Last week, I said that if Congress has to make cuts, we should embrace the idea of ridding ourselves of wasteful giveaways to the fossil fuel industry. Here's an idea. Let’s cut the Master Limited Partnership loophole and fossil fuel subsidies.

President Barack Obama recently called on Congress to extend tax breaks for America's 114 million middle-income families that make less than $250,000. The President has also proposed to let the Bush era's high-income tax cuts expire at the end of this year and use the resulting $1 trillion in savings over 10 years as part of a balanced plan to reduce deficits and debt and put the nation in the right direction towards shoring up our national budget.

The second session of the 112th Congress begins at a critical moment in our nation’s history. Nearly two straight years of private-sector job growth is encouraging news, but we still have a great deal of work to do.  

This week, I stand shoulder to shoulder with fellow Democrats in Congress, fighting to extend unemployment benefits for nearly 2 million Americans and to preserve a payroll tax cut for the American worker.

This past spring, before protesters occupying the financial capital of the world captured all our imaginations, the Village of Hempstead made a decision to stand with the 99 percent in our community when we voted to close our account with JP Morgan Chase.