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on Conservative opposition to our American Dream Washington State’s 4 Major Needs Federal Funding for Health
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A
Progressive Income Tax ·
Replacing
Republican Legislators Quote of the Week Those who cannot remember
the past are condemned to repeat it.
George Santayana
(1863-1952) We are all stupid, just on
different subjects. Mark Twain
(1835-1910)
Calendar of Events
Sunday
December 14 at 2 pm at the IAM Hall (
Monday December
15 at 7 PM at Renton Carpenters Hall (
Communication, Opportunities and Petitions
Communication with Our Members and Feedback
Who are Our Members?
Based upon national
statistics and my acquaintance with many members, I estimate that of our 2800
Liberal members, 1700 consider themselves Democrats and 1100 consider
themselves Independents, or in a few cases members of one of our smaller
parties. I guess that our Independents
are as consistently Liberal as are our Democrats. Some Independents may consider the Democrats
to be too consistently Liberal. Others
may consider the Democrats to be not consistently Liberal enough. Many may believe that Democrats are
incompetent and ineffective.
Of the 1700 Democrats, I
estimate that 500 are active. These
include legislators, party officers, and others who participate in party
meetings and events. The other 1200 are
inactive, although many are be politically passionate.
I am sure that most of our
members seldom vote for Republicans.
Relevant to electing Democrats, it doesn’t matter if they are Democrats
or Independents. But our Democratic Party
will be stronger when it can appeal to Independents, such that they become
Democrats.
Our Democratic Party will
better appeal to politically passionate Liberals, when they express clearly
their values and their priorities. When
they identify politically passionate Liberals.
When they regularly communicate with them. Listen to them as well as inform them. We need a WashChange.Gov similar to our
national Change.Gov which is our extension of the Barack Obama Campaign. More
on this in our last week’s newsletter.
Opportunities
Useful
Websites: contacts, maps, community organizing tools, and more.
Access
to jillions of political cartoons.
Download
Michael Moore’s latest movie ‘Slacker Uprising’ for free.
Sign up for a free
Brave New Films subscription to inform more people about the Real John McCain.
Download
Sightline Institute’s climate policy primer ‘Cap and Trade 101’. About
Sightline.
Wellstone
Actions tools of election protection.
International
version of ‘Stand by Me’ (video).
Learn more about
the Obama-Biden policy agenda and share your ideas.:
For
updates from Obama-Biden Transition Project, including video of Obama’s weekly
address.
For News
about Obama-Biden’s preparations to take office.
Petitions and Donations
Tell
decision makers to stop drilling in our Utah wilderness.
Tell
your congress members to help stop military rape in the Congo.
Tell
Barack Obama to end torture.
Commentaries From Our Members
Artemis Oakgrove: Vote Early for Jason Osgood
Don't wait to vote for Jason Osgood on February 3rd. That's the last day by which our ballots have to be postmarked. Vote for Jason from when you receive your ballot in mid-January through February 3rd. There is no place to go vote for him on that day except the nearest ballot drop box or the post office with a late pick-up. This is a 100% by mail election.
Remember, there are
'democrats' running for King County Director of Elections, too. But the
only progressive is Jason. The others are career bureaucrats not
interested in protecting our vote. Jason will most likely not get the
endorsement of the WA Dems (no surprise there). Liberals have to step up
to the plate and vote their beliefs in this election in with the same large
turnout as the General in order to beat the establishment candidate. We
have to send a message that grassroots support matters. Also, voting isn't
enough. We have to volunteer, make phone calls and donate to
his campaign. People have to live in
Ray McBain: We Must Build a
Strong Anti-Military Movement
I strongly appreciate the commentary by David Iles: Barack Obama Should
Reduce Our Military
The important thing is to form a coordinated response that will, if we
succeed, reach the next president (Obama) and begin to form a counter-pressure
leading away from a war basis and toward a restructuring of the economy that is
based on an approach to our position vis-ŕ-vis the world that respects the
people of other countries and their economies, their health and their working
lives.
Barring a strong disintegration of the American empire in the near
future, I doubt that we will have much effect in bringing that about. However,
I believe we need to try. It is time to begin to rebuild a strong anti-military
movement in this country. Wars on foreign soil are bad for the victims, bad for
us, even bad for business (except for the firms that directly profit). The
funding for the military-industrial complex is bankrupting our country.
Dubya has made it clear that he brooks no discontent by Americans. His
Cheney-inspired contempt for our constitutional rights has put yet another
damper on our ability to protest federal policy. Such dampers, however, are not
new; the NSA and CIA have been spying on us for years. And the FBI. And who
knows who else? (Surely Blackwater has joined those elite groups in such
efforts.)
What's new to the scene are two things in particular:
1.
the
huge rise of the internet, with its associated emails (easily machine-readable)
and record of web accesses (ditto);
2.
the
doctrine that the president can ignore whatever constitutional rights he wishes
to ignore (nearly one thousand "signing papers" have been signed by
GWB).
The newest danger to our constitutional rights is putting people into
confinement without due process of law, and then torturing them. ANYONE can be
taken. ANYONE. It occurs to me that the
talk of torture, being leaked from
The suggestion by U.S.
Attorney General Michael Mukasey that pardons of Bush administration officials
are not necessary should be supported by any good representative, especially
Republican or conservative. For it would be a shame for George W. Bush's legacy
to be shattered by the admission by pardon that anything was illegal.
Representatives should support H.R. 1531 (against Bush blanket pardons) to
support his opinion. It would go a long way to support justice.
Sharon Henderson,
Rebuild Our
Published by
Another day, another
viaduct replacement option. Trenches, tunnels, lids, boulevards, combination
schemes, etc. Confused? We must keep in mind what will best move those 110,000
vehicles through the city every day.
Efficiency? The viaduct has
served us well; rebuild it. Cost? The rebuild option is within budget without
costly peripherals needed to support other plans. Time? All are long projects.
The rebuild will not take as long as some and can be done in parts. Choosing an
option that ultimately will increase traffic problems in the city is
absurd. Sharon Henderson
Liberals and Democrats
Pass a Comprehensive
Stimulus Package
Passing a politically popular jobs
stimulus package should be easy. Why not
load it up with features which fulfill many of Barack Obama’s campaign
promises. It should begin with infrastructure;
conservation; non-carbon based energy, medical, materials and other research,
teacher, health provider and caretaker jobs.
We can also add Peace Corps,
Besides funding health care providers, universal publicly paid health care would free many people to retire before age 65, thus freeing their jobs for others. It would also make it easier for businesses to hire more employees. Tax shifting from the FICA jobs tax would also make it ease the hiring of more employees. Through providing workers more money to spend, unionization may be more effective than tax rebates for stimulating our economy.
Adopting many of these reforms would allow downsized auto industry workers to retire, seek retraining, or find other jobs. Thus continuing to stimulate our economy. Instead of becoming unemployed job seekers.
Will Barack
Obama Fulfill Ralph Nader’s 2000 Agenda?
In Ralph Nader’s February 2000 announcement of his candidacy for the Green Party nomination for president, he included the following:
· A majority of workers are making less now, inflation adjusted, than in 1979.
· Over 20 percent of children were growing up in poverty during the past decade, by far the highest among comparable Western countries.
· The minimum wage is lower today, inflation adjusted, than in 1968. American workers are working longer and longer hours- on average an additional 163 hours per year, compared to twenty years ago-with less time for family and community.
· Many full-time family farms cannot make a living in a market of giant buyer concentration and industrial agriculture.
· The public works (infrastructure) are crumbling, with decrepit schools and clinics, library closings, antiquated mass transit, and more.
· Corporate welfare programs, paid for largely by middle-class taxpayers and amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars per year, continue to rise along with government giveaways of taxpayer assets such as public forests, minerals, and new medicines.
· Affordable housing needs are at record levels while secondary mortgage market companies show record profits.
· The number of Americans without health insurance grows every year.
· There have been twenty-five straight years of growing foreign trade deficits ($270 billion in 1999).
· Consumer debt is at an all-time high, totaling over $6 trillion.
· Personal bankruptcies are at a record level.
· Personal savings are dropping to record lows and personal assets are so low that Bill Gate’s net worth is equal to that of the net assets of the poorest 120 million Americans combined.
· The tiny federal budgets for the public's health and safety continue to be grossly inadequate.
· Motor vehicle fuel efficiency averages are actually declining and, overall, energy conservation efforts have slowed, while renewable energy takes a backseat to fossil fuel and atomic power subsidies.
· Wealth inequality is greater than at any time since World War II. The top 1 percent of the wealthiest people have more financial wealth than the bottom 90 percent of Americans combined, the worst inequality among large Western nations.
· Despite annual declines in total business liability costs, business lobbyists drive for more privileges and immunities for their wrongdoing.
Most of these conditions have deteriorated since then.
Ralph Nader then asked:
· Why can't the wealthiest nation in the world abolish the chronic poverty of millions of working and nonworking Americans, including our children?
Let us hope that Barack Obama’s administration will be able to demonstrate that the answer to Ralph Nader’s questions is “Yes, we can.” Let’s also notice the value that results from minor party candidates raising questions, which are insufficiently addressed by our two major parties. Let’s adopt instant run-off and fusion voting to enable minor parties to thrive without harming the major party which is ideologically closest to them. Dave Thomas
Obama Transition
Is Super Transparent
Dear Dave, everyday, we meet with organizations that present
ideas for the Transition and the incoming Obama-Biden Administration. In past
transitions, meetings like this have been held behind closed doors. Not anymore. Today, every Obama-Biden
Transition staff member received a memo outlining the "Seat at the
Table" Transparency Policy. I've included a copy of it below.
The policy is pretty simple: the people and groups we're meeting with, the
subjects of the meetings, and any documents shared in the meetings will now be
made available on Change.gov.
Most importantly, the American public can weigh in with comments or their own
materials.
Read the memo and watch
our "Seat at the Table" video:
This is our latest step toward a more transparent and accessible Transition. We look forward to benefiting from the many more voices that will now be a part of the decision-making process. Thank you, John D. Podesta, Co-chair, The Obama-Biden Transition Project
MEMORANDUM
From: John Podesta
To: All Obama-Biden Transition Project Staff
Date: December 4, 2008
Re: "Seat at the Table" Transparency Policy -- EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY
Overview:
As an extension of the unprecedented ethics guidelines already in place for the
Obama-Biden Transition Project, we take another significant step towards
transparency of our efforts for the American people. Every day, we meet with
organizations who present ideas for the Transition and the Administration, both
orally and in writing. We want to ensure that we give the American people a
"seat at the table" and that we receive the benefit of their
feedback.
Accordingly, any documents from official meetings with outside organizations
will be posted on our website for people to review and comment on. In addition
to presenting ideas as individuals at www.change.gov, the American people
deserve a "seat at the table" as we receive input from organizations
and make decisions. In the interest of protecting the personal privacy of
individuals, this policy does not apply to personnel matters and hiring
recommendations.
Scope:
The following information will be posted on our website:
1. Documents: All policy documents1 and written policy
recommendations from official meetings2 with outside organizations.
2. Meetings: The date and organizations represented at official meetings in the
Transition headquarters or agency offices, with any documents presented as
noted above.
This scope is a floor, not a ceiling, and all staff are strongly encouraged to
include additional materials. Such materials could include documents
(recommendations, press releases, etc.) presented in smaller meetings or
materials or made public by the outside organization without a connection to an
official meeting.
If you have any questions as to whether documents should be included, please
email [REDACTED].
Process:
Prior to an official meeting with an outside organization or organizations,
Obama-Biden Transition Project staff members will inform attendees that any
documents provided will be posted on our "Seat at the Table" website
found at www.change.gov. Suggested language for email invitations is: "By
presenting or submitting any document at a meeting with the Obama-Biden
Transition Project, you agree to allow the document to be made public and
posted on www.change.gov." At the completion of each meeting or upon
receipt of such documents, Transition staff will provide the documents to
[REDACTED] with the date of the meeting, a list of the organizations in
attendance, and the topic of the meeting.
Notes:
1) This policy does not apply to non-public or classified information acquired
from the Agency Review Process and internal memorandum.
2) An "official meeting" is defined as a meeting with outside
organizations or representatives of those organizations to which three or more
outside participants attend.
Tell VoteVets How to Improve Veterans
Care
Yesterday, President-Elect Obama
introduced General Eric Shinseki as his choice to head up the Department of
Veterans Affairs. To us, this signals that the President-Elect will not
accept a veterans care system that has been lacking, nor will he relegate the
Department to second-class status in his cabinet. If there are two things everyone knows about
General Shinseki, they are that he always thinks ahead to what needs may be
down the road, and is not afraid to strongly speak his mind to the President of
the
General Shinseki, as a wounded warrior himself, knows what injured troops and
veterans have to go through. At the same time, he comes to the VA with
fresh eyes. We have no doubt that he’ll make some very forward-looking
assessments of the department, and advocate strongly for the needs of today’s
veterans.
