Poverty

How to Get a Job By Shooting Up a Church

davidswanson — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:00:27 -0400

By David Swanson

Imagine being so angry that you couldn't find a job that you were able to decide, as a man in Tennessee just did, that the way to solve your problems was to attack liberals - the people who support (albeit ineffectively) workers' rights, union rights, and fair trade, who oppose NAFTA, oppose tax breaks for shipping jobs overseas, support investing in job creation at home rather than wars abroad, and want to tax corporations and the super-rich rather than small businesses and working people.

And imagine deciding that the way to attack the people who stand for everything that might help you is to go shoot up a bunch of men, women, and children. And then imagine telling those damn liberals: "You see, you were wrong at least about gun policies, because if angry desperate people who believe everything they hear on the radio weren't allowed to get mad and go buy guns I never could have shot up your children's play! And why are you showing a dumb play about poor kids, anyway? You never put on plays about people like me, potential billionaires down on their luck who've been threatened by Muslim terorists and mistreated by blacks and gays and women and liberals!"

And imagine the Associated Press report completely playing along with your delusion, and writing:

"Although individual Unitarian churches can vary dramatically in outlooks, most congregations retain a deep commitment to social justice, which has led many to embrace liberal stances on the ordination of women, civil rights and gay rights."

What if labor rights had been mentioned?

And then imagine that the Knoxville News Sentinel gives your heros credit for deranging your mind and filling you up with bizarrely misdirected rage:

"Inside the house, officers found 'Liberalism is a Mental Health Disorder' by radio talk show host Michael Savage, 'Let Freedom Ring' by talk show host Sean Hannity, and 'The O'Reilly Factor,' by television talk show host Bill O'Reilly."

And what if you were then given decades behind bars, without ever a word of thanks from your heros, to think about what in the world you might have been thinking? What would your advice end up being for others in the same sort of trouble you were in?

I like to think you'd eventually recommend selling your radio and television and spending some time talking to real people.

Speaking as a liberal who supports a sustainable full-employment economy with guaranteed education, income, and health care, I'm sorry that we have failed you and so many others so drastically, in fact failed so badly that you don't even have the slightest idea who we are. I suspect that if you knew us you would find us to have goals you approve of but to be grotesquely and despicably timid, hesitant, and easily compromised in how we go about trying to accomplish anything. And you'd be right.

We'll tell your story, for a week or so, both as an example of the effect of hatemongering propaganda and as an example of desperate economic stress and lack of community. But will we DO anything to improve those situations? I seriously doubt it. This is an election year, after all.

No Minor Crime

davidswanson — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 23:23:02 -0400

My friend Keith Murphy, host of the best radio show in the United States, The Urban Journal, also makes some great television, including this powerful film focusing on the struggles of young black people in Milwaukee, an industrial city that had seen numerous factory closings: No Minor Crime.

How "Conservatives" Pick Your Pocket

davidswanson — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:00:42 -0400

By David Swanson

"Jacked: How 'Conservatives' Are Picking Your Pocket (Whether You Voted for Them or Not)" is a short book by Nomi Prins that makes an excellent education for those remaining Americans who still do not understand that right-wing politicians take from those who work and give to those who live in luxury off the sweat of others.

At the end of World War II, corporations paid half the cost of the federal government. They now pay 7 percent, and many of them pay 0 percent. Unless you are very wealthy, you pick up the tab, and the tab has grown. The federal government now spends more than what it spends on everything else on the military alone, and that cost keeps rising.

So does the price of oil and gas, which is great for oil corporations, and maybe even for the chance our species has of surviving on earth, but not for your wallet. Americans are going more heavily into debt than ever, which is great for the credit card companies, banks, and blowhard politicians, but the most reckless debtor of all is the federal government, which makes things even worse for us.

Pensions are vanishing along with unions and jobs. Student loans are shrinking and college costs rising. Health care costs, too, are rising, while health insurance slips out of reach. Washington is still working hard to trash (or "privatize") Social Security and Medicare.

New Orleans still lies in ruins. Home insurance companies have still not paid up. Washington has still not stepped up. And Bush has neither apologized nor ceased making jokes about people's suffering.

