OMNI
LIBERAL/PROGRESSIVE,
AFFIRMATIVE GOVERNMENT NEWSLETTER, #2, February 8, 2015
Compiled by Dick
Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and Ecology.
(#1 March 1, 2014)
What’s at
stake:
“The
game is rigged,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren
said at last week’s New Populism Conference.
“We can whine about it. We can whimper. Or we can fight back. Me? I’m
fighting back.”
“Build for Rising Seas, Obama Tells Agencies.”
“… we will champion the key values
of progressivism: civil liberties, civil rights, economic justice, peace, and a
clean environment.” And “we will expose the corporate groups taking over our
politics.” In an undated letter from The
Progressive, Inc. (publishing The
Progressive Magazine).
Thumbnail history: Early
20th century “populism” and “progressive” movements evolved into
“liberal,” which is presently also being called “progressive.” This second newsletter on populism, progressive,
liberal focuses on economic justice, FDR’s “freedom from want.” But in several places we are reminded of the
diverse values designated by the terms.
For example, The Progressive Magazine reminds us that the
oldest tradition of progressivism embraces peace, that is, anti-war, in strong
contrast to the imperialism of post-WWII, Cold War liberal USA and its over
forty illegal, unnecessary, and lethal invasions and interventions abroad, so
well itemized by William Blum and satirized by Dr. Strangelove. The Feb.
2015 cover of The Progressive boldly
announces its commitment to “racial justice,” and inside the magazine declares: “The
Progressive tackles the forces distorting our economy, corrupting our
democracy, and imperiling our planet. Our
reporting and analysis take on the modern-day robber barons, and champion peace,
civil liberties, equality, and justice.”
--Dick
My blog:
War Department/Peace Department
Newsletters
Index:
See: Capitalism, Democratic
Party, Liberal, Occupy, Populism, Progressive, Republic Party,
See at end for #1.
Contents of Liberal, Progressive, Affirmative Government
Newsletter #2
Range of Application of
“Progressive” Label
Kaye,
The Fight for the Four Freedoms, on
C-Span: Freedom of Expression and
Religion, Freedom from Want and Fear
Religion, Freedom from Want and Fear
ProgressivesUnited:
Pledge and Petition
Eskow: Elizabeth Warren
Progressive/Liberal
(Affirmative) Government
Sainsbury,
New Political Economy (Economic and Social Justice)
Obama
Orders Federal Agencies to Follow Science-Based Standards Against Rising Seas Examples
of Need for Affirmative Government vs. Fear and Want
NationofChange
vs Corporate Greed
Sarich, Unregulated Corporations vs the
People
Covert, Recession = Corporate Profits and
Reduced Wages
Ecowatch, Safety from Harmful Products
Hamby, Government Protecting Miners
Thwarted at National
Level, Turn to Grassroots for Progressive Change?
Goldberg,
The Progressive City, Build Progressivism from the Cities
Dick,: A Note on Local vs.
Global: Goldberg’s Focus on Affirmative City Government
and Kaye’s on Affirmative National Government
and Kaye’s on Affirmative National Government
What “Progressive” Is
Not and Is in Economics: Joseph Stiglitz
Interview by Bill Moyers
Analysis:
Stiglitz’ Seven Proposals
What “Progressive” is Not
More
on Economics: Madrick, Seven Bad Ideas
Ralph Nader, Unstoppable, Finding Common Ground
Books
Reviewed in These Two Newsletters
Newsletter
#1
RANGE
OF APPLICATION OF THE LABELS
Book Discussion on The Fight For the Four Freedoms.
C-Span.
Harvey
Kaye talked about his book, The Fight for the Four
Freedoms: What Made FDR and the Greatest Generation Truly Great, in
which he recalls President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s public acknowledgement on
January 6, 1941, of “four freedoms” with which all people should be entrusted,
including freedom of speech and
expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear
[Eleanor referred to them as the “four equalities,”]. The author talked about
the progressivism of the
Roosevelt-era and argued that a reminder of the “four freedoms” could address
today’s political and social issues. Harvey Kaye spoke at the National Archives
in Washington, D.C.
PLEDGE
AND PETITION FROM ProgressivesUnitedPAC
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8,673 grassroots progressives
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We need your
help today so we can deliver this to John Boehner and Mitch McConnell.
Dick,
Over 11,300 of your fellow progressives have signed on to send
a message to John Boehner and Mitch McConnell: close foreign profits
loopholes and reinvest back home.
Huge corporations like Microsoft, General Electric, and others
keep over $2 trillion outside the country to avoid paying taxes. President
Obama has a new plan that would close the foreign profits loopholes and
invest hundreds of billions of dollars in American infrastructure projects
that benefit everyone.
We will deliver our petition to Speaker Boehner and Senator
McConnell once a full 20,000 grassroots progressives sign on.
So join
over 11,300 fellow progressives who have already signed the petition and help
reach 20,000 so we can deliver the message to John Boehner and Mitch
McConnell: it's time to close corporations' foreign profits loopholes.
President Obama is committed to solving this economic problem,
but we know congressional Republicans are committed to serving their own
interests and the interests of corporations who fund their campaigns. They
try not to listen, so we have to make them.
Thank you for uniting as a progressive,
Erin Wagner
Digital Director Progressives United
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A New Progressive Political
Economy
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 David Sainsbury,
Op-Ed, NationofChange, March 9, 2014: In an
article in Foreign Affairs entitled “The Future of History,” Francis Fukuyama
pointed out that, despite widespread anger at Wall Street bailouts, there has
been no great upsurge of support for left-wing political parties.
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The Rise of the Progressive City
With liberal hopes dashed in Washington
April 2, 2014 | This article
appeared in the April 21, 2014 edition of The Nation. [With the title, “Power to the City.” --Dick]
·
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio
center, speaks during a panel discussion about the issues facing the nation's
big cities while Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed right, and former Obama advisor and
moderator of the discussion David Axlerod look on in Chicago, Thursday, March,
6, 2014 (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)
As
the gears of federal government have ground to a halt, a new energy has been
rocking the foundations of our urban centers. From
* * *
The Bush years were grim for progressives,
but they did offer one small consolation: the hope that if only a smart and
decent person could ascend to the White House, our politics could be repaired.
Now, after years of destructive austerity and hopeless stalemate, that faith is
dead. People on the left will debate where to lay the blame, but few will
disagree that our federal institutions seem utterly unequal to the challenges
of a country still reeling from economic crisis.
Indeed, our national politics are
so deformed that it’s hard even to imagine the steps necessary to fix things.
Last year, The Boston Globe ran an award-winning series, “Broken City ,”
about the entropy in Washington Washington
At the
city level, though, things are very different. Among those who study
urban governance and those who practice it, there’s an extraordinary sense of
political excitement. An outpouring of books like If
Mayors Ruled the World, Triumph of the City and The Metropolitan Revolutionhymns
urban dynamism. Not all the new urban optimists are on the left, but that’s
where most of the energy is. With the federal government frozen, cities are seizing the initiative and
becoming laboratories for progressive policy innovation. Amid widespread
despair about national politics, cities have become new sources of hope.
“It’s a movement that reflects
the paralyzed nature of the political system in Washington
There’s little chance, for
example, that Congress will give us a living-wage law anytime soon, but the
city of SeaTac in Washington
State just raised its minimum wage to
an unprecedented $15 an hour, and Los
Angeles San
Francisco Richmond , California San Antonio and Denver
With a group of new, progressive mayors in office this year, the
era of big-city liberalism has just begun. In addition to de Blasio, there’s Boston ’s Marty Walsh, Minneapolis ’s
Betsy Hodges and Seattle Murray
·
THWARTED ON THE NATIONAL LEVEL,
SHOULD WE TURN LOCAL?
The essay by Michelle Goldberg,
“Power to the City,” The Nation (April
21, 2014) supports a local focus. She
offers a progressive case for “going local,” since “our national politics are
so deformed,” while throughout the nation “cities are seizing the initiative
and becoming laboratories for progressive policy innovation.” But if our talent turns to local, avoidance
and neglect will surely worsen our national/international deformations, from
unemployment and abusive criminal justice at home to illegal invasion and
torture abroad. Our leaders need
constant pressure from the grassroots on specific international and national
issues and to remind them the USA is supposed to be a democracy. Countless histories of democratic nations
show the crucial importance of public engagement in national politics, if
corruption and tyranny are to be avoided, as Kaye’s account of the rise of
FDR’s New Deal demonstrates. If
democracy at home and international generosity abroad are turned into
plutocracy and empire, because the people abandoned the struggle and turned to
cultivating their local gardens, they must share the blame. –Dick]
WHAT
PROGRESSIVE IS NOT AND IS IN ECONOMICS:
JOSEPH STIGLITZ INTERVIEWED BY BILL MOYERS
MOYERS & CO., AETN, AUGUST 24
Encore:
Joseph E. Stiglitz Calls for Fair Taxes for All
August
21, 2014 | Moyers & Company
The
Nobel Prize-winning economist explains why America’s future prosperity depends
on tax reform today.