If you are a veteran, or deal with veterans care, we’d like to hear from you,
and we’ll pass along your concerns to the incoming administration. What
do you like or not like about the Department of Veterans Affairs? What do
you feel are the most pressing issues it faces? Have you heard about
developments in physical or mental care that the VA doesn’t offer, but you
think it should? Send your thoughts to info@votevets.org, with “VA Suggestions”
in the subject line, so we can keep track. We’ll compile your
thoughts and pass them along to the transition team.
Thanks for all of your support,
and we look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Brandon Friedman,
Peter
Brian McGough,
Here’s the Beef
Learn about Barack Obama’s campaign and presidential databases.
We need to quit ignoring our bad policies and change them.
Community organizers are organizing politically.
Barack Obama is almost president. Some supporters are too impatient to wait.
Tikkun comments on Barack Obama and Our Role
Our economic crisis makes many Barack Obama proposals politically acceptable.
Obama’s jobs investment stimulus package is a beginning toward more extensive reforms.
A jobs investment stimulus package will restructure our job market.
Universal health care should be part of our jobs stimulus program.
Tom Daschle tells us health reform is necessary to stimulate our economy.
Should our jobs investment stimulus package substitute addiction counselors for prison guards?
Should Obama’s jobs investment stimulus package include increased funding for watchdog agencies?
Revitalizing OSHA will protect workers from employer created unsafe working conditions.
Barack Obama supports workers who are illegally sitting in to protest plant closure.
Global warming legislation may present one of Barack Obama’s greatest challenges.
Obama must reform our dysfunctional agro-business complex which gets paid for wrong priorities.
Our Obama administration should adopt these peace proposals. About Peace Action.
Barack Obama reaches out to military with Robert Gates, James
Jones and Eric Shinseki appointments.
For more about Eric Shinseki appointment as Secretary of Veterans Affairs.
Appointing Xavier Becerra to be Trade Representative offers Obama various political advantages.
Obama’s environmental employees to include an Asian American, Black Woman and two white women.
Can Democrats get 2 Republican senators to help shut off filibusters against health care reform?
Karl Rove engineered persecution of Alabama Democratic Governor Don Siegelman.
Maybe Sarah Palin will become leader of Republican party. Let’s hope so.
State and Local
The following table compares the %
of votes for Democratic candidates for our Lake Hills neighborhood of
President Barack Obama 66.5 58.7 7.8
Congresswoman
Governor Christine Gregoire 59.6 53.2 6.4
Lieutenant Governor Brad Owen 66.7 60.8 5.9
Secretary of State Jason Osgood 43.4 41.7 1.7
Attorney General John Ladenburg 39.3 40.5 -1.2
State Auditor Brian Sonntag 70.2 63.5 6.7
State Treasurer Jim McIntire 52.2 51.1 1.1
Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler 68.4 61.4 7.0
Public Lands Peter Goldmark 57.1 50.6 6.5 Average
Difference = +5.0%
State Representative Ross Hunter 68.4 64.3 4.1
State Representative
We don’t know how much our efforts
to identify likely Democratic voters and stimulate them to vote contributed to
these results. Other factors may have
contributed, especially in comparisons with state totals. I don’t have easy means to calculate the 48th
LD vote percentages for the first 10 candidates above.
2018 Lake Hills voters voted for
Barack Obama, more than for any other candidate. Considering that number to be the number of
likely Democratic voters in Lake Hills, we have canvassed to identify 85% of
them (1720). This may be one of the
highest identification rates in our state.
Of the Republican candidates, Rob McKenna received the highest number (1738). Perhaps 2018/(2018+1738) = 53.7 represents
the percentage of Lake Hills Voters who are likely to vote Democratic. Varying vote percentages which candidates
receive are due to some voters not voting in those races.
Our State Can
Borrow for Long Term Investments. How
about Education?
Our local and national recession and deflation of property values is
causing declining sales and property tax revenues. Assuming that (like other states) we must
balance our state budget,
But can’t many of our education, health and welfare services qualify as
long term investments? Won’t they pay us
back by producing more productive tax payers?
