September 2010: 300 Economists Told Obama: Focus on Jobs, not the Deficit

[chill_wind]

Anybody else remember this letter and the advice in it? Seems as timely as ever.

300 Economists Warn Obama: Grave Danger Ahead
Thursday, 09/16/2010 - 2:37 pm by Bryce Covert |

Three hundred economists released a letter to President Obama today with one message: focus on jobs, not on the deficit. Robert Borosage, co-director of the Institute for America’s Future and one of the authors of the statement, said the letter is “a call for action on the economy and a return to economic common sense” in a conference call with the media this morning. This is not the time for balancing the budget and slashing the deficit, he pointed out; rather, it is “the time for bold initiatives to rebuild America and to generate jobs and growth.”

http://www.newdeal20.org/2010/09/16/300-economists-warn-obama-grave-danger-ahead-20341/


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What they said:

In the fall of 2008 the U.S. and other major economies were in a free fall in the wake of a global financial crisis. Emergency stimulus policies here and around the world broke the fall, but brought us only part way to full recovery.

Today there is a grave danger that the still-fragile economic recovery will be undercut by austerity economics. A turn by major governments away from the promotion
of growth and jobs and to premature focus on deficit reduction could slow growth and increase unemployment – and could push us back into recession.

History suggests that a tenuous recovery is no time to practice austerity. In the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal generated growth and reduced the unemployment rate from 25 percent in 1932 to less than 10 percent in 1937. However, the deficit hawks of that era persuaded President Roosevelt to reverse course prematurely and move toward budget balance. The result was a severe recession that caused the economy to contract sharply and sent the unemployment rate soaring. Only the much larger wartime spending of the early 1940s produced a full recovery.

Today, the economy is growing only weakly. 7.8 million jobs have been lost in the recession. Consumers, having suffered losses in home values and retirement savings, are tightening their belts. The business sector, uncertain about consumer spending, is reluctant to invest in expansion or job creation, leaving the economy trapped on a path of slow growth or stagnation. Over 20 million American workers are now unemployed, underemployed or simply have given up looking for a job.

The President and Congress should redouble efforts to create jobs and send aid to the states whose budget crises threaten recovery by forcing them to lay off school teachers, public safety workers, and other essential workers. It also makes sense to invest in public service jobs – and in infrastructure projects for transportation, water, and energy conservation that will make our economy more productive for years to come.

ECONOMISTS WARN OUR POLITICAL LEADERS: DON’T KILL GROWTH AND JOBS IN THE NAME OF DEFICIT REDUCTION.

Target what drives deficits. Don’t fix what isn’t broken.

Austerity advocates confuse two different issues—short term deficits generated by the recession and long term projections of deficits and debt.

Deficits rose last decade largely due to the Bush tax cuts and the unfunded wars and prescription drug program, but they exploded as a result of the economic crisis. Once prosperity is restored, deficits will be reduced substantially. Over the long term, projections of rising deficits and debt are mainly due to one fundamental factor: rising health care costs.

Contrary to the claims of many deficit hawks, America does not have an entitlement crisis. America has a broken health care system. Efforts to reduce public sector costs without fixing the health care system, such as caps on Medicare and Medicaid spending or replacing them with vouchers, will undermine the effectiveness of these programs, but won’t fix the broken health care system. The health care reform bill passed earlier this year may be a first step towards repairing the health care system, but much more will need to be done.

Social Security has nothing to do with our current deficit. It is supported by its own dedicated payroll taxes (which were increased to build up a trust fund to cover the baby boomers’ retirement). Social Security has actually reduced the unified budget deficit for the most of the last three decades and will continue to do so for most of the next decade. Making sure Social Security is solvent for the next century should be dealt with separately from any process set up to address short or long-term deficits, and can be accomplished with minor adjustments.

Restore fiscal responsibility, while investing in the future.

The president’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform has set a goal of reducing the Federal deficit to 3 percent of GDP by 2015. It is not clear that this arbitrary target can be met without damaging our recovery. In any case, the goals of economic policy must be far broader.

