Protests against Wisconsin's anti-labor measures spread across the country this weekend. About 50,000 people demonstrated at other State capitals to join the 100,000 demonstrators in Madison, Wisconsin on Saturday. The LA Times referred to the Madison rally as the largest demonstration there since the Vietnam War. MoveOn.org helped organize the protests in the other states and prepared a photo gallery from the demonstrations.
Notably lacking in Madison was any support for Governor Walker. I guess the Koch brothers' billions couldn't bring many Tea-partiers to Wisconsin.
Governor Walker of Wisconsin remains the poster boy for the anti-labor movement and continues to refuse to compromise on collective bargaining rights. It is clearly a political move designed to damage the Democratic Party base - after all, the unions have conceded all of the financial terms. So what we are moving towards, post-Citizens United, is an electoral process where corporations are free to spend all the money they want in support of a candidate. On the other hand, unions, the traditional counter-weight to corporate money interests and the historical route for many into the middle class, are being broken. Public sentiment is strongly against the GOP governor.
As Robert Creamer phrased it neatly: "The battle of Wisconsin...has become a struggle about the dignity of middle class Americans -- about the principle of whether everyday people have the right to sit at a bargaining table and have a say about their wages, their working conditions, and their jobs...The radical right wing Republicans decided to strike now to destroy organized labor. They wanted to destroy it because it is the only institution in the country that prevents Wall Street and the largest international corporations from having their way with America."
To top this all off, an independent analysis released today has confirmed and now quantified what many of us have been saying since the House Republicans presented their proposal for the 2011 budget. Adoption of their budget would destroy 700,000 jobs through 2012. The analysis was by Moody's Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi. As reported in the Washington Post, Zandi "predicts that the GOP package would reduce economic growth by 0.5 percentage points this year, and by 0.2 percentage points in 2012, resulting in 700,000 fewer jobs by the end of next year."
Well, we have to the end of the week to see if the radicals in the Republican Party willl shut down the government in order to keep a budget that destroys 700,000 jobs. How ridiculous can these people get?
Monday, February 28, 2011
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Union Busting
- Article 23, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UN General Assembly, 10 December 1948
- Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
- Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
- Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
- Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.
In Wisconsin first and now spreading to Indiana and Ohio, the right wing assault against public employees' unions is escalating. Divide and conquer appears to be the strategy - pit private against public workers and some public sectors (police, firemen) against others (teachers, services).
The Wisconsin protests are down to this: the union has agreed to all of the wage and benefit concessions but want to retain their collective bargaining rights. The Republican governor, Scott Walker, received his biggest campaign contribution ($100,000) from the billionaire Koch brothers. These fellows are renowned for their funding of right-wing causes - and what could be more American right wing than union-busting.
Well cops and firemen, who were exempted from the Wisconsin measures (they had supported Walker in his election bid), are standing with the teachers and services unions and the protests have spread to other states.
Meanwhile the tea party funders are sending in operatives and "anti-protesters" from out of state to counter the demonstrations. Sort of reminds you of the anti-health-care-reform protests of last year - as one columnist wrote: "Never have so many out of shape white men marched to demand that the government not improve their health care."
Even after the public unions' complete concession on the wages and benefits side, Walker will not compromise. So this is more than a budget issue. It is an outright attack on the rights of workers. Collective bargaining must be severely weakened or eliminated.
Let's hope the good guys win. Here's something I hope you enjoy to keep them going. Joe Hill video (Paul Robeson). For the soprano version, here's Joan Baez at Woodstock.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Budget Follies
(This blog was revised evening of 2/19 to reflect the final budget approved by the House.)
The House Republican 2011 budget is even worse than that proposed last week. The Continuing Resolution on the Fiscal Year 2011 budget also seeks to block EPA from regulating greenhouse gas emissions, and to de-fund the White House energy and climate office. That’s in addition to proposing a massive $100 billion cut in President Obama’s discretionary budget request for Fiscal Year 2011. (Climate Science Watch) Some small amount of sanity prevailed in the Republican ranks and as finally passed, there were $60 billion in cuts. Some Republicans crossed over and worked with Democrats to restore funds to programs involving homeland security, community policing, economic development grants and special education, among others.
Boehner's "so be it" to Federal workers losing their jobs as a result of the cuts says it all - “If some of those jobs are lost, so be it. We’re broke.” Yeah and laying off Federal workers will really solve the unemployment problem - so much for Republican attempts at job creation. This job loss will add to the deficit - less taxes to be collected, more unemployment to be paid out, less money to be spent on goods and services in the consumer-driven US economy.
The government deficit needs to be addressed. That is clear. What's going on in the House, though, will do little to cure the problem but it will make the lives of the less well off among us more difficult.
Republicans cutting into the deficit on the backs of the middle class, decreasing services for the disadvantaged, attempting to reverse the health care act (which actually saves money according to non-partisan analyses), and gutting enforcement of environmental legislation is just plain wrong.
Reducing government spending drastically in the midst of the current high unemployment will put the brakes on the recovery for the middle class and is just plain stupid.
Discretionary domestic spending is a very small part of the Federal budget. The major expenses are in the military and entitlement programs.
Why we need a military budget more than 6 times that of China is a true mystery. Maintaining a cold-war-philosophy military budget 20 years after the end of the Cold War is a waste of all of our money. Not to mention the trillion dollars or so that have gone or will go to fund our disastrous misadventures in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Wikipedia: The world's top 5 largest military budgets in 2009. Figures sourced from SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
As for entitlements, Social Security can probably survive through the end of this century with a few minor tweaks. Let's face it - it is being targetted by conservatives because it is the most successful government social program in US history.
Medicare and Medicaid are more problematic. Either revenues that support these programs need to be increased or unit costs for medical care need to be brought down. Fighting the Health Care Reform Act is one sure way to make sure medical costs continue to increase rapidly.
The second part of reducing the deficit is, of course, the revenues side. Revenues are available if we close corporate tax loopholes, reduce military spending, and end the tax breaks for the wealthy when they expire in 2 years. It will take political will and a coherent message to overcome the erroneous but well-financed ideas coming from the think tanks of the Right.
Here's a link to Nobel-prize-winning economist Paul Krugman's NYT article on the budget "debate". Great reading.
The House Republican 2011 budget is even worse than that proposed last week. The Continuing Resolution on the Fiscal Year 2011 budget also seeks to block EPA from regulating greenhouse gas emissions, and to de-fund the White House energy and climate office. That’s in addition to proposing a massive $100 billion cut in President Obama’s discretionary budget request for Fiscal Year 2011. (Climate Science Watch) Some small amount of sanity prevailed in the Republican ranks and as finally passed, there were $60 billion in cuts. Some Republicans crossed over and worked with Democrats to restore funds to programs involving homeland security, community policing, economic development grants and special education, among others.
Boehner's "so be it" to Federal workers losing their jobs as a result of the cuts says it all - “If some of those jobs are lost, so be it. We’re broke.” Yeah and laying off Federal workers will really solve the unemployment problem - so much for Republican attempts at job creation. This job loss will add to the deficit - less taxes to be collected, more unemployment to be paid out, less money to be spent on goods and services in the consumer-driven US economy.
The government deficit needs to be addressed. That is clear. What's going on in the House, though, will do little to cure the problem but it will make the lives of the less well off among us more difficult.
Republicans cutting into the deficit on the backs of the middle class, decreasing services for the disadvantaged, attempting to reverse the health care act (which actually saves money according to non-partisan analyses), and gutting enforcement of environmental legislation is just plain wrong.
Reducing government spending drastically in the midst of the current high unemployment will put the brakes on the recovery for the middle class and is just plain stupid.
Discretionary domestic spending is a very small part of the Federal budget. The major expenses are in the military and entitlement programs.
Why we need a military budget more than 6 times that of China is a true mystery. Maintaining a cold-war-philosophy military budget 20 years after the end of the Cold War is a waste of all of our money. Not to mention the trillion dollars or so that have gone or will go to fund our disastrous misadventures in Iraq and Afghanistan.
As for entitlements, Social Security can probably survive through the end of this century with a few minor tweaks. Let's face it - it is being targetted by conservatives because it is the most successful government social program in US history.
Medicare and Medicaid are more problematic. Either revenues that support these programs need to be increased or unit costs for medical care need to be brought down. Fighting the Health Care Reform Act is one sure way to make sure medical costs continue to increase rapidly.
The second part of reducing the deficit is, of course, the revenues side. Revenues are available if we close corporate tax loopholes, reduce military spending, and end the tax breaks for the wealthy when they expire in 2 years. It will take political will and a coherent message to overcome the erroneous but well-financed ideas coming from the think tanks of the Right.
Here's a link to Nobel-prize-winning economist Paul Krugman's NYT article on the budget "debate". Great reading.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Going the Wrong Way
While the news cycle has been covering the turmoil in Egypt (Mubarak apparently has just left Cairo), there have been some domestic developments and non-developments that warrant mention.
Congress has not done anything to address the unemployment rate and increase jobs. Jobs creation in January was lower than expected. Much of this was likely due to the severe weather. Meanwhile, the House Republicans have done nothing on a jobs bill, contenting themselves with their ever-erroneous whining about the negative impact of government spending.
House Republican budget proposals (Note 1) have, as expected, shifted the burden of deficit reduction to women, children and the poor while simultaneously eliminating jobs creation programs.
(1) Apologies for the above link - it contains the self serving comments of the Republican chair but it effectively shows their priorities. For a good analysis of how these changes affect society's most vulnerable see the WonkRoom post at this link) :
- Changing House Rules to allow for unlimited, unfinanced tax cuts (i.e., pay as you go only applies to spending cuts)
- Cutting $2 billion from jobs training programs
- Cutting $1.1 billion from community health centers
- Cutting $1 billion from high speed rail, effectively eliminating numerous jobs
- Cutting $758 million from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), which amounts to about a 6 percent cut to a program providing food assistance to low-income women and their infants.
– Cutting $210 million from Maternal and Child Health Block Grants, which amounts to about a 33 percent cut in a program giving low-income pregnant women, mothers and their children access to health care.
– Cutting $27 million from the Poison Control Center, which would essentially eliminate a program supporting local poison control centers and funding a hotline directing residents to their local poison control office.
Meanwhile the Obama Administration has moved to cut home heating subsidies to the poor by $2.5 billion and revise the rules on mortgages. The latter would require higher down payments and start to eliminate the role of Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae, the traditional entry to home ownership for the middle class. Meanwhile, Obama's 2011 most recent foray into jobs creation has been to ask the Chamber of Commerce to (pretty please) step up to the plate and create jobs.
Are these people all crazy or what?
Here's the Obama - Biden plan for the economy. It's somewhat outdated but would be interesting to see how effective they will be in prioritizing and implementing the remaining elements of this.
Congress has not done anything to address the unemployment rate and increase jobs. Jobs creation in January was lower than expected. Much of this was likely due to the severe weather. Meanwhile, the House Republicans have done nothing on a jobs bill, contenting themselves with their ever-erroneous whining about the negative impact of government spending.
House Republican budget proposals (Note 1) have, as expected, shifted the burden of deficit reduction to women, children and the poor while simultaneously eliminating jobs creation programs.
(1) Apologies for the above link - it contains the self serving comments of the Republican chair but it effectively shows their priorities. For a good analysis of how these changes affect society's most vulnerable see the WonkRoom post at this link) :
- Changing House Rules to allow for unlimited, unfinanced tax cuts (i.e., pay as you go only applies to spending cuts)
- Cutting $2 billion from jobs training programs
- Cutting $1.1 billion from community health centers
- Cutting $1 billion from high speed rail, effectively eliminating numerous jobs
- Cutting $758 million from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), which amounts to about a 6 percent cut to a program providing food assistance to low-income women and their infants.
– Cutting $210 million from Maternal and Child Health Block Grants, which amounts to about a 33 percent cut in a program giving low-income pregnant women, mothers and their children access to health care.
– Cutting $27 million from the Poison Control Center, which would essentially eliminate a program supporting local poison control centers and funding a hotline directing residents to their local poison control office.
Meanwhile the Obama Administration has moved to cut home heating subsidies to the poor by $2.5 billion and revise the rules on mortgages. The latter would require higher down payments and start to eliminate the role of Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae, the traditional entry to home ownership for the middle class. Meanwhile, Obama's 2011 most recent foray into jobs creation has been to ask the Chamber of Commerce to (pretty please) step up to the plate and create jobs.
Are these people all crazy or what?
Here's the Obama - Biden plan for the economy. It's somewhat outdated but would be interesting to see how effective they will be in prioritizing and implementing the remaining elements of this.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Turmoil
Tunisia, Egypt, and most recently Jordan. The "street" is forcing change in the Middle East.
In an uprising led mostly by young working-class men, Tunisians ousted authoritarian President Zine el Abidine ben Ali on January 14. Opponents of ben Ali's government had complained of corruption, lack of jobs and repression. Continuing protests on the composition of the interim government, which included members from the former regime led to a major Cabinet reshuffle on January 27. The interim government has scheduled general elections within six months. Both the US and the EU, which had long backed Ben Ali's regime as a counter to Islamic extremism, have now endorsed the uprising with pledges of financial aid.
In Egypt, initial protests came in early December after preliminary election results were announced. The opposition charged that the elections were rigged. Then on January 2, protesters gathered in central Cairo to demand the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak. As events unfolded in Tunisia, the opposition to Mubarak's rule gathered strength and crystallized around the Nobel prize winning opposition leader Mohammed ElBaradei. (ElBaradei is the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency and prominently and correctly disputed the US WMD rationale for the invasion of Iraq. Too bad the Bush and Blair Administrations didn't listen to him then - countless lives and a trillion dollars would have been saved. But that's another subject.) Protests against unemployment, corruption and rising prices have continued unabated since January 25th. On January 29th, Mubarak fired his Cabinet. Soldiers and policemen are now allowing the protests to continue. Today more than a million Egyptians across the country protested. Mubarak says he will be addressing the nation and will not be running in the scheduled Septemebr elections. Unless he can satisfy the demands of the Egyptian people soon, I think his step-down from power is imminent. Mubarak and Egypt's secular government have been key to US strategy for 30 years.
Thousands of people in Jordan had taken to the streets in protests, demanding the country's prime minister step down, and the government curb rising prices, inflation and unemployment. King Abdullah II of Jordan fired his Cabinet after today's Egyptian protests, and organizers in Yemen and Syria, with their own authoritarian rulers, have called for protests.
Across the Middle East, there will be change. The US for many years has backed authoritarian secular regimes as a bulwark against Islamic fundamentalism. (Remember when Saddam Hussein was our ally?) It's reminiscent, on perhaps a lesser scale, of the US approach towards communism in the cold war days. We disgracefully backed some of the most repressive military dictatorships and oligarchies around the world as long as they said they were anti-communist. When rebellion and change and democracy occur, it may not always result in what the US wants. But we cannot and should not dictate to the world's peoples what their nations should look like.
In an uprising led mostly by young working-class men, Tunisians ousted authoritarian President Zine el Abidine ben Ali on January 14. Opponents of ben Ali's government had complained of corruption, lack of jobs and repression. Continuing protests on the composition of the interim government, which included members from the former regime led to a major Cabinet reshuffle on January 27. The interim government has scheduled general elections within six months. Both the US and the EU, which had long backed Ben Ali's regime as a counter to Islamic extremism, have now endorsed the uprising with pledges of financial aid.
In Egypt, initial protests came in early December after preliminary election results were announced. The opposition charged that the elections were rigged. Then on January 2, protesters gathered in central Cairo to demand the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak. As events unfolded in Tunisia, the opposition to Mubarak's rule gathered strength and crystallized around the Nobel prize winning opposition leader Mohammed ElBaradei. (ElBaradei is the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency and prominently and correctly disputed the US WMD rationale for the invasion of Iraq. Too bad the Bush and Blair Administrations didn't listen to him then - countless lives and a trillion dollars would have been saved. But that's another subject.) Protests against unemployment, corruption and rising prices have continued unabated since January 25th. On January 29th, Mubarak fired his Cabinet. Soldiers and policemen are now allowing the protests to continue. Today more than a million Egyptians across the country protested. Mubarak says he will be addressing the nation and will not be running in the scheduled Septemebr elections. Unless he can satisfy the demands of the Egyptian people soon, I think his step-down from power is imminent. Mubarak and Egypt's secular government have been key to US strategy for 30 years.
Thousands of people in Jordan had taken to the streets in protests, demanding the country's prime minister step down, and the government curb rising prices, inflation and unemployment. King Abdullah II of Jordan fired his Cabinet after today's Egyptian protests, and organizers in Yemen and Syria, with their own authoritarian rulers, have called for protests.
Across the Middle East, there will be change. The US for many years has backed authoritarian secular regimes as a bulwark against Islamic fundamentalism. (Remember when Saddam Hussein was our ally?) It's reminiscent, on perhaps a lesser scale, of the US approach towards communism in the cold war days. We disgracefully backed some of the most repressive military dictatorships and oligarchies around the world as long as they said they were anti-communist. When rebellion and change and democracy occur, it may not always result in what the US wants. But we cannot and should not dictate to the world's peoples what their nations should look like.
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