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Our Website Our Editor To Unsubscribe Table of Contents * Featured
Articles Calendars of Events Communication with Our Members Opportunities Petitions Commentaries from Our Members Martha Koester: Private Health Insurers Are Afraid* Liberals and Democrats Links to the Beef What’s Happening in our Government Departments?* The Cost of Doing Nothing Would Be Greater What’s Happened to Our Freedom? State and Local Links
to the Beef Featured Advocacy Group: Families & Work Institute* Health Providers Fund Washington
Senators Nation and World Links to the Beef Low Cost Convenient Basic Health Clinics Our Liberal Spirit Our
Political Priorities ·
Fair Clean
Elections and Open Government ·
Fair Taxes and
Competent Spending ·
Investment for
Productivity ·
Quality
Health, Education, Jobs, Income ·
Environmental
Protection and Energy Independence ·
Security and
Equal Rights ·
Justice and
Peace Everywhere ·
International
Cooperation and Leadership Conservatives oppose all of these Let’s
End Our National Nightmare
Let’s
Restore Our American Dream More on Conservative opposition to our
American Dream Washington State’s 5 Major Needs ·
Federal
Funding for Health and Education · Substitute
a Progressive Income Tax · Replacing
Conservative Legislators Quote of the Week The monotony and solitude of a quiet life
stimulates the creative mind. Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
Calendar of Events
Monday, August 10 at 6 PM to Wednesday, August 12 at 12:30 PM at Seattle
University – National
Vacations Matter Summit, with three
hundred experts, advocates, and stakeholders from the fields of health, travel
and tourism, family studies and the environment with other interested citizens. $95. To Register. $120-180 for room
for both nights, meals, and parking.
Sponsored by right2vacation.org
Communication
with Our Members
Catching Up
I have long been interested in understanding American and global
historical, economic, political and social happenings, trends and
interrelations. But like most others, I
failed to understand and anticipate our housing and credit speculative bubbles.
Housing Bubble
I wondered why rates of home ownership increased under President
Bush’s policies. I was skeptical that
houses were worth their rapidly increasing prices. But it never occurred to me that millions of
unqualified people were acquiring fraudulent and deceptive mortgages. I didn’t understand the danger of adjustable
rate mortgages with initial bait and switch rates. Nor did I understand that these mortgages
were being repackaged into mystery securities, sold to speculators and insured
without sufficient reserve funds. I did
oppose housing refinancing to finance consumption, but didn’t realize how many
families were refinancing to pay medical bills.
Stock Market Bubble
I was more aware of the stock market bubble than the housing
bubble. I supported Alan Greenspan’s low interest policies, as important to increasing
employment, not giving sufficient attention to excessive borrowing by consumers
and speculators. I did believe that
margin requirements should be increased to discourage irrational exuberance. I also believed a transaction tax should be
imposed to discourage speculation.
Once the housing, credit, stock market bubble collapsed (in
September 2008), I quickly studied relevant
books, which I have added to our book list.
I learned about the fraudulent deceptive mortgages, mystery securities,
irrational exuberance and infectious greed.
I don’t understand most technical details of financial products,
transactions and markets. But I believe
I now have an excellent understanding of the major factors and their
interaction.
A New Economy
I have learned a lot about where we need to go and what must be
done to get there. As I have frequently
expressed, we need to return from our present Borrow, Consume and Speculate economy to our Earn, Conserve and Invest economy that followed World War II. Indeed, we need more emphasis upon
conservation and public investment than ever before. Instead of returning to the privately managed
economy described by John Kenneth Galbraith, we need a publicly managed
economy.
The major struggle will be between those special interests who
want to return to borrowing and speculation and we who want to reduce
these. Our major personal struggle will
be to substitute conservation for consumption.
Worker’s Earnings
I recently became
aware of how little the Obama Administration has given to improving
earnings. I am amazed that labor unions
aren’t loudly complaining. Immediately
following the passage of health care reform, Obama must address increasing
worker’s earnings. See Chuck Collins’ 2000 book, Economic Apartheid in America for measures which must be
implemented.