Dick’s Notes:
President
Obama, if you seriously care about THE PEOPLE of USA, appoint Stiglitz as your
economic advisor, listen to his analysis and advice, and follow them. His analysis simple, straightforward,
coherent—the self-reinforcing circular movement of money and power in a
plutocracy: The corporations buy control
of Congress to enable them to dodge taxes, make enormous profits, and buy Congress.
All explained in his new pamphlet “Reforming
Taxation to Promote Equity.”
MOYERS & CO., AETN, AUGUST 31
Encore:
How Tax Reform Can Save the Middle Class
August
28, 2014 | Moyers & Company
In
part two of his interview, Joseph E. Stiglitz says corporate abuse of our tax system has
helped make America unequal and undemocratic. But the Nobel Prize-winning
economist has a plan to change that.
Dick’s
Notes:
I.
US economic policies—especially tax
policies—don’t serve the majority of the people, and the inequality is growing.
The tax code is rigged to the
advantage of the 1%, who take but don’t give back fairly. Median income is lower than qtr. Century ago;
while econ soared, 90% of populace stagnated or declined.
II.
The policies are not necessary, not
inevitable, but have been created by the machinations of the rich and powerful
for their own interests
by creation of laws that serve them, laws made
by lawmakers controlled by the rich by campaign contributions, lobbyists,
Supreme Court justices,
by
control of information and myths; e.g., US the land of opportunity: comparison with other developed nations shows
US not land of opportunity; e.g., a tax code which enables the rich to
pay their fair share actually serves the majority best, that is, tax evasion by
the rich—by the code (numerous loopholes, special deductions, rate), by offshore
tax havens-- serves democracy.
But
rich not paying their fair share. All
emphasis on rights of the rich without equal emphasis upon responsibility and
accountability. They are free to spend
unlimited amounts to distort our politics in their favor, with little
punishment for criminal or anti-social behavior. Corporations pay fines as part of costs of
doing business, and few corp execs and shareholders go to jail.
That
is, the condition of the US today is not the result of economics but of politics,
of choices dominated by the rich. The
rich today are protecting their wealth and transferring it to their children
and class. But we should and can
transfer wealth to all by taxing the rich
III.
Applied to Obama and Democratic Party
2014: But will we choose to again pull
back from the brink as we did in the 1930s?
Or has our politics been so changed, money power been so concentrated
into permanent plutocracy (add recent Supreme Court rulings—Citizens United,
McCutcheon) that it is too late?
Read
Stiglitz’ new essay, “Reforming Taxation to Promote Growth and Equity.”
[Eleanor
Roosevelt referred to the Four Freedoms as the “Four Equalities.” Kaye pp. 126 and 250. --Dick]
Seven Key
Takeaways From Joseph E. Stiglitz’s Tax Plan for Growth and Equality
May 30, 2014
·
762
(AP Photo/Henny Ray Abrams)
Taxes pay for roads, schools, firefighters,
Coast Guard rescues and a thousand other goods and services we need for our
society to function.
But taxes also shape our incentives. We tax
things that we deem to be harmful — like tobacco and alcohol — and hand out tax
breaks to encourage things we find beneficial, like research.
According to a new white paper by Nobel
Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz, our labyrinthine tax system is
skewing those incentives. We’re encouraging corporations to invest in creating
jobs overseas, when unemployment remains doggedly high here at home. We’re
giving US-based multinationals good reason t0 deprive our treasury of revenues
when we should be investing in infrastructure and the American people.
The report, prepared for the Roosevelt
Institute, offers seven concrete proposals for reforming our corporate tax
system so it aligns with the greater good. We have excerpted these below. The
full recommendations are available in Stiglitz’s report, Reforming Taxation to Promote Growth and Equity(PDF).
1. Raise Corporate Income Tax
Rates While Providing Incentives for Investments and Job Creation in the US
The implicit assumptions of the advocates of
lower corporate tax rates are that low rates induce more investment and that
high corporate tax rates disincentivize investment. Both theory and evidence
indicate that low corporate tax rates fail to induce investment, but that one
can design a corporate income tax that will promote investment and employment
creation in the US. Such a tax system will require higher tax rates on
corporations that do not invest, accompanied by lower taxes on those that do.
