Enhancing Freedom, Opportunity and Cooperation in
Through informing and networking Liberals and Liberal Organizations.
Our vision is hundreds of thousands of well-informed
Our Website Our Editor To Unsubscribe Table of
Contents * Featured Articles Calendars of Events Communication with Our Members Opportunities Petitions Commentaries from Our Members Rich Austin: Health Care Reform Is Rigged John de Graaf: Bill to Require Vacation Time* Bob
Olson: Banks Must Assume Responsibility Donald A. Smith: Corruption is the Problem Bert Sacks: Crime to Participate in War of Aggression Liberals and Democrats Links to the Beef State and Local Links
to the Beef How Does Washington State Rank?* Federal Aid is Major Increasing Revenue Source KC Democrats Are Reaching Out to New Members Featured Advocacy Group: Poverty Action Network* Electronic Records Increase Patient Safety* Nation and World Links to the Beef Can We Only Bail Out the Good Guys? * Tax the Rich to Increase Revenue by $450 Billion/Year Dollar Value Decreasing.
Oil Prices Increasing. United States Elected to the
U.N. Human Rights Council Our Liberal Spirit Our
Political Priorities ·
Fair Clean
Elections and Open Government ·
Fair Taxes and
Competent Spending ·
Investment for
Productivity ·
Quality
Health, Education, Jobs, Income ·
Environmental
Protection and Energy Independence ·
Security and
Equal Rights ·
Justice and
Peace Everywhere ·
International
Cooperation and Leadership Conservatives oppose all of these Let’s
End Our National Nightmare
Let’s
Restore Our American Dream More on Conservative opposition to our
American Dream Washington State’s 5 Major Needs ·
Federal
Funding for Health and Education · Substitute
a Progressive Income Tax · Replacing
Conservative Legislators Quote of the Week I’m OK. You’re OK. Thomas
A. Harris
Calendar of Events
Schedule for Organizing
for
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5/16/2009 |
12:00:00 PM |
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5/17/2009 |
12:00:00 PM |
Machinists Hall |
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5/19/2009 |
6:00:00 PM |
Community Center |
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Ellensburg |
5/26/2009 |
6:00:00 PM |
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5/31/2009 |
6:00:00 PM |
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6/1/2009 |
6:00:00 PM |
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Sequim |
6/2/2009 |
6:30:00 PM |
Sequim Library |
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6/3/2009 |
6:00:00 PM |
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6/4/2009 |
6:00:00 PM |
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6/6/2009 |
12:00:00 PM |
Whatcom Educational Credit Union |
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Saturday, May 16 at 12 Noon at Town Hall Seattle
(8th Avenue and
Saturday, May 16 at 6:30 PM at Candy Sullivan’s
and Jule Sugarman’s home (
Wednesday, May 20 at 7 PM at Swedish Providence
Campus (17th and East Cherry Entrance,
Thursday, May 21 at 12 Noon across the street from the
Friday, May 29 at 6:30 at
Saturday, May 30 at 12:30 PM at
Monday,
June 1 at 7 PM at
Tuesday, June 2 at
5:30 at Café Racer (
Saturday, June 6 at
6:30 at
Saturday, June 13
at 6 PM at
Communication
with Our Members
To select the links and write the
commentaries which appear in this newsletter, I scan or read each week hundreds
of emails, daily, weekly or monthly publications and books, plus a few websites
such as Bloomberg.com and
Daily Kos. At least five for each one I use here.
I am an information processor. I try to find information concerning
important topics, which not widely available.
Or detailed information concerning topics that are generally only
discussed superficially. I try to avoid
just repeating information that is widely available.
Topics which I currently find
particularly interesting include our economic collapse and attempts by the
Obama administration to reform our economic system. Also the changing political scene, with
Democrats becoming more powerful while the Republicans are continuing their
decline. And other topics relevant to
the priorities that appear on the right column of the first page of every
newsletter. My major question is whether
we will be able to curb the excessive influence that corporations wield through
their campaign contributions and lobbyists.
The emails that I receive from members
are particularly passionate concerning:
·
Identifying and punishing
those who have violated our constitution, particularly by torturing.
