This article is written by Yvonne Yen Liu and reprinted with permission from Colorlines.com. Liu presented the findings of her report, “The Color of Food,” at the Alliance’s IPP Symposium, “Health Equity — Beyond Health Care Reform” on March 11, 2011. You can download the full report here. Continue reading “America’s Food Sweatshops”
Main Street Alliance Leader Don Orange Shares His Story in Washington, D.C.
On March 17, Main Street Alliance leader Don Orange, owner of Hoesly ECO Auto & Tire in Vancouver, Washington, joined House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and other members of Congress at a press conference highlighting how the new health care law is already benefiting millions of small businesses and consumers as its one year anniversary approaches on March 23rd.
Don is the Chair of the Main Street Alliance of Washington, a coalition of more than 2,000 Washington small businesses affiliated with the national Main Street Alliance network. His business is a family-owned and operated auto shop with five employees. Don’s business is benefiting from the Affordable Care Act’s small business health care tax credit, which is offsetting his 2010 health care costs by 14 percent.
“As a small business owner, I know we need to keep moving forward on health care,” Don said. “We won’t go back, and we won’t let the benefits of the new law be taken away from us. The health care law is good for small businesses and good for our communities – it’s good for America.”
Medicaid Matters to Idaho Counties: State Investment in Medicaid Means Jobs and Economic Activity
This report contributes to the public discussion of Medicaid and the state budget by providing county-by-county data on the contributions Medicaid makes to the economy and the quality of life in Idaho.
Click here to download the full report.Continue reading “Medicaid Matters to Idaho Counties: State Investment in Medicaid Means Jobs and Economic Activity”
Video: Washington CAN! Quarantines State Capitol from Bank Lobbyist Germs
On Bankers’ Lobby Day (February 7), members from Washington Community Action Network quarantined the state Capitol building in Olympia to protect lawmakers from from lobbyist “germs” of misinformation. Lobbyists were there to dissuade lawmakers from voting for House Bill 1847, which would eliminate outdated tax breaks for big Wall Street banks and private jet owners and help raise revenue in a state is facing a $5.6 billion budget deficit. The revenue raised would go directly to saving the state’s Basic Health Plan. Continue reading “Video: Washington CAN! Quarantines State Capitol from Bank Lobbyist Germs”
Money in Politics: Politicians For Hire
Part of our series of articles exploring the influence of corporate money over our political system.
What do protesting teachers in Wisconsin, families facing foreclosure, and community leaders fighting state budget cuts have in common?
Well, as the chant now heard ‘round the country goes: “We Are One.” And we are watching to see which lawmakers and policymakers are siding with us – and which are siding with the big banks and other corporations.
It’s not hard to tell where Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker comes down. Earlier this week, when Walker raced to pick up the phone for industrialist and conservative moneyman “David Koch” – really a blog editor – he made his position pretty clear. Walker spent twenty minutes chatting with the billionaire, although he wasn’t taking calls from members of the state senate’s Democratic caucus, and he certainly wasn’t listening to the thousands of protesters filling the halls of the capitol to protect workers’ right to bargain. How did the Governor justify such incredible access to an out-of-state donor? By referring to Koch, in an interview with Fox, as “one of our employers here in the state of Wisconsin.”
Combine the move to crush unions with hair-trigger responsiveness to billionaire “employers,” and, as many have argued from the start, it’s pretty clear that this conflict isn’t about the technicalities of balancing the state budget. It has a lot more to with power, justice, and equity, including determining who gets to reap the benefits of our economy and who’s expected to sacrifice.
Despite media coverage focusing on unions and budgets, what people all around the country realize, as evidenced by the “Solidarity with Wisconsin” rallies that took place in all fifty states this past weekend, is that this is not simply a fight between state governments and employees. It is a fight between working American people and the corporate giants who are trying to hijack the country with the help of the politicians they help put into office.
Which takes us to an equally troubling report from earlier this month: Matt Taibbi’s detailing of the failure of federal prosecutors and regulators to take action against Wall Street bankers – seemingly because said prosecutors and regulators hope to someday work for Wall Street banks. (“Why Isn’t Wall Street in Jail?,” Rolling Stone, February 16, 2011).
So, it’s not just campaign cash that’s a problem. The revolving door is also a problem, providing a powerful incentive against holding banks accountable for crashing our economy.
Meanwhile, millions continue to face foreclosure, and the big banks are stealing people’s homes from under them and improperly denying mortgage relief to qualified applicants, all to boost their bottom line. The Attorneys General from the fifty states are investigating the banks for abuses in the foreclosure process, while at least one federal agency (the Office of the Comptroller of Currency) apparently is pushing the AGs to reach a “modest settlement” with the banks.