The most important question is this: What will drive economic growth, job creation and prosperity in the years to come? Conservatives argue that we should simply reduce deficits and wait for the next economic boom. But the last boom was built on a bubble, inflated by unsustainable household debt and financial speculation. If we focus merely on cutting spending and raising taxes, the economy could shrink again – or stay stuck in a permanently low level of growth and high levels of unemployment.

President Barack Obama has called on us to build a new foundation for the economy. This requires making investments vital to our future – in education and training, in research and development, in a modern infrastructure for the 21st century. It requires ending our addiction to oil, and capturing a lead role in the green industrial revolution, creating the next generation of green jobs.

Study after study demonstrates that America has a huge “public investment deficit” in areas vital to our economy. Some estimates suggest a shortfall in public investment of as much as $500 billion a year. As long as we have unacceptably high unemployment, outlays for additional investment can be deficit-financed. But once we achieve a robust recovery, our country should continue to pay for productive public investment, while acting to bring down public deficits. This will require new revenues.

We must have the confidence to forge our future. At the end of World War II, the US was burdened with debt that totaled over 120% of GDP. But we made the investments vital to a new economy – the GI Bill, housing subsidies, the interstate highway system, the conversion of military plants, and the Marshall plan. We ran annual deficits over most of the next three decades and the debt grew in absolute size, but the economy and the broad middle class grew faster. By 1980, the debt had been reduced to barely 30% of GDP. The better way to reduce the deficit as a percent of GDP is to increase GDP.

Even with a growing economy, increased investment and deficit reduction will require new sources of revenue, new priorities and a crackdown on wasteful subsidies.

Below are a range of measures which could be used to reduce the deficit and finance needed investments. Not all signers endorse every one of these options:

Any effort to cut spending should address the military budget, which consumes over half of discretionary spending. Much of our huge military spending is devoted to weapons designed to counter a Soviet Union that is no more. Defense experts estimate we could achieve significant Pentagon savings – in the range of $100 billion per year – while still sustaining the most powerful military in the world. We can use funds freed up to invest in new manufacturing industries that make our nation more secure.

Second, we should cut back the massive amounts wasted on outmoded subsidies – billions to the oil industry, to wasteful farm subsidies, and tax loopholes benefitting a few, with little productive return.

On the revenue side, in an era of Gilded Age inequality, progressive tax reform is long overdue. Revenue for reducing deficits and increasing investment can be raised by making taxes more progressive and by taxing activities we want to discourage. Some examples:


• A small tax on financial transactions (e.g. 0.025 percent on credit default swaps) would reduce high volume speculation and would produce revenues of at least $177 billion per year..

• The Wyden-Gregg corporate loophole-closing proposals produce $1.078 trillion over ten years.

• Taxing hedge fund mangers’ “carried interest” income as regular income gains $3 billion per year.

• End special tax treatment of capital gains income. Revenue: $480 billion over ten years.

• A 5.4 percent surcharge on high incomes (passed by the House) produces $500 billion over ten years.

• A carbon tax would help reverse climate change. Revenue: $500 billion over ten years.

• End Bush tax cuts for people making more than 250k. Revenue: $678 billion over ten years.

• One version of a progressive estate tax on large fortunes would generate $50 billion per year.


Any value-added tax that amounts to a regressive sales tax on the working middle class should not be part of this package. There may be a future case for a VAT, perhaps to fund progressive social programs or replace even more regressive taxes, but not for deficit reduction.

Take the high road to fiscal balance.

There are two alternative paths to long-term fiscal balance.

The less desirable path is austerity economics: government sharply cuts spending long before full employment is reached; production stagnates; revenues decline. We might reach budget balance but at a lower level of economic output, with increased taxes on working Americans and reduced public services.

The alternative, high-road path would increase public spending financed by deficits for a year or two until unemployment is definitely on a downward trend and GDP is rising rapidly. We then collect more revenues from a stronger economy. By identifying investments vital to our future, and paying for them with targeted spending cuts and progressive tax reforms, our country provides the basis for new private-sector investments that help fuel growth, generating greater revenues while reducing the deficit.

