Join Change Nation RSS Feed http://www.joinchangenation.org/ Join Change Nation Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:20:05 -0500 ContentFeeder 2.0 http://www.joinchangenation.org//img/logo.gif Join Change Nation http://www.joinchangenation.org/ Morning Roundup From @changenation February 22 blog/morning-roundup-from-changenation-february-22

Consumer Message to Honda and Hyundai :
Latinos Stand By Your Cars and Now They Must Stand By Latinos
 
Rallies to be held at Dealerships in Key American Cities
 
Foreign auto makers know a good customer when they see one. In 2010, seven out of 10 new vehicles bought by Latinos were Asian brands. As the Latino share of the population goes up each year, so does the communities share of the auto-buying market.
 
Honda, Hyundai and foreign auto makers want Latino customers but they are turning a blind eye to injustices against Latinos and immigrants in Alabama, the state where some of their vehicles are made. Alabama’s HB 56 is a racist law that legitimizes racial profiling, harms workers and the economy, and terrorizes communities of color, citizens and non-citizens alike.
 
Two foreign auto executives were charged for not carrying the required “papers” under HB 56.
 
Enough! Community members today are telling dealership managers that ALABAMA CARMAKERS MUST BREAK THEIR SILENCE AND PUSH FOR REPEAL OF HB 56.
 
 
The Worse the Economy Gets, the Longer People Live: Peter Orszag
From Peter Orszag at Bloomberg
A weak labor market, like the one we’ve experienced since the financial crisis in 2008, imposes enormous stress on people. Given the added anxiety created by a weak economy, you might think life expectancy would decline. Oddly, though, during recessions, exactly the opposite tends to happen: Life expectancy rises. It’s happening again now. The age-adjusted death rate in the U.S. declined by 2 percent from 2007 to 2010, according to preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As a result, projected life expectancy at birth rose to 78.7 years in 2010 from 77.9 years in 2007, an increase of 0.8 year. In contrast, from 2004 to 2007, when the economy was much stronger, life expectancy rose by only 0.4 year. Life expectancy appears to have risen more in the states with relatively large increases in unemployment. In Michigan and Illinois, for example, where joblessness rose much more than in North Dakota or Iowa, age-adjusted death rates have had a steeper decline since 2007. (In the states with the smallest increase in unemployment, the death rates have perversely risen.)
These cross-state data are consistent with historical patterns that economists Douglas Miller, Marianne Page, Ann Stevens and Mateusz Filipski have found. Their research shows that a one-percentage-point increase in a state’s unemployment rate is associated with a 0.5 percent reduction in the state’s mortality rate.


Is Conservative Philanthropy Ignoring the Poor?
From William Schambra at Philanthropy.com
Mitt Romney announces that he is “not concerned about the very poor.” Newt Gingrich calls for drafting low-income students to work as janitors. Meanwhile, the other candidates for the Republican presidential nomination have little at all to say about the poor, beyond demands to cut federal programs that focus on their needs. All this confirms one of the oldest stereotypes in American politics: that conservatives are uncaring, hardhearted skinflints, unworthy to govern a people known for charity and compassion. Conservative philanthropy once helped dispel that stereotype by developing thoughtful private approaches to poverty. Unhappily, it now simply reinforces unfavorable impressions by focusing on short-term political advocacy rather than long-term civic problem solving.

 
Europe’s shortsighted response to a worsening fiscal reality
From Gordon Brown at the Washington Post
Gordon Brown was prime minister of Great Britain from 2007 to 2010, following 10 years as chancellor of the exchequer. Talleyrand said of the Bourbon dynasty that ruled France both before and after that country’s revolution: “They have learned nothing and have forgotten nothing.” Today, with the same shortsightedness, Europe’s leaders stick unblinkingly to policies that the whole world can see have already failed. Having learned nothing and forgotten nothing, they have just announced yet another version of a seemingly never-ending succession of Greek rescue plans that they must surely know will not work.

