Don’t read the tea leaves wrong

November 4, 2010

It’s not clear at all that the American people are dissatisfied with the Democratic accomplishments or agenda. In fact, most of them may be both aware and supportive. Why do we always take exit polls of voters as the “will of the American people?” It’s not; it’s the sentiments of the people who voted. If you combined the progressives who voted and clearly support what this Administration has done with the millions who were disenfranchised or left out and thus could not or did not feel motivated to vote, the American people likely have very strong support for Obama and the Democratic agenda. Among the unemployed, which are millions, how many do you suppose would vote Republican? What about the people who have lost their voter registration because they lost their job and/or house and had to move? And the mobile young folk ? (There I will fault Obama for not keeping them and OFA more in the loop.)

Stick to your guns, progressives and Democrats, and fight for ALL the people, those who voted and those who did not.

All this election proves is that

A) hate, fear and lies will motivate significant people to vote against their own best interest; and

B) social disruption on the scale we’ve seen since 2008 disenfranchises millions; and

C) corporate control of the media and the message destroys democracy.

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Please, Young Folk, Do Vote

October 25, 2010

Please, young folk do vote!  This election is all about you and your future.  The divide between Democratic and Republican policies is a generational divide that has never been more stark. For example, Democrats accept the science of climate change and are creating a new industry of green jobs in which you can work while you save the planet. Heavily backed by the polluting industries, Republicans oppose control of energy usage and pollution and pretend global warming is not caused by human activity. They’re in denial about your future.

When Democrats reformed the student loan program to lower your costs, Republicans opposed it; they sought to preserve bankster profits instead. While falsely claiming that Social Security is bankrupt, Republicans seek to privatize your future SS plan, giving profits to Wall Street while lowering your benefits. Yet they have no plans to alter their own SS benefits.

Young women, against Republican opposition, Democrats enacted equal pay for equal work for you. They brought young people health insurance coverage the Republicans now want to repeal. The Texas Republican Governor cut funding for education that is critical for your future economic wellbeing; national Republicans would do away with federal education standards and funding. State and national Democrats are working to build educational opportunity and quality.

You are a diverse generation and increasingly tolerant of others whom Republicans would demonize and discriminate against by law.  Democrats support inclusive policies and preservation of civil rights.

In 2008, most of you voted FOR your own future; this election is just as important for securing that future. We’ve all seen what Republicans are against – everything, except tax cuts for the rich. The Republican Senate leader has said point-blank that his “most important job” is to defeat President Obama and the Democrats. They simply don’t care about us or even the country; it’s all about their power.  And unless we can keep Democratic control of the House and Senate, they will use their power to continue to obstruct progress, favor corporations and destroy the environment.

Democrats need your vote and ongoing support to keep working for you. It’s your future and your country; keep it with your vote.

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Vote Like Your Life Depends On IT

October 25, 2010

Here comes the November 2 election, and those who genuinely care about our society and our future need to vote like our lives depend on it because, in fact, they do. The last election was about changing the guard; this one is about guarding the change.

At the federal, state and local level, Democrats have been standing up for us, visibly present in our community and helping us improve our lives individually and collectively and making government serve our needs. They’ve earned your support to continue working for you.

Remember when the Bush administration rammed through TARP, the Troubled Assets Relief Program or the “bank bailout?” my Democratic Congressman Ciro Rodriguez voted “No” for all the right reasons — lack of accountability, rewarding greed and mismanagement.  Then the Democratic administration took office and imposed accountability and efficiency. They recovered over 70% of the money and turned a bailout into a successful recovery program.

Democrats voted on our behalf to pass financial reform, which prevents taxpayer-funded bailouts and increases regulatory control over fraud, conflicts of interest and manipulation of the financial system. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was established to help millions of us who have suffered abuse at the hands of credit card companies, banks, mortgage companies and payday lenders.  Financial reform was essential because the excesses of the banks, mortgage lenders and Wall Street were the proximate cause of this great recession. Yet Republicans advocate the same old “free market” that didn’t work and rail against “big government” that would hold big business accountable and call for tax cuts for the wealthy.  It’s very clear whose interests they serve.

Democrats know how the economy works and have been applying effective measures to recover from recession.  What creates jobs is demand for goods and services, not tax cuts for the rich. And when consumer spending drops off, the government must — and sometimes is legally required — to step in with spending to restore the economy. That’s what the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act or “The Stimulus” was all about. It included tax cuts benefiting 98% of working Americans and grants to state and local entities for transportation, public safety, housing and community development, education and energy projects.  And, despite claims to the contrary, it IS working. Seventy percent of the $787 billion has been spent, deadlines for distributing the funds have been met with few complaints of fraud or abuse. Most importantly, it will save or create 3.5 million jobs by the end of the year, including critical jobs such as police, firefighters, teachers and emergency responders.  Getting back the millions of jobs we’ve lost is going to take more time, but the economy is recovering.

But hear this: Congressional Republicans have openly said that, if they regain control, they will de-fund the stimulus and thus kill the recovery.  What they deride as “excessive spending” is simply our tax dollars returning to us.  In my state of Texas projects have so far received $14 billion, second only to California among state recipients.  And my county alone has received $8.7 million. Yet Texas Republican Governor Rick Perry spouted threats of secession. Even with this boost to our economy, our state government is in the red around $20 billion as a result of his poor leadership.

