Tag: Proposals

McKinney And Green Party Have The Answers

These are the proposals from the candidate and the party.  It is pretty lengthy but deserves to be read.

Pay for the massive transfer of wealth without placing the greater burden on working people and the poor. Those who made huge profits from the financial policies that led to the meltdown should be expected to pay for the major portion of the bailout, through the closing of tax loopholes and repeal of Bush tax cuts for top income earners, caps on CEO salaries and bonuses and on the corporate tax deductability of excessive CEO salaries and bonuses, and recovery of exorbitant payouts that financial industry executives have given themselves in recent decades, as well as a windfall proft tax on oil companies.

In bailing out financial institutions and absorbing their debt, assert the US government’s assumption of equity/ownership over them in exchange (as was done with AIG), and replace the secret negotiations and backroom deals that pervaded the industry with transparency and democratic control. “The Federal Reserve is becoming the lender of last resort. This means that the people are becoming the owners of the primary instruments of US capital and finance. This now means that the people have a say in how these instruments are to be used and what their priorities ought to be. The people should now have more say in how their tax dollars are spent and what the priorities of government and the public sector must be. We the people must now set our demands to ensure and promote the public good,” said Cynthia McKinney in her statement.

Stop appointing Treasury Secretaries, Federal Reserve board members, and other top financial policy-makers whose chief loyalties are to the major financial corporations from which they’re recruited. Restructure semi-private and private institutions like the Federal Reserve, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac to be owned, run, and staffed strictly for the public interest. “[T]he Federal Reserve should operate in the interests of the US taxpayer and not the interests of the private, international bankers that it currently represents. This, of course means that the Federal Reserve, too, must undergo a fundamental ownership and mission change,” said Ms. McKinney.

Impose a moratorium on foreclosures now before increases in the adjustable rate mortgage interest increases take effect; eliminate all adjustable rate mortgages; renegotiate the latter as 30- or 40-year loans; establish new mortgage lending practices to end predatory and discriminatory practices.
Establish criteria and construction goals for affordable housing; massively increase funding for housing programs that assist tenants (e.g., Section 8, public housing) that have been slashed repeatedly since the Reagan Administration. Recognize shelter as a right according to the UN Declaration of Human Rights, to which the US is a signatory.

Redefine credit and regulate the credit industry so that discriminatory practices are eliminated. Fully fund initiatives to eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in home ownership.

Establish a fund to cushion job loss and provide for retraining of those at the bottom of the income scale as the economy transitions.

Increase taxes on corporations so that they pay their fair share and deny federal subsidies to those who relocate jobs overseas. Repeal NAFTA and renegotiate trade agreements so that national and local economies, jobs, human rights, and the environment are protected.

End military-industrial complex handouts. Major cuts in military contracts — especially if combined with a quick withdrawal of US troops and military contractors from Iraq and Afghanistan — will provide a huge windfall.

Downsize the insurance industry. Corporate health insurance is not an essential service and can be replaced with a single-payer national health care program that would drastically cut health care costs, since the profit-taking insurance and HMO middle-men would be eliminated.

Introduce creative ideas to democratize the financial industry, with alternative models such as public banks and insurance firms, consumer/worker ownership of such companies, and restructuring that would use the financial industry to promote conservation projects, transition to non-fossil-fuel energy and ecologically sound infrastructure, and creation of millions of jobs related to these efforts.

any thoughts of these proposals?

Candidates And Health Care

This is a piece written by Perry Bacon Jrin The Trail In WaPo
Barack Obama and John McCain are both proposing more than $100 billion a year in spending for health care, but the candidates’ plans have vastly different goals, and vastly different outcomes. New studies from the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center and the policy journal Health Affairs suggest that Obama’s proposal would eventually cover more than 34 million of the roughly 47 million Americans currently without insurance, while McCain’s would cover at best 5 million uninsured.

Obama’s plan relies on a variety of measures to reduce the number of uninsured, such as increasing the number of people in programs such as Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, requiring all children to have insurance and offering subsidies for people who cannot currently afford insurance.

Obama’s plan was crafted with the intention of creating universal health insurance, although both studies suggest some people would remain uninsured. McCain, meanwhile, touts his plan as one that will rely more on the consumer market to reform health care.

Currently, the value of a person’s health care plan is not taxed, creating essentially a subsidy by the government for health care. McCain would tax health benefits while creating a $5,000 tax credit — $5,000 for families or $2,500 for individuals — to subscribe for insurance coverage. The studies assume that millions of Americans will use this credit to purchase health care and that some businesses will drop employees from their health insurance plans, resulting in some people losing insurance as well.

