Posts Tagged ‘housing’

The Impoverishment of America

Evans Liberal Politics
September 16, 2010

The Impoverishment of America

A Two Part Article Including:
News in Brief: Home Repossessions
Highest Since Crisis Began, and More …
AND
More Americans are Poor than Ever Before, Census Finds

Evans Liberal Politics, September 16, 2010, compilation by Paul Evans:

News in Brief: Home Repossessions
Highest Since Crisis Began, and More …

News in Brief: Home Repossessions Highest Since Crisis Began, and More …, Truthout, September 16, 2010, by Mike Ludwig, excerpt quoted verbatim:

Home Repossessions Highest Since Crisis Began


The number of American homes lost to foreclosure is up 25 percent from the same time last year, and more homes were repossessed by lenders in August than in any month since the start of the mortgage crisis, according to an Associated Press report. The increase in repossessions comes even as overall foreclosure rate continues to slow for the seventh month in a row. Banks are repossessing more and more homes to clear backlogs of bad loans and prepare to start putting repossessed properties back on the market. A total of 95,364 homes were repossessed during the month of August, according to the report.

Microsoft Store

Tax Cuts for Richest Americans Would Add More Debt Than Healthcare Reform


The Senate Republicans’ plan to extend Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans would cost the US treasury $4 trillion over the next decade, according to a Washington Post report. The startling figure comes at a time when Republicans are attacking Democrats for deficit spending. The Congressional Budget Office reports that the plan, which would continue to provide tax breaks on estates worth more than $5 million for individuals, or $10 million for couples, could force the government to borrow trillions of dollars and increase interest payments on national debt to a level four times higher than the projected deficit impact of the healthcare overhaul. The Obama administration has recommended that lawmakers only extend tax cuts to Americans earning less than $250,000 a year.

Polls Show Voter Frustration Does Not Always Benefit Republicans


A recent poll shows that, by a nine-point margin, voters believe Republicans could gain control of both the House and the Senate following upcoming elections. The same voters were split 43 to 43 on which party they planned to vote for, however, which analysts say is a good sign for Democrats. The poll was conducted by Politico and George Washington University. A recent CBS/New York Times poll shows that, while 63 percent of voters are critical of Democratic policies, a total of 73 percent think Republican policies are even worse.

Illegal Drug Use Spikes


The rate of drug use in American rose 9 percent last year to the highest point in nearly a decade, according to a government report obtained by the Associated Press. About 21.8 million Americans reported using illegal drugs during 2009. An increase in marijuana use and dramatic increases in ecstasy and methamphetamine are to blame, according to the report. Critics of marijuana legalization were quick to blame the medical marijuana movement for encouraging more users, but proponents of marijuana legalization argued the ongoing drug war simply fails to prevent Americans from using the highly popular and non-lethal plant. Use of ecstasy and methamphetamine, which are more dangerous and addictive than marijuana, increased by 37 and 60 percent respectively. Cocaine use was down 36 percent from its peak in 2006.

textbookx.com (Akademos, Inc.)

More Americans are Poor than Ever Before, Census Finds


Focus on Poverty and Health Insurance


More Americans are Poor than Ever Before, Census Finds, Common Dreams.org, September 16, 2010, by Tony Pugh, quoted verbatim:

WASHINGTON – The withering recession pushed the number of Americans who are living in poverty to a 51-year high in 2009 and left a record 50.7 million people without health insurance last year, the Census Bureau announced Thursday.

The 43.6 million Americans who were poor in 2009 – up from 39.8 million the year before – was the most since poverty estimates were first published in 1959. The national poverty rate of 14.3 percent, up from 13.2 percent in 2008, was the highest since 1994.

Were it not for federal intervention in the form of extended unemployment insurance benefits, 3.3 million more people would have fallen into poverty last year, said David Johnson, the chief of the Census Bureau’s division on housing and household economics.

Food stamp benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program helped keep 2.3 million more people out of poverty.

Massive job losses and work reductions for hourly employees led the number of uninsured Americans to rise from 46.3 million people in 2008 to 50.7 million in 2009. The number of Americans who have health coverage decreased – from 255 million in 2008 to 253.6 million in 2009 – for the first time since the data began to be measured in 1987.