It is the difference in taxation between those who do and those who do not
invest and create jobs that provides the incentives for investment and job
creation.
2. Reduce Spending on Corporate
Welfare
Welfare payments provide assistance to poor
individuals in need. But in the US, we give large amounts of money to rich
corporations that can hardly be viewed as needy. Such payments — mainly hidden
in our corporate tax system — have come to be called corporate welfare.
Corporate welfare consists of the billions —
over a decade, tens and perhaps hundreds of billions — of dollars to enrich the
coffers of corporations, sometimes to protect them from adverse situations (as
in the massive bailout of the banking system, sometimes directly, as in the
current crisis, sometimes indirectly, through the IMF) and other times to
“promote” particular industries. The net beneficiaries of corporate welfare
are, by and large, wealthy Americans — and increasingly wealthy foreigners
(since foreigners are large owners of American corporations) … Both for reasons
of equity and efficiency, the elimination — or at least the reduction — of
corporate welfare should be at the center of tax reform.
3. Tax the Financial Sector
There are good reasons why there should be a
special set of taxes imposed on the financial sector. First, the recession
caused by the misdeeds of the financial sector is a major cause of the current
high level of national indebtedness. Secondly, there is an important role for
“corrective” taxation — taxes that simultaneously raise revenue and provide
incentives for firms not to, for instance, impose externalities on others. The
financial sector has, in fact, imposed huge costs on the rest of the economy.
But in spite of the evidence that it has
imposed large costs on the rest of the economy, the financial sector has been
particularly successful in escaping taxation. We suggest a number of financial
sector taxes that would, we believe, actually increase the likelihood that the
financial sector more efficiently performs the key social functions that it
should perform.
4. Tax on Monopolies and Other
Rent-Based Enterprises
One of the advantages of taxing monopolies
and other rent-based enterprise “profits” at a higher (“surtax”) level is the
absence of adverse supply responses. Indeed, if the response to taxing rent
seeking activities is to decrease the quantity of such activities, the
efficiency of the economy may actually be enhanced. While in some cases it may
be difficult to ascertain the extent to which there are monopoly profits, in
some sectors (such as telecom and cable TV) the magnitudes and associated
distortions are large.
5. Ensure that Multinationals Pay
Their Fair Share of Taxes and Have Incentives to Invest in America
In the current system, we lose not just tax
revenues but also jobs. In the following two subsections, we discuss two ways
by which this problem can be addressed.
·
Tax firms on their global income in a fair
and comprehensive way:In spite of the recent assertions of the
Supreme Court, corporations are not people. One of the ways that they differ
from people is that where they reside can be nothing but a legal fiction. We
can tell where an individual resides – an individual is a resident of the State
of New York if she sleeps 50 percent of nights in New York. But a corporation
can set up an office in the Cayman Islands, claim that as its home, even if
little or none of its business is conducted there, and even if it has few if
any employees there. Our leading technology companies have shown that they can
be as innovative in tax avoidance as they have been in producing new products.
The current system cannot work in a world of globalization.
·
Tax Intellectual Property:Corporations
whose profits are strongly related to intellectual property have been
particularly effective in tax avoidance, partly because it is relatively easy
to claim that the intellectual property was created in, or resides in, a low
tax jurisdiction. This is so even when the intellectual property depends
heavily on basic research paid for by American taxpayers. As we noted earlier,
technology firms, whose very existence depends on the Internet, which itself
only exists as a result of government investments in research and development,
have become emblematic of this kind of “corporate irresponsibility.”
6. Increase Taxes on Industries
That Produce Negative Externalities
Taxes on industries that impose costs on the
rest of society actually increase economic efficiency. It is
better to tax bad things (such as pollution) than good things
(such as work). The market produces too much of some things (such as toxic
mortgages and toxic waste) and too little of others (such as basic research).
Taxes can be particularly effective in
curbing these negative externalities, and in doing so, yield double dividends.
The most important category of corrective taxes are those on environmental
externalities, and within this area, the most important are those
associated with carbon emissions, with their impact on global climate change.
It matters less whether those generating the
pollution pay a carbon tax or buy emission permits that are auctioned.
Either can generate large amounts of money and simultaneously improve economic
performance.