Both proposals would face an uphill climb to becoming law. Virtually all congressional Democrats are opposed to McCain’s health care vision, which they believe would destroy the employer-based health care system and replace it with one that benefits the young and healthy but not people who are older or sick. (Health insurance companies charge much higher prices for people who are older or have chronic illnesses.)

With the federal budget deficit increasing and a huge list of other projects already proposed, it’s not clear that a Democratic Congress would push through Obama’s health-care plan either. Some congressional Democrats are already touting more modest goals, such as making sure that all children have health insurance.

A very simple look at both candidates and their health care proposals and now you decide which is best.

What Is McCain Really Saying?

“America’s better days are not behind her–they are a head”

That is a cute do nothing little slogan that will impress uninformed voters.

Ask the auto industry who spend their time trying to break unions and screw workers to see the Japanese sneaking up from across the water.  They have fallen way short in the innovation thing.  Ask the homeowner–if they are better off now.  He/she will give a disappointing negative answer to that question.  Ask the single mom that is trying to feed and clothe her children and she will most likely say that there is no bright skies foreseen in the future.

However, McCain was right about something, during the primaries he toild the voters in Michigan that their jobs would not be coming back from overseas.  That was his only truth about the economy so far.

McCain is giving false hope to the voter.  His gas tax proposal is a vote getter–nothing else.  He is gonna be a friend to corporations and the bane of the worker.

Are The Chinese Drilling Off Of Cuba?

This was echoed many times after the McCain proposal to open up the US Coastline for drilling.  But is it true?  This from Factcheck.org:

No. George Will and Vice President Cheney got that wrong. But Cuba has allowed for exploration by at least six other non-Chinese firms in the region and onshore testing and exploration by China’s Sinopec.

While it’s true that as many as 4.6 billion barrels of oil and 9.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas may lie off Cuba’s coast, no country, including China, is drilling for a drop of it. But on June 11, in a speech to the board of directors of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Vice President Dick Cheney claimed, citing columnist George Will, that the Chinese were drilling 60 miles off the coast of Florida:


 Cheney: As for other locations, George Will pointed out in his column the other day that oil is being drilled right now 60 miles off the coast of Florida. But we’re not doing it, the Chinese are, in cooperation with the Cuban government. Even the communists have figured out that a good answer to high prices is more supply.

Cheney was right about one thing: George Will wrote in his June 5 column that “[d]rilling is underway 60 miles off Florida. The drilling is being done by China, in cooperation with Cuba, which is drilling closer to South Florida than U.S. companies are.” But the substance of Cheney’s and Will’s claim is false, according to independent experts, diplomats in the region and elected officials whose states could potentially have been affected by such a deal.

Cuba has leased exploration blocks to foreign companies for areas as close as 60 miles off Florida’s southern coast. A 2006 New York Times article said China was one of the countries that had negotiated an offshore lease. But experts quoted recently by The Associated Press say none of the companies involved are Chinese and all are only allowed to explore for now, not drill in the region. Another exploration deal was announced between Brazil’s state oil company, Petrobras, and Cuba. The deal would allow Petrobras to explore in Cuba’s offshore territories in the Gulf of Mexico, with a potential drilling start-date in two years.

On June 11, the McClatchy Washington bureau reported that China has entered into a deal with Cuba for potential onshore drilling west of Havana. McClatchy also reported that Florida Republican Sen. Mel Martinez said a deal between China and Cuba for offshore drilling is “akin to urban legend.”

Gas Tax Holiday–Are You Kidding?

OMG! McCain has offered a solution to the high cost of gas, that is a summer holiday from the Federal tax on gasoline. But wait, Clinton is offering the same proposal. Thinking…….that alone should tell the voter something…Dem and Repub thinking alike……now that should also show how much change their would be in Washington if either were elected.

Beyond that political comment, let us look at the proposal. I cannot find any economist that thinks that would be a good idea. It would save about $30 over the summer, or about 30 cents a day. In the beginning it would most likely bring the price of gas down, but then demand would shoot up and in this system of supply and demand, prices would raise again. With more driving the amount of pollution would increase. Lastly, it would lessen Federal revenue, at a time that these domestic programs cannot afford a loss of funds.

Now some one please tell me these uninformed people are kidding. And someone please tell me that these people are not running for president.  I have always contended that the anti-christ was the DLC and now they are of a like mind with McCain.  Remind me again of the changes that another Clinton would bring to the table.