Most of that decline stemmed from a loss in the percentage of people who have private and job-based coverage. The number of people with either fell from 201 million in 2008 to 194.5 million last year. The percentage with job-based coverage fell from 58.5 percent in 2008 to 55.8 percent last year, the lowest coverage rate since 1987.

As more people lost jobs and were unable to afford private coverage, enrollment spiked in government insurance programs such as Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. In all, the number of people with government-sponsored coverage went from 87.4 million in 2008 to 93.2 million last year.

Census Report on Poverty on the Web:


Census report on income, poverty and health coverage in 2009 (PDF)

Recommended: See One in Three Americans Lacked the Income Needed to “Make Ends Meet” in 2009; Young Adults Among the Hardest Hit, Truthout, September 16, 2010, by Shawn Fremstad.

See The Recession’s Awful Impact, The New York Times, Editorial, September 16, 2010.

See Income, Poverty & Health Insurance, Daily Markets, September 12, 2010, by Dirk Van Dijk: who says businessman cant think straight?

See Statement: Robert Greenstein, Executive Director, on Census’ 2009 Poverty and Health Insurance Data, Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) News Release, September 16, 2010, by Robert Greenstein.

See Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2009, IRP Poverty Dispatch, September 16, 2010, no author given.

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Racism and Crimes Against the Poor After Katrina in New Orleans

Evans Liberal Politics
September 12, 2010

 

Racism and Crimes Against the Poor
After Katrina in New Orleans

 

Evans Liberal Politics, September 12, 2010, by Stephen Lendman, guest columnist. Originally published as Katrina’s Destructive Aftermath, OpEdNews, September 2, 2010, photo of New Orleans jazz musicians from Post Carbon Institute, used with permission, quoted verbatim:

August 29, 2005, a day of infamy remembered less for the storm, catastrophic floods and destruction, and more as a metaphor for disaster capitalism, exploiting security threats, “terror” attacks, economic meltdowns, and “natural” disasters like Katrina.

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It turned this aging senior into a writer and radio host, furious over federal, state and local authorities using it to reward business at the expense of New Orleans’ poor Blacks. Five years later, their lives remain in disarray through no fault of their own.

Levies protecting their neighborhoods were left weak, vulnerable to fail as they did, then Congressman Richard Baker (R. LA) saying, “We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn’t do it but God did,” with considerable willful negligence help.

Malik Rahim, (New Orleans) Common Ground Relief (CGR) co-founder said:

“They wanted them poor niggers out of there and they ain’t had no intention to allow it to be reopened to no poor niggers, you know? And that’s just the bottom line.”

Blank is beautiful. Ethnic cleansing was long-planned, the scheme, of course, to erase poor neighborhoods, replacing them with upscale condos and other high-profit projects on choice city land, New Orleans developer Joseph Canizaro saying, “we (now) have a clean (slate) to start (over and take advantage of) big opportunities.”

A year later, an affected resident spoke for many saying:

“They(‘re) just messing all over us. Putting me out of our own house. We (try going) back and when we get there they got the police there putting us out….they ain’t letting nobody in….but where (am I) going to go – me and my kids?”

Rahim calls New Orleans two cities, one “for the white and rich, (the other) for the poor and Blacks. (The former) recovered. They had a Jazz Fest….a Mardi Gras….But for those who haven’t recovered, there’s nothing.” Most haven’t been allowed back. Their neighborhoods were stolen for development, Katrina a chance to wage class warfare against them, no match for predators turning tragedy into profit.

It’s a familiar pattern nationwide and in war zones like Iraq and Afghanistan, commerce following the flag abroad and exploiting natural disasters at home, complicit politicians easing “free market” solutions for the privileged.

Though no match against dark, entrenched forces, Rahim’s Common Ground Relief fought back. Founded right after Katrina in the Lower 9th Ward, it’s a volunteer not-for-profit organization running numerous projects, including new home construction, free medical and legal help, education for school children, community gardening, a women’s shelter, job training, wetlands restoration, food security and environmental science.