Bush, on one of his Katrina-damage tours, remarked:

"An old lady walked up to me... and I said, 'How are you doing?' And she looked at me and she said, 'Not worth a darn.' And I said, 'Well, I don't blame you.' She said, 'I've been paying all my life for my insurance. Every time that bill came, I paid it... And, all of a sudden the storm hit, Mr. President, and it came time to collect, and they told me, no.' And she was plenty unhappy and she was looking for anybody she could be unhappy with, and I just happened to be the target."

Prins comments:

"No, Mr. President, you actually WERE someone she thought might be able to help her, a subtle difference that may have gone above your head."

The trouble is that it may have gone above some of his listeners' heads too. There are people who take it for granted that Bush can choose to destroy entire nations, but who accept at face value his claim that he has no power whatsoever to see that the victims of a hurricane are cared for. And it goes over even more heads that the two things are intimately related. We are killing and dying for the fossil fuels that lead to the destruction of global warming, and the financial cost of the killing and dying produces massive destruction in our economy. Meanwhile, we've allowed our government to empower loan sharks and insurance agents of all varieties to defraud us and defenestrate us from our homes.

Prins' advice is to write hand-written letters to your congress member's district office. Mine is to get this book read by any non-millionaires you know who believe "conservatism" to be something other than a cover for robbing the poor to enrich the wealthy. If enough people understood what we were doing, perhaps we could go to Washington with the message: "We've come to collect, and you don't just happen to be our target, and we won't take No for an answer."

Kucinich - Out of Iraq and Back to the American City

CactusPat — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 20:57:39 -0500

So who do want to be President?

Out of Iraq and Back to the American City By Dennis J. Kucinich, Democratic Candidate for President of the United States - 10th Annual Wall Street Project Conference - Sheraton New York & Towers, Monday, Jan. 8, 2007
We are losing our nation to a philosophy of war and destruction. It is time for policies of peace and construction. It is time for the philosophy of peace, nonviolence and economic justice. This was the philosophy of Dr. King, Gandhi, Jesus, Fredrick Douglas, A. Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin, Fannie Lou Hamer, Sojourner Truth, Cesar Chavez, and Jesse Jackson.

We are all united with the philosophy which birthed the New Deal, the New Frontier, the Great Society, the dreams of social and economic justice which could be called forth by those who were ready to stand up, to speak out, to march, to demand, to testify about the good news...

The world is interconnected. The world is interdependent. We are not just our brother and sisters keeper, on a deeper spiritual level we are our brothers and sisters. This is the meaning of the Golden Rule, Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. This is the meaning of Love Thy neighbor as thy self. This is why policies of unilateralism, first strike, and preemption are dead ends. This is why nuclear proliferation is a threat to every person on the planet. This is why the very idea that war should be an instrument of policy needs to be challenge. War is not inevitable. Peace is inevitable if we are prepared to work for it.

Dr. King understood this. In his speech in New York City nearly forty years ago, he created a synthesis of peace and civil rights. “Somehow this madness must cease,” Dr. King told those assembled at Riverside Church about the annihilation of the Vietnamese people and their nation. “I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are destroyed, whose culture is being subverted…. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world, as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as one who loves America, to the leaders of our nation: The great initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours too.”

That is why tomorrow I will present Congress with a plan to get out of Iraq. We must end the occupation, close the bases, and use the money that is there now to bring the troops home while we prepare Iraq for an international security force. I led the effort in the House of Representatives challenging the Bush Administration’s march toward war in Iraq. I organized 125 Democrats to vote against the war.

There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. But there are plenty of weapons of mass destruction here in the United States which need to be removed. Poverty is a weapon of mass destruction, homelessness is a weapon of mass destruction, joblessness is a weapon of mass destruction, poor health care is a weapon of mass destruction, theft of pensions, a weapon of mass destruction, hopelessness is a weapon of mass destruction.

Let’s deal with the WMD’s in our cities. It is time to get out of Iraq, which did not have weapons of mass destruction and into our American cities, which are loaded with weapons of mass destruction.

This then is a call for a politics of unity where human unity becomes an imperative. This is a call for a politics of economic justice, where wealth creation is available to everyone, where the government becomes an engine to create wealth for all, where it functions to equitably redistribute the wealth.

We know the challenges. The war in Iraq is the product of the same type of thinking which underlies racism. Us vs. them. The minute there is a THEY or a THEM it creates separation. Separation is the basis for discrimination. Separation is the basis for subjugation. Separation is the basis for insularity. Separation is the basis for conflict. Separation is the basis for war. Separation is the basis for the destruction of our environment. Separation is the basis for the destruction of the planet.