If so, we should rigorously examine our services to identify ones which
could be considered long term capital investments which we could pay through
borrowing.
Published by
Your
front-page story Saturday makes no mention of the cause of recession: a
succession of tax-cutting initiatives that have left cities, counties and the
state vulnerable to this recession in the first place.
Before
I-695 in 1999, the state had a stable source of income, $1.7 billion per
two-year budget cycle, from the motor vehicle excise tax. Local governments
also received a share amounting to about $400 million per biennium. Then the
property tax was capped first at 2 percent, then at 1 percent, by Initiatives
722 and 747. These initiatives were promoted by a salesman who promised they would
force governments to cut the "fraud, waste and abuse" that he claimed
was in their budgets -- though he refused my many attempts, and those of many
others, to say precisely what it was we needed to cut.
It's no
surprise that this salesman went after the MVET, since it was the only
progressive state tax: It took more from the wealthy than from the rest of us.
It left us with a tax structure that now leans most heavily on the middle
class. We are now the state, among all the 50, that relies most heavily on the
most regressive of all taxes, the retail sales tax, which takes a real toll on
those without disposable income.
More
important, the retail sales tax is also the most volatile: it is a tax on
spending, and people quit spending in a recession. Guess what? We're now taking
in so little revenue that we can no longer afford the services that are among
the core missions of any government, including -- among many others -- the
arrest, prosecution and incarceration of criminals.
King
County Sheriff Sue Rahr and Prosecutor Dan Satterberg have been forced to cut
deputies by the dozen. They and the courts have been forced to cut back other
staff, and with them the ability to provide security and justice for county
residents. Because this function takes up 65 percent to 70 percent of every
county's budget, all 38 other counties are going through the very same cuts in
the coming year.
The
state's loss of these stable revenue sources was even greater. As a member of
the Senate Committee on Ways and Means this coming session, I will have the
sorry job of helping to manage the pain that will spread throughout our state's
other functions: K-12, higher education, health care, social services and
environmental protection.
Article after article in the daily
press deals only with the current mess, not how we got here. It's like you guys
are wearing blinders. Heckuva job, guys.
Adam Kline, 37th
Thanks to Adam Kline for describing one of the factors which has caused our state budget crisis. The next step is to describe how we can get out of our crisis and avoid future ones. We need the Federal government to provide enough money for education, health and welfare, so these will be adequately funded everywhere. We need to tax shift from our regressive taxes to progressive ones, which will tax people fairly (which means a tax cut for 80-90% of our taxpayers) while providing sufficient funding for state services. We need leaders who will lead a coalition to reform our tax system to eliminate future revenue crises. Dave Thomas
Where Is Our
Leadership on Tax Reform?
Our economic inequality results
from our high income people
stealing from our social heritage.
We need to stop this stealing by substituting a progressive income tax
for some of our regressive sales, excise and property taxes. Popular support can be obtained by using
Barack Obama’s Framing. 80-90% will pay
lower taxes. High
property assessments will produce more political support for this tax
shifting from property taxes to a progressive income tax.
The next step towards tax reform
is to find a leader who can mobilize a broad coalition. Some powerful organizations will quickly join
such a coalition and others might be persuaded to follow. Will someone step forward to create an
advocacy organization similar to Washington Public Campaigns? Who would you suggest as leader?
A Tentative
(King Co. LAC) Legislative Action Agenda
Tax Reform
·
Review (sunset) tax breaks
every 10 years
· Repeal non-performing tax breaks
·
Property tax circuit breaker
· Seek revenue sources: alcohol tax?
Election Reform
· Public campaign financing—State Supreme Court
·
Automatic, permanent voter
registration
· Same-day voter registration
Environment
· 2009 priorities of
the Environmental Priorities Coalition:
· Cap and invest
program for carbon emissions
· Efficiency first:
promote energy-efficient projects
· Transit-oriented
communities
·
Invest in clean water
Health Care
· Expansion of health care—see what emerges from actuarial study
· Restore cuts to Basic Health
Plan
Housing and Human Services
· Affordable housing—maintain Housing Trust Fund at $200 million
·
Homeowners’ Bill of Rights
· Income source nondiscrimination bill
· Payday lending—36% cap on interest
·
Oppose cuts to human services
Criminal Justice
· Reform or repeal of Three Strikes
·
Sentencing reform to lower
prison costs
Notice the lack of any mention of reforming our tax system to make it more
fair by lowering tax rates which 80-90% of our taxpayers pay. Notice the lack of mention of education, a
large budget item and quality concern.