By mobilizing people to work together against long odds, it provides hope through “short term relief for victims (and) long term support in rebuilding” destroyed communities. In the Lower 9th alone, 14,000 people and 4,800 homes were affected, most residents with longstanding neighborhood roots, enjoying “the highest percentage of African American home ownership of any city” in America. Losing them meant “the disappearance of (their) major asset, economic livelihood and, as a result, their future.”

Much Pain Remains in Post-Katrina New Orleans

Bill Quigley is a longtime activist/Law Professor, Center for Constitutional Rights Legal Director, and former Loyola University, New Orleans Director of the Law Clinic and Gillis Long Poverty Law Center.

Three years post-Katrina, his aftermath assessment was disturbing but unsurprising, including:

  renters getting no financial aid;

  rental homes not repaired;

  unaffordable housing for poor and low income people because rents, on average, rose 46%;

  no rebuilding plans for destroyed public housing;

  thousands of poor neighborhood homes demolished to prevent residents from returning;

  half the city’s public schools destroyed, replaced by privatized ones; today, 75% are for-profit, favoring Whites, shutting out Blacks;

  all unionized city school employees fired, then selectively rehired for less pay and few or no benefits;

  displaced Blacks entirely disenfranchised;

  four of the 13 city Planning Districts as much at flood risk as before Katrina;

  only 11% of Lower 9th families returned, the community formerly one of the richest culturally, now destroyed by design; today about 20% are back;

  25% of hospitals gone and 38% fewer beds available;

  thousands still living in temporary trailers; many others displaced across other states, still unable to return;

  72,000 vacant, ruined or unoccupied houses;

  the city’s Black population reduced by half;

  thousands of their children never returned to public schools;

  new hurricane protection construction barely started, and much more, the city wrecked for corporate predators, the poor exploited for profit.

Katrina Pain Index 2010 New Orleans


In his early August article titled, “Katrina Pain Index 2010 New Orleans,” Quigley, Davida Finger and Lance Hill updated the disturbing picture, saying:

photo of an impromptu parade of New Orleans jazz musicians in the street

“….tens of thousands of (New Orleans) homes….remain vacant or blighted. Tens of thousands of African American children who were in the public schools (aren’t) back, nor have their parents been able to return.” The metro area lost over 140,000 people, the city itself over 100,000. “Thousands of elderly and displaced people (were affected). Affordable housing” is in short supply, poor and low income people forced either to pay up or do without.

Displaced residents were scattered across the country, in as many as 5,500 cities, “the largest concentrations in Houston, Dallas, Atlanta and San Antonio.” Most are women. “A third earn less than $20,000 a year” – for a family of four, it’s below the Census Bureau’s $22,000 poverty threshold and well below minimum needs in any US metropolitan area.

In addition, one fourth of area housing is either vacant or blighted, “by far the highest” US rate. As a result, about 58% of city renters and 45% of suburban ones pay “more than 35 percent of (their) income on housing.” Above 30% is unaffordable, forcing families to do without, including for essentials like enough nutritious food and health care, less available to poor people throughout the country, especially in New Orleans where the official poverty rate is double the national average. The unofficial one is even higher, given the indifference to Blacks communities five years post-Katrina.

In greater New Orleans, everything they need is in short supply, including schools, medical care, jobs, public assistance, and affordable housing, the number of public apartments down 75%. Destroying them was planned, upscale properties intended for well off White folks. Blacks aren’t wanted.

The same holds for schools, mostly privatized, 85% of their students White in a formerly Black majority city. No longer, and a result, less public ones accommodate 43% fewer students, poor Blacks most affected. They also get less public assistance, fewer social services overall, or none at all.

The entire region was affected, nearly 100,000 square miles of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama communities destroyed or heavily damaged. Over one million people were permanently displaced. Hundreds of thousands lost everything, compounded by the spring Gulf disaster, the greatest ever environmental crime, potentially affecting the lives and livelihoods of millions.

Billions of dollars in promised aid never arrived, going instead for luxury hotels, casinos, private clubs, the oil industry and gentrification, the polite term for dispossessing poor communities, replacing them with upscale ones for the rich and well off, a similar pattern across the country, especially impacting Blacks and Latinos. They’re victimized by class warfare under Democrat and Republican administrations, destroying the lives of millions. An uncaring nation left them on their own and out of luck.

