News for today's 2018

CA, OR, WA, Brit. Col. join to fight climate change

11:26 AM Tukiyooo 0

<h1 class="times-thin" id="art_headline" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: 48px;"></h1><div class="author times"><div class="main_image"> <img alt="Article image" class="imagecache imagecache-article_main_image" height="192" src="http://www.nationofchange.org/sites/default/files/imagecache/article_main_image/ClimateChangePactSignedbyPacificNW102813.jpeg" title="article image" width="320" /> </div> </div><div class="author times">By Ryan Koronowski</div> <div class="source times"><a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/10/28/2850021/california-oregon-washington-british-columbia-agreement/" style="color: #4f4f50;">Climate Progress</a> / News Investigation</div><div class="source times"><a href="http://www.nationofchange.org/">nationofchange.org</a></div><div class="source times"> </div> <div class="published"> Published: Wednesday 30 October 2013</div><div class="published"> </div>53 million people living in what would be the world’s fifth-largest economy will now be participating in a “far-reaching strategic alignment to combat climate change and promote clean energy.” On Monday afternoon in San Francisco, the leaders of California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia <a href="http://www.pacificcoastcollaborative.org/Documents/PCC%20NR%20-%20October%2028%202013.pdf">signaled</a> they would not wait for the United States Congress or the Canadian Parliament to act to seriously address climate change. California Governor Jerry Brown, Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber, Washington Governor Jay Inslee, and (via teleconference) British Columbia’s Premier Christy Clark signed the <a href="http://www.pacificcoastcollaborative.org/Documents/Pacific%20Coast%20Climate%20Action%20Plan.pdf">Pacific Coast Action Plan on Climate and Energy</a>. The agreement is not legally binding and appropriates no money. The plan says it “is intended to spur finding new, smart ways for our governments, agencies and staff to work together,” by doing things like adding value and efficiency to climate initiatives through collaboration, while reducing “overlap and duplication of effort.” So what does it do? The Action Plan that California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia’s leaders all signed agreed to: 1. Account for the cost of carbon, by linking existing carbon pricing programs and working to develop them in Oregon and Washington. Oregon agreed to “build on existing programs to set a price on carbon emissions,” while Washington would “set binding limits on carbon emissions and deploy market mechanisms to meet those limits.” That sounds like a carbon price and a cap-and-trade system, respectively. California has a cap-and-trade system which has sold out of all its allowances in each of the four auctions it’s held. British Columbia has had a carbon tax for five years, currently at $30/ton (Canadian). If Oregon and Washington’s plans pass and the programs successfully link, a larger market for the region’s carbon allowances would be a boon for business and economic efficiency. All four leaders said they would try to “harmonize” their greenhouse gas emissions targets for 2050 by developing mid-term targets. Washington already has a 2035 target, and the rest of the states will examine if this works for them. All states will establish the more long-term 2050 targets. 2. Implement low-carbon fuel standards in each jurisdiction, meaning again that California and British Columbia will maintain their standard and Washington and Oregon will move to implement them. Each jurisdiction hopes to merge the standards into an integrated West Coast market “that keeps energy dollars in the region, creates economic development opportunities for regional fuel production, and ensures predictability and consistency in the market.” The Action Plan agrees to work toward having 10 percent of all new vehicle purchases in public and private fleets be zero-emissions models by 2016. It also signaled support for high-speed rail infrastructure and innovation, as well as accelerating investment in other alternative fuels across the transportation section. 3. Embrace clean energy in a number of different ways. The four jurisdictions said they would promote ease of access to energy-efficient buildings, ensure climate-smart infrastructure investment, streamline approval for renewable energy projects, and work to expand the regional electric grids. Each state will also support EPA regulation of greenhouse gases from power plants, emphasizing the value of allowing state flexibility. If they can do this, it will be an important part of getting the U.S., Canada, and the globe the <a href="http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/anotthoff/pacific_states_arent_waiting_f.html">right policy environment</a> to create jobs and cut carbon pollution. The three states and British Columbia make up a combined GDP of $2.8 trillion, which would make it the world’s 5th-largest economy. “The scientific community no longer disputes that climate change is happening and human-caused,” said Oregon Governor Kitzhaber. “But regardless of where you stand on this question, there’s another good reason to act: transitioning to a clean economy creates jobs.” At the event, leaders from businesses like construction company Skanska USA, Cisco Systems, and Taylor Shellfish Farms spoke about how business was doing well as their state governments moved to tackle climate change. The signatories agreed to “where appropriate and feasible, link programs to create consistency and predictability” to account for and reduce carbon pollution across the four jurisdictions. With an eye toward a global agreement in 2015, these heads of state saw commitments to reduce their own carbon emissions as a signal to national and sub-national governments that such an agreement was essential. The Pacific Coast Collaborative was established in 2008 among the four signatory governments plus Alaska (which did not sign the Action Plan) to help them collaborate on challenges facing the North American West Coast — among them, emergency management, clean energy, and economic growth. Ocean acidification, for example, affects everyone. But it particularly threatens the economies of coastal states. The Action Plan calls for the American and Canadian governments to work to research and monitor ocean acidification to “understand its causes and impacts.” The Western Climate Initiative was a regional cap-and-trade agreement in 2007 between California, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and four Canadian provinces. It had been scheduled to go into effect in 2012, but with the <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2010/10/18/174797/gov-deniers-western/">midterm elections</a> in the few years preceding the deadline that resulted in the losses of climate hawks, California’s AB 32 and British Columbia’s carbon tax were essentially the only two programs left standing when the dust cleared. This new agreement could mean that efforts like this to lower carbon emissions are alive and well, depending on how each government implements the plan.

By Ryan Koronowski Climate Progress / News Investigation nationofchange.org Published:...