The benefit of this second path is that government moves towards a reduction in annual deficits and a lowering of the debt-to-GDP ratio, at a higher level of economic output, while building a new basis for long-term prosperity.

http://dontkilljobs.org/

downloadable pdf (10 pages) http://ourfuture.org/files/documents/don%27t-kill-growth-and-jobs.pdf
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FACT: The projected deficit—which seems like a huge number—isn't that huge. As pointed out by Paul Krugman and Dean Baker, our debt-service burden is about the same as that of 1992 under President H.W. Bush.

A Progressive Approach To Deficit Reduction

http://www.ourfuture.org/fact-sheets-briefs/2010041409/progressive-approach-deficit-reduction

[HereSince1628]

1. If only it had been 300 corporations traded on the big board.

THAT might have held some sway.

Academics? Plaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh! A bad taste in the mouth!

[glitch]

4. Or even just one retired hedge fund billionaire.

Specifically Pete Petersen.

[chill_wind]

5. +1

[ladjf]

2. But the Republicans told him to do something about the deficit. nt

[chill_wind]

3. Signatures & Endorsers. They've tried.

Institutional affiliations are provided for identification purposes only.
Statement Authors

Robert Borosage and Roger Hickey, Institute for America's Future
Dean Baker, Center for Economic and Policy Research
Robert Kuttner, The American Prospect and Dēmos