New Orleans is a metaphor for as bad as it gets, poor Black communities devastated and ignored, most of the two hardest hit still uninhabited – the Lower 9th and St. Bernard Parish back to less than one fourth of pre-Katrina levels.

After it hit, FEMA provided 120,000 trailers throughout the region. Now, they’re gone, sold at public auction, some to families using them. On August 20, Newsweek said only 860 Louisiana families were still accommodated, excluding buyers still in theirs.

Getting no federal, state or local help, others now pay unaffordable rents, live in destroyed or damaged houses, double up with relatives, or go homeless, the numbers twice the pre-Katrina rate, south Louisiana’s social infrastructure gutted to displace Blacks for preferred Whites.

Even New Orleans levee rebuilding isn’t finished, the Army Corps of Engineers estimating completion by late summer or early fall 2011 at the earliest. Some experts say the new system still won’t protect adequately against another major hurricane.

New Orleans Now for the Privileged Only


Post-Katrina, New Orleans bears testimony to a callous, uncaring nation. “America the beautiful” is for the privileged alone – no one else, especially people of color, the poor and disadvantaged, “The Big Easy” their ground zero.

Stephen Lendman is a retired progressive businessman born in 1934, concerned about all the major national and world issues, and committed to speak out and write about them. He lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

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Related News on New Orleans and Katrina


Evans Liberal Politics has scoured the web to find you interesting and informative content on Katrina and it’s aftermath and New Orelans’ recovery:


Obama visits New Orleans on Katrina anniversary, MSNBC, August 30, 2010, by WPMI-TV, excerpt quoted verbatim:

NEW ORLEANS (AP) – President Barack Obama celebrated New Orleans’s revival from Hurricane Katrina on Sunday in a visit symbolizing common purpose with residents in the continuing struggle to protect and rebuild the Gulf Coast. The president visited a local institution in the once-flooded midcity, the Parkway Bakery and Tavern, en route to a speech at Xavier University. Obama came to the Gulf five years to the day from when Katrina roared ashore in Louisiana and flooded 80 percent of the city. Joined by his family, Obama mingled with customers at the midcity landmark, posed with an engaged couple and ordered a shrimp po-boy from the counter of the sandwich shop that was under six feet of water after Katrina hit. Still on his plate: an address checking off what’s been done and remains to be done after both Katrina and the Gulf oil spill. More than 1,800 people along the Gulf coast died in the storm, mostly in Louisiana.

Also see Obama Visits New Orleans for Katrina Anniversary, The Epoch Times, August 29, 2010, by Paul Darin.

Five years after Katrina, New Orleans is still in recovery, NBC Nightly News, August 26, 2010, by NBC, with timeline and many features.

No Death Penalty For Officers Charged With Hurricane Katrina Shootings, HipHopWired, September 12, 2010, by Daniel Canada, quoted verbatim:

The death penalty has been ruled out as an option for four former New Orleans police officers charged with unlawfully killing victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Prosecutors disclosed the decision on Friday to not seek the death penalty for the officers charged with killing unarmed civilians on the city’s Danzinger Bridge.

As previously reported, former officer Michael Lohman admitted that he and his fellow officers launched a grand scheme to cover up the killing of unarmed civilians on the Danziger Bridge six days after the hurricane.

The shooting left four people injured and Lance Madison and his 40-year-old mentally disabled brother, Ronald, dead

Prosecutors have not said why capital punishment was ruled out as an option.

The Truth About New Orleans After Katrina, About.com Guide, no date, by Sharon Keating.

Recommended: Dramatic Then-and-Now Photos of Hurricane Katrina, AOL.com, August 28, 2010, by AOL News.

Hopeful: How music helped save New Orleans after Katrina, Post Carbon Institute Energy Bulletin, August 8, 2010, by Olga Bonfiglio.

Special Feature: Katrina — Storm That Drowned a City, PBS Nova, with many features and an hour-long program you can watch.

Also see New Orleans after Katrina, Los Angeles Times Editorial, August 28, 2010, (staff).