 

]]> Join Change Nation Morning Roundup From @changenation February 21 blog/morning-roundup-from-changenation-february-21

For boomers, it's a new era of 'work til you drop'
From the Associated Press
When Paula Symons joined the U.S. workforce in 1972, typewriters in her office clacked nonstop, people answered the telephones and the hot new technology revolutionizing communication was the fax machine. Symons, fresh out of college, entered this brave new world thinking she'd do pretty much what her parents' generation did: Work for just one or two companies over about 45 years before bidding farewell to co-workers at a retirement party and heading off into her sunset years with a pension.
 
Forty years into that run, the 60-year-old communications specialist for a Wisconsin-based insurance company has worked more than a half-dozen jobs. She's been laid off, downsized and seen the pension disappear with only a few thousand dollars accrued when it was frozen.

  
Why Obama Will Embrace the 99 Percent
From Nate Silver of the New York Times
The last time I considered Barack Obama’s re-election chances in this magazine, in mid-November, things were looking pretty bleak for the president. The statistical model I used measured three key factors — a president’s approval rating, economic growth and the ideological orientation of his opponent — and taken together, they showed that Obama had become a slight underdog to win re-election.

 
 
With election looming, White House, GOP tiptoe towards corporate tax overhaul
From The Hill
Corporate tax reform is creeping back into the picture, although experts predict the election will chase the issue off the agenda this year. Congressional Republicans and the White House are flirting with plans to overhaul the corporate tax system. But any perceived progress is expected to stall out despite a push from business groups to lower the 35 percent corporate tax rate, the highest among industrialized nations.

 
 
Which Candidate is Most Charitable?
From the Washington Post
"President Obama and his wife, Michelle, despite having the second-lowest income of the four candidate/spouse combos, gave the highest percentage of their $1.8 million income to charity in 2010. He and Michelle gave 14.2% of their AGI, while the Romneys gave 13.8%." "Santorum and Newt Gingrich, by comparison, gave very little of their income to charity. Gingrich and his wife, Callista, gave 2.6% of their $3.2 million income in 2010. Santorum and wife Karen, who made the least in 2010 (less than $1 million), also gave the lowest percentage of their income to charity, at 1.8%."

 
]]> Join Change Nation Morning Roundup from @ChangeNation February 17 blog/morning-roundup-from-changenation-february-17

Story of the Day:
Unemployment Claims Fall
From Bloomberg:
Americans filed the fewest claims for jobless benefits since 2008, surprising forecasters and signaling that an improving labor market will give the world's largest economy a boost.
 
MSNBC drops Pat Buchanan
From POLITICO:
Longtime political analyst Pat Buchanan is being dropped by MSNBC as a result of the controversy surrounding his book, “Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025?”
“After 10 years, we have decided to part ways with Pat Buchanan. We wish him well,” read a statement from the network, according to the AP.
 
The War on Wyden
For daring to work on Medicare reform with Republican Paul Ryan, the Democratic senator from Oregon is lambasted by keepers of the liberal flame.
From the Wall Street Journal:
Mitt Romney has had a tough week, Newt Gingrich a tough month, Barack Obama a tough three years. But hey, they could be Ron Wyden. Ticked off by Washington's failure to tackle big problems? Spare a moment for Oregon's senior senator. Mr. Wyden is the Democrat who in December had the audacity to team up with House Republican Paul Ryan on a proposal to reform and strengthen Medicare—the entitlement that is pushing the country, and seniors, off a cliff. As bipartisan exercises go, this was big, thoughtful, promising. It was also a complete anathema to a Democratic establishment that is ideologically opposed to change, and cynically intent on using Mediscare to beat Republicans in 2012. Mr. Wyden, as a result, is taking a beating from his own. "Ron Wyden, Useful Idiot," railed New York Times columnist Paul Krugman. "Is Ron Wyden trying to get Mitt Romney elected?" fumed the Nation magazine. Ron Zerban, a Democrat running for Mr. Ryan's seat, accused Mr. Wyden of giving the GOP cover and proclaimed him no longer a "Democrat."
 