U.S. marijuana usage timeline says it all

11:42 AM Tukiyooo 0

CONSUMER NEWS HEALTH HERITAGE NATIONAL NEWS U.S. marijuana usage timeline says it all

To see an enlarged version, click on http://bit.ly/1djrBVh

Republican extortionist Renzi gets 36 months

4:54 PM Tukiyooo 0

<div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTYuy-mLWvopE96Tdfy7kP9Sn8WCsoeXBzMi8SmE2YM0hoRlthTYrQTtnvln5lJwYYTK0zoMqGc1Qdwc5N7vaHGm1Zh_ImS1svC3T_-SRbzgaAEsbVyUr1AncvmzA22B3JCPk_lV-8W4ka/s1600/DSCN0374.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTYuy-mLWvopE96Tdfy7kP9Sn8WCsoeXBzMi8SmE2YM0hoRlthTYrQTtnvln5lJwYYTK0zoMqGc1Qdwc5N7vaHGm1Zh_ImS1svC3T_-SRbzgaAEsbVyUr1AncvmzA22B3JCPk_lV-8W4ka/s400/DSCN0374.jpg" width="365" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">WASHINGTON – Former U.S. Congressman Rick Renzi (who represented District 1, including Payson) was sentenced today to serve 36 months in prison following his June conviction by a federal jury in Tucson, Ariz., for extortion, bribery, insurance fraud, money laundering and racketeering. Renzi’s co-defendant, James Sandlin, was also sentenced today to serve 18 months in prison for his role in the extortion, bribery and money laundering scheme. Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth A. Strange of the District of Arizona, Special Agent in Charge Douglas G. Price of the FBI’s Phoenix Division, and Special Agent in Charge Dawn Mertz of the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) made the announcement following sentencing by Senior U.S. District Judge David C. Bury. Renzi, 55, of Burke, Va., and Sandlin, 62, of Sherman, Texas, were convicted on June 11, 2013. Renzi was found guilty of 17 felony offenses including conspiracy, honest services wire fraud, extortion under color of official right, racketeering, money laundering and making false statements to insurance regulators. Sandlin was convicted of 13 felony offenses including conspiracy, honest services wire fraud, extortion under color of official right and money laundering.  “Mr. Renzi abused the power – and the corresponding trust – that comes with being a member of Congress by putting his own financial interests over the interests of the citizens he had sworn to serve,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Raman.  “He fleeced his own insurance company to fund his run for Congress, and then exploited his position for personal gain.  Mr. Renzi’s conviction and today’s sentence demonstrate the Justice Department’s commitment to fighting corruption at the highest levels of government.” “Former Congressman Renzi disregarded his oath to uphold the law, ignoring the interests of the people he was elected to serve in favor of his own interests,” stated First Assistant U.S. Attorney Strange.  “The sentences imposed today reinforce the fundamental principle that no one, including an elected official, is above the law.” “When our elected officials betray the trust of the American people it strikes at the very core of our democracy,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Price.  “The sentencing of former Congressman Rick Renzi illustrates the commitment by the FBI and our law enforcement partners to investigate and prosecute corruption at all levels.   Today’s sentencing is a reminder that when a public official violates the public's trust they will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.” “The public expects its elected officials to be honest, to be trustworthy and to show respect for the law," stated IRS Special Agent in Charge Mertz.  “Those in public office should be held to a higher standard and are not exempt from criminal prosecution.  The prison sentence imposed today should serve as a wake-up call to other public officials who believe there are no consequences for betraying the public trust.” </div></div><div><div class="MsoNormal">         According to evidence at trial, Renzi, then a member of Congress from Arizona’s 1st Congressional District, promised in 2005 to use his legislative influence to profit from a federal land exchange that involved property owned by Sandlin, a real-estate investor.         At the time, Sandlin owed Renzi $700,000 in future payments from their business dealings, and Renzi threatened proponents of the land exchange that he would not support it unless they purchased Sandlin’s property in Cochise County, Ariz.  When they refused, Renzi promised a second proponent of a land exchange that he would support the exchange if they purchased Sandlin’s property.  According to an agreement reached in May 2005, Sandlin was paid $1 million in earnest money, out of which he paid $200,000 to Renzi.  Just before Sandlin received the $1.6 million balance owed on the exchange, he paid an additional $533,000 to Renzi.         Evidence at trial further showed that from 2001 to 2003, Renzi engaged in insurance fraud by diverting his clients’ insurance premiums to fund his first campaign for Congress, and he subsequently sent false letters to his insurance customers and provided false statements to various state regulators who were investigating his activities.         This case was investigated by the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation.  The prosecution was handled by Trial Attorneys David Harbach and Sean Mulryne of the Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Gary Restaino and James Knapp of the District of Arizona.</div></div>

LOCAL NEWS NATIONAL NEWS SIGN OF THE TIMES STATE NEWS Republican extortionist Renzi gets 36 months

WASHINGTON – Former U.S. Congressman Rick Renzi (who represented District 1, including Payson) was sentenced today to serve 36 months in pr...

5 reasons why cutting Social Security is irrational...

