As the Senate and House both move to begin considering the Budget Resolution for Fiscal Year 2004, both chambers have been talking openly about including revenues from potential lease sales in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Lease sales will generate revenues that could be included in the budget, but only if drilling in the Arctic Refuge has been approved.

This week, the Senate budget committee and the House Budget Committee both begin work on the FY 04 budgets.

On the House side, Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle (R-IA) has stated that he doesn't think Arctic drilling should be part of the budget resolution. The House Budget committee began deliberations on the budget resolution on Wednesday, March 12. Committee Chairman Jim Nussle, for the third year in a row, declined to include assumptions of drilling revenue in the resolution, which provides the broad framework for the annual spending and tax bills. The resolution is non-binding, but merely serves as a blueprint.

Nevertheless, the threat to the Refuge looms large in the House of

As he pushes ahead with war plans, President Bush is also exploiting the national preoccupation with the war by trying to pass a gigantic new tax cut. The Bush tax package includes $700 billion in new cuts, and a total revenue reduction of more than $2 trillion over the next ten years.* These cuts will primarily benefit the wealthiest Americans.

With the imminent start of war, we know this is a hard time to focus on anything else. But because you've been one of our most active members, we hope you can find a moment to make two calls today. The Senate vote on the Bush tax plan could come as soon as today, Tuesday, March 18th.

The AFL-CIO has generously provided a toll-free number. Please call both of your Senators now, at:

1-888-280-6279

If that number is busy, please call your Senators directly, at:

Senator Durbin
DC Phone: 202-224-2152

Senator Fitzgerald
DC Phone: 202-224-2854

Make sure the staffers know you're a constituent. Then urge your Senators to:

"Please OPPOSE the President's tax cut package. We simply

George W. Bush
1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Washington, DC

Dear Governor Bush:

So today is what you call "the moment of truth," the day that "France and the rest of world have to show their cards on the table." I'm glad to hear that this day has finally arrived. Because, I gotta tell ya, having survived 440 days of your lying and conniving, I wasn't sure if I could take much more. So I'm glad to hear that today is Truth Day, 'cause I got a few truths I would like to share with you:

1. There is virtually NO ONE in America (talk radio nutters and Fox News aside) who is gung-ho to go to war. Trust me on this one. Walk out of the White House and on to any street in America and try to find five people who are PASSIONATE about wanting to kill Iraqis. YOU WON'T FIND THEM! Why? 'Cause NO Iraqis have ever come here and killed any of us! No Iraqi has even threatened to do that. You see, this is how we average Americans think: If a certain so-and-so is not perceived as a threat to our lives, then, believe it or not, we don't want to kill him! Funny how that works!

LOS ANGELES, CA - March 17, 2003 - Physicians for Social Responsibility - Los Angeles (PSR-LA) called on the Bush Administration to continue diplomacy and find a peaceful solution to the Iraqi crisis. The public health group claimed that a war on Iraq would increase the likelihood of a terrorist attack in the US, cause untold suffering to the Iraqi people and threaten our economy and social needs at home. The group also demanded that President Bush publicly commit to a "no first use" policy on nuclear weapons.

"We call on the President to use diplomacy and to give the U.N. weapons inspectors their requested time to finish their work," said Paul Kawika Martin, Peace and Security Associate for PSR-LA. "Not only is it important for the U.S. to find a peaceful solution, but the U.S. must let the international community know that it will not use weapons of mass destruction. If Saddam Hussein thinks we may use nuclear weapons like our 'bunker busting' bomb against him, he may unleash chemical and biological weapons against us first."

The American people have been denied additional time to voice their opinion about the management of their public lands. A recent decision by the administration rejects a request to extend the public comment period for the draft oil and gas leasing plan of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska's northwest area. A coalition of conservation groups formally requested extending the 60 day comment period to 90 days, as was requested and approved in 1998 for the northeast planning area of the NPR-A. The same group also asked for public hearings to be held in the lower 48 states, just as they were for the northeast planning area of this region, also called the Western Arctic.

Only a single hearing outside Alaska was granted, to be held in Washington, DC on March 13 - a mere five days before the public comment period ends March 18. With so much land in the crosshairs of big oil, and so little - less than 5 percent - of the nation's land permanently protected as wilderness, it is only fair that the public has adequate opportunity to speak up.

"This is about corporate greed, pure and simple, because Americans don't