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The Far Right Has Given up on America

  By Pennsylvania, Politics

When you demand that businesses reopen immediately and the stay-at-home order ends, and when you are saying the “cure is worse than the disease,” you are basically saying that our country doesn’t work anymore and can’t work anymore. You are saying that the country that defeated Hitler; that went to the moon; that has created extraordinary technology and vibrant art; and that has tried to created a multi-ethnic, multi-racial, pluralistic society that, however much it fails to live up to its ideals, is still widely respected in the world for the attempt, is no longer capable of dealing with a crisis in a way that protects our lives AND restores our economy in a way that is fair to all of us. There are countries in the world that cannot protect their citizens’ lives and economic future (and if we could help ourselves we could, and should, help them.) But… Continue reading

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Statement on HB 2412: Is Real Estate Really Essential?

  By COVID-19

Originally published at KRC-PBPC here. We want to reiterate our opposition to HB 2412 even as amended, a bill to require the secretary of Community and Economic Development to issue waivers to allow real estate-related business activities to continue provided that they adhere to “applicable mitigation measures defined by the CDC…” As we have pointed out, with regard to broader legislation aimed to undermine the preventive health measures required by Governor Wolf there are few commercial activities that do not involve people traveling outside their homes, coming into relatively close contact with others, and passing physical objects, including papers, between them. This certainly includes many activities connected with the buying and selling of real estate. Thus, these activities pose a danger to public health—and whether they should continue or not should be regulated by medical and scientific analysis of how fast the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 is spreading in particular… Continue reading

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A Statement on HB 1776: Property School Tax Freeze Is a Wrong Move for PA

  By Education, K-12 Education in PA

Originally published by KRC-PBPC here. Pennsylvania, like every other state in the country, faces an unprecedented budget crisis at both the state and local levels. It is so unusual that we do not really know how severe it will be. There is still great uncertainty about how far we will fall. And there is also uncertainty about how quickly we will be able to climb out of the hole in state and local revenues caused by the necessary health regulations put in place to limit the impact of COVID-19 on our lives and our health care system. Estimates of the two-year decline in state revenues range from $3 to $7 billion. A recent analysis suggests that the decline in school districts’ revenues could range between $850 million and $1 billion for FY 21. This is a time for all of us, in government office and outside of it, to think… Continue reading

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COVID-19 exposed the cracks in our system. We have to fill them, not just paper them over

  By COVID-19, Public Policy, Published Op-Eds

Originally published in the PA Capitol-Star on April 28, 2020 We can learn a great deal from moments of crisis, not just about ourselves and other people but about our political community.  And that’s very much true of the COVID-19 crisis. The first critical lesson the pandemic teaches us is that in a modern political economy our own good depends on the good of all. While our way of life leaves room for us to advance and fail as individuals, whether we can do so often depends on forces beyond ourselves. Far more than we are often willing to admit, we rise and fall together.<u That is clearly true when it comes to becoming infected by the coronavirus, surviving it, and limiting its impact on our lives. Stay at home rules, business closures, and social distancing are necessary because our chance of becoming infected with the virus depends on how… Continue reading

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The Second Time as Farce: Trump’s Failed Fascism

  By 2020, Fascism, Politics

A conflation of two Facebook posts has given me a little hope today. I first saw someone post that they don’t understand how Trump is seen as a strong man by his supporters when he is so evidently a whiny, complaining, insecure, inarticulate fool desperately pretending to be what he obviously is not and looking for affirmation from everyone. And reading that, I realized that this is almost exactly how I described all the folks complaining about business closures and stay-at-home orders. They pretend to be tough and criticize us “snowflakes” who they say are afraid of the virus. They say that our freedom depends on people like them. And yet they aren’t rushing to do essential, frontline jobs; they don’t seem to care that anyone else is sick or dying or that what they seek might lead to more illness and death; and they are certainly not willing to… Continue reading

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In PA, Worker Protections Ruled “Out of Order”

  By COVID-19

Originally published by KRC-PBPC here. As the Pennsylvania House of Representatives moves toward consideration of legislation that would allow most businesses in the Commonwealth to reopen—legislation we believe is dangerous to the public’s lives and health—House Democrats have proposed amendments that would protect workers who would be forced back to work. They would require that:  the minimum wage for employees be $15 an hour;  employees at risk receive additional hazard pay;  businesses use social distancing and physical barriers to protect workers;  employees have breaks and places with adequate soap and water to wash their hands;  employees have access to hand sanitizer at all times;  employees be granted leave for sickness with compensation at the same rate;  employees be informed by their employer if a coworker has been tested for COVID-19. Yet, astonishingly, Speaker Turzai has ruled these amendments out of order! He is pushing bills to open businesses yet somehow… Continue reading

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Declaring Victory Too Soon Will Cost Too Many Lives

  By COVID-19

Originally published by KRC-PBPC here. All over the Commonwealth today, people are dying in terrible ways from COVID-19—struggling for breath without the comfort of their loved ones by their side. Yet, just as we are slowly reducing the impact of COVID-19 in Pennsylvania, Republicans in the PA House of Representatives are seeking to overturn Governor Wolf’s order to close non-essential businesses. That order, as well as the governor’s order to Pennsylvanians to stay at home, is working. On March 23, when the governor closed non-essential businesses, there were 644 COVID-19 infections in the state and they were increasing at a rate of 34% a day. By April 1, when the stay-at-home order was issued, the rate of increase had come down to 20%. It has since dropped to about 7% a day. And so far in Pennsylvania, 22,833 people have tested positive for the disease, 2,097 are hospitalized, and 507… Continue reading

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Race and COVID-19

  By COVID-19, PBPC Blog posts

Originally published by KRC-PBPC here. Originally published by KRC-PBPC here By Marc Stier and Erica Freeman COVID-19 is like a chemical in which one dips a photographic print—it gradually reveals things you couldn’t see before. It is showing us deeply disturbing and unjust patterns of inequality in the life of our nation and state that too many of us ignore from day today. We have said from the beginning of the pandemic that we’re concerned that the impact of COVID-19 on our health, as well as the impact of the necessary steps to fight the spread of the virus on our economic well-being, would be borne disproportionately by those who have lower incomes, who are Black and brown, who are immigrants, who are seniors, and who are disabled. It’s becoming increasingly clear that COVID-19 is hitting Black and brown people harder than white people. We haven’t found good data for… Continue reading

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Choose Lives Not Money: On a Proposed Amendment A04895 to SB 327, PN 1436

  By COVID-19, PA Economy

Originally published by KRC-PBPC here. Governor Wolf has ordered all Pennsylvanians to stay at home except when necessary to engage in “tasks essential to maintain…the health and safety of their family and household members;” to get “necessary services or supplies for themselves or their family or household members….or to those in need;” to engage in ”outdoor activities” or to “perform work providing essential products and services at life-sustaining businesses….” This order has required the closure of most businesses in the Commonwealth. And that has placed a great burden on the owners of businesses large and small as well as on the employees of those businesses. The Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center has recommended, along with many others, that the Commonwealth and the federal government take many steps to help sustain businesses and their employees during this time. Both the federal and state governments have taken such steps. We will be making… Continue reading

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Tears and Rage

  By Politics

I go back and forth between tears and rage. We are witnessing the greatest failure of political leadership by one person in the history of this country and one of the greatest failures in human history. Tens of thousands of people are going to die. Our economy will suffer immensely, and the burden will fall most heavily on the most vulnerable among us. And why? Because the narcissistic moron who sits in the chair of Washington, Lincoln, and FDR has not, and still will not, prepare for the crisis and take charge of meeting it. The virus was going to affect us. But it did not have to be nearly this bad and in so many ways. Continue reading