Poll Finds Republicans in Deep Trouble
From Democracy Corps:
A new Democracy Corps (D) survey finds the Republican brand "is in a state of collapse -- over 50 percent of voters give the Republican Party a cool, negative rating. The presidential race and the congressional battles are interacting with each other to drive down their lead candidate, the party, and perceptions of the congressional Republicans." Meanwhile, Mitt Romney "may be on the edge of political death. The shift against him is one of the biggest in the polls and he now competes with Republicans in Congress for unpopularity. In the summer of 1996, Bob Dole essentially was disqualified in voters' eyes and never really recovered his footing." Most interesting: Voters who gave Democrats their victories in 2006 and 2008 "have returned in a big way" led by "a resurgence and re-engagement of unmarried women."
 
]]> Join Change Nation Obama’s Budget Focused on Deficits, Hazy on the Poor: blog/obamas-budget-focused-on-deficits-hazy-on-the-poor Where is the blueprint for the 46 million people in poverty?  
Earlier this week, President Obama released his budget proposal for 2013. Much of the coverage has focused on deficit reduction. A CNN article critiqued the budget for doing too “little to reform the entitlement programs that pose the biggest long-term threat to the federal budget.” If even the progressive Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says that the federal debt is “the crucial fiscal goal for the decade ahead,” I’m inclined to believe the deficit hype. But the federal government is about much more than the debt it has racked up thanks to two wars, the Bush tax cuts and the worst recession in nearly a century.
 
The budget is actually a values document; it gives us a glimpse of the President’s vision for the country. My colleague Anton noted that the budget is focused on strengthening the middle class. In his “budget message,” President Obama says that the budget is built “around the idea that our country has always done best when everyone gets a fair shot.” To advance this vision of a fair shot, the budget proposal includes $350 billion for job creation and worker training, a range of spending cuts in other areas, and boosting tax revenues by eliminating the Bush tax cuts for people making more than $250,000.
 
With all the focus on the middle class, I feared that the President had lost sight of the poor. After all, research has shown that the government-funded safety net primarily benefits the middle class; due to the Social Security and Medicare benefits to all elderly, and a decades-long policy shift away from welfare for the poor. The White House though has a number of fact sheets on parts of the budget, including one on “giving a hand up to low-income families” (as well as others for Black and Latino families).
 
So it’s reassuring to know that there is something of a focus on the needs of the 46 million people living in poverty and the millions more living just above the poverty line. However, the fact sheet reads like a maintenance-list, preserving and extending a range of programs that already exist, like tax credits, unemployment insurance and affordable housing. The budget would fund a “Strategic Plan to End Homelessness,” though when the plan was announced homeless advocates were concerned that it was too “general in nature and lack[ed] action steps.” The budget also proposes some universal programs – like education reform and job creation – that would certainly benefit low-income people, but aren’t necessarily targeted to the particular challenges and barriers faced by people in poverty.
 
Sadly, the details of what little the budget has to say about how government can help poor people may not matter much. Given the political gridlock in Washington – last year’s budget debate almost led to a government shut down – many Washington-types predict that Congress won’t even pass a budget, much less pass anything resembling the President’s proposal. Still, if our government is going to set a clear goal of reducing the deficit and organize much of the budget debate around that; then those of us who advocate for poor people and communities of color should demand the same intentionality around combating poverty.
]]> Join Change Nation The Real Social Security Crisis blog/the-real-social-security-crisis Salvatore Babones is an American sociologist at the University of Sydney.  His research takes a long-term perspective to understanding problems of inequality and development. This article was originally published here.
 
 President Barack Obama is ready to support “reforms” to “strengthen” Social Security, he declared in his State of the Union address. Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels thinks we need “repairs” to make Social Security more “affordable,” he said in the Republican Party’s official response.

Neither Obama nor Daniels got down to details. But it’s a good bet that their reforms and repairs to strengthen Social Security and make it more affordable won’t lead to higher retirement benefits for America’s senior citizens.

The average retired American receives just over $1,200 a month in Social Security benefits. And that’s after Social Security beneficiaries finally got a raise in January, for the first time in three years. A 3.6-percent boost is putting an extra $42.59 a month in the average retiree’s pocket.

The annual adjustment helps, but who wants to retire on $1,200 a month? It’s not much for a lifetime of work.