Then there’s health insurance reform, which Republicans have openly said they intend to take from YOU and give back to the corporate profiteers in health insurance. This reform established that, in the United States as in every other advanced country, access to health care is a right, not a privilege. On September 23, a number of requirements that stop insurance company abuses went into effect. Republicans claim we didn’t want this reform, but the truth is that a clear majority demanded it and many are dissatisfied now only because they are unaware of benefits that have just started. Furthermore, of those dissatisfied with the reforms, by a 2 to 1 margin it is because they wanted more, not less, reform.

There’s a long list of other Democratic accomplishments — college student aid reform and expansion, children’s health insurance expansion, improved veterans’ services, enhanced border security through both federal programs and grants to border sheriffs. In fact and despite Republican opposition to everything, even things they previously suggested, this has been one of the most productive Congresses in history.  We wanted change, we voted for it, we got it — and now it’s imperative to protect it.

Time has long passed for Texas Republican Governor Perry to graze his corporate-funded pastures. Aside from the state’s $20 billion shortfall, there is also the problem of public education funding. When federal stimulus funds of $3.2 billion were designated for Texas education, Perry used it for other purposes in violation of the Texas Constitution. Then, as a condition for receiving $830 million more for education, Texas must guarantee no drop in education funding for 3 years. Amazingly, instead of using this money for Texas school kids, Texas Attorney General Abbott filed suit against the feds and Perry proposed a $260 million cut in education.  Meanwhile, Texas ranks 32nd among states in per-pupil spending and near the bottom on graduation rates and SAT scores.  Rick Perry doesn’t know or care that our future depends on Texas education. And Attorney General Abbott doesn’t know the law. It’s time to replace these incompetents with Democratic public servants of quality – Bill White for Governor and Barbara Ann Radnofsky for Attorney General.

Furthermore, Republicans advocate a Texas law like Arizona’s anti-immigrant law, and Abbott entered the federal lawsuit on the side of Arizona. This law is really about suppression of our Hispanic community as a whole, citizens and non-citizens alike. But our governor and attorney general are not interested in representing all the people of Texas; Democrats are.

The Republican Party has turned itself entirely over to the tea party ideology of divisiveness, prejudice and obstruction of progress. Their demagoguery, laced with lies about their opponents and misrepresentation of how government works, will motivate some to vote. Yet the public policies they advocate of low taxes, low services and deregulation would empower big corporations and the wealthy at the expense of small businesses and average Americans.

This is why it is imperative that the Aware Who Care vote like our lives depend on it. We have to keep saying “Yes, we can” or the Party of No certainly will take us back to the Dark Ages.

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Senator Hutchison Misinforms on the Economy

September 12, 2010

It’s a shame that Texas is stuck with Senators Hutchison and Cornyn, Republicans who never fail to support corporations and big money over middle income Texans, and small businesses.  Senator Hutchison lately used her bully pulpit to spread misinformation about the economy in her op-ed titled “Low taxes and spending restraint are key to economic recovery.”   The title and article are historically and economically wrong.  It has been debunked by factcheck.org.  See http://factcheck.org/2010/09/2011-tax-increases/

She claims the Bush tax cuts of 2001 resulted in job creation and increased economic activity. In reality they drove up the deficit, created no new jobs, were a huge giveaway to wealth and contributed to economic collapse.  This “trickle-down” economics was so wrong for our country that it barely squeezed through Congress on budget reconciliation with a 10-year expiration. Bush then took us into two unfunded wars and held war spending out of the general budget so it wouldn’t show in the deficit.  These maneuvers were budgetary time bombs left to explode today. Yet Republicans pretend that President Obama created most of the deficit.

Senator Hutchison must think we’re very forgetful.  But, we remember, what she doesn’t mention – the tax cuts that 95% of working Americans received in the stimulus last year.  The Recovery and Reinvestment Act she voted AGAINST, contained tax cuts, credits and grants to individuals, businesses, states and local government to mitigate the recession. Republicans now claim the stimulus hasn’t worked; in truth it kept us from falling into total depression, and saved or created millions of jobs, partially offsetting huge losses.  Of the total $787 billion, Texas has spent over half of its $23.3 billion allocation.  Those are our tax dollars coming back to help us.

The stimulus should have been larger (no thanks to Republicans) and more is needed now with economic growth still too slow and unemployment too high.  Each dollar of certain stimulus spending, such as unemployment insurance, infrastructure improvements and assistance to state and local government, generates more than a dollar in economic growth.  Tax cuts don’t do that and they increase the deficit. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said that if we had done as Republicans wanted in 2009 we would today have fewer jobs and higher deficits. Still, Hutchison advocates the same-old same-old.

She falsely claims President Obama intends to raise everyone’s taxes, calling it the “largest tax hike in our nation’s history.”  Not true!  The expiration of the tax cuts is coming up, but the Obama Administration proposes to keep the cuts that benefit middle America and small businesses.  The taxes for incomes over $200,000 single and $250,000 per couple would rise a measly 3%.  Only 3% of those above those incomes are small business owners.

They claim raising taxes will harm the economy and reduces job creation. However, tax cuts on high incomes do not create jobs or boost the economy.  When those in that income range have extra income they tend to save not spend it. Also, historically when higher incomes were taxed at a much higher rate, our economy was strong.

When middle- and low-income Americans receive a tax cut, they spend it immediately. This demand for goods and services creates jobs and those jobs, in turn, create more demand and other jobs. Consumer demand accounts for 70% of the output of the economy.  Plus, taxes are paid on those salaries, which helps reduce the deficit. We can only dig ourselves out of recession by boosting demand and fight deficits by building back a strong economy.  Recently, CEOs were polled as to why they were not expanding their businesses and creating jobs now with the tax incentives they’ve been given.  These business owners validated the demand-driven economy by saying they were holding off because they were uncertain that demand for their products and services was going to rise.  Apparently, we need to create more demand not give more play money to the wealthy.

