Puget Sound Liberals Weekly Newsletter #218
Enhancing Freedom, Opportunity and Cooperation in
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Contents * Featured Articles Opportunities Petitions Communication to Our Members Is There Enough Time to Pass Health Care Reform?** Commentaries from Our Members Ray McBain:
Can Reconciliation Improve the Senate Bill? Cindi
Laws: Remove Marijuana Penalties Liberals and Democrats Links to the Beef Paul Loeb: Democrats Must Stimulate Youth Vote* State and Local Links
to the Beef Featured Advocacy Group: InspireSeattle Barbara Boxer Supports Corrupt Patty Murray Nation and World Links to the Beef Value of Dollar and Cost of Oil Human Development Approach to Afghan Village Dev’t Helping Israel In Spite of Itself Our Liberal Spirit When the Going Gets Tough, What Then?** 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 · Substituting
a Progressive Income Tax · Replacing
Conservative Legislators Quote of the Week When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get
Going. Attributed
to various people and given various meanings
Calendar of Events
March 20 at 6 PM (reception) and 7 PM (Dinner and Program) at Seattle
Center Fisher Pavilion - 20th
Annual Futurewise Reunion. $50. For more information.
Saturday, March 20 at 6:30
PM at Betsy Bell’s home (4455 - 51st Avenue SW, West Seattle) - InspireSeattle Potluck and
Discussion of debt relief for impoverished nations. For more.Saturday,
Friday April 9 at 6 PM at 338 - 10th Avenue, Kirkland -
Making Democracy Work Fundraiser supporting
the Greater Seattle League of Women
Voters.
Saturday, April 30 - May 2
at Seattle Pacific University in Seattle - Wellstone Action Campaign
Management Fundamentals, including:
· Activist track: For people interested in citizen lobbying,
issue advocacy, and community organizing, this track provides skills in how to
win on issues.
· Campaign track: This track focuses on how to be an effective staff or
volunteer member of a winning progressive campaign.
· Candidate track: This is for people who have made the decision to run
for office.
Varying cost. To
register.
Opportunities
Commentaries
that have addressed major issues
Obtain
a free ‘Corporations Are Not People’ bumper sticker.
Petitions
Tell your
congress members to support a reconciliation measure.
Tell House Speaker
Pelosi to include a public option in the reconciliation measure.
Tell
the Department of Energy to maintain the moratorium on shipping nuclear waste
to Hanford.
Tell
President Obama to refuse to recognize Sudan’s election as free and fair.
Communication
to Our Members
Is There Enough Time to
Pass Health Care Reform?
The Congressional Budget Office
evaluation of the fiscal effects of health care reform was expected on Monday,
but wasn’t reported until Thursday morning.
Fortunately
it was favorable. For
more. But the delay in reporting may
not leave enough time to pass a reconciliation measure before the Congressional
recess is scheduled to begin the week after next. President
Obama could ask for delaying the recess or call for a special session. But there is apparently no attempt to do
either of these.
I don’t understand why President Obama
wants to go to Indonesia at this time, when his influence on congressional
members who may vote against a reconciliation measure is so important.
Commentaries
From Our Members
Ray McBain: Can
Reconciliation Improve the Senate Bill?
OK, so here's the question: What are the chances the reconciliation
process will succeed in amending the senate bill to something more agreeable?
(And what changes can be made?) Ray McBain
Cindi Laws: Remove Marijuana Penalties
Hi Dave, I am working on
I-1068, the initiative to take away the civil and criminal penalties on
marijuana. It would be wonderful if you could endorse this. We picked up
several LD endorsements yesterday at the caucuses, but the most important thing
is to get endorsements so that orgs with newsletters and email blasts can
notify folks that this initiative is out on the streets and worthy of signing.
As you know, there were a plethora of great legislators who sponsored bills to
legalize, decriminalize, and/or fix our 12-year old (and weak) medical
marijuana situation.
Read I-1068
Ballot Title Statement of Subject: Initiative Measure No. 1068
concerns marijuana.