2:13 PM Tukiyooo 0

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.nationofchange.org/sites/default/files/imagecache/article_main_image/CuttingSocialSecurityisIrrational102813.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Article image" border="0" class="imagecache imagecache-article_main_image" height="240" src="http://www.nationofchange.org/sites/default/files/imagecache/article_main_image/CuttingSocialSecurityisIrrational102813.jpg" title="article image" width="400" /></a></div>By Paul Buchheit <a href="http://www.nationofchange.org/">nationofchange.org</a> Even for Congress. They, and others who apparently don't study the facts, believe that Social Security is a government handout. But 'entitlement' means that people who have paid into a program all their lives are entitled to a reasonable return on their investment. A better definition, as pointed out by <a href="http://truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/item/18268-social-security-pumps-$2-into-us-economy-for-every-benefit-dollar-spent">Mark Karlin</a> at Truthout, is a "mandated retirement savings plan." Cutting this popular and well-run and life-sustaining program would be irrational. There are many reasons for this. 1. Americans Have Paid For It Throughout Their Working Lives As of 2010, according to the <a href="http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/412660-Social-Security-and-Medicare-Taxes-and-Benefits-Over-a-Lifetime.pdf">Urban Institute</a>, the average two-earner couple making average wages throughout their lifetimes receives less in Social Security benefits than they paid in. It is the same for single males and same, by now, for single females. One-earner couples get back more than they paid in. 2. It's a Small Benefit, But Most Seniors Depend On It The average Social Security benefit is less than <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/video/2013/04/05">$15,000</a> a year, but most of our <a href="http://truth-out.org/news/item/16213-social-securitys-explosive-injustices">seniors rely</a> on this for the majority of their income. Even the <a href="http://www.alternet.org/economy/dont-cut-social-security-double-it">second richest</a> quartile of Americans depends on Social Security for over half of its retirement income. 3. It's Been Well-Run for Over Half a Century The poverty rate has <a href="http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/11023-ignore-the-deficit-hawks-social-security-is-easy-to-fix">decreased</a> dramatically over the past 50 years, in large part because of the benefits of the Social Security program.  <div class="imgcontainer" style="margin-bottom: 16px; position: relative;"> </div>Social Security is running on a <a href="http://ssa.gov/oact/TRSUM/index.html">surplus</a> of $2.6 trillion, it's funded until <a href="http://www.alternet.org/economy/dont-cut-social-security-double-it">2037</a>, it <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/johntharvey/2013/01/07/social-security-rerun/">cannot</a> run out of money, it <a href="http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/lesson-for-reporters-social-security-does-not-add-to-the-budget-deficit">cannot</a> contribute to the deficit, it has <a href="http://www.nextnewdeal.net/deficit-hawks-we-people-know-best-social-security">lower</a> administrative costs than private sector 401k retirement plans, and it's wildly <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/158834/economy-entitlements-iran-americans-top-priorities.aspx">popular</a>.   On top of all this, a report by the <a href="http://www.aarp.org/politics-society/advocacy/info-09-2013/social-security-strengthens-us-economy.html">AARP Public Policy Institute</a> found that Social Security stimulates the economy, adding more than $1 trillion to the U.S. economy each year as recipients spend their benefits on goods and services. <a href="http://www.alternet.org/election-2012/why-big-bucks-donors-dont-want-president-obama-champion-social-security">Dean Baker</a> calls Social Security "perhaps the greatest success story of any program in US history." 4. The Free-Market Alternative Doesn't Work The free-market alternative is everybody for them. That's fine for people with good jobs and retirement plans. But stunningly, the number of private sector workers <a href="http://www.alternet.org/economy/dont-cut-social-security-double-it">covered by a pension</a> with a guaranteed payout has dropped from 60 percent to 10 percent in a little over thirty years. Americans are <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/many-americans-accumulating-debt-faster-than-theyre-saving-for-retirement/2013/10/23/b7a9c85e-3b3e-11e3-b6a9-da62c264f40e_story.html">going into debt</a> faster than they're saving for retirement, and those able to put something aside often make <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2013/05/01/it_s_a_401_k_world_and_it_sucks.html">wrong choices</a> with their money.  Financial experts, who generally speak for the people with enough money to hire a financial expert, tell us to have $200,000 to $300,000 in personal retirement <a href="http://www.alternet.org/economy/dont-cut-social-security-double-it">savings</a>. Most Americans have about a tenth of that, less than <a href="http://www.ebri.org/publications/ib/index.cfm?fa=ibDisp&content_id=5175">$25,000</a>. 5. Redistribution Has Moved Retirement Money from the Middle Class to the Rich Tax Expenditures -- subsidies from special deductions, exemptions, exclusions, credits, capital gains, and loopholes that move <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2012/04/13/opinion/sunday/0415web-leonhardt2.html?ref=business">tax money to the richest</a> taxpayers -- are <a href="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/412404-Tax-Expenditure-Trends.pdf">estimated</a> to be worth up to <a href="http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/julyaugust_2011/features/20000_leagues_under_the_state030498.php">8 percent</a> of the GDP, or about $1.2 trillion. That alone is more than enough to pay for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_States_federal_budget">Social Security</a> ($883 billion). Because of this misdirected revenue, government has been forced to <a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/news/fact-check-social-security-adds-budget-deficit-161813776.html">borrow from Social Security</a> to fund its programs. Most notably, <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/01/26-1">George W. Bush</a> took our retirement money to pay for his two wars and his tax cuts for the rich. This last reason, more than any of the others, reveals the overwhelming unfairness of cutting Social Security. In effect, the middle class is being told to replenish its own savings account after those savings were passed along to the military and the super-rich.

CONSUMER NEWS HEALTH NATIONAL NEWS SENIORS TRUTH 5 reasons why cutting Social Security is irrational...

By Paul Buchheit nationofchange.org Even for Congress. They, and others who apparently don't study the facts, believe that Social Secur...

