STATEMENT: Protect Medicare and Social Security

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.Ā  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 wrongā€”but they werenā€™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. Itā€™s not just the 20ā€¦ Continue reading

It redistributes from working people and the middle class to the rich. And that’s just wrong.

Originally published at KRC-PBPC. With all the controversy over the details of the tax cut bill that is moving towards a final vote in the House and Senate this week it is easy to forget about the basic features of the bill. As they did during the debate over repeal of the Affordable Care Act, the Republicans put forward noxious proposalsā€”to radically reduce the state and local tax deduction, to tax graduate student stipends, to eliminate the deduction for teachers who use their own funds in classrooms, and to eliminate the deduction for extremely high medical expenses among othersā€”and then removed them from the final proposal. But we shouldnā€™t be gratified that these horrible elements of the bill are gone when the basic framework of the bill, which has remained constant in every version considered by the House and Senate, remains so awful. The legislation is basically a huge andā€¦ Continue reading

Why You Should Go to DC in Support of a Financial Transactions Tax

Heal America! Make Wall Street Pay! Event The National Nurses Union (NNU) is holding a rally and lobby day this Thursday, December 3, in Washington, DC in support of a financial transactions tax. The event is co-sponsored by the AFL-CIO and other progressive organizations. Here in Pennsylvania, Health Care For America Now (HCAN) is working with the local NNU affiliate PASNAP, to bring people to the rally by bus. The buses are FREE and will leave at 7:00 am from two locations, Temple University Hospital and 16th and JFK Boulevard. After a 11:30 rally, there will be a chance to do some lobbying on Capitol Hill and there may be a meeting with the staff of some of our members of Congress (or, if we can arrange it, the members themselves). The bus will leave Washington to return to Philly at 5:00 pm. Box meals will be provided in bothā€¦ Continue reading

Bush era tax cuts fall short

Originally appeared in the Harrisburg Patriot News, July 3, 2011 Ten years ago last month, President George W. Bush signed a bill cutting taxes by $1.35 trillion over 10 years. It was the first of several Bush tax cuts that ended up costing two and a half trillion dollars over a decade. Dan Gleiter, The Patriot-News Ten years later, what have we gotten for this tax cut? Where is the prosperity President Bush promised? Pennsylvaniaā€™s official unemployment rate in June 2001 was 4.8 percent. Today, the seasonally adjusted rate is 7.4 percent. Nationwide, the unemployment rate was 4.7 percent. Today, it is hovering around 9 percent. At the end of last year, supporters of Bushā€™s policies pushed through an extension of the Bush tax cuts for another two years. Many lawmakers say they want to extend the tax cuts again into 2013 and beyond, which would almost double the federalā€¦ Continue reading

Itā€™s about security for working people and the middle class

  Our 2011 Program: Itā€™s about security for working people and the middle class or Why and how we must expose and fight backĀ against the dirty little secret of right wing economic policy As a multi-issue organization, Penn ACTION will be taking on a lot. But while we will be engaged in many different strugglesā€”health care, womenā€™s health, unemployment insurance, fair taxes, education, and starting this week, the fight to preserve Social Securityā€”there is a core commitment and a unified strategy that lies behind all our work. The core commitment is to provide security for working people and the middle class. Market Economies and Insecurity We know that a market economy can be a greatĀ generator of income and wealth. But from the beginning, capitalism has also been a generator of uncertainty and insecurity. Capitalism initially generated great wealth not just by creating opportunities for entrepreneurs but by generating insecurity, specificallyā€¦ Continue reading

Lies, damn lies, and statistics

“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics” attributed to Benjamin Disraeli by Mark Twain Having made the transition myself, I know well that moving from academia to advocacy often requires some compromise with the standard of the academy. Academic rectitude requires one to point out the possible weaknesses in oneā€™s views, to qualify statements about which one is uncertain and to be cautiousĀ before drawing start conclusion. There is little room for uncertainty, for qualification, and for caution in advocacy. But becoming an advocate shouldnā€™t mean that one gives up standards of intellectual honesty entirely. An advocate, especially one who trades on his standing as an academic, shouldnā€™t put forward conclusions when he has no good reason to do so. That, however, is what Robert Inman did in his op-ed piece in the Inquirer opposing the BPT proposal put forward by Bill Green and Maria Quinones-Sanchez. Inmanā€¦ Continue reading

What did you do during the class war, Mommy and Daddy?

Published in the Daily News, September 23, 2010 THOUGH I lead a progressive grass-roots organization, I’m a little embarrassed by the question that serves as a title for this essay. For 25 years, I taught political philosophy, most recently at Temple University. The key to my teaching was to encourage students see both sides of every issue. I was always proud when my students didn’t know where I stood politically. Teaching both sides of the issues rubs off. So, even now, I’m politically just a little left of center. I supported the Obama health-care plan rather than single-payer not out of political expedience but conviction. I believe that a hybrid public-private plan is most likely to give us the most effective health-insurance system. So, I’m uncomfortable saying we are in the midst of a class war right now in America. But it’s time for all of us on the left,ā€¦ Continue reading

Why progressives should embrace HR 3962

Some progressives, motivated in part by Dennis Kucinich’s vote against HR 3926 are expressing disappointment with and even opposition to the health care reform legislation going through Congress. While HR 3926 is not perfectā€”and the anti-abortion language added to it is terrible and will, we believe, be removed later in the processā€”it is a bill progressives should and must support. In a long post I’ve explained in detail why I think single payer advocates like Kucinich are misguided in opposing the bill. Here, in this short version, I want to summarize the case for progressives giving active support to the legislation. Continue reading

Rally against Tom Donahue and the Chamber of Commerce in Philadelphia–and what we learned from it.

Last Friday, close to twenty advocacy groups and labor unions came together in front of the Loew’s Hotel in Center City Philadelphia to protest Tom Donhaue, the President of US Chamber of Commerce, who was speaking there. And, in the process, we learned something about the nature of political struggle in the United State today and about what we progressives must to do be successful We were there because, on issue after issue, Donahue has lead the US Chamber of Commerce to stand with the biggest, and most politically connected, corporations in the United States, and with their immensely overpaid chief executives, against the interests of not just the public at large, but most small and large businesses in the United States. Continue reading

An Alternative To The Decoupling Strategy

Iā€™m not going to respond Hughesā€™ vision in any detail here as it would take a small book. Everything Iā€™ve written on city politics and policy in the last four yearsā€”which amounts to s small book–is a response. Iā€™m just going to sum up those arguments. (Iā€™ll put in links from this summary essay to the essays where I discuss ideas in detail as I rebuild this blog.) Continue reading