Health Care
I understand why health costs
are increasing so rapidly, including:
·
Paying providers
for actions instead of outcomes, with too little attention to prevention and
coordinated care, especially of chronic diseases
·
Excessive use of
unnecessary and expensive tests, medical technology and surgery, especially end
of life care
·
Uncontrolled
private insurance and pharmaceutical costs
We must reform our health care system to address these costs and
provide secure adequate quality health care for all. As other countries have demonstrated, we must
have public health insurance for all, instead of relying upon employer connected
private health insurance.
Vermont
Senator Bernie Sanders calls for all Democratic Senators to support cloture on
health care. Senate
HELP Committee unveils health care plan (including public insurance option
to cover 97% of Americans. Congressional
Budget Office reduces estimated cost of HELP Committee plan to $611 billion. Read about the pluses
and minuses of a public health insurance option.
Higher Education
I have just begun to study why higher education costs have also
been increasing so rapidly. I hope to
report my findings soon. I would appreciate
your suggestions for other topics that I should give more attention.
Opportunities
Useful
Websites: contacts, maps, community organizing tools, and more.
Access
to jillions of political cartoons.
Download
Sightline Institute’s climate policy primer ‘Cap and Trade 101’. About
Sightline.
Conduct your own home energy audit.
See all of President Obama’s
weekly (Saturday) addresses.
Petitions
Tell
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Harry Reid to repeal the Defense of Marriage
Act.
Tell
your senators to co-sponsor the Afghan Women Empowerment Act.
Tell
your congress members to support the Employees Free Choice Act.
Tell
the Department of Health and Human Services to stop banning HIV visitors and
immigrants.
Tell
our Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the pika and support reduction of
global warming.
Tell President Obama
to view mountain top removal coal mining to see the results.
Commentaries
From Our Members
Martha Koester: Private Health Insurers Are Afraid
All kinds of private companies
successfully compete on the same playing field as public services. Public
libraries have not put many bookstores out of business. FedEx and UPS compete
successfully with the U.S. Postal Service. The introduction of Social Security
survivors' benefits left plenty of room for many different kinds of private
life insurance.
If private health insurers are
worried about competing with government-financed health care, they are
admitting they add no value to the health-care system whatsoever.
Which, come to think of is, is
pretty much the case. A business model predicated on profiting from bankrupting
or killing people by refusing to pay claims and by refusing to cover sick
people adds nothing. Private insurance companies have publicly said as much to
congressional investigators.
A subcommittee of the House
Energy and Commerce Committee recently held a hearing intended to bring a halt
to these harmful practices. But at the hearing, insurance executives told
lawmakers they have no plans to stop rescinding policies. I've never heard of
that happening with Medicare. Martha Koester
Liberals
and Democrats
Government Watch
Also go to Whitehouse.gov.
Is
the White House pressuring Progressives, but not Blue Dogs? I suspect that on health care and other
issues, the White House will also pressure Blue Dogs.
Health Care Reform
There
are reasons to be optimistic about passage of health care reform. The
Senate HELP Committee will pass a bill with a public option similar to the
House bill. Advocates
of single payer and a public health insurance option should cooperate to
get the best they can.
Republican
Senators are asking too much to secure their support for health reform. It’s
time to quit wrecking the health reform bill in order to obtain Republican
support. David
Axelrod defines a bill as bipartisan, if it contains any ideas from
Republicans, even if they all vote against it. Without
a public insurance option, little will change with respect to reducing health
care costs.
Remember that
the Republicans who complain that $1 trillion is too much to spend for health
care reform are the ones who voted for the Medicare drug benefit (which only pays
some of the costs of some drugs for seniors) which cost $964 billion. See the Democratic Congressional Campaign
Committee - Health Care Action
Center.
Cap and Trade
On Friday, House passed
the first bill to attempt to curb global warming. Freshmen
Democrats supported it in spite of its risk to their re-election. In his Saturday address, President
Obama praised this bill. Dean Baker says the bill is
terrible, but better than no bill. Representative
Dennis Kucinich tells us why he voted against the cap and trade bill.
EPA approves
California greenhouse gas emissions control. 14 other states are following
Immigration
At a
bipartisan meeting with congressional lawmakers, President Obama pledged
"that he
would push for a sweeping overhaul of the nation's immigration system by
early next year." For more.
Norm Coleman
Finally,
a second senator for Minnesota. For
more.
Federal Reserve Secrecy
Congress moves to
eliminate Federal Reserve secrecy about its actions and who has gotten the
money.
What’s Happening in our Government Departments?
Whitehouse.gov
highlights information about President Obama’s activities, including speeches,
legislative signings and more. It also
contains a section about issues,
which provides:
·
Progress that has been made
(accomplishments) and
·
Principles (which includes vision
(values) and priorities)
Some issues
refer to only part of a department’s responsibilities. Others correspond to a department. Others refer to responsibilities in various
departments. Examining such issues as
energy and environment, immigration, health, education, and fiscal
responsibility indicates the many changes which are occurring and desired.
I am surprised
that labor (including worker safety and
protection from employer abuse) is not included among the issues. This is an enormous omission of an important
issue relevant to changing our economy to one in which workers have security,
quality working conditions and fair pay.
The section on
energy and environment is entirely about energy and green house gas
emissions. What about the destruction of
our lands, waters, ecosystems and wildlife species?
I also believe
that for each issue, the category of obstacles should be added. We would then see values, accomplishments,
obstacles and priorities. This would
help us to understand the priorities and what must be done to accomplish them.
The Cost of Inaction Would Be Greater
According
to Dean Baker, “The cumulative lost output over the years 2008-2012 will
almost certainly exceed $5 trillion. That comes to more than $60,000 for an
average family of four. This is price that we are paying for the bankers'
greed, coupled with incredible incompetence and/or corruption from our regulators.”
This
poor production is the largest source of our Federal deficits and their
contribution to our Federal debt. These
deficits would be even larger, except for the smaller deficits incurred to
stimulate our economic recovery.
What’s Happened to Our Freedom?
Stigmatizing dissidents is a fairly common practice. As such, “There are 1.1 million people on the [U.S.] Terrorist Watch List and there is a 35 per cent error rate, minimum, for that list,” according to ACLU's Michael German. We should eliminate the Terrorist Watch List.
A Pentagon
employee leaked an internal anti-terrorism training exam that included the
question: “Which of the following is an example of low-level terrorism?” The correct answer was “protests.”
Here’s the Beef
Conservatives are waging
a war against the U.S. Census.
According
to Rush Limbaugh, Mark Sanford’s affair was due to despair over Obama’s
stimulus package.
Bankers
launch a publicity campaign to restore their reputation. For
more. For
more.
Chamber
of Commerce launches $100 million lobbying campaign.
Taxing
oil trading and futures will discourage speculation and raise revenue for
public investment.
Military
Secretary Robert Gates wants to soften ‘Don’t Ask. Don’t Tell.’
Just eliminate it.
State
and Local
Featured Advocacy Group ---
Families and Work Institute -----------------------
Since
the institute was founded in 1989, our work has tackled issues in four major
areas: the workforce and workplace; education, care and community; parenting;
and youth development. Families and Work
Institute’s research takes on emerging issues before they crest and includes
some of the most comprehensive research on the
In
addition, because the Institute conducts some of the only research studies of
their kind, our studies are quoted in the media every other day on average and
are cited by decision makers in business, government, and the public. The Families and Work
Institute has had an enormous impact in creating and shaping the work life
movement, not only by raising the awareness about work life issues with
policymakers and thought leaders, including governors and presidents, but also
by supporting agents of change in business, early childhood and youth
development, education and community engagement.
The issues that Families and Work Institute tackles are broad and timely,
affecting life on and off the job. Our current projects focus on:
·
the effective workplace
·
leaders in a global economy
·
comparisons among working conditions in the E.U. and
·
talent management
·
workplace and career flexibility
·
gender and generation in the workforce
·
overwork in
·
the health of the American workforce
·
improving the financial assets of low-wage workers
·
early learning and education
·
the views of youth on work and family
·
family caregivers of the elderly
·
working in retirement
·
the aging workforce.
Ultimately,
the Institute’s work benefits American employers and employees, their families,
their communities, and the institutions that support them.