Benefits are too low to begin with, so incremental adjustments just aren’t enough. That’s because Social Security benefit payments are based on your top 35 years of wage income.
This system worked fine from the 1950s through the 1970s, when wages went up every year and well-paying, full-time jobs were easy to find. As a result, Social Security benefits more than kept pace with rising standards of living.

In the 30 years from 1950 to 1980, the average Social Security retirement benefit (adjusted for inflation) rose 4 percent per year.

Growth in the economy as a whole averaged 2.2 percent per year over the same period.
Since 1980, Social Security benefit growth has slowed. Between 1980 and 2010 the average retirement benefit grew just 1.1 percent per year (adjusted for inflation).

Social Security benefits didn’t keep up with growth in the economy as a whole, even though annual economic growth averaged only 1.7 percent.

Looking forward, things don’t look good for tomorrow’s retirees.

The threat isn’t that the so-called “Social Security Trust Fund” might go bankrupt. The Trust Fund is nothing more than an accounting gimmick.

Social Security taxes go straight into the U.S. Treasury and are used to pay the government’s daily expenses. The government makes an electronic accounting entry crediting the Trust Fund account for the money so taken.

When the government writes Social Security checks, it makes a reverse accounting entry that charges the Trust Fund account for the money paid out. There are no gold bars sitting in a vault set aside for Social Security.

Social Security won’t cost the government a cent for the next 27 years, after which it will have to be modestly subsidized. That’s hardly a crisis.

No, the problem is that tomorrow’s retirees will face lower and lower benefit levels because of the way benefits are calculated. An individual’s benefits are based on his or her employment history and the economy’s overall wage growth. Tomorrow’s retirees are in trouble on both counts.
First, jobs have been much less stable in recent decades. Spend a few years unemployed and you average in a few zeros. Spend a few years working part-time and you average in a few low-paid years.

Second, workers’ wages have been stagnant since the mid-1970s. People retiring in the next few years will have their benefits calculated using average wage growth over the period 1975-2010. Low wage growth means low benefits.

It may be difficult to face facts in an election year, but the fact is that Social Security retirement benefits are just too low. At a time when retirement savings are down and private pensions have all but disappeared, Social Security must be beefed up to compensate. That’s the reform we need to strengthen Social Security.

To increase benefits, the Social Security system needs more revenue, and the fairest way to raise money is to equalize the Social Security tax for all workers.

Individual wages over $110,100 a year are currently exempt from Social Security taxes. This cap should be removed. If it were, we could afford to increase benefits substantially.

If everyone pays in, everyone can retire with dignity.

Salvatore Babones]]> Join Change Nation Morning Roundup From @changenation February 16 blog/morning-roundup-from-changenation-february-16

Poor, White, and Republican
From George Packer of The New Yorker
F.D.R. called him “the forgotten man,” but that was long ago. By 1972, he was a member of the silent majority and had become a Democrat for Nixon (he wore a hard hat with an American-flag sticker). 1980 produced the Reagan Democrat (this time he came from Macomb County, Michigan, and was discovered by the pollster Stan Greenberg). By 1994 he had curdled into the Angry White Male (he elected the Gingrich Congress). In 2008, he was simply the working-class white—by then he was no longer forgotten, and no longer a Democrat of any kind; he was a member of the much-analyzed Republican base. The television godfather of the type, of course, is Archie Bunker, but you can also trace his lineage more darkly through the string of hard-bitten blue-collar movies that begins with “Joe” (Peter Boyle, 1970), goes on to “Falling Down” (Michael Douglas, 1993), “Gran Torino” (Clint Eastwood, 2008), and, in a rural context, “Winter’s Bone” (2010). He’s a descendant of the thirties Everyman played by Henry Fonda and Gary Cooper, except that in the intervening decades he lost his idealism and grew surly, if not violent, consumed with a hatred of hippies, immigrants, blacks, government, and, finally, himself.
 
 
The Odds Shift Towards Obama
From the New York Times
Nate Silver applies his statistical model for the presidential race -- which includes presidential approval, economic growth, and opponent's ideological orientation -- and finds that President Obama has improved his chances of reelection, from a "slight underdog" in November to now favored to win the popular vote against Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum. "In recent weeks, Obama has taken a more populist approach (just read the transcript of his State of the Union address). The strategy has induced more howls than usual from Republicans about 'class warfare,' but the White House has clearly studied the numbers. In the Republican primaries, Romney has had trouble winning the loyalty of working-class voters, especially in the Midwest."


Poll Finds Santorum With Small Lead in Michigan
From the Detroit News
A Detroit News poll in Michigan shows Rick Santorum leading Mitt Romney, 34% to 30%, followed by Newt Gingrich at 12% and Ron Paul 9%. Said pollster Richard Czuba: "Right now Michigan is not Mitt Romney's firewall. He's fighting for his political life in this state."

 
 
Rally hits Capitol in opposition to Brownback, Kobach initiatives
From LJ World
More than 300 people on Wednesday converged on the Statehouse to protest the policies of Gov. Sam Brownback, Secretary of State Kris Kobach and the influence of the American Legislative Exchange Council on the Kansas Legislature. “We want the governor to know he needs to put Kansans first,” said Tamara Werth, of Lawrence, one of the co-founders of Kansans United in Voice and Spirit, which organized the rally along with several other groups.
]]> Join Change Nation Obama’s Budget Focuses on Middle Class, Economic Recovery blog/obamas-budget-focuses-on-middle-class-economic-recovery This week, President Obama announced his $3.8 trillion budget proposal for the 2013 fiscal year. At 256 pages, the President’s proposal calls for $1.4 trillion in revenues for the highest income earners, as well as slashes the federal deficit by $4 trillion over the next 10 years.

The President’s budget proposal has three clear objectives: strengthening our middle class, protecting the economic recovery and responsibly reducing the deficit. Obama’s budget doesn’t privatize or eliminate social insurance programs like Social Security and Medicare. Instead, it seeks to maintain these programs by reducing waste and inefficiency and implementing cost-cutting measures. Moreover, smart investments in renewable energy and providing tax cuts for working Americans will help stimulate the economy as it starts to rebound.

Obama’s budget would cut approximately $1 trillion in discretionary spending. Most federal agencies would see their budget allotments fall from the previous year. The Transportation and Labor Departments would see their funding slashed by nearly 40% and the Education Department would see its funding decrease by nearly 52%. The Energy Department would be one of the few departments to see their budget increase, gaining 41% in discretionary spending.

Despite the clear objectives and the austerity measures in the President’s proposal, Republican lawmakers and big business lobbyists have (not surprisingly) derided the plan.  That’s because Obama’s budget would raise the top income tax rate from 35% to 39.6% -- what it was during the 90’s when the economy was doing exceptionally well.  Obstruction and criticism are sure to follow in the coming months. Hopefully, political allegiances and agendas can be set aside to do what is right and necessary for our country. Don’t hold your breath, though…

You can view the President Obama’s entire 2012 budget proposal here.
 
]]> Join Change Nation Which America do we live in? blog/which-america-do-we-live-in
These are the questions – though on a more local scale – explored in the short film series “Is This Alabama” by Hollywood director Chris Weitz. Over the course of four videos, men and women in Alabama talk about how HB 56, the state’s controversial immigration law, has impacted them.

I’m not from Alabama, I don’t have family in Alabama, and no one I know personally has been affected by this law. But I was raised to believe that this is a country of freedom and opportunity. For me, Alabama’s immigration law goes against everything I was raised to believe about this great nation. Not only does it threaten the state’s economic outlook – $10.8 billion and up to 140,000 jobs – but it also signals a regression to a time when fear and hate divided the state.

Children should not be afraid of going to school, parents should not be afraid of letting their children play outside, and foreigners shouldn’t be afraid to walk the streets in Alabama, or any other state.

Check out the videos mentioned at http://isthisalabama.org/
]]> Join Change Nation Morning Roundup From @changenation February 15 blog/morning-roundup-from-changenation-february-15

House-Senate talks said to yield agreement on renewing payroll tax cut, jobless benefits
From the Washington Post
And in a win for the Hispanic community, Republicans would drop a proposal to require that low-income workers who claim a refundable child tax credit be required to have a Social Security number. The proposal was aimed at blocking illegal immigrants from claiming the credit, but the idea created a firestorm among Hispanics who pointed out that many of the children affected by the cutoff are U.S. citizens.
 