·
Eliminating our
military presence in
·
Single payer
public health insurance or at least such an option.
I believe that all three may happen, although not quickly. Dave Thomas
Opportunities
and Petitions
Useful
Websites: contacts, maps, community organizing tools, and more.
Access
to jillions of political cartoons.
Download
Sightline Institute’s climate policy primer ‘Cap and Trade 101’. About
Sightline.
Conduct your own home energy audit.
See all of President Obama’s
weekly (Saturday) addresses.
Listen to Pete Seeger
singing and hear about his history of political singing (video). For more. I have a autographed Pete Seeger songbook
that I got in 1945 when I listened to him sing in a
Petitions
Tell
Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate
Bush Era torture.
Tell BLM to stop oil
shale development on public lands.
Tell
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to regulate greenhouse gases.
Tell Forest
Service keep Sweetwater Valley road closed to protect grizzly bears.
Tell Bank
of America to stop funding coal fired electricity generating plants.
Indicate
your support for President Obama’s 3 health care reform principles.
Tell
President Obama to release the torture photos.
Commentaries
From Our Members
Rich Austin:
Health Care Reform is Rigged
Dear brothers and sisters, this is the kind of under-handed, b.s. "health reform
hearings" that are taking place. It should be noted that Sen. Baucus
(D-MT) is a favorite son of the medical-industry complex. Over a
span of five years they tossed $1 million his way.
Take a look at the cast of
characters (aka witnesses). Only one person from labor (Stern) was
in attendance, but he sure as hell didn't speak for the overwhelming majority
of union people - and the public - who support single-payer! Hell, he
didn't even mention single-payer. Folks, the game is rigged. Labor
needs strong, effective, unwavering spokespeople at Congressional hearings.
Pie card apologists do us a terrible disservice! Rich
Austin
John de Graaf:
Bill to Require Vacation Time
Dear friends and colleagues, I have some terrific news
to share with you!!! At 11 am, Thursday, May 21st on the
Cannon House Office Building Terrace, Congressman Alan Grayson of Florida will
introduce the first paid vacation bill in US history at a press
conference. I will be with the Congressman as he announces the
legislation. The basic points of the bill and arguments in favor are
included below my email in an email from Congressman Grayson's staff. As you will see, this is a very modest bill,
but as a friend who is a US Senate staffer told me, it's a "down
payment" for future improvements.
TAKE BACK YOUR TIME hopes that all individuals
and organizations that care about the quality of life of working people
will endorse this legislation. We hope that it will be strengthened in
committee and in the Senate, but we are grateful that Congressman Grayson is,
by this bill, bringing America's lack of vacation time to public attention and
beginning, however modestly, to address it. I hope you will add your
support for this bill and will assist me in reaching out to other
organizations.
We would love to have any of you join us at the introduction press conference for this groundbreaking and historic occasion. I am very excited about this--it is the culmination of hard work by many people! I have made it clear that our support for this bill is contingent on its not being viewed as a possible substitute for the Healthy Families Act, which we firmly believe should be passed first. The vacation time in this bill will be IN ADDITION TO any sick leave currently granted by companies or mandated by the Healthy Families Act when it passes.
Please let me know if you can help and feel free to call me at 206 407-5490 for any further information. Additionally, we will be addressing this bill at our Seattle Vacation Matters Summit in August and Congressman Grayson hopes to join us there. I hope that many of you can make this first-ever conference and be part of the history we are trying to make. All the best, John de Graaf, Executive Director, Right2Vacation.org
Donald A. Smith: Corruption,
Not Taxation is the Problem
Published by the
In his May 6
letter Chris Neibauer nailed the problem on the head when he complained of
"our tax dollars being thrown down the drain by corrupt politicians." So why didn't the tea party organizers
protest against corruption instead of protesting against taxation? The reason
is clear: protesting against taxation meshes with the anti-government ideology
prevalent among conservatives.
