City Commission approves expansion of harm reduction efforts by the Grand Rapids Red Project
This morning the Grand Rapids City Commission approves a request by the Grand Rapids Red Project to expand its harm reduction services in the community. According to request the community-based group will “expand its currently existing syringe exchange program, for the purpose of reducing the spread of HIV / AIDS and other communicable diseases, among individuals who inject drugs by use of needles.”
The Commission approved the request unanimously, in part because the Red Project had substantial support from the community. The Commission had copies of letters from Heartside Ministries, former Mayor John Logie, Cares, the Michigan AIDS Coalition, Network 180, Pub 43, Life Guidance Services, Arbor Circle, the Kent County Health Department, The LGBT Network of Western Michigan and several area churches.
The other major factor in getting the approval is the impressive track record that the Red Project has in reducing and preventing drug overdose in Kent County. In a letter to the City Commission, Director of the Red Project Steve Alsum wrote, “According to the Michigan Department of Community Health, when Clean Works first received permission to operate, approximately 25% of all people with HIV/AIDS living in Kent County had contracted the disease through behavior related to injection drug use. As of April 2011, again according to the MDCH, only 10% of people living with HIV/AIDS in Kent County have contracted the disease through injection drug use.”
The Red Project staff is excited about the support from the City as they have plans to expand their services to areas of the City where injection drug use is prevalent. Alsum believes that they will be even better equipped to reduce the number of people who die from drug overdose, thus fulfilling their mission of harm reduction.
One Kent Proposal reviewed and discussed at GR City Commission meeting
This morning the Grand Rapids City Commission addressed ongoing concerns around the One Kent Coalition proposal to create a new regional government body.
The One Kent Coalition is moving forward in their pursuit to get the proposed legislation introduced in the State House before the New Year, but Grand Rapids Mayor George Heartwell wishes they would change course. “I want to use this public forum today to urge the One Kent group to step back and work with local governments, instead of moving forward with the State legislation.”
Other City Commissioners expressed concerns as well. Second Ward City Commissioner Rosalynn Bliss said she is not convinced that the proposed legislation would be good for the community, “it’s too partisan and it gives to much power to the Executive Officer.” Bliss is referring leadership position in the proposed One Kent legislation, where the new metropolitan government would be run by a CEO. Ruth Kelly echoed these comments by saying it is important to have as much transparency as possible and to avoid a government structure that would great more polarization with partisan influence.
In addition to the commission’s comments, there was a presentation by City staff and two lawyers who agreed to review the One Kent proposal. A 12 – page memorandum was submited that outlines 58 different aspect of the One Kent proposal that the review committee raised questions about. Some of these questions dealt with the executive power that the metropolitan leader would have, the lack of clarity on collective bargaining agreements for government employees, the districting process, the new government’s relationship to the existing city charter, the large number of political appointments and how this proposal would be voted on.
The observations in the review that were presented are both important and relevant for the City to move forward on how they deal with issues of possible consolidation. In addition, the review of the proposed legislation again makes clear that there are numerous undemocratic aspects of the One Kent proposal, which should need to be exposed and debated before any legislation can be adopted.
One side note worth reporting is that the City Commission adopted a resolution to fund a study with Grand Rapids, Kentwood and Wyoming on the possibility of consolidation of police and fire services between these three local governments. The total cost of the study is $265,000, with the City of Grand Rapids contributing $69,000.
More importantly, there are three private entities contributing significantly to the study of local government services consolidation – the Richard & Helen DeVos Foundation ($50,000), the Grand Rapids Community Foundation ($50,000) and the Frey Foundation ($27,000). This should raise flags for anyone paying attention, since both the DeVos and Frey families are members of the One Kent Coalition. The funding that both of these foundations provide should raise the question, is there are conflict of interest with funds coming from families that have a vested interest in seeing local government consolidation happen?
Nobel Peace Prize Winner Wangari Maathai Dies at 71
This is a repost from Our Kitchen Table
The obituary on Democracy Now reads, “Wangari Maathai, the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, died Sunday after a long struggle with cancer. She was 71 years old. In 1977, she spearheaded the struggle against state-backed deforestation in Kenya and founded the Green Belt Movement, which has planted some 45 million trees in the country. She has also been an outspoken advocate for women’s rights and democratic development. She won the Right Livelihood Award in 1984. Twenty years later, she won the Nobel Peace Prize.”
This writer posted the following Indy Media story after Maathai’s 2007 visit to Grand Rapids.
Wangari Maathai at Fountain Street Church
“Every one of us needs ten trees to take care of the carbon dioxide we breathe out. We should know where our ten trees are. Or, are you using somebody else’s trees?” Wangari Maathai
2004 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Wangari Maathai opened her lecture with observations on the biblical creation story as told in the book of Genesis. She noted that every day, after making another aspect of the environment, the creator commented, “It is good,” except for the last day, the day humanity was created. “We have convinced ourselves we are more important than the rest of creation,” Maathai said. “But, we cannot live without trees. They can live without us.”