We are at a moment where our survival instinct causes us to declare the imperative of human unity. A unity of states is a superficial unity if it does not embrace policies which promote human unity, human equality, human striving, the practical aspirations of people.

There has been a massive redistribution of wealth in our society. Government has been turned into an engine to redistribute the wealth upwards. Our whole monetary system is based on debt creation for the masses and wealth creation for the few. War has become an engine of wealth for military contractors. Health care has become an engine of wealth for the pharmaceutical companies and the insurance companies. The tax system is used to accelerate wealth to the top. Our banking and credit systems accelerate wealth to the top. Our electric utilities, our gas companies, our oil companies accelerate wealth to the top. Our energy systems accelerate wealth to the top. Our transportation systems accelerate wealth to the top. Our information systems accelerate wealth to the top.

The concentration of wealth in our society has jeopardized our democracy. It has created a two class society. And in doing so jeopardizes the very institutions of wealth creation. Franklin Roosevelt recognized this in the creation of the New Deal which saved not only economic opportunities for the masses, but also saved capitalism itself.

There is an unlimited amount of wealth that can be created in our society. We need to teach our children wealth creation. But we need to challenge the fundamental assumptions that guide our society, assumptions such as “a certain amount of unemployment is necessary to the functioning of the economy.” or “let the market decide access to health care.” We need to perfect our union. This then is the perfect opportunity for us to perfect our union, to perfect the purpose of government, to perfect our mutual pledge to each other. It is time for a declaration of human economic rights of citizens of an urban society, and tie that declaration to legislation and use that legislation to create wealth and harmony and peace.

Langston Hughes wrote: “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.” We know that experience, we also know that we can teach people to create wealth if we can help them find a way to get access to wealth.

I am a product of the city. My parents never owned a home. I grew up in 21 different places by the time I was 17, including a few cars. I’ve learned about opportunities. I’ve learned that if you believe it you can conceive it. I’ve learned about pulling oneself up by bootstraps. I’ve also seen the cynicism which comes when you tell people to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and then you steal their shoes. I’ve seen people dreaming the dreams and stuck singing Sixteen Tons.

We are not going back to the days of Sixteen Tons.

So let it be said here:
We have a right to a job.
We have a right to a living wage.
We have a right to an education.
We have a right to health care.
We have a right to decent and affordable housing.
We have a right to a secure pension.
We have a right to air fit to breathe.
We have a right to water fit to drink.
We have a right to be free of the paralyzing fear of crime.
We have a right to be free of a government tapping our phones, opening our mail, checking out our library reading lists, snooping into our medical records, and our credit records.
We have a right to fair, open and verifiable elections where every vote counts and every vote is counted.
We have a right to peace.
We have a right to prosperity.

This means ending the war in Iraq.
This means bringing the money home to our cities.
This means a full employment economy.
This means good paying jobs.
This means a living wage.

This means a federal infrastructure bill to put millions to work rebuilding our schools, our bridges, our libraries, our universities our hospitals, our city halls, our recreation centers, our sidewalks, our street lights, our parks, our water systems, our sewer systems, our neighborhoods.
This means a more perfect union.
This means every child goes to a prekindergarten and every young person goes to a junior or a four year college.
This means universal health care.
This means a new housing initiative where everyone has access to affordable housing.
This means full protection of social security and no privatization.
This means protection of private pension funds.
This means giving workers access to the power of their pension funds to invest in job creation.
This means cleaner energy, greener energy.
This means programs for safer neighborhoods..
This means initiatives which bring people out of prison and into the mainstream of society.
This means a Department of Peace and nonviolence.

I don’t just talk the talk. I walk the walk.
The universal health care bill is called Conyers-Kucinich. It calls for a universal single payer not for profit health care system to lift everyone up. To give everyone access to health care.

I wrote the federal infrastructure bill.
I wrote the universal pre-kindergarten bill.
I wrote the bill for a Department of Peace and non-violence to make Dr. King’s dream of non- violence a reality. That bill will deal with the realities of violence in our society and take a path towards more peaceful relationships. It will help families who suffer from domestic violence, spousal abuse, child abuse; it will meet the challenge of violence in the schools, racial violence, violence against gays, police community conflicts, using the principles for which Dr., King lived. And it will create a context where a peaceful America can help to create a peaceful world. Imagine. Peace as an organizing principle. Prosperity as an organizing principle.

And when I am elected President of the United States, in my first day in office I will be ready to push. I will send to the congress a bill for universal single payer not for profit health care.
I will send to the congress legislation for creating millions of jobs through rebuilding America’s infrastructure, I will send congress legislation to create a summer jobs program.
I will send congress legislation to create affordable housing.
I will send congress a bill to establish a cabinet level Department of Peace and Non Violence.

I can do this because I have already written many of these bills. They are ready and so am I. I will move to restore the Constitution, restore habeas corpus, and repeal the Patriot Act. If you are ready, I am ready for a new America. And I am ready to unite this country in the cause of peace, justice and prosperity.

Our unity extends to all people everywhere. The Bible tells us to make peace with our brother because we are all one. We are told whatever we do for the least of our brothers and sisters, we do for the Lord, because we are all one in spirit. We are told that we have an obligation to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, clothe the naked not simply because we are our brother and sisters keeper, not just because there but for the grace of God go I, but because wherever there is a hungry person, there I am. Wherever there is someone who is homeless, there I am.

Wherever someone is walking the streets looking for a job. That person is my brother and that person is me. Wherever a child goes to bed hungry, I am there. We connect with each other in our profound, human experience. We connect with each other through the imperative to love one another. We bind to each other in all of our hopes, in all of our dreams, and in all of our sufferings. The awareness which bids us to pursue a more perfect union make us aware of the perfectibility of our social systems, our economic systems and our own lives. We are meant for higher things. We are meant for better things. We are meant for peace, for prosperity, for enlightenment, for health, for love, for a more perfect union with ourselves, with each other, with our nation and with the world. Human unity is the great path that we all can walk upon. The world is interconnected. The world is interdependent.

I know that we are on the threshold of greatness because the people are great and we just need to call forth that awareness, call forth that ability, give people the resources, show people the money, show them their power, show them their beauty, show them that we can all be more than we are, better than we are. It’s about reaching up and reaching out. It’s about Push. It’s about the Rainbow Coalition. It’s about Human Unity. It’s about a new America. It’s about a new world. Let us begin.

Shameful Milestone Reached For Minimum Wage

Bob Geiger — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 10:15:11 -0500

Another unfortunate milestone in the reign of George W. Bush and the recently-deposed Republican Congress was reached on Saturday when the federal minimum wage set a new record for the longest period without a raise since its establishment in 1938. As of December 2, the $5.15-per-hour wage rate has remained unchanged for nine years and three months.

Not surprisingly, the prior record also occurred under Republican administrations, when the minimum wage rate remained stagnant from early 1981 until April of 1990 under Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

“For nearly a decade, the prices of everyday necessities like gas, food, and prescription drugs have skyrocketed, while the paychecks of minimum wage workers haven’t increased a cent," said Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) over the weekend. "Year after year, the Republican Congress has blocked all attempts to raise the minimum wage, while voting a pay raise for themselves almost every year."

An American working 40 hours per week at the current minimum wage makes only $10,712 a year, which is less than $900 a month to cover housing, health care, food and all other living expenses. And, given that most workers being paid minimum wage do not receive health benefits, that salary would barely cover the cost of buying medical insurance alone, much less other necessities.

According to the Economic Policy Institute, the current minimum wage has also deteriorated in real value to the point that buying power for that compensation is at its lowest level since 1955.

“It is next to impossible for hard-working men and women to make ends meet for themselves and their families when they are earning wages established in 1997 and salaries that fall well below the poverty line," said Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) on Saturday, in response to this sad record being set. "The price of housing has increased, the price of higher education has increased, the price of health care and energy has increased. The only thing that hasn’t increased since 1997 is the minimum wage."

Six states overwhelmingly voted in November to raise their minimum wage -- which supersedes the federal wage rate -- and incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) have been clear on making a pay hike for working families one of their top priorities when Democrats assume control in the 110th Congress next month.

And Kennedy, who has long been the Senator fighting hardest to give workers a raise -- seeing his legislation to accomplish that killed three times by the GOP leadership in the last two years alone -- will be the new chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and will focus like a laser on the issue from the first day of the new Congress.

"If there’s one message from last month’s election that emerged loud and clear, it’s that no one who works for a living should have to live in poverty," said Kennedy. "The American people have spoken, and the new Congress will listen. When we convene in January, domestic priority number one will be to give minimum wage workers the long-overdue raises they deserve.”

You can read more from Bob at BobGeiger.com.

Please, Mr. Bush, I Want Some More

CactusPat — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 18:30:47 -0500

For those who don't get the reference, it's one of the classic lines in literature, theater, and movies. In Dicken's classic, Oliver Twist, the orphan, Oliver, asks the headmaster "Please, sir, I want some more". In modern day America, it's a question that's being asked as more and more Americans fall into poverty, despair, and hunger. But no, one can't say hunger anymore, you see under the Bush Junta the word hunger is no longer "scientific" enough for the USDA to use to gauge if someone isn't getting enough food to eat. Welcome to "very low food security"....

Some Americans Lack Food, but USDA Won't Call Them Hungry The U.S. government has vowed that Americans will never be hungry again. But they may experience "very low food security." Every year, the Agriculture Department issues a report that measures Americans' access to food, and it has consistently used the word "hunger" to describe those who can least afford to put food on the table. But not this year.... (more)

Mark Nord, the lead author of the report, said "hungry" is "not a scientifically accurate term for the specific phenomenon being measured in the food security survey." Nord, a USDA sociologist, said, "We don't have a measure of that condition."

The USDA said that 12 percent of Americans -- 35 million people -- could not put food on the table at least part of last year. Eleven million of them reported going hungry at times. Beginning this year, the USDA has determined "very low food security" to be a more scientifically palatable description for that group.

The United States has set a goal of reducing the proportion of food-insecure households to 6 percent or less by 2010, or half the 1995 level, but it is proving difficult. The number of hungriest Americans has risen over the past five years. Last year, the total share of food-insecure households stood at 11 percent.

Less vexing has been the effort to fix the way hunger is described. Three years ago, the USDA asked the Committee on National Statistics of the National Academies "to ensure that the measurement methods USDA uses to assess households' access -- or lack of access -- to adequate food and the language used to describe those conditions are conceptually and operationally sound."

Among several recommendations, the panel suggested that the USDA scrap the word hunger, which "should refer to a potential consequence of food insecurity that, because of prolonged, involuntary lack of food, results in discomfort, illness, weakness, or pain that goes beyond the usual uneasy sensation."

To measure hunger, the USDA determined, the government would have to ask individual people whether "lack of eating led to these more severe conditions," as opposed to asking who can afford to keep food in the house, Nord said.

It is not likely that USDA economists will tackle measuring individual hunger. "Hunger is clearly an important issue," Nord said. "But lacking a widespread consensus on what the word 'hunger' should refer to, it's difficult for research to shed meaningful light on it."

Anti-hunger advocates say the new words sugarcoat a national shame. "The proposal to remove the word 'hunger' from our official reports is a huge disservice to the millions of Americans who struggle daily to feed themselves and their families," said David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, an anti-hunger advocacy group. "We . . . cannot hide the reality of hunger among our citizens."

In assembling its report, the USDA divides Americans into groups with "food security" and those with "food insecurity," who cannot always afford to keep food on the table. Under the old lexicon, that group -- 11 percent of American households last year -- was categorized into "food insecurity without hunger," meaning people who ate, though sometimes not well, and "food insecurity with hunger," for those who sometimes had no food.

That last group now forms the category "very low food security," described as experiencing "multiple indications of disrupted eating patterns and reduced food intake." Slightly better-off people who aren't always sure where their next meal is coming from are labeled "low food security."

That 35 million people in this wealthy nation feel insecure about their next meal can be hard to believe, even in the highest circles. In 1999, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, then running for president, said he thought the annual USDA report -- which consistently finds his home state one of the hungriest in the nation -- was fabricated.

"I'm sure there are some people in my state who are hungry," Bush said. "I don't believe 5 percent are hungry."

Bush said he believed that the statistics were aimed at his candidacy. "Yeah, I'm surprised a report floats out of Washington when I'm running a presidential campaign," he said.

The agency usually releases the report in the fall, for reasons that "have nothing to do with politics," Nord said.

This year, when the report failed to appear in October as it usually does, Democrats accused the Bush administration of delaying its release until after the midterm elections. Nord denied the contention, saying, "This is a schedule that was set several months ago."

