Come and bring a friend – bring a carload! – to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of Social Security with U.S. Senator Patty Murray as our featured speaker!
Toast Social Security with sparkling cider. Enjoy your slice of the birthday cake provided courtesy of the retired teachers of AFT Washington. Bear witness to our determination to defend our nation’s premier social program!
The event will be held at 1:30 p.m. Monday, August 16, at the Greenwood Senior Center, 525 N. 85th Street in Seattle. Overflow parking and free shuttle service are available at the nearby Greenwood Market, 8500 2nd Avenue N.W., courtesy of the Wallingford Community Senior Center.
Sponsoring the event are the Greenwood Senior Center, the Puget Sound Alliance for Retired Americans, and the 18 organizations affiliated with “Social Security Works – Washington,” the new coalition organized to defend the integrity of Social Security – and to make it better.
The anniversary observance is more than a “feel good” occasion. It will take place at a time of political peril, with members of the President’s Bipartisan Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform determined to use the federal budget deficit as a pretext to raid the dedicated Social Security Trust Fund.
“We’re shooting for a capacity audience of 300,” said PSARA President Robby Stern. “Please make a special effort to build this anniversary celebration. We’ll invite everyone to sign a mass letter to President Obama and to place cell phone calls to the White House and to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.”
Friday, July 30, 2010
Dean Baker to speak At WASARA meeting
Dean Baker, the nationally respected economist, will speak at the Annual Convention of the Washington State Alliance for Retired Americans. The convention will be held Wednesday, September 29, at the Machinists Hall, 9125 15th Place S., in South Seattle.
“Our agenda will emphasize the defense of Social Security and the new health care law, as well as local issues,” said Mike Warren, WASARA President. “We expect to hear from some of our congressional representatives and from a representative of the national ARA.”
Any member of the Alliance or its affiliated chapters is welcome to attend. To register, complete the form at the bottom of page 8 and send it to WASARA, 2800 First Ave., Room 262, Seattle 98121, attention Joanne McGaw. The $25 registration fee includes lunch.
“Our agenda will emphasize the defense of Social Security and the new health care law, as well as local issues,” said Mike Warren, WASARA President. “We expect to hear from some of our congressional representatives and from a representative of the national ARA.”
Any member of the Alliance or its affiliated chapters is welcome to attend. To register, complete the form at the bottom of page 8 and send it to WASARA, 2800 First Ave., Room 262, Seattle 98121, attention Joanne McGaw. The $25 registration fee includes lunch.
Don’t leave home without it
The problem: You’d love to spread the good word about the Puget Sound Alliance and the Retiree Advocate, but you hate to give away your copy of the newsletter.
The two-step solution: First, order two to ten extra copies of the Retiree Advocate mailed to your home. Second, don’t leave home without a copy of the newsletter for that person you meet on the bus, at the coffee shop, at church, or in your exercise class.
Just as you don’t forget to carry house keys, bus fare, cell phone, lipstick, comb, handkerchief, shopping bag, purse or wallet, don’t forget to take a copy of our newsletter. And don’t forget to use it! Each time you hand out a copy, be sure to call attention to the coupon on the inside back page and invite the person to become a member.
We’re moving steadily toward our goal of 250 new members in 2010. Use the Retiree Advocate. It’s a great introduction to our livewire organization. Why not contact us right now at (206) 448-9646 or president@psara.org to arrange for those extra copies?
The two-step solution: First, order two to ten extra copies of the Retiree Advocate mailed to your home. Second, don’t leave home without a copy of the newsletter for that person you meet on the bus, at the coffee shop, at church, or in your exercise class.
Just as you don’t forget to carry house keys, bus fare, cell phone, lipstick, comb, handkerchief, shopping bag, purse or wallet, don’t forget to take a copy of our newsletter. And don’t forget to use it! Each time you hand out a copy, be sure to call attention to the coupon on the inside back page and invite the person to become a member.
We’re moving steadily toward our goal of 250 new members in 2010. Use the Retiree Advocate. It’s a great introduction to our livewire organization. Why not contact us right now at (206) 448-9646 or president@psara.org to arrange for those extra copies?
In plain English! Your Voters’ Guide to ballot measures
By David Groves
(Editor’s note: The July 22 Membership Meeting of the Puget Sound Alliance for Retired Americans adopted the same positions on this year’s ballot issues as those recommended by David Groves.)
The initiative process is direct democracy. It’s our opportunity to do what legislators don’t do -- or for us to undo what they did.
But, for a people’s process, the ballot questions sure don’t use plain English. By the time the dueling attorneys are done beating all the common sense out the question, it’s hard to tell exactly what we’re voting on.
Translating all the pompous legalese, here’s your Plain English Voter’s Guide to this fall’s key statewide ballot measures:
INITIATIVE 1053: Should we get rid of majority rule in the State Legislature? Should we let one-third of legislators block passage of the budget or anything related to state revenue?
When you put it like that, you see Tim Eyman’s I-1053 for what it is: an intentional recipe for gridlock in Olympia. In California, a similar super-majority requirement has been an unmitigated disaster -- unless you like your state employees receiving IOUs instead of paychecks.
I-1053 is a harmful, undemocratic impediment to our elected legislators’ ability to fund the critical state services we all rely upon, especially during the current severe economic downturn. Vote NO!
INITIATIVE 1082: Should AIG and other insurance companies take over our public nonprofit workers’ compensation system? Should we let them work the same “private sector efficiency” magic that they have on our health care system?
The fact that the insurance companies and the Building Industry Association of Washington are spending millions to try to convince you this is a good idea may be all you need to know. For them, this is just a cynical opportunity to make money – in BIAW’s case, by allowing them to skim money from the system to fund their right-wing conservative politics.
The truth is that I-1082 would drive up employers’ costs by at least 25% and that would kill jobs in this state. In states with privatized systems, taxpayers have been forced to bail out insolvent insurers that left injured workers and employers hanging. Vote NO!
INITIATIVE 1098: Should people who can afford it, pay less or more taxes than poor people?
I-1098 tackles the elephant in Washington’s living room: As a percentage of their incomes, the rich here pay less in taxes, and the poor pay more, than in any other state. It’s called a regressive tax structure, but us plain English speakers call it ass-backwards.
I-1098 will make the tax code fairer by creating a high-earners income tax on couples with joint incomes of more than $400,000 a year ($200,000 for individuals) to raise desperately needed revenue dedicated to education and health care. Vote YES
INITIATIVES 1100 AND 1105: Do we want liquor sold in every WalMart and Rite Aid?
These rival initiatives funded by dueling retail special-interests would privatize Washington liquor stores, eliminating more than 1,000 family-wage jobs and costing the state hundreds of millions of dollars per year in revenue. That means even more cuts in core state services.
Our state liquor stores have the best compliance rate in the nation for avoiding alcohol sales to minors. That’s because clerks have decent family-wage jobs that they don’t want to lose. Hand that grave responsibility to a minimum-wage clerk at a big box store, and the State Auditor estimates teenagers’ access to hard alcohol will increase by more than 400%. That’s why public safety officials have denounced I-1100 and I-1105. Vote NO on both!
INITIATIVE 1107: Should we force the Legislature to do another all-cuts budget?
Should we revoke taxes on soda pop, bottled water, candy and gum, compelling the Legislature to make even more severe cuts in education, public safety and health care?
Callously indifferent to the billions of dollars in state job and service cuts enacted in the past two years, out-of-state industry groups funded I-1107 to protect their products from taxation. Do you think the folks at Nestle care whether there are 30 or 35 students per class in Washington’s schools, or whether we have to eliminate parole supervision for criminals? No way – their focus is on the bottom line. Vote NO
REFERENDUM 52: Should we create jobs by repairing and upgrading schools?
The “Schools & Jobs Referendum” would issue $505 million in bonds to create some 30,000 jobs doing energy repair and retrofitting work at public schools, state colleges and universities. This investment will create desperately needed jobs and energy cost savings for the state over the long term. It will pay for itself and frontload the jobs NOW, when we need them. Vote YES!
(Editor’s note: The July 22 Membership Meeting of the Puget Sound Alliance for Retired Americans adopted the same positions on this year’s ballot issues as those recommended by David Groves.)
The initiative process is direct democracy. It’s our opportunity to do what legislators don’t do -- or for us to undo what they did.
But, for a people’s process, the ballot questions sure don’t use plain English. By the time the dueling attorneys are done beating all the common sense out the question, it’s hard to tell exactly what we’re voting on.
Translating all the pompous legalese, here’s your Plain English Voter’s Guide to this fall’s key statewide ballot measures:
INITIATIVE 1053: Should we get rid of majority rule in the State Legislature? Should we let one-third of legislators block passage of the budget or anything related to state revenue?
When you put it like that, you see Tim Eyman’s I-1053 for what it is: an intentional recipe for gridlock in Olympia. In California, a similar super-majority requirement has been an unmitigated disaster -- unless you like your state employees receiving IOUs instead of paychecks.
I-1053 is a harmful, undemocratic impediment to our elected legislators’ ability to fund the critical state services we all rely upon, especially during the current severe economic downturn. Vote NO!
INITIATIVE 1082: Should AIG and other insurance companies take over our public nonprofit workers’ compensation system? Should we let them work the same “private sector efficiency” magic that they have on our health care system?
The fact that the insurance companies and the Building Industry Association of Washington are spending millions to try to convince you this is a good idea may be all you need to know. For them, this is just a cynical opportunity to make money – in BIAW’s case, by allowing them to skim money from the system to fund their right-wing conservative politics.
The truth is that I-1082 would drive up employers’ costs by at least 25% and that would kill jobs in this state. In states with privatized systems, taxpayers have been forced to bail out insolvent insurers that left injured workers and employers hanging. Vote NO!
INITIATIVE 1098: Should people who can afford it, pay less or more taxes than poor people?
I-1098 tackles the elephant in Washington’s living room: As a percentage of their incomes, the rich here pay less in taxes, and the poor pay more, than in any other state. It’s called a regressive tax structure, but us plain English speakers call it ass-backwards.
I-1098 will make the tax code fairer by creating a high-earners income tax on couples with joint incomes of more than $400,000 a year ($200,000 for individuals) to raise desperately needed revenue dedicated to education and health care. Vote YES
INITIATIVES 1100 AND 1105: Do we want liquor sold in every WalMart and Rite Aid?
These rival initiatives funded by dueling retail special-interests would privatize Washington liquor stores, eliminating more than 1,000 family-wage jobs and costing the state hundreds of millions of dollars per year in revenue. That means even more cuts in core state services.
Our state liquor stores have the best compliance rate in the nation for avoiding alcohol sales to minors. That’s because clerks have decent family-wage jobs that they don’t want to lose. Hand that grave responsibility to a minimum-wage clerk at a big box store, and the State Auditor estimates teenagers’ access to hard alcohol will increase by more than 400%. That’s why public safety officials have denounced I-1100 and I-1105. Vote NO on both!
INITIATIVE 1107: Should we force the Legislature to do another all-cuts budget?
Should we revoke taxes on soda pop, bottled water, candy and gum, compelling the Legislature to make even more severe cuts in education, public safety and health care?
Callously indifferent to the billions of dollars in state job and service cuts enacted in the past two years, out-of-state industry groups funded I-1107 to protect their products from taxation. Do you think the folks at Nestle care whether there are 30 or 35 students per class in Washington’s schools, or whether we have to eliminate parole supervision for criminals? No way – their focus is on the bottom line. Vote NO
REFERENDUM 52: Should we create jobs by repairing and upgrading schools?
The “Schools & Jobs Referendum” would issue $505 million in bonds to create some 30,000 jobs doing energy repair and retrofitting work at public schools, state colleges and universities. This investment will create desperately needed jobs and energy cost savings for the state over the long term. It will pay for itself and frontload the jobs NOW, when we need them. Vote YES!
Robby on the issues ...
Social Security: Principles - and a Pledge
By Robby Stern
As a significant number of Democratic and Republican politicians prepare the political landscape to apply the “Shock Doctrine” of cuts in life-line services to the American people, organizations across the country are preparing to fight back.
The ruling elites in many European countries are also using this world wide economic crisis to attack the entitlement programs and living standards of working people. Recent general strikes in Italy and Greece demonstrate the determination of people to put the blame where it belongs – the banks, financial institutions and investment houses that have caused this terrible recession. Yet rather than holding the wealthy interests accountable, many politicians are increasing the misery of working and poor people by cutting programs for which we have paid all of our working lives.
In the U.S., the government has prosecuted two unpopular and unnecessary wars while providing huge tax breaks to the wealthiest in our society. And the deficit chickens have come home to roost. After all this reckless and unnecessary spending, they now want to steal from the Social Security Trust Fund to cut the deficit. These same politicians are also threatening to cut other lifeline programs -- Medicaid, the paltry housing subsidies, education, etc. -- and to privatize government services, gutting the wages and benefits of thousands of public service workers.
In response to the central goal of this elitist agenda, a group of organizations, including PSARA, have coalesced to form Social Security Works / Washington. This new coalition has adopted the following Principles:
We join together in support of the right of Americans to Social Security, a promise made to Americans of all generations. Social Security represents the best of American values – rewarding work, honoring our parents and caring for our neighbors. Social Security was established because American workers demanded it. Social Security belongs to the workers and their families who have worked hard, paid taxes in, and earned its benefits.
Due to a loss of employment, wages, private savings and pensions, Social Security has become more important than ever. It is a legacy we are committed to passing on to future generations. In this, Social Security’s 75th Anniversary year, we are united in support of the following principles:
1. Social Security’s financing is sound, now and into the future. For 75 years, working Americans have paid into the system. Their contributions have both supported benefit payments and built a $2.6 trillion Trust Fund. Social Security did not cause the federal deficit and benefits should not be cut to reduce the deficit.
2. Social Security has stood the test of time. It should not be privatized in whole or in part.
3. Social Security is an insurance policy and as such should not be means-tested. Workers pay for this insurance, and they and their dependents are entitled to it regardless of their income or savings.
4. Social Security provides vital protection to Americans of all income levels against the loss of wages as the result of disability, death, or old age. Those benefits should not be reduced in any way, including changes to the cost of living adjustment or to the benefit formula.
5. Social Security’s retirement age, already scheduled to increase from 66 to 67, should not be raised further. Raising the retirement age constitutes a benefit cut. The present age limits already impose a hardship on Americans who work in physically demanding jobs or those unable to find or keep employment.
6. In order to modernize and strengthen benefits and assure long-term stability for future generations, Congress should act to eliminate the earnings cap on contributions.
7. Social Security’s benefits should be strengthened and modernized to reflect the dignity of all work regardless of income, to better cover health and care costs, and to improve fairness. This can be accomplished by: changing the benefit formula to replace a higher percentage of low earnings; providing a care-giving credit for at least 5 years; guaranteeing elderly survivors 75% of the couple’s benefit; and allowing benefits for state-recognized same-sex couples and family members.
In the spirit of these Principles, the Coalition will ask all Washington’s Congressional delegation and viable candidates for Congress to sign this pledge:
Social Security is the only dependable source of income for retired Americans and supports millions of families through its disability and survivors programs. Every working person pays into it and earns benefits.
For 75 years, Social Security has been America’s most trusted institution. It is frugally administered and soundly financed to continue providing a foundation of economic security for future generations.
In the interests of my constituents – the men, women and children who are Social Security’s current and future beneficiaries – I pledge to:
1. Defend the integrity of Social Security against efforts to reduce its benefits or weaken its protections;
2. Support responsible efforts to strengthen Social Security benefits;
3. Oppose any and all efforts to reduce the federal deficit by failing to fully honor obligations to the Social Security Trust Fund, built by the payroll contributions of working Americans.
To win this fight, we will need the active participation of PSARA members, together with millions of Americans across the country. Join us at the 75th birthday celebration for Social Security on Aug. 16th. Help us as we fight for a decent future for the many generations that deserve the benefits of Social Security.
By Robby Stern
As a significant number of Democratic and Republican politicians prepare the political landscape to apply the “Shock Doctrine” of cuts in life-line services to the American people, organizations across the country are preparing to fight back.
The ruling elites in many European countries are also using this world wide economic crisis to attack the entitlement programs and living standards of working people. Recent general strikes in Italy and Greece demonstrate the determination of people to put the blame where it belongs – the banks, financial institutions and investment houses that have caused this terrible recession. Yet rather than holding the wealthy interests accountable, many politicians are increasing the misery of working and poor people by cutting programs for which we have paid all of our working lives.
In the U.S., the government has prosecuted two unpopular and unnecessary wars while providing huge tax breaks to the wealthiest in our society. And the deficit chickens have come home to roost. After all this reckless and unnecessary spending, they now want to steal from the Social Security Trust Fund to cut the deficit. These same politicians are also threatening to cut other lifeline programs -- Medicaid, the paltry housing subsidies, education, etc. -- and to privatize government services, gutting the wages and benefits of thousands of public service workers.
In response to the central goal of this elitist agenda, a group of organizations, including PSARA, have coalesced to form Social Security Works / Washington. This new coalition has adopted the following Principles:
We join together in support of the right of Americans to Social Security, a promise made to Americans of all generations. Social Security represents the best of American values – rewarding work, honoring our parents and caring for our neighbors. Social Security was established because American workers demanded it. Social Security belongs to the workers and their families who have worked hard, paid taxes in, and earned its benefits.
Due to a loss of employment, wages, private savings and pensions, Social Security has become more important than ever. It is a legacy we are committed to passing on to future generations. In this, Social Security’s 75th Anniversary year, we are united in support of the following principles:
1. Social Security’s financing is sound, now and into the future. For 75 years, working Americans have paid into the system. Their contributions have both supported benefit payments and built a $2.6 trillion Trust Fund. Social Security did not cause the federal deficit and benefits should not be cut to reduce the deficit.
2. Social Security has stood the test of time. It should not be privatized in whole or in part.
3. Social Security is an insurance policy and as such should not be means-tested. Workers pay for this insurance, and they and their dependents are entitled to it regardless of their income or savings.
4. Social Security provides vital protection to Americans of all income levels against the loss of wages as the result of disability, death, or old age. Those benefits should not be reduced in any way, including changes to the cost of living adjustment or to the benefit formula.
5. Social Security’s retirement age, already scheduled to increase from 66 to 67, should not be raised further. Raising the retirement age constitutes a benefit cut. The present age limits already impose a hardship on Americans who work in physically demanding jobs or those unable to find or keep employment.
6. In order to modernize and strengthen benefits and assure long-term stability for future generations, Congress should act to eliminate the earnings cap on contributions.
7. Social Security’s benefits should be strengthened and modernized to reflect the dignity of all work regardless of income, to better cover health and care costs, and to improve fairness. This can be accomplished by: changing the benefit formula to replace a higher percentage of low earnings; providing a care-giving credit for at least 5 years; guaranteeing elderly survivors 75% of the couple’s benefit; and allowing benefits for state-recognized same-sex couples and family members.
In the spirit of these Principles, the Coalition will ask all Washington’s Congressional delegation and viable candidates for Congress to sign this pledge:
Social Security is the only dependable source of income for retired Americans and supports millions of families through its disability and survivors programs. Every working person pays into it and earns benefits.
For 75 years, Social Security has been America’s most trusted institution. It is frugally administered and soundly financed to continue providing a foundation of economic security for future generations.
In the interests of my constituents – the men, women and children who are Social Security’s current and future beneficiaries – I pledge to:
1. Defend the integrity of Social Security against efforts to reduce its benefits or weaken its protections;
2. Support responsible efforts to strengthen Social Security benefits;
3. Oppose any and all efforts to reduce the federal deficit by failing to fully honor obligations to the Social Security Trust Fund, built by the payroll contributions of working Americans.
To win this fight, we will need the active participation of PSARA members, together with millions of Americans across the country. Join us at the 75th birthday celebration for Social Security on Aug. 16th. Help us as we fight for a decent future for the many generations that deserve the benefits of Social Security.
Older Americans Act (OAA)
By Rap Lewis
Unless you’re independently well-to-do, there’s a very good chance that in your retirement years you will sooner or later need one or more of the services provided under the Older Americans Act (OAA). Yet even among older Americans, the provisions of the OAA are not widely known – and its value is far too little appreciated.
Its importance grows as the nation’s aging population expands. In 2008, the Federal Inter-Agency Forum on Aging-Related Statistics reported that roughly 42% of adults over the age of 65 have physical limitations or need assistance with eating, bathing, dressing, or other activities of daily living. That percentage seems certain to increase.
These older adults require supportive services such as home health care, nutrition programs, transportation, or respite care for their caregivers. These are the crucial services that enable the elderly and people with disabilities to stay in their own homes and communities, rather than to spend their final years in a nursing home.
That’s where the “Aging Services Network” comes in. And the OAA is a critical element in that network. Congress will reauthorize the OAA in 2011. Professionals and advocates in the field of aging are preparing to engage Congress on the urgency of adequate funding for critical programs.
The aging network includes the U.S. Administration on Aging and 56 State Units on Aging. Delivering services at the community level are 629 Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs) and 246 Title VI Native American aging programs. For 30 years, these local agencies have successfully provided aging services in communities throughout the country.
Administering the many aging programs in Seattle and King County, for example, is Seattle-King County Aging and Disability Services, commonly called ADS. In all, there are 13 AAAs in Washington State.
Aging services are funded by a combination of federal appropriations, delivered through the OAA, and state-funded programs that wrap around and supplement those funded by Congress.
The economic recession hasn’t spared these programs. Fifty-six percent of states report that their AAAs will be forced to cut back because of state budget crises. Waiting lists are long and growing for many vital home and community based services.
The National Association of Area Agencies on Aging is urging Congress to respond with appropriations that measure up to the emergency. The association has identified the following legislative priorities:
• Invest in the OAA and state Medicaid programs to prevent states from slashing services in response to their budget crises; work to create the jobs that will be essential to serve an aging population, especially in health care and long-term care.
• Rebalance the long-term care system through the enactment of pending legislation called “Project 2020,” providing real, on-the-ground support and services to older adults and people with disabilities to help them delay or avoid institutionalization. Investing in these services will reduce the need for far more costly Medicaid and Medicare programs. (Washington Senator Maria Cantwell is a vigorous proponent of Project 2020.)
• Increase overall OAA funding by at least 12%. Give special attention to funding three programs: (1) Title III B Supportive Services, which gives states and local agencies funding that can be applied flexibly; (2) a long-overdue increase in Title VI grants for Native Americans, described by the association as “the most economically disadvantaged elders in the nation”; and (3) as called for by President Obama, a 31% increase in funding for the National Family Caregiver Support Program to assist family members caring for older loved ones.
• Livable communities: Policy makers and public officials should take the needs of aging Americans into account in decisions affecting housing, land use, transportation, public safety, recreation, lifelong learning and civic engagement.
• Transportation: Congress should increase funding for transit programs to offset crippling cuts in service at the community level. Improved transportation services are especially needed for the elderly and persons with disabilities in rural areas.
Unless you’re independently well-to-do, there’s a very good chance that in your retirement years you will sooner or later need one or more of the services provided under the Older Americans Act (OAA). Yet even among older Americans, the provisions of the OAA are not widely known – and its value is far too little appreciated.
Its importance grows as the nation’s aging population expands. In 2008, the Federal Inter-Agency Forum on Aging-Related Statistics reported that roughly 42% of adults over the age of 65 have physical limitations or need assistance with eating, bathing, dressing, or other activities of daily living. That percentage seems certain to increase.
These older adults require supportive services such as home health care, nutrition programs, transportation, or respite care for their caregivers. These are the crucial services that enable the elderly and people with disabilities to stay in their own homes and communities, rather than to spend their final years in a nursing home.
That’s where the “Aging Services Network” comes in. And the OAA is a critical element in that network. Congress will reauthorize the OAA in 2011. Professionals and advocates in the field of aging are preparing to engage Congress on the urgency of adequate funding for critical programs.
The aging network includes the U.S. Administration on Aging and 56 State Units on Aging. Delivering services at the community level are 629 Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs) and 246 Title VI Native American aging programs. For 30 years, these local agencies have successfully provided aging services in communities throughout the country.
Administering the many aging programs in Seattle and King County, for example, is Seattle-King County Aging and Disability Services, commonly called ADS. In all, there are 13 AAAs in Washington State.
Aging services are funded by a combination of federal appropriations, delivered through the OAA, and state-funded programs that wrap around and supplement those funded by Congress.
The economic recession hasn’t spared these programs. Fifty-six percent of states report that their AAAs will be forced to cut back because of state budget crises. Waiting lists are long and growing for many vital home and community based services.
The National Association of Area Agencies on Aging is urging Congress to respond with appropriations that measure up to the emergency. The association has identified the following legislative priorities:
• Invest in the OAA and state Medicaid programs to prevent states from slashing services in response to their budget crises; work to create the jobs that will be essential to serve an aging population, especially in health care and long-term care.
• Rebalance the long-term care system through the enactment of pending legislation called “Project 2020,” providing real, on-the-ground support and services to older adults and people with disabilities to help them delay or avoid institutionalization. Investing in these services will reduce the need for far more costly Medicaid and Medicare programs. (Washington Senator Maria Cantwell is a vigorous proponent of Project 2020.)
• Increase overall OAA funding by at least 12%. Give special attention to funding three programs: (1) Title III B Supportive Services, which gives states and local agencies funding that can be applied flexibly; (2) a long-overdue increase in Title VI grants for Native Americans, described by the association as “the most economically disadvantaged elders in the nation”; and (3) as called for by President Obama, a 31% increase in funding for the National Family Caregiver Support Program to assist family members caring for older loved ones.
• Livable communities: Policy makers and public officials should take the needs of aging Americans into account in decisions affecting housing, land use, transportation, public safety, recreation, lifelong learning and civic engagement.
• Transportation: Congress should increase funding for transit programs to offset crippling cuts in service at the community level. Improved transportation services are especially needed for the elderly and persons with disabilities in rural areas.
Dr. Robert N. Butler, 83, champion of geriatrics
Dr. Robert N. Butler, who almost single-handedly established the critical importance of geriatric medicine, died of leukemia July 4 at the age of 83.
Dr. Butler invented the term “ageism,” was the founding director of the National Institute on Aging in 1975, and in that year won the Pulitzer Prize with “Why Survive? Being Old in America.”
“In speech after speech,” wrote Douglas Martin in The New York Times, “he pounded home the message that longevity in the United States had increased by 30 years in the 20th century – greater than the gain during the preceding 5,000 years of human history.”
"Human beings need the freedom to live with change, to invent and reinvent themselves a number of times through their lives,” he wrote.
Raised by his grandparents, Dr. Butler learned the importance of being honest about death when, at the age of 7, his beloved grandfather disappeared and nobody would tell him why, denying him the healing power of grief. He drew inspiration from the strength and courage of his maternal grandmother, who survived the rigors of the Great Depression.
As an intern, he realized how little he had been taught about treating his elderly patients. He began the lifelong studies that “really put geriatrics on the map,” said Dr. David B. Reuben, chief of the division of geriatrics at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Dr. Butler invented the term “ageism,” was the founding director of the National Institute on Aging in 1975, and in that year won the Pulitzer Prize with “Why Survive? Being Old in America.”
“In speech after speech,” wrote Douglas Martin in The New York Times, “he pounded home the message that longevity in the United States had increased by 30 years in the 20th century – greater than the gain during the preceding 5,000 years of human history.”
"Human beings need the freedom to live with change, to invent and reinvent themselves a number of times through their lives,” he wrote.
Raised by his grandparents, Dr. Butler learned the importance of being honest about death when, at the age of 7, his beloved grandfather disappeared and nobody would tell him why, denying him the healing power of grief. He drew inspiration from the strength and courage of his maternal grandmother, who survived the rigors of the Great Depression.
As an intern, he realized how little he had been taught about treating his elderly patients. He began the lifelong studies that “really put geriatrics on the map,” said Dr. David B. Reuben, chief of the division of geriatrics at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Toughening OSHA to cut the toll of death on the job
By Will Parry
Studies estimate that the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) has saved the lives of nearly 400,000 workers since its enactment in 1970.
The brutal truth, however, is that in 2010, forty years later, too many workers are still dying on the job.
The death toll in a series of high-profile disasters in recent months has dramatized a continuing crisis. Seven dead in the explosion and fire at the Tesoro refinery in Anacortes. Eleven dead in BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster. Six dead in an explosion at the Keen Energy plant in Connecticut. Twenty-nine dead at the non-union Massey coal mine in West Virginia.
As recently as 2008, an average of 109 U.S. workers a week lost their lives at work. Single industrial deaths are so commonplace, they scarcely rate a passing mention in the media. And we haven’t even mentioned the ongoing toll in non-fatal but serious injuries, or the many industrial diseases that shorten workers’ lives and ravage their final years.
The Washington State Labor Council sponsored a forum June 19 where a panel of expert worker safety advocates spelled out the weaknesses in today’s OSHA and the compelling rationale for corrective action by Congress.
