Category Archives: The Economy

February 11, 2011 · 5:20 pm

The GOP Says They’re All About Creating Jobs. So Why Do They Want to Cut $2 Billion From Job Training? | AlterNet

More from one of my new favorite websites, Alternet:

The irony would be hilarious if it weren’t so real. Yesterday the House Committee on Appropriations released its proposed budget cuts and, as expected, it completely slaughters a profound number of social programs, yet leaves the engorged defense budget untouched. There’s much in there to scorn, including the continuation of their war against women by cutting maternal and child health care grants and family planning But nothing is more telling than the juxtaposition of Hal Rogers’ statement with one program in particular to be bloodlet:

“Make no mistake, these cuts are not low-hanging fruit.  These cuts are real and will impact every District across the country – including my own.  As I have often said, every dollar we cut has a constituency, an industry, an association, and individual citizens who will disagree with us. But with this CR, we will respond to the millions of Americans who have called on this Congress to rein in spending to help our economy grow and our businesses create jobs.”

Yet in the ensuing list of programs whose budgets are proposed to be slashed–$2 billion from Job Training Programs, which in general help our nation’s poor with job-readiness with programs stemming from the Departments of Labor, Education and Health and Human Services. This is, of course, consistent with how their job creation plan is wan to non-existent. But when the latest unemployment rates are at 9.8 percent, details such as these are hard to ignore.

Read the full list of proposed budget cuts here. It’s special.

via The GOP Says They’re All About Creating Jobs. So Why Do They Want to Cut $2 Billion From Job Training? | AlterNet.

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February 10, 2011 · 7:41 pm

Cruel and Unequal, Sojourners Magazine/February 2011

Another great article…

Do you think if Lindsey Lohan had been a poor African-American girl she would still be walking around free?  Or Paris Hilton?

See the key paragraph- with my emphasis in bold blue….

A vast new racial undercaste now exists in America, though their plight is rarely mentioned. Obama won’t mention it; the Tea Party won’t mention it; media pundits would rather talk about anything else. The members of the undercaste are largely invisible to those of us who have jobs, live in decent neighborhoods, and zoom around on freeways, passing by the virtual and literal prisons in which they live.

But here are the facts: There are more African-American adults under correctional control today — in prison or jail, on probation or parole — than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began. In major urban areas such as Chicago, Oama’s hometown, the majority of working-age African-American men have criminal records and are thus subject to legalized discrimination for the rest of their lives. Millions of people in the United States, primarily poor people of color, are denied the very rights supposedly won in the civil rights movement: the right to vote, to serve on juries, and to be free from discrimination in employment, housing, access to education, and public benefits. Branded “criminals” and “felons,” such people now find themselves relegated to a permanent second-class status. They live in a parallel social universe: the other America, where they will stay for the rest of their lives.

We, as a nation, are in deep denial about how this came to pass. On the rare occasions when the existence of “them” — the others, the ghetto dwellers, those locked up and locked out — is publicly acknowledged, standard excuses are trotted out. We’re told black culture, bad schools, poverty, and broken homes are to blame. Almost no one admits: We declared war. We declared a war on the most vulnerable people in our society and then blamed them for the wreckage.

And yet that is precisely what we did. The so-called War on Drugs has driven the quintupling of our prison population in a few short decades. The vast majority of the startling increase in incarceration in America is traceable to the arrest and imprisonment of poor people of color for nonviolent, drug-related offenses. Families have been torn apart, and young lives shattered, as parents grieve the loss of loved ones to the system, often hiding their grief under a cloak of shame.

Politicians claim that the enemy in this war is a thing — drugs — not a group of people. The facts prove otherwise.

Studies consistently show that people of all colors use and sell drugs at remarkably similar rates, yet in some states African-American men have been admitted to prison on drug charges at a rate up to 57 times higher than white men. In some states, 80 to 90 percent of all drug offenders sent to prison have been African Americans. The rate of Latino imprisonment has been staggering as well. Although the majority of illegal drug users and dealers are white, three-fourths of all people imprisoned for drug offenses have been black and Latino.

 

 

 

 

 

via Cruel and Unequal, Sojourners Magazine/February 2011.

