Legislative Highlights

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Toxic Chemical Reform

Chemical Innovations Institute Gets Green Light

Promising to help Connecticut move beyond the one-chemical-at-a-time approach to toxic chemical regulation, House Bill 5126 establishes the mission and the Board of Directors of a Chemical Innovations Institute (CII) for research and education in green technologies. The program will be housed at UConn Health Center but will operate largely on outside funding. It will protect the environment and the citizens of CT while also constituting an economic development opportunity for the state.

Take Action NOW to pass the Consumer Protection Act!

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The House of Representatives passed the final version of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act on June 30. (See how your Representative voted here.)

Next up, the Senate will have an all-important procedural vote on the bill tomorrow, July 15. This is the last major hurdle to seeing financial reform! To get through it, we need 60 Senators to vote "YES."

The bill is a major advance over the status quo. Despite the millions of dollars the banks spent to weaken it, and despite the thousands of lobbyists on their payroll, it represents a huge step in the right direction for folks on Main Street. If the Senate rejects it, we're left with no changes for the foreseeable future.

The Truth About Financial Reform

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If you've watched any local television lately, you have probably seen an advertisement from the "Committee for Truth in Politics" that is anything but true. Americans for Financial Reform responded to the advertisement in a recent e-mail to its members:

You may have seen this ad from the "Committee for Truth in Politics" on TV that claims that financial reform is really a $4 trillion bank bailout - a claim that doesn't resemble any truth, as Factcheck.org explains. And where did this group get the idea to say black is white and up is down? From a man named Frank Luntz.

Frank Luntz is a pollster for many of the corporations that created our financial meltdown, including Merrill Lynch and bear Sterns. This is the same Luntz whose health insurance reform talking points - on how to best stir up fear and confusion in the American people to derail reform and protect insurance industry profits - showed up across the web and in the mouths of lawmakers. So it shouldn't be surprising that he's at it again, this time writing a 17-page memo on how to kill financial reform.

Learn more by reading Americans for Financial Reform Director Heather Booth's response on the Huffington Post.

Fat Cat Tuesday: Fight For The Change We Voted For

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Connecticut Citizen Action Group
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Dear Friend,

Next Tuesday, February 16, CCAG and HCAN will stand up for the change we voted for. Join our Fat Cat Tuesday March in Hartford against the opponents of reform!

In 2008, our country voted for change. We wanted health care reform because we know over 42,000 people die in America every year for lack of health care, and over 50% of our personal bankruptcies are due to medical bills. We wanted financial reforms that would stop greedy financial institutions from plunging us into the Second Great Depression. We wanted the wars of occupation to end and to rebuild our own country’s infrastructure. We wanted good jobs at good wages and action on climate change for our children and grandchildren. Collectively, we knocked on doors; made phone calls; cajoled our family, friends and neighbors and literally pulled strangers out of their homes to vote for change.

Members of Congress John Larson, Joe Courtney, Rosa DeLauro, Jim Himes and Chris Murphy teaming up with Senator Chris Dodd have worked hard to deliver the change we voted for. Unfortunately, health insurance companies, financial institutions, the US Chamber of Commerce and other big corporate interests are sabotaging our reform efforts and stopping the change we worked so hard for.

On Fat Tuesday (Tuesday, February 16) we will march against the opponents of change in downtown Hartford. We will gather at 5:00 PM at Christ Church Cathedral, 45 Church Street, Hartford (corner of Main and Church Streets across from the old G. Fox Building) for a short program and begin our march at 5:30 PM. Please join us to tell the health insurance companies and the corporate interests to stop opposing the change America needs!

Please sign up for the event by clicking here. For more information, contact me at murphy@ccag.net or (860) 995-3389.

Yours in the fight for the change we need,

John Murphy
CCAG Political Director

P.S. If you don’t think we need health care reform in Connecticut, please watch the hundreds of underinsured and uninsured patients desperately seeking health services last week in Hartford click here to view it now.
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The Move Your Money Project

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Learn more about moving your money from a "too big to fail" bank to a local community bank at the Move Your Money Project website: http://moveyourmoney.info.

Call Congress NOW! Say NO BAILOUT for Wall Street

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The action alert below went out to our e-mail list today. If you want to make sure that you get our action alerts delivered to your inbox, sign up here.

CCAG Action Alert

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Dear Friend,

Please call Congress IMMEDIATELY at 1-800-473-6711 and tell them to oppose the $700 billion giveaway to Wall Street. Main Street

has been kicked to the curb.

Speaker Pelosi has said that there will be no amendments to the bill, so CCAG believes the correct vote is a "NO" vote for the following reasons:

  • Taxpayers do not receive enough equity in the financial institutions for our investment. If we are to buy up all this bad debt, taxpayers should

    have more equity in these financial corporations with our public investment.

  • Foreclosure on people's primary residences has been largely ignored, leaving out homeowners but taking care of the financial institutions.
  • Financial industry regulation was left out of the bill. Our leaders listened to the financial institutions and deregulated the financial sector,

    sticking taxpayers with the bill. Strong re-regulation of the industry is needed.

A bad bill is worse than no bill; an incomplete bill lets Congress think their work is done. We recognize that action is necessary, but we should

insist on protecting homeowners and taxpayers in concert with propping up ailing financial institutions. We need to take care of all of these concerns.

The House will be voting on this as early as this afternoon! Call Congress at 1-800-473-6711 and oppose this bailout of Wall

Street and abandonment of Main Street.

Peace,

-John Murphy // CCAG Political Director

Main Street first, not Wall Street

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The scene in Hartford Thursday (event posting) outside of AIG offices as hundreds of protests took place nationally. People are saying 'NO' to the Bush/Paulson bailout plan.


Connecticut Press Coverage from Thursday:


Taxpayers Protesting Corporate Bailouts - WFSB Channel 3

Nationwide protest hits Hartford - Bristol Press

Fair Lending and Foreclosure Prevention - 2008 Legislative Agenda

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Connecticut foreclosures are on the rise as they are throughout the country. There were 7,747 foreclosure filings in Connecticut in the third quarter of 2007. This represents a 920% increase over the third quarter of 2006. The failure of sub prime loans is affecting markets across the world. This bill is designed to prevent many of the predatory practices and loan terms that created the current lending and foreclosure crises.

The bill would seek to regulate mortgage products that increase the risk of foreclosure, ban abusive practices, and create accountability for mortgage brokers, lenders, and assignees (entities that originate loans).

This bill would Ban the abusive practices of:

  1. 1. Flipping (refinancing with no tangible net benefit to the borrower).
  2. 2. Lending when borrower does not have the ability to repay.
  3. 3. Encouragement of default when refinancing.

And Create accountability by:

  1. 1. Requiring brokers to put the borrower’s interests first.
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