Causing Progress

While considering a speech by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) promoting a Constitutional Amendment elevating banner worship above the principles of democracy, I thought I could hear the familiar dismissal; “There’s no difference between Republicans and Democrats.” Too often the similarities obscure the differences. Often, I suspect Feinstein and even Howard Dean of being Rockefeller Democrats, refugees from an intolerant, theocratic Christian-Republican party.

But, then, I consider Warren Buffet’s decision to give well over $30 billion to the Gates Foundation to fight diseases worldwide and improve education in America. And, compare Larry Ellison’s decision to welsh on a $115 million pledge to Harvard for medical research. Two billionaires dispensing their wealth as personal, not community, property. Is there a discernable difference between them? Yes. While anyone would reasonably consider Bill Gates a monopolist and plutocrat, Buffet’s decision demonstrated a committment to wider concerns than Ellison could envision. One demonstrates a global vision, the other focuses on petty personal cronyism.

I also hope the White House and members of Congress listened carefully to Buffet’s arguments to maintain the aristocracy tax (a.k.a. the estate tax). He displayed a concern for his country and the world that extended beyond the privileges of his class and heirs.

While I have your attention, go make an online contribution…now.

One axiom of Christian-Republican faith holds that government cannot deliver high-quality , low-cost services to a community. The faithful argue that only a for-profit business can ‘deliver the goods.’ So, it’s interesting to see what happens when a city turns over the task of maintaining public property to a business owned by a Christian-Republican, who is also a member of the city council.

City threatens to yank councilman’s contract reported JournalStar.com in Lincoln, NE.
Ken Svoboda’s business holds the contract to maintain the medians on the streets of Lincoln, Nebraska. Perhaps he believed his position on the city council would protect him from complaints from a dissatisfied customer. Maybe it did, for a while. When the Public Works Director threatened to terminate the contract, the councilman finally fulfilled his obligation. Of course, he blamed his failure on others; his employees (“When I’m not there, things don’t get finished.”) and the general public (“This is a casualty of public service.”).

So, does your city outsource the maintainance of public property? To elected officials?

While commenting on the appointment of a Wall Streeter as Secretary of the Treasury, Robert Reich observed “Bill Gates alone owns more assets than the bottom fifty percent of Americans put together.”

With the abolition of the aristocracy tax (a.k.a. the estate tax, a.k.a. the death tax), generations of the Gates family could live in slendor without demonstrating that they add any value sufficient to deserve their wealth. (Consider Paris Hilton.)

However, I have to give the Gates family credit. My understanding is that Bill Gates plans to structure his estate so that only 10% of his wealth passes on to his heirs. Also, his father opposed the abolition of the aristocracy tax because he feared that it would create an aristocracy in America as risk-averse and valueless as the aristocracy in the EU.

Unlike the Bush family, the Gates family seems to care more about America than their heirs.

When experts talk about the cost of rents or mortgages for low income individuals and families, the phrase “deeper affordability” comes up. The question; How do we make homes available to people with incomes lower and lower on the income scale (below the median income for an area)?

For most of us above the median income, the cost of our homes is relative based on the number of acres, bathrooms, detached buildings, and stainless steel applicances. For those well below the median, the cost of a home involves the more basic issues of safety, access to grocery stores, and the day-to-day security of having a place to call home.

During a recent discussion of financing “deeper affordability,” an expert mentioned Low Income Housing Tax Credits as a Federal housing program unlikely to be slashed by the Bushies. Would Bush cut a tax credit that primarily benefits insurance companies and pension funds? That the credit may help low income people have a stable home probably doesn’t factor into the equation when an insurance company ‘pencils out a deal.’ However, like the Earned Income tax credit, it may be necessary to structure a ‘tax credit’ rather than an ‘income subsidy.’

For information about Low Income Housing Tax Credits, check out Novogradac and Company LLC at http://www.novoco.com/resource.shtml Don’t be put off by the fact that this is a CPA firm. Click the Policy and Legislation tab.

What agencies (public and private) in your area provide local financing of low income homes? How are Community Development Block Grant funds allocated?

Tarrant deposits another $450,000 into campaign account - Boston.com

Bernie Sanders, a truly progressive Congressman from Vermont, reported that he had raised $2.9 million for his US Senate campaign. The likely nominee from the Christian-Republican Party doesn’t raise money for his campaign, he simply writes a check.

The latest contribution, made on Friday, raised the total Tarrant has given his campaign from his own money to $3 million. Just a week earlier Tarrant had also put $450,000 into his campaign.

I urge you to contribute to the Bernie Sanders for Senate 2006 campaign.

A large auto parts manufacturer is preparing to cut over 75% of its U.S. workforce and move almost all production to Mexico and China.

From Business Week Online:

…(the CEO of Delphi, which manufactures and sells $20 billion dollars in auto parts , about half to GM) wants to use the bankruptcy courts to drastically slash Delphi’s U.S. presence, thus freeing it up to focus on its already vast overseas production. Miller filed for Chapter 11 protection only for his U.S. operations, which employ 32,000 UAW and other union workers. He was careful to exclude Delphi’s 115,000-worker foreign factories, many of which operate in low-wage countries such as Mexico and China.

Many defenders of globalization suggest that we need to ‘innovate’ our way to higher incomes through better education and training. That’s a fine idea, but is America ready to make the investment in its own children? If we need to spend the money needed to develop the skills of Americans, can we do that in a political culture that rejects new taxes and funds a major war with debt?

Are you familiar with how the public schools in your area are funded?

In the context of the immigration debate, Robert Kuttner made the following comment in American Prospect Online, in a post titled The Tchotchke Economy: