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STATEMENT: On the Murder of Tyre Nichols

  By White Supremacy and Structural Racism

The murder of Tyre Nichols by five Memphis police officers took place in another state far from Pennsylvania. But it reveals a basic truth about structural racism in policing that sadly characterizes every state in the entire country, including Pennsylvania. Black people are not the only ones who are unjustly attacked and murdered by police officers. But the evidence is clear that they are disproportionately the victims of unjustified police violence. That violence is a product of a deeply flawed approach to public safety, one that asks police forces to maintain order in communities that are afflicted by social ills and economic distress that are beyond their capacity to address. A product of police forces is that, in response to the impossible task placed on them, they can adopt procedures and policies that too often create a toxic relationship between them and the communities they have pledged to serve—one that… Continue reading

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Testimony to Speaker Rozzi’s Workgroup on House Rules

  By Legislative Politics and Rules, PA Budget and Policy Center, Pennsylvania, Politics

Testimony by Marc Stier, director of the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, to Speaker Rozzi’s Workgroup on House Rules. St. Joseph’s University, Friday, January 27, 2023 My name is Marc Stier. I’m the director of the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, and I live in the Mt. Airy section of Philadelphia. I want to thank you, Speaker Rozzi, and the members of the workgroup for creating this opportunity for the people of Pennsylvania to speak out about the rules of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. This process has been criticized by those who say that it is delaying the start of the legislative session. But what is more important for the House of Representatives to undertake now than to fix the rules that have too often led to undemocratic results in Harrisburg? Our organization believes that there are two fundamental problems with the way the House has operated in the… Continue reading

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STATEMENT: Protect Medicare and Social Security

  By Health Care, PA Budget and Policy Center, Social Justice, Social Security, Statements

Statement by PBPC director Marc Stier at a press conference with US Representatives Brendan Boyle and Mary Gay Scanlan, and Dan Adcock, policy director of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, held in Philadelphia on January 23, 2023.  If you are a member of the U.S. House of Representatives or a political junkie, you probably found yourself alternately transfixed, astounded, and disgusted earlier this month at the spectacle of the Republican House members trying to pick a speaker of the House. And you were subjected to speech after speech by MAGA Republicans who said that Washington, DC, is broken. They kept saying that something was wrong—but they weren’t very specific about it. I want to tell you today what is broken in Washington, DC. What is broken is that one of our two major political parties is dominated today by MAGA Republicans. It’s not just the 20… Continue reading

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STATEMENT: On The Inauguration of Governor Josh Shapiro

  By PA Budget and Policy Center, Statements

For Immediate Release January 17, 2023 Contact: Kirstin Snow, Communications Director, Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center snow@pennbpc.org Statement by PA Budget and Policy Center director Marc Stier on inauguration of Governor Josh Shapiro The Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center welcomes our new governor Josh Shapiro. We are gratified that his inaugural address embraced many of the progressive ideals we and he have long championed. We look forward to working in a collaborative way with him, with his administration and with the Democratic and Republican leaders of the General Assembly in support of these shared ideals. Continue reading

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Climate Change, COVID, and Y2K: Thinking About Time and Causality

  By Climate Change, Philosophy

Sometimes I wonder how the human race as a whole, especially those of us in the so-called advanced countries, can be so unimaginably slow in recognizing the danger of global warming. There are, of course, many examples in history of civilizations and societies that did themselves in by engaging in practices, such as over-farming in ways that leads to the death of or erosion of vital lands. But this has typically happened to civilizations and societies that had no technological capacity to look ahead and see the long-term consequences of what they were doing. We have that capacity. Yet we are moving slowly, and possibly far too slowly to deal with global warming. Obviously, the political interest of the wealthy fossil fuel industry is a major barrier. And so is the anti-government ideology of the far right. But it has occurred to me from time to time that human beings… Continue reading

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3 amendments

  By Constitutional Law and Civil Liberties, PA Constitutional Law, We The People–PA

Republican members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly are determined to move three highly controversial and deeply problematic constitutional amendments through the General Assembly this month and put them before the people in the May primary election. We strongly oppose this effort for three reasons. First, We The People–PA agrees with House Speaker Rozzi and Governor Wolf that the only amendment that deserves immediate consideration is the one to give victims of sexual abuse an opportunity to seek justice in the courts. Many who were abused as children were blocked from pursuing legal action after the age of 30 by a statute of limitations provision in state law. Recognizing how emotionally difficult it is for people abused as children to pursue justice—especially at a time when public recognition and support for them was lacking—the Pennsylvania House and Senate, with substantial bipartisan support, voted twice to put a constitutional amendment on the… Continue reading

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STATEMENT: PA Senate Hijacks Justice for Sexual Abuse Survivors With Passage of Constitutional Amendments Package

  By Pennsylvania, Republicans, Statements

In passing SB 1, the Pennsylvania Senate has hijacked the issue of providing relief to victims of sexual abuse to pass other constitutional amendments. It used a noncontroversial, bipartisan proposal to help pass controversial and partisan amendments that are bad policy and the subject of litigation. The proposal to provide a window for sexual abuse survivors to sue their abusers is an important step toward justice. We strongly support it. The other amendments do not serve the people of Pennsylvania but the political goals of one party. One of the partisan amendments would require voters to submit a government-issued ID every time they vote, even mandating that they provide copies of their IDs along with their mail ballots. We know that requiring a government-issued ID would make it impossible for some people to vote. This would disproportionately affect seniors and Black voters. Requiring voters to include a copy of their… Continue reading

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Hoist Meet Petard

  By Congress, Politics

In order to secure support from the 20 craziest  members of the Republican (as opposed to the crazy members who support him), Kevin McCarthy has been agreeing to various proposals that will weaken the power of the party leadership. While we don’t know the details, it appears he has been supporting rules that would limit the use of closed rules in the consideration of some (or perhaps) all legislation on the floor of the House. Before any legislation can be considered on the floor of the US House, the House has to adopt a “rule” that has first been adopted by the House Rules Committee which, since the mid 1970s, has been an arm of the party leader,  that is the Speaker of the House. A closed rule prohibits any amendments from being considered on the floor. An open rule allows any amendment to be propose. And a modified closed… Continue reading

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Chanukah and Hellenism

  By Philosophy, Uncategorized

Originally written during Chanukah 2014. Happy Chanukah, Hanukah, Hannukkah, Chanukka, Hanuka, Channukah, Hanukah, Chanukkah, Hannukah, Chanuka or Hanaka I’ve always loved this holiday–fighting for political and religious freedom chimed with so much I believed in. And then I learned that the Maccabees were not just fighting against the Seleucids but the Hellenistic Jews whose syncretic practices conflicted with what they took to be a more pure form of Jewish practice. That complicated things since I’m a Hellenistic Jew, myself, for whom syncretism (which is a fancy way of saying mash-ups) are deeply attractive. My work in political philosophy draws on and attempts to weave together ideas from Jewish (especially as they have influenced modern liberalism) and Greek sources. So I’m loathe to identify with a moment in Jewish history which attacked those Jews whose ideas prefigure my own. I’m not quite done figuring out how to reinterpret the holiday so… Continue reading