CPD IN THE NEWS

Steve Forbes, editor-in-chief of Forbes Media, isn't too impressed with proposals in Congress to finance transportation spending with tax hikes.

"Uh-oh! Washington is coming down with another tax-and-spend fever," he writes in Forbes magazine. "The cause this time is an old-timer: highway spending. The prospect of ladling out more money for roads even has many Republicans acting like dogs in heat."

The Highway Trust Fund, which finances most transportation programs, is broke, Forbes explains. About 90 percent of the fund's money comes from federal gasoline and diesel taxes. And that's not sufficient now to pay for existing projects.

"What to do? In Washington the answer is almost always more taxes," Forbes says. To finance the fund, politicians want to boost gasoline taxes and levy a tax on companies' foreign earnings.

So what should be done for the highway fund? "Just pump in general appropriations," Forbes recommends. "Then return the fund to its original 1950s purpose: to build and maintain the federal Interstate Highway System, period."

Elsewhere on the economic policy front, Connie Razza, director of strategic research at the Center for Popular Democracy, says that while the Great Recession officially lasted from December 2007 until June 2009, for many Americans, it's still not over.

And that's a good reason for the Federal Reserve to refrain from raising interest rates soon, she writes in The Nation. 

Most economists expect the Fed to lift short-term rates off their record low in either September or December. "A Fed decision to raise rates amounts to a vote of confidence in the economy—a declaration that we have achieved the robust recovery we need," Razza says. 

"But for many millions of Americans, the recovery has yet to arrive, and for them, a rate hike will be disastrous. It will put the brakes on an economy still trudging toward stability, stall progress on unemployment and slow wage growth even more." 

The unemployment rate fell to a seven-year low of 5.3 percent in June, but wages have averaged an annual increase of just 2 percent since the Great Recession ended.

Source: NewsMax Finance

Huffington Post - January 15, 2015, by Robert Borsage - Legislators in the new Congress haven't even cut the curtains for their offices, but it is already clear that the right has no clue and the "center" offers no hope.

Republican Mitch McConnell, newly installed as Senate majority leader, announced that his goal is not to be "scary." House Republican leader John Boehner declared his troops had to prove Republicans can "govern."

But Republicans are already tripping over those low bars. They stuffed the legislative docket with "message" bills to repeal Obamacare, rollback immigration reforms, and cripple agencies that protect the environment (Environmental Protection Agency), consumers (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau), workers (the Labor Department) and taxpayers (cutting the IRS ability to police tax dodgers). They've already proved adept at backroom maneuvers to tuck Wall Street favors in "must-pass" legislation.

The truly "scary" agenda, however, is the legislation that McConnell and Boehner have teed up for bipartisan approval: authorization of the Keystone Pipeline is already on the president's desk; next comes fast track trade authority to grease the skids for the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, corporate tax "reform" that "simplifies" the tax code and lowers rates, and inevitably a budget that will posture on a budget deficit that should be larger while ignoring the debilitating deficits that must be smaller (the public investment and trade deficits). It will starve already inadequate programs for the vulnerable, while larding more on an already bloated Pentagon.

These "bipartisan" measures assume that the best thing to do in a hole is to keep digging. Progressives will have their hands full simply trying to stop the parade of horrors, which will require either Democratic unity in the Senate or firm presidential vetoes -- both less than certain trumpets. Obstructing the horrible, however, necessary, is not sufficient. Republicans already suffer from the absence of any positive agenda. Their pollsters have finally accepted that they must find a populist voice, but thus far that entails not much more than donning a hardhat atop their uptown garb.

Confront and Counter

Progressives must find ways not simply to confront the Republican idiocies, but to counter with a bold reform agenda that commensurate with the size of our problems.

We suffer an economy that does not work for most Americans even in the fifth year of "recovery." This can only happen because the rules have been systematically rigged to favor the few. Changing that reality requires far more than a few sensible reforms. It requires taking on fundamentals at the heart of our economy: transforming our global tax and trade policies, shackling Wall Street, progressive taxes to pay for vital public investment, empowering workers and curbing perverse CEO compensation policies, reviving anti-trust, curbing money in politics, cleaning up Washington, capturing a lead in the green industrial revolution.

In this effort, President Obama will be at best a sunshine general. Hopefully, he will continue to frame vital wage reforms -- calling for lifting the minimum wage and guaranteed sick days and family leave, enforcing overtime, procurement reforms that give preference to "good jobs" employers. He will continue to build his legacy on the environment. But on fundamentals -- trade, Wall Street, public investment, anti-trust and more -- he's more part of the problem than the solution.