Chavez protest site may become national park

3:05 PM Tukiyooo 0

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://cronkitenews.asu.edu/assets/images/11/09/19-chavez-center-inside.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="214" src="http://cronkitenews.asu.edu/assets/images/11/09/19-chavez-center-inside.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://cronkitenews.asu.edu/assets/images/11/09/19-chavez-mural-inside.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="180" src="http://cronkitenews.asu.edu/assets/images/11/09/19-chavez-mural-inside.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><h2 class="entry-title"></h2> <div class="entry-content"> TOP: Latino leaders have worked to preserve the Santa Rita Center, which under a National Park Service plan submitted to Congress would become a national historic park. Chavez is said to have first uttered the phrase “si se puede” at the site. (Cronkite News Service Photo by Anna Consie) BOTTOM: A mural honoring farm labor leader Cesar Chavez adorns a wall at the Santa Rita Center near downtown Phoenix. In the 1970s, Chavez used the center to stage a hunger strike against an Arizona law that curtailed the rights of farm workers. (Cronkite News Service Photo by Anna Consie) By CHRIS COLE Cronkite News Service PHOENIX – A National Park Service recommendation could bring federal designation to the building near downtown where farm labor leader César Chávez is said to have first uttered “Sí se puede.” The Santa Rita Center is among five sites connected with Chávez’s life that the agency wants to turn into a national historic park. The recommendation went Thursday to Congress, which passed legislation in 2008 to review more than 100 sites connected to Chávez and his movement. “We’re excited because the center really deserves to be in there,” said David Adame, chief operating officer of Chicanos por la Causa, which purchased the center in 2004. “It’s a national treasure that we want to make sure that we can partner with other folks to highlight.” In 1972, Chávez chose the Santa Rita Center as headquarters for a 24-day fast, which he staged in protest of an Arizona law limiting the rights of farm workers. The fast’s ultimate goal was recalling then-Gov. Jack Williams. It was during that fast that Chávez is said to have uttered “Sí se puede,” which became the motto for the United Farm Workers. Chávez chose the center because it was located in his native state – he was born in Yuma – and in the middle of an area where many farmers lived at the time, said Marc Grossman, spokesman for the César Chávez Foundation and Chávez’s longtime personal aide. Chávez spent almost all 24 days at the center before being hospitalized near the end, he said. “César’s fast was the catalyst for heightened political awareness throughout Arizona,” Grossman said. “This was a movement that directly impacted the lives of millions of people.” Spreading the national historic park across five locations – the others are in California – is fitting because “the lens and scope of César’s labors are very broad,” Grossman said. “Out of 100-odd options, they had to select five of them,” he added. Five other sites in Arizona where Chávez lived and worked could be designated as National Historic Landmarks or included in the National Register of Historic Places, according to the Park Service. In Yuma, those sites include the remains of the homestead where Chávez grew up, the general store his father ran and the Laguna School building where he attended school throughout childhood. The other two locations are the United Farm Workers field office and the home where Chávez died in his sleep in 1993, both in San Luis. In 2007, the Santa Rita Center was listed on the Phoenix Historic Property Register. The idea of a national historic park in Chávez’s honor was based on the farm movement he founded that improved the lives of millions of Latino farm workers, said Mike Litterst, a spokesman with the National Park Service. The creation of a national historic park would enable protection for the largest number of significant locations, he said. The César E. Chávez National Monument, a Keene, Calif., site where Chávez lived and led the farm workers movement, would serve as the park’s cornerstone, the Park Service said. If Congress approves the national designation, the Santa Rita Center would be managed between the Park Service and Chicanos por la Causa, the agency said.   Adame, with Chicanos por la Causa, said his organization would appreciate the financial and communal benefits the recognition would bring. The group opens the center every once in a while for special community events and programs, he said. “It definitely needs significant work,” Adame said. “It’s hard to financially maintain. Our strategy would be to incorporate it into a mixed-use development.” Litterst, with the Park Service, said designating the center as a national park would draw more tourists. “It brings some prestige to that area with the recognition of national significance,” he said. Alfredo Gutierrez, former minority and majority leader in the Arizona State Senate, said that the center’s current recognition disappeared along with the vibrant Latino community that surrounded it. He said he believes that could change with the potential designation. “The sad part is that no one who visits there now would be able to understand the importance of (Chávez) being there,” Gutierrez said. “As far as people coming there to understand César’s story, I think (the recognition) is going to do that.” Grossman, who knew Chávez during the last 24 years of his life, said Chávez wouldn’t have allowed this type of recognition if he was still alive. “It’s happening because he’s not around to upset,” Grossman said. “I think it’s a reflection that his legacy and values are as relevant today as they were in 1972 during the fast at the Santa Rita Center.” <h4 style="text-align: center;">Proposed park sites:</h4>• The César E. Chávez National Monument, Keene, Calif. • The Santa Rita Center, Phoenix • The Forty Acres National Historic Landmark, Delano, Calif. • Filipino Community Hall, Delano, Calif. • Nuestra Señora Reina de la Paz, Keene, Calif. • McDonnell Hall, San Jose, Calif. <h4 style="text-align: center;">Other Arizona sites:</h4>• Chávez family homestead, Yuma • Laguna School building, Yuma • General store ran by Chávez’s father, Yuma • United Farm Workers field office, San Luis • Home where Chávez died in his sleep, San Luis </div>

EDUCATION NATIONAL NEWS PARKS/REC STATE NEWS Chavez protest site may become national park

TOP: Latino leaders have worked to preserve the Santa Rita Center, which under a National Park Service plan submitted to Congress woul...

Right's attack on Social Security, Medicare must fail

2:15 PM Tukiyooo 0

<div class="email_body_content"> <div style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.75;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUn4iNZhX1Trfm2O3KwHVgmEbqsPbTUCVkYBd7HYx06NLOYAlvAIV9JXOemTAqIczyZ88wogZFlxn1AEGEuEXr-i9pcG3bPf1sXbIijr5vMOCnxoBznemxZ4OrIXLBdk90-Y3cPj9_-Eis/s1600/1202-bernie-sanders-031109.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUn4iNZhX1Trfm2O3KwHVgmEbqsPbTUCVkYBd7HYx06NLOYAlvAIV9JXOemTAqIczyZ88wogZFlxn1AEGEuEXr-i9pcG3bPf1sXbIijr5vMOCnxoBznemxZ4OrIXLBdk90-Y3cPj9_-Eis/s400/1202-bernie-sanders-031109.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 1.75;">They're at it again.</div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 1.75;"> </div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 1.75;">Billionaires like the Koch Brothers, Pete Peterson, Stanley Druckenmiller and others are leading the charge to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.</div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 1.75;"> </div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 1.75;">If they succeed, millions of senior citizens, working families, disabled veterans and children will suffer. We must not allow that to happen. </div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 1.75;"> </div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 1.75;">Today, the middle class is disappearing, real unemployment is extremely high, poverty is increasing and working families throughout the country are struggling to keep their heads above water economically. Meanwhile, the gap between the very rich and everyone else is growing wider and wider and the wealthiest people and the largest corporations are doing phenomenally well.</div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 1.75;"> </div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 1.75;">We must not balance the budget on the backs of working families, the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor.</div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 1.75;"> </div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 1.75;">As Vermont's senator, I have the honor of serving on the Budget Conference Committee which will be negotiating a new federal budget over the next few months -- and where I am fearful that a deal could be struck to slash Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits.</div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 1.75;"> </div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 1.75;"><a href="http://caf.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=dia6Zy7OHUZjwp2ri9mioIaSq2K7gCjf" target="_blank">As the founder of the Defending Social Security Caucus, please stand with me, our friends at Social Security Works and our coalition partners in demanding; "No grand bargain in exchange for cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits." </a></div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 1.75;"> </div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 1.75;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6383741895455123821" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a>Let's be clear. Despite right-wing rhetoric:</div><ul><li style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; text-align: left;">Social Security is not going broke. According to the Social Security Administration, Social Security has a surplus today of $2.8 trillion and can pay out every benefit owed to every eligible person for the next 20 years.</li><li style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; text-align: left;">Social Security has not contributed to the deficit. Social Security is funded independently by FICA taxes which are paid by workers and their employers.</li></ul><a class="buttonthing" href="http://caf.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=gUbutJO2Bfaxai9BhjFrD4aSq2K7gCjf" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-color: #2b9709; background-image: none; background-position: left top; background-repeat: repeat; color: white; display: block; margin: 30px auto; padding: 9px 15px 12px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; width: 200px;" target="_blank">Sign this petition.</a><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 1.75;">The so-called chained-CPI, which recalculates how COLA's are formulated, is not a "modest tweak." If the chained CPI went into effect today, a senior aged 65 would receive $658 a year less in Social Security benefits when he/she is 75, and $1,100 a year less at age 85. Further, the average disabled veteran would lose tens of thousands of dollars in benefits over his/her lifetime.</div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 1.75;"> </div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 1.75;"><a href="http://caf.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=Lk0%2BGE4WaXUHp8c%2FRcj%2BKIaSq2K7gCjf" target="_blank">Please stand with me today and demand that Congress and the President oppose any grand bargain which cuts Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits.</a></div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 1.75;"> </div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 1.75;">When one out of four U.S. corporations pay nothing in federal income taxes; when Bush's tax breaks for the rich remain in place for many wealthy Americans; when the U.S. spends almost as much as the rest of the world combined on defense, there are much fairer and economically sound ways to address the budget than cutting programs desperately needed by the most vulnerable people in our country.</div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 1.75;"> </div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 1.75;"><a href="http://caf.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=KKyxRwltnum%2BC4jNA%2FPoqIaSq2K7gCjf" target="_blank">Please stand with me and Social Security Works in protecting the future of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits.</a></div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 1.75;"> </div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 1.75;">Let's go forward together. Thanks for your continued support.</div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 1.75;"> </div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 1.75;">Sincerely,</div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 1.75;">U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders</div></div>