Also good: Photo Gallery: Katrina Then and Now, National Geographic, August 27, 2010, by Janielle Nanos

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SIGTARP REPORT: Taxpayer Support Of Wall St. = $3.7 Trillion

Evans Liberal Politics
July 22, 2010

 

SIGTARP REPORT: Taxpayer Support
Of Wall St. = $3.7 Trillion

 

SIGTARP REPORT: Taxpayer Support Of Wall St. = $3.7 Trillion, Daily Kos, July 21, 2010, by Bob Swern, used with permission, quoted verbatim:

The next time someone tries to sell you the Wall Street propaganda–you see it in diaries on the Rec List around here, from time to time, as well–that the banks are paying off their bailouts, and our deeply-captured (by the status quo) government is going to, somehow, miraculously make a profit on this ongoing historical fleecing of its citizens, show them this just-published chart from Special Inspector General Neil Barofsky’s office (from the SIGTARP report linked in the LA Times story, below): Incremental Financial System Support By Federal Agency Since 2007.

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In fact, just 12 days ago, when it was noted by yours truly that another diary on the Rec List was reprinting a story that falsely claimed that taxpayers were going to make a profit from the Wall Street bailout, a lot of people here were quite dismayed by this inconvenient reality.

The truth is that, as of the end of June (according to the Special Inspector General’s Office), the bailout (ex-housing) has put taxpayers on the hook for over $2 trillion. If you include housing/mortgage industry supports, the number almost doubles to $3.7 trillion.And, if anyone thinks the support of the mortgage industry is providing massive benefits to homeowners, the reality is the primary beneficiaries of those related programs are the large mortgage underwriters, taking their vig these days, and then selling through their mortgages to…us–at last check, the government was the ultimate underwriter of 96.5% of all mortgages in this country. (In another diary posted the day prior to the one linked, above, I pointed out a Federal Reserve white paper that was published in 2004 which discussed the concept of the Fed providing mortgage underwriting services directly to consumers,  bypassing the traditional middlemen/banks, entirely, and saving U.S. homebuyers a significant chunk of cash, as a result of that new effort.)

Also, about that other Wall Street meme that the FDIC is supported by the banks, I would imagine that by sometime around 2030 or 2040, the banks may get around to digging themselves out of their FDIC hole; but, until then, taxpayers are holding those notes, too. (But, that’s just my opinion, right?)

Here’s the truth…and, as we all know, no matter how much some might try, ultimately, you cannot hide from that

Report: Housing aid boosts total U.S. financial-system support to $3.7 trillion
Tom Petruno
LA Times
July 21, 2010      11:41 am – Despite the winding-down of most of the government’s aid programs for the financial system this year, total federal support for the system now is 23% greater than it was a year ago, the Treasury’s watchdog for bailout plans said in a report to Congress on Wednesday.

Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, said the government was on the hook for $3.7 trillion in support as of June 30, up from $3 trillion a year earlier.

Even as banks have been repaying the money the Treasury invested in them under one of the main TARP programs approved in 2008, U.S. aid to the housing market has ballooned, Barofsky’s report said. The increase has mainly come in the form of more capital for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and loan guarantees for various federal mortgage programs such as those of the Federal Housing Administration.

Barofsky “Notwithstanding [the] scaling back of TARP, an examination of the broader context demonstrates that the overall governmental efforts to stabilize the economy have not diminished,” the report said.

Thanks to Bob Swern for permission to republish his articles on an ongoing basis. You can see his blogroll at Daily Kos here. Email Bob Swern here.

See Bernanke Unleashes the Bears: No Fed Plans to Give More Support, Bernanke Says, The New York Times, July 21, 2010, by Sewell Chan:

WASHINGTON — The chairman of the Federal Reserve, in saying that it had no immediate plans to provide additional support to the economy, dashed the hopes of some economists and executives who have been pushing for action to add momentum to the sluggish recovery.

See The Wall St. Bill Doesn’t Protect Us From Banker Abuse: 5 Essential Reforms Are Still Needed, AlterNet, July 21m 2010, by Zach Carter.

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Credit Where Due, Geithner

Evans Liberal Politics
March 19, 2010

 

Credit Where Due, Geithner

 

Credit Where Due, Geithner, The Nation, March 16, 2010, by Laura Flanders, quoted verbatim:

Be Sure to Watch the Video

We talked about the economy today, and whether Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner deserves more credit. What he should be getting credit for, it seems to me, is that Lehman Brothers report — well, not the report, but the cover-up.