The
impact of Families and Work Institute’s work can be felt in every sector of
society. We:
·
conduct the ongoing National Study of the Changing Workforce (1992,
1997, 2002, 2008), the largest and most comprehensive ongoing study of the U.S.
workforce, a study that is widely used by business to understand and respond to
workforce trends as they emerge;
·
conduct the ongoing National Study of Employers (1998, 2005, 2008), one
of the most comprehensive ongoing studies of how employers are responding to
the changing workforce;
·
conduct seminal studies on “hot” topics, such as Generation & Gender
in the Workforce, Overwork in
·
coin the language that becomes widely used in describing trends, such as
“work-centric,” “dual-centric,” or “family-centric” in describing the
priorities of today’s employees or “intentional” teaching and parenting in
summarizing the components of effective care and teaching;
·
convene the annual Work Life Legacy Awards since 2004 to document the
history of the work life movement, filming the stories of the extraordinary men
and women who have created this movement as a living archive of the
accomplishments of our past and a source of inspiration for the leaders of the
future;
·
spearhead work on the multi-generational workforce, economic supports
for low-wage and entry-level workers, the aging workforce and changes in the
workplace and medical systems that will better respond to the aging population;
serve as a founding member of The Conference Board’s Work Life Leadership
Council since 1983, a group FWI has led since its formation and that has been
instrumental in creating new ways to help employers and employers make work
“work;”
·
host the annual Work Life Conference—the thought-leader conference in
the work life field—with The Conference Board since 1985, and lead Families and
Work Institute’s Corporate Leadership Circle (CLC), created in the mid 1990s—as
vehicles for sharing promising practices;
·
are creating a multi-media campaign on early learning for launch in
early 2009 called Mind in the Making: The Science of Early Learning; convened a
conference on early brain development in 1996 at the University of Chicago that
changed attitudes toward early childhood and directed a national campaign on
early learning, resulting in improved practices and increased state funding;
·
Write numerous books, including the first book on parental development,
The Six Stages of Parenthood; and
·
amplify young people’s voices through the Ask the Children
studies—examining their surprising views on working parents, their future
employment, violence and learning—all studies that led to change.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Health Providers Fund
Patty Murray Maria
Cantwell
Insurance: $128,650
$81,750
Health Professionals: $332,068 $351,735
Pharmaceuticals: $276,132
$70,350
Hospitals/Nursing Homes: $98,293 $80,241
Health Services/HMOs: $57,575 $58,550
TOTAL: $892,718 $642,626
Here’s the Beef
How about replacing Washington’s property taxes with a carbon tax?
How
about zero tolerance for garbage.
North
westerner per capita use of gasoline is declining.
Aberdeen,
Washington may have opportunity to sell water to Doha, Qatar.
Should
we convert failing suburbs back to rural areas?
Read King County Executive
candidate Larry Phillips’ environmental proposals.
Nation
and World
An
argument can be made that the Iranian election results were as they were
reported by the government. It still
seems strange that the results were reported to be so similar in different
parts of
A revolution has already occurred in
Low Cost Convenient Basic Health Clinics
To improve the quality of our health care and reduce costs, we
should put primary-care physicians at the center of our health care system
and reward them for the health of their patients instead of the procedures they
propose. Each person should have a
primary care physician who coordinates her care. This primary care physician would recommend tests,
specialists and treatments, all of which would be recorded in a common patient
chart. If every person had such a
patient-centered medical home, health care costs would be reduced by 5.6% ($67
billion a year.) It might even be
appropriate to pay primary care doctors more than specialists.
In addition, we
need low cost convenient basic health clinics, which provide basic health
care to people when they have no primary care provider or their provider is
unavailable. These clinics provide a
convenient substitute for much more expensive emergency rooms.
Seniors Now and 2050
Now:
% High
School College Household Poverty
Own Live with Live %
Now
Diploma Degree
Income Rate Home Spouse
Alone 2050
White 77% 86% 27% $56,100 7% 83% 63%
29% 55%
Asian 4% 76% 38% $72,500
9% 75% 49%
13% 9%
Hispanic 8% 52% 11% $45,000 15% 66% 42%
17% 22%
Black 10% 72% 15% $39,200 18% 63% 29%
32% 12%
Here’s the Beef
With
wealth concentrated, massive borrowing was necessary to maintain our economy.
Citigroup is
increasing interest rates on credit card debt.
College
graduate, you may have enormous college debt, but at least you’re likely to be
employed.
Can
our economy recover when so many people are underemployed? For
more.
June
job losses are 467,000, producing higher unemployment, especially among men.
Our global recession
needs a global recovery effort.
More
attention is being given to re-engineering our planet’s climate.
Honduran
military coup aimed at curbing President Manuel Zelaya’s liberal actions. For more.
Honduran
military coup leaders were trained by United States military. For
more.
Is
Iraq’s tentative democracy worth all the mayhem that was caused by the American
occupation?
Iraqi’s celebrate National
Sovereignty Day as U.S. troops leave Iraqi cities. For more.
In
6 months, the percentage of Americans who describe themselves as pro-Israel has
dropped from 69% to 49%. Perhaps due
to
Israeli navy captures
humanitarian boat bound for Gaza.
Our
Liberal Spirit
Last
week, I spent 4 days alone at my cabin.
I built it in 1969 on
It
has a deck running 36 feet along the front.
Fifteen feet in front of the deck and 20 feet down a rock face is salt
water at high tide. Near the water are
Ocean Spray, Bracken Fern, Sedum and other shrubs and wildflowers. Stretching from the cabin up the hill are
Douglas Fir, Western Cedar, Madrona, Salal and other wildflowers.
Six
years after building the cabin, a well was dug, so a hand pump provides
water. The water is poured into a
barrel, from which it flows through a hose to provide running cold water in the
kitchen sink. Six years later
electricity was obtained. We still use
the outhouse that was built at the same time as the cabin.
The
nearest homes on either side are each 200 feet away, scarcely visible and only
used by seasonable visitors. I visit the
cabin an average of 4 times a year, staying for 3 to 9 days at a visit. I sometimes go alone and may not see another
person up close from the time I leave the ferry upon arriving until I board in
upon leaving.
Unlike
at home, there is no mail, no phone and not access to internet. I enjoy being alone, the freedom from
interruption, being in complete control of my schedule. I spend much time thinking or reading on the
deck or at the dining room table inside.
I gaze at the water, seeing the birds (gulls, ducks, herons, eagles and
others), occasional otters, seals, bats and surfacing salmon. I gather steamer clams, butter clams, oysters
and occasional crabs within 100 feet of the cabin. I hike along the shore and in the woods to
find and identify wild flowers, often seeing small island deer. I also write commentaries, as I did this one.
I
enjoy extended time for reflection and writing.
I believe such reflection enables me to put the various aspects of my
life in perspective. To recognize persistent
irritations and how to deal with them.
To clarify by priorities. To
fully address various issues. To create
solutions. To make decisions. To be more fully conscious. And thereby become more fully human.
I do
not share the fascination of millions of people with twitter. I have no desire to share the details of my
daily life with others. Nor am I
interested in the details of others’ daily life. I am interested in the passions and struggles
of my friends, but not the more mundane details.
Recommended Books – See our list of books for liberals
Peter
Gosselin, 2008, High Wire. The Precarious
Financial Times of American Families.
Larry
Bartels, 2008, Unequal Democracy. The
Political Economy of the New Gilded Age.
A few years ago, jillions of
books were written about the deception, incompetence and corruption of the Bush
administration and congressional Republicans.
Now the most popular topics are our speculative housing and credit
bubble and our economic inequality and related corporate abuses.
Last week, I recommended two
books, one which focused on the history of our recent economic inequality
and the other which focused upon what can be done to reduce the economic and
political inequality. This week, I am
recommending two more books to be added to our growing list
of books dealing with economic inequality.
Peter Gosselin’s High Wire describes the effects of
economic inequality and insecurity on our housing, health, education, jobs and
retirement. Larry Bartel’s Unequal Democracy focuses upon the
politics which has produced our economic inequality. Some conclusions are:
·
Many Americans
have little understanding of economic inequality
·
The income and
wealth of voters correlates inversely with their opposition to economic
inequalty.
·
Politicians pay
virtually no attention to the concerns of poor people.
·
The major factor
affecting the votes of congress members concerning economic inequality is their
political party. In states with one
Democratic and one Republican Senator (who represent the same constituents),
their votes on economic inequality are very different.
·
Thus, although
congress members ignore the concerns of the poor, the poor make a difference by
supporting Democrats.
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