At the national level, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Sherrod Brown, Jeff Merkley, Bernie Sanders have begun to take the lead. A broader formal or informal populist caucus in the Senate, and the strengthened Congressional Progressive Caucus in the House can help define and drive big alternatives, with outside allies rallying support and taking the names of the Blue Dog or Wall Street Democrats who don't get it. Major debates -- on trade, on taxes, on budgets -- can be occasions for offering real alternative directions.

The danger here is that the debate turns quickly to framing "message" bills rather than debating fundamental reform. The recent rollout of the Democratic middle-class tax cut shows the perils. The proposal excels for partisan positioning. It offers working Americans real money -- a $2,000 tax cut, paid for by taxes on the banks and the rich. It puts Republicans in a box, since they won't raise taxes to pay for the equivalent. But a tax cut competition with Republicans is something of a mugs game. It accepts the conservative notion that tax breaks offer workers the only hope for a raise. And by devoting progressive taxes to tax cuts, it defaults on addressing our debilitating public investment deficit. If Democrats aren't making the case for rebuilding our starved public sphere -- including basic infrastructure like roads, rail and sewers, providing the basics for schools, investing in R&D -- then we will all suffer.

The debate about agenda should not be left to legislators. The January AFL-CIO convocation on raising wages -- which will be echoed in forums across the country -- provides one example of how progressive groups can help frame and drive the reform debate.

Local Action; National Megaphone

With Washington largely gridlocked, progressives have sensibly turned more attention to driving reform at the state and local level. Given Republican gains at the state level, many of those battles will be defensive, against their assault on unions and worker rights, and their efforts to rollback environmental protection while constricting the rights of women, voters, and the vulnerable.

But in blue states like California and in blue cities even in the midst of red states, progressives should be championing fundamental reforms. Already significant progress has been made in raising the floor under workers -- raising the minimum wage and extending basic worker guarantees. Procurement reforms can offer preference to good jobs employers, and enforce buy America provisions. As California Governor Jerry Brown has shown, states can drive the climate debate, extending state renewable energy standards and providing markets for renewable energy. State taxes could favor companies that maintain less obscene ratios of CEO to worker pay.

None of this will come easy, given the hold of corporate interests over state and local politics. Citizen groups like National People's Action, PICO, Jobs with Justice, LAANE, the Center for Popular Democracy along with labor unions like SEIU and AFSCME are already driving change. What is needed is a coherent strategy to provide a national megaphone that provides local reforms with national attention, demonstrating that progressives are not only on the case, but also on the march.

People in Motion

As the film Selma correctly makes clear about the transformation of civil rights in the 1960s, none of this will get done without people's movements -- people in motion protesting the rigged game and demanding a better deal.

Occupy Wall Street set the stage, awakening Americans and the mainstream media to the Gilded Age inequality that too many had come to accept as natural. The demonstrations of fast food workers and low wage government workers have begun to challenge the Wal-Mart low road in the economy. What progress has been made on immigration reform has come from aggressive popular mobilization. The environmental movement has begun to show its force in the streets. It would be useful to link with money in politics groups to expose and confront the entrenched interests and corrupted politicians that cling to climate denial. Students, graduates and parents should be rallying against the absurdity that getting a college education all say is necessary requires taking on debt burdens that all agree are ruinous.

What the labor movement, the civil rights movement, the women's movement, the gay rights movement, the Latino movements have shown over and over again is one simple truth: Those who benefit from a stacked deck won't call for a new deal. Fundamental change comes only when the oppressed make it impossible to sustain the old order.

2016: Who Is Prepared to Stand?

The mainstream media have already begun their saturation coverage of the 2016 presidential horserace. How will Hillary run? Will she be challenged by Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders or another candidate on the left? Will Bush or Romney consolidate the Republican establishment? Who will emerge on the right? Where is the big money going in both parties?

In this coverage, platforms and reform ideas are contrasted with those of rival candidates, measured only for their potential political effectiveness. Congressional showdowns are measured by their potential effect on "the race." In the lead up to 2016, this is likely to disintegrate into the competitive posturing of ersatz populists. Absent is any measure of the ideas against the scope of the challenges Americans must struggle with everyday.

Filling this vacuum is the imperative for progressives. The real question isn't who is prepared to run, but who is prepared to stand for fundamental reform? This is one reason why progressive challengers in the primaries are so important. Hard-pressed Americans pay little attention to politics or to congressional debates. Presidential primaries often surprise because they are one occasion where, if activists are engaged, a broader public begins to pay attention.

Progressive challengers -- a Bernie Sanders, Jim Webb, Elizabeth Warren or Sherrod Brown -- can force a debate on what it really takes to make this economy work for working people. They can expose the limits of the center reform agenda, and the scope of real alternatives. It would be a true tragedy if 2016 took place without a fundamental debate about the stark reality we face and the presidential contenders plan to do about it.

