Castro, Joaquin REP
mta 54
---
an 8 25
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Monday said that the vast majority of schools in the Lone Star State should still plan on displaying the Ten Commandments in classrooms even after a federal judge ruled against it last week.
In a statement, Paxton said that "schools not enjoined by ongoing litigation must abide" by a state law that requires the display of the Ten Commandments in all public and secondary school classrooms.
"The woke radicals seeking to erase our nation's history will be defeated," he said. "I will not back down from defending the virtues and values that built this country."
Paxton asserted that only nine Texas school districts are affected by the injunction and said that all other districts "must abide by the law once it takes effect on September 1, 2025."
The Texas attorney general's defiant stance on the Ten Commandments earned him a quick rebuke from Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), who accused him of grandstanding instead of doing his job as the state's chief law enforcement official.
"Paxton's job is to uphold the Constitution, which guarantees the separation of church and state—not the Ten Commandments," he wrote on X. "Our public schools should focus on educating Texas students, not stoking culture wars."
The Freedom From Religion Foundation also rebuked Paxton for failing to uphold the Constitution's prohibition of the government establishment of a religion.
"The Constitution, not the Ten Commandments, built this country," the foundation said. "Forcing students to observe one religion’s rules is a blatant violation of the First Amendment regardless of what Ken Paxton claims. Public schools are for education, not religious indoctrination."
Paxton's declaration came less than a week after US District Judge Fred Biery of the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas issued a preliminary injunction against the state law requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed.
In his ruling, Biery argued that the classroom displays "are likely to pressure the [students] into religious observance, meditation on, veneration, and adoption of the state's favored religious scripture, and into suppressing expression of their own religious or nonreligious background and beliefs while at school."
https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/democrats-demand-trump-state-department-turn-over-secret-plan-to-slash-social-security-amid-pandemic/
no lnx
Democrats demand Trump State Department turn over ‘secret plan’ to slash Social Security amid pandemic
Written by Jake Johnson / Common Dreams May 18, 2020
House Democrats are demanding that the Trump administration turn over to Congress all documents related to an internal State Department plan that reportedly proposes giving Americans direct cash payments in exchange for cuts to their Social Security benefits, an idea advocacy groups denounced as “monstrous.”
In a letter (pdf) sent late last week to Keith Krach—Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment at the State Department—Reps. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) and John Larson (D-Conn.) called on the administration to release in full the so-called “Eagle Plan,” the existence of which was first reported last week by the Washington Post.
“In this moment of crisis, when millions of Americans are struggling to make ends meet and fear for their retirement, we should be enhancing Social Security, not developing policies to reduce benefits,” the lawmakers wrote. “The idea that you would ask individual Americans to sell out their hard-earned retirement security as the price of desperately-needed help during a crisis is unacceptable.”
The Post reported that the “Eagle Plan” was written by Paul Touw, chief strategy officer to Krach, and forwarded to the White House Council of Economic Advisers by President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
In a statement, Castro characterized the internal State Department proposal as “a secret plan to cut hard-earned Social Security benefits.”
“This should not be a surprise after earlier this year in Davos when President Trump said, ‘At the right time, we will take a look at that,'” Castro said. “Jeopardizing retirement security during a health and economic crisis that disproportionally impacts older Americans is not the ‘right time’—we should only be strengthening Social Security.”
Larson, who has proposed an emergency expansion of Social Security benefits during the coronavirus crisis, echoed Castro, saying “the idea that we would ask Americans to sell out their retirement and long-term security for assistance during a crisis is insane.”
“Social Security is here for Americans for times exactly like the ones we face today,” said Larson. “It is time we strengthen it. This attempt is ludicrous.”
Rep. John Larson
@RepJohnLarson
.@JoaquinCastroTx & I are urging the Trump Administration to turn over all documents & information involved in their plan to cut Social Security. Social Security is here for Americans for times exactly like the one we face today. We need to strengthen it. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/democrats-scrutinize-state-department-plan-to-overhaul-social-security/2020/05/14/c6cd3e10-9622-11ea-8107-acde2f7a8d6e_story.html …
Democrats scrutinize State Department plan to overhaul Social Security
The “Eagle Plan” is among the options that have circulated in the Trump administration to address concerns about the ballooning national debt.
washingtonpost.com
119
2:50 PM - May 15, 2020
Twitter Ads info and privacy
66 people are talking about this
According to the Post, the “Eagle Plan” is one of two proposals to cut Social Security that senior White House officials have considered in recent days as the administration and congressional Republicans claim to be concerned about the rising deficit. Progressives have warned that the GOP’s renewed deficit hawkery is a cynical ploy to justify gutting safety net programs.
Alex Lawson, executive director of advocacy group Social Security Works, said in a statement last week that the “Eagle Plan” would “force people to choose: Go hungry today or work until you die.”
“The Trump administration is obsessed with using the coronavirus crisis to undermine our Social Security system,” said Lawson. “Social Security is an earned insurance benefit. It is not a piggy bank.”
“This plan, and any plan that raids Social Security, is a moral abomination,” Lawson added. “Instead of trying to steal the earned benefits of desperate people, the government should be sending $2,000 a month to everyone in America, as Democrats in Congress have proposed.”
==