To give you the thumbnail sketch, a court-appointed bank examiner spent a year researching the fall of Lehman — the trigger for the bailout crisis. As it turns out, surprise surprise, the accounting at Lehman was, to put it mildly, shifty… and our guests aren’t the only ones asking what did Geithner know and when did he know it?

Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism is noting, “The NY Fed, and thus Timothy Geithner, were at a minimum massively derelict…”

Mike Whitney over at CounterPunch is faking disbelief: “Is there really any doubt that Tim Geithner at the New York Fed, or Bernanke knew that Lehman was trading its junk assets to finance its on-going operations?”

If Geithner and Bernanke didn’t know what was going on at Lehman, that’s bad. If they knew, that’s worse. One way, you’ve got to wonder why they’re still in work. The alternative is that it was all part of some bigger, nastier scam, which transferred huge amounts of wealth from taxpayers back to the very banks that created the crisis.

They shouldn’t just be out of work, quite possibly, Geithner or Bernanke (or both) should be in the clink. We learned long ago that this President can cut bait when he thinks it’s called for. Candidate, then president Obama has broken with his preacher, his green jobs guru, his social secretary. The last, Desiree Rogers, apparently got the boot for letting gatecrashers into last fall’s first State Dinner.

If she can get the boot for letting strangers into a feast, surely Bernanke and Geithner should get at least that for covering up for the banks who ate up our whole economy? Or does Obama only get tough with homies?

The F Word is a regular commentary by Laura Flanders, the host of GRITtv which broadcasts weekdays on satellite TV (Dish Network Ch. 9415 Free Speech TV) on cable, and online at GRITtv.org and TheNation.com. Follow GRITtv or GRITlaura on Twitter.com.

MSNBC: Lehman Brothers
Cooked the Books, Jail Geithner, Jail Fuld


John Kasich: Lehman Brothers Crisis Explained

Evans Liberal Politics
March 14, 2010

 

Candidate John Kasich
Lehman Brothers Crisis Explained


Kasich is running for Ohio Governor
(heck I’d take Bob Taft in a minute over Kasich)

Sunday Noon Headlines


Obama’s Health Care Legacy Hangs on 216 House Votes, Truthout, March 14, 2010, by James Rosen of McClatchy Newpapers.

Obama Delays Asia Trip as Dems Wrangle Health Care Votes, ABC News Good Morning America, March 12, 2010, by Jake Tapper: a little old but right on target.

$657M Settlement Reached With Ground Zero Workers, ABC News blog, March 12, 2010, by Aaron Katersky

Talking Points Memo DC Saturday News Round-up, March 12, 2010, by Justin Elliot.

Axelrod: Israel Settlement Approval an ‘Affront’; ‘Insult’, ABC News Political Punch, March 14, 2010, by Jake Tapper, excerpt quoted verbatim:

The President’s top adviser David Axelrod told me that approval of new housing units by Israel in the Arab section of Jerusalem during Vice President Biden’s trip there last week was an “affront” and an “insult”. “What it did was it made more difficult a very difficult process,” Axelrod said in my “This Week” interview. Axelrod added that the move “seemed calculated to undermine” the so-called proximity talks going on between the Palestinians and the Israelis.

Axelrod said a clear message was delivered to Israel over the flap. “Israel is a strong and special ally. The bonds run deep. But for just that very reason, this was not the right way to behave. That was expressed by the secretary of state, as well as the vice president. I am not going to discuss what diplomatic talks we’ve had underneath that, but I think the Israelis understand clearly why we were upset and what, you know, what we want moving forward.”

The issue, Axelrod said, is a “flare point throughout the region” and puts U.S. interests at risk. “It is important for our own security that we move forward and resolve this very difficult issue,” Axelrod said.

The U.S. Senate and Bunning’s Universe

Evans Liberal Politics
March 5, 2010

 

The U.S. Senate and Bunning’s Universe

 

Senator Bunning’s Universe, © The New York Times, March 4, 2010, by Paul Krugman, excerpt quoted verbatim:

HINT: to share, print or save as a .pdf, load each individual article from the topmost article titles in dark blue. ~Evans Liberal Politics owner Paul Evans.

So the Bunning blockade is over. For days, Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky exploited Senate rules to block a one-month extension of unemployment benefits. In the end, he gave in, although not soon enough to prevent an interruption of payments to around 100,000 workers.


But while the blockade is over, its lessons remain. Some of those lessons involve the spectacular dysfunctionality of the Senate. What I want to focus on right now, however, is the incredible gap that has opened up between the parties. Today, Democrats and Republicans live in different universes, both intellectually and morally.

Take the question of helping the unemployed in the middle of a deep slump. What Democrats believe is what textbook economics says: that when the economy is deeply depressed, extending unemployment benefits not only helps those in need, it also reduces unemployment. That’s because the economy’s problem right now is lack of sufficient demand, and cash-strapped unemployed workers are likely to spend their benefits. In fact, the Congressional Budget Office says that aid to the unemployed is one of the most effective forms of economic stimulus, as measured by jobs created per dollar of outlay.

But that’s not how Republicans see it. Here’s what Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate, had to say when defending Mr. Bunning’s position (although not joining his blockade): unemployment relief “doesn’t create new jobs. In fact, if anything, continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work.”

In Mr. Kyl’s view, then, what we really need to worry about right now — with more than five unemployed workers for every job opening, and long-term unemployment at its highest level since the Great Depression — is whether we’re reducing the incentive of the unemployed to find jobs. To me, that’s a bizarre point of view — but then, I don’t live in Mr. Kyl’s universe.

And the difference between the two universes isn’t just intellectual, it’s also moral.

Bill Clinton famously told a suffering constituent, “I feel your pain.” But the thing is, he did and does — while many other politicians clearly don’t. Or perhaps it would be fairer to say that the parties feel the pain of different people.

During the debate over unemployment benefits, Senator Jeff Merkley, a Democrat of Oregon, made a plea for action on behalf of those in need. In response, Mr. Bunning blurted out an expletive. That was undignified — but not that different, in substance, from the position of leading Republicans.

Consider, in particular, the position that Mr. Kyl has taken on a proposed bill that would extend unemployment benefits and health insurance subsidies for the jobless for the rest of the year. Republicans will block that bill, said Mr. Kyl, unless they get a “path forward fairly soon” on the estate tax.

Now, the House has already passed a bill that, by exempting the assets of couples up to $7 million, would leave 99.75 percent of estates tax-free. But that doesn’t seem to be enough for Mr. Kyl; he’s willing to hold up desperately needed aid to the unemployed on behalf of the remaining 0.25 percent. That’s a very clear statement of priorities.

So, as I said, the parties now live in different universes, both intellectually and morally.

Read the full article, here. Paul Evans: I know this article makes terrible, strong accusations. I just wanna know: how does the Republican Congress leadership sleep at night??? Does suffering mean nothing to them?

Four Years After Katrina Obama Visit Highlights Inequality in New Orleans

Evans Politics, October 16, 2009

President Barack Obama: ‘We will build it stronger than before’, NOLA.com, October 15, 2009, by Bill Barrow of The Times Picayune, excerpt quoted verbatim:

“President Barack Obama, making his first visit Thursday to Louisiana since becoming the nation’s 44th chief executive, told a spirited crowd at the University of New Orleans that he will help build a stronger Gulf Coast than the one Hurricane Katrina and broken levees wrecked four years ago.

“‘I promise you this — whether it’s me coming down here or my cabinet or other members of my administration — we will not forget about New Orleans,’ Obama said. ‘We are going to keep on working. Together, we will rebuild this region, and we will build it stronger than before.’

“Obama also used the four-hour visit, which also included a stop at the Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School in the Lower 9th Ward, to praise the city’s spirit and its example for rest of the nation.

“‘I remember four years ago, right after the storm, a lot of people felt forgotten,’ he told hundreds of youngsters at the school. But now, he said, the campus represents progress in a neighborhood that became a symbol of the destruction.

“At UNO, Obama said, ‘It is always an inspiration to spend time with the men and women who have reminded the rest of us what it means to persevere in the face of tragedy and rebuild in the face of ruin. That’s the story of this recovery, your unbending resilience. That doesn’t start in Washington, that starts right here.’