Neibauer says
he's "all for paying taxes to benefit the country, as anyone with half a
brain is." But millions of Americans oppose government and consider
taxation to be theft, even when it's used to fund necessary and worthwhile
programs such as national defense, veterans' care, the FBI, debt reduction,
regulatory agencies, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
During the Bush
years, Republicans intentionally mismanaged government and ran up the deficit,
in an effort to "drown government in a bathtub" and destroy peoples'
faith in the possibility of good government. Now we must fix government and we must raise
taxes on the well-to-do, who have seen their share of wealth increase
dramatically and who enjoy unjustly low rates of taxation, especially in states
like
Government is
indeed out of control, because powerful special interests hijack it. But the
answer isn't Reagan's (minimize government). The answer is: have public
financing of elections so that politicians aren't beholden to special interests. Donald
A. Smith
Bert Sacks: A Crime to
Participate in War of Aggression
Published by
It is hard to imagine an issue
more central to the future of our country than this: Will we uphold the rule of
law, or simply say we do and then act however we wish? Lt. Ehren Watada refused deployment to
U.S. Army Field Manual (27-10,
Section 498) says, any person "who commits an act which constitutes a
crime ... [is] liable to punishment ... [including] a crime against the
peace." A crime against the peace is the crime of engaging in a war of
aggression. To follow the rule of law
and the Army Field Manual, the court-martial of Lt. Ehren Watada had to
confront the question: Was the
As one law professor put it:
"[Lt. Watada] is being ordered to do something that he has every reason to
believe ... is implicating him in the gravest crime against peace imaginable.
And if he has no chance to even raise that issue before this military tribunal,
then it's such a blatant denial of justice as to itself constitute a kind of
crime because he's being criminally disallowed from obeying the law. Franz
Kafka didn't have such a macabre imagination."
Perhaps George Orwell had a
better imagination. I hope we'll choose not to live in that world. Bert
Sacks
Liberals
and Democrats
Government Watch
Less Bully Pulpit
During
the first 100 days of his presidency, Barack Obama was everywhere in the public
eye: press conferences, town meetings, so-called summits with political and
economic leaders concerning various economic reforms, weekly addresses, and
appearances on television shows. His
message was that our economy has collapsed; his stimulus-investment package and
other measures would restore the economy, but not quickly; and that we should
support his programs while remaining patient for results. His use of the bully pulpit was successful.
These
past several weeks, President Obama has been much less in the public eye. A fun exception was his
appearance before the White House Press Association. He also met Health
Care Insurers and providers who pledged to reduce increased health care costs.
He
praised companies which encourage employee health. More on
health care reform. He asked his cabinet to find ways
to cut expenditures. In his weekly address, Obama
called for congress to address credit card abuse.
Government Department Actions
Most
of the political action is occurring in various government agencies and
Congress. Many of President Bush’s
actions to let corporations override our environmental laws have been reversed.
Our EPA and FDA are taking on new
responsibilities for regulating and enforcing environmental and consumer
protection. FDA says Cheerios can’t be marketed as a
drug. Our Justice Department is
increasing its willingness and resources to investigate and pursue anti-trust
and fraud violations. For more. Our Housing and Urban Development and
Transportation Departments are increasing
the coordination of their activities.
Our State Department is enhancing its diplomatic and development
capacity. Similar actions are occurring
in other Departments. Tax reductions are
being distributed and infrastructure investment projects are beginning. Our Military is adopting a new counterinsurgency
strategy for Iraq.
In
the aftermath of the stress tests, fewer unpopular bailouts are
anticipated. Bankruptcy will resolve the
fates of Chrysler and General Motors.
The number of troops in
Environmental, Health Care and
Educational Reform
Having
passed the 2010 budget resolution, Congress is moving rapidly on health care,
with some form of public health coverage an option. Greenhouse gas cap and trade legislation is
being prepared with credits being given free during our recession and then
auctioned off. House
climate bill may pass soon. For
more. For more. Our Education Department is promoting reforms
and providing 100 billion in stimulus-investment funds to assist local schools.
Not Yet
Various
issues are being delayed while emphasis is upon dealing with our
recession. No immigration reform bill is
being introduced; but Homeland Security is scaling back its raids upon
employers of undocumented immigrants and deportation of those found. No attempts are anticipated to legalize
drugs, but the federal government is allowing states and cities to quit
punishing drug users. As states are
increasing civil rights for GLBT people, our Federal government is even waiting
to eliminate ‘Don’t Ask. Don’t Tell.’