Concise Description: This measure would remove state civil and criminal
penalties for persons eighteen years or older who cultivate, possess,
transport, sell, or use marijuana. Restrictions and penalties for persons under
eighteen would be retained. Should this measure be enacted into law? Yes [ ] No
[ ]
Ballot Measure Summary This measure would remove state civil and criminal
penalties for persons eighteen years or older who cultivate, possess,
transport, sell, or use marijuana. Marijuana would no longer be defined as a
“controlled substance.” Civil and criminal penalties relating to drug
paraphernalia and provisions authorizing seizure or forfeiture of property
would not apply to marijuana-related offenses committed by persons eighteen
years or older. The measure would retain current restrictions and penalties
applicable to persons under eighteen. Cindi Laws
I endorse Initiative
1068. Dave Thomas
Liberals
and Democrats
Health Care Reform
Contrary
to Republican claims, most
people support health care reform, as a moral imperitive. Many groups also
support health care reform. Michael
Moore disparages the health care reform bills, but says we must support them. Contrary to Republican claims, Senator Harry Byrd has endorsed using
reconciliation procedures. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is using various arguments
to persuade Democratic representatives to support a reconciliation measure,
including some who opposed it based upon the abortion issue. For
more. For
more.
MoveOn
is raising money to support primary challengers to house members who vote
against a reconciliation measure. SEIU
is also promising to support
primary challengers. For
more. This is a role that Organizing
for America would have played if it had been kept independent of the Democratic
Party. Like to vote for the house health
care reform measure, we
won’t be sure whether the house will support the reconciliation measure
until it happens or doesn’t.
Reconciliation
votes await Congressional Budget Office report, still not available on Tuesday. For
more.
Adam
Green of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee lists 51
senators who will vote for a reconciliation measure which includes a public
option. Charles Chamberlain of
Democracy for America sent an email that on Friday, Senate Majority Whip Dick
Durbin announced that “the Senate will support and pass whatever the House
includes in a reconciliation bill -- even if it includes the choice of a public
health insurance option.
This
gives Speaker Nancy Pelosi a historic opportunity to take the reins back on
behalf of the House of Representatives and the majority of Americans who want a
public option. It's up to us to make sure Speaker Pelosi doesn't kill the
public option because she's afraid to act. She needs to know that we'll be
there to have her back. We'll whip Congress to pass the bill and help every
step of the way to get the majority votes we'll need to win. Sign the petition
right now and we'll deliver each signature to her office at the end of the
day on Monday. And then again on Tuesday. And again on Wednesday. We'll deliver
the new signatures every day until she gets the job done.
The fate
of the public option is in Speaker Nancy Pelosi's hands. It's up to us to make
sure she doesn't kill the most popular piece of reform.”
President
Obama has included money
in his budget for community health care centers that offer primary care,
dental care, mental health care and low cost prescription drugs and for
training of primary care providers.
These community health care centers replace expensive emergency room
visits without funding private health care insurers.
Rising
private health care insurer costs passed on to workers reduce their wages.
Job Creation
Democrats
continue to consider job
creating measures that Republicans will have difficulty opposing without
appearing to be against job creation. For
more.
Regulating Wall Street
After health care reform is passed, the Obama
Administration will belatedly focus
upon regulating large financial corporations and upon campaign finance reform.
Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders
has asked President Obama to recruit Federal Reserve members who will represent
Main Street instead of Wall Street Interests. They should support:
1. Prohibiting usurious interest rates and fees. Right now, the Federal Reserve has the authority to
ban unfair and deceptive financial products. This can and should include a
prohibition on usurious credit card interest rates and fees. Millions of
American consumers and small businesses are paying interest rates as high as 35
percent on their credit cards. At the same time, financial institutions are
able to borrow money from the Federal Reserve with virtually no interest at
all. This is extremely unfair. We hope that you will pick nominees for these
positions who will do everything within their authority to end the outrageously
high interest rates that Americans are currently forced to pay.
2. Increasing lending to small businesses to create jobs.
The Federal Reserve has the responsibility
to conduct monetary policy in a manner that leads to full employment. The
Federal Reserve can and should use this authority to provide direct loans to
credit worthy small businesses at affordable interest rates and to provide
community banks with the financing they need to offer affordable small business
loans. We hope that your nominees to the Federal Reserve are committed to fulfilling
the Fed's full employment mandate.
3. Reducing the size and risk-taking of large financial
institutions so that they are no longer too-big-to-fail. The Federal Reserve has the authority and the
responsibility to protect the safety and soundness of financial institutions
and to guard against systemic risk in financial markets. We hope the nominees
you choose for the Federal Reserve share the views of Paul Volker and other
experts who believe that we need to "keep [banks] small, so that any failure
won't have systematic importance."