The essential reforms are embodied in the “Protecting American’s Workers Act,” HR 2067. Introduced by Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), HR 2067 would toughen civil and criminal penalties for workplace health and safety violations; strengthen protections for whistleblowers who call attention to unsafe conditions; and for the first time extend OSHA’s reach to millions of public employees and other workers who are not now covered.
At the labor council forum, the need to toughen the language of OSHA was spelled out by five experts who have had first-hand experience with the way the law works in real life.
“This legislation is long overdue,” said Tom O’Connor, executive director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health. “The tools that OSHA has at its disposal to protect America’s workers have not been significantly updated since the agency was created during the Nixon administration in 1970.”
“We are in the middle of a national crisis and American workers are being killed in alarming numbers in some very high profile incidents,” said Jeff Johnson of the State Labor Council “Without question, this legislation will save lives.”
A riveting account of the explosion and fire at the Tesoro Anacortes refinery by Kim Nibarger of the Steeelworkers’ Health and Safety Department brought the issue alive for the audience of labor activists.
His voice choked with emotion, Nibarger described the deadly process that led to the explosion, “naphtha heated to 700 degrees, the introduction of hydrogen to remove impurities, and the running of the gaseous product through a series of heat exchangers.
“The explosion melted aluminum 150 feet away,” Nibarger said. “It was horrible – the most horrible thing you could imagine.”
Studies estimate that the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) has saved the lives of nearly 400,000 workers since its enactment in 1970.
The brutal truth, however, is that in 2010, forty years later, too many workers are still dying on the job.
The death toll in a series of high-profile disasters in recent months has dramatized a continuing crisis. Seven dead in the explosion and fire at the Tesoro refinery in Anacortes. Eleven dead in BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster. Six dead in an explosion at the Keen Energy plant in Connecticut. Twenty-nine dead at the non-union Massey coal mine in West Virginia.
As recently as 2008, an average of 109 U.S. workers a week lost their lives at work. Single industrial deaths are so commonplace, they scarcely rate a passing mention in the media. And we haven’t even mentioned the ongoing toll in non-fatal but serious injuries, or the many industrial diseases that shorten workers’ lives and ravage their final years.
The Washington State Labor Council sponsored a forum June 19 where a panel of expert worker safety advocates spelled out the weaknesses in today’s OSHA and the compelling rationale for corrective action by Congress.
The essential reforms are embodied in the “Protecting American’s Workers Act,” HR 2067. Introduced by Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), HR 2067 would toughen civil and criminal penalties for workplace health and safety violations; strengthen protections for whistleblowers who call attention to unsafe conditions; and for the first time extend OSHA’s reach to millions of public employees and other workers who are not now covered.
At the labor council forum, the need to toughen the language of OSHA was spelled out by five experts who have had first-hand experience with the way the law works in real life.
“This legislation is long overdue,” said Tom O’Connor, executive director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health. “The tools that OSHA has at its disposal to protect America’s workers have not been significantly updated since the agency was created during the Nixon administration in 1970.”
“We are in the middle of a national crisis and American workers are being killed in alarming numbers in some very high profile incidents,” said Jeff Johnson of the State Labor Council “Without question, this legislation will save lives.”
A riveting account of the explosion and fire at the Tesoro Anacortes refinery by Kim Nibarger of the Steeelworkers’ Health and Safety Department brought the issue alive for the audience of labor activists.
His voice choked with emotion, Nibarger described the deadly process that led to the explosion, “naphtha heated to 700 degrees, the introduction of hydrogen to remove impurities, and the running of the gaseous product through a series of heat exchangers.
“The explosion melted aluminum 150 feet away,” Nibarger said. “It was horrible – the most horrible thing you could imagine.”
The battle for America’s soul
By Frank Irigon
“If America wants us to be living and free, then we must be living and free. If we fail, then America fails.” The words are those of Carlos Bulosan, a noted Filipino writer, poet and migrant worker.
In a nutshell this is what Immigration Reform is all about: the battle for America’s heart and soul. It is an epic battle for what is fair and just in America. This battle pits the strength of our values and beliefs as Americans against those who would trample these values under the guise of protecting our borders and our jobs and keeping out the lawless.
Before us is the monumental task of convincing our fellow working Americans that none of us are that far removed from the undocumented and the problems they face in the labor market. From our immigrant roots, either legal or illegal, to a time when we were denied the right to organize and carry a union card? A time when we were exploited for our labor and paid the barest of wages? What happened to earlier waves of immigrant workers is happening now to those whose dire circumstances are dictated, not by what they bring to America by the stint of their labor, but by their immigration status. Workers whose only transgression is try to live and enjoy the American Dream.
We should never forget President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms:
Freedom of Speech and Expression; Freedom of Religion; Freedom from Want; and Freedom from Fear.
These Four Freedoms are what all working Americans strive for and march for. These are our core values and what makes us tick. This is what makes us enlist in time of war, and in peacetime to join the picket lines and gather in mass protests when the Four Freedoms are violated. We can do no less for the undocumented working Americans.
In the midst of mass hysteria, to build walls, to pass divisive laws, to witch-hunt for suspected undocumented workers, and to deport them if they cannot show papers; to deny citizenship to their children born on American soil -- in such a time of hysteria, we must be that bulwark for reason and truth. We must stand up for Immigration Reform that protects Families, Workers, the Economy and Security.
If we fail, then America fails.
“If America wants us to be living and free, then we must be living and free. If we fail, then America fails.” The words are those of Carlos Bulosan, a noted Filipino writer, poet and migrant worker.
In a nutshell this is what Immigration Reform is all about: the battle for America’s heart and soul. It is an epic battle for what is fair and just in America. This battle pits the strength of our values and beliefs as Americans against those who would trample these values under the guise of protecting our borders and our jobs and keeping out the lawless.
Before us is the monumental task of convincing our fellow working Americans that none of us are that far removed from the undocumented and the problems they face in the labor market. From our immigrant roots, either legal or illegal, to a time when we were denied the right to organize and carry a union card? A time when we were exploited for our labor and paid the barest of wages? What happened to earlier waves of immigrant workers is happening now to those whose dire circumstances are dictated, not by what they bring to America by the stint of their labor, but by their immigration status. Workers whose only transgression is try to live and enjoy the American Dream.
We should never forget President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms:
Freedom of Speech and Expression; Freedom of Religion; Freedom from Want; and Freedom from Fear.
These Four Freedoms are what all working Americans strive for and march for. These are our core values and what makes us tick. This is what makes us enlist in time of war, and in peacetime to join the picket lines and gather in mass protests when the Four Freedoms are violated. We can do no less for the undocumented working Americans.
In the midst of mass hysteria, to build walls, to pass divisive laws, to witch-hunt for suspected undocumented workers, and to deport them if they cannot show papers; to deny citizenship to their children born on American soil -- in such a time of hysteria, we must be that bulwark for reason and truth. We must stand up for Immigration Reform that protects Families, Workers, the Economy and Security.
If we fail, then America fails.
An historic election ends 81 years of one-party rule
By Alfredo Peppard
On the fourth of July the Party of the Institutionalized Revolution -- the PRI -- lost their first ever election in the State of Oaxaca. Eighty-one years of one-party rule came to an end when a candidate for governor, Gabino Cué, won despite the PRI’s usual display of dirty tricks, including two murders and a kidnapping. Eviel, the PRI candidate, was carrying a heavy handicap in the person of the sitting governor, Ulises Ruiz. Ruiz is hated by the people of the state for his stealing of the election in 2006 and for the violent suppression of the 2006 uprising which culminated in the massacre in Zocalo, where 21 people died. The Supreme Court of Mexico recently found Ruis culpable in these deaths and huge banners were strung up in the Zocalo to remind people of that fact.
Gabino Cué of the Convergence Party was the candidate of a coalition that covered a wide range of the Mexican political spectrum. On the left was the PRD, the Party of Democratic Revolution that has been responsible for much progressive legislation in Mexico City and the Federal District. On the right of the coalition was the PAN, the Party of National Action, whose leader Felipe Calderon is president of Mexico.
Weeks prior to the election the Teacher’s Union occupied the Zocalo and surrounding streets with a tarp city where they slept on the pavement vowing to fight any election fraud on the part of the PRI. Unlike free and democratic America, no police riot squads attacked them to preserve the sanctity of free automobile passage.
For weeks the PRI treated the city to elaborate political theater: Airplanes towing banners and haranguing the people below with loudspeakers, attractive young women waving to people on the streets from the back of flatbed sound trucks, more attractive young women at major intersections waving party banners and employing sound systems worthy of Rock ‘n’ Roll concerts -- all failed to convince a majority of the voters that Ruis’ handpicked successor Eviel was the heralding of a new PRI.
With the PAN in the Peace and Progress Coalition. the national government cannot rule in favor of PRI fraud as in the past, and with a serious threat of revolt by unions and farmers organizations if the PRI tried to steal another election, the PRI was forced to back down on some of their more heavy-handed methods. (Not that they didn’t try. The head of the State Electoral Institute, José Luis Echeverría, was caught in a phone tap ordering 70,000 extra ballots for PRI use.) Not only did Gabino Cue’s coalition win the governor’s office, it won the Municipal Presidencies in the larger cities of the state as well Oaxaca has been having a party ever since.
What this election will mean in terms of the burning social issues that face the State of Oaxaca remains to be seen. The wide ideological spread of the coalition poses an interesting question. Although the PRD represented the majority of Cabino Cué’s votes, the ultra conservative position of the PAN may well serve as a counterweight.
The PRI represented the moneyed elite of the state. As a party they originated as an alliance of generals who emerged victorious from the revolution and civil war of 1910-20. Their role in Oaxaca as in most of Mexico was to end the revolution, restoring property forms as they were before the uprising. They did this with the use of pistoleros and police for 81 years and were strongly supported by the great land owners, mine operators and bankers.
Whether the rule of this elite is over, only time will tell
On the fourth of July the Party of the Institutionalized Revolution -- the PRI -- lost their first ever election in the State of Oaxaca. Eighty-one years of one-party rule came to an end when a candidate for governor, Gabino Cué, won despite the PRI’s usual display of dirty tricks, including two murders and a kidnapping. Eviel, the PRI candidate, was carrying a heavy handicap in the person of the sitting governor, Ulises Ruiz. Ruiz is hated by the people of the state for his stealing of the election in 2006 and for the violent suppression of the 2006 uprising which culminated in the massacre in Zocalo, where 21 people died. The Supreme Court of Mexico recently found Ruis culpable in these deaths and huge banners were strung up in the Zocalo to remind people of that fact.
Gabino Cué of the Convergence Party was the candidate of a coalition that covered a wide range of the Mexican political spectrum. On the left was the PRD, the Party of Democratic Revolution that has been responsible for much progressive legislation in Mexico City and the Federal District. On the right of the coalition was the PAN, the Party of National Action, whose leader Felipe Calderon is president of Mexico.
Weeks prior to the election the Teacher’s Union occupied the Zocalo and surrounding streets with a tarp city where they slept on the pavement vowing to fight any election fraud on the part of the PRI. Unlike free and democratic America, no police riot squads attacked them to preserve the sanctity of free automobile passage.
For weeks the PRI treated the city to elaborate political theater: Airplanes towing banners and haranguing the people below with loudspeakers, attractive young women waving to people on the streets from the back of flatbed sound trucks, more attractive young women at major intersections waving party banners and employing sound systems worthy of Rock ‘n’ Roll concerts -- all failed to convince a majority of the voters that Ruis’ handpicked successor Eviel was the heralding of a new PRI.
With the PAN in the Peace and Progress Coalition. the national government cannot rule in favor of PRI fraud as in the past, and with a serious threat of revolt by unions and farmers organizations if the PRI tried to steal another election, the PRI was forced to back down on some of their more heavy-handed methods. (Not that they didn’t try. The head of the State Electoral Institute, José Luis Echeverría, was caught in a phone tap ordering 70,000 extra ballots for PRI use.) Not only did Gabino Cue’s coalition win the governor’s office, it won the Municipal Presidencies in the larger cities of the state as well Oaxaca has been having a party ever since.
What this election will mean in terms of the burning social issues that face the State of Oaxaca remains to be seen. The wide ideological spread of the coalition poses an interesting question. Although the PRD represented the majority of Cabino Cué’s votes, the ultra conservative position of the PAN may well serve as a counterweight.
The PRI represented the moneyed elite of the state. As a party they originated as an alliance of generals who emerged victorious from the revolution and civil war of 1910-20. Their role in Oaxaca as in most of Mexico was to end the revolution, restoring property forms as they were before the uprising. They did this with the use of pistoleros and police for 81 years and were strongly supported by the great land owners, mine operators and bankers.
Whether the rule of this elite is over, only time will tell
Seattle’s budget crunch
The city of Seattle’s budget crunch illustrates the urgency of additional billions in federal stimulus money to ease the severe fiscal problems of state and local governments.
Councilmember Nick Licata reports that the city will have to cut more than $50 million from next year’s budget. Human services and public safety (police and fire) account for 49% of the city’s general fund expenditures. Fixed costs such as debt and pensions take another 13%. Unless there’s new revenue, most of the $50 million in cuts will have to come from such programs as libraries and parks.
A steep decline in city revenue has worsened the situation. Sales tax revenues were down 18% from 2008 to 2009, and real estate excise tax revenues were down 68% from their 2007 high.
The council and Mayor Mike McGinn must soon find an estimated $12 million in mid-year cuts in the current 2010 budget. When the proposed 2011 budget arrives in September, “the only options are to cut spending or find new revenue,” Licata said.
Seattle’s plight is typical of local government finances as the deep recession continues. The states have their own serious budget problems and can’t offer much help. Without bold remedial action by Congress, the people will pay in shuttered libraries, closed parks, and city services atrophied at a time of great and growing need.
Councilmember Nick Licata reports that the city will have to cut more than $50 million from next year’s budget. Human services and public safety (police and fire) account for 49% of the city’s general fund expenditures. Fixed costs such as debt and pensions take another 13%. Unless there’s new revenue, most of the $50 million in cuts will have to come from such programs as libraries and parks.
A steep decline in city revenue has worsened the situation. Sales tax revenues were down 18% from 2008 to 2009, and real estate excise tax revenues were down 68% from their 2007 high.
The council and Mayor Mike McGinn must soon find an estimated $12 million in mid-year cuts in the current 2010 budget. When the proposed 2011 budget arrives in September, “the only options are to cut spending or find new revenue,” Licata said.
Seattle’s plight is typical of local government finances as the deep recession continues. The states have their own serious budget problems and can’t offer much help. Without bold remedial action by Congress, the people will pay in shuttered libraries, closed parks, and city services atrophied at a time of great and growing need.
A less than foolproof check on Wall Street
By Steve Dzielak
On July 15, fifty-six Senate Democrats, two Independents and three Republicans voted "yes" on the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010 —truly landmark financial reform. President Obama quickly signed it into law. Hooray!
The bill promises "to promote the financial stability of the United States by improving accountability and transparency in the financial system, to end ‘too big to fail,’ to protect the American taxpayer by ending bailouts, to protect consumers from abusive financial services practices, and for other purposes." Will it do all that?
Oregon's Jeff Merkley, one of the Senate’s best on regulatory issues, saw it as “a clear message that the financial security of families and businesses on Main Street must always come before the short-term profits of Wall Street.” The law “will help restore safety and soundness to our financial system and ensure that working families get a fair deal in their everyday financial transactions,” Merkley said.
Merkley and other supporters were ecstatic over the creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to protect consumers from such financial traps as unfair overdraft fees and exploding interest rates. He was not thrilled that the regulators who missed the boat two years ago have been given major responsibility to implement the bill. He stressed the need for vigorous congressional oversight of both regulators and markets.
The Senate’s only real socialist, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, called the overall legislation a “positive step forward” but complained that it doesn’t break up banks deemed “too big to fail,” and fails to impose a cap on runaway credit card interest rates. On the plus side, he praised the bill for lifting “the veil of secrecy at the clandestine Federal Reserve" by directing the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to review all emergency actions by the Fed since the start of the financial crisis in 2007; to investigate apparent conflicts of interest involving the Fed and CEOs of the largest financial institutions, and to divulge the identities of financial institutions that took more than $2 trillion in nearly zero-interest loans or loan guarantees.
One Democrat joined 38 Republicans in voting “No.” Wisconsin's Russ Feingold, a rock-solid critic of Wall voted "No" because “Washington once again caved to Wall Street on key issues and produced a bill that fails to protect the American people from the pain of another economic disaster.”
Ted Kaufman of Delaware was particularly distressed at the scaled back-version of the so-called Volcker Rule (named after former Fed Chair Paul Volcker). Volcker had urged that megabanks not be permitted to own, control and manage hedge funds and private equity funds, and that megabanks be required to put more of their own capital into the hedge funds they managed. Volcker was especially demanding in his call for strict rules on derivatives, which are more like games of chance than investments.
Wall Street being Wall Street, unrestrained speculation is likely to reappear. One thing is likely to make them think twice: a tax on trading in securities and derivatives. Such a tax could be small enough that it wouldn't discourage serious long-term investment in productive businesses, but significant enough to make traders think twice about buying huge volumes of securities only to dump them a few minutes or hours later. It would limit destructive speculation, while raising revenue. The Center for Economic Policy and Research estimates that a tax on trading would reap between $177 billion and $354 billion a year.
One of the law’s biggest pluses was the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFBP) An article in 2007 by Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard law professor, advocated the creation of such an agency. Amazingly, Congress enacted it into law. Will the Obama administration appoint Warren, a credentialed fighter for consumer rights, to direct CFBP?
Since 2008, Warren has chaired the Congressional Oversight Panel, created to monitor the expenditure of hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to bail out Wall Street while struggling to keep distressed homeowners out of foreclosure and small businesses from collapsing.
Warren’s exemplary work on behalf of borrowers has been recognized by the administration. But Warren and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner have had a frigid relationship. Warren grilled Geithner on his policies and performance during his four appearances before her panel last autumn. Just this past June, she criticized the administration's lackluster foreclosure-prevention plan, and questioned Treasury's commitment to homeowners.
How can the same legislation be at once so flawed AND the biggest thing to hit banking and finance in decades? It’s because the new law is the imperfect product of a war between Wall Street’s lobbying battalions and those courageous members of Congress who responded to the seething outrage at the grassroots.
On July 15, fifty-six Senate Democrats, two Independents and three Republicans voted "yes" on the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010 —truly landmark financial reform. President Obama quickly signed it into law. Hooray!
The bill promises "to promote the financial stability of the United States by improving accountability and transparency in the financial system, to end ‘too big to fail,’ to protect the American taxpayer by ending bailouts, to protect consumers from abusive financial services practices, and for other purposes." Will it do all that?
Oregon's Jeff Merkley, one of the Senate’s best on regulatory issues, saw it as “a clear message that the financial security of families and businesses on Main Street must always come before the short-term profits of Wall Street.” The law “will help restore safety and soundness to our financial system and ensure that working families get a fair deal in their everyday financial transactions,” Merkley said.
Merkley and other supporters were ecstatic over the creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to protect consumers from such financial traps as unfair overdraft fees and exploding interest rates. He was not thrilled that the regulators who missed the boat two years ago have been given major responsibility to implement the bill. He stressed the need for vigorous congressional oversight of both regulators and markets.
The Senate’s only real socialist, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, called the overall legislation a “positive step forward” but complained that it doesn’t break up banks deemed “too big to fail,” and fails to impose a cap on runaway credit card interest rates. On the plus side, he praised the bill for lifting “the veil of secrecy at the clandestine Federal Reserve" by directing the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to review all emergency actions by the Fed since the start of the financial crisis in 2007; to investigate apparent conflicts of interest involving the Fed and CEOs of the largest financial institutions, and to divulge the identities of financial institutions that took more than $2 trillion in nearly zero-interest loans or loan guarantees.
One Democrat joined 38 Republicans in voting “No.” Wisconsin's Russ Feingold, a rock-solid critic of Wall voted "No" because “Washington once again caved to Wall Street on key issues and produced a bill that fails to protect the American people from the pain of another economic disaster.”
Ted Kaufman of Delaware was particularly distressed at the scaled back-version of the so-called Volcker Rule (named after former Fed Chair Paul Volcker). Volcker had urged that megabanks not be permitted to own, control and manage hedge funds and private equity funds, and that megabanks be required to put more of their own capital into the hedge funds they managed. Volcker was especially demanding in his call for strict rules on derivatives, which are more like games of chance than investments.
Wall Street being Wall Street, unrestrained speculation is likely to reappear. One thing is likely to make them think twice: a tax on trading in securities and derivatives. Such a tax could be small enough that it wouldn't discourage serious long-term investment in productive businesses, but significant enough to make traders think twice about buying huge volumes of securities only to dump them a few minutes or hours later. It would limit destructive speculation, while raising revenue. The Center for Economic Policy and Research estimates that a tax on trading would reap between $177 billion and $354 billion a year.
One of the law’s biggest pluses was the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFBP) An article in 2007 by Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard law professor, advocated the creation of such an agency. Amazingly, Congress enacted it into law. Will the Obama administration appoint Warren, a credentialed fighter for consumer rights, to direct CFBP?
Since 2008, Warren has chaired the Congressional Oversight Panel, created to monitor the expenditure of hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to bail out Wall Street while struggling to keep distressed homeowners out of foreclosure and small businesses from collapsing.
Warren’s exemplary work on behalf of borrowers has been recognized by the administration. But Warren and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner have had a frigid relationship. Warren grilled Geithner on his policies and performance during his four appearances before her panel last autumn. Just this past June, she criticized the administration's lackluster foreclosure-prevention plan, and questioned Treasury's commitment to homeowners.
How can the same legislation be at once so flawed AND the biggest thing to hit banking and finance in decades? It’s because the new law is the imperfect product of a war between Wall Street’s lobbying battalions and those courageous members of Congress who responded to the seething outrage at the grassroots.
PSARA marches on PRIDE Day
By Garet Munger and Susan Levy
Starting from Fourth Avenue and Columbia Street in downtown Seattle, the Puget Sound Alliance for Retired Americans banner -- carried by PSARA members and friends -- made its way the full length of the Gay Pride parade route past Westlake mall to the Seattle Center.
It was June 27, a beautiful day. Crowds of people from all walks of life were on hand, cheering and supporting the principles of PRIDE. Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn and King County Executive Dow Constantine were there, having proclaimed the month of June “Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month,” and June 27 “Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Day.”
Produced by Seattle Out and Proud, the annual parade is an exuberant, high-energy celebration of diversity, community and unity. Again this year, PSARA was a proud participant.
With President Robby Stern using his best stentorian voice, the PSARA contingent led the marchers and the observers in chanting:
“Whadda we want?” “ PRIDE!”
“Where do we want it?” “AT WORK”
With the support of the labor group Pride at Work, many others joined the PSARA-led chanting. An appreciative audience on either side of the parade route offered hi-fives and thumbs up as the retirees’ group made its way down Fourth Avenue.
On June 27, PRIDE Day, PSARA proudly carried on its tradition of supporting Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Rights within the labor, senior, and progressive communities.
Starting from Fourth Avenue and Columbia Street in downtown Seattle, the Puget Sound Alliance for Retired Americans banner -- carried by PSARA members and friends -- made its way the full length of the Gay Pride parade route past Westlake mall to the Seattle Center.
It was June 27, a beautiful day. Crowds of people from all walks of life were on hand, cheering and supporting the principles of PRIDE. Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn and King County Executive Dow Constantine were there, having proclaimed the month of June “Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month,” and June 27 “Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Day.”
Produced by Seattle Out and Proud, the annual parade is an exuberant, high-energy celebration of diversity, community and unity. Again this year, PSARA was a proud participant.
With President Robby Stern using his best stentorian voice, the PSARA contingent led the marchers and the observers in chanting:
“Whadda we want?” “ PRIDE!”
“Where do we want it?” “AT WORK”
With the support of the labor group Pride at Work, many others joined the PSARA-led chanting. An appreciative audience on either side of the parade route offered hi-fives and thumbs up as the retirees’ group made its way down Fourth Avenue.
On June 27, PRIDE Day, PSARA proudly carried on its tradition of supporting Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Rights within the labor, senior, and progressive communities.
Drive for state banks gathers momentum
By Will Parry
As we reported in the July Retiree Advocate, Bob Hasegawa is onto something.
A working teamster turned 11th district state representative, Hasegawa is in the vanguard of a developing national movement for the establishment of state-owned banks.
Hasegawa has a bill, House Bill 3162, that would enable Washington to become the first state after North Dakota to charter a state bank.
But our legislature had better hurry. State bank bills have also been filed in the legislatures of Massachusetts, Illinois and Michigan. And candidates in seven states – Florida, Oregon, Illinois, California, Vermont and Idaho, as well as in Washington – are running on a state bank platform. The remarkably favorable economic situation in North Dakota accounts for this surge of activity.
Ellen Brown, a Los Angeles litigation attorney, has researched the issue thoroughly.
“Local economies have collapsed because of the Wall Street credit freeze,” Brown says. “To reinvigorate local business, Main Street needs a heavy infusion of credit, and publicly-owned banks could fill that need.”
The Bank of North Dakota is the model for all the pending legislation. Founded in 1919, today “it makes low-interest loans to students, farmers and businesses. It underwrites municipal bonds and provides liquidity for more than 100 banks around the state,” Brown says.
Last year, in the worst economy since the Great Depression, North Dakota had the largest budget surplus in its history. North Dakota added jobs, while the other 49 states were losing them.
In March, 2009, when 46 states, including Washington, were in fiscal crisis, the Council of State Governments reported that North Dakota was discussing tax cuts and looking for ways to spend its surplus.
Reporting in Reader Supported News, veteran Pennsylvania union organizer Lorenzo A. Canizares pointed out that “North Dakota’s riches have been attributed to oil, but many states with oil are floundering. The sole truly distinguishing feature of North Dakota seems to be that it has managed to avoid the Wall Street credit freeze by owning and operating its own bank.”
(Disclosure: Since his days on my Little League baseball team in the early 1960s, Bob Hasegawa has been a personal friend.)
As we reported in the July Retiree Advocate, Bob Hasegawa is onto something.
A working teamster turned 11th district state representative, Hasegawa is in the vanguard of a developing national movement for the establishment of state-owned banks.
Hasegawa has a bill, House Bill 3162, that would enable Washington to become the first state after North Dakota to charter a state bank.
But our legislature had better hurry. State bank bills have also been filed in the legislatures of Massachusetts, Illinois and Michigan. And candidates in seven states – Florida, Oregon, Illinois, California, Vermont and Idaho, as well as in Washington – are running on a state bank platform. The remarkably favorable economic situation in North Dakota accounts for this surge of activity.
Ellen Brown, a Los Angeles litigation attorney, has researched the issue thoroughly.
“Local economies have collapsed because of the Wall Street credit freeze,” Brown says. “To reinvigorate local business, Main Street needs a heavy infusion of credit, and publicly-owned banks could fill that need.”
The Bank of North Dakota is the model for all the pending legislation. Founded in 1919, today “it makes low-interest loans to students, farmers and businesses. It underwrites municipal bonds and provides liquidity for more than 100 banks around the state,” Brown says.
Last year, in the worst economy since the Great Depression, North Dakota had the largest budget surplus in its history. North Dakota added jobs, while the other 49 states were losing them.
In March, 2009, when 46 states, including Washington, were in fiscal crisis, the Council of State Governments reported that North Dakota was discussing tax cuts and looking for ways to spend its surplus.
Reporting in Reader Supported News, veteran Pennsylvania union organizer Lorenzo A. Canizares pointed out that “North Dakota’s riches have been attributed to oil, but many states with oil are floundering. The sole truly distinguishing feature of North Dakota seems to be that it has managed to avoid the Wall Street credit freeze by owning and operating its own bank.”
(Disclosure: Since his days on my Little League baseball team in the early 1960s, Bob Hasegawa has been a personal friend.)
Sunday, July 4, 2010
New coalition will work to strengthen Social Security
“Social Security Works / Washington.”
That’s the name adopted by a new statewide coalition determined to defend and improve Social Security in the face of the gravest threat to its integrity in the 75 years since it was signed into law.
Initiated by a nucleus of labor, women’s and retiree groups, including the Puget Sound Alliance for Retired Americans, the coalition is reaching out to the many varied organizations that recognize the unique role of Social Security in preventing poverty and in uniting our people across the generations.
The coalition was organized in response to appointment of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, a majority of whose 18 members have signaled that they’re prepared to bleed the Social Security trust fund to reduce the federal budget deficit. (Readers will find background information on the commission on pages 5 and 10.)
The coalition will carry the campaign to every Congressional candidate, incumbent or aspirant, across the state, asking each to sign a pledge to defend the full range of Social Security benefits, to work to improve them, and to oppose all efforts to raid its trust fund for deficit reduction.
A broad national coalition, the “Strengthen Social Security Campaign,” is also in formation. Its founding Steering Committee members represent the AFL-CIO, the Alliance for Retired Americans, the Campaign for America’s Future, the Economic Policy Institute, the National Council of Women’s Organizations and Voices for America’s Children, among many other groups.
As its name indicates, the national group intends to take the offensive to make Social Security even better in the protections it affords retirees, persons with disabilities, and survivors. The Washington State coalition has the same approach.
The next meeting of the Social Security Works / Washington coalition will be at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 14, at the Seattle offices of the Washington State Labor Council, 314 First Avenue West. For information, contact PSARA President Robby Stern at president@psara.org or by phone at (206)448-9646.
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That’s the name adopted by a new statewide coalition determined to defend and improve Social Security in the face of the gravest threat to its integrity in the 75 years since it was signed into law.
Initiated by a nucleus of labor, women’s and retiree groups, including the Puget Sound Alliance for Retired Americans, the coalition is reaching out to the many varied organizations that recognize the unique role of Social Security in preventing poverty and in uniting our people across the generations.
The coalition was organized in response to appointment of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, a majority of whose 18 members have signaled that they’re prepared to bleed the Social Security trust fund to reduce the federal budget deficit. (Readers will find background information on the commission on pages 5 and 10.)
The coalition will carry the campaign to every Congressional candidate, incumbent or aspirant, across the state, asking each to sign a pledge to defend the full range of Social Security benefits, to work to improve them, and to oppose all efforts to raid its trust fund for deficit reduction.
A broad national coalition, the “Strengthen Social Security Campaign,” is also in formation. Its founding Steering Committee members represent the AFL-CIO, the Alliance for Retired Americans, the Campaign for America’s Future, the Economic Policy Institute, the National Council of Women’s Organizations and Voices for America’s Children, among many other groups.
As its name indicates, the national group intends to take the offensive to make Social Security even better in the protections it affords retirees, persons with disabilities, and survivors. The Washington State coalition has the same approach.
The next meeting of the Social Security Works / Washington coalition will be at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 14, at the Seattle offices of the Washington State Labor Council, 314 First Avenue West. For information, contact PSARA President Robby Stern at president@psara.org or by phone at (206)448-9646.
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Membership Meeting:
Work, fun and a spectacular view
Stimulating speakers. Informative reports on the campaigns for the good and bad ballot measures. Gearing up our Alliance for the coming battle to defend Social Security on the eve of its 75th Anniversary.
All that and a potluck lunch – deliciousness guaranteed – will enliven the Puget Sound Alliance for Retired Americans Summer Membership Meeting Thursday, July 22. Lunch is served at 12:30 and the meeting will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Central Area Senior Center, 500 30th Avenue S. in Seattle.
Jonathan Seib, the governor’s lead person on the new health care reform law, will discuss plans to implement the law in our state.
Representative Hans Dunshee (D,44) will report on Referendum 52, referred to the voters by the legislature. The referendum would extend the sales tax on bottled water and would permit the sale of bonds, with the proceeds dedicated to the sorely-needed upgrading and retrofitting of our public schools and colleges, creating 30,000 to 40,000 jobs in the process.
Owen Linch, senior labor representative to the Workers’ Compensation Advisory Committee, will explain why I-1082, privatizing workers’ compensation, is a bad idea.
The agenda will also include updates on the fight for Comprehensive Immigration Reform and on our campaign for a city ordinance requiring employers to provide sick leave to all workers employed in Seattle. The Executive Board will make recommendations on the measures that appear headed for the ballot. Membership discussion and action will follow.
Serious business, sure – but membership meetings are fun as well. We practically guarantee a warm sunny day, with spectacular views of Lake Washington, Mount Rainier and the Cascades, in the company of some of our community’s very best people.
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Stimulating speakers. Informative reports on the campaigns for the good and bad ballot measures. Gearing up our Alliance for the coming battle to defend Social Security on the eve of its 75th Anniversary.
All that and a potluck lunch – deliciousness guaranteed – will enliven the Puget Sound Alliance for Retired Americans Summer Membership Meeting Thursday, July 22. Lunch is served at 12:30 and the meeting will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Central Area Senior Center, 500 30th Avenue S. in Seattle.
Jonathan Seib, the governor’s lead person on the new health care reform law, will discuss plans to implement the law in our state.
Representative Hans Dunshee (D,44) will report on Referendum 52, referred to the voters by the legislature. The referendum would extend the sales tax on bottled water and would permit the sale of bonds, with the proceeds dedicated to the sorely-needed upgrading and retrofitting of our public schools and colleges, creating 30,000 to 40,000 jobs in the process.
Owen Linch, senior labor representative to the Workers’ Compensation Advisory Committee, will explain why I-1082, privatizing workers’ compensation, is a bad idea.
The agenda will also include updates on the fight for Comprehensive Immigration Reform and on our campaign for a city ordinance requiring employers to provide sick leave to all workers employed in Seattle. The Executive Board will make recommendations on the measures that appear headed for the ballot. Membership discussion and action will follow.
Serious business, sure – but membership meetings are fun as well. We practically guarantee a warm sunny day, with spectacular views of Lake Washington, Mount Rainier and the Cascades, in the company of some of our community’s very best people.
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For all future generations
PSARA’s number one mission in the five months immediately ahead can be summed up in six words: Defend the integrity of Social Security. To protect this basic social program that binds all generations together, we need to build our membership base.
The ominous probability is that the deficit hawks who dominate the fiscal reform commission will call on Congress in December to raid the Social Security trust funds in the name of deficit reduction. We have to make sure Congress says, “No way!”
We know the deficit was caused by tax cuts that funneled billions to the wealthy; by two ongoing wars “on the credit card”; and by the current severe economic crisis, created by Wall Street. We need to get that message to every person we can reach.
That’s why we have to build our membership base. Working with our allies, we intend to call on every member of our Congressional delegation to pledge to “do no harm” to Social Security in the name of deficit reduction. We’re building a Congressional firewall against all such proposals.
Today’s retirees have a duty to fight for a future of economic justice for the oncoming generations, our children and grandchildren. That’s why it’s so urgent to build our membership base.
And that’s why we’re asking you, dear Member, to sign up that relative, friend, neighbor or workmate today. The people at your church, tour senior center, or your community meeting place. We need them; they need us. The coupon is on page 9 and at www.psara.org/join.htm. Sign up that new member today!
Back to Home
The ominous probability is that the deficit hawks who dominate the fiscal reform commission will call on Congress in December to raid the Social Security trust funds in the name of deficit reduction. We have to make sure Congress says, “No way!”
We know the deficit was caused by tax cuts that funneled billions to the wealthy; by two ongoing wars “on the credit card”; and by the current severe economic crisis, created by Wall Street. We need to get that message to every person we can reach.
That’s why we have to build our membership base. Working with our allies, we intend to call on every member of our Congressional delegation to pledge to “do no harm” to Social Security in the name of deficit reduction. We’re building a Congressional firewall against all such proposals.
Today’s retirees have a duty to fight for a future of economic justice for the oncoming generations, our children and grandchildren. That’s why it’s so urgent to build our membership base.
And that’s why we’re asking you, dear Member, to sign up that relative, friend, neighbor or workmate today. The people at your church, tour senior center, or your community meeting place. We need them; they need us. The coupon is on page 9 and at www.psara.org/join.htm. Sign up that new member today!
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City Council to honor Will Parry
By Robby Stern
We invite all PSARA members and supporters to the Seattle City Council Chambers at 2 p.m. Monday, July 19. At that time, the Council will read and pass a resolution honoring our beloved President Emeritus and Editor of the Retiree Advocate, Will Parry.
This public recognition of Will is richly deserved. Will has been an optimistic and determined advocate for progressive change for more than six decades. His leadership has sustained PSARA as a vibrant and cutting edge force in our community.
We are pleased that the Seattle City Council is recognizing Will’s continuous effort to make our community, our state, our country and our world a kinder and more just place. Join us in the Seattle City Council Chambers to support one of our own as he receives the public recognition he rightfully deserves.
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We invite all PSARA members and supporters to the Seattle City Council Chambers at 2 p.m. Monday, July 19. At that time, the Council will read and pass a resolution honoring our beloved President Emeritus and Editor of the Retiree Advocate, Will Parry.
This public recognition of Will is richly deserved. Will has been an optimistic and determined advocate for progressive change for more than six decades. His leadership has sustained PSARA as a vibrant and cutting edge force in our community.
We are pleased that the Seattle City Council is recognizing Will’s continuous effort to make our community, our state, our country and our world a kinder and more just place. Join us in the Seattle City Council Chambers to support one of our own as he receives the public recognition he rightfully deserves.
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Welcome, Frank Irigon!
Frank Irigon, a distinguished leader in the Asian Pacific Islander community whose impressive resume would fill this page, has joined the PSARA Executive Board.
Frank brings to the board a rich background of community service in Seattle’s International District and beyond. He was co-founder and first editor of the Asian Family Affair, serving the Northwest API population; co-founder of the International District Community Health Center; a former trustee on the Renton Technical College Board – and the list goes on.
We look forward to years of fruitful leadership from Frank Irigon on issues of social justice. Welcome, Frank!
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Frank brings to the board a rich background of community service in Seattle’s International District and beyond. He was co-founder and first editor of the Asian Family Affair, serving the Northwest API population; co-founder of the International District Community Health Center; a former trustee on the Renton Technical College Board – and the list goes on.
We look forward to years of fruitful leadership from Frank Irigon on issues of social justice. Welcome, Frank!
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A violent wound on the Earth itself
By Will Parry
It is now evident that BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster is like no other catastrophe in history. The word “spill” does nothing to convey the reality. The Canadian wrier Naomi Klein comes closer, calling it “a violent wound inflicted on the Earth itself.”
The disaster’s monstrous toll on creatures and communities is yet to be reckoned up. That toll mounts with each passing minute as -- seventy days after the initial explosion – we continue to watch, as Klein says, “Earth’s guts gush forth, in real time, 24 hours a day.”
“For the first time in history,” writes Michael T. Klare in the June 14 Nation, “oil is pouring into the deep currents of a semi-enclosed sea, poisoning the water and depriving it of oxygen so that entire classes of marine species are at risk of annihilation. It is as if an underwater neutron bomb has struck the Gulf of Mexico, causing little apparent damage on the surface, but destroying the living creatures below.”
The final reckoning is surely generations away. But with what we’ve already seen since the incendiary explosion of April 20, with its instantaneous death toll of eleven oil rig workers, can there be a person of conscience anywhere who is not outraged?
We’ve seen the photos of pitiable oil-soaked pelicans. We’ve read about the threat to the viability of the fisheries as the oil seeps into the nurturing wetlands. We’ve read about endangered sea turtles corralled into “burn fields” and burned alive.
There are costs of a different order that are no less tragic. Klein warns that “the coast’s legendary culture will contract and wither. The fishing families up and down the coat do not just gather food, after all. They hold up an intricate network that includes family tradition, cuisine, music, art and endangered languages – much like the roots of grass holding up the land in the marsh. Without fishing, these unique cultures lose their root system, the very ground on which they stand.”
BP is no different than other oil companies, raking in billions in profits from their single-minded focus on production, and the hell with safety and the environment. The world needs tough regulation of this industry – and a crash program to create renewable alternatives. As long as these pirates ride high, the planet is endangered and so is the human race.
Back to Home
It is now evident that BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster is like no other catastrophe in history. The word “spill” does nothing to convey the reality. The Canadian wrier Naomi Klein comes closer, calling it “a violent wound inflicted on the Earth itself.”
The disaster’s monstrous toll on creatures and communities is yet to be reckoned up. That toll mounts with each passing minute as -- seventy days after the initial explosion – we continue to watch, as Klein says, “Earth’s guts gush forth, in real time, 24 hours a day.”
“For the first time in history,” writes Michael T. Klare in the June 14 Nation, “oil is pouring into the deep currents of a semi-enclosed sea, poisoning the water and depriving it of oxygen so that entire classes of marine species are at risk of annihilation. It is as if an underwater neutron bomb has struck the Gulf of Mexico, causing little apparent damage on the surface, but destroying the living creatures below.”
The final reckoning is surely generations away. But with what we’ve already seen since the incendiary explosion of April 20, with its instantaneous death toll of eleven oil rig workers, can there be a person of conscience anywhere who is not outraged?
We’ve seen the photos of pitiable oil-soaked pelicans. We’ve read about the threat to the viability of the fisheries as the oil seeps into the nurturing wetlands. We’ve read about endangered sea turtles corralled into “burn fields” and burned alive.
There are costs of a different order that are no less tragic. Klein warns that “the coast’s legendary culture will contract and wither. The fishing families up and down the coat do not just gather food, after all. They hold up an intricate network that includes family tradition, cuisine, music, art and endangered languages – much like the roots of grass holding up the land in the marsh. Without fishing, these unique cultures lose their root system, the very ground on which they stand.”
BP is no different than other oil companies, raking in billions in profits from their single-minded focus on production, and the hell with safety and the environment. The world needs tough regulation of this industry – and a crash program to create renewable alternatives. As long as these pirates ride high, the planet is endangered and so is the human race.
Back to Home
Driven to Poverty: The Seattle Port Truckers
By Rev. Monica Corsaro and Erica Garrecht-Williams
Imagine for a second being an independent contractor. You’re free to work for whom you choose, you negotiate your rates, you work as much or as little as you want. Sounds pretty good, right?
Wrong. In the port trucking industry, you are called an independent contractor, but your working reality is far from independent. You wake up before dawn, work overtime and make less than minimum wage. You can only haul for one company and they can pay you whatever they want. You have no health insurance and you pay for all your expenses out of pocket. On top of that, you spend countless hours waiting in traffic inhaling toxic diesel fumes.
Since the Port trucking system was deregulated and in the 1980’s, it has become one of the most exploitative industries in the nation. Port truck drivers, who move goods from the Port to freight trains bound for retail stores, used to enjoy a middle class living, but the age of globalization, cheap labor and corporate conglomerates has drastically lowered standards for these drivers, most of whom are immigrants. Retailers like Wal-Mart are fueling a race to the bottom among trucking companies by seeking rates below the actual cost of moving goods. Trucking companies compete by undercutting each other. Drivers compete to get loads. And what our society gets is a system based on cheap labor and the knowledge that there is always “someone” who will do it for cheaper. Billion-dollar corporations benefit. Who loses? The drivers who actually move the goods.
While Wal-Mart might pay the trucking company around $350 dollars per delivery, the drivers only see about $40 of that money, a rate that hasn’t changed in fifteen years. Drivers also have to pay all the expenses of maintaining their trucks: gas, insurance, tonnage fees and all repairs. Since they are technically classified as “independent contractors,” they are not paid an hourly wage, have no benefits, and can’t legally organize a union. Their pay amounts to about $400 a week after expenses. Many drivers are barely scraping by. One driver interviewed said, “Sometimes I have to choose whether to put gas in my truck or food on the table.”
After years of pressure from community and environmental groups, the Port of Seattle passed a plan to ban the oldest trucks from the Port. However, this plan doesn’t the root causes of truck pollution. The truth of the matter is that drivers simply cannot afford to buy and maintain clean new trucks. Our solution is a comprehensive clean trucks plan that requires the trucking companies to own and maintain a clean truck fleet and grant drivers employee status with a living wage, healthcare, and the right to organize a union. We at Puget Sound Sage and the Church Council have been building partnerships of allies who support the truck drivers and want to fix this broken system. Many port neighbors, organizations, and several elected officials are on board.
However, trucking firms are lobbying hard to keep things the way they are. The American Trucking Association blocked a similar plan from passing in L.A. We are fighting back. A national coalition of labor, faith, environmental, and community organizations came together in Washington D.C. in May to lobby for the drivers at a Congress subcommittee hearing restoring the power to regulate. Truck drivers finally got a chance to talk about their horrendous working conditions in front of attentive members of Congress. WA Representative Rick Larson listened to several Seattle drivers tell their stories of exploitation and intimidation. Shocked committee members pledged to investigate Port labor abuses and change the system.
Now, we are inviting local faith leaders to get involved. Several clergy and imams went on a “Port Toxic Tour” in March to see first hand the working conditions drivers face every day. One Lutheran pastor named it “modern-day slavery.” In June, the Church Council held a Prayer Breakfast in honor of the drivers. Christian and Muslims, black, white and everyone in between came together for one purpose: to be unified in our passion for change on behalf of the truck drivers. We as people of faith believe in the power of prayer to make change. We know too that prayer can happen in the streets—as such, we’re hosting a prayer vigil for the drivers later this summer. To getting involved, contact us. We need to work together to right this wrong.
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(Rev. Monica Corsaro is Director of Social Justice Ministries, Church Council of Greater Seattle (mcorsaro@thechurchcouncil.org). Erica Garrecht-Williams is Outreach and Communications Coordinator, Puget Sound Sage. erica@pugetsoundsage.org)
Back to Home
Imagine for a second being an independent contractor. You’re free to work for whom you choose, you negotiate your rates, you work as much or as little as you want. Sounds pretty good, right?
Wrong. In the port trucking industry, you are called an independent contractor, but your working reality is far from independent. You wake up before dawn, work overtime and make less than minimum wage. You can only haul for one company and they can pay you whatever they want. You have no health insurance and you pay for all your expenses out of pocket. On top of that, you spend countless hours waiting in traffic inhaling toxic diesel fumes.
Since the Port trucking system was deregulated and in the 1980’s, it has become one of the most exploitative industries in the nation. Port truck drivers, who move goods from the Port to freight trains bound for retail stores, used to enjoy a middle class living, but the age of globalization, cheap labor and corporate conglomerates has drastically lowered standards for these drivers, most of whom are immigrants. Retailers like Wal-Mart are fueling a race to the bottom among trucking companies by seeking rates below the actual cost of moving goods. Trucking companies compete by undercutting each other. Drivers compete to get loads. And what our society gets is a system based on cheap labor and the knowledge that there is always “someone” who will do it for cheaper. Billion-dollar corporations benefit. Who loses? The drivers who actually move the goods.
While Wal-Mart might pay the trucking company around $350 dollars per delivery, the drivers only see about $40 of that money, a rate that hasn’t changed in fifteen years. Drivers also have to pay all the expenses of maintaining their trucks: gas, insurance, tonnage fees and all repairs. Since they are technically classified as “independent contractors,” they are not paid an hourly wage, have no benefits, and can’t legally organize a union. Their pay amounts to about $400 a week after expenses. Many drivers are barely scraping by. One driver interviewed said, “Sometimes I have to choose whether to put gas in my truck or food on the table.”
After years of pressure from community and environmental groups, the Port of Seattle passed a plan to ban the oldest trucks from the Port. However, this plan doesn’t the root causes of truck pollution. The truth of the matter is that drivers simply cannot afford to buy and maintain clean new trucks. Our solution is a comprehensive clean trucks plan that requires the trucking companies to own and maintain a clean truck fleet and grant drivers employee status with a living wage, healthcare, and the right to organize a union. We at Puget Sound Sage and the Church Council have been building partnerships of allies who support the truck drivers and want to fix this broken system. Many port neighbors, organizations, and several elected officials are on board.
However, trucking firms are lobbying hard to keep things the way they are. The American Trucking Association blocked a similar plan from passing in L.A. We are fighting back. A national coalition of labor, faith, environmental, and community organizations came together in Washington D.C. in May to lobby for the drivers at a Congress subcommittee hearing restoring the power to regulate. Truck drivers finally got a chance to talk about their horrendous working conditions in front of attentive members of Congress. WA Representative Rick Larson listened to several Seattle drivers tell their stories of exploitation and intimidation. Shocked committee members pledged to investigate Port labor abuses and change the system.
Now, we are inviting local faith leaders to get involved. Several clergy and imams went on a “Port Toxic Tour” in March to see first hand the working conditions drivers face every day. One Lutheran pastor named it “modern-day slavery.” In June, the Church Council held a Prayer Breakfast in honor of the drivers. Christian and Muslims, black, white and everyone in between came together for one purpose: to be unified in our passion for change on behalf of the truck drivers. We as people of faith believe in the power of prayer to make change. We know too that prayer can happen in the streets—as such, we’re hosting a prayer vigil for the drivers later this summer. To getting involved, contact us. We need to work together to right this wrong.
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(Rev. Monica Corsaro is Director of Social Justice Ministries, Church Council of Greater Seattle (mcorsaro@thechurchcouncil.org). Erica Garrecht-Williams is Outreach and Communications Coordinator, Puget Sound Sage. erica@pugetsoundsage.org)
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Robby on the issues:
Saving Social Security from the ‘Hit Men’
by Robby Stern, PSARA President
About a year ago, I heard about the book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins on Amy Goodman’s radio news show, “Democracy Now”. Perkins had written the book to express his remorse for the role he played in carrying out the economic policies of the United States Empire, or what he refers to as the “Corporatocracy.” He also wanted to educate the public about what is being done to countries around the world in the name of the people of the United States. I finally read the book last month and it is a simple but stunning read with great relevance to the challenges we face in our country today.
Briefly, very well paid Economic Hit Men travel the world selling huge development programs to the often corrupt leadership of other countries. Often there are bribes or other personal trade offs associated with these efforts. These countries then incur huge debt to the World Bank to build the major construction projects; debts that they will never be able to repay. The contracts for these projects are distributed to multinational corporations like Halliburton, KBR, and others, allowing these companies and their executives to amass very large profits from the coffers of these deeply indebted countries. The tax revenues collected by countries like Indonesia, Panama, Columbia, and others are insufficient to pay the debt incurred in building these projects which leads to draconian cuts in social programs that assist the poor and working poor of these countries.
Perkins asserts that if the Economic Hit Men fail to persuade the leadership of these countries, the “jackals” are called in. He used as examples Jaime Roldos of Ecuador and Omar Torrijos of Panama, both of whom met untimely deaths under very suspicious circumstances. Perkins is convinced it was the “jackals” at work.
This book was quite educational but it also got me thinking about what is going on in our country at this very moment. The “Corporatocracy” and their politician friends have made policy decisions that have enormously enriched the people at the top and the corporations they run through tax cuts, bail outs and privatization. Now they are saying to the American people, our deficit is way too high. They are trying to persuade us that they must cut the programs that serve working class and poor people like Social Security, Medicaid, education, etc. As I write this column, Congress is refusing to provide extensions to unemployment benefits and aid to state Medicaid programs, both desperately needed. It is Congress‘s version of applying to the U.S. the policies that have been foisted on poor and working people around the world.
We must not be fooled and we will fight back. Social Security, Medicaid, etc. are NOT the problems. The tax cuts for the rich and unnecessary wars are the problem. (In Iraq, the goal was gaining control of the oil for the oil companies and also controlling this strategically located country and in Afghanistan, the “newly discovered” mineral riches are going to be developed by the U.S. multinational mining companies.) We must be organized and prepared to fight on many fronts.
One example of our efforts is the success of PSARA volunteers in gathering signatures to place I–1098, a high incomes income tax on the ballot. This initiative is one of the ways to fight back against the growing gap in the distribution of wealth in our country. It will force the wealthy to provide a little fairer share of their income for education and health care when it gets on the ballot and, with our help, passes in November.
PSARA and the ARA are gearing up for a huge battle to defend Social Security. The Washington Post reported that we are facing the biggest threat to Social Security in the 75 years of its existence. PSARA will respond in coalition with others to make sure our Congressional representatives do nothing to harm our Social Security system and the benefits promised to American workers.
Please join us at our general membership meeting on Thursday, July 22. (For details on the meeting, see page 2 of this newsletter.) Your participation will make an enormous difference for our small, (but growing!) feisty and determined organization as we do battle with those who would serve the rich and powerful at the expense of poor and working people.
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by Robby Stern, PSARA President
About a year ago, I heard about the book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins on Amy Goodman’s radio news show, “Democracy Now”. Perkins had written the book to express his remorse for the role he played in carrying out the economic policies of the United States Empire, or what he refers to as the “Corporatocracy.” He also wanted to educate the public about what is being done to countries around the world in the name of the people of the United States. I finally read the book last month and it is a simple but stunning read with great relevance to the challenges we face in our country today.
Briefly, very well paid Economic Hit Men travel the world selling huge development programs to the often corrupt leadership of other countries. Often there are bribes or other personal trade offs associated with these efforts. These countries then incur huge debt to the World Bank to build the major construction projects; debts that they will never be able to repay. The contracts for these projects are distributed to multinational corporations like Halliburton, KBR, and others, allowing these companies and their executives to amass very large profits from the coffers of these deeply indebted countries. The tax revenues collected by countries like Indonesia, Panama, Columbia, and others are insufficient to pay the debt incurred in building these projects which leads to draconian cuts in social programs that assist the poor and working poor of these countries.
Perkins asserts that if the Economic Hit Men fail to persuade the leadership of these countries, the “jackals” are called in. He used as examples Jaime Roldos of Ecuador and Omar Torrijos of Panama, both of whom met untimely deaths under very suspicious circumstances. Perkins is convinced it was the “jackals” at work.
This book was quite educational but it also got me thinking about what is going on in our country at this very moment. The “Corporatocracy” and their politician friends have made policy decisions that have enormously enriched the people at the top and the corporations they run through tax cuts, bail outs and privatization. Now they are saying to the American people, our deficit is way too high. They are trying to persuade us that they must cut the programs that serve working class and poor people like Social Security, Medicaid, education, etc. As I write this column, Congress is refusing to provide extensions to unemployment benefits and aid to state Medicaid programs, both desperately needed. It is Congress‘s version of applying to the U.S. the policies that have been foisted on poor and working people around the world.
We must not be fooled and we will fight back. Social Security, Medicaid, etc. are NOT the problems. The tax cuts for the rich and unnecessary wars are the problem. (In Iraq, the goal was gaining control of the oil for the oil companies and also controlling this strategically located country and in Afghanistan, the “newly discovered” mineral riches are going to be developed by the U.S. multinational mining companies.) We must be organized and prepared to fight on many fronts.
One example of our efforts is the success of PSARA volunteers in gathering signatures to place I–1098, a high incomes income tax on the ballot. This initiative is one of the ways to fight back against the growing gap in the distribution of wealth in our country. It will force the wealthy to provide a little fairer share of their income for education and health care when it gets on the ballot and, with our help, passes in November.
PSARA and the ARA are gearing up for a huge battle to defend Social Security. The Washington Post reported that we are facing the biggest threat to Social Security in the 75 years of its existence. PSARA will respond in coalition with others to make sure our Congressional representatives do nothing to harm our Social Security system and the benefits promised to American workers.
Please join us at our general membership meeting on Thursday, July 22. (For details on the meeting, see page 2 of this newsletter.) Your participation will make an enormous difference for our small, (but growing!) feisty and determined organization as we do battle with those who would serve the rich and powerful at the expense of poor and working people.
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Building a bridge to justice
By David West
On June 30th, Seattle’s South Park bridge was shut down without a replacement, thus leaving an entire community cut off from the most direct routes to the rest of the city. Rerouting plans and the resulting congestion at key intersections will hurt workers, business and low-income residents from a much larger area than just South Park. The South Park Bridge serves tens of thousands of residents and business in the Duwamish Valley and South King County every day. Buses using the bridge bring union workers to downtown and take families to social and health service providers in and out of the area. Manufacturing workers and small businesses rely on the bridge as a key connection between communities, workplaces and suppliers across the Duwamish.
Puget Sound Sage and members of the New South Park Bridge Coalition consider the failure to replace this valuable bridge a grave injustice to the South Park community. The South Park community, along with the unincorporated areas south of the bridge, is disproportionately low-income and is considerably more diverse than the larger region. Replacing this vital transportation link for communities of color, immigrant families and other working families in our neighborhood is not only a sound investment in our regional transportation infrastructure. It is a matter of social, economic and environmental justice.
Although the decrepit condition of the South Park bridge has been well-known for years, securing funding for a new bridge has always been a low priority. The federal TIGER funds have been awarded to rebuild the Mercer Street corridor. State funds have been allocated or promised for Link light rail, the downtown tunnel, and various other infrastructure projects. None of those projects is as critical to a single community as the South Park bridge is to South Park and the Duwamish Valley.
This year may be the last opportunity for many years to secures Federal funding. Our local governments must successfully apply for Federal TIGER funds or a new bridge is likely never to be built. Sage and its community allies recently met with Port Commissioner John Creighton, after which the Port of Seattle committed $5 million to the bridge. With the Port’s commitment, local and state governments have now pledged $70 million of the $130 million needed for a new bridge. King County will now ask the federal government for the remaining $60 million to start construction.
Too often under-valued low-income neighborhoods get pushed aside for funding. This year, elected leaders got the message: South Park and the Duwamish Valley deserve a transportation infrastructure comparable to that available to the rest of the city.
David West is Executive Director of Puget Sound Sage.
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On June 30th, Seattle’s South Park bridge was shut down without a replacement, thus leaving an entire community cut off from the most direct routes to the rest of the city. Rerouting plans and the resulting congestion at key intersections will hurt workers, business and low-income residents from a much larger area than just South Park. The South Park Bridge serves tens of thousands of residents and business in the Duwamish Valley and South King County every day. Buses using the bridge bring union workers to downtown and take families to social and health service providers in and out of the area. Manufacturing workers and small businesses rely on the bridge as a key connection between communities, workplaces and suppliers across the Duwamish.
Puget Sound Sage and members of the New South Park Bridge Coalition consider the failure to replace this valuable bridge a grave injustice to the South Park community. The South Park community, along with the unincorporated areas south of the bridge, is disproportionately low-income and is considerably more diverse than the larger region. Replacing this vital transportation link for communities of color, immigrant families and other working families in our neighborhood is not only a sound investment in our regional transportation infrastructure. It is a matter of social, economic and environmental justice.
Although the decrepit condition of the South Park bridge has been well-known for years, securing funding for a new bridge has always been a low priority. The federal TIGER funds have been awarded to rebuild the Mercer Street corridor. State funds have been allocated or promised for Link light rail, the downtown tunnel, and various other infrastructure projects. None of those projects is as critical to a single community as the South Park bridge is to South Park and the Duwamish Valley.
This year may be the last opportunity for many years to secures Federal funding. Our local governments must successfully apply for Federal TIGER funds or a new bridge is likely never to be built. Sage and its community allies recently met with Port Commissioner John Creighton, after which the Port of Seattle committed $5 million to the bridge. With the Port’s commitment, local and state governments have now pledged $70 million of the $130 million needed for a new bridge. King County will now ask the federal government for the remaining $60 million to start construction.
Too often under-valued low-income neighborhoods get pushed aside for funding. This year, elected leaders got the message: South Park and the Duwamish Valley deserve a transportation infrastructure comparable to that available to the rest of the city.
David West is Executive Director of Puget Sound Sage.
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360,000 sign I-1098
Initiative 1098, raising a billion dollars for schools and healthcare while lowering taxes for homeowners and small businesses, will find a place on the November ballot.
Supporters rolled up an impressive 360,000 signatures in an intensive six-week campaign. Campaign activists were preparing to deliver the signed petitions to the secretary of state at our deadline.
The Puget Sound Alliance for Retired Americans had set a goal of 1,000 signatures, but topped 4,000, an achievement recognized by campaign leaders as remarkable for an organization of our size.
I-1098 will face lavishly-funded opposition from the Business Roundtable, a collection of wealthy CEOs and venture capitalists who shudder at the thought of equity in our tax system.
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Supporters rolled up an impressive 360,000 signatures in an intensive six-week campaign. Campaign activists were preparing to deliver the signed petitions to the secretary of state at our deadline.
The Puget Sound Alliance for Retired Americans had set a goal of 1,000 signatures, but topped 4,000, an achievement recognized by campaign leaders as remarkable for an organization of our size.
I-1098 will face lavishly-funded opposition from the Business Roundtable, a collection of wealthy CEOs and venture capitalists who shudder at the thought of equity in our tax system.
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Tea bags: Idiocy and armed militias
By Alfredo Peppard
Pauline and I have been in Seattle for six weeks now and we have been dumbfounded by what we see on television. The tea bag movement is all over the internet but you have to see it on a big screen TV to fully appreciate the head-on idiocy of the thing. I have suspected for some time that a good many of my countrymen were at least a half a bubble off, but this gang of baboons utterly flabbergasts me. One thing that this is all about is that they are all mad as hell about something, whatever the hell it is. Just what is the tea party, tea bag movement, tea baggers, whatever you call them?
First, it is a television phenomenon which originates on Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News. The news crew didn’t go out and cover this movement; they created it. Limbaugh, Hannity, and Beck called it into being. Then every time more than ten tea baggers showed up in public Fox News gave them lavish coverage, with reporters and anchor persons expressing sympathy and understanding of these poor folk, burdened as they are by a crushing government. And so the cluster of slightly demented folks, some armed, become in the imagination of a definable group of Americans, the vanguard of a social justice movement. They want to take back America. They want to return to a more just past. But their idea of a “just past” is not one influenced by Thoreau and Emerson, certainly not the New England intellectual tradition that brought about Garrison, Sumner, and ultimately John Brown. No, their historical roots can be traced through George Wallace, Orval Faubas and Lester Maddox to that Society of English- speaking slave owners that spread from the Southern Caribbean to the Mason-Dixon Line. The bagger left wing wants to return to Jim Crow; its right wing wants to return to the slavery-ridden political and social status of 1850.
Their prominent spokespersons, candidates, and would-be candidates are typically young, good-looking, and utterly vacuous -- made for television. The leading Tea Party TV personality is the inimitable Sarah Palin. Palin is a marvel. With gestures, head tosses, flashing smiles, always with good eye contact, she can spout utter nonsense to crowds of enthusiastic yahoos and have them loving it. PT Barnum was right. But unlike the feather-headed Palin, the real heavy hitters have “News Shows” on Fox, with Glen Beck, the present favorite of the Baggers, playing the part of a patriot of 1776.
All Murdoch’s creatures are adept at manufacturing facts as they go along but what distinguishes Beck, Limbaugh, and Hannity is their ability carry out rants that begin with a whopper and go from there to the utterly preposterous. These tribunes of the couch potato constituency spew forth on a daily basis accusations of a dark conspiracy to enslave the American people -- a vile conspiracy being carried out as they speak by Nazis, Liberals, and Commies, the sworn enemies of all Real Americans; and at the head of this cabal sits a black President who is not an American citizen -- and on and on from there.
This style of irrational politics was prominent in the secessionist press in the 1850s. This style of rhetoric entered the politics of the modern world when Charles Maurras, who founded the Paris newspaper Action Française during the Dreyfus Affair, heaped pure vitriol and abuse upon any and all supporters of liberal thought in France. Anti-Semitism was his consistent core issue, and by 1930 Action Française brought into being a violent force of fascist street brawlers. In the 1940s they supported Petain. Both Mussolini and Hitler copied Maurras’ methods. It is not likely that many if any Tea Baggers ever heard of Action Française, much less Maurras. They are just reacting like reactionary yahoos always do.
The whole thing would be hilarious were it not for the fact they are heavily financed by some of the most anti-democratic billionaires you will find anywhere. These billionaires, with Rupert Murdoch in the lead, just want to overturn the last election. That’s all. Failing that, they want to make it impossible for anyone else to govern. These are the same jackals whose multi-media noise machine described Clinton’s escapades in the Oval Office as being tantamount to blowing up the Washington Monument. I would be falling off my chair laughing if they didn’t have armed militias in their movement.
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Pauline and I have been in Seattle for six weeks now and we have been dumbfounded by what we see on television. The tea bag movement is all over the internet but you have to see it on a big screen TV to fully appreciate the head-on idiocy of the thing. I have suspected for some time that a good many of my countrymen were at least a half a bubble off, but this gang of baboons utterly flabbergasts me. One thing that this is all about is that they are all mad as hell about something, whatever the hell it is. Just what is the tea party, tea bag movement, tea baggers, whatever you call them?
First, it is a television phenomenon which originates on Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News. The news crew didn’t go out and cover this movement; they created it. Limbaugh, Hannity, and Beck called it into being. Then every time more than ten tea baggers showed up in public Fox News gave them lavish coverage, with reporters and anchor persons expressing sympathy and understanding of these poor folk, burdened as they are by a crushing government. And so the cluster of slightly demented folks, some armed, become in the imagination of a definable group of Americans, the vanguard of a social justice movement. They want to take back America. They want to return to a more just past. But their idea of a “just past” is not one influenced by Thoreau and Emerson, certainly not the New England intellectual tradition that brought about Garrison, Sumner, and ultimately John Brown. No, their historical roots can be traced through George Wallace, Orval Faubas and Lester Maddox to that Society of English- speaking slave owners that spread from the Southern Caribbean to the Mason-Dixon Line. The bagger left wing wants to return to Jim Crow; its right wing wants to return to the slavery-ridden political and social status of 1850.
Their prominent spokespersons, candidates, and would-be candidates are typically young, good-looking, and utterly vacuous -- made for television. The leading Tea Party TV personality is the inimitable Sarah Palin. Palin is a marvel. With gestures, head tosses, flashing smiles, always with good eye contact, she can spout utter nonsense to crowds of enthusiastic yahoos and have them loving it. PT Barnum was right. But unlike the feather-headed Palin, the real heavy hitters have “News Shows” on Fox, with Glen Beck, the present favorite of the Baggers, playing the part of a patriot of 1776.
All Murdoch’s creatures are adept at manufacturing facts as they go along but what distinguishes Beck, Limbaugh, and Hannity is their ability carry out rants that begin with a whopper and go from there to the utterly preposterous. These tribunes of the couch potato constituency spew forth on a daily basis accusations of a dark conspiracy to enslave the American people -- a vile conspiracy being carried out as they speak by Nazis, Liberals, and Commies, the sworn enemies of all Real Americans; and at the head of this cabal sits a black President who is not an American citizen -- and on and on from there.
This style of irrational politics was prominent in the secessionist press in the 1850s. This style of rhetoric entered the politics of the modern world when Charles Maurras, who founded the Paris newspaper Action Française during the Dreyfus Affair, heaped pure vitriol and abuse upon any and all supporters of liberal thought in France. Anti-Semitism was his consistent core issue, and by 1930 Action Française brought into being a violent force of fascist street brawlers. In the 1940s they supported Petain. Both Mussolini and Hitler copied Maurras’ methods. It is not likely that many if any Tea Baggers ever heard of Action Française, much less Maurras. They are just reacting like reactionary yahoos always do.
The whole thing would be hilarious were it not for the fact they are heavily financed by some of the most anti-democratic billionaires you will find anywhere. These billionaires, with Rupert Murdoch in the lead, just want to overturn the last election. That’s all. Failing that, they want to make it impossible for anyone else to govern. These are the same jackals whose multi-media noise machine described Clinton’s escapades in the Oval Office as being tantamount to blowing up the Washington Monument. I would be falling off my chair laughing if they didn’t have armed militias in their movement.
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Dino Rossi: Wrong, wrong, wrong on the issues
Expect millions of corporate dollars to gush into the campaign war chest of Dino Rossi, recruited by the Republican National Committee to take on Democratic U. S. Senator Patty Murray in this year’s election.
The corporate folks know what they’re doing. During his six years in the State Senate, Rossi managed only five positive votes in 77 issues, the Washington State Labor Council reports. Delegates to the council’s Committee on Political Education (COPE) conference unanimously endorsed Murray for re-election.
Here in brief is Rossi’s record on issues of major concern to working people:
• Unemployed workers: Rossi voted for changes that cut benefits for workers who lose their jobs through no fault of their own; voted against providing benefits to victims of domestic violence who are forced to quit their jobs to flee their attackers; voted against a retraining bill to assist laid-off Boeing and other workers; and voted against providing benefits to workers locked out of their jobs.
• Injured workers: Rossi voted to cut benefits for victims of job-related hearing loss; voted to repeal the workplace ergonomic safety rule; voted against empowering health care workers to prevent needle-stick injuries; voted to lower state standards protecting workers from second-hand smoke; voted for partial privatization of the worker’ comp system; and voted to grant legal immunity to job site contractors who negligently injure workers who are not their employees.
• Low-income workers: Rossi voted to freeze the state minimum wage; and voted against increasing home-care workers’ wages to an average of $8.50 an hour.
• Collective bargaining and union rights: Rossi voted against granting collective bargaining rights to state employees, four-year college faculty, and U.W. academic student employees; voted against allowing dues deduction for home-care workers who unionize; and voted against prohibiting public employers from firing or misclassifying employees to avoid providing benefits.
• Other telltale votes: Rossi voted against allowing use of sick leave or other paid leave to care for sick family members; voted for the privatization of certain ferry runs; voted against a “pay gap” measure to grant bigger raises to state employees whose pay lags behind that of private sector counterparts; voted against promoting apprenticeship on public workers projects; and voted against a bill to create a “buying pool” to negotiate lower drug prices.
Voting right on labor issues only 6% of the time, Rossi’s record “ranks among the worst and most partisan of any legislator during his 1997-2003 tenure in the State Senate,” the State Labor Council said.
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The corporate folks know what they’re doing. During his six years in the State Senate, Rossi managed only five positive votes in 77 issues, the Washington State Labor Council reports. Delegates to the council’s Committee on Political Education (COPE) conference unanimously endorsed Murray for re-election.
Here in brief is Rossi’s record on issues of major concern to working people:
• Unemployed workers: Rossi voted for changes that cut benefits for workers who lose their jobs through no fault of their own; voted against providing benefits to victims of domestic violence who are forced to quit their jobs to flee their attackers; voted against a retraining bill to assist laid-off Boeing and other workers; and voted against providing benefits to workers locked out of their jobs.
• Injured workers: Rossi voted to cut benefits for victims of job-related hearing loss; voted to repeal the workplace ergonomic safety rule; voted against empowering health care workers to prevent needle-stick injuries; voted to lower state standards protecting workers from second-hand smoke; voted for partial privatization of the worker’ comp system; and voted to grant legal immunity to job site contractors who negligently injure workers who are not their employees.
• Low-income workers: Rossi voted to freeze the state minimum wage; and voted against increasing home-care workers’ wages to an average of $8.50 an hour.
• Collective bargaining and union rights: Rossi voted against granting collective bargaining rights to state employees, four-year college faculty, and U.W. academic student employees; voted against allowing dues deduction for home-care workers who unionize; and voted against prohibiting public employers from firing or misclassifying employees to avoid providing benefits.
• Other telltale votes: Rossi voted against allowing use of sick leave or other paid leave to care for sick family members; voted for the privatization of certain ferry runs; voted against a “pay gap” measure to grant bigger raises to state employees whose pay lags behind that of private sector counterparts; voted against promoting apprenticeship on public workers projects; and voted against a bill to create a “buying pool” to negotiate lower drug prices.
Voting right on labor issues only 6% of the time, Rossi’s record “ranks among the worst and most partisan of any legislator during his 1997-2003 tenure in the State Senate,” the State Labor Council said.
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An Open Letter To the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform
The Fiscal Commission now starting its work needs to begin on the right footing. If this effort is based on incorrect assumptions to start with it cannot achieve success. Erroneous ideas and facts about the deficit and debt are all too often found in current political rhetoric and in shallow and uninformed media coverage. This can only cause confusion, anxiety, and anger among Americans.
The most important and significant of these erroneous ideas is that the so-called "entitlements" have something to do with the increasing deficits. Social Security is separately funded through the payroll tax, which is covering all expenses of paying benefits and currently producing a surplus.
Medicare is also separately funded through payroll taxes, premiums, co-payments, etc. Of course, the escalating costs of medical care need to be addressed but this should not be within the purview of a fiscal policy commission. The excessive costs of administration of medical care including excess profits, executive compensation, research and development incurred by medical device companies, hospitals, clinics, laboratories, insurance companies, etc need to be studied and reformed. This should be done by a commission consisting of medical professionals, management consultants, etc. Your commission is not qualified to do this. Therefore a decision should be taken at the outset to set aside the entitlements and to adopt a plan that will focus on tax and revenue reform, and discretionary spending on such items as defense, military spending, foreign aid, earmarks, corporate subsidies, the war on drugs, etc.
If the Commission insists on placing primary attention on the "entitlements" it will endanger the whole project and disappoint the President's hope for real progress in reducing deficit spending. Attacks on Social Security and Medicare can only produce an outpouring of angry citizen protest which will make the so-called anti-government Tea Party passion look puny.
"Messing around" with Social Security and Medicare is playing with people’s lives, health and well being. Changes in these programs mean less food on the table for many, no doctor to help when sick, no hospital to perform life saving surgery.
Therefore, the most important decision the Commission can make at this crucial starting point is to clearly disassociate itself from those influential figures and groups in the anti-government business and investment communities who are motivated ideologically by a desire to dismantle the New Deal and Great Society originated programs. These programs have become so integrated into the lives of ordinary Americans that adverse changes would in effect tear the heart out of American civilization. We have seen the violent citizen reactions in certain European countries to reductions in life sustaining benefit programs. To activate this kind of political and social disorder in America will not provide any solution to the deficit problem
Sincerely,
Lawrence D. Greene, Vice Chair,
South King County Chapter,
Alliance for Retired Americans
Editor’s note: We urge our readers to write their own letters. Tell the commission to keep its hands off Social Security and Medicare. Address the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, 1650 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20504.
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The most important and significant of these erroneous ideas is that the so-called "entitlements" have something to do with the increasing deficits. Social Security is separately funded through the payroll tax, which is covering all expenses of paying benefits and currently producing a surplus.
Medicare is also separately funded through payroll taxes, premiums, co-payments, etc. Of course, the escalating costs of medical care need to be addressed but this should not be within the purview of a fiscal policy commission. The excessive costs of administration of medical care including excess profits, executive compensation, research and development incurred by medical device companies, hospitals, clinics, laboratories, insurance companies, etc need to be studied and reformed. This should be done by a commission consisting of medical professionals, management consultants, etc. Your commission is not qualified to do this. Therefore a decision should be taken at the outset to set aside the entitlements and to adopt a plan that will focus on tax and revenue reform, and discretionary spending on such items as defense, military spending, foreign aid, earmarks, corporate subsidies, the war on drugs, etc.
If the Commission insists on placing primary attention on the "entitlements" it will endanger the whole project and disappoint the President's hope for real progress in reducing deficit spending. Attacks on Social Security and Medicare can only produce an outpouring of angry citizen protest which will make the so-called anti-government Tea Party passion look puny.
"Messing around" with Social Security and Medicare is playing with people’s lives, health and well being. Changes in these programs mean less food on the table for many, no doctor to help when sick, no hospital to perform life saving surgery.
Therefore, the most important decision the Commission can make at this crucial starting point is to clearly disassociate itself from those influential figures and groups in the anti-government business and investment communities who are motivated ideologically by a desire to dismantle the New Deal and Great Society originated programs. These programs have become so integrated into the lives of ordinary Americans that adverse changes would in effect tear the heart out of American civilization. We have seen the violent citizen reactions in certain European countries to reductions in life sustaining benefit programs. To activate this kind of political and social disorder in America will not provide any solution to the deficit problem
Sincerely,
Lawrence D. Greene, Vice Chair,
South King County Chapter,
Alliance for Retired Americans
Editor’s note: We urge our readers to write their own letters. Tell the commission to keep its hands off Social Security and Medicare. Address the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, 1650 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20504.
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Alliance ‘up and running’ in Tacoma, Pierce County
By Bill Johnston
The Tacoma-Pierce County ARA chapter is up and running. The group meets monthly at 11:30 a.m. on the third Thursday at Joeseppi’s in Tacoma’s West End Neighborhood – by the Narrows Bridge, for those unfamiliar with the City of Destiny.
The chapter has elected officers for the year, including Ron Richardson, the retired National Executive Vice President of UNITE-HERE, as chapter president.
The group has organized along a very social agenda. Meetings start with a time to reconnect socially, followed by a buffet lunch, a speaker and then a short business meeting. Committees have been formed. The group will spend the slow summer months working out committee goals and planning to involve the membership in achieving them.
ARA National President Barbara Easterly is expected to visit in the fall. The chapter plans to organize a meeting for her, possibly with a fund raising aspect.
Tacoma and Pierce County retirees are invited to call Membership Chair Bill Johnston at (253) 627-6860 – or simply show up at Joeseppi’s, at North Pearl and North 21st at 11:30 a.m. on the third Thursday. Not only will new members meet interesting union, progressive and involved retirees, but they’ll have a great time doing it!
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The Tacoma-Pierce County ARA chapter is up and running. The group meets monthly at 11:30 a.m. on the third Thursday at Joeseppi’s in Tacoma’s West End Neighborhood – by the Narrows Bridge, for those unfamiliar with the City of Destiny.
The chapter has elected officers for the year, including Ron Richardson, the retired National Executive Vice President of UNITE-HERE, as chapter president.
The group has organized along a very social agenda. Meetings start with a time to reconnect socially, followed by a buffet lunch, a speaker and then a short business meeting. Committees have been formed. The group will spend the slow summer months working out committee goals and planning to involve the membership in achieving them.
ARA National President Barbara Easterly is expected to visit in the fall. The chapter plans to organize a meeting for her, possibly with a fund raising aspect.
Tacoma and Pierce County retirees are invited to call Membership Chair Bill Johnston at (253) 627-6860 – or simply show up at Joeseppi’s, at North Pearl and North 21st at 11:30 a.m. on the third Thursday. Not only will new members meet interesting union, progressive and involved retirees, but they’ll have a great time doing it!
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Krugman: Spend now, save later
By Steve Dzielak
Paul Krugman, the column-writing, Nobel Prize winning college professor, said it best back in May: We could use more fiscal stimulus — but Congress is balking even at extending aid for the ever-growing ranks of the long-term unemployed. Fiscal responsibility, you see — hey, and let’s make sure estate taxes stay low!
Krugman’s big worry? That policymakers would just sit there for years congratulating themselves on the soundness of their policies. In June, Senate Republicans just said Hell No! to everything in sight, including an extension of unemployment benefits for said long-term unemployed. Never mind that America is facing the highest rate of long-term joblessness since the 1930s.
Krugman focused on what many leading economists see as a huge mistake: a return to austerity. He cited 1937, when FDR’s premature attempt to balance the budget helped plunge a recovering economy back into severe recession. Then, as now, creating jobs was suddenly out, inflicting pain was in.
In an imaginary conversation with a German Deficit Hawk, Krugman counters the Hawk’s frenzy to cut deficits immediately (“because Germany must deal with the fiscal burden of an aging population”). Cutting doesn’t make sense, Krugman says, because even if you manage to save 80 billion euros — which you won’t, because the budget cuts will hurt your economy and reduce revenues — the interest payments on that much debt would be less than a tenth of a percent of your gross domestic product (GDP).
When Krugman points out that austerity will threaten economic recovery while doing next to nothing to the long-run budget position, the Hawk takes cover behind fear of the Market reaction. When Krugman wonders aloud why the Market should be moved by policies with almost no long-run fiscal impact, he is cut dead with an all-time classic: You just don’t understand our situation.
Krugman sees hypocrisy in this obsession with the deficit. Lawmakers eager to slash benefits for those in need are equally quick to stump for tax breaks for the wealthy. Senator Ben Nelson, who sanctimoniously declared that we can’t afford $77 billion for the unemployed, supported the first Bush tax cut, which cost a cool $1.3 trillion.
The Ben Nelsons of the world seem stumped by the truism, spend now, while the economy remains depressed; save later, once it has recovered. Here’s how Krugman sees it: Much of the deficit is the result of the ongoing crisis, which depressed revenues and required extraordinary expenditures to stabilize the financial system. As the crisis abates, things will improve---just not fast enough. After bottoming out in 2014, he believes, the deficit will start rising again, largely because of rising health care costs.
The answer is clear: First bring health costs under control, then find additional revenues and/or spending cuts. Right now, our severely depressed economy is inflicting long-run damage. This is not the time for austerity. The deficit should become a priority only when the Federal Reserve has regained some traction over the economy, so that it can offset the negative effects of tax increases and spending cuts by reducing interest rates.
Currently, the Fed can’t do that, because the interest rates it can control are near zero, and can’t go any lower. Eventually, as unemployment falls — probably below 7 percent— the Fed will want to raise rates to head off possible inflation. At that point we make a deal: The government starts cutting back, and the Fed holds off on rate hikes so that cutbacks don’t tip the economy back into a slump. But the time for such a deal is at least two years off. The responsible thing, then, is to spend now, while planning to save later.
As Krugman emphasizes, every year that goes by with extremely high unemployment forces many long-term unemployed into a permanent underclass, even as many new graduates are denied a start on their working lives.
Penny-pinching now isn’t just cruel; it endangers the nation’s future while failing to lighten future debt burden. Krugman implores the hawks: Please get your timing right. Yes, we need to fix our long-run budget problems — but not by refusing to help our economy in its hour of need.
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Paul Krugman, the column-writing, Nobel Prize winning college professor, said it best back in May: We could use more fiscal stimulus — but Congress is balking even at extending aid for the ever-growing ranks of the long-term unemployed. Fiscal responsibility, you see — hey, and let’s make sure estate taxes stay low!
Krugman’s big worry? That policymakers would just sit there for years congratulating themselves on the soundness of their policies. In June, Senate Republicans just said Hell No! to everything in sight, including an extension of unemployment benefits for said long-term unemployed. Never mind that America is facing the highest rate of long-term joblessness since the 1930s.
Krugman focused on what many leading economists see as a huge mistake: a return to austerity. He cited 1937, when FDR’s premature attempt to balance the budget helped plunge a recovering economy back into severe recession. Then, as now, creating jobs was suddenly out, inflicting pain was in.
In an imaginary conversation with a German Deficit Hawk, Krugman counters the Hawk’s frenzy to cut deficits immediately (“because Germany must deal with the fiscal burden of an aging population”). Cutting doesn’t make sense, Krugman says, because even if you manage to save 80 billion euros — which you won’t, because the budget cuts will hurt your economy and reduce revenues — the interest payments on that much debt would be less than a tenth of a percent of your gross domestic product (GDP).
When Krugman points out that austerity will threaten economic recovery while doing next to nothing to the long-run budget position, the Hawk takes cover behind fear of the Market reaction. When Krugman wonders aloud why the Market should be moved by policies with almost no long-run fiscal impact, he is cut dead with an all-time classic: You just don’t understand our situation.
Krugman sees hypocrisy in this obsession with the deficit. Lawmakers eager to slash benefits for those in need are equally quick to stump for tax breaks for the wealthy. Senator Ben Nelson, who sanctimoniously declared that we can’t afford $77 billion for the unemployed, supported the first Bush tax cut, which cost a cool $1.3 trillion.
The Ben Nelsons of the world seem stumped by the truism, spend now, while the economy remains depressed; save later, once it has recovered. Here’s how Krugman sees it: Much of the deficit is the result of the ongoing crisis, which depressed revenues and required extraordinary expenditures to stabilize the financial system. As the crisis abates, things will improve---just not fast enough. After bottoming out in 2014, he believes, the deficit will start rising again, largely because of rising health care costs.
The answer is clear: First bring health costs under control, then find additional revenues and/or spending cuts. Right now, our severely depressed economy is inflicting long-run damage. This is not the time for austerity. The deficit should become a priority only when the Federal Reserve has regained some traction over the economy, so that it can offset the negative effects of tax increases and spending cuts by reducing interest rates.
Currently, the Fed can’t do that, because the interest rates it can control are near zero, and can’t go any lower. Eventually, as unemployment falls — probably below 7 percent— the Fed will want to raise rates to head off possible inflation. At that point we make a deal: The government starts cutting back, and the Fed holds off on rate hikes so that cutbacks don’t tip the economy back into a slump. But the time for such a deal is at least two years off. The responsible thing, then, is to spend now, while planning to save later.
As Krugman emphasizes, every year that goes by with extremely high unemployment forces many long-term unemployed into a permanent underclass, even as many new graduates are denied a start on their working lives.
Penny-pinching now isn’t just cruel; it endangers the nation’s future while failing to lighten future debt burden. Krugman implores the hawks: Please get your timing right. Yes, we need to fix our long-run budget problems — but not by refusing to help our economy in its hour of need.
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Seventy-five candles at Social Security gala!
A gala celebration of the 75th Birthday of Social Security, with Senator Patty Murray as featured speaker, will be held at the Greenwood Senior Activity Center, 525 N. 85tth Street in Seattle on Monday, August 16, starting at 1:30 p.m.
The event – complete with ceremonial birthday cake – is being co-sponsored by the senior center and the Puget Sound Alliance for Retired Americans.
The Social Security Act was signed into law by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on August 14, 1935. Throughout the 75 years of its existence, it has been the nation’s premier social insurance program, protecting millions of seniors, children and adults with disabilities from poverty.
The anniversary event will be a high point in the broadly-based campaign to expose and defeat efforts by the so-called “Fiscal Responsibility” commission to rob the Social Security trust funds to reduce the federal deficit.
The event will celebrate Social Security as a program for all generations, and will emphasize the need both to safeguard Social Security’s current benefits and to strengthen its protections for women, low-income workers and the oldest beneficiaries.
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The event – complete with ceremonial birthday cake – is being co-sponsored by the senior center and the Puget Sound Alliance for Retired Americans.
The Social Security Act was signed into law by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on August 14, 1935. Throughout the 75 years of its existence, it has been the nation’s premier social insurance program, protecting millions of seniors, children and adults with disabilities from poverty.
The anniversary event will be a high point in the broadly-based campaign to expose and defeat efforts by the so-called “Fiscal Responsibility” commission to rob the Social Security trust funds to reduce the federal deficit.
The event will celebrate Social Security as a program for all generations, and will emphasize the need both to safeguard Social Security’s current benefits and to strengthen its protections for women, low-income workers and the oldest beneficiaries.
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