Yep, sad but true, the corporatist fat cats on Wall Street have the stock market pushed up to an all-time high, but that concentration of "wealth" is made possible at the expense of ever growing poverty and hunger. 12%! That's one in every eight of us..... Plus, The weaseal bastard Bushite's had the report delayed so as to not affect the election.

Economy booming for billionaires

davidswanson — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 12:51:02 -0400

By Holly Sklar
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune News Service, September 27, 2006
Copyright (c) 2006 Holly Sklar

Millionaires are so last millennium. The new Forbes 400 list of richest Americans is billionaires only.

If you're net worth is a mere $999 million, forget it. A billion means a thousand million, and that's the Forbes 400 minimum -- up from $900 million in 2005.

Donald Trump and two of his kids grace the Forbes 400 cover, but ranked No. 94 with $2.9 billion, Trump's a long way from No. 1 Bill Gates with $53 billion.

The combined wealth of the 400 richest Americans is a record-breaking $1.25 trillion. That's about the same amount of combined wealth held by the 57 million households who make up half the U.S. population.

The economy is booming for billionaires. It's a bust for many other Americans.

A record 400 Americans are billionaires -- and a record 47 million Americans have no health insurance.

America has 400 billionaires -- and 37 million people below the official poverty line.

The official poverty line for one person was just $9,973 in 2005 (latest data). That wouldn't cover the custom-made men's shoes ($4,128) and Hermes purse ($6,250) on the Forbes Cost of Living Extremely Well Index. The official poverty line of $15,577 for a three-person family is lower than the cost of the Patek Philippe men's gold watch ($17,600).

The Forbes 400 minimum is up $100 million since 2005, but the federal minimum wage has been stuck at $5.15 an hour -- just $10,712 a year -- since 1997. GOP leaders in Congress have been holding a raise for minimum wage workers hostage to more giant tax cuts for wealthy inheritors.

Wealth isn't trickling down. It's flooding up -- from workers to bosses, small investors to big, poorer to richer.

The heirs to Wal-Mart founders Sam and Bud Walton have a combined $82.5 billion -- while the children of Wal-Mart workers swell the ranks of state health insurance programs for the neediest.

In today's corporate America, workers see gutted paychecks and pensions despite rising worker productivity, while CEOs get golden pay, perks, pensions and parachutes. The pay gap between average workers and CEOs has grown nine times wider since the 1970s.

The number of billionaires is a record high, but the share of national income going to wages and salaries is at a record low.

U.S. corporate profits increased 21 percent in the past year, Market Watch reported in March. "Profits have been so high because almost all of the benefits from productivity improvements are flowing to the owners of capital rather than to the workers," said Market Watch.

The wealthiest 1 percent of Americans (minimum net worth $6 million) owned 62 percent of the nation's business assets, 51 percent of stocks and 70 percent of bonds as of 2004, according to the latest data from the Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances -- which excludes the Forbes 400. That's way up from 1989, when the wealthiest 1 percent owned 54 percent of business assets, 41 percent of stocks and 52 percent of bonds.

Our growing economy is not producing a growing middle class, but a richer aristocracy.

The high point for median household income -- the income of the household in the middle -- was $47,671 in 1999, adjusted for inflation. In 2005, median household income was $1,345 less at $46,326. In the same period, the Forbes 400 gained more than 100 billionaires.

Government policies are fueling rising inequality. Taxpayers with incomes above $1 million will see their after-tax income grow by about 6 percent this year thanks to tax cuts the nation can't afford.

In an economy where money is flowing up to the very top, even college-educated workers are going backward. Inflation-adjusted median household income was lower in 2005 than 1999 even when the householder had a bachelor's degree, master's degree, professional degree or doctorate.

The problem is much bigger than the rich getting richer, while the poor get poorer. The really rich are getting richer at the expense of most everyone else.

Solutions include restoring the link between rising worker productivity and pay, raising the miserly minimum wage, narrowing the obscene pay gap between workers and CEOs, rolling back tax cuts for the wealthy -- and stop taxing income from work more than income from capital gains.

Holly Sklar is co-author of "A Just Minimum Wage: Good for Workers, Business and Our Future" (www.letjusticeroll.org) and "Raise the Floor: Wages and Policies That Work for All of Us." She can be reached at hsklar@aol.com.

GOP Again Defeats Minimum Wage Increase

Bob Geiger — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 20:58:11 -0400

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) knew when he withdrew his "poison pill" anti-abortion amendment to Ted Kennedy's (D-MA) most recent attempt to raise the minimum wage, that his parliamentary maneuvering had succeeded and that low-income workers would once again be denied their first required pay hike in ten years.