Maathai believes that because we have higher intelligence, we have a moral responsibility to ensure that other species survive. She applied that belief in Kenya, where as a young biologist she was studying the tic’s role in East Coast Fever, a fatal epidemic killing hybrid cattle. Her fieldwork led her to observe that Kenya’s environment had been degraded. Because of deforestation upstream, fertile topsoil was filling the rivers as silt; rainwaters were washing away into lakes and the ocean instead of returning to groundwater reservoirs; and, rivers were beginning to dry up.
“This was much more dangerous than the tics,” she said.
Then, in 1975, her work with the National Council of Women of Kenya opened her eyes to the serious issues facing Kenya’s women: they did not have enough wood for household energy; they did not have clean drinking water; they did not have nutritious food; they had no ways to generate income. Maathai’s solution “Let us plant trees.”
“We went to the foresters and asked, ‘Can you teach us how to plant trees?’ This is difficult when the people are illiterate and a professional tried to teach you. To cut a long story short, we teach ourselves, use our common sense, our woman sense. Forget the foresters. We started teaching ourselves how to grow trees.”
Much of Kenya had been clear-cut; the British had introduced pines and eucalyptus that drank too much water and dried out the land. “We wanted to restore indigenous vegetation, biodiversity. It’s a campaign we are till carrying out,” she shared.
Maathai encouraged groups of women to plant trees “whichever way.” The women collected native seeds, planted them in all sorts of cast-off containers and nurtured the seedlings till transplanting them. The women earned money for each seedling planted, generating income for themselves. The new forests help provide wood for energy and stifle the erosion that has robbed farms of topsoil and rivers of clean water. The women taught other women how to be “Foresters without Diplomas.” Today, Kenya has more than 7,000 tree nurseries run by these women.
Though more than 30 million trees have been planted in Kenya, Maathai’s work is not done. When she began in the ’70s, 30% of Kenya was covered by forests. Only 2% is today. However, her work with the women became a catalyst for another change. As the women empowered themselves, and the people found their voices, many spoke out against Kenya’s dictatorial regime.
“If you do not live in a society that is democratic, that allows a minority voice to be heard, it is difficult to protect the environment,” Maathai said. “The freedom of movement. The freedom of assembly. The freedom of expression. The freedom of the press. You have all these freedoms. In a society like yours, you take for granted. When you are at their (the government’s) mercy, they are very pleasant. When you are free, you become troublesome.”
“To cut a long story short,” Kenya became a democracy in 2002; Maathai serves in parliament and as Assistant Minister for the Environment. But, she does not advise people to wait on their governments to take care of the environment.
Read Maathai's inspiring memoir.
“We can plant trees. Anybody can dig a hole. Plant a tree in that hole. Water it. Make sure it survives,” she said. “The government is the custodian of the environment. If the custodian is not doing his job, you fire him during elections.”
Today in Kenya, Maathai has undertaken a campaign to reduce the proliferation of plastic bags and packaging that is polluting Kenya’s cities, impacting its wildlife and creating an untold number of breeding puddles for malaria-infected mosquitoes. She is also working with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as Goodwill Ambassador for the Congo Basin Forest Ecosystem project–the goal, to plant one billion trees. She invited the audience to visit the Web site and get involved in the project. The Conga Forest, Amazon Forest and the South East Asian Forest are an important defense against the climate change that impacts all of us.
“It is the rich nations who really have to understand that, although the resources look like a lot around you, they are coming from people who are impoverished,” Maathai said. “Sooner or later, there will be conflict and it will affect us.”
Nobody Can Predict The Moment Of Revolution – Occupy Wall Street
(This video is re-posted from OccupyWallstreet.org.)
Despite of the corporate media’s effort to silence the protests, and Yahoo’s attempt to to censor it in e-mail communication, the occupation is growing in numbers and spreading to other cities in the US and abroad. Please forward our video to likeminded people via email, facebook, twitter – and make the voices of dissent circulate. Find the latest news, learn how to participate and support: https://occupywallst.org/.
Trailer for the LGBTQ People’s History of Grand Rapids film
Here is a taste of what you can expect to see on November 17, when the premier screening of A People’s History of the LGBTQ Community in Grand Rapids takes place at the downtown campus of GVSU.
We have conducted 70 interviews, collected lots of archival material – video, photos, articles and posters, for the material to complete this film. It has been an incredible process of learning and sharing.
GRIID is grateful to the LGBT Resource Center at Grand Valley State University and the Kutsche Office of Local History for their support in making this project come to fruition.
The premier screening is Thursday, November 17 at the downtown campus of GVSU, in the Loosemore Auditorium. Doors open at 6:30PM. The film screening if free and open to the public. There is also a facebook event page for this event.
The music for this trailer is provided by the local band Alexis and the song is Human Condition.
Elect to End Hunger and Poverty Tour in Grand Rapids this Thursday
Keith McHenry, activist with Food Not Bombs is on the road for a speaking tour across the US to talk about why we need to end the criminalization of hunger and poverty in America.
According to the FNB webpage:
The Elect to End Hunger and Poverty presentation talks about the campaign to end the criminalization of poverty and how you can participate in the global protest movement against austerity! Food Not Bombs co-founder Keith McHenry will share the details of the history, principles and current activities of the movement. Keith will also invite the audience to participate with their local activist groups.
