Category: Public Policy

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We Made Them Listen To Us

  By Environment, Health Care, Marcellus Shale

This is my speech, more or less, at the Gas Stock concert and rally on Saturday. This not exactly what I said. I spoke extemporaneously and didn’t record it. But this is the gist of it. Good Afternoon. I’m Marc Stier, the Executive Director of Penn Action, grassroots political organization in Pennsylvania. I’m really thrilled to be here. This is an incredible event, organized by an incredible team of people led by my friend and colleague, Roxanne Pauline who recently joined us as the NEPA Penn Action organizer. I have to be honest, I don’t know enough about the Marcellus Shale drilling and its impact on people here in Northeastern PA and the rest of the state. I’ve spent the last two years totally focused on the movement for health care reform, which I led in Pennsylvania. But after talking with many of you, it’s pretty clear that I need… Continue reading

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Is it time to take direct action to block the effects of Citizen’s United?

  By Campaign Finance Reform, Politics

It’s just a trickle now, but the corporate money that was unshackled by Citizen’s United is beginning to flow just where we feared it would. And now, before it turns into a torrent, we should try to stop it. The ideal way to do so is with legislation. But the filibuster enabled a minority of Republicans to block more limited campaign finance legislation last week, so that might take a while. In the meantime, perhaps it is time to embrace direct action, boycotts of corporations that support right wing candidates, especially those that depend on a huge base of consumers for their profits. Continue reading

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A small victory: Blues will support AdultBasic for six more months

  By Health Care, Penn ACTION

We had a small victory for AdultBasic today. But there is still more to be done to insure that the program continues until it is no longer necessary. The Adult Basic Program Health Care For America Now joined five events around the state led by the Pennsylvania Health Access Network in support of Adult Basic, Pennsylvania’s health insurance program for 47,000 people who cannot afford health insurance but whose incomes are not low enough to qualify for Medicaid. AdultBasic is inadequate insurance, but it provides a lifeline for many people. And over 350,000 are on a waiting list for the program. AdultBasic has been funded in large part by community reinvestment funds contributed by Pennsylvania’s Blues—mostly from the two largest Independence Blue Cross and Highmark. The Blues agreed to make these contributions in the first year of the Rendell administration, when it was apparent that they were amassing surpluses in… Continue reading

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A Small Victory: AdultBasic Extended for Six Months

  By Health Care, Penn ACTION

We had a small victory for AdultBasic today. But there is still more to be done to insure that the program continues until it is no longer necessary. The Adult Basic Program Health Care For America Now joined five events around the state led by the Pennsylvania Health Access Network in support of Adult Basic, Pennsylvania’s health insurance program for 47,000 people who cannot afford health insurance but whose incomes are not low enough to qualify for Medicaid. AdultBasic is inadequate insurance, but it provides a lifeline for many people. And over 350,000 are on a waiting list for the program. AdultBasic has been funded in large part by community reinvestment funds contributed by Pennsylvania’s Blues—mostly from the two largest Independence Blue Cross and Highmark. The Blues agreed to make these contributions in the first year of the Rendell administration, when it was apparent that they were amassing surpluses in… Continue reading

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The Origins of our Politico-Economic Crisis

  By Economic Development, Politics, Public Policy

This is a summer of liberal / progressive discontent. As one talks to activists and leaders of progressive organizations and campaigns around the country, and read the blogs and commentary, one can't help but notice a sense of disappointment and worry and, from time to time, even despair. Some of this worry is about the election. This is not going to be a great Democratic year, although I think that the Republican crack-up—the willingness of Republican party leaders to embrace a partly racist radical right wing tea party—is going to help a great deal. And it is not going to be 1994 all over again if only because we don't have all that many Southern seats to lose this time. I think the bigger source of progressive disquiet is our worries about the economy and trajectory for progressive politics over the next few years. Right now, we progressives are radically… Continue reading

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Pa. GOP leaders should lobby Congress for extra stimulus dollars

  By Federal Budget, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Budget, Philadelphia, Taxation

Published in the Harrisburg Post-Gazette, July 1, 2010 Though Gov. Rendell and legislative leaders have reached an agreement, we still face a potential budget catastrophe. Only Republicans — gubernatorial nominee Tom Corbett, Lt. Gov. Joseph Scarnati, Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi and House Minority Leader Sam Smith — can prevent it.   Continue reading

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Fear of deficits haunts our politics

  By Economic Development, Politics

Published in the Philadelphia Dailiy News, June 21, 2010 A SPECTER is haunting American politics – it’s the great and growing fear of budget deficits. In Washington, public policies critical to restoring the health of our economy are being delayed because of the deficit. Outside Washington, politicians and opinion leaders, and some citizens, are wringing their hands about our deficits. Some of these opinion leaders, with foundation backing, are holding a series of public town halls about the deficit, including one in Philadelphia on June 26. We need to stop and think seriously about the kind of problem the deficit presents and how we should deal with it before we let hysteria lead us down the wrong path. We need to stop and think, first, about the difference between the immediate and the long-term budget deficit. Right now, our economy is recovering slowly from the most serious recession since the… Continue reading

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Rape, domination and sexuality

  By Love and Sex, Sexual and gender equality

Matt Ruben wrote a good op-ed in the Daily News today that points out that rape is a crime of violence against women and that calls for making the hate crimes law apply to such violence.   I agree with this conclusion.   But in the course of making the argument, Matt repeats a staple of feminist thought when he says that “research has demolished the myth that rape is a crime of lust or passion. It’s a crime of power: Men rape women because they seek to dominate and brutalize them.” That I don’t think is quite right. Rape is a sexual act as well as an act of domination. And we won’t understand rape, or the other ways both vile and much more innocuous, in which men dominate women unless we grasp that. Continue reading