Endorsers
Economists

Tanweer Akram | Senior Economist, ING Investment Management
Randy Albelda | University of Massachusetts Boston
Sylvia Allegretto | University of California, Berkeley
Gar Alperovitz | University of Maryland
Nancy Altman | Social Security Works
Eileen Appelbaum | Rutgers University
Diane Archer | Institute for America’s Future
Michael Ash | University of Massachusetts Amherst
Nahid Aslanbeigui | Monmouth University
Marshall Auerback | Roosevelt Institute
Reuven Avi-Yonah | University of Michigan
Hillel Bachrach | 20/20 HealthCare Partners LLC
M. V. Lee Badgett | University of Massachusetts Amherst
Ron Baiman | Center for Tax and Budget Accountability
Dean Baker | Center for Economic and Policy Research
Radhika Balakrishnan | Rutgers University
Nesecan Balkan | Hamilton College
Nina Banks | Bucknell University
William Barclay| Chicago Political Economy Group
Chuck Barone| Dickinson College
Michael Belzer| Wayne State University
Lourdes Beneria| Cornell University
Barbara R. Bergmann| American University
Alexandra Bernasek| Colorado State University
Cihan Bilginsoy| University of Utah
Cyrus Bina| University of Minnesota (Morris Campus)
Angela Glover Blackwell| PolicyLink
Howard Botwinick| State University of New York , Cortland
Roger Bove| West Chester University (Retired)
Paula Braveman| University of California, San Francisco
Clair Brown| University of California Berkeley
E. Richard Brown| University of California Los Angeles
Robert Buchele| Smith College
Cruz Bueno| University of Massachusetts–Amherst
Jim Campen| University of Massachusetts Boston (emeritus)
Colin S. Cavell, Ph.D.| University of Bahrain American Studies Center
John Chasse| Association for Evolutionary Economics
Howard Chernick| Hunter College CUNY
Paul Christensen| Hofstra University
Steve Clemons| New America Foundation
Anne Cobb| Empire State College
Lizabeth Cohen| Harvard University
James Crotty| University of Massachusetts Amherst
James Cypher| California State University Fresno
Diana Da| Diana Dai Communications Inc.
Peter Damiano| The University of Iowa
Anita Dancs| Western New England College
Jane D’Arista| PERI/SAFER
Paul A David| Stanford University
Paul Davidson| University of Tennessee
Susan M. Davis| Buffalo State College
Charles Davis| Indiana University
John Davis| Marquette University
Anthony D’Costa| Asia Research Centre
Amy B. Dean| Author, “A New New Deal”
Gregory DeFreitas| Hofstra University
James Devine| Loyola Marymount University
Ranjit Dighe| SUNY College at Oswego
David Doane| Oakland University
Karen Dolan| Institute for Policy Studies
G. William Domhoff| University of California, Santa Cruz
Peter Dorman| Evergreen State College
Amitava Dutt| University of Notre Dame
Gary Dymski| University of California Riverside
Todd Easton| University of Portland
Gary Edelman| Edelman & Associates
Barbara Ehrenreich| Author, “Nickeled and Dimed”
Justin Elardo| Portland Community College
Zohreh Emami| Alverno College
Brian England| University of Utah
Gerald Epstein| University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Jeff Faux| Economic Policy Institute
Steven Fazzari| Washington University
Rashi Fein| Harvard University
Susan Feiner| University of Southern Maine
Thomas Ferguson| University of Massachusetts, Boston and Roosevelt Institute
Rudy Fichtenbaum| Wright State University
David Fields| University of Utah
Catherine Finnoff| University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Richard Flacks| University of California, Santa Barbara
Nancy Folbre| University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Robert Francis| Shoreline Community College
Robert Frank| Cornell University
Gerald Friedman| University of Massachusetts at Amherst
James K. Galbraith| University of Texas, Economists for Peace and Security
John Gallup| Portland State University
William Ganley| Department of Economics & Finance, Buffalo State College
Angel Garcia Banchs| Universidad Central de Venezuela
David George| La Salle University
Christophre Georges| Hamilton College
Arthur Gerds| Unaffilliated
Teresa Ghilarducci| New School for Social Research
Helen Ginsburg| Brooklyn College and National Jobs for All Coalition
Lonnie Golden| Penn State Abington
Stephen Gorin| Plymouth State University
Ulla Grapard| Colgate University
Carole Green| University of South Florida
Daphne Greenwood| University of Colorado-Colorado Springs
Karl D. Gregory| Oakland University and KDG & Associates
Lawrence Grossberg| University of North Carolina
Robert Guttmann| Hofstra University
Jacob Hacker| Yale University
Robin Hahnel| Portland State University
John Battaile Hall| Portland State University
Lori Hansen| Former Member, Senate Democrats Social Security Advisory Board
Martin Hart-Landsberg| Lewis and Clark College
Heidi Hartmann| Institute for Women’s Policy Research
John Harvey| Texas Christian University
Carol Heim| University of Massachusetts, Amherst
James Heintz| University of Massachusetts
Susan Helper| Case Western Reserve University
John Henry| University of Missouri–Kansas City
Conrad Herold| Hofstra University
Adam Hersh| University of Massachusetts
Gillian Hewitson| University of Sydney
Joan Hoffman| John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Michael Intriligator| University of California Los Angeles
Dorene Isenberg| University of Redlands
Ken Jacobs| University of California Berkeley
Peter Jacobson| University of Michigan
Robert Johnson| Roosevelt Institute
Helene Jorgensen| Author, Sick and Tired
Arne Kalleberg| University of North Carolina
J. K. Kapler| University of Massachusetts Boston
Victor Kasper Jr.| Buffalo State College
Jeffrey Keefe| Rutgers University
Mary King| Portland State University
Eric Kingson| Syracuse University
Andrew Kohen| James Madison University (emeritus)
Ben Kohl| Temple University
Gerald F. Kominski| University of California Los Angeles
Brent Kramer| City University of New York
Peter Karl Kresl| Bucknell University (emeritus)
Robert Kuttner| The American Prospect
Supriya Lahiri| University of Massachusetts Lowell
Thomas Lambert| Indiana University Southeast
Dr. Tom Larson| California State University, Los Angeles
Keith Leitich| Central & East Asian Affairs Analyst
Margaret Levenstein| University of Michigan
Charles Levenstein| University of Massachusetts Lowell
Henry Levin| Columbia University
Marc Levine| University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Mark Levinson | Service Employees International Union
Victor Lippit| University of California, Riverside
Robert Lynch| Washington College
Catherine Lynde| University of Massachusetts Boston
Arthur MacEwan| University of Massachusetts Boston (emeritus)
Christopher Mackin| Ownership Associates, Inc.
Yahya Madra| Gettysburg College
