May/June 1995 Issue

On the Record

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Jesse Helms likes to trumpet his support of the tobacco industry and his stands against abortion, arts funding, and foreign aid. But a review of his voting record reveals that he has also staked out lesser-known positions that place him squarely at odds with the needs of his constituents.

FARMERS: Voted against soil conservation, federal crop insurance for hail damage, and temporary protection from foreclosures during the farm crisis. As chair of Agriculture Committee, failed to take action on bill making it easier for farmers to get drought relief and other disaster assistance.

VETERANS: Voted against $80 million in pensions and $100 million in home loans. Supported massive cuts in medical care for disabled veterans. Opposed job training for unemployed veterans of Korea and Vietnam, and compensation for military personnel exposed to nuclear tests.

ELDERLY: Repeatedly voted to freeze or cut cost-of-living increases in Social Security benefits. Opposed funds for Meals on Wheels and Medicare. One of nine senators to vote against medical coverage for prescription drugs.

CHILDREN: Voted against summer jobs for inner-city teens, shelters for battered women and children, nutrition for mothers during pregnancy, and Social Security benefits for children in foster care. Opposed safety standards for day care centers.

WORKERS: Voted against tax cuts for working families, 60-day notification of plant closings, parental leave, job training for those on welfare, and increasing the minimum wage to $4.55 an hour.

ENVIRONMENT: Voted against controlling asbestos, double hulls on tankers to protect against oil spills, sewage treatment facilities, and the Clean Air and Clean Water acts. Introduced bill to outlaw new wilderness areas. Used threat of filibuster to reduce industry fees for cleaning up toxic waste.

EDUCATION: Proposed cuts in school lunches. Voted against funds for vocational education, Head Start programs for disadvantaged preschoolers, and special education for the disabled. One of four senators to oppose work-study jobs for college students.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we need readers to show up for us big time—again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

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