4. Increasing transparency at the Federal Reserve. It is important that whoever is nominated to the
Federal Reserve is committed to making the central bank more transparent. Since
the start of the financial crisis, the Federal Reserve has provided over $2
trillion in virtually zero interest loans to the financial sector and large
corporations, but has not disclosed the names of the recipients or the exact
terms of this assistance. That is unacceptable. We need people at the central
bank who understand that this money does not belong to the Federal Reserve. It
belongs to the American people, and the American people have the right to know
how that money is being spent.
5. Lowering the foreclosure rate. The foreclosure rate is still the highest on record,
turning the American dream of homeownership into the nightmare of foreclosure
for too many American families. The Federal Reserve has the ability to reduce
the foreclosure rate and keep people in their homes. We hope your nominees will
be committed to supporting policies at the central bank that will significantly
reduce the number of foreclosures in this country.
6.
Prohibiting excessive
compensation packages at financial institutions. Last year, big banks and Wall Street firms that are
now regulated by the Federal Reserve provided tens of billions in bonuses to
CEOs and other executives. This is an insult to the American people who bailed
them out and who continue to suffer economically as a result of their greed and
recklessness. We need a Federal Reserve committed to ending the "heads
banks win; tails taxpayers lose" compensation system. Rather, we should be
moving toward a system that discourages compensation practices that reward
excessive risk taking.
Senator
Christopher Dodd is introducing a financial regulation bill that empowers
the Federal Reserve, but also places limits on its ability to avoid
financial regulation.
Fiscal Responsibility
Our
United Steel Workers notes that our super
wealthy are thriving, the wealth of the top 400 having doubled since
President Bush’s 2005 tax cuts, such that they have more wealth than 155
million Main Street Americans. Our
super wealthy should be taxed to raise revenue to lower our deficits and fund
job stimulation. Unfortunately, there
is no indication that the Obama Administration will do this, leaving them open
to charges of fiscal irresponsibility.
The Coffee Party
Movement
The newly
created Coffee Party Movement is a Liberal counterpart to the Tea Party
Movement. Like the latter, its
participants want our government to represent Main Street America and be
fiscally responsible. The Coffee Party movement is organizing to represent
citizens who believe in government solutions for national problems, but
aren't necessarily enthralled with Democratic leadership. More from a Coffee Party
website. Members are not against the
government. They
are for Democracy and opposed to Corporatocracy. For more. For more.
The
Coffee Party may become what Organizing for America could have become if it had
remained independent of the Democratic Party.
It may attempt to persuade Democrats to support Main Street jobs and
fiscal responsibility instead of Wall Street interests and large deficits. It may attempt to persuade President Obama to
attempt ‘change we can believe in’ instead of forsaking such change in attempts
to compromise with Wall Street interests.
Paul Loeb: Democrats Must Stimulate Youth Vote
If the Democrats don't get the youth vote, they're
toast. That happened in Virginia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts, where young
Obama voters stayed home in droves. It's an ugly conceivable future portended
by a new
Harvard poll that shows forty-one
percent of young Republicans planning on voting in November, compared to 35
percent of young Democrats and 13 percent of independents. A recent
Pew poll showed a similarly
disturbing pattern: Young voters still prefer the Democrats, but their margin
is slipping and their enthusiasm level is worse.
Some reasons and some solutions:
· The Democrats need to tackle youth joblessness.
They've passed important changes in student financial aid, like
income-contingent loan repayment. Most students and recent students don't know
about them, and they need to. But with youth unemployment at near-record
levels, it's understandable that young men and women would feel angry and
frustrated. If the Democrats want to keep this generation, they need to pass
major jobs bills, probably through reconciliation, since the Republicans seem
to be only too eager to leave young voters demoralized and unemployed. It would
be nice if the Obama administration were leading on this more strongly, but
since they aren't pressing strongly enough, the push to make jobs the top
priority has to come from the grassroots. This happened in the 1930s under
Roosevelt. Seventy-five years later, I can visit a Works Progress
Administration-created library or go for a run on a Works Progress
Administration-created boardwalk, and reap the benefits of programs that also
gave millions of people desperately needed jobs. We need to make equivalent
investments now, targeted at those who need jobs the most.
· Dashed hopes also matter. Politics may be the art of
compromise, but from health care to Guantanamo to Afghanistan and the bank
bailouts, the compromises of the Obama administration have added up to belie
the image of a candidacy of change. To reverse this trend, the administration
needs to stand up more strongly on all the issues that matter, and with less
apology and deference toward those who have no interest in solutions.
· But we need more than specific programs or even
Presidential initiatives. We need to give people a renewed sense of why
involvement matters. Absent a sense of how social change has occurred in the
past and can again, it's tempting to give up when you've barely begun, all the
more in an instant attention and instant gratification culture. Given that few
of us know the stories of how previous citizen activists persisted and prevailed,
it's understandable that many who were acting so passionately just over a year
ago feel adrift and unable to make an impact. That's true of more experienced
activists, but it's particularly true of those for whom the Obama campaign was
first step into trying to create a more humane common future. Those of us
who've been involved longer (including veteran youth activists) need to offer
this perspective, to help those more recently involved avoid cynical
resignation and withdrawal.
· We need these lapsed activists and particularly lapsed
youth activists, because they're the ones who will reach out to their peers.
During the 2008 election, you could go anywhere in battleground states and find
efforts to engage young voters. In the Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts
elections, the campaigns largely ignored them and the parallel independent
efforts that might have filled the gap didn't exist. Without being reached by
these more personal approaches, young voters were left more isolated, more
readily manipulated by 30-second ads, and more likely to simply stay home. As I
explore in my Soul
of a Citizen book, change works
best when people approach those they already know, within familiar contexts.
And when campaigns, movements, and their supporters reach out in ways that
offer a chance for genuine dialogue. Some of this can be through social
media--we need the texting, Facebooking, and other networking that helped the
Obama campaign bloom. But these approaches work best when complemented by more
visible public actions and more direct personal dialogue. If we're going to
enlist those who once acted and speak to their legitimate discontents, we're
going to need to recreate this one-on-one reach, and begin to recreate it now,
not just in the last two weeks of the campaigns.
As the recent surveys imply, the stakes in this are
huge--not just for now or for November, but for the ongoing allegiance and
participation levels of a generation. Whether citizen activists can help the
Obama administration and the Democrats reengage those who carried them to
victory in 08 will shape American politics not just in the coming year, but for
decades to come. The Obama administration can play a critical role in demanding
action on issues that affect young voters' lives. The Congress can use all
available options, including Reconciliation, to pass them. But it's up to the
rest of us to offer the examples of connection, context, and continued
commitment. Paul Loeb
Here’s the Beef
Hispanic
voters are pressuring President Obama to act on immigration reform.
Federal judge allows torture suit against former Bush Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
State and
Local
Featured Advocacy Group
------------------------------------ InspireSeattle ------------------------------------
InspireSeattle’s Vision is to create connection throughout our community and
better community through activism.
InspireSeattle's
Mission is to provide a fun, supportive
gathering for people who care deeply about our community, our country and our
planet. We embrace progressive policies that improve our society and protect
our environment.
InspireSeattle's Primary Objectives are:
·
Building
community
·
Providing
education
·
Inspiring
activism
·
And having fun!
InspireSeattle social
events are informal potlucks held at member's homes. These events are fun
educational forums featuring local experts speaking on key issues of our
times. InspireSeattle's goal is to provide a lively, fun as well as informative
discussion on current issues. We are not trying to obtain total agreement on
topics discussed in our meetings, but rather to educate members as to different
viewpoints. In building our local Progressive community through grassroots
efforts like ours, we believe it is important to provide people with
educational opportunities to understand different aspects of current issues as
well as a fun, friendly environment in which to discuss these. Our guest
speakers are encouraged to share their insights and thus to lobby for the
support of InspireSeattle members towards their goals.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Barbara Boxer Supports Corrupt Patty Murray
Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer (referring to Patty
Murray) says, “With America just beginning to recover from economic turmoil and
critical health care reforms on the line, it's critical that we keep leaders in
the Senate who are committed to making the changes we need -- no matter how
many special interests stand up over and over again for the status quo and no
matter how vicious the attacks.”
Barbara Boxer ignores Patty Murray’s vote against
cancelling the unneeded F-22, an act of fiscal irresponsibility geared solely
to Patty Murray’s re-election. In
addition, Patty Murray has frequently used earmarks to benefit her campaign
contributors.
Here’s the Beef
Adam
Smith and Brian Baird have not decided whether to support health care reform. Brian Baird voted against it before. Adam Smith voted for it. For
more.