Senator Hutchison summoned our hankies to mourn the “unfair death tax.”  Give me a break!  They call it a “death tax” to obscure what the estate tax really is, a tax on inherited wealth, the least deserved form of income.  The heirs did nothing to earn it except pick the right parents.  Historically, we have taxed large estates at a high rate in recognition of the fact that accumulation of such wealth is enabled by government infrastructure, economic rules, and subsidies.  The heirs owe some of that largess back to us.  Furthermore, this tax encourages charitable and philanthropic donations.  This year the estate tax is zero, but it will revert to older rates next year because Republicans refused to negotiate on the estate minimum size criteria and the tax rate.  Several bills are pending that capture this much-needed revenue while excluding small businesses. To please their large estate-holding supporters, the “Party of No” opposes them.

Republicans have destroyed their credibility by opposing every single measure to truly rebuild our economy. The last thing they enthusiastically supported was the TARP bailout for big financials enacted in the fall of 2008.  Yes, that’s right, the bank bailout was Bush’s deal, not Obama’s.  Now, President Obama has been somewhat successful in getting that money back.  And Republicans further damage their credibility by attacking deficit spending needed to boost demand. Yet when advocating tax cuts for the wealthy, they claim the deficit is irrelevant. And, America, when they repeatedly yelled “No” they were saying it to all of us!

Here’s the bottom line:  This recession was not caused by working Americans and small businesses, nor by the poor, homeowners, minority groups or immigrants.  It was caused by the banksters, large corporations and Wall Street with the help of the government they dominated and from which they got tax cuts, deregulation and subsidies over a quarter century. Republicans want to keep that sweet deal going and they will demonize and misinform to do it. Democrats are applying the right remedies, but it is going to take some time. They’re on our side so let’s keep them working.

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Immigration – We not only can handle it, we need it

August 13, 2010

A friend recently opined that our country can’t handle the immigrants coming here, especially unauthorized immigrants.  This is linked to other perceptions that the unauthorized don’t pay taxes and over-utilize public services.  But these claims don’t match reality.

To discuss this rationally, (unfortunately) we need to throw out some numbers about the relationship between unauthorized immigrants and the U.S. population.  As of June, 2010, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated our total civilian, non-institutional population as 237.7 million.  Of those, the labor force is 153.7 million, 139 million of whom are employed and 14 million are unemployed in this recession.  These figures INCLUDE immigrant workers regardless of status.

Based on Department of Homeland Security estimates, the U.S. unauthorized immigrant population is around 11 million.  That works out to about 4.6% of total population.  Under the extreme assumption that all of the 84% of unauthorized immigrants age 18 to 54 yrs are workers, that would be a maximum 6% of the workforce.  So, we’re not talking about huge percentages of either the population or the workforce.  We can accommodate that.  In fact, we’re already doing it!

Unauthorized immigrants most certainly ARE paying taxes.  They pay sales taxes on their purchases and user fees on services just like everyone else.  They pay property taxes directly and indirectly.  They even pay income taxes, Social Security and Medicare when these are taken out of their wages by the government.  (Social Security is holding over $400 billion in funds that immigrants paid but can’t receive in benefits.)

They also contribute to the US economy through their spending which creates other jobs.  Investigations have revealed they are not sending all or even most of their earnings back to their country of origin.  Furthermore, they often work in low-wage industries, which results in savings for employers and purchasers of their products.

Determining the costs and benefits of immigration to our economy is complicated, with different results derived from differing assumptions.  However, most analysts find immigration likely is an overall benefit (some have estimated $13 billion per year or 1% of the whole economy). Some employers and consumers benefit and taxpayers in some states, like Texas, have higher immigrant populations and costs.

While claiming to be business-friendly, the leadership of Arizona has just dealt an economic blow to their own people during a deep recession.  After implementation of their prejudicial law, even with the federal stay of the worst parts of it, LEGAL immigration has dropped 17%.  It hasn’t had any effect on crime, of course, but the businesses of Arizona are already hurting.

Do unauthorized immigrants “overuse” government services? Contrary to what you may have heard, as a group, immigrants, especially unauthorized immigrants, tend NOT to utilize government services. When they do, the cost is short-term; in the long run they more than reimburse us for the services they receive.

There are only three services government is legally bound to provide to unauthorized immigrants:  Public education K-12 for children, emergency medical care and veteran’s benefits for those who have served.

In 1982, the US Supreme Court ruled in Plyler v Doe that public education must be provided for all children regardless of citizenship.  An NEA guide explains this decision in this way:

The court in Plyler noted that education is a child’s only path to becoming a “self-reliant and self-sufficient participant in society.” A public school education, the court reasoned, “inculcat[es] fundamental values necessary to the maintenance of a democratic political system” and “provides the basic tools by which individuals might lead economically productive lives.”  According to the court, denying children access to a public school education could doom them to live within “a permanent caste of undocumented resident aliens.”

Before we violate this Supreme Court ruling with the intent of saving taxpayers the cost of educating these children, consider this:  The difference between whether or not an immigrant is a net gain (beyond even the cost of educating them) or net loss for our economy depends upon whether or not that person obtains a high school education.  In other words, denying education to unauthorized immigrant children would not only be immoral, it would also be economically short-sighted.

What about other assistance immigrants might receive?  It’s a no-brainer that all those who serve in the military, including non-citizens, must be provided their earned veteran’s benefits.  The only other service that legally must be provided to everyone regardless of citizenship or ability to pay is emergency medical care. We don’t want EMTs to ask our citizenship before they rush our injured or severely ill bodies to the hospital.  And we want the doctors in the emergency room to focus first on our health, not our pocketbook.