 
Economic Growth Gives Lift to Obama in NYT/CBS Poll
From the New York Times
President Obama’s political standing is rising along with voters’ optimism that the economy is getting better, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll, a shift that coincides with continued Republican disquiet over the field of candidates seeking to replace him.
 
 
Latino Students Protest Romney's Visit to Arizona
From Fox News Latino
A group of young Hispanics protested the visit of Republican president hopeful Mitt Romney to Arizona because of his stance on immigration reform and the DREAM Act, a bill that would provide a path to legalization for undocumented students. "We're here because we're not going to let Romney attack the immigrant youth. We're very bothered and disappointed by his promise to veto the DREAM Act if it gets to the White House," Dulce Matuz, president of the Arizona Coalition for the DREAM Act, told Efe.


Occupy Our Homes Saves Former Civil Rights Activist Helen Bailey From Foreclosure
From Think Progress
Helen Bailey, the 78 year-old former civil rights activist who was threatened with foreclosure by J.P Morgan Chase while the company trumpeted its efforts to uphold Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy, will be able to remain in her home until she passes away after a successful campaign by Occupy Nashville: “I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders,” Bailey said. “I love my home and my community and I am so blessed to be able to stay here. I am thankful for the support of my neighbors and the nation.” The terms of the agreement from her mortgage-holder, JPMorgan Chase, are sealed, but previous settlement attempts involved a reverse mortgage that would let the new lender sell her home when she dies. Occupy Nashville took up Bailey’s cause last month and received national attention for their efforts. Bailey was seeking to refinance her mortgage with JP Morgan Chase which would have allowed her to remain in her home for free until she dies, but the bank initially refused.

A petition at Change.org collected over 80,000 signatures, and prominent civil rights activists like Cornel West and Gary Flowers, the Executive Director of the Black Leadership Forum voiced their support for Bailey as well.
]]> Join Change Nation Morning Roundup From @changenation February 14 blog/morning-roundup-from-changenation-february-14

Obama budget is preview of election battle
The president's plan, due out Monday, aims to cast him as a guardian of the middle class. Republicans say it's too light on deficit reduction.
From LA Times
President Obama's 2013 budget, scheduled for release Monday, offers a preview of the November election as both parties angle to refine the vision they hope to sell to voters. Obama's plan and the House Republicans' answer, due in the spring, are aimed as much at offering voters a choice as at promoting policies destined for enactment.


Alabama's Immigration Law Could Cost Billions Annually
Since a harsh immigration law took effect in September, thousands of immigrants have fled, triggering a potential economic decline that could erase at least 70,000 jobs
From Business Week
Alabama’s harsh immigration law has stirred controversy since it went into effect in September. The statute, which among other things requires police to question people they suspect of being in the U.S. illegally, has prompted thousands of immigrants to flee the state. The law’s backers believed out-of-work Alabamians would snap up the jobs those immigrants once held.
 
 
Republicans Shift Tactics on Payroll Tax Cut Extension
From Roll Call
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said she is concerned about decoupling a payroll tax cut proposal from an unemployment insurance extension and the Medicare doc fix. In a major tactical shift, House Republican leaders Monday said they would sign off on a payroll tax cut extension that is not paid for, marking an attempt to both pressure Democrats and get the issue behind them. Bruised from a months-long battle to pay for the $100 billion payroll tax holiday, Republicans are acknowledging that they would rather give in on a straight extension than fight on for spending cuts that Senate Democrats will not accept.

 
Romney Again Says Let Automakers Go Bankrupt
From Detroit News
Mitt Romney writes in a Detroit News op-ed that President Obama should have let automakers go into a "managed bankruptcy" instead of using a federal bailout with taxpayer money. "Managed bankruptcy may sound like a death knell. But in fact, it is a way for a troubled company to restructure itself rapidly, entering and leaving the courtroom sometimes in weeks or months instead of years, and then returning to profitable operation... By the spring of 2009, instead of the free market doing what it does best, we got a major taste of crony capitalism, Obama-style."
]]> Join Change Nation by Cindy Mottershead