You have an important opportunity today to tell Congress to set the right priorities for economic recovery. Make sure America's struggling working families and children are a top priority by encouraging Congress to:

• Continue federal emergency unemployment benefits; and
• Extend only those tax cuts targeted towards lower- and middle-income families.

Call Congress today at 1-866-606-1189 and tell your representatives to:

1. Support struggling families by continuing federal unemployment benefits.
Until the economy recovers and workers can find jobs, families need unemployment benefits to help them pay the mortgage or rent, heating bills and other day-to-day expenses. Allowing the emergency benefits to lapse now would increase hardship. The National Employment Law project estimates that upon the expiration of the unemployment insurance extension Nov. 30, about 250 Colorado workers each day will exhaust their regular state benefits. Those people need access to benefits to support their families and get back on their feet.

2. Extend tax cuts targeted at lower- and middle-income families and let the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans expire this year as scheduled.

In today's weak economy, tax credits have a big effect not only for struggling working families but also for businesses in our state. In Colorado, 197,170 children would lose some or all of their Child Tax Credit and 94,465 families with some 208,093 children would lose some or all of their earned income tax credit benefits if improvements made in 2009 are allowed to expire. Households use the credits to pay the mortgage or rent, to buy groceries, to pay utility bills and to provide other day-to-day necessities, and that spending boosts the economy.

Extending improvements to the Child Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit is important for a couple of reasons. According to the Congressional Budget Office, policies that increase the resources of families with lower incomes have a larger short-term economic effect than policies that increase resources for families with significantly higher incomes. Further, taking the tax credits away now, when unemployment is high and millions of families are struggling, will create further drag on the economy.

Call Congress now at 1-866-606-1189 and follow the directions to reach your representatives.