Most people would elect to end hunger and poverty but many of the people running for office have another agenda, cutting social services while transferring our tax dollars to wealthy military contractors and their corporate friends. While elected officials cut social services like unemployment insurance, food stamps, education, health care and other basic necessities they are also passing laws against the poor and their supporters.
Food Not Bombs is responding to this crisis by recovering, preparing and sharing vegan meals and groceries with the hungry in nearly 1,000 communities. This presentation will inspire you and your friends to join the Food Not Bombs movement and help our dedicated volunteers organize, implement and feed the global campaign to end hunger and poverty. You can make a difference!
Food Not Bombs started in 1980 when eight college aged activists dressed as generals and started holding bake sales pretending to buy a bomber. Thirty years later Food Not Bombs continues to encourage the redirection of our resources from the military towards human needs.
McHenry will be speaking this Thursday at Trinity United Methodist Church in Grand Rapids at an event co-sponsored by the GR chapter of Food Not Bombs and the Grand Rapids IWW.
Thursday, September 29
6:30PM
Trinity United Methodist Church
1100 Lake Dr. SE, Grand Rapids
Nothing but praise for ArtPrize at GVSU event
Last night, a packed audience at Grand Valley’s Loosemore Auditorium, came to hear perspectives from a panel of artists on what they thought about ArtPrize.
The event was billed as “Perspectives on ArtPrize” and was part of the 2011 DeVos Art Lecture Series at GVSU. The panel consisted of 6 artists and ArtPrize founder Rick DeVos.
From the very beginning, it was clear that the event was framed in such a way that didn’t really welcome any criticism of the local art competition. Marcia Haas, wife of GVSU President Thomas Haas, said in her welcoming comments, “Isn’t it wonderful that our city is alive with art? This is an experience like no other, for people to have a chance to explore our community.”
The panel was then introduced and moderated by GVSU Director of Galleries and Collections Henry Matthews. The first words out of his mouth were, “can you feel the excitement?”
Matthews asked Rick DeVos to begin the conversation by saying that the overall structure of ArtPrize is pretty much the same as previous years, with voting and no categories. He also said there were awards being judged and an exhibition center at St. Cecilia Society, which included music and other performance art.
The first question asked by the moderator was, “For those who participated last year, how are things different or better?” Jason Quigno, a Native American artist from Michigan said it was hectic, but he likes seeing the excitement on the street. Cyril Lixenberg, an artist from Amsterdam, said he also thinks it is exciting and knows many other people who have told him they were excited. Cynthia McKean, an artist from Saugatuck, said there is confusion, but that this is part of the fun.
There were two Argentine artists on the panel, both from Buenos Aires. Juan Batalla said it was an interesting experience. “It allows art to be talked about, since there is no one who determines who gets to exhibit and who doesn’t. The real joy begins when people begin to talk about the art.” Danny Barreto said he was impressed by the size of the event, the beauty of the city and the variety of art. “It is not only for enlightened people, but for families and regular people who have a chance to look at art in a different way.”
Hubert Massey, an artist from Detroit, said he was impressed by the size and the interaction of the people with the art. “It has a real large impact on the community. Art changes lives and people’s behavior. This should be happening all across the country.”
This was the consensus all night, with panelists falling over themselves in praise of ArtPrize. Questions and comments from the audience were not much different in that people wanted to thank Rick DeVos and asked questions like, “Could this be replicated in other cities and what are the lessons learned from this event?” DeVos responded to the lessons learned by saying he thinks that we need to “just get out of the way and allow people determine what happens. He thinks that the collaborative relationships that develop are critical and more of that needs to be developed. The artists and the venue people are putting lots of energy into the whole experience.”
Another audience question asked how many people have been employed by this event? It spoke to the general belief that ArtPrize is good for the local economy, but upon further investigation it seems that a narrow sector of Grand Rapids really benefits – hotel, restaurant, parking lot and club owners are the big winners. DeVos’ response to this question was that the real goal of ArtPrize “is building a deeper and richer culture of experimentation of expression.”
When the artists on the panel were asked about how they felt about their work being voted on, they all responded favorably. DeVos said, “it wasn’t about the Prize, it was the participation of the people.” Really, I wonder how many artists, especially the first year, would have participated if there were no prize money. It seems like a pretty big carrot in motivating artist participation.
The only critical question asked all night was by a young Latino man. He wanted to how this art competition affected the poor people in the community? Cyril Lixenberg responded by saying “get the kids involved.” DeVos agreed and said that he talked to students who got excited about what they were seeing. “It opens up the possibilities for people. ArtPrize is like a treasure hunt, since they get to explore parts of the city they haven’t seen, especially people of lesser means.” No one really answered the young man’s questions and no one could use the word poor, just terms like “disadvantaged” and “lesser means.”
Matthews wrapped up the panel discussion by asking DeVos what was next for ArtPrize? DeVos said he had no “world conquering” plans.
After sitting through the brief panel discