Get Out Now

Obama's announcement of the beginning of the troop withdrawal from Afghanistan is welcome news but far from adequate.  By the end of 2012, we will still have more troops in Afghanistan than when our Nobel Peace prize winner took office.  The end must come immediately for this ill-advised war with no defined objective. 

Why any troops remain in Iraq at all is also beyond comprehension.  The Iraq War was based on lies, pumped up false intelligence and fear-mongering from the neo-cons.   Time to end it once and for all.

America cannot afford the lives and money for what has been a serious misadventure in the Middle East.  It has done nothing to improve our security, has provided grist for the terrorist recruitment mills, has shifted the balance of power in the region towards Iran, and has seriously damaged America's reputation and ability to lead by example. 

The days of the neocon dream of an American empire are over.  The reality needs to sink in that we cannot force our will or way of life on others. 

Get out now.  

The Religious Left

Ever think whom you'd invite to a dinner party or a friendly pub if you could choose anyone in the world? Well after Willie Mays, my childhood hero who may have been the greatest all-around baseball player of all time, there are a few others that would be high on my invitee list. One of these is Jim Wallis, the evangelical theologian who is the founder of Sojourners, a nationwide network of progressive Christians working for justice and peace. His 2005 NY Times bestseller, God's Politics, describes how the right wing distorted and co-opted religion and “values”. As the book's chapter subtitles ask: since when did Jesus become pro-war, pro-rich, and a selective moralist?

Wallis has especially high praise for the “consistent ethic of life” that derives from the heart of Catholic social teaching and the Jewish prophets. Social justice issues are religious and moral issues and need to be treated as such. Wallis tells a story about some theology students who snipped out all sections of the Bible that dealt with the poor and social justice. The result looked like a large pile of thinly-sliced Swiss cheese. Health care, living wages, the environment, and eradication of poverty are not just political issues – they are religious issues and we should not hesitate to address them as such. Wallis does not let the Left off either. He faults the Left for misguided tactics. His basic argument with the Left is that it is afraid to appeal to religion in discussing political issues. The end result has been the loss of the “religious” vote. Historically, much of the progress on social issues (for example, the abolition of slavery, the civil rights movement, anti-war protests) was made based on religious and moral arguments. The Left need to consider returning to that tradition.

The press ignores progressive religious actions that don't tally with the prevailing view of religion in America. E.J. Dionne, in a May 22^nd article in the Washington Post notes the lack of coverage of the controversary over House Speaker John Boehner's commencement speech at Catholic University. When the university invited Boehner, a Catholic, to speak at its May 14^th commencement exercises, a group of the university's professors wrote a letter to him. “From the apostles to the present,” the professors wrote, “the Magisterium of the Church has insisted that those in power are morally obliged to preference the needs of the poor.” They added: “Your record in support of legislation to address the desperate needs of the poor is among the worst in Congress.” The letter specifically condemned the House-passed Ryan budget, arguing that it “guts long-established protections for the most vulnerable members of society.”

As Jim Wallis notes, God is personal but never private. Social justice and peace are at the heart of Jesus' message. Ignoring or denying this puts the lie to those who proclaim themselves “religious” and act otherwise. I'll close with a bumper sticker addressed to these self-proclaimed religious people. “Greed and intolerance are not family values.”

Jobs, Foreclosures, Speculation: Leadership Needed

Hopefully the depressing May job numbers (net of 54,000 jobs created: +83,000 private sector - 29,000 public sector) will wake up the Obama administration.  The blame is being attributed to speculation-driven high energy prices and the continuing problems with Japan's economy following the earthquake and tsunami.  The public sector job loss results from the ongoing cuts to public services as typified in the jobs-loss-budget forced by the House Republicans earlier this year and the state cuts to services made in many instances while decreasing the tax burdens on the wealthy and corporations.

Make no mistake.  Jobs creation, not deficit reduction, is the Number One domestic priority for the Administration.  Not only is unemployment in itself causing continuing hardships for millions.  It is unemployment, not subprime mortgages, that is now the leading cause of foreclosures. 

The long term deficit problem is something that can be dealt with in time and whose severity will decrease with time as more jobs are created.  It does not have to be addressed now while we are still in the midst of a recession.  Obama must force the Republicans hand on this issue and take the argument to the Amercian people.  Simple Keynesian economics say that you increase government spending in a recession to get the economy moving.  Republican supply-side-economics, as noted in my last post, are a non-starter for job creation. 

So now is the time for Obama to take the argument to the streets and put the lie to the Republican call for tax breaks for the rich and corporations and for services cuts for the rest of us.  It will be difficult to accomplish anything as long as the Republicans control the House and filibuster in the Senate.  The Republicans really have nothing to lose - if recovery is forestalled then Obama will lose in 2012. 

Nevertheless the argument needs to be made - the Big Lie of the ineffectiveness of the 2009 stimulus needs to be rebutted and a new stimulus is needed if the economy is to recover.  Here are six actions that will help the rebound:

• A payroll tax holiday
• A WPA-like jobs program to (1) rebuild the country's infrastructure and (2) move towards a renewable, non-CO2-producing (i.e., let's stop with the nonsense about ethanol) energy economy
• A jobs-training program to improve health care delivery, especially delivery of preventive care
• A redefined foreclosure prevention program based on the new reality that unemployment (and not sub-prime mortgages) is driving the current foreclosures...a strong housing market is the sine qua non for economic recovery
• Re-regulation to prevent oil speculation - high energy prices are a prime factor in the current slow-down in the economy.  And oil speculation is the primary cause of the cost increase.  Rex Tillerson, ExxonMobil CEO, has stated that based solely on supply and demand, oil prices should be in the range of $60-$70/barrel.  This means that speculation adds about 75cts/gallon more at the pump.  I don't usually agree with Fox News but they are correct in at least one area - the dangers of speculation.  The CFTC (Commodities Futures Trading Commission) is charged with writing the regulations that control excessive speculation.  They need to be forceful in this.  SOS is one group that is working to make this happen.  Again, let's not get fooled by the Republican rhetoric - it is not regulation of the oil industry that is causing the problem - it is the deregulated commodities market combined with speculation and greed on the part of traders (e.g., the Koch brothers, the infamous billionaire supporters of all things right-wing).
• Increased aid to states so that they can maintain their portion of necessary social and education services until  revenues are increased as people go back to work. 

The Republican "Jobs" Plan

How stupid does the Republican leadership believe Americans are?   If their recently announced jobs plan is any indication, plenty stupid.  The plan is nothing more than a rehash of the supply-side economics theory that for the better part of 30 years has failed to provide jobs and wage growth for the average citizen.  Their outdated laissez-faire assault on business regulations led directly to the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression.  Their lower taxes for the wealthy results in more difficult lives for the not-so-wealthy and job losses for public service employees.  Frankly, the only thing this so-called job creation plan will do is make the wealthy wealthier and corporations more powerful. 

The economy is not recovering  quickly - but it is not the fault of "burdensome" regulations or high taxes.  The problem is that there is not enough demand for goods and services.  Demand is low because workers do not have jobs.  And supply-side economics is a proven non-starter for jobs creation. 

The Center for American Progress and the Economic Policy Institute in a 2008 report compared the impact of the 1981 Reagan tax cuts and the 2001 Bush tax cuts against the 1993 tax increase in Clinton's first year.  From the summary of that report we learn the following :

• Real investment growth after the tax increases of 1993 was much higher than after the tax cuts of 1981 and 2001. The yearly growth rate after 1993 was 10.2 percent versus 2.8 percent for the first supply-side era beginning in 1981, and 2.7 percent in the period of the second supply-side era beginning in 2001.
• Over the seven-year periods after each legislative action, average annual real GDP growth was 3.9 percent following 1993, 3.5 percent following 1981, and 2.5 percent following 2001.
• Average annual real median household income growth was greatest after the 1993 tax increases, at 2.0 percent annually compared to 1.4 percent after 1981 and 0.3 percent after 2001.
• Wage levels also did better after 1993. Average real hourly earnings following 1981 fell at an annual rate of 0.1 percent and following 2001 rose at a rate of only 0.3 percent. Following the 1993 tax increases average hourly earnings grew by 0.9 percent per year.
• Employment growth was weaker during the supply-side eras than during the post-1993 era. Average annual employment growth was 2.1 percent after 1981, 2.5 percent after 1993, and 0.6 percent after 2001.