ALEC – The American Legislative Exchange Council – Explained in 5 Minutes:
Visit AlecExposed to view the model legislation and learn more about ALEC:
http://alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed
Sign a petition to get corporations out of ALEC:
http://site.pfaw.org/site/PageServer?…
Read here why ALEC should have its 501 c3 tax status revoked:
http://www.commoncause.org/site/pp.as…
Go here for regular ALEC-related updates:
http://www.prwatch.org/
The trade deficit fell to “only” $38.8 billion in March. This could mean that manufacturing is starting to shift from China (good) — or it could mean our economy is slowing and we just aren’t buying as much as we would have (not so good). It is also because we are importing less oil (really good). The balance of trade is important because trade is how our country makes a living as a country. This huge continuing deficit matters, because it is literally draining money and jobs (and factories and industries) from our economy. (Funny how the 1%ers complain about budget deficits while they promote trade deficits.)
The March Report
The March trade deficit numbers were released today by the Census Department’s US Bureau of Economic Analysis. (It takes a bit of time to gather all the data, so we’re only seeing March numbers now.)
So here are the main lines from this report:
According to the Alliance for American Manufacturing the $5.4 billion drop in our trade deficit with China “was almost exclusively due to a drop in imports of toys, games, and sporting goods; apparel; and, footwear.” Also AAM’s Scott Paul points out that the March trade deficit with China is always the year’s low point, so this might just be a blip not a trend.
“The U.S.-China data, looking back over more than a decade, shows March to regularly be the smallest or next-to-smallest bilateral monthly deficit in each year, so I’m not optimistic that it represents any sort of trend moving forward.”
The story here is that we still have a huge trade deficit, particularly with China. USA Today explains: U.S. trade deficit falls to $38.8 billion,
The U.S. trade deficit narrowed in March for a second month as the daily flow of imported crude oil dropped to the lowest level in 17 years. … Overall, the deficit shrank to $38.8 billion, an 11% drop from February’s $43.6 billion, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.
… A smaller trade gap can boost economic growth as U.S. companies earn more from overseas sales while consumers and businesses spend less on foreign products.
Trade Deficit Hurts Economy And Jobs
Note that last line — it’s important to get this. A trade deficit hurts the economy and jobs. Not only does it mean money is draining from the economy, but it also means our working people are pitted against low-wage workers. A trade deficit enables companies to cut wages. It is the primary reason everyone’s pay has been stagnant or falling since the end of the 70′s — when the balance of trade turned from surplus to deficit.
Now, look at this chart:
See if you can spot the relationship. Hint: Trade deficits enabled employers to squeeze workers. Wages decoupled from productivity increases, and the result is that today 40% of Americans make less than the 1968 minimum wage, had it kept pace with productivity growth.
And people wonder why they feel such a squeeze.
Who Benefits From Trade Deficits?
Another chart. See if you can spot the relationship between this chart and the charts posted above:
This chart shows that financial-sector and non-financial-sector compensation used to rise together, but in the early 80′s they decoupled (The “Reagan Revolution.”) Financial-sector compensation took off, while non-financial-sector compensation did not.
This is why the middle class is disappearing. When we allowed American companies to close factories here and open them there, and then ship the same goods back here to sell in the same stores, we made American workers afraid they would be next and afraid to make waves. So they accepted lower wages and longer hours. People are even afraid to take vacations and sick days. This enabled a few at the top get fabulously rich. This was the cause of the “hollowing out” of the middle class, the extreme income wealth inequalty, and the resulting economic stagnation.
Who benefits from the trade deficit? The 1%: the Mitt Romneys, the Wall Streeters, the corrupters.
—–
This post originally appeared at Campaign for America’s Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture. I am a Fellow with CAF. Sign up here for the CAF daily summary
A Republican who is claiming that the government was behind the Boston bombings says there is proof — that victim in the photo we all saw, who lost both legs, was “not in pain.”
Story at HuffPo: Stella Tremblay, New Hampshire Legislator, Says Jeff Bauman ‘Was Not In Pain’ After Bombing,
Tremblay also praised a YouTube video featuring a man who says he’s retired Army Lt. Col. Roy Potter, claiming the federal government was behind the attack. Tremblay said Potter looks honest when he asserts the bombing motive was to divert attention from a pending indictment of President Barack Obama and former President George W. Bush for war crimes, along with a drop in the price of gold and government dysfunction.