HEALTH NATIONAL NEWS OPINION SENIORS Right's attack on Social Security, Medicare must fail

They're at it again. Billionaires like the Koch Brothers, Pete Peterson, Stanley Druckenmille...

Boehner refuses to meet with AZ delegation

4:00 PM Tukiyooo 0

<h2 class="entry-title"></h2><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://cronkitenews.asu.edu/assets/images/13/10/22-boehner-pray-inside.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="266" src="http://cronkitenews.asu.edu/assets/images/13/10/22-boehner-pray-inside.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>After being told they could not meet with House Speaker John Boehner, the group of 44 immigration reform advocates stood in line in the hallway outside his office and prayed – and vowed to continue doing so for a week or until they get a meeting. (Cronkite News Service photo by Pei Li) By PEI LICronkite News Service WASHINGTON – They rode for 43 hours in a bus from Phoenix, hoping to appeal to House Speaker John Boehner on immigration reform, but when they arrived at his office in Washington they were turned away. So the group of 44 Arizonans gathered in the hallway outside Boehner’s district office Tuesday, singing and praying and vowing to wait – for a week or for a meeting with the speaker, whichever comes first. “We are interested in any minute or moment of the day he has for us, even that’s five minutes, we would accept any time at all,” said Ian Danley, youth programs director of the Phoenix-based <a href="http://nmphx.com/">Neighborhood Ministries</a>. “We will wait until that happens,” said Danley, who led the group Tuesday. The group left Phoenix on Saturday and arrived in Washington on Monday, with “moms, dads, children, and a lot of people of faith, DREAMers and students,” said Reyna Montoya, one of the advocates. She said they came to ask Boehner “to give a vote on immigration reform.” The Senate in June passed a comprehensive <a href="http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-113s744es/pdf/BILLS-113s744es.pdf">immigration reform bill</a> that includes new language on visas, tough new border security requirements as well as a potential pathway to citizenship for the estimated 11 million immigrants who are in this country illegally. But that bill has stalled in the House, where Boehner has said he will not be rushed into considering the sweeping comprehensive Senate bill. Instead of putting the Senate bill on the floor, the House has instead considered a number of smaller measures, each of which includes part of the larger Senate package. House Democrats earlier this month tried to force the issue, introducing their own 1,100-page comprehensive immigration bill that mirrors the Senate measure – minus the tough border-security language. But that bill has yet to have a hearing, and a spokesman for Boehner said Tuesday that the speaker’s position has not changed. “The speaker remains committed to a step-by-step process to fix our broken immigration system,” said Michael Steel, the spokesman. The Arizona group had hoped to urge Boehner to allow a vote on any of the bills that included a pathway to citizenship. But they were greeted at his office Tuesday by an aide who offered to deliver their concerns, but who said the speaker’s schedule was full for the day and the office too small to accommodate the group. So the group prayed for about 20 minutes for Boehner to protect their families from deportation, before starting to sing and sway in the hallway. U.S. Capitol Police told them to keep it down and to stand along the side of the hallway, then watched as the group did just that. “We are coming with a lot of hope, with a lot of faith, we want him (Boehner) to know these families can’t wait any longer,” Montoya said. “We believe he as a man of God, as a Catholic, he can do the right thing for the nation.” Montoya called the trip a grass-roots effort, funded with $5 and $10 donations from friends and family and fueled with burritos made for the bus ride by their mothers. The group plans to sleep on the floor of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church while in Washington. Among the advocates was Jesus Magana, an Air Force veteran who said the “same country that I served and risked my life for is the country that is tearing my family apart” – his sister is in the midst of deportation proceedings. “I really love the military, I love my country,” said Magana, who planned to serve “until they kick me out.” “But I found a bigger fight back home,” he said of his family’s situation. “There is a lot of people who would like to speak to Speaker Boehner, and tell their story,” Magana said Tuesday. “Even if it’s 30 seconds, we would take that.” But when Danley tried Boehner’s office door, he found it locked. “Nobody is letting us in,” he said. That did not deter members of the group like Montoya, who graduated last year from Arizona State University and said her father is now in deportation proceedings. “I am a woman of faith,” she said. “We will be here every day.” <div style="text-align: center;"> </div><div style="text-align: center;"> </div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;">  IMMIGRATION INUNDATION  </div> Advocates from Arizona said they don’t care which of the many immigration-reform bills currently before the House is voted on, as long as it includes a pathway to citizenship, like the Senate bill passed in June. The bills are:   Senate immigration bill: - S744: A comprehensive measure dealing with border security, worker visas, a pathway to citizenship and other measures. House immigration bills: - The Strengthen and Fortify Enforcement (SAFE) Act: Allows local law enforcement to enforce immigration laws. - The Legal Workforce Act: Requires employers to use the E-verify system when hiring. - The Agricultural Guestworker Act: Establishes a temporary guestworker program for agriculture workers. - SKILLS Visa Act: Creates an immigration path for workers in science and engineering fields. - HR 15: Introduced this month by House Democrats, it mimics the Senate bill but strips out the tough border-security measures in that bill.