“Yet considering that the White House billed the trip as the president’s opportunity to hear about and see for himself the city’s progress, and for all the subsequent criticism locally that his time on the ground was insufficient, the public forum was dominated by issues other than the hurricane recovery and protection.

“When the president called on raised hands among the 1,500 or so attendees who won tickets in an online lottery, he got one question about delayed FEMA reimbursements. The president used a question about the environment and global warming to mention coastal restoration, and he tied a question on education back to the King charter school and New Orleans’ overhaul of public education since the storm.” ….

Read the full article, here.

Recommended: In New Orleans, Obama fires back at critics, Reuters, October 16, 2009, by Matt Spetalnick.

See Obama: New Orleans will be better than ever, MSNBC, October 15, 2009, by The Associated Press.

See the website of the City of New Orleans.

Visit the more controversial NOLA.com.

See the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers IPET Risk and Vulernability Report.

*****

New Orleans: a Promise Unfulfilled

Commentary by Paul Evans

The 9th Ward in New Orleans is symptomatic of those who have been excluded in Federal aid programs for the city, overall. In Dear Mr. President: Locals have wish list for Obama’s visit, NOLA.com, October 14, 2009, by Gordon Russell, some of the inequality in the rebuilding of New Orleans is presented. It is all very well to highlight progress of a charter school in the 9th Ward, but most of that area has not in any sense of the imagination seen any kind of full recovery.

It seems to me that I remember, four years ago, a decision was made that this area was too vulnerable and would not ever receive much funding to be rebuilt. But the people came back to the only world they ever knew, and did what they could to pick up the pieces and did TRY to rebuild. There had been talk of using authoritarian powers and preventing folks from rebuilding there. Instead, we see half-rebuilt houses and people living in terrible circumstances. These people are living in some kind of limbo because the government will not forcibly resettle them, yet will not, basically, help with rebuilding. Somebody needs to step up to the plate for these people. High flown speeches and a token charter school aren’t doing the job.

It does seem like, unlike the Bush administration’s response in the aftermath of Katrina, the inequality we now see in Federal and other programs for rebuilding poorer areas of the city (which are primarily in low-lying areas), have less to do with “haves and have nots,” and more to do with decisions that have been made as to areas which are too vulnerable to receive aid. These areas are being left to “wither on the vine.” In a second Katrina – which was a 500 year storm, while the New Orleans levees as currently constituted can only handle a 100 year storm – areas like the 9th Ward would again be submerged. A decision has been made to not much aid rebuilding here. But the area’s people suffer….

What is needed is a more creative, compassionate response for these people and others like them.

A different sort of example in New Orleans is “the site of of the old ‘Big Four’ housing complexes, which were torn down after the storm and still mostly awaiting renewal.” This is NOT a question of storm vulnerability. Here money is simply not being provided for low-income housing in an area which cries out for it. We see the same thing all over this nation. Low income housing is terribly neglected. There are billions for a smart energy grid, yet poor people suffer: it isn’t right, Mr. President.

As a nation, we need a more compassionate response to the suffering of low-income people. The only future they seem to have now, under Obama as before, is one of hunger, suffering and inadequate response. Is this the response of a Christian nation towards its less fortunate sons and daughters??…. We need a response “closer to the heart.”

Here is a video, full of promise, from BarackObama.com on August 27, 2007. Keep in mind, this was two years ago. The promise which candidate Obama made to New Orleans’ people remains mainly unfulfilled. (That’s not to say he’s not doing a better job than W. did – it’s a question of priorities, in my opinion, misplaced priorities.) Why is this happening? Because to the nation’s elite, to that upper one percent of movers and shakers, in reality, it just doesn’t matter  that much. As a nation, we can and we must do better.

See Critics question whether new New Orleans public housing will meet needs, NOLA.com, December 8, 2008, by Katy Reckdahl.

See How much affordable housing does New Orleans have, and how much does it need?, NOLA.com, October 10, 2009, by Katy Reckdahl.

See Affordable housing hits a wall in time of rising need, Christian Science Monitor, February 6, 2009, by Jeremy Kutner.

Obama: Rebuilding New Orleans, Two Years Later

Where Is the Light of Hope for New Orleans’ Poor?

America, Where is Your Christian Charity?