For those of you keeping track for the Congressional elections in November, this makes nine times in the last decade that Republicans have blocked a minimum wage increase proposed by Democrats.

Actually, two minimum-wage bills were rejected in the Senate today -- Kennedy's real attempt at raising the federal rate to $7.25 per hour over two years and the fake bill, by Mike Enzi (R-WY), that gave the appearance of a wage hike, but was loaded with provisions hostile to workers.

What happened in the Senate follows a similar tactic in the House, where a minimum wage increase passed the Appropriations Committee but has been kept from a vote by the GOP majority.

Kennedy's S.Amdt. 4322 was shot down by a vote of 52-46. While a simple majority (50 votes) would normally have been enough for passage, 60 were required in this particular instance due to a procedural agreement worked out behind the scenes -- to get Frist to withdraw the nonsensical anti-abortion amendment he had attached to the Kennedy measure.

Every vote against raising the federal minimum wage was cast by a Republican, while eight GOP Senators -- four of whom are up for reelection this fall -- voted with the Democrats.

Enzi's mock minimum-wage amendment proposed a $1.10 increase over 18 months but loaded it up with lots of onerous additions including exempting businesses with less than $1 million in yearly revenue from paying the wage. This would be an increase from the current $500,000 exemption while, if it had passed, still allowing Republicans to tell voters they care about American workers.

"The Enzi amendment is loaded with anti-worker poison pills," said Kennedy in a statement. "It would increase the minimum wage with one hand, while taking away minimum wage, overtime, and equal pay rights from millions of workers with the other hand. It’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing, and it’s a threat to American workers."

That amendment failed 45-53, with nine Republicans joining all Democrats in refusing to go along with Enzi's charade.

These kinds of bills are routine with the Republicans, who pulled a similar stunt in 2005 when they offered the same $1.10 wage hike, but with provisions that cut overtime pay -- without which, many minimum-wage earners cannot come close to making ends meet -- and lowered salaries for millions of workers who work for tips.

Kennedy also blasted his Republican colleagues for continuing to focus on helping the wealthy or pursuing ridiculous wedge issues while ignoring the fact that the wage’s buying power has fallen to a 51-year low, saying that they take "plenty of time to debate flag burning and I don't know the last time a flag was burned in my state of Massachusetts."

While Kennedy, who has long been the Senate's champion of worker rights, will undoubtedly bring up the minimum wage again this year, he vowed that the increase will happen if voters pay attention when heading to the polls in November.

"When the Democrats control the Senate, one of the first pieces of legislation we'll see is an increase in the minimum wage."

You can reach Bob Geiger at geiger.bob@gmail.com

Frist Slips 'Poison Pill' to Minimum Wage Bill

Bob Geiger — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 09:43:19 -0400

It was so much easier for Senate Republicans to kill both attempts by Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) to raise the minimum wage last year with no midterm elections looming right around the corner. With nothing more than their routine disregard for the poor as an excuse, the GOP leadership killed two bills offered by Kennedy in 2005 to raise a federal minimum wage that has remained the same for almost a decade.

This year it's tougher, because Republican Senators up for reelection may have to explain screwing working Americans in a more recent vote while, at the same time, managing to give themselves nine pay raises, totaling almost $32,000, in the same ten-year span.

So Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) has found a new way to pull his Simon Legree act and this time it takes the form of attaching a "poison pill" amendment to Kennedy's S.AMDT.4322, which would gradually raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour over the next two years.

A poison-pill is a procedural maneuver in which an onerous amendment is attached to a bill under consideration to force proponents of the original legislation to bail out and drop the whole issue. It's designed to either kill a bill entirely or create a situation that forces the other side into a negotiation to water down their original legislation to an unrecognizable point.

And the best way for a Religious Right go-to guy like Frist to do that -- and to poke a sharp stick in the eye of Senate Democrats -- is to attach an anti-abortion bill, that must be voted on before the minimum wage measure. Frist's S.AMDT.4323 would criminalize the transport of a minor across state lines to get an abortion and Democrats have to contend with that before they can get to the minimum wage issue.

Frist's intent is clear: To force r
ed-state Democrats to vote "yea" on an anti-abortion bill -- or face the wrath of their conservative constituents this year -- which, if it passes, would then force all Democrats to vote against the minimum wage to nullify the anti-abortion part.