Potter says on the video that the federal government had planned to pin the marathon bombing on a “right wing extremist helped by al Qaeda,” but dropped the plan after being discovered.
Lets get these people away from power, please.
Wow. 44% of Republicans say an armed revolt might be necessary to protect our liberties, 32% say the truth about the Sandy Hook shootings is being hidden to “advance a political agenda.”
See also The Right Wing Cult Machine Exposed,
By definition, a cult is a group or sect bound together by adoration of the same thing, person, ideal, etc.
A cult promises you redemption. It tells you that if you do what it says, and as it believes, you will be protected from the evil people that are out to get you and the rest of society.
A cult purges the non-believers. And it actively tries to vilify all those who are not part of the cult, saying that they’re doomed and destined to go to hell.
Affluent business flyers inconvenienced by delays = national emergency that Congress immediately fixes. Cancer clinics closing = Congress does squat, goes home. This is just one more story of our corrupt times.
Last week the sequester cuts kicked in at airports and caused affluent business fliers to experience some delays, so Congress acted immediately to fix it. The same sequester has been forcing cancer clinics to send away patients so they can’t receive the chemotherapy that they hope will keep them alive. Is Congress rushing to the rescue like they did for affluent business travelers who faced some flight delays? Not so much. They do have their priorities, after all.
Sequester Causes Cancer Clinic Cuts And Closings
NBC: Sequester cuts hitting cancer patients, (click through for video)
Oncologists claim reduced Medicare funding, which took effect on April 1, makes it impossible to administer expensive chemotherapy drugs while staying afloat financially.
NewsOn6: Oklahoma Cancer Patients Worry About Cuts To Medicare Caused By Sequester.
Albequerque BusinessFirst: Gov’t cuts might force NM Cancer Center to stop treating some Medicare patients,
The Albuquerque-based New Mexico Cancer Center might have to stop treating up to 300 Medicare patients because of cuts to Medicare brought on by the federal sequestration budget cuts, the Cancer Center’s CEO said Thursday.
HuffPo: Sequestration Forces Cancer Clinic Patients To Travel Thousands Of Miles For Treatment.
ThinkProgress: Cancer Clinics: Congress Should Have Restored Our Sequester Cuts Before Addressing Airport Delays,
After automatic budget cuts slashed their funding, cancer clinics have been forced to delay chemotherapy treatment for their patients. Some clinics may actually have to close their doors altogether if the sequester cuts are not reversed. As several cancer doctors told the Hill, they suspect they may not have been at the top at Congress’ list because reduced access to chemotherapy doesn’t personally inconvenience lawmakers in the same way that airport delays do.
WaPo: Cancer clinics are turning away thousands of Medicare patients. Blame the sequester,
Cancer clinics across the country have begun turning away thousands of Medicare patients, blaming the sequester budget cuts.
Oncologists say the reduced funding, which took effect for Medicare on April 1, makes it impossible to administer expensive chemotherapy drugs while staying afloat financially.
It Costs Money, Doesn’t Save Money
The kicker, it doesn’t even save the government money, instead it costs money:
The care will likely be more expensive: One study from actuarial firm Milliman found that chemotherapy delivered in a hospital setting costs the federal government an average of $6,500 more annually than care delivered in a community clinic.
So not only does this sequester kill people, it costs the government much more than it saves.
Deficit Facts
1) The deficit is already falling dramatically. The deficit is already down by 50% as a share of GDP. From See Deficit Falling Even More Dramatically, Few Know It:
2) The intellectual foundation for austerity has been discredited. See anywhere on the web. Especially see The Colbert Report: Austerity’s Spreadsheet Error.
3) Europe’s experiment with austerity has brought nothing but stagnation, recession, unemployment and mass misery and suffering. See ThinkProgress: Austerity Pushes Europe Into Its Second Recession In Four Years, CNBC: Europe Risks ‘Endless Depression’ in Pursuit of Austerity, LA Times: Europe austerity strategy is hurting growth, IMF says, CNN: Austerity drives up suicide rate in debt-ridden Greece and hundreds more such reports…
4) The deficit argument is over. Henry Blodget: The Economic Argument Is Over — Paul Krugman Has Won.
It’s Just Corruption
From March, Surprising Studies Find DC Does What Wealthiest Want, Majority Opposes,
A new study, Democracy and the Policy Preferences of Wealthy Americans … sought to gauge the political and policy priorities of the wealthy, and how these concerns contrast with the concerns of the rest of us. Amazingly, the priorities of the 1% match up with the priorities of our political class, while the priorities and needs of the vast majorities of us are ignored.