Jeff Madrick| Roosevelt Institute; Schwartz Center, The New School
Mark Maier| Glendale Community College
Jean Maier| US Society for Ecological Economics
Julianne Malveaux| Bennett College for Women
Arindam Mandal | Siena College
John Mannah| New School for Social Research
Theodore Marmor| Yale University
Julie Matthae| Wellesley College
Peter Matthews| Middlebury College
Daniel McFadden| University of California, Berkeley
Hannah McKinney| Kalamazoo College
Walter W. McMahon| University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Joseph Medley| University of Southern Maine
Michael Meeropol| Western New England College (emeritus)
Martin Melkonian| Hofstra University
John Messier| University of Maine Farmington
Peter Meyer| The E.P. Systems Group, Inc.
Thomas Michl| Colgate University
Marcelo Milan| University of Wisconsin Parkside
William Milberg| New School for Social Research
Lawrence Mishel| Economic Policy Institute
Vernon Mogensen| Kingsborough Community College, CUNY
Michael Morrill| Keystone Progress
Philip Moss| University of Massachusetts Lowell
Tracy Mott| University of Denver
Jamee Moudud| Sarah Lawrence College
Dedrick Muhammad| Institute for Policy Studies
Kevin Murphy| Oakland University
Michael Murray| Bates College
Michele Naples| The College of New Jersey
Julie Nelson| University of Massachusetts Boston
Immanuel Ness| Brooklyn College/CUNY
Katherine Newman| Princeton University
Eric Nilsson| California State University–San Bernardino
Laurie Nisonoff| Hampshire College
Jack Norman| Institute for Wisconsin’s Future
Michael Nuwer| State University of New York Potsdam
Paulette Olson| Wright State University
Mary Orisich| Holyoke Community College
Pierre Ostiguy| Bard College
Christine Owens| National Employment Law Project
Aaron Pacitti| Siena College
Spencer Pack| Connecticut College
Thomas Palley| New America Foundation
Robert Pandolfo| DBA/Analyst, self-employed
Dimitri Papadimitriou| Levy Economics Institute
Richard Parker| Harvard University
James Parrott| Fiscal Policy Institute
M. Stephen Pendleton| Buffalo State College
Michael Perelman| California State Universty–Chico
Tova Perlmutter| Sugar Law Center for Economic & Social Justice
Rick Perlstein| Author, "Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America"
Joseph Persky| University of Illinois at Chicago
Mark Peterson| University of California Los Angeles
Karl Petrick| Western New England College
John Philo| Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice
Paul Pieper| University of Illinois at Chicago
Bruce Pietrykowski| University of Michigan–Dearborn
Karen Rosel Polenske| Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Robert Pollin| University of Massachussets Amherst
Marilyn Power| Sarah Lawrence College
Thomas M. Power| University of Montana
Mark Price| Keystone Research Center
Edith Rasell| United Church of Christ Justice & Witness Ministries
Michael Reich| University of California Berkeley
Robert B. Reich| University of California Berkeley; former Secretary of Labor
Cordelia Reimer| Hunter College - CUNY
Joseph Ricciardi| Babson College
Malcolm Robinson| Thomas More College
John Roche| St. John Fisher College
James Rock| University of Utah
Charles Rock| Rollins College
John Roemer| Yale University
Sergio Romero| Boise State University
Jaime Ros| University of Notre Dame
Batt Rosemar| Cornell University
Michael Rosen| Milwaukee Area Technical College
Sam Rosenberg| Roosevelt University
Joshua Rosenbloom| University of Kansas
David Rosnick| Center for Economic and Policy Research
Lynda Rush| California State Polytechnic University
Hector Saez| Beyond Growth
Anandi Sahu| Oakland University
John Sarich| Institute of Global Communications
Lisa Saunders| University of Massachusetts–Amherst
Harwood Schaffer| University of Tennessee
Helen Scharber| University of Massachusetts–Amherst
Ted Schmidt| Buffalo State College
John Schmitt| Center for Economic and Policy Research
Victor Schoenbach| University of North Carolina
Sanford Schram| Bryn Mawr College
Sherle R. Schwenninger| New America Foundation
Elliott Sclar| Columbia University
Stephanie Seguino| University of Vermont
Jean Shackelford| Bucknell University
Sumitra Shah| St. John’s University
Derek Shearer| Occidental College
Kristen Sheeran| Economics for Equity and Environment Network
Heidi Shierholz| Economic Policy Institute
Richard Shirey| Siena College
Laurence Shute| California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
Alexandra Sidiropoulos| Miskin & Tsui-Yip LLP
Mark Silverman| Steptoe & Johnson LLP
Peter Skott| University of Massachusetts Amherst
Lewis Smith| Economist, retired
Vince Snowberger| Economist, retired
Case Sprenkle| University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
James Ron Stanfield| Colorado State University (emeritus)
Casey Stanton| Transportation Equity Network
Howard Stein| University of Michigan
Mary Stevenson| University of Massachusetts Boston
James Stewart| Penn State University
Jeffrey Stewart| University of Cincinnati
Frank Stricker| California State University–Dominguez Hills
Peter Temin| Massachusetts Institute of Technology
David Terkla| University of Massachusetts Boston
Mark Thoma| University of Oregon
Frank Thompson| University of Michigan
Chris Tilly| University of California Los Angeles
Jim Tober| Marlboro College
John Tower| Oakland University (Retired)
Scott Trees| Siena College Economics Department
Dale Tussing| Syracuse University
Leanne Ussher| Queens College, City University of New York
David Vail| Bowdoin College
Marjolein van der Veen| The Nation
Bryan Van Name| Economics Blogger
Matt Vidal| King’s College London
Rudiger von Arnim| University of Utah
Valerie Voorheis| Marlboro College Graduate Center
Paula Voos| Rutgers University
Steven Wallace| University of California Los Angeles
Paul Wallace| Retired
Joseph Washington| Unaffilliated
Lucy Law Webster| Economists for Peace and Security
John Weeks| University of London (emeritus)
David Weiman| Barnard College, Columbia University
Scott A. Weir| Unaffilliated
Mark Weisbrot| Center for Economic and Policy Research
Charles Weise| Gettysburg College
Thomas Weisskopf| University of Michigan
Ralph Whitehead| University of Massachusetts–Amherst
Jeannette Wicks-Lim| University of Massachusetts Amherst
Roger Wilkins| Campaign for America’s Future
John Willoughby| American University
Martin H. Wolfson| University of Notre Dame
Yavuz Yasar| University of Denver
June Zaccone| National Jobs for All Coalition
Ajit Zacharias| Levy Economics Institute
David Zalewski| Providence College
James M. Zelenski| Regis University
Michael Zimmerman| University of Colorado
Frederick Zimmerman| University of California Los Angeles
Ben Zipperer| University of Massachusetts–Amherst

Civic and Labor Leaders

Deepak Bhargava| Center for Community Change
Jeff Blum| USAction
James Boland| International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers
Robert Borosage| Campaign for America’s Future
Anna Burger| Former Secretary-Treasurer, SEIU
Darcy Burner| Progressive Congress Action Fund
Nancy Duff Campbell| National Women’s Law Center
Rea Carey| National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Action Fund
Ashley Carson| Older Women’s League
Larry Cohen| Communications Workers of America
Darryl Fagin| Americans for Democratic Action, Inc.
Rabbi Michael Feinberg| Greater New York Labor-Religion Coalition
Mark Friedman| Third Culture
Leo Gerard| United Steelworkers of America
Robert Greenwald| Brave New Films
Mary Kay Henry| Service Employees International Union
Roger Hickey | Campaign for America’s Future
Michael Huttner| ProgressNow
Rev Jesse Jackson| Rainbow-PUSH Coalition
Avis Jones-DeWeever| National Council of Negro Women
Bob King| United Auto Workers Union
Joan Kuriansky| Wider Opportunities for Women
Antonio Lodico| Mon Valley Unemployed Committee
Meizhu Lui| Closing the Racial Wealth Gap, Insight Center for Community Economic Development
Ben Manski| Liberty Tree Foundation
Don Mathis| Community Action Partnership
Gerald McEntee| American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees
Brian Miller| United for a Fair Economy
Terry O’Neill| National Organization for Women
Robert Patrician| Communications Workers of America
Miles Rapoport| Dēmos
Charles Rodgers| New Community Fund
Justin Ruben| MoveOn.org
Steven Schwartz| Ballot Initiative Strategy Center
Karen See| Coalition of Labor Union Women
Hilary Shelton | NAACP
Curtis Skinner| National Center for Children in Poverty
Ted Smukler| Interfaith Worker Justice
Margery Tabankin| The Streisand Foundation
Scott Wallace| Wallace Global Fund
Deborah Weinstein| Coalition on Human Needs
Michael J. Wilson| Americans for Democratic Action