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February 10, 2011 · 7:31 pm

Budget Cuts and Bad Faith – Jim Wallis – God’s Politics Blog

I do like to remind myself and others sometimes that not all Christians are Evangelical loonies….

I continue to enjoy reading Sojourner’s Magazine that my friend Renee put me on to…

Great article/blog on Social Justice and true Christian expectations…

House Republicans announced a plan yesterday to cut $43 billion in domestic spending and international aid, while increasing spending for military and defense by another $8 billion. This proposal comes just months after billions of dollars were added to the deficit with an extension of tax cuts to the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans. House Republicans focused in on only 12 percent of federal spending, and targeted things like education, the environment, food safety, law enforcement, infrastructure, and transportation — programs that benefit or protect most Americans. They also proposed cutting funding for programs that benefit the most vulnerable members of our society, such as  nutrition programs for our poorest women and children. We don’t yet know all the cuts Republicans are targeting in their proposals, but it’s good to finally know what their priorities are.

Under the proposed budget cuts, deficit reduction will not come from the super-rich; it will come from the rest of us. And the poorer you are, the more vulnerable you become, and the more you will pay for the burdens of deficit reduction. For example, Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), a program that helps provide food to hungry mothers and their children faces a $758 million cut. Also, the proposed budget cuts $544 million in international food aid grants for organizations such as World Vision. AmeriCorps, a program that provides public service opportunities for our young adults, would be eliminated entirely. But our military and defense budget, which sends our young adults off to kill and be killed, would receive an $8 billion increase.

It used to be very popular for Christians to ask, “What Would Jesus Do?” They even wore bracelets with the initials “WWJD.” The bracelets acted as reminders that as Christians, our actions should always reflect the values and example we see in the life of Jesus. Already, in a first wave of response to the proposed cuts, thousands of Christians told their members of Congress that they need to ask themselves, “What Would Jesus Cut?” They believe, and so do I, that the moral test of any society is how it treats its poorest and most vulnerable citizens. And that is exactly what the Bible says, over and over again.

via Budget Cuts and Bad Faith – Jim Wallis – God’s Politics Blog.

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February 10, 2011 · 7:26 pm

12 Examples of Stunning Hypocrisy from Tea Party Republicans In One Short Month| AlterNet

Dare I say “I told you so?”

It’s only been a month since the new Tea Party lawmakers took office, but the entirely predictable results of their ascension are already coming in. The Republican Party’s newest class of “mavericks” have again stormed into office intent on proving their theory that government is inherently evil by screwing up everything in sight.

Before we embark on our tour of the Tea Party politicians’ early moves – and those of the party they were supposed to be “taking back” — let’s recall exactly what they promised: they were relentlessly focused on economic issues – and, we were told, would eschew the kind of social issues that had long marked Republican politics in the era of the Religious Right. They would bring greater transparency and accountability to government. They promised to be good fiscal stewards, respond to the wishes of the people and, above all else, they swore up and down to obey the letter of the Constitution.

Let’s see how they did in the early going.

MORE:   12 Examples of Stunning Hypocrisy from Tea Party Republicans In One Short Month | Tea Party and the Right | AlterNet.

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February 10, 2011 · 7:24 pm

Vision: New Approach Brings US Homeless in from The Cold | AlterNet

Interesting article on a new approach that seems to be working…

I just don’t believe anyone should be homeless…

It’s just not acceptable that we as a society allow this to happen…

And the problem really started  to build during the Reagan years…

“We know there are strategies out there that actually work. It’s a matter of committing to those strategies and making sure we keep that momentum going,” says Anthony Love, deputy director of the Interagency Council on Homelessness, which brings together 19 federal departments and agencies.

Officials and advocates alike argue that housing the homeless is not only the most humane solution but also the cheapest, since it reduces the cost of emergency medical care and law enforcement.

There are fears, however, that as governments at every level are forced to slash budgets to cope with the lingering economic crisis, the available funding may not match the ambitious goals set by Housing First campaigns.

“There’s just less local money available for housing as state and local budgets have gone down,” says Jeremy Rosen, program director at the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty.

“Ending homeless at this point is really not a mystery in terms of tactics, it’s a question of being able to get the resources.”

via Vision: New Approach Brings US Homeless in from The Cold | News & Politics | AlterNet.

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February 8, 2011 · 7:31 pm

The Real Reagan – Salon.com

I’m continuing my information campaign to prevent the canonization of St Ronnie of Beverly Hills…

I’m just trying to do my little bit to share the truth the Corporate Media wants to ignore…

From Salon.com

By 1992, three years after he left the White House, Ronald Reagan was anything but a beloved former president. As a painful recession gripped the country, the public came to see the Reagan years — which featured a massive defense buildup, soaring deficits and even a stock market crash in 1987 — as the source of their economic woes. Running for president that year, Bill Clinton promised to enact a clean break from the “failed policies of Reagan and Bush.” As Reagan prepared to speak at the Republican National Convention in August, a Gallup poll found that just 46 percent of Americans had a favorable view of him. By contrast, Jimmy Carter, the man Reagan had defeated in a 44-state rout in 1980, was viewed favorably by 63 percent of the American public. The Reagan presidency stood in something approaching disrepute.

Today, though, you’d never know any of this happened. In the two decades since it bottomed out, Reagan’s image has been resurrected, thanks largely to a relentless campaign from conservative activists. Will Bunch, who writes for the Philadelphia Daily News and is a senior fellow at Media Matters, chronicled Reagan’s image makeover — and the reality of his record as president — in his 2008 book “Tear Down This Myth.” We spoke with him recently about how the myth of Reagan has taken hold, and whether there’s any truth to it.

More:   The Real Reagan – Salon.com.

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February 8, 2011 · 7:29 pm

4 Things Our Government Should Stop Wasting Money On | | AlterNet

Interesting article…if everyone is going to focus on cutting spending during a shakey economic recovery- not the brightest thing to do- they should at least focus on the right places to cut…

A Tea Party-infused GOP is calling for major cuts to federal spending. But for most Republicans, the newfound concern with deficits is demonstrably cynical. Just look at the deafening silence from the Right that greeted the $1.2 trillion (and growing) deficit that President Bush ran up. Conservative fearmongering is mostly an excuse to plunder the safety net. “The idea that somehow we’re going to be Greece is just flat out silly,” says Dean Baker, an economist at the Center for Economic Policy Research. “Basically, it’s a cheap scare tactic to force austerity.”

Though catastrophic prophesies of a government gone bankrupt are paper tigers, there are still plenty of things progressives would like to see cut: a sprawling defense budget that funds two wars and hundreds of military bases world-wide; a criminal justice system that spends billions to lock up millions of (too often black) Americans; and corporate welfare in the form of subsidies for oil and gas companies, and for industrial agriculture. Harmful government spending is a much bigger problem than wasteful government spending. Positive social spending is all too scarce, and constantly under pressure.

via 4 Things Our Government Should Stop Wasting Money On | | AlterNet.

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February 8, 2011 · 8:16 am

Everyday Brits Are in Revolt Against Wealthy Tax Cheats — Can We Do That Here?

If only….

From AlterNet…

Instead of the fake populism of the Tea Party, there is a movement based on real populism. It shows that there is an alternative to making the poor and the middle class pay for a crisis caused by the rich. It shifts the national conversation. Instead of letting the government cut our services and increase our taxes, the people demand that it cut the endless and lavish aid for the rich and make them pay the massive sums they dodge in taxes.

This may sound like a fantasy—but it has all happened. The name of this parallel universe is Britain. As recently as this past fall, people here were asking the same questions liberal Americans have been glumly contemplating: Why is everyone being so passive? Why are we letting ourselves be ripped off? Why are people staying in their homes watching their flat-screens while our politicians strip away services so they can fatten the superrich even more?

And then twelve ordinary citizens—a nurse, a firefighter, a student, a TV researcher and others—met in a pub in London one night and realized they were asking the wrong questions. “We had spent all this energy asking why it wasn’t happening,” says Tom Philips, a 23-year-old nurse who was there that night, “and then we suddenly said, That’s what everybody else is saying too. Why don’t we just do it? Why don’t we just start? If we do it, maybe everybody will stop asking why it isn’t happening and join in. It’s a bit like that Kevin Costner film Field of Dreams. We thought, If you build it, they will come.”

via Vision: Everyday Brits Are in Revolt Against Wealthy Tax Cheats — Can We Do That Here? | Tea Party and the Right | AlterNet.

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February 7, 2011 · 8:26 pm

10 Things Conservatives Don’t Want You To Know About Ronald Reagan

A little more on the truth about the Reagan Presidency….

How soon people forget and how easily their memories are manipulated by the Corporate Media….

From ThinkProgress.org

ThinkProgress has compiled a list of the top 10 things conservatives rarely mention when talking about President Reagan:

1. Reagan was a serial tax raiser. As governor of California, Reagan “signed into law the largest tax increase in the history of any state up till then.” Meanwhile, state spending nearly doubled. As president, Reagan “raised taxes in seven of his eight years in office,” including four times in just two years. As former GOP Senator Alan Simpson, who called Reagan “a dear friend,” told NPR, “Ronald Reagan raised taxes 11 times in his administration — I was there.” “Reagan was never afraid to raise taxes,” said historian Douglas Brinkley, who edited Reagan’s memoir. Reagan the anti-tax zealot is “false mythology,” Brinkley said.

2. Reagan nearly tripled the federal budget deficit. During the Reagan years, the debt increased to nearly $3 trillion, “roughly three times as much as the first 80 years of the century had done altogether.” Reagan enacted a major tax cut his first year in office and government revenue dropped off precipitously. Despite the conservative myth that tax cuts somehow increase revenue, the government went deeper into debt and Reagan had to raise taxes just a year after he enacted his tax cut. Despite ten more tax hikes on everything from gasoline to corporate income, Reagan was never able to get the deficit under control.

3. Unemployment soared after Reagan’s 1981 tax cuts. Unemployment jumped to 10.8 percent after Reagan enacted his much-touted tax cut, and it took years for the rate to get back down to its previous level. Meanwhile, income inequality exploded. Despite the myth that Reagan presided over an era of unmatched economic boom for all Americans, Reagan disproportionately taxed the poor and middle class, but the economic growth of the 1980′s did little help them. “Since 1980, median household income has risen only 30 percent, adjusted for inflation, while average incomes at the top have tripled or quadrupled,” the New York Times’ David Leonhardt noted.

4. Reagan grew the size of the federal government tremendously.

MORE:   ThinkProgress » Blog Archive » 10 Things Conservatives Don’t Want You To Know About Ronald Reagan.

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February 7, 2011 · 8:18 pm

Daily Kos: States that spent stimulus on repairs and public transportation created more jobs than other states

And there are still some people who say the stimulus didn’t work…

I keep saying it:  Infrastructure spending= more jobs= more tax revenue= more spending and product demands

Despite evidence showing that spending on public transportation and road and bridge repairs produces far more jobs and does so faster than new construction, most states and Metropolitan Planning Organizations “squandered” their federal stimulus money in this regard. Overall, according to a report from Smart Growth America, they spent 1.7 percent of the $26.6 billion they received from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed two years ago on public transportation, where expenditures generate the most jobs. At the same time, they spent 33.5 percent on new construction, which produces the least number of jobs.

SGA found that every $1 billion spent on highway projects yielded 2.4 million job hours; every $1 billion spent on public transportation projects yielded 4.2 million job hours.

Specifically, the report states, public transportation and bridge and road repairs created 31 percent more jobs per dollar than new construction of roads and bridges, while repair work on roads and bridges generated 16 percent more per dollar than new construction. Fixing existing infrastructure generates a higher investment return than new construction because it “prevents the need for reconstruction later, which costs 4 to 14 times as much … [and] keeps existing communities vibrant. Neglecting existing places whil building new infrastructure drives growth out and means the public ends up buying two of everything.” One reason that new construction generates fewer jobs per dollar is that so much of such dollars are spent on acquiring real estate, which produces no jobs.

via Daily Kos: States that spent stimulus on repairs and public transportation created more jobs than other states.

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