Tag Archives: politics

February 24, 2011 · 9:07 pm

Robert Reich: The Republican Shakedown

Absolutely brilliant, honest and true article from Robert Reich over at the Huffington Post…

Please click the link at the bottom and read the whole thing…

It’s worth it…

The truth is that while the proximate cause of America’s economic plunge was Wall Street’s excesses leading up to the crash of 2008, its underlying cause — and the reason the economy continues to be lousy for most Americans — is so much income and wealth have been going to the very top that the vast majority no longer has the purchasing power to lift the economy out of its doldrums. American’s aren’t buying cars (they bought 17 million new cars in 2005, just 12 million last year). They’re not buying homes (7.5 million in 2005, 4.6 million last year). They’re not going to the malls (high-end retailers are booming but Wal-Mart’s sales are down).

Only the richest 5 percent of Americans are back in the stores because their stock portfolios have soared. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has doubled from its crisis low. Wall Street pay is up to record levels. Total compensation and benefits at the 25 major Wall St firms had been $130 billion in 2007, before the crash; now it’s close to $140 billion.

But a strong recovery can’t be built on the purchases of the richest 5 percent.

The truth is if the super-rich paid their fair share of taxes, government wouldn’t be broke. If Governor Scott Walker hadn’t handed out tax breaks to corporations and the well-off, Wisconsin wouldn’t be in a budget crisis. If Washington hadn’t extended the Bush tax cuts for the rich, eviscerated the estate tax, and created loopholes for private-equity and hedge-fund managers, the federal budget wouldn’t look nearly as bad.

And if America had higher marginal tax rates and more tax brackets at the top — for those raking in $1 million, $5 million, $15 million a year — the budget would look even better. We wouldn’t be firing teachers or slashing Medicaid or hurting the most vulnerable members of our society. We wouldn’t be in a tizzy over Social Security. We’d slow the rise in health care costs but we wouldn’t cut Medicare. We’d cut defense spending and lop off subsidies to giant agribusinesses but we wouldn’t view the government as our national nemesis.

The final truth is as income and wealth have risen to the top, so has political power. The reason all of this is proving so difficult to get across is the super-rich, such as the Koch brothers, have been using their billions to corrupt politics, hoodwink the public, and enlarge and entrench their outsized fortunes. They’re bankrolling Republicans who are mounting showdowns and threatening shutdowns, and who want the public to believe government spending is the problem.

They are behind the Republican shakedown.

These are the truths that Democrats must start telling, and soon. Otherwise the Republican shakedown may well succeed.

via Robert Reich: The Republican Shakedown.

1 Comment

Filed under Politics, The Economy

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

February 24, 2011 · 6:39 pm

This is Not Fiscal Conservatism. It’s Just Politics. – Jim Wallis – God’s Politics Blog

Another great article from Jim Wallis at Sojourners….

The Republican governors’ counter parts in the U.S. House of Representatives are also not cutting spending where the real money is, such as in military spending, corporate tax cuts and loop holes, and long term health-care costs. Instead, they are cutting programs for the poorest people at home and around the world. This is also just political and not genuine fiscal conservatism. It is a direct attack on programs that help the poor and an all-out defense of the largesse handed out to big corporations and military contractors. If a budget is a moral document, these budget-cutters show that their priorities are to protect the richest Americans and abandon the poorest — and this is an ideological and moral choice. The proposed House cuts, which were just sent to the Senate, are full of disproportionate cuts to initiatives that have proven to save children’s lives and overcome poverty, while leaving untouched the most corrupt and wasteful spending of all American tax dollars — the Pentagon entitlement program. This is not fiscal integrity; this is hypocrisy.

MORE:   This is Not Fiscal Conservatism. It’s Just Politics. – Jim Wallis – God’s Politics Blog.

Leave a comment

Filed under Politics, Religion, Social Justice, Tea Party, The Economy

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

February 24, 2011 · 6:38 pm

DEA to legalize marijuana only for ‘Big Pharma,’ NORML claims | The Raw Story

Money talks….

Especially from the Pharmaceutical Industry…

A Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) proposal to reclassify the main psychoactive chemical in marijuana as a Schedule III substance would allow pharmaceutical companies to market the drug while still penalizing common recreational use, according to marijuana law reform advocates.

The main psychoactive chemical in marijuana, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), is currently a Schedule I substance within the US Controlled Substances Act, the most restrictive schedule with the greatest criminal penalties.

In November 2010, the DEA proposed reclassifying dronabinol, a synthetic THC, as a Schedule III substance, which would place it among substances such as hydrocodone and allow it to be dispensed with a written or oral prescription.

“The DEA’s intent is to expand the federal government’s schedule III listing to include pharmaceutical products containing naturally derived formations of THC while simultaneously maintain existing criminal prohibitions on the plant itself,” Paul Armentano, the deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), wrote at AlterNet.

With its proposal, the DEA is responding to the demands of large pharmaceutical companies, he claimed.

Marijuana plants and THC extracts would remain illegal under the proposal, but companies would be able to purchase THC from a government-licensed provider to develop pharmaceutical products.

“While the DEA’s forthcoming regulatory change promises to stimulate the advent of legally available, natural THC therapeutic products… the change will offer no legal relief for those hundreds of thousands of Americans who believe that therapeutic relief is best obtained by use of the whole plant itself,” Armentano added.

“Rather the DEA appears content to try to walk a political and semantic tightrope that alleges: ‘pot is bad,’ but ‘pot-derived pharmaceuticals are good.'”

THC can help cancer patients regain their appetites and sense of taste, according to a study published on Wednesday.

“This is the first randomized controlled trial to show that THC makes food taste better and improves appetites for patients with advanced cancer, as well as helping them to sleep and to relax better,” Dr. Wendy Wismer, associate professor at the University of Alberta, said. “Our findings are important, as there is no accepted treatment for chemosensory alterations experienced by cancer patients.”

Fifteen states and the District of Columbia have passed legislation to legalize the medical use of marijuana.

via DEA to legalize marijuana only for ‘Big Pharma,’ NORML claims | The Raw Story.

1 Comment

Filed under Health Care, Politics, The Economy

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

February 24, 2011 · 6:36 pm

Will the GOP Blackmail Dems into Defunding Planned Parenthood? | | AlterNet

I can’t believe people aren’t more focused on the GOP attack on Women’s Health Care.

The Dems just don’t seem able to get out a message…

I did what little I could.  I made a donation to Planned Parenthood yesterday and I encourage you to do the same.

Here’s the link to do so:  https://secure.ppaction.org/site/SPageServer?pagename=pp_ppol_DonationFormOneTimeGift

When the news came down Friday afternoon, it was genuinely shocking, which is a rare event in our era of over-the-top right-wing antics: House Republicans, following the lead of Planned Parenthood-obsessed Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., zeroed out spending for family planning services in the continuing resolution to fund the government.

Even though pro-choicers have known for years that the anti-choice movement opposes contraception right alongside abortion, these cuts to Title X, which doesn’t fund abortion but only contraception and other reproductive health care, were still a surprise, considering how popular contraception remains with the general public. Still, while this bill was a punch to the gut for the vast majority of Americans who support birth control services, most political watchers assumed it to be symbolic anti-choice posturing from House Republicans, and that the Senate and the president would not allow federal support of Planned Parenthood to be abruptly cut off.

I wish I could share their confidence in Planned Parenthood’s safety. There’s reason to fear this gesture is more than symbolic, and that Republicans could successfully blackmail Democrats into defunding Title X, a funding initiative that goes all the way back to radical feminist socialist Richard Nixon. For a hint of what could happen, look back at what happened with the Stupak amendment that nearly derailed health care reform, forcing Democrats to accept a compromise that dramatically curtailed access to abortion for low-income women. Republicans, and a handful of conservative Democrats, have already demonstrated that they will hijack the debate to attack women’s rights, and there’s no reason to think this won’t happen again.

More:   Will the GOP Blackmail Dems into Defunding Planned Parenthood? | | AlterNet.

Leave a comment

Filed under Health Care, Politics, The Economy

Tagged as , , , ,

February 24, 2011 · 6:33 pm

Even Goldman Sachs sees danger in US budget cuts

Cutting deficits in a recovering economy just isn’t economically smart…

This is a sure way to slow growth and possibly drive the economy into a double dip recession.

However, that’s what the Republicans really want…

If the economy stalls, it theoretically increases the odds they can beat President Obama in 2012 and pick up more seats in the House and Senate.

That’s the real game plan- not cutting spending or growing jobs.

The GOP really couldn’t care less about either….

The Republican plan to slash government spending by $61bn in 2011 could reduce US economic growth by 1.5 to 2 percentage points in the second and third quarters of the year, a Goldman Sachs economist has warned.

The note from Alec Phillips, a forecaster based in Washington, was seized in the ongoing US budget fight by Democrats as validating their argument that the legislation approved by the Republican-led House of Representatives last Saturday would do significant damage to the US recovery.

Chuck Schumer, the Democratic senator from New York, said: “This nonpartisan study proves that the House Republicans’ proposal is a recipe for a double-dip recession. Just as the economy is beginning to pick up a little steam, the Republican budget would snuff out any chance of recovery. This analysis puts a dagger through the heart of their ‘cut-and-grow’ fantasy”.

The Goldman analysis also points out that a potential compromise deal with $25bn in spending reductions this year – a more likely scenario – would lead to a smaller drag on growth of 1 percentage point in the second quarter.

via FT.com / US / Economy & Fed – Goldman sees danger in US budget cuts.

Leave a comment

Filed under Politics, The Economy

Tagged as , , , , , ,

February 23, 2011 · 8:44 pm

Vision: Why the Mid-Atlantic Can Be the ‘Persian Gulf of Offshore Wind Energy’ | | AlterNet

I wish more people would focus on these positive options for our energy future.

We really need to get moving on– I’ll say it again!- Infrastructure development in order to be energy independent.

But with the GOP- and most of the rest of the government- owned by the Oil Companies, it’s going to be a struggle…

For visions of America’s energy future, we tend to look to the nexus of the current world energy order — the Middle East. That’s how we ended up with America’s worst nickname ever: the “Saudi Arabia of coal.” To the coal-industry shills who coined it, the term was meant to convey ideas of energy independence, security and patriotism. To those of us who know better it means a promise of boiling chaotic doom for the planet, and a future of shattered landscapes and poisoned waters for coal-country communities.

That’s the nightmare energy vision from the Middle East. But thankfully there’s a positive alternative — a vision that goes far beyond rhetoric to encapsulate a future of limitless, clean, healthy, secure and 100-percent American energy. It’s the “Persian Gulf of offshore wind energy” and it describes a little known area of the eastern seaboard otherwise known as the Mid-Atlantic Bight, which runs from Massachusetts to North Carolina.

In the annals of energy discoveries, the discovery of the Bight’s wind energy potential could rank right up there with the discovery of oil beneath the sands of the Arabian Peninsula. A 2007 joint Stanford University-University of Delaware study found that fully developed with over 166,000 wind turbines, the Bight’s waters could produce as much as 330,000 megawatts of power, or effectively one third of U.S. energy demand. Even more exciting, the researchers concluded that full-scale development of the resource was well within the realm of technological possibility. All that was required was the political will to make it happen.

More:   Vision: Why the Mid-Atlantic Can Be the ‘Persian Gulf of Offshore Wind Energy’ | | AlterNet.

Leave a comment

Filed under Energy, Politics, The Economy

Tagged as , , , ,

February 23, 2011 · 8:42 pm

Obama and the GOP’s Spending Cuts: Where’s the Outrage? | Mother Jones

An interesting perspective….

The president also is striving to be Washington’s adult-in-chief, talking up the need for bipartisan negotiations and the potential for agreement across party lines. He’s ceding the politics of defiance to the Republicans. This could well be because his approval ratings have ticked upward since he hammered out the bipartisan tax-cut deal with the Republicans in December. He seems to be content to let the Republicans be the food-fighters, so he can position himself as a rise-above-them leader—which, presumably, will enhance his appeal among independent voters.

But there’s something else: recent public opinion polling. At a retreat of Democratic senators last week, Democratic pollster Geoff Garin presented bad news: Republicans had gained the edge in the debate over government spending. Voters, especially independents, he told the Dems, care first and foremost about improving the economy, but they believe the better way to do so is by cutting spending, not investing. That is, many voters have accepted the GOP’s fundamental talking point.

If that’s true, Obama and other Democrats facing reelection in 2012 have to be careful about coming across as opposing spending cuts. Garin’s polling, according to Bloomberg, did show that voters do not fancy spending cuts in law enforcement, education, and medical research—actually the sort of cuts House GOPers are pushing. This might suggest that Obama could score politically by confronting Republicans over these cuts (in similar fashion to the way President Bill Clinton won the showdown with the Newt Gingrich-led Republicans in the 1990s over GOP-desired spending cuts). But this polling also indicates that voters view spending cuts in general as the path to economic recovery and trust the Republicans more than Obama when it comes to dealing with the budget deficit.

So Republicans could be vulnerable politically if voters come to believe they are cutting too much, but Obama and the Democrats could lose out, if voters (especially indies) don’t believe they are truly committed to spending cuts. Consequently, Obama has a fine line to tread. He must oppose the Republicans’ deep cuts without doing so in a way that would cause voters to question his commitment to more prudent cuts. Such a stance demands political finesse. The GOP, though, has a rather simple message: government spending is bad for the economy, so cut, cut, cut, and cut again. The Obama argument is three-fold: some government spending has to be decreased; much spending is necessary (though it can be spent more efficiently); and in several areas, the government must spend more for a future payoff. In the budget fights ahead—if the tussle does boil down to bumper sticker versus nuanced explanation—the adult in the room may not have the advantage.

via Obama and the GOP’s Spending Cuts: Where’s the Outrage? | Mother Jones.

Leave a comment

Filed under Politics, The Economy

Tagged as , ,

February 23, 2011 · 8:42 pm

Capitalism for the Long Term – Harvard Business Review

Interesting article from the Harvard Business Review…

I think it’s a little optimistic to think Business and Capitalism will reform themselves…

His suggestions seem to be to go back to the way we were…

What are the odds of that happening without Governmental reform and public outrage?

Not likely to happen as long as the Corporations own the Government….

Why reform when you can rig the system to your benefit?

In an ongoing effort that started 18 months ago, I’ve met with more than 400 business and government leaders across the globe. Those conversations have reinforced my strong sense that, despite a certain amount of frustration on each side, the two groups share the belief that capitalism has been and can continue to be the greatest engine of prosperity ever devised—and that we will need it to be at the top of its job-creating, wealth-generating game in the years to come. At the same time, there is growing concern that if the fundamental issues revealed in the crisis remain unaddressed and the system fails again, the social contract between the capitalist system and the citizenry may truly rupture, with unpredictable but severely damaging results.

Most important, the dialogue has clarified for me the nature of the deep reform that I believe business must lead—nothing less than a shift from what I call quarterly capitalism to what might be referred to as long-term capitalism. (For a rough definition of “long term,” think of the time required to invest in and build a profitable new business, which McKinsey research suggests is at least five to seven years.) This shift is not just about persistently thinking and acting with a next-generation view—although that’s a key part of it. It’s about rewiring the fundamental ways we govern, manage, and lead corporations. It’s also about changing how we view business’s value and its role in society.

There are three essential elements of the shift. First, business and finance must jettison their short-term orientation and revamp incentives and structures in order to focus their organizations on the long term. Second, executives must infuse their organizations with the perspective that serving the interests of all major stakeholders—employees, suppliers, customers, creditors, communities, the environment—is not at odds with the goal of maximizing corporate value; on the contrary, it’s essential to achieving that goal. Third, public companies must cure the ills stemming from dispersed and disengaged ownership by bolstering boards’ ability to govern like owners.

via Capitalism for the Long Term – Harvard Business Review.

Leave a comment

Filed under Politics, The Economy

Tagged as , , , ,

February 23, 2011 · 8:37 pm

The Budget Smokescreen – Room for Debate – NYTimes.com

David Gergen is a true Washington insider, so his thoughts are always interesting as a representation of “inside the beltway” thinking…

The budget showdown shaping up in Washington is dramatic but depressing. What we are mostly seeing so far is a jockeying for political power rather than a serious attempt to rescue the nation’s finances.

Here’s the sad part: in the end, the amount of money being fought over is only a tiny fraction of the nation’s budget deficit.

On the surface, of course, the immediate issue is that the federal government will begin shutting down services next Friday unless Congress and the White House can agree on a fresh spending resolution. Compromise talks are underway and there are whispers of a short-term agreement.

But don’t count on it because the real struggle is beneath the surface — who can win over the public and potentially gain the upper hand for the political fights still ahead. And right now neither side knows for sure how public opinion will break.

via The Budget Smokescreen – Room for Debate – NYTimes.com.

Leave a comment

Filed under Politics, The Economy

Tagged as , ,

February 22, 2011 · 8:36 pm

Sarah Palin Reality Show Received $1million Tax Credit – Washington DC RNC | Examiner.com

Tonight seems to be Sarah Palin night…

She’s been a busy little Momma Grizzley!

And it’s all starting to come out…

I can’t wait for the new tell all book coming from one of her former closest aides….

I do give her credit for one thing:  She sure knows how to make a buck!

She just doesn’t want to help anyone else get ahead-or survive.

“Sarah Palin’s Alaska”, the reality mini-series staring the former governor and her family, is the beneficiary of a $1.2million state tax credit due to 2008 legislation signed by Palin which allows for film and television productions in the state to write-off 30% of their on location costs, as reported by the Anchorage Daily News. The bill was passed in order to promote production in the state.

The reality series was a moderate ratings success for TLC. The network spent $3.6million filming in the state with Alaska’s numerous forests and snow-peaked mountains serving as the backdrop.

Palin was elected governor in 2006, the first woman and the youngest governor in Alaskan history, and prematurely resigned in 2009 citing her intention to not become a ‘lame-duck’ governor. Since her retirement Palin has made millions in book deals, a Fox News contributor contract, and the 8-part reality show.

According to reports, Palin earned somewhere between $250,000-$1million per episode.

via Sarah Palin Reality Show Received $1million Tax Credit – Washington DC RNC | Examiner.com.

Leave a comment

Filed under Politics

Tagged as , ,