Dave Thomas
Here’s the Beef
Our counties need more revenue options.
EOI Director John Burbank calls for more raising revenue, not cutting services. For more.
Transportation projects must be based upon land use planning.
Wind energy project to benefit Grays Harbor and Pacific Counties.
Habitat changes produce bird community changes.
Peter Goldmark Forms a Transition Team of Experts.
Stalling is not an option for Seattle viaduct, Bradley Meacham, Chair, Municipal League of King County
Governor Gregoire seeks ideas for stimulating our economy.
Health report gives Washington mixed ratings.
King County Democrats elect 2009 officers.
Nation
and World
Our Borrow, Consume & Speculate Mindset Persists
We need to return from our Borrow, Consume and Speculate mindset and practices to our Earn, Conserve and Invest orientation following WWII. Unfortunately, many of us are unaware of this, denying that our present practices are unsustainable and ethically, emotionally and socially harmful.
We clamor to expand credit. But how much? We should save more and spend less. We should borrow less on our credit cards, using our houses as collateral or otherwise. Such borrowing should be restricted.
We shouldn’t be buying such large houses, inhabited by few residents who are elsewhere much of the time. We shouldn’t be buying so many cars (especially big luxury cars). Our households should own fewer cars and keep them longer. We shouldn’t buy much of the stuff that we cram into our houses, garages and rental storage. We should reduce, reuse and recycle our stuff.
We should not speculate in our houses, the stock market and other ways. Our media considers the reduction in housing values a bad thing. But most of us would be better off if median house prices returned to 3-3˝ times median household incomes. We especially need affordable housing near jobs to forestall urban sprawl, commuting, congestion and pollution.
Stock prices should also be lower, reflecting present and expected future profits based on productivity, instead of a ponzi bubble fueled by infectious greed. We need margin requirements, stock transfer taxes, transparency and other measures to inhibit speculation. Instead of speculating on the stock market, we and our pension plans should loan our savings to guaranteed stable borrowers which pay only a few percentage points above inflation. Such as our national, state and local governments which make public investments to improve our productivity. We should obtain our income and the money we save through work and investment earnings instead of speculation.
In spite of the transitional pain, we should quit depending on speculation and borrowing. We should focus upon increasing our earnings and public and private investments. Instead of trying to benefit by betting against others, we should all benefit through increasing our productivity. Dave Thomas
Policy Making
Should Begin with Vision, instead of Problems
Have you noticed
that often policy making begins with the wrong question?
·
We ask
how to bail out financial companies, when our primary objective is increase
credit.
·
We ask
how to reduce traffic congestion, when congestion is primarily a result of
commuting which results from urban sprawl which results from lack of affordable
housing near jobs.
·
We ask
how to give our low income people a rebate on their excessive taxes instead of
changing our regressive tax system which forces people to pay too much tax.
We then make
policies which only solve a symptom of a deeper problem and often don’t solve
the deeper problem at all. We give money
to financial companies which use it to expand their power instead of providing
credit. We spend money to facilitate
commuting without congestion, which doesn’t work. We spend money help people pay regressive
taxes, but then the money can’t be spent upon services poor and other people
need. Yuk. What a stupid way to make policy.
When we identify a
problem, we first need to do an analysis of the causes of the problem. We need to identify the basic problems which
cause the others as symptoms. We then
need to focus upon finding ways to effectively deal with the basic problems
without causing still other problems. We
will find that our basic problems are obstacles to our vision. For example, our basic visions include,
having enough credit for appropriate investments and consumption, having enough
time at home, and being able to pay fair taxes to produce adequate income for
public serves.
I encourage you to
examine every policy to learn whether it addresses basic problems which are the
major obstacles to our visions. Dave
Thomas
We
Need to Reframe Eliminating Poverty
Many Americans view
the poor as partially deserving their poverty.
If it were possible, increasing all people’s income to just above the
poverty level would still leave them at the bottom of American society. We need a more comprehensive vision than
eliminating poverty. We need to
envision guaranteeing every American equal access to freedoms and
opportunities, so that they can participate fully in the fulfillment of our
American Dream.