7. Make Dividend Payments Tax
Deductible, But Impose a Withholding Tax
One of the distortions associated with the
current tax regime is that it encourages excessive leverage, which can, in
turn, contribute to excessive volatility. Firms that raise capital through debt
can deduct the interest they pay, but this is not true for the dividends that
firms pay to those who contribute equity. This bias would be eliminated if
dividends were tax deductible. But many of the recipients of the dividends
would, under the current regime, then succeed in avoiding all taxes on this
income, by taking advantage of various provisions in the tax code. Hence we
propose that there be a 40 percent withholding tax. Upper-income Americans who
actually pay taxes on dividends received would then get a full credit for these
taxes that have been withheld. There would then be no double taxation — there
would be an effective integration of the individual and corporate income tax.
Download the entire report, “Reforming Taxation to Promote Growth and Equity,” which
also includes Stiglitz’s plan for reforming the individual income tax.
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WHAT
PROGRESSIVE IS NOT
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In his introduction to Seven
Bad Ideas, Jeff Madrick (Age of Greed) says that economists could
benefit from advice Henry James once gave his students: "Any point of
view is interesting that is a direct impression of life. You should consider
life directly and closely." Madrick's stance is that mainstream
economists rely too heavily on theory that doesn't hold up in practice. To
illustrate and support his position, he explains seven economic principles that have driven policy since the 1970s and
offers evidence of how they have failed not only the American people but
the entire world. If politicians continue to follow these damaging ideas, he
warns, they could hold the United States back for decades.
Throughout the country, most colleges teach the same conservative economic notions, passing these problematic theories along to the future economists; very few include a course on the development of these theories. Madrick says, "history is rarely a cherished discipline among economists, and case studies are too often neglected." Here, he uses historical examples and data to show government's leading role in innovation, the results of deregulation, flaws in low inflation and austerity economics, and the need for community-mindedness in a successful economy. Readers don't need to be finance specialists to understand Seven Bad Ideas. Industry jargon, when used, is clearly explained and Madrick often provides vivid analogies to make the concepts even more accessible. Dishing up more than just blunt criticism, Madrick offers alternate approaches. If there were an eighth bad idea, it would be ignoring this book. --Jen Forbus of Jen's Book Thoughts
Discover: An
intelligent, provocative look at seven dominant economic notions that drive
U.S. policy.
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Knopf, 2014
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This is so true of progressive
orgs as a whole.
To begin with, a note on an inveterate optimist: Ralph Nader, our reigning genius of political possibility (and Seven Stories author
of "Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!" and Told You So, among other titles) has just released,
with Public Affairs Books, Unstoppable. His political imagination on fire yet again, Ralph argues that the American people can get back into
the habit of winning political battles by finding common ground between
progressives and conservatives on certain issues.
BOOKS REVIEWED IN NOS. 1 AND 2
We
find both comprehensiveness and coherence in chronological histories of
liberalism/progressivism; for example,
Harvey Kaye’s The Fight for the
Four Freedoms and Eric Alterman’s The Cause: The Fight for American Liberalism
from Franklin Roosevelt to Barack Obama.
Or by a topical approach like Patrick Garry’s earlier book, Liberalism and American Identify.
Alterman, Eric. The
Cause: The Fight for American Liberalism from Franklin
Roosevelt to Barack Obama.
Roosevelt to Barack Obama.
Garry, Patrick. Liberalism and American Identify
Kaye, Harvey. The
Fight for the Four Freedoms: What Made FDR and the Greatest
Generation Truly Great
Generation Truly Great
Madrick, Jeff. Seven Bad Ideas: How Mainstream Economists
Have Damaged
America and the World
America and the World
Contents Liberal/Progressive Newsletter #1, February 27, 2014
Two
Books:
Garry,
Liberalism and American Identity
Alterman
and Mattson, The Cause. . .from Franklin
Roosevelt to Barack Obama
Articles
Mainly on “Progressives”
Nichols,
2013 Progressive Individuals and Groups
Laura
Flanders, Bill de Blasio (self-proclaimed Progressive)
Dick, The Progressive Magazine
NationofChange
Online on Progressives
Free
Speech TV on Progressives
Paul
Krugman, Centrists
Z Magazine, Self-described Radical
Magazine
Dick, Unitarian Universalist
Association Values
END LIBERAL/PROGRESSIVE
NEWSLETTER #2, Feb. 8, 2015
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