Just as workers in Wisconsin have set a bottom line with their state lawmakers – making it clear that elected officials need to put people over corporations – homeowners are setting a bottom line when it comes to fixing the housing market mess.
Earlier this year, the Alliance for a Justice Society and the PICO National Network carried this message to senior Treasury Department officials, urging them to hold banks accountable for the mess the banks created. (The feds can do this by, among other things, requiring mandatory loan modifications – not just when banks feel like it, charging homeowners the real value of their homes, and offering financial restitution to homeowners who lost their houses through bank fraud. And, of course, the feds should prosecute bankers who committed crimes while sinking our economy and pushing people out of their homes.)
There’s still time for Treasury to demonstrate that their loyalty to the public is more powerful than the suck of the corporate revolving door. But they’d better act fast. Events in Wisconsin have inspired many people around the country – look at the “We Are One” rallies in all fifty states. Those people will want to know, with regard to Treasury officials as much as with Scott Walker: When it comes to corporations or people, which side are you on?
Oscar Winner Calls Out Wall Street During Acceptance Speech
A bright spot from last night’s long Academy Awards Show:
“Forgive me,” said director Scott Ferguson, as he accepted his Oscar for the film Inside Job, which exposes our economic crisis as a crime perpetrated by a greedy few upon the working class, “I must start by pointing out that three years after our horrific financial crisis caused by financial fraud, not a single financial executive has gone to jail, and that’s wrong.”
Montanans Demonstrate Unity Against State Budget Cuts
Over 400 Montanans from across the state, all the way from Ashland to Missoula, converged on the State Capitol in Helena on Monday, February 21, for the first annual Citizens Day at the Capitol, hosted by Alliance for a Just Society affiliate the Montana Organizing Project.
Since the state legislative session began in January, Montana lawmakers have been slashing jobs and funding for public services even though the Governor’s budget clearly shows that there is no sound financial reason for doing so. Members from Native tribes, Indian People’s Action, unions, churches and community groups came together as one to demand that critical services stay completely funded, that the state tax system be restructured and made more equitable, and that federal health care reform be properly implemented, ensuring that all Montanans have a safe and secure future.
All day long, the halls of the capitol building bustled with working people from all four corners of the state who came to tell their stories of how cuts to health care, education, and public safety programs would adversely affect their families and communities. They presented legislators with Protecting Montana’s Future, a book filed with the stories of ordinary Montanans which amplifies the voices of small business owners, Native Americans, students, public servants, and senior citizens throughout the state and shows the need for a healthy public infrastructure.
Citizens Day culminated in a mass rally on the snowy capitol steps with members of the Montana Education Association and Montana Federation of Teachers. The crowd of over 400 declared their support for a new way forward in Montana, one that involves “reversing the cuts and restoring the future.” Moving testimony from firefighters, faith community, small business owners, progressive legislators, veterans groups, and teachers riled up the crowd, many of whom held signs proclaiming why they were there and expressing solidarity with the workers and protesting at the capitol in Wisconsin.
The Capitol truly belonged to the citizens of Montana on Monday, and they all walked away with the pledge to keep coming back until their legislators get the message.
Building the Native Movement: Training and Empowerment in Billings, Montana
From defending treaty obligations such as water rights and access to basic health care, to fighting institutional racism in schools and state legislation, to fighting the effects of colonialism in our food systems that are literally killing Indian people, there is no shortage of work to be done in Indian Country.
Across Indian Country, Native people are dealing with amagnitude of issues that affect day-to-day life. While it may be easy to find social service programs that slow the weeping wounds of daily life, one is pressed to find community organizing efforts that address the systemic change that is so desperately needed in these communities.Continue reading “Building the Native Movement: Training and Empowerment in Billings, Montana”
Protecting Montana’s Future: Montanans Talk About Public Investments
This storybook features the lives and experiences of everyday Montanans. Their stories illustrate the potential costs of bad budget decisions. They also highlight the need for strong, smart public investment in all our families and communities.
Click here to download the full storybook.Continue reading “Protecting Montana’s Future: Montanans Talk About Public Investments”
Community Health Care Clinics Under Attack
Community clinics are an indispensable component of the health care infrastructure in the United States. They are widely regarded as a cost-effective way to provide basic care, saving the health care system billions of dollars every year. Clinics serve over 20 million people in America, and one out of three people in poverty rely on them for their medical needs. Community clinics are also critical for access to care for immigrants, many of whom have been shut out of health insurance coverage post-reform.Continue reading “Community Health Care Clinics Under Attack”