Have a headache yet? It's a disgusting thing to behold and another low for Republicans as they show they will stop at nothing to hold down wages on the people struggling most in our country.

"Too many hard-working people are living on the edge--just one serious illness, one pink slip away from bankruptcy," said Kennedy in arguing for his bill on the Senate floor. "For minimum wage workers, the American dream is even further from reality. Minimum wage workers are men and women of dignity. They care for their children and for young children in daycare centers. They care for senior citizens in nursing homes. They check out groceries in the supermarket. They clean our office buildings. But the minimum wage they receive no longer covers their bills. A minimum wage worker who works 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, earns just $10,700. That is almost $6,000 below the poverty line for a family of three."

The fact that at least 5.4 million more Americans, including one million children, have fallen into poverty since George W. Bush took office in 2000 seems to have no impact on Frist.

"We have agreed to set aside amendments so that the Senator from Massachusetts can offer an amendment on the minimum wage, and I second-degreed that amendment with a child custody protection amendment," said Frist. "Our discussions have led to the understanding that after we figure out how we are going to address both the minimum wage and child custody protection over the course of this afternoon or tonight or tomorrow, we will get around to having a vote on the minimum wage issue."

And, based on those ground rules, there's a very good chance that Kennedy and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) will decide to drop this incarnation of a minimum wage increase and fight that battle at a later date.

I would ask how Frist sleeps at night but, as a Republican, I'm sure he sleeps just fine.

Update (06/21/06 1:30 PM EDT): The Frist anti-abortion amendment to Ted Kennedy's (D-MA) attempt to raise the minimum wage has been withdrawn and Kennedy's bill, along with a faux bill to hike the wage rate by Mike Enzi (R-WY) have both been rejected. The Senate web site is reporting these votes somewhat inaccurately right now and I will post later on what really happened. Bottom line in that a minimum wage increase has at least temporarily been defeated.

You can reach Bob Geiger at geiger.bob@gmail.com

Racism and Religion

Fri, 19 May 2006 09:30:44 -0400

Nick Anderson. Washington Post Writers Group.

Yesterday I posted this at MakeThemAccountable.com:

All the major religions agree.
Quote of the Day

“Tsze-Kung asked, saying, ‘Is there one word which may serve as a rule of practice for all one's life?’ The Master said, ‘Is not Reciprocity such a word? What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.’” – Confucius

“Neither fire nor wind, birth nor death can erase our good deeds.” – Buddha

“Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” – Matthew 19:19

“What is hateful unto thee, do not do unto others.” – Hillel the Elder (Shabbos 31a)

“Allah loves those who do good (to others).” – Koran 3.148

[If anyone can find a similar quote from Lao Tse or any other Taoist, please send it to me at >caro@makethemaccountable.com. Thanks!—Caro]

Message from Harry A

I don't know of any quotes from Lao Tse or the Taoist tradition, but
this morning was taken aback when I read in the Hebrews Scriptures
(aka The Old Testament), the Book of Leviticus 19:33-34:

"When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress
the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the
citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were
aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God..."

Now I know that a lot of conservatives and Republicans are quick to
insist on the "Word of God" etc., including Bush; what part of this
quote do they not understand?!! Seems pretty clear to me.

My response

Hospitality was very important to the Middle Eastern cultures. It's enshrined in Islam as well as Judaism. Some say that the sin committed by the residents of Sodom and Gomorrah wasn't that men were having sex with men (that was pretty common), but that the townspeople weren't hospitable to the visitors that Abraham took in and fed and protected.

From Wikipedia:

The biblical text itself seems to suggest that the sin is based in part on inhospitality to some (if not a major) extent (although traditionally, the reason for the punishment has always been immorality):

Ezekiel 16:49-50: Now this was the sin of Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen.

This idea is paralleled in the Gospels when Jesus compares an inhospitable reception to Sodom:

Matthew 10:14-15: If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town. I tell you the truth, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.

This view of the biblical story reflects that of other ancient civilizations, such as Greece and Rome, where hospitality was a main feature in deciding the quality of a person. Also in these civilizations, men were held in a much higher regard than women (in Greece women being seen as little more than property, therefore, to demand not only a guest but a male guest to be violated against his will would be seen as more of a crime than to allow women to be used to save the guest.

Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com