This is about who has the money, and who gives it to politicians. That is the definition of corruption. It is not “ideology” it is corruption, nothing more.
Very wealthy people are profiting from this austerity push. Dean Baker explains, in Deficits Are Bad and the Sun Goes Around the Earth,
…many people can profit from slow growth and high unemployment. The after-tax profit share of GDP is at its highest level more than 60 years. For those who own lots of stock and are at the top of the income ladder, times are good. These people may see efforts to lower unemployment as posing a risk. With lower unemployment workers may be able to get a larger share of productivity growth. This may be good for most of the country and mean increased economic growth, but it would mean less for the one percent.
Yes, “people can profit from slow growth and high unemployment.” And politicians are being paid to maintain the slow growth and high unemployment and other things that are driving all the income and wealth to a top few. It is just corruption, nothing more.
From January: Call It Corruption Not Ideology,
Getting paid by corporations to block government action from helping We, the People but hurting corporate profits isn’t an ideology, it’s corruption.
Getting paid by corporations to cut taxes and regulations for corporations isn’t an ideology, it’s corruption.
Getting paid by billionaires to cut taxes for billionaires isn’t an ideology, it is corruption
Call it what it is, don’t launder it by calling it ideology. It is corruption.
This is corruption, it is not ideology, it is not “austerity.” Getting paid by wealthy people to block things that help We the People so those wealthy people can profit is corruption, nothing more. Don’t dignify it, don’t let it serve as a mask. It is just corruption.
—–
This post originally appeared at Campaign for America’s Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture. I am a Fellow with CAF. Sign up here for the CAF daily summary
In an op-ed in the NY Times today the “spreadsheet error” economists tell us all we need to know about their research and their conclusions. In the op-ed, Reinhart and Rogoff: Responding to Our Critics, skip to the last paragraph:
“Now we are being attacked by the left — primarily by those who have a view that the risks of higher public debt should not be part of the policy conversation. “
“The left?”
I think these two words tell the whole story. All the economists and other scholars who are criticizing the errors and selective use of favorable data in work represent “the left.” Actual science that looks at the real world to see what actually happens is “the left.”
Downward Spiral
Here is the situation:
Austerity is beginning to hit and the economy is slowing as a result. The most immediate effect is that flights are delayed, but unemployment checks are smaller and there are fewer things We the People do to make our lives and economy better — also called “government spending.” But hey, as Dean Baker writes in, Deficits Are Bad and the Sun Goes Around the Earth,
…many people can profit from slow growth and high unemployment. The after-tax profit share of GDP is at its highest level more than 60 years. For those who own lots of stock and are at the top of the income ladder, times are good. These people may see efforts to lower unemployment as posing a risk. With lower unemployment workers may be able to get a larger share of productivity growth. This may be good for most of the country and mean increased economic growth, but it would mean less for the one percent.
What does it mean to be an American? What does it mean to be an American corporation? An article in the Wall Street Journal the other day should trigger questions like these.
WSJ: Domestic-Based Multinationals Hiring Overseas,
Multinational companies based in the U.S. boosted their global work forces in 2011 almost entirely by hiring workers overseas, underscoring the slow growth in the U.S. job market.
… The paltry hiring at home reflects where multinational companies are focusing their attention. Stronger economic growth in overseas markets in Asia and Latin America is driving their expansion, reinforcing their shift toward cheaper labor or closer access to customers.
The U.S. parents of multinational firms account for about one-fifth of total private U.S. employment. Since 1999, employment by U.S. multinationals is down by 1.1 million inside the U.S., while it is up by 3.8 million overseas.
The hiring by American companies is not happening in the U.S. At the same time these companies are holding $1.7 trillion of profits outside of the country, away from their own shareholders and our economy to avoid their taxes, while pushing to dramatically lower the taxes they pay us – and even to get out of paying any taxes at all on money they make outside of the country!
Why Do We Have Corporations?
Why do We the People even have laws that allow corporations and give them special benefits? The answer obviously is for our common benefit — why else would we do it? The corporate form of a business enables the company to easily obtain capital from investors, in order to accomplish large-scale projects that benefit us. To encourage this we give these entities special privileges. For example, we limit liability which means the investors are not held liable for the actions of the company – they won’t lose more than their investment if the company gets sued for some reason. We provide a system that helps them obtain financing, insurance, market liquidity and all kinds of things to help those investors get a good return on their money.
