The Congressional Progressive Caucus proposal is good but could be better
San José, CA – A proposal for a federal budget that serves working people and not the rich and corporations needs to include four points. First, a budget proposal for the people needs to recognize that the biggest economic problem right now is not the federal budget deficit, but rather an unemployment rate of almost 10% more than two years after the recession officially ended. Second, given the fact that the public debt is mainly due to wars, tax cuts for the wealthy and recessions, balancing the budget must be done in a way that cuts military spending, raises taxes on the well-to-do and increases spending in the short run to get more people back to work. Third, future funding problems for Social Security and Medicare must protect the programs by increasing funding, not by cutting back on the safety net for seniors.
Plan would cut taxes for the wealthy and corporations while cutting Social Security
The Bipartisan Senate Proposal is being pushed by the so-called Gang of Six – Saxby Chambliss (R-Georgia), Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma), Kent Conrad (D-North Dakota), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Dick Durbin (D-Illinois), and Mark Warner (D-Virginia). Four of them were members of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform which was unable to pass a proposal to cut the Federal Budget deficit. This proposal has been welcomed by President Obama, who said that he endorsed the thrust of the proposal.
San José, CA – On July 8, the U.S. Department of Labor released its report on unemployment and new job creation for the month June. The report said that the unemployment rate rose for the third month in a row to 9.2%, while only 18,000 new jobs were created. The job creation was much worse than most mainstream economists expected, and was less than one-tenth as many new jobs as in February, March and April. The number of new jobs created in May was revised down from a weak 54,000 to an even worse 25,000.
On June 21, the Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank, Ben Bernanke, gave a very downbeat report on the U.S. economy following a two day meeting of the Fed. Bernanke, who is also a professor of economics, admitted that he didn’t have a good explanation for why economic growth in the United States was so weak and the unemployment rate stuck at about 9%. But Marxist political economy does have an explanation: that economic stagnation is a natural outcome of a capitalist economy.
On June 19th the *Washington Post* published “With Executive Pay, Rich Pull Away from Rest of America” by Peter Whoriskey. This very informative article connected the rise in corporate executive’s pay with the growing economic inequality in the United States, using the example of a large U.S. dairy company combined with recent research by economists on high incomes. At the same time the article only offered very vague explanations for *why* the rich are winning out at the expense of almost everyone else.
San José, CA – In the first week of June, two important reports showed a sharp slowdown in the U.S. economy. On Friday, June 3, the Department of Labor said that unemployment in May rose to 9.1%, while only 54,000 new jobs were created, far less than what mainstream economists were predicting. Two days earlier, on June 1, a report on home prices showed another drop of 4.2% in the first three months of 2011, bringing home prices to a new low since the housing market began to tank in 2006.
San José, CA – On Nov. 18, Republicans in the House of Representatives blocked an attempt by the House Democrats to extend funding for Federal Unemployment Insurance, which expires on Nov. 30. If funding is not extended, almost a million jobless workers will be cut off from their benefits immediately. Over a million more will lose their benefits by the end of December.
On Nov. 10, former Colorado Republican Senator Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, investment banker and Morgan Stanley board member, released a draft report on deficit reduction. Both are co-chairs of the bipartisan deficit reduction commission appointed by President Obama. Their recommendations have been widely slammed by labor union and other progressives for good reason: The recommendations open the doors to even more austerity for working people while proposing lower tax rates for the well-to-do.
San José, CA – On Oct. 8, the Department of Labor reported that local public schools had cut 49,800 jobs in September. Included in the layoffs this fall was kindergarten teacher Amanda VanNess, who stood with President Obama when he signed a bill giving $26 billion to local schools in August of 2009. While this federal stimulus money did save Ms. VanNess’ job in the Toledo (Ohio) Public School District in 2009, she was laid off this fall as the district’s drop in students led to another round of cuts.
San Bruno, CA – On Aug. 25, the Commerce Department reported that new home sales in July fell 12.4% from the level of sales in June, and were 32.4% lower than July of 2009. This report, which was much worse than most economists expected, followed a report by the National Association of Realtors the day before that sales of existing homes in July fell 27.2% from June, and were 25.5% lower than a year earlier.
In 1898, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case of United States v. Wong Kim Ark that American-born Chinese were U.S. citizens under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The 14th Amendment states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
San José, CA – On July 22 the House of Representatives voted 272-152 to extend the Federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) and Extended Benefits (EB) programs and President Obama signed the extension into law. This came the day after the Senate passed the extension by a 59-39 vote.
_Senate Democrats Promise an Extension Next Week But Nothing is Said About 99ers _
San José, CA – On July 15, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that another 250,000 unemployed were cut from federal unemployment insurance rolls. In the last three weeks alone, almost one million unemployed people were cut from the Federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) and Extended Benefits (EB) programs. These programs provide benefits for people out of work for more than six month who can no longer collect state unemployment insurance benefits.
San José, CA – On July 8, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that almost 350,000 unemployed were dropped from federal unemployment insurance rolls. This is the second week in a row that the number of Americans collecting Federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) and Extended Benefits (EB) has dropped by more than 300,000. Funding for these programs has run out, and Republicans in the Senate have blocked a vote to provide moneys for federal unemployment insurance benefits. As a result, jobless workers are getting cut off of their federal unemployment insurance benefits by the hundreds of thousands each week.
Weak Employment Report Adds to Fears of “Double-Dip” Recession
San José, CA – On Friday, July 2, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that 125,000 jobs were lost in June. While the official unemployment rate fell from 9.7% in May to 9.5% in June, this was due to the 650,000 people that gave up looking for work and were no longer counted as unemployed. These signs of weakness in the labor market followed reports that housing and car sales were also weak in June. Altogether these reports increase the danger that the economy could slide back into a “double-dip” recession.
_Republicans in Senate Block Extension for Third Week in a Row _
San José, CA. On June 24, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that the number of people receiving Federal Extended Benefits fell by 375,000 in a single week. Between June 5 and June 12, more than 150,000 people stopped getting Federal Extended Benefits (EB), and another 200,000 stopped getting the Federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC). While some of these people were able to find jobs, the majority were dropped as funding for the Federal extended unemployment insurance ran out.
San José, CA – On June 24, Republican Senators, along with Nebraska Democrat Ben Nelson blocked a vote on extending Federal Unemployment Insurance benefits. After the 57-41 vote to end debate (60 votes are needed in the Senate to stop arguing and start voting), Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid of Nevada pronounced the measure dead.
San José, CA – On June 18, a Republican filibuster, aided by pro-war independent Joe Lieberman and Nebraska Democrat Ben Nelson, blocked an extension of federal unemployment benefits. The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that more than 900,000 laid-off workers will have had their unemployment benefit checks cut off as of June 19.