HERITAGE NATIONAL NEWS PERSPECTIVE STATE NEWS Boehner refuses to meet with AZ delegation

After being told they could not meet with House Speaker John Boehner, the group of 44 immigration reform advocates stood in line in the ha...

Yet another Fox News lie

11:44 AM Tukiyooo 0

If anything goes wrong,  blame it on 'Obamacare' By Dana Milbank Washington Post Writers Group Fox News' Sean Hannity, that paragon of journalistic integrity, hosted six "average Americans" on his show this month who were "feeling the pain" of "Obamacare." One was Paul Cox, who runs a North Carolina construction business and complained that the new law prevented him from hiring full-time employees because he would have to provide health insurance to anybody working more than 30 hours a week. "It happens all the time," Hannity contributed. If by "it" Hannity meant "misinforming the American public," then, yes, it is happening all the time. Salon's Eric Stern called Cox and found that Cox's business has only four employees.  It therefore is not affected by the new requirement, which applies to businesses with 50 or more workers.  The others on Hannity's program were similarly off-base. [To read the rest of Milbank's column, which appeared in the Oct. 24 edition of The Arizona Republic, click on <a href="http://azcentral.com/">azcentral.com</a>.  And for your subscription to the Republic, the best and most complete newspaper value in the Rim Country, call 1-800-332-6733.  Because in the real world news happens seven days a week.]

HEALTH NATIONAL NEWS SIGN OF THE TIMES TRUTH Yet another Fox News lie

If anything goes wrong, blame it on 'Obamacare' By Dana Milbank Washington Post Writers Group Fox News' Sean Hannity, that para...

Racism, cruelty drive GOP health care agenda

11:15 AM Tukiyooo 0

<div class="imgon2"><img alt="Racism is fueling opposition to Obamacare. (photo: Jae C. Hong/AP)" border="0" height="181" src="http://readersupportednews.org/images/stories/article_imgs10/010798-racism-obamacare-100813.jpg" title="Racism is fueling opposition to Obamacare. (photo: Jae C. Hong/AP)" width="400" /> Racism is fueling opposition to Obamacare. (photo: Jae C. Hong/AP)</div><div class="noslink"></div><h1 class="txttitle"></h1><div class="txtauthor">By Robert Scheer, Truthdig</div><div class="date">08 October 13</div><div class="date"><a href="http://readersupportednews.org/">readersupportednews.org</a> </div> <div class="indent"><img border="0" src="http://readersupportednews.org/images/stories/alphabet/rsn-B.jpg" />efore he was disgraced into resigning his presidency over the Watergate burglary scandal, Richard Nixon had successfully engineered an even more odious plot known as his Southern Strategy. The trick was devilishly simple: Appeal to the persistent racist inclination of Southern whites by abandoning the Republican Party's historic association with civil rights and demonizing the black victims of the South’s history of segregation.</div><div class="indent"> </div><div class="indent">That same divisive strategy is at work in the Republican rejection of the Affordable Care Act. GOP governors are largely in control of the 26 states, including all but Arkansas in the South, that have refused to implement the act's provision for an expansion of Medicaid to cover the millions of American working poor who earn too much to qualify for the program now. A New York Times analysis of census data concludes that as a result of the Republican governors' resistance, "A sweeping national effort to extend health coverage to millions of Americans will leave out two-thirds of the poor blacks and single mothers and more than half of the low-wage workers who do not have insurance, the very kinds of people that the program was intended to help. ..."</div><div class="indent"> </div>Why anyone who claims to be pro-life would want to deny health care to single mothers is an enduring mystery in the morally mischievous ethos of the Republican Party. But the exclusion of a working poor population that skews disproportionately black in the South is simply a continuation of the divide-and-conquer politics that have informed Republican strategy since Nixon. Before he was disgraced into resigning his presidency over the Watergate burglary scandal, Richard Nixon had successfully engineered an even more odious plot known as his Southern Strategy. The trick was devilishly simple: Appeal to the persistent racist inclination of Southern whites by abandoning the Republican Party’s historic association with civil rights and demonizing the black victims of the South’s history of segregation. That same divisive strategy is at work in the Republican rejection of the Affordable Care Act. GOP governors are largely in control of the 26 states, including all but Arkansas in the South, that have refused to implement the act’s provision for an expansion of Medicaid to cover the millions of American working poor who earn too much to qualify for the program now. A New York Times analysis of census data concludes that as a result of the Republican governors’ resistance, “A sweeping national effort to extend health coverage to millions of Americans will leave out two-thirds of the poor blacks and single mothers and more than half of the low-wage workers who do not have insurance, the very kinds of people that the program was intended to help. ...” Why anyone who claims to be pro-life would want to deny health care to single mothers is an enduring mystery in the morally mischievous ethos of the Republican Party. But the exclusion of a working poor population that skews disproportionately black in the South is simply a continuation of the divide-and-conquer politics that have informed Republican strategy since Nixon. The game plan of gutting the Affordable Care Act despite its passage into law and before its positive outcomes are demonstrated can be traced to a “blueprint to defunding Obamacare” initialed by the GOP conservative leadership under the aegis of Heritage Action for America. Ironically that is the political front of the Heritage Foundation, the leading GOP think tank that is credited by some architects of Obamacare as the initial inspiration of their health care program. The difference is that whereas the Heritage Foundation was pushing a mild health care reform based on increased profit for private insurers, as in the plan Mitt Romney introduced in Massachusetts, the Republicans object to the provisions in this president’s program that broaden access for the needy. They were abetted in this decision by a Supreme Court ruling last year granting the states the option of not expanding Medicaid to cover the uninsured under the new act. As a consequence, 8 million of our fellow Americans with annual incomes of less than $19,530 for a family of three have been prevented from obtaining the health care coverage that we as a nation decided to grant them. It might seem odd for governors to reject a program to help those living in their state that is fully funded by the federal government for the first few years and then 90 percent covered by the feds thereafter. But turning down a federal program to aid your own state’s population makes perfect sense when connected with the racist appeal initiated by Nixon that has turned the once Democratic South into a rock solid Republican bastion. There are certainly many whites among the 435,000 cashiers, 341,000 cooks and 253,000 nurses aides who the Times estimated will be denied needed health care in the states controlled by Republican governors who have decided to veto the most important provision of the Affordable Care Act.  In the end, this is a replay of the civil rights drama that gripped the nation more than half a century ago, but back then the Republican Party, following the enlightened leadership of Dwight Eisenhower, was on the humanitarian side of the equation. Now the elected leaders of a party that has been on the side of emancipation since the presidency of Abraham Lincoln acts to deny the basic human right to life-sustaining health care to the Southern progeny of slaves. As the Times study noted: “In all, 6 out of 10 blacks live in the states not expanding Medicaid. In Mississippi, 56 percent of all poor and uninsured adults are black, though they account for just 38 percent of the population.” But that also means that almost 44 percent of the poor and uninsured in Mississippi are white, and the gutting of this program that hurts them is evidence of the false consciousness that informs racist appeals. As the Times points out, someone, black or white, making $11,000 a year frying chicken in a convenience store falls into the gap of making too much to qualify for the state’s existing Medicaid program but not enough to be subsidized under the new health care plan as the state defines it. For those who lose out, there’s what the Republican die-hards call tough love. That’s not love. It’s hate.