But again, no challenge in the Democratic Party will have legs unless people are in motion, mobilizing, challenging business as usual, and forcing politicians to get outside of their comfort zone. Dislodging the entrenched interests and big money that dominate our politics won't be easy. It won't happen in one election or with one movement. Democracy, as Bill Moyers has written, isn't easy. But it is our only hope.

Source

Over the past year, millions of workers have earned a raise as a result of the growing boldness of workers and organizers across the country. The success of the Fight for 15 and similar movements is no accident. Rather, it is the product of years of experimentation, perseverance, and creativity—and today, organizers may have finally hit on a powerful formula for helping workers take back some measure of power.

This success stems first and foremost from a basic reality: The economy in its current state is just not working for Americans. Nearly a decade after the 2008 recession, millions of families around the country have yet to be even touched by the recovery. Wages have stayed flat even as worker productivity has soared. Too many are stuck in jobs that don’t pay the bills, working hard and failing to even stay afloat.

Moreover, it has become increasingly clear that their suffering is by design, not a product of simple economics. The bad behavior of major corporations has been a driving force. Walmart and McDonald’s have come under fire for paying workers wages that force them onto public assistance to cover their basic needs. Pharmacy chains like Walgreens “promote” workers to salaried positions that require more hours without the chance at overtime pay. And countless businesses, from pizza chains to car washes, rob workers of an honest day’s pay through different forms of wage theft.

This atmosphere is ripe for the emergence of policies that give workers the pay they deserve. Getting these policies in place, however, requires a fight.

For years, community and labor organizations around the country supported workers by helping them organize themselves, going store by store, employer by employer. More recently, though, organizations such as Make the Road New York, Working Washington, New York Communities for Change, and others have begun to target entire industries—and, in turn, the economy as a whole. Pinning the blame on bad practices that are common to all companies—rather than one individual employer—allowed them to make the case that the problem demanded a widespread response.

Moreover, the demands have grown bigger, escalating from modest increases in the minimum wage to $8.75 to a more ambitious $10.10 and then all the way to $15. And while minimum-wage fights were traditionally separate from those for paid sick days, many organizers realized linking the two made for a far more powerful and galvanizing campaigns. The more ambitious our demands became, the more effective we have become, demonstrating the political salience of transformative demands.

Finally, more money for robust field campaigns was a critical part of the solution. Unions like the Service Employees International Union made a strategic decision to invest big in campaigns that would lift up the needs of all workers—including those who weren’t part of their union, a fundamentally new approach to organizing. As momentum grew, other unions and foundations have joined the cause, recognizing that helping working women and men to stand up for themselves and their families helps the whole economy. This funding has enabled organizations to launch bigger, more ambitious campaigns and to have the firepower needed to win them.

The results have been nothing short of extraordinary. Just a few years ago, when fast-food workers first went on strike in New York City, a $15 wage was unimaginable. This year, it became a reality in two of the largest states in the country—New York and California—affecting nearly nine million workers. Nearly 30 states have taken action to lift their minimum wage above the federal threshold of $7.25—and almost ten have done so for tipped workers. Ten states and more than a dozen cities have passed paid sick days for workers.

In the coming year, more than a dozen states and cities ranging from Wisconsin to Pennsylvania will be seeking a raise for their residents, reaching as high as $15 in many places. And, with half the country concentrated in America’s top 35 metro areas, the impact of these local laws has been disproportionate.

Today, organizers around the country are setting their sights on bigger goals, applying the lessons learned from the push for higher wages. We will be working to improve access to affordable housing, enact fair scheduling reforms that protect workers from unpredictable hours, and reduce the parasitic power and tax avoidance of hedge funds and other major corporations.

Yet individual victories are not enough. To truly convert this energy into lasting change, we will need a unified, nationwide movement that situates economic justice as just one part of a broader agenda of opportunity. And we will need this movement to be rooted in resilient, democratic people’s organizations on the front lines, all across the country.

This weekend, the Center for Popular Democracy is convening a People’s Convention that will bring together thousands of organizers from community groups across the country. The weekend will provide an opportunity to share lessons learned, to strategize together and to harness the energy of the past year into a powerful organized movement for progressive change through the next decade.

By providing the space for community leaders and organizers to begin working as one, we will begin to shift the balance of power back to working families and ensure the voices calling out for a future with dignity and justice will not fade out.

By Andrew Friedman

Source

Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933 was the first U.S. President to use the phrase “my fellow Americans”in an Inauguration speech, according to historian Andrew Bergen, but over the years the catch phrase suggesting all of us being together, like a family, became so common that it lost its impact, if not meaning.

Read the full article here.