Our
Obama Administration is not mounting a frontal assault on
Here’s the Beef
Technology
helped elect Barack Obama. So did art.
The Wilderness Society
describes and evaluates President Obama’s environmental actions.
There
is an ideological battle over who wrecked our economy.
Arlen
Specter may be unable to win Pennsylvania’s Democratic Primary.
12
Democratic Senators cave in to Wall Street (or were bought off).
Why didn’t Obama
Administration give more support to Cramdown bill?
Some
good news about student loans and health care costs.
Unregulated
agriculture is perhaps our most polluting industry.
New
York State government will quit purchasing bottled water.
A
deal concerning the energy and climate reform bill may be close.
An
update on the Employee Free Choice Act.
Senate
Finance Committee is including public health coverage option in health reform
legislation.
Not
clear whether members of New Democratic Coalition (including Adam Smith, Brian
Baird and Rick Larsen) will support public health coverage option. For more.
Republicans
don’t have a workable strategy to defeat health care reform.
Robert
Reich: Report that Social Security is financially unsustainable is wrong.
Obama
is seeking tax reforms to increase revenues by taxing financiers.
Many more
cuts to our military spending are needed.
Non
religious believers are increasing. Will
they become politically powerful?
Republicans
referring to ‘Democrat Socialist Party’ may make socialism a more popular term.
State
and Local
How
I
once attempted without success to find how
·
Statistical
Abstract: http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/rankings.html
·
Environment: http://www.forbes.com/2007/10/16/environment-energy-vermont-biz-beltway-cx_bw_mm_1017greenstates_2.html
·
Health: http://www.whf.org/spotlights/Healthiest-State-Report-Card-2008.aspx
·
Education: http://www.alec.org/am/pdf/education/2008_report_card/washington08.pdf
·
Education: http://www.lrc.ky.gov/lrcpubs/RR345.pdf
·
Incarceration: http://www.everychildmatters.org/homelandinsecurity/table-11.html
·
Housing: http://www.ors2.state.sc.us/abstract/chapter1/staterank7.php
·
business: http://www.cnbc.com/id/25501971/
·
Income and taxes:
http://retirementliving.com/tax_burden_2008.pdf
·
For a critique of
business climate rankings.
·
Washington
welfare recipients increase 18%.
·
Also see the
trends identified by Sightline
Institute’s scorecard.
These
rankings are based on information from a year or more ago. So they don’t portray the results of our
recent legislative session’s budget or future effects. We can expect that both
Federal Aid Is Major Increasing Revenue Source for
States this Quarter
In
a historic first, Uncle Sam has supplanted sales, property and income taxes as
the biggest source of additional revenue for state and local governments.
Top
revenue sources for state and local governments in the first quarter, compared
with the same period last year:
Federal
grants: +15%
Income
taxes: -11%
Property
taxes: +2%
Sales
taxes: -2%
Other
taxes: +2%
Sources:
King County Democrats Are Reaching Out to New
Members
The King County Democrats Organization uses its resources to reach
to new and long-time Democrats and keep them involved:
·
Creating
a Multicultural Networking Committee to enhance the community outreach effort.
·
Participating
in festivals and fairs across the county
·
Sponsoring
candidate forums as a public service
·
Conducting
free training for Precinct Committee Officers (PCOs) and creating a new PCO
·
Creating
a technology team that has designed and developed precinct maps and election
history
·
Creating
and supporting a Legislative Action Committee that works with the
Democratic Legislators and brings the message across the county with
monthly meetings
·
Coordinators
committee comprised of Membership/PCO Chairs in all 17 legislative districts
·
Providing
a great website that is a resource for news and events around the county
·
Providing
office space, telephones, and other resources to local candidates and the
coordinated campaign
Featured Advocacy Group -----
Poverty Action Network -------------------------
In a year with few victories, Statewide Poverty Action
Network helped restore voting rights and win critical consumer
protections.
Voting Rights Restoration (HB 1517) - because no one
should be denied the right to vote because they have a low income, this crucial
bill restores the right to vote to people with felony convictions after they
serve their time to the state.
Restricting Collections Tactics (SB 5164)
-
a common sense bill that restricts the collections practices of payday lenders
and check cashers to prohibit harassment, intimidation and more.
Enforcing consumer protections (SB 5531) - raises the
allowable damage level for consumer protection cases from $10,000 to $25,000,
ensuring that more attorneys can afford to fight for
Preventing reverse mortgage scams (HB
1311) - increases regulation of reverse mortgages and strengthens disclosure
standards, preventing seniors from falling prey to reverse mortgage scammers.
Health care for children (HB 2128) - keeps health
insurance eligibility at 250% of the federal poverty level (FPL) and leverages
federal money for the program. Expands and improves outreach, enrollment and
renewal efforts.
Read
more about Poverty Action's priorities this session.
Final budget will cost
families with low incomes
Facing a record deficit, the Legislature approved a final budget that
makes drastic cuts to the programs that many families depend on to meet their
basic needs. There were a few bright spots in this generally devastating budget,
but overall, the final budget undercuts important investments.
Building Assets
Individual
Development Accounts (IDAs), a state-matched savings account program that helps
people with low incomes save to purchase or build assets like a home, an
education or a business. No new funding was added to this program.
Assuring Dignity for All People
General
Assistance-Unemployable (GA-U), a program that provides small monthly cash
grants and medical coverage for disabled adults that are unable to work.
Funding reduced by $65million - maintains cash grant funding, reduces slots.
Housing Security
Housing
Trust Fund, the main source of funding for affordable housing in our state,
makes it possible for people to afford housing and still have enough money for
basics like food and gas. Funding was cut by 50% to $100 million.
Transitional Housing Operational and Rent
Program (THOR), short-term rental assistance and services for homeless and
at-risk families and individuals. Funding reduced by $1.5million, keeping
program whole, but eliminating much-needed expansion.
Access to Health Care
Basic
Health Plan, health coverage to individuals under 200% FPL, serving about
100,000 individuals and families with low incomes in our state. This program
was reduced by 40,000 slots and will leave many without coverage for
prescriptions and preventative care.
Adult Day Health, skilled nursing and
rehabilitative therapy for frail seniors and adults with medical or disabling conditions. Funding for
this program was cut by 70%.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Electronic Records Increase Patient Safety
Published by Business Week on 5/18/2009
While the issues and risked described are real, we at
Seattle Children’s Hospital have made strides in patient safety that would not
have been possible without our electronic health records. These include
reductions in mortality, in bloodstream infections, in time elapsed from order
to medication administration, and in pharmacy-ordering errors. We’ve also made much greater use of
evidence-based treatments, decreasing the use of unwarranted therapies in
specific populations.
None of these changes were attainable with our old
paper-based record system. Mark Del Beccaro, Chief Medical
Information Officer, Seattle Children’s Hospital
Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound also uses an
electronic health record system, which enables all providers to coordinate
their actions. Dave Thomas
Here’s the Beef
Washington
governor and legislature failed to fulfill their responsibilities.
Washington State Labor Council
criticizes 2009 legislature.
Without
tax reform, Washington State’s budget problems will outlast recession.
To maintain
services, 16 States have raised taxes and 17 more are considering it.
$26.6
million stimulus money funds dredging the Columbia River to enhance shipping.
Carbon
emissions requirements stops proposed Kalama coal fired generation plant.
Local
food production helped by contract processing facilities.
Which of our Washington congress members
support creation of a commission to investigate torture?
Nation
and World
Understanding Stress Tests
Financial
companies are pass-through systems. They
receive money from various parties, such as stockholders, depositors and
lenders; thereby incurring various financial obligations to these parties. They then provide the money to other parties;
that become financially obligated to them.
If the various parties (to whom a financial company provides money)
become unable to meet their obligations, the financial company may fail (be
unable to meet its obligations to the parties that provided them money.
Two
questions arise. If a financial company
fails, who gets hurt? The stress tests
that were conducted of the 19 large financial companies don’t address this
problem. They simply assume that the
harm is serious enough that we must know the risk under various economic
conditions and what private and public measures are necessary to prevent
failure.
For
each of the 19 financial companies, the stress tests analyzed the risk that
various parties which are obligated to pay them may be unable to do so. Estimated possible losses from these sources
are added to provide a total amount. The
following results are only for the 4 companies with the largest estimated
losses.
______________________________________________________________
Estimates of 2009-2010 Losses ($ billions) for More
Adverse Scenario
Total* BofA Citi JPMC
Wells
First Lien Mortgages
102.3 22.1 15.3 18.8
32.4
Trading & Counterparty
99.3 24.1
22.4 16.7 -na-
Credit Card Loans
82.4 19.1
19.9 21.2 6.1
Second/Junior Lien Mortgages
83.2 21.4 12.2
20.1 14.7
Commercial & Industrial
Loans
60.1 15.7 8.9
10.3 9.0
Commercial Real Estate Loans
53.0 9.4 2.7 3.7 8.4
Securities 35.2 8.5 2.9 1.2 4.2
Other 83.7
16.4 20.4 5.3
11.3
TOTAL 599.2 136.6
104.7 97.4 86.1
* Total of all 19 bank holding
companies Source
(Table 3)
Notice that the largest
losses for the 4 largest losers are from mortgages (first and second/junior
lien). Bank of America, Citigroup and JP
Morgan have large estimated credit card losses.
Then comes commercial and industrial loans. Commercial real estate loans are significant
sources of loss for Bank of America and
Wells Fargo.
I don’t know what trading and
counterpart, and other consist of.
Perhaps some of these consist of several financial companies trading
assets and obligations to rearrange their bookkeeping to show them in a more
favorable light.
Along
with existing capital and expected income, these losses are used to calculate
how much additional capital may be needed.
For a critique of the
assumed risks. For a
critique of the leverage that would be allowed. For
a Dean Baker critique. For
Robert Kuttner’s reaction. Joe
Stiglitz says things may not get much worse, but not get much better either.
For
an overview of the stress test report.
For
more. More1. More2. More3. More4. More5. More6.
Dave
Thomas
Can We Only Bail Out the Good Guys?
Suppose
that for each financial company, we could determine which other financial
entities they are obligated to that would be hurt if they failed. Suppose for each of these second level
companies, we could do the same thing.
Until we had traced the impact of a company failing to the end financial
entities which have no specific obligations to others.
Suppose
we could classify these end users as good or bad. For example, charity and university endowment
funds, pension funds and 401(k)s good.
Financial companies which pay their proceeds to management and wealthy
speculators bad. Then we could only bail
out the good guys and let the others fail.
Unfortunately deciding who is good and bad would be the largest
political fight in history. Aren’t
unwary investors who invested in Ponzi schemes or our reputable companies that
secretly took enormous risks responsible for their ignorance.
How
could we every have financial markets if some who made stupid decisions get
bailed out, but others don’t? It is easy
to understand the fierce reaction from any attempt by the government to decide
good guys who should bailed out and bad guys who shouldn’t. The government is supposed to decide who gets
bailed out solely on the impact on our economy (and perhaps more narrowly on
the availability of credit. Dave Thomas
Tax the Rich to Increase Revenue by $450 Billion/Year
Our federal government, since the turn of
the century, has squandered hundreds of billions of borrowed dollars on tax
cuts for the wealthy and militarized solutions to global problems. It has given
massive bailouts for the Wall Street investment firms that created the current
economic crisis.
Obama, with his stimulus plan, is
proposing to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in the overdue investments
on public infrastructure, energy, education, and health care that our nation's
future demands. We cannot just borrow to pay for these investments. We also
need to tax—the top.
The following seven proposals would do
just that and, in the process, raise over $450 billion a year and over $3
trillion over the next five years:
1. Repeal tax breaks for households with annual incomes
over $250,000: $43 billion per year.
2. Tax financial transactions: $100 billion per year.
3. Eliminate the tax preference for capital gains and
dividends: $80 billion per year.
4. Levy a progressive estate tax on large fortunes:
$40-60 billion per year.
5. Establish a new higher tax rate on extremely high incomes:
$60-70 billion
6. End overseas tax havens: $100 billion per year.
7. Eliminate subsidies for excessive executive
compensation: $18 billion per year.
Dollar Value Decreasing. Oil Prices Increasing.
We
are borrowing more money to pay for our federal deficits. The value of our dollar is declining compared
to the Euro. The price of oil in
American dollars is increasing.
After we and other countries recover, our
increased economic activity will create more demand for oil, pushing oil prices
up. This may be less if less oil is
used, due to conservation and use of alternative energies. As deficits decline, the dollar will gain
value, pushing oil prices down. With all
these factors, it is difficult to predict oil prices. Except that as production falls, prices will
increase.
Citizens
for Global Solutions celebrates the election of the
"The
Here’s the Beef
A
brief history of this credit crisis and responses to it.
Americans
lost their retirement savings, partly due to wrong Washington Post
commentaries.
During
recession, Social Security and Medicare are providing a floor for retired.
Government
paid much too much for common shares of Citigroup.
Americans
need a new vision, with less emphasis upon financial success.
Out
of work with time on your hands. Become
an advocate for reform.
Businesses
fail to pay several million employees what they are owed.
Some people who lose
their homes are able to buy them back at lower cost and better mortgage.
We may
love our mom’s, but we don’t mandate that they have time off work after
childbirth.
Our
children don’t just receive our debts.
They receive our infrastructure and economy.
State public health insurance
plans are models for national public health reform.
Unnoticed,
inhabitants of islands overwhelmed by higher waters have left.
Prodded by Biden and
Kerry, American Jewish lobby may accept two-state Israel-Palestine solution.
Israel has long obtained
benefits through occupying Palestine and maintaining a strong military.
Our
Liberal Spirit
Could We All Be OK?
Last
week, I imagined that our super Obama administration had within 4 years
reformed our economic system to provide much increased freedoms and
opportunities for all, including infrastructure to improve productivity,
earnings commensurate with productivity, and a safety net for those of us
limited in our productivity. Last
week, I also discussed the personal mindset which would enable us to
utilize our freedoms and opportunities and appreciate the resulting benefits,
in spite of success or failure. An “I’m
OK.” mindset.
At
least one more factor is relevant to our experiencing benefits from our
freedoms and opportunities. It concerns
how we treat one another. Whether we
respect, trust and cooperate or engage in friendly competition with others, or
engage in unfriendly competition and conflict.
Or act in isolation.
Cooperation
generally assists productivity.
Competition may assist productivity when it stimulates innovation. Competition may harm productivity when it
primarily concerns the division of spoils.
Coercion and conflict generally harms productivity.
Beginning
with early childhood, parents and other caretakers should be role models and
teachers of tolerance, respect, trust and cooperation. These should also be stimulated by schools,
churches, workplaces, voluntary organizations, communities, and our society.
I
believe that Liberals support all three of these factors: a society which
offers freedoms and opportunities to all, a mindset that enables us
individually to use these freedoms and opportunities and appreciate their
benefits, and a cultural mindset which enables us to cooperate.
I
believe that Conservatives oppose all three of these factors. They oppose public investments to improve our
infrastructure and safety net. They tend
to play God (thinking they understand and can control everything) or play
Victim (often of our less fortunate and Liberal do-gooders who enable
them. They accept abuse, coercion and
conflict and promote unfriendly competition.
Dave Thomas
Recommended Books – See our list of books for liberals
Evan Thomas, 2009, A
Long Time Coming. The Inspiring Combative 2008 Campaign and Historic Election
of Barack Obama
Chuck Todd, 2009, How
Barack Obama Won. A State Guide to the
Historic 2008 Presidential Election
Evan Thomas describes Barack
Obama’s excellent management of his campaign by contrast with the mismanagement
by Hillary Clinton and John McCain of their campaigns. We can be glad that Obama won, since
Chuck Todd describes in
detail the demographics of each of our states and how the various demographic
groups voted to give victory to one or the other of the candidates.
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