HEALTH NATIONAL NEWS OPINION PERSPECTIVE Racism, cruelty drive GOP health care agenda

Racism is fueling opposition to Obamacare. (photo: Jae C. Hong/AP) By Robert Scheer, Truthdig 08 October 13 readersupportednews.org efore...

McOutrage: poverty wages, $30m corporate jet

9:51 AM Tukiyooo 0

<div class="mod" style="background-color: rgba(228, 236, 217, 0.64); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Helvetica', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; margin: 0; padding: 15px;"><h2 style="color: black; font-family: HelveticaNeue-Light, 'Helvetica Neue Light', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 12px; margin: 0; padding: 0;"></h2><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizccEzThvbZJjItz9eKHEc-deH1Oy4aI9MrjlUq4j71WIxhoqs1sll6_XL95zdkD6WUEDlI7mxGYZMtpEXmd35cqW34N8Ri_KG_5rhE05JhjEBGiTD91lZMtZAC-XZJ35o1wvkbVPXARmg/s1600/3F44EEB3B35AFE5786C2781F4F879D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizccEzThvbZJjItz9eKHEc-deH1Oy4aI9MrjlUq4j71WIxhoqs1sll6_XL95zdkD6WUEDlI7mxGYZMtpEXmd35cqW34N8Ri_KG_5rhE05JhjEBGiTD91lZMtZAC-XZJ35o1wvkbVPXARmg/s320/3F44EEB3B35AFE5786C2781F4F879D.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="mod_author" style="color: #580000; line-height: 1.6; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">By Isaiah J. Poole</div><div class="mod_author" style="color: #580000; line-height: 1.6; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><a href="http://ourfuture.org/">ourfuture.org</a> </div> <div style="color: #222222; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">McDonald’s says it can’t afford to pay her and the company’s more than 700,000 other American nonmanagement employees a wage that would lift them above the poverty line. What McDonald’s Corp. can afford to do, though, is buy itself a new corporate jet. </div><div style="color: #222222; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">That’s right. Bloomberg News reported earlier this week that McDonald’s Corp. has purchased for the use of its executives a Bombardier Challenger 605, a 12-seat plane that goes for between $27 million and $35 million ... Meanwhile ... other McDonald’s employees have been offered a “McResources” telephone help line to call that offers them helpful advice if they are having problems meeting their expenses on their minimum-wage McPaycheck. </div><div style="color: #222222; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">The advice: Sign up for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (“food stamp”) benefits and Medicaid ... it is criminal that CEOs of corporations like McDonald’s pay their full-time workers wages that keep them below the poverty line.</div></div>

CONSUMER NEWS NATIONAL NEWS OPINION McOutrage: poverty wages, $30m corporate jet

By Isaiah J. Poole ourfuture.org McDonald’s says it can’t afford to pay her and the company’s more than 700,000 other American nonmanagem...

