The Georgia AFL-CIO will deliver a petition to Rep. Paul Broun this afternoon on the fiscal cliff:

A coalition of advocacy groups, working men and women, community leaders—will deliver hundreds of petitions and encourage Congressman Broun to sign the “People’s Pledge.” The “People’s Pledge” is a pledge not make any cuts to earned benefits such as Social Security and Medicare, to raise taxes on the top 2%, and protect cuts to community health programs.

“No more economic insecurity from budget cuts. Painful automatic budget cuts that will cost jobs for the middle class, cut community health programs and deepen economic insecurity. We can avoid those layoffs and cuts by letting the Bush tax cuts for the richest 2% expire. Then we can use that money to cancel the cuts and hire people.” Sam Gonzales, Organizer

And Better Georgia is urging Broun to stand with the middle class, not millionaires:

With taxes set to go up by $2,200 automatically for average American families at the beginning of the year and patience at an end for more political games and inaction in Congress, a Georgia group called on U.S. Rep. Paul Broun to take the right course of action for Georgia today by prioritizing the middle class over millionaires.

Votes are expected to take place in the U.S. House on Thursday on two contrasting tax bills: 1) a responsible bill already passed in the Senate that would immediately extend the Bush tax cuts only on incomes under $250,000 for a couple and $200,000 for an individual; and 2) the so-called “Plan B” bill put forward by Republican House leadership which would recklessly perpetuate tax cuts for the wealthiest few – and in fact would give millionaires an average $50,000 tax break - while at the same time raising taxes by an average of $1,000 on 25 million working families with children and students.

The irresponsibility of the Republican alternative doesn’t stop there: compared to the Senate-passed middle-class tax cuts bill, “Plan B” would generate $400 billion less in high-income revenue to address our long-term budget challenges and for critical investments that create and sustain jobs. Rep. Broun is strongly urged to vote YES on the Senate-passed middle class tax relief bill and NO on “Plan B” that is nothing but a Trojan horse for more tax breaks for millionaires while punishing the middle class.

Bryan Long, executive director of Better Georgia, said, “Congressman Broun must have seen the writing on the wall by now. The Congressman knows his party’s position of holding up middle tax relief to protect tax breaks for millionaires is wildly unpopular and that the public will hold them responsible if Congress allows taxes to go up on every American family. Congressman Broun has a golden opportunity to avoid this economic hardship and political fallout by approving the Senate bill to immediately extend tax relief to 98% of the American people and 97% of small businesses.

“And make no mistake,” added Long, “’Plan B’ is not a serious alternative whatsoever and flies in the face of the tax fairness the public is demanding. For the Republican leadership to actually propose a $50,000 tax break for millionaires while raising taxes on the middle class by $1,000 is not a funny joke in the face of the serious consequences inaction will have for the economy come January 1st. Congressman Broun, do the right thing: don’t ring in the New Year by dropping the ball on middle class tax relief.”

Not that Broun is likely to listen. He made his position very clear in a recent press release:

“Democrats have basically told Republicans to either raise taxes, or go to hell,” said Broun. “Forcing us to choose between hurting families and small businesses or going off the fiscal cliff is not only counter-productive – it simply doesn’t make sense for righting our nation’s fiscal crisis. The Democrats’ math just doesn’t add up; there is no way to tax our way out of this mess. Even if they attempt to tax every millionaire and billionaire in America at 100% of their earnings, it still won’t even begin to put a dent in the deficit our federal government is currently running. The only way to begin restoring limited government is to attack the crux of our problem and drastically scale back this nation’s spending. Unfortunately, this impasse is exactly what the President wants – for the fiscal cliff debate to focus on demonizing the nation’s job creators instead of on how his tax-and-spend policies kill jobs and hurt small businesses. If he’s really on the side of the middle class, the President should lighten the load of debt he’s saddled them with over the last four years.”