We need equal access
to health care and education, including child care and early childhood
education. We need a minimum wage and
earned income tax credit which enables working Americans to receive a livable
income. But increased incomes alone are
insufficient. We also need additional
family rights which assist them to both work and care for their families. We need extra assistance programs for those
with health or educational deficiencies.
This reframing is
both right and helpful to assisting our poor.
For
more.
Two Questions: Restoring Credit and Defaulting Mortgages
A recent gathering of our Economic Opportunity Institute
featured economist Dean Baker. Long before Americans lost half their retirement savings
in the stock market and the term "bailout" became the most referenced
word on Webster's Online, economist Dean Baker predicted that the
I have two questions: One on restoring credit. One on defaulting mortgages
On Credit
1. I assume that we should return from our present Borrow, Consume and Speculate mindset and practice to the Earn, Conserve and Invest orientation which prevailed following WWII.
2. I assume we should return from our financial companies constituting 20% of our economy (measured by number of employees) to less than half that number that prevailed following WWII. For more.
My question is: Can we rank financial companies according to the extent to which they speculated with highly inadequately insured leveraged purchases (and resale) of mystery securities and derivatives? At one end would be the bad guys (investment banks, hedge funds, mutual funds, pensions, and other financial companies) which created our speculative mortgage/credit bubble. On the other end would be the good guys (local commercial banks, credit unions and regional banks which did little speculation.
Could our government
loan money to the good guys sufficient to enable them to fund appropriate loans
(to borrowers who could be reasonably expected to repay them)? Could our government allow the bad guys to
reap the just results of their unregulated speculation without undue harm to
the credit necessary to our economy?
Two notes:
1. Allowing the bad guys to collapse would be resisted by their lobbyists, but would eliminate these lobbyists.
2. I assume that our Obama administration will pass and implement a massive jobs program, which will provide jobs (infrastructure; conservation; non-carbon based fuels; medical, materials and other research; teachers, health providers and caretakers as financial jobs are lost. The difficulty of displaced financial workers is recognized.
Dean Baker Responded: Too many people have money tied up in the bad guy companies to let them fail. The government should assume ownership of the failing ones, wiping out the stockholders and placing strict conditions on their continued operation, with continued provision of credit a priority and restrictions on future speculation. Unfortunately, our government has only partially assumed ownership and has placed few conditions on their operation.
On Defaulting Mortgages
A major local problem is the absence of affordable housing near jobs, causing urban sprawl, commuting, congestion and pollution.
Can our federal government purchase housing properties with defaulting mortgages to sell them as affordable housing? A house which was recently purchased for $300,000 might be purchased for $275,000 or even $250,000. Then resold to the previous purchaser or other qualified buyer for $200,000, with the condition that permanently, the house could only be sold for $200,000 adjusted for inflation plus the cost of improvements.
Dean Baker Responded: Our government should only buy houses at their true value. Many of the houses with defaulting mortgages are suburban, not near jobs. Selling the houses at affordable prices would be expensive.
In other comments, Dean Baker reviewed the development of
our speculative boom, noting that virtually all policy makers denied the
obvious evidence of what was happening.
Infectious greed conquered good sense.
He indicated that the size of our financial sector must be greatly
reduced, although we can not recover the money which many of the speculators
were paid. He endorsed a large jobs
stimulus package. He is optimistic that
Barack Obama can alleviate our economic crisis, but concerned that his advisors
include
Planned Parenthood 2008 Report: A Good Year
Dear Dave, I love my
job. I especially love my job at this time of year, when we take stock of what
we've accomplished as a result of your financial and activist support.
Part of what we accomplish is told in the sheer number of people served at
Planned Parenthood's affiliate health centers — three million men, women,
and teens. But part of our impact is also told a thousand times a day by
the activists we rely on.
This year, with your dedicated help, we fought for increased access to health
care and every woman's freedom to make her own reproductive health decisions. I
can't overstate how big a difference you've made this year. The results we've
achieved together are nothing short of astounding.
Let's
start with the big one: next month, we're going to swear in a pro-choice
president who will be a strong ally for women's health. After eight long years, we won't see
any more anti-choice ideologues appointed to lead agencies that should be
protecting women's health. No more midnight rulemaking to impose additional
hurdles in the way of women, men, and teens trying to access the medical care
they need. Astounding!
That's
certainly the most public result, but it's not the only one by far. We take
your investment of time and money in Planned Parenthood and the health and
wellbeing of the women and families we serve seriously. That's why I want to
share our 2008 Report to Stakeholders with you. Here
are a few highlights that I'm particularly proud of:
·
Working
with state and local action fund organizations, we reached over 536,000
women voters in states with key congressional races.
·
We educated voters in every state about John McCain and Sarah Palin's
awful record on
issues of choice and women's health, helping President-Elect Obama defeat Sen.
McCain by 13 points among women.
·
We
helped elect 18 new pro-choice members in the House of Representatives
and 7 new pro-choice Senators.
·
With
local Planned Parenthood organizations, we led the fight against anti-choice
ballot measures in
I am so proud
to be a part of an organization that is doing much to protect and promote
access to complete reproductive health care. It's truly a gift to meet with
activist and legislators all around the country who rely on Planned Parenthood
Action Fund to lead the fight for preventive care, education, and every woman's
right to make her own reproductive health decisions. They know that Planned
Parenthood Action Fund is always there for them — just as I know that
supporters like you will always be there for us.
Take a look at our online report to see
just what kind of impact you had this year. It's a striking reminder of just
how important supporters like you are to so many people around the country and
around the world.
Thank you for standing with us as we look forward to another year of protecting
and promoting women's health care, and best wishes to you and yours for a
healthy and safe new year. Sincerely, Cecile
Richards, President, Planned Parenthood Action Fund
Opposing
Views on Climate Action
"We can lift ourselves out of this
economic crisis through investing in clean energy solutions that solve global
warming" — From "Transition to Green,"
a set of recommendations for President-elect Obama issued jointly by EDF
and 28 other leading environmental groups.
"This [economic] crisis puts the nail in
the coffin for climate change." —
Here’s
the Beef
Our Federal share of economy is 25% up from traditional 20%, highest since WWII.
Joe Stiglitz describes 5
factors which produced our economic collapse.
I wish Obama appointed him.
Unemployment statistics don’t reveal large numbers leaving our labor force.
Congressional oversight panel criticizes bailout.
Our economic collapse can lead to more happiness through less debt, consumption and speculation.
Road projects alone could provide 1.8 million jobs.
Extending broadband is like our previous interstate highway and rural electrification programs.
Stimulus package includes many projects besides creating more roads.
Learn about clean coal technology (video).
500,000 Israelis illegally settled in Palestine form largest barrier to peaceful solution. For more.
‘Preventing Genocide’ report calls for enhancing global governance
concerning civil rights. For more.
Our Liberal Spirit
Learning from Our Past
Since childhood, I have enjoyed
history. I loved to read about
historical and mythological heroes in our 20 volume Book of Knowledge. At
A few years ago, I also explored my micro-history, genealogy. I have traced by ancestors back (Welsh – 7 generations, Pennsylvania Dutch – 13, Swedish – 4, Irish – 4, African – 8, and Native American – 10). I organized 350 other people to share their genealogical information, resulting in a database of 48,000 interrelated Native Americans with whom I am related. I learned not just names, dates and places. I learned about their lifestyles from work to family. How some differences between siblings can lead to remarkable differences among their descendents.
Knowing history gives me a broader perspective on the possibilities of our present times, what may happen and what changes we may make. But history is much more uncertain than experimental science. We can study what happened. We can find some patterns, which suggest relationships. We can see what happened when something was changed. But we can’t change one thing, then rerun history with everything else the same to see what occurs differently. We must be careful when drawing conclusions from history. Nevertheless, studying history provides many hypotheses for tentative action.
Pundits are having much fun,
comparing Barack Obama and our Times to previous presidents: Lincoln, Franklin
Roosevelt, John Kennedy. He has
assembled a strong cabinet, but none of his cabinet members are now serious
rivals of his. He is encouraging them to
express their views, but he won’t sadistically play them off against each other
the way
Recommended Books – See our list of books for
liberals
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., 1957, The Crisis of the Old Order
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., 1958, The Coming of the New Deal
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., 1960, The Politics of Upheaval
John Kenneth Galbraith, 1954, The Great Crash 1929
These books should be read to compare the situation and
Present Roosevelt’s response to the 1929 collapse of our economy with our
present situation and proposed responses.
Schlesinger’s books describe
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