Benefit: We the People want railroads, but it takes a lot of money to build and operate a railroad. And our system wants private companies to do the work of building and operating railroads instead us just doing it ourselves. So we set up a way for a private company to gather investment from lots of people.
Or was it maybe about getting a $15 billion wealth gain since 2010?
Newsflash at Think Progress’ ClimateProgress blog: FORBES: KOCH BROTHERS NOW WORTH $50 BILLION,
Forbes estimates that Tea Party petrochemical scions Charles and David Koch have a fortune of $25 billion each, making them the fourth richest Americans, behind only Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and Larry Ellison. Their combined wealth of $50 billion is exceeded only by the Microsoft founder’s $59 billion fortune. Buoyed by aggressive speculative trading on volatile energy markets, the Koch brothers accumulated $15 billion in wealth since March 2010, a 43 percent increase.
Has anyone calculated an average Obama cave time? Of course, this is a number that will keep going lower, as he caves ever-more quickly…
CBS: White House is “open to looking at” FAA furlough fix,
Under pressure, the White House signaled Wednesday it might accept legislation eliminating Federal Aviation Administration furloughs blamed for lengthy flight delays for airline passengers, while leaving the rest of $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts in place.
[. . .] At the White House, press secretary Jay Carney said that if Congress “wants to address specifically the problems caused by the sequester with the FAA, we would be open to looking at that.
The pundit world is busy rehabilitating the reputation of George ‘W’ Bush. Somehow in today’s America killing hundreds of thousands of human beings illegally invading a country, torture, corruption and “no-bid contracts” to crony insiders, crashing the economy, intentionally creating massive deficits, using phony terrorist-attack alerts to stampede frightened citizens into voting against their own interest, and so much more of the ‘W’ legacy don’t disqualify such a discussion, nevermind instead demanding prosecution for the crimes committed…
In honor of the attempted rehabilitation of George ‘W’ Bush here is a bit from a 2010 post of mine, originally at Open Left. Did Bush Leave Us Bankrupt, Corrupt, Ungovernable?
When you sell the farm, the farm’s gone.
Is it already too late for America? I’m starting to think that the anti-tax, anti-government conservative movement that started in the mid-70s, elected Reagan and led to the terrible Bush Presidency may have effectively destroyed the country, leaving it bankrupt, corrupt, ungovernable, ruled by a wealthy elite — and we’re only now just starting to realize it. To cover tax cuts we stopped maintaining the infrastructure and started borrowing. To satisfy their hatred of government we increasingly stripped away rule of law, regulation, and belief in one-person-one-vote. We are seeing the consequences of all of that coming back to roost now.
… The conservatives destroyed the regulatory structure of the government. They removed the inspectors, administrators, regulators and replaced them with corrupt cronies.
… The conservatives destroyed the rule of law, leaving behind public perception of rule by cronyism, favoritism and mob.
The conservatives destroyed public understanding of democracy, leaving behind a one-dollar-one-vote system that their Supreme Court just formalized, along with a corporate media that works to keep people uninformed. …
[. . .]
More equitable distribution of the fruits of our economy is another step. Our system worked so much better back when the top tax rate was 90%. The returns from our investment in infrastructure were more widely shared. And back when it took many years to build a fortune businesses had an interdependence with their communities. Executives needed the schools and roads and other public structures functioning well. They needed long-range business and community planning. But just imagine trying to do something about the concentration of wealth today.
So where do we go from here. Is democracy over? Is rule of law a thing of the past? Is predatory monopoly control by the largest corporations the way things are and will be? Does the world now move to governance by a wealthy elite?
Or is the winter and the rain and the snow just getting to me?
What are your thoughts?
Read the whole thing here: Did Bush Leave Us Bankrupt, Corrupt, Ungovernable?
—–
This post originally appeared at Campaign for America’s Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture. I am a Fellow with CAF. Sign up here for the CAF daily summary
At least Bush kept us safe. With notably rare exceptions. Like 9/11, massive deficits, torture, economic collapse, Iraq war, sending 50,000+ factories and 5 million manufacturing jobs to China and instilling a culture of corruption…
Otherwise, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?
See also: Did Bush Leave Us Bankrupt, Corrupt, Ungovernable?