State Civic Leaders

Betty Ahrens| Iowa Citizen Action Network
Gerard Bradley| New Mexico Voices for Children
Linda Brown| Arizona Advocacy Network
Bless Burke| Western North Carolina Workers' Center
Simone Campbell| NETWORK, A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby
Sarah Chaisson Warner| New Hampshire Citizens Alliance for Action
Melba Collins| Arkansas Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice
Lynda DeLaforgue| Citizen Action/Illinois
Rion Dennis| Progressive Maryland
Adrienne Evans| United Action for Idaho
Linda Garding| North Dakota People.org
Debra Gardner| Public Justice Center
Rebekah Gienapp| Workers Interfaith Network (Memphis, Tenn.)
Jesse Graham| Maine People's Alliance
Jill Harrington| Ocean State Action
Alice Hoffman| Pa. Alliance of Retired Americans
Nancy Holle| Community, Faith and Labor Coalition
Janice "Jay" Johnson| Viginia Organizing
Jonathan Klein| Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE-LA)
Robert Kraig| Citizen Action of Wisconsin
Mary Mancini| Tennessee Citizen Action
Craig McMahon| Step Safe
Bill Moyer| Backbone Campaign
Bill Newton| Florida Citizen Action Group
Anne Nolan| Candidate for Minnesota State Representative, District 15A
Brian O'Shaughnessy| Labor-Religion Coalition of New York State
Will Pittz| Washington Community Action Network
Tom Rankin| California Alliance for Retired Americans
Brian Rothenberg| ProgressOhio
Phyllis Salowe-Kaye| New Jersey Citizen Action
Joel Scott| Detroit Federation of Teachers
Nicholas Segura Jr.| International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers LU569
Eric Sklar| Vice Mayor, St. Helena, Calif.
Marc Stier| Penn Action
Tom Swan| Connecticut Citizen Action Group
Linda Teeter| Michigan Citizen Action
Ron Williams| Oregon Action
Gary Zuckett| West Virginia Citizen Action Group

(from the pdf)

[chill_wind]

6. kick

[Catherina]

7. Rec'd n/t

[katty]

8. U.S. Gov can file bankruptcy and start creating jobs HERE

...and really F*** the Fed and Euro Fed that have behaved with impunity and criminality for a very long time (along with a plethora of partners in crime) , the transnationals that get huge tax breaks here and have sold America down the river, creating/maintaining jobs for cheap labor overseas. Screw China and the House of Saud, we need to make some really hard calls now.

-The richest and most powerful are set for life, so now they ask, ....what do we do with all these people that are out of work? They don't care about the unemployed (that is obvious) and they are the ones calling the shots in our government, their solution? just cut any program that helps 'the people' (because who really cares....and the people are already living off the bare bones) and reduce the deficit that is SO HIGH now it will NEVER be reduced to any acceptable level, so what effect will that really have? (when you don't create jobs for more tax revenues?!-it is a hostile, political solution).

- yes, the above is a pipe dream as our U.S. Government has gone out of its way over the last decades to create and promote this dire situation we find ourselves in-and it is not going to magically go away.