Nation
and World
Value of Dollar and Cost of Oil
Greece
has large deficits and to a lesser extent, so do Spain, Portugal and
Italy. Reacting to this, the value of
the euro has fallen relative to the dollar.
In spite of the increased value of the dollar, the price of oil is now
about $8 $70 a barrel. Now that other
European countries may assist Greece and other countries to reduce their
deficits, the value of the dollar may fall again. If so, we can expect oil prices to
increase.
A
fall in the value of the dollar assists our trade balance and job creation by
increasing exports and decreasing imports.
The associated increase in the cost of oil has the benefit of
discouraging its use and the negative effect of giving money to foreign oil
providers which would otherwise create American demand for jobs. For more.
Human Development Approach to Afghan
Village Development
Beginning in the 1970s, the Institute of Cultural Affairs conducted
hundreds of human development projects in Indian, Kenya, the Philippines and
dozens of other countries. I
participated in some of these including 22 that I managed in the
Philippines. The ones that I managed
consisted of 6 meetings in three days in rural villages or urban
neighborhoods. The six meetings were
prefaced with noting that while humans are like other animals in many ways, we
differ in having more imagination, including the ability to have visions of a
better life and better community. So we
would be acting in a very human way.
During the first four meetings, the villagers:
· Shared their vision for their community (if they
left for three years and came back to find it perfect, what would they want to
continue and what changed?)
· Identified obstacles to this vision (for example, lack
of constructive leadership and cooperation, knowledge, and capital)
· Created strategies for overcoming the obstacles
· As tactics, created teams to plan and
implement small projects to gain experience in realizing their vision through
using the strategies to overcome the obstacles.
Many of these projects were livelihood projects, such as raising
livestock, beginning a sewing business, starting a restaurant). Others were creation of such public services
as a health clinic, school or sanitation system. Still others oriented to maintaining their
cultural identity as a unified community.
During these first four meetings, the mood began with excitement about
the vision, gloom about the obstacles and then increasing optimism about the
strategies and tactics. The fifth
meeting provided training in leadership and cooperation and in planning and
implementing of livelihood projects, including market analysis, finding expertise
and creating capital. The sixth meeting
provided participants a graduation certificate, reflection on their work and celebration
of it.
I can imagine a similar approach being used in Afghan villages to
enable the villagers to begin developing their villages. Although we could assist the villagers with
expertise and capital, we should avoid making them dependent upon us. If the desire to make projects successful
leads to taking responsibility for their success, the Afghans will reduce their
efforts and ability to conduct their own projects. When the outsiders leave, the projects will
collapse. The goal is make them self
sufficiently able to continue their development with little outside assistance,
which requires that outsiders limit their assistance.
Helping Israel In Spite of Itself
Israeli’s democracy gives great power to religious extremists who
promote increasing numbers of Jewish settlements in Palestine, in spite of
their illegality under international law and in spite of their being the
largest obstacle for peaceful resolution of the Israeli - Palestinian
conflict. Our U.S. should eliminate all
aid to Israel until it abandons the settlement.
We should seek U.N. peacekeepers to guard both sides of the 1967 border
to prevent attacks across the border. We
should also demand that international nuclear non-proliferation inspectors
search for Israeli nuclear arms and destroy any that are found. With these steps, we can guarantee that both
Israel and Palestine can continue as states at peace with each other.
Perhaps
Palestine should declare itself a state and seek backing from other countries.
Here’s the Beef
China
is assembling an Asian equivalent of the IMF.
Our
Liberal Spirit
When the Going Gets Tough, What Then?
At one of several social
gatherings that John Burbank (Executive Director of the Economic Opportunity
Council) held for Dean Baker to describe his views concerning our economic
collapse and needed responses, Alan Durning (Executive Director of Sightline)
asked Dean Baker whether the collapse motivates people to give up and do
nothing beyond complaining. Dean Baker didn’t
respond, perhaps because it is more a political science question than an
economics one. I responded that while
some people do nothing beyond complaining, others work actively for
reform.
We can see this in our
present situation. The Tea Party
Conservatives primarily complain about the way Wall Street is favored over Main
Street and about fiscal irresponsibility.
But others, who may be creating the Liberal Coffee Party, intend to work
actively for reform which favors Main Street and fiscal responsibility.