New movie explains where our Middle Class went

8:53 AM Tukiyooo 0

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTprXScvuzi1SBLEzUr2Wk0xx1ASjJxPq54XbV1QRewzes_w8oLib2PyXU3r8DzT8vVI0lb5W64fkpvjIkgDOxTElSDiz3pZ1DW8Bmje9wc-rCsJNSuNRAptwYnSBWFI-0ILngi5kUpyEy/s1600/robert_reich_opinion.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTprXScvuzi1SBLEzUr2Wk0xx1ASjJxPq54XbV1QRewzes_w8oLib2PyXU3r8DzT8vVI0lb5W64fkpvjIkgDOxTElSDiz3pZ1DW8Bmje9wc-rCsJNSuNRAptwYnSBWFI-0ILngi5kUpyEy/s1600/robert_reich_opinion.png" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;">By <a href="http://www.sacbee.com/search_results/?sf_pubsys_story_byline=the%20Editorial%20Board&link_location=top" style="outline: 0px none;" target="_blank" title="Read more articles by the Editorial Board">the Editorial Board</a></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;">Published: Monday, Oct. 21, 2013</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;"> </div> <div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white; line-height: 18pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;">Our <a href="http://topics.sacbee.com/Declaration+of+Independence/" style="cursor: pointer; outline: 0px none;" target="_blank">Declaration of Independence</a> states that “all men are created equal.” Over the years, Americans have removed many barriers to that great aspiration – with the <a href="http://topics.sacbee.com/Fourteenth+Amendment/" style="cursor: pointer; outline: 0px none;" target="_blank">Fourteenth Amendment,</a> the vote for women, the civil rights acts, public education and more.</div> <div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white; line-height: 18pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;">But since the late 1970s, the United States slowly has become the most unequal of the world’s developed nations in its distribution of income and wealth. Our middle class is shrinking.</div> <div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white; line-height: 18pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;">A new film, “Inequality for All,” hopes to bring attention to this. The protagonist is the passionate <a href="http://topics.sacbee.com/Robert+Reich/" style="cursor: pointer; outline: 0px none;" target="_blank">Robert Reich,</a> an economics professor at the <a href="http://topics.sacbee.com/University+of+California/" style="cursor: pointer; outline: 0px none;" target="_blank">University of California,</a> Berkeley, and a former labor secretary during the <a href="http://topics.sacbee.com/Clinton+administration/" style="cursor: pointer; outline: 0px none;" target="_blank">Clinton administration.</a></div> <div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white; line-height: 18pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;">The timing certainly is right for a clear explanation of what has happened economically to the middle class in the last 30 years, and the impact it is having on our democracy. All to the good if it can begin a spirited conversation to consider remedies.</div> <div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white; line-height: 18pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;">The most stark visual in the film is a <a href="http://topics.sacbee.com/suspension+bridge/" style="cursor: pointer; outline: 0px none;" target="_blank">suspension bridge,</a> not unlike the <a href="http://topics.sacbee.com/Golden+Gate+Bridge/" style="cursor: pointer; outline: 0px none;" target="_blank">Golden Gate Bridge.</a> One tower is 1928; the other is 2007. These are the peak years of <a href="http://topics.sacbee.com/income+inequality/" style="cursor: pointer; outline: 0px none;" target="_blank">income inequality</a> in the United States. In both cases, we had economic crashes the year after the peak – and recovery took concerted action. Change did not come alone through <a href="http://topics.sacbee.com/market+forces/" style="cursor: pointer; outline: 0px none;" target="_blank">market forces.</a></div> <div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white; line-height: 18pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;">The most stark fact in the film is that the typical male worker in 2010 earned $33,751; in 1978, he earned $48,302, in inflation-adjusted dollars.</div> <div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white; line-height: 18pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;">This stagnation of middle class incomes, Reich points out, has been masked by families becoming two-earner households, working longer hours (300 hours a year more than Europeans), using<a href="http://topics.sacbee.com/credit+cards/" style="cursor: pointer; outline: 0px none;" target="_blank">credit cards</a> and tapping their homes as <a href="http://topics.sacbee.com/ATM+machines/" style="cursor: pointer; outline: 0px none;" target="_blank">ATM machines.</a> But with the bursting of the <a href="http://topics.sacbee.com/housing+bubble/" style="cursor: pointer; outline: 0px none;" target="_blank">housing bubble,</a> the mask has been lifted: “All of the coping mechanisms of flat wages for 30 years are now exhausted.”</div> <div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white; line-height: 18pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;">And a <a href="http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/publiccosts/fastfoodpovertywages.shtml" style="outline: 0px none;" target="_blank">new report</a> released last Tuesday by the UC Berkeley Labor Center points out more than half of fast-food workers – at places such as McDonald’s, Subway, <a href="http://topics.sacbee.com/Burger+King/" style="cursor: pointer; outline: 0px none;" target="_blank">Burger King</a> and Wendy’s – working 40 or more hours per week are enrolled in public assistance programs to cover basic needs of food, rent and <a href="http://topics.sacbee.com/health+care/" style="cursor: pointer; outline: 0px none;" target="_blank">health care.</a> That costs all of us.</div> <div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white; line-height: 18pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;">Those at the top, however, have fared better. And if you think that’s all to the good, think again.</div> <div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white; line-height: 18pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;">Nick Hanauer, a Seattle pillow manufacturer and venture capitalist, points out in the film that the rich can buy only so many pillows and jeans. They invest some in companies creating jobs, but a lot goes to “funds of funds” – financiers financing other financiers instead of real industries.</div> <div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white; line-height: 18pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;">That helps to explain why inequality is widening even as the economy is growing.</div> <div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white; line-height: 18pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;">So what is the solution? Reich believes we should emulate the United States of the three decades after <a href="http://topics.sacbee.com/World+War+II/" style="cursor: pointer; outline: 0px none;" target="_blank">World War II.</a></div> <div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white; line-height: 18pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;">That was a time when education was a national priority, including higher education. Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and <a href="http://topics.sacbee.com/Harry+S.+Truman/" style="cursor: pointer; outline: 0px none;" target="_blank">Harry S. Truman</a> championed large-scale investments to assure greater access. And states contributed, too.</div> <div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white; line-height: 18pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;">It was a time of investment in infrastructure, such as the interstate <a href="http://topics.sacbee.com/highway+system/" style="cursor: pointer; outline: 0px none;" target="_blank">highway system.</a></div> <div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white; line-height: 18pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;">And, Reich points out, it was a time when more than one-third of workers belonged to labor unions that ensured that workers got a piece of <a href="http://topics.sacbee.com/productivity+gains/" style="cursor: pointer; outline: 0px none;" target="_blank">productivity gains.</a> As companies are designed to make profits, we need some countervailing force to look after the American worker.</div> <div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white; line-height: 18pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;">All this led to a cycle of economic growth, greater <a href="http://topics.sacbee.com/tax+revenues/" style="cursor: pointer; outline: 0px none;" target="_blank">tax revenues,</a> more <a href="http://topics.sacbee.com/government+spending/" style="cursor: pointer; outline: 0px none;" target="_blank">government spending,</a> a better educated populace – a cycle that fed on itself.</div> <div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white; line-height: 18pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;">Can this generation summon the political will to advance the aspiration of the Declaration of Independence? We should not stand by as our “land of opportunity” fails to meet that promise.</div> <div class="storybug" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white; line-height: 18pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;">• <a href="http://www.sacbee.com/search_results/?sf_pubsys_story_byline=the%20Editorial%20Board&link_location=bottom" style="outline: 0px none;" target="_blank" title="Read more articles by the Editorial Board">Read more articles by the Editorial Board</a></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;"><a href="http://www.sacbee.com/search_results/?sf_pubsys_story_byline=the%20Editorial%20Board&link_location=bottom" target="_blank" title="Read more articles by the Editorial Board"> Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/10/21/5833679/editorial-what-has-happened-to.html#storylink=cpy</a></div>

CULTURE-ARTS ENTERTAINMENT NATIONAL NEWS SIGN OF THE TIMES New movie explains where our Middle Class went

By the Editorial Board Published: Monday, Oct. 21, 2013 Our Declaration of Independence states that “all men are created equal.” Ove...