A good argument can also be made that our other non-mandatory services also help immigrants become “self-reliant and self-sufficient,” just as does education.  There’s no evidence that they create a permanent class of dependant people.

The US fertility rate, the number of children per woman, is at 2.1, below the population replacement level of 2.5.  (Those births INCLUDE the vilified “anchor babies.”)  Without immigration, we will progressively have a smaller and older population and a smaller workforce in the future.

Our rate of net immigration is not extremely high, either, 2.92 migrants per 1,000 residents in 2008.  In the 1990s, legal and illegal immigration ballooned because of the recession in Mexico and a baby-boom generation of workers could not find employment. Immigration from Mexico is trailing off now, especially with the recession.

We had illegal immigration, not because the immigrants are bad people, but because we needlessly restricted legal immigration.

We need these young people to come work and enrich our culture.  Now is the time to establish comprehensive immigration reform that provides a guest worker program for those who have no current plans to become citizens and, for those who do, a path to citizenship like the path all other immigrants follow.   We became a great nation by being “a nation of immigrants” and we became that by according dignity and respect and assistance to those who came here to work and build our nation.  Let’s keep it up.

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Crime and Immigration Reform

July 18, 2010

We do need comprehensive immigration reform.  And, like all other areas of public policy, change must be based on facts, not propaganda, if it is to bring real improvement.  Many misconceptions are circulating regarding crime as it relates to illegal immigration or immigration reform.  In this article, I focus just on crime and will address other issues regarding immigration reform in subsequent articles.

Anti-immigrant groups claim we on the border are suffering a violent crime wave caused by illegal immigration.  It’s just not true.  The FBI reports that the top 4 safest cities in the country are San Diego, Phoenix, and two Texas cities, El Paso and Austin. San Diego, with 1 in 4 residents an immigrant, has the lowest per capita violent crime rate.

While Arizona Governor Brewer claimed a dramatic rise in crime, the FBI reported that violent crimes in AZ actually decreased by more that 30% in the last two decades. In Texas, the violent crime rate dropped 10% from 1998 to 2008; the property crime rate dropped from 12% over the same period.  And a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection said, “The border is safer now than it’s ever been.”

Part of the reason for misperception about border crime is the increased violence in northern Mexico. In an attempt to link the two separate issues, AZ Governor Brewer claimed that most undocumented immigrants were involved in drug dealing. Simply NOT true! The violence in Mexico is the drug cartels at war with each other and with Mexican authorities.  It’s an entirely separate issue from immigration and cannot be addressed by changing immigration laws.

Furthermore, there are good reasons why immigrant communities across the nation have been found to have lower overall crime rates than citizen-dominated communities and why immigrants tend NOT to engage in criminal activity.  Think about it:  If you were a foreigner in this country, working, perhaps tending a family, what would you do?  Wouldn’t you avoid calling attention to yourself and avoid contact with law enforcement for fear of deportation?  That’s just what they do.  As a result, incarceration rates among young men are lowest for immigrants.

For the purpose of drumming up fear of immigrants, the xenophobes claim that we risk terrorists coming across the border intent on doing us harm.  Again this defies logic and known facts.  Most terrorists who have acted or attempted to act in this country were either US citizens or came here legally.  Here in Brewster County, Texas, where I live, law enforcement spotted one person with such potential – a US citizen who came here from the “interior,” not of Mexico, but from the USA, apparently scouting a location for a training camp.  Those with terroristic intent are seldom going to place themselves at risk of apprehension which crossing the border without documentation involves.  We do, of course, need to be watchful at our borders for terrorists, but don’t be thinking that Mexican workers are equivalent to al queda.  They’re not.

Immigration gets lumped in with the drugs and terrorism for two reasons.  First, US Customs and Border Protection enforces violations of all three.  Second, anti-immigrant groups actively seek to demonize immigrants by associating them with drug dealers and terrorists.  These separate issues need to be addressed by different policies.

There are some areas of crime that ARE related to illegal immigration:  Vandalism and house break-ins in border-adjacent areas, human trafficking, the misdemeanor crime of entering the country without approval, and hate crimes.  The first three of these crimes can be reduced if we provide a way for people to legally enter this country at appropriate crossing points to work, shop or visit.  In a good system, the origin and destination of the entrants would be known to authorities and a network with employers established.

The failure to implement such a system creates the market for human trafficking just like drug prohibition creates the drug market, cartels and violence.  And the inability to enter at legal entry points sends entrants across the land and strips them of resources, which motivates theft and break-ins of private property.  Finally, instead of administering a less expensive system of legal entry and accountability, we are wasting federal dollars in court hearings, deportations and incarcerations.  This cruel system tears apart families and causes death and injury.

The last category of crime related to the issue of illegal immigration is hate crimes directed at immigrants and at citizens who even look like immigrants.  These crimes are rising dramatically.  And beyond reported crimes, there are the countless occurrences of verbal attack, discrimination, etc., that Hispanic people increasingly suffer.  The lies and exaggerations such as those addressed above that demonize and dehumanize immigrants are part of that harassment.

And so are laws such as Arizona’s, which draw local agencies into enforcement of federal laws.  Based on, as we’ve seen, inaccurate claims of rising crime rates, the Arizona law will do NOTHING to reduce crime at all.  Read it and you will see it has no mechanism to reduce crime since it’s supposed to be used only after some crime has occurred.  It will cost local and state governments dearly and draw their attention away from truly serious crimes.  It places a barrier between immigrants and law enforcement because, for fear of arrest, they will not report crimes or seek help when needed.  It leaves men, women and children open to abuse they dare not report.  And, for the first time in history it requires US citizens who simply look like undocumented immigrants to carry papers proving their “innocence.”  This in a land where we’re all assumed innocent until proven guilty.

The 14th Amendment to the US Constitution applies to EVERYONE, citizen, non-citizen, documented or not, when it says, “… nor shall any State deprive any PERSON of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any PERSON within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

We need comprehensive immigration reform to put an end to harassment of Hispanic immigrants and citizens, to save lives and to preserve families.

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No Atheists in Foxholes, No Libertarians in Crises

June 8, 2010

“Free market capitalism!”  Sounds sorta good, kind of liberating, all about freedom and all.  That’s where the libertarians got their name, apparently, as that’s what they advocate.  But wait, what exactly IS a free market?  Do they really exist, and if they do, are they a good thing or not so good?

Let’s concede there may be free markets in small isolated settings.  Think of a farmer’s market where the producer supplies directly to the consumer.  They agree over the price of the goods, full disclosure about the quality of the goods and each is free to walk away from the deal if they choose.  The price may be paid in money or barter.  And both parties to the transaction are known and accountable to the other.

But in modern America there are virtually no real free markets.  In our transactions today, one party or the other has the upper hand.  Markets must be defined, enabled and regulated to some extent by governments federal, state and local, for good reasons.  Some regulations are intended to protect consumers, i.e., human beings, and some protect the environment in which all living things reside.  And some regulation is intended to help businesses operate, to give good business owners guidance as to how to proceed with their chosen occupation.

In my working career, I managed a metropolitan food safety and inspection program.  The prime purpose of the regulations we enforced was to protect consumers from food- and water- borne illness.  What I learned from restaurateurs and food suppliers was that the good ones, the ones who sought to provide a safe and tasty product, didn’t resent our being there, looking over their shoulders, pointing out this or that to improve upon.  On the contrary, they knew that good sanitation brought customers in their door.  And they saw how quickly something like a food-borne illness outbreak could put them out of business. (This really happened to some fancy, up-scale restaurants.)

The “good guy” food purveyors asked of us at the health department these three things:  That the regulations be based on the science of food safety not on hunches or opinions; that we first educate them before enforcement; and that the regulations be applied equally to them as to their competitors.  We tried to live up to those standards and, for the most part, they held up their end of the bargain.  Those who fought regulation were the ones who wanted to be free to make money whether or not people suffered.

Notice how calls for free market capitalism are always couched in terms of personal, individual, human-being freedom.  That’s not what they’re talking about, however; it’s not about the freedom of individual persons to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  It’s not even so much about the economic freedom of individuals to purchase as they can and want.  The call for free market capitalism is a call to liberate businesses from control, to leave them free to make money at the expense of human beings.

In the libertarian topsy-turvy world, businesses have priority over people, over living, breathing human beings.  Does that match your reality?  Not mine.  Businesses are created by humans to help us go about our day, meet our needs, live our lives.  It’s “we, the people” who should be in control and are given priority under the US Constitution through which we empower our government to regulate businesses.  Despite the recent opinion of the capitalist-friendly US Supreme Court, businesses are not people.

Free market capitalism brought us the “great depression” of the early 20th Century. The stock market and capitalists took advantage to the detriment of our economy.  Perhaps someone didn’t remember, or it had just been too long ago, but in the 1980s deregulation and free market capitalism re infected public policy.  “Government was the problem, not the solution,” we were told and “Greed is good.”  We looked to the stock market to tell us how “the economy” was doing, instead of focusing on the real economy of creating and distributing goods and services.

In the quarter century since then, infection has turned virulent, and it seems all wounds are festering at once these days.  The lack of control over the health insurance industry resulted in millions excluded from coverage; thousands have died.  The stock market was left free to trade fake assets. The mortgage industry was allowed to rope people into debts they could not pay.  Banks were allowed to gamble with our invested dollars and credit card companies were free to inflate rates and add fees.  Corporations were free to outsource jobs to other countries.  Trade agreements gave advantage to capital over labor.  Unions were busted.  Heavy industries, especially energy, were allowed to cut corners on things like mine safety and oil drillers could write their own regulations.  And it’s a “mell of a hess” we’re in now, folks.  Thank a libertarian next time you see one.

Libertarian economic policy just does not work, and the reason it does not is because it ignores this simple principle any businessman knows:  The first purpose of a business is to make money.  I’m not putting that down as a bad thing; it’s entirely natural.  Furthermore, businesses also have other goals, such as helping people and making our communities better.  It’s just that, unless they meet their first purpose, they can’t serve any other purposes.

Furthermore, the larger the business, the more divorced from the secondary missions the first purpose becomes.  It becomes more and more about money because more and more money is at stake.  Capitalists will fight harder against regulation than will local small businesses.  They’ll buy media outlets to influence public opinion and skew the information we get. They’ll spend millions every day, day after day, manipulating elections and elected officials.  And they will demonize anyone who would, through regulation, restrain their primary purpose by calling them socialists and communists and accusing them of taking over health care, being un-American, etc.  Sound familiar?

But notice that, come a crisis, libertarians will be quick to demand that the old evil government step in to make things right.  And this they do without even the grace to admit they caused the problem in the first place.  No wonder several economists have recently said words to the effect that “there are no atheists in foxholes and no libertarians in crises.”  Free market capitalism will certainly drive us into a ditch, as it has done once again, but it can’t get us out of it.

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Does the ultra-right carry water for the ultra-rich?

May 7, 2010

To paraphrase the Wicked Witch of the West in the “Wizard of Oz,” “How ‘bout a little truth, scare mongers?”

In my last article, I debunked the myth that our tax dollars are taken against our will and given to lazy people who refuse to work. Nevertheless, up popped a letter repeating that we’re “immorally taxed against our will” which apparently has origins in libertarian doctrine.  A corollary myth is that the only true purpose for the government is to “protect our freedoms” presumably meaning the military and police.  These are a poor reading of American history and a distortion of the Constitution and the government it established.  Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion here, but we’re not entitled to invent facts.

For American revolutionaries, taxation was an issue, but it was not, as implied by current “tea partiers,” an issue of high taxes.  For the colonists, the issue was taxation without representation – paying taxes when they could not elect voting representatives.  Other economic issues, which led directly to the Boston Tea Party, were favorable treatment for the British East India Company and restriction on colonial trade with countries other than Britain.

The East India Company was perhaps an early capitalistic, multinational corporation.  It was granted monopoly status by Britain and given preferences to supply the only tea colonists were allowed.  So colonists smuggled in tea from other sources and refused to buy British tea (even though it was cheaper).  In 1773, they attempted to send tea back to Britain and, when that failed, dumped it in Boston harbor.  There was reaction from Britain, counter-reaction from the colonists, eventually the Declaration of Independence and war.

After throwing off one government, the Americans turned around and formed what?  Another government more to their liking. The Preamble to the US Constitution gives the overall mission statement, the purposes, for the government.  I’ve covered this in a previous article, but repeat that the mission to “promote the general welfare” includes a large number of activities that are appropriate, constitutional governmental roles.  Saving an economy in free-fall and aiding the least of us in our society – the sick, the poor, the elderly, the unemployed, the children – are entirely appropriate roles for government, as are financial, and environmental and safety regulation.  Over the years, we have demanded that these roles be fulfilled.  We love this most about our country: Here we care about each other.

American revolutionaries believed in government and accepted taxes set by elected representatives.  And that’s just what we have today.  Whether born here or becoming citizens or legal residents by choice, we enjoy the blessings of this society and we have obligations to follow the laws and pay taxes.  How is this coercion or taxing us against our will when we are free to live elsewhere? Without our government we would effectively have no income and our assets would have no legal standing or even a record.  Without government we may think we have individual rights, but there is nothing to assure them, no one to truly “protect our freedoms.”

With funding and misinformation from capitalistic, multi-national corporations, today’s tea partiers (about 80% are Republican), libertarians and ultra-conservatives, wrap themselves in the “patriot” flag.  However, ideologically they bear a stronger resemblance to the secessionist southerners than to American revolutionaries.  They even talk of states’ rights and secession. For the policies they advocate, they would be on the side of the British and the East India Company were we back in revolutionary days.  They support the anti-tax, anti-government policies that serve the mega-rich. They protest high taxes when they, themselves, just received a huge tax cut enacted as a stimulus to the economy. Income taxes in 2009 were at an historic low.

They claim, but have no evidence, that the government is intruding on their individual rights.  On the contrary, it is these extremists who pose the greatest risk to individual rights.  Where they have been able to gain power themselves, instead of solving real problems they have enacted laws that certainly do intrude on the constitutional rights of millions (e.g., Arizona’s anti-immigrant law, Oklahoma’s invasion of the doctor/patient relationship regarding abortion, and some state denials of equal protection under the law to all).

They complain that the deficit is too large yet said nothing when most of the deficit grew by tax cuts for the wealthy and two unfunded wars.  The portion of the deficit caused by recent spending was essential to turn around this deep recession caused by, you guessed it, the mega-rich. They don’t see that we can more quickly pay down the deficit if we rebuild middle America and return to fair taxes for the wealthy than if we destroy the safety nets just to keep top tax rates low. Despite ample evidence that the stimulus did work to prevent economic free fall, they call it a failure.

They want to “take back” a country that they haven’t even lost. Many are proud of their faith, some even proclaiming this is a Christian nation.  How is it, then, immoral for us to be taxed but perfectly moral to eliminate our social programs that fulfill the “Golden Rule?”

Middle and low income Americans have every reason to be angry these days.  They have been dealt a raw deal – an unprecedented reduction in their economic wellbeing.  But some are directing their ire in the wrong direction.  It’s not the government, workers, immigrants, or minority group members who have harmed us.  It’s the banksters, the Wall Street stalkers and “free-market” capitalists.  Yet those same capitalists use their billions now to feed back to the uninformed all the talking points of the ultra right.  Their purpose is have us detest the government because that is the only force that can stand up to their unbridled greed.  They want us to repudiate the mission of the government to care for the least among us just so they can avoid their fair share in taxes.  And their vision for America’s future is…. what?  Future?  What’s that?  If it’s beyond their next quarterly earnings, it doesn’t matter.

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Income Inequality and Societal Health

March 29, 2010

Recently, we’ve heard and read demands from some that our tax dollars not be taken “against our will” and given to “those who refuse to produce anything.”  How do these folks know their money is going to “people who refuse to produce anything?”  There’s no evidence of this.  Where are these slackards and ne’r-do-wells?

The fact is most tax dollars go to businesses and organizations to provide services and to state and local governments which in turn provide other services through businesses and organizations.  Their employees are recipients of the money but only in a context of working to earn it.  Employees, in turn, buy goods and services from businesses.  Our entire workforce is not a bunch of non-producers.  They’re taxpayers too!

And what about the case of the government paying for health care for those who cannot pay, such as Medicaid and SCHIP?  That money never crosses the palms of the patients.  It goes directly to the providers of health care and their WORKING employees. The patient gets the benefit of treatment, which may enable them to work rather than sit at home sick or die.  It improves their quality of life and enhances their future, but they can’t “bum a living” off health care assistance.  The same applies to the food stamp program which pays in food and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) which is, as its name, “temporary.”  So, there are few refusing non-producers under those rugs either.

Also, strike from the pack of non-producers those 18 and under who are not yet of “producing” age and the retirees who already “produced” for many years.  And strike those in higher ed or technical schools who are still learning how to “produce.”  Then there are those with debilitating illness that are unable to work.

About 10% of the working age population has applied for unemployment assistance – this generates our official unemployment rate.  Since seeking a job is a necessary condition for obtaining assistance, unemployment recipients are actively trying to return to “producing” something.  The unavoidable conclusion is that there can’t be many “people who refuse to produce anything” receiving government assistance.  They may be out there, but they’re not living on your tax dollars.

This reminds me of the phantom “welfare Cadillac” that conservatives claimed a woman – of course a woman of color – drove, back in the day.  Supposedly the Caddy, that strangely could never be located, was funded by the taxpayers.

Why are some of us so irrationally distrustful of our fellow human beings?  Why did a “tea party” crowd verbally assault a man with Parkinson’s Disease who sat at a rally with a sign saying he needed health care coverage and they might too some day. They called him a communist, threw money at him and taunted that he was just looking for a handout. It was sickening to see someone abused in that way. (One of his tormentors has now come forward to apologize, expressing shame for his behavior.)  And now, why are our elected representatives who supported health insurance reform being subjected to threats of violence, racial and ethnic slurs, and acts of vandalism?  All they have done is extend to all Americans the access to health care enjoyed by people in all the other advanced nations of the world.

The answer to “why?” rests, in part, in purposefully ramped up mob behavior.  However, another more significant part of the answer can be found in a book I recently read: “The Health of Nations:  Why Inequality is Harmful to Your Health” by Ichiro Kawachi and Bruce P. Kennedy.  This book is a real eye-opener for those who would see.  Their prescience, in 2002, of the recent economic collapse is astounding.  Years before it occurred, they touched on all aspects of the collapse – the housing boom, the deregulation, the power of corporations, the media, consumerism, income inequality, credit debt and even the derivative trading on Wall Street!

The book is not based upon hunches and opinions, but on solid research – comparisons of countries and of states within the US regarding economic measures and indicators of societal health.  The economic measures were things like personal income, taxation, employment, GNP, ownership, savings, hours of work and wages.  The measures of societal health were things like life expectancy, infant mortality, child abuse, suicide, mental health, school dropouts, divorce, teenage pregnancy, crime, alcohol and drug abuse, participation in community organizations, voter participation, attitudes toward government and personal expressions of cooperation, happiness and trust/distrust for others.

Note the last item.  Some of this research specifically examined feelings of trust/distrust for other people. Typical research questions asked if people felt that “most people can’t be trusted” or that “most people would try to take advantage of you if they got the chance.” In a 1999 study, more than HALF (!) of Texan research subjects agreed that most people can’t be trusted and ALL of the states in which more than half agreed with that statement were southern US states!  It’s sad that so many viewed their fellow beings so harshly.  There’s no way it’s the truth; it’s irrational.

Where does it come from and why is distrust so much more common in the US and in southern US states?  Those who favor laissez-faire capitalism and elimination of social programs are not gonna like the findings of this research.  While I’m sure it was not intentional, conservative/libertarian political and social policies of laissez-faire capitalism and disinvestment in social programs have resulted in a large and growing gap in disposable income between the wealthy and the rest of us.  And greater income inequality has led directly to downward trends in virtually all measures of societal health.

In “The Health of Nations” the authors report that “Between 1947 and 1973, American families at every step of the economic ladder enjoyed income growth – and the poorest families had the highest growth rate of all.  But, beginning in 1973, the economy began registering sharp increases in both earnings and income inequality.”  Between 1977 and 1999, the income of the wealthiest 1% rose 115% while the income of the poorest 20% actually dropped by 9%.  The authors reported that in 2002, “Forty percent of American families are either no better off or worse off today in real terms than they were back in 1977.”  That was in 2002; it’s gotten measurably worse since then.

Among advanced nations of the world, the United States is the richest, but has the 2nd highest income inequality (Singapore is 1st) and has far more health and social problems than any other country.  Among US states, southern states, including Texas, are among the highest in income inequality and have the highest frequency of health and social problems.  And in the US, especially in the southern states of the US, conservative economic and social policy has held sway for the last three decades.

Tax cuts for the rich have been paired with a suppression of earnings for the rest of us.  Anti-government actions such as tax and budget freezes have eroded our social capital and infrastructure.  We basically dismantled welfare for the poor, but the “welfare for the rich” continued apace, reaching its most egregious level in the recent bailout of the financial system.  In search of illusory “free markets,” deregulation of businesses and free trade agreements sent US jobs packing and corporate profits soaring.  The promotion of consumerism has urged everyone to “keep up with the Joneses” while doing so has become harder.

People are hurting, and in societies with greater income inequality, even the rich suffer a diminished quality of life.  Everyone has increased anxiety, greater alcohol and drug use, lower feelings of cooperation and happiness, and increased distrust both of other people and of social institutions.  We become the “me” society, not the “we” society, comparing ourselves to everyone else instead of seeing ourselves in everyone else.  Prejudice against “others” is heightened as we look around in anger and distrust, for someone to blame.

If medical researchers announced a treatment that would cure a serious disease or that a currently used treatment was found to be ineffective or even damaging to our health, would we not use the curative treatment or stop using the ineffective or dangerous treatment?  Rational people would do so and most of us are rational.  Most of us, even those who formerly advocated conservative public policy, are seeing that it has not worked for our society.  They’re able to see that the pendulum needs to swing back to re center our society.

We recently saw that, if health insurers are taking advantage of health care consumers, we can change that.  If our extreme income inequality, the worst in the world, is harming our society and causing us to have the largest frequency of social problems, we can change that as well.  We just need to raise our rational heads above the rhetoric, expose the misinformation, avoid the buzzwords, reject the politics of hatred and mistrust and focus on doing what works.

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The Supremes Sing the Corporate Tune

January 22, 2010

“Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people.”- Theodore Roosevelt

I was busily writing an article regarding the destructive effects on our society of huge bonuses for corporate CEOs, when the January 20 news interrupted such that I must comment.  An astounding Supreme Court decision was handed down that effectively handed our democracy over to corporations, including multi-national, even foreign-controlled, corporations!  The case was titled Citizens United v Federal Election Commission.  The issue was whether or not corporations could pay for material that advocated for or against specific candidates for President, Senator or U.S. Representatives. This ruling overturned a 20-year-old ruling that prohibited corporations from using money from their general treasuries to pay for campaign ads.  It also reversed the McCain Feingold law that kept them from running ads within a certain date before elections.

Historically, corporations and unions have been prohibited from spending their own funds on broadcast ads or billboards urging election or defeat of a federal candidate.  This restriction dated from 1907, when President Theodore Roosevelt asked Congress to prohibit corporation, railroads and national banks from using their money in federal election campaigns.  At the end of World War II, Congress applied the restriction to labor unions.

Now the Court said that corporations have free-speech rights just like natural persons. They are free to use their billions to distort, exaggerate and lie, if they so choose, to support or oppose as they see fit. And it doesn’t matter who runs the corporation, even non-Americans.  They could be a Saudi oil company (ARAMCO) or a Chinese manufacturing company, or a corporation owned by anti-American extremists. Are you ready for the next President from Citibank?

Corporations and unions still can’t give money directly to campaigns.  But they won’t need to since they can run their own ads.  And they do have to identify themselves in the ads, but not necessarily who their backers are.

I don’t know about you but I take deep offense at the idea that corporate entities are anywhere akin to human beings.  The US Constitution begins, “We the people of the United States,….”  Were they talking about anything other than human beings?  Does anyone really believe the First Amendment  to the Constitution refers to the speech of anyone other than natural persons?

The ruling passed 5-4.  Those in favor were the conservative bloc on the court, ALL appointed by Republican Presidents.  Here it is, folks, as if we needed any more evidence that the “Party of Lincoln” has been taken over completely by corporatists.  Conservatives railed against “activist” judges who “legislate from the bench,” yet this ruling from their anointed Court is EXTREME activist legislation from the bench.  In this ruling, the Court ignored its long-standing rule of stare decisis (“Maintain what has been decided”).

However, in a 90-page dissent from the opinion, Justice John Paul Stevens said that the framers of the Constitution “had little trouble distinguishing corporations from human beings, and when they constitutionalized the right to free speech in the First Amendment, it was the free speech of individual Americans that they had in mind.”  Good for him and good for the other dissenters, Justices Sotomayor, Ginsburg and Breyer.  Those who rail against liberal justices should take note that THEY are the ones who stood for YOUR rights in this case.

Aside from Republicans and Libertarians, too many Democrats are cozy with corporations as well.  As we’ve recently seen in health insurance reform debates, a few Democrats and one Independent have carried water for their corporate insurance backers, trying to give them everything they want including the mandate that everyone buy insurance from for-profit corporations.  I’ve come to believe that the battle of this century will be between the populists and the corporatists.  The Democrats should step up to be the party of the people, because Republicans and Libertarians have already sealed their deal with the corporations.

Like many Americans, I’ve created a corporation.  It’s as easy as 1-2-3 and there are plenty of websites that will throw one together for you on the spot.  But corporations are the creation of the government which authorizes their existence.  Does it not seem sickly circular that they should now be able to directly manipulate election of candidates to positions that set their taxes and operational standards?

If you think this decision doesn’t affect us here in West Texas, think again.  Texas politics is already controlled to a great extent by the energy industries and by insurance companies.  With this ruling, there is nothing to stop them now from taking more of our money then spending it to buy politicians who will let them take even more of our money.  Long gone will be legislation that benefits ordinary Americans or protects the environment and wider will be the gap between the rich and the rest of us which is eroding our society.  And we’ll be drowned by more lies from corporate-backed entities such as Freedomworks, Americans for Prosperity and Fox News.

To those who claim President Obama is trying to establish fascism in this country, take note:  This is the REAL fascism – wedding the corporation to the government.  Government of, by and for the corporation, brought to you, not by Obama, progressives and Democrats, but by conservatives who put these people on the Supreme Court.

In 1857, the US Supreme Court ruled, in the infamous Dred Scott decision, that people of African descent and their descendants were not persons and could never be US citizens.  They were deemed property, not people.  This decision so outraged the people that they enacted the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.  A similar outrage should consume us now.  We need to amend the Constitution to state once and for all that corporations are NOT persons and are not entitled to the rights of natural persons.  Corporations are things, not people.  Think of it as the battle of Man vs Machine.  I know which side I’m on; do you?

Want to take action?  See:

Move to Amend http://www.movetoamend.org/

Free Speech for People http://freespeechforpeople.org/

Public Citizen http://action.citizen.org/t/10315/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=2190

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