Those who supported Barack
Obama during his election campaign and have been formed into Organizing for
America placed under the control of the Democratic Party might realize that
they have been neutralized. They have
not and can not pressure Inconsistently Liberal Democrats to support change we
can believe in. To become a force for
reform, they should consider joining the Coffee Party.
The Coffee Party might well
adopt the same
Netroots strategy that was encouraged by the Barack Obama election
campaign. This enabled his supporters to
organize horizontally and from the bottom up instead of being rigidly
controlled from the top down. Such
organizing should have occurred earlier, but it should occur now on the
assumption that perhaps it is not too late.
Only such action can lead to increased reforms to provide us more
freedoms and opportunities.
Recommended Books – See our list of books for liberals
Joseph E. Stiglitz, 2010, Freefall. America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy
Joe Stiglitz, James
Galbraith, Robert Kuttner and Dean Baker largely agree about how our housing
and credit bubbles have occurred and collapsed and about what our response
should be to alleviate the collapse and prevent future bubbles. My recommendations agree with theirs because
I have made them based upon theirs.
However they focus upon preventing Wall Street caused bubbles and
helping create Main Street jobs. They do
not give much attention to raising revenue and eliminating waste to reduce
deficits. I believe such fiscally
responsible measures must also be implemented.
Joe Stiglitz notes that many
contributors to our bubbles, including both Republicans and Democrats can be
blamed:
·
Fraudulent
housing mortgages resulting from loan originators, appraisers, bank lending
officers
·
Securitization
·
Naïveté of those
buying securities
·
Rating agencies
·
Deregulation and
the free market assumptions supporting deregulation
·
Lack of
preventive action by our Federal Reserve
·
Low interest
rates
·
Bailouts of ‘too
big to fail’ financial corporations
·
Political clout
of Wall Street speculators.
Joe Stiglitz suggests
different responses our economic collapse should have been made to prevent Wall
Street interest from continuing their speculation:
·
‘Too big to fail’
financial corporations should have been treated differently. Instead of simply bailing them out, they
should have been treated as other bankrupt companies are, their shareholders
wiped out and their bondholders assuming ownership with no guarantee that they
would be bailed out and thus no moral hazard of again being allowed to engage
in speculative activities with out risk to them.
·
To discourage
Wall Street speculation by large financial companies, financial transaction
taxes should have been levied, margin requirements increased, retained
ownership of securities required, and hedging restricted to circumstances where
a loss would occur without the hedging.
·
Money that was
directed to bailing out ‘too large to fail’ financial companies should have
been directed to existing or newly created smaller banks and credit unions
which make appropriate loans to businesses and consumers.
·
Financial
companies which threaten to foreclose mortgages that are larger than the value
of mortgaged houses should have been forced to readjust these mortgages such
that the house owners could afford to stay in the houses as owners or at least
as renters.
All of these measures and
restricting the lobbying activities of Wall Street speculators would have been
easier if done immediately after the housing-credit bubble collapse, while the
collapse and the role of Wall Street speculators occupied our attention. Joe Stiglitz notes that due to a lack of
vision concerning the economy we need, our Obama Administration did not
implement these measures. We must change
from a Borrow, Consume and Speculate
mindset and practices to an Earn,
Conserve and Invest mindset and practices.
By not taking a clear stand in favor of Main Street instead of Wall
Street, our Obama Administration opened itself to criticism by both Tea Party
Conservatives and Liberals.
Joe Stiglitz and the others
noted above focused upon assisting the recovery of Main Street jobs through
Keynesian provision of money to state governments, infrastructure investments
and individuals who would spend it to create demand for jobs, even if this
causes increased deficits, at least temporarily. In proposing a financial transaction tax, the
goal is to reduce speculation. Raising
money to lower the deficit is not mentioned.
Perhaps Joe Stiglitz
considers increasing revenue and reducing wasteful spending to lower deficits
as primarily political instead of economic.
For whatever reason, his and Barack Obama’s failure to address reducing
the federal deficit, leaves them open to charges of fiscal
irresponsibility. Unless Wall Street
speculators and other high income people are taxed in produce revenue to lower
deficits, both Tea Party Conservatives and Liberals will rightfully criticize
the Obama Administration for fiscal irresponsibility.
It is more difficult to
implement these proposals now, but maybe not impossible to implement at least
some of them. Unfortunately, our Obama
Administration still seems to have no clear vision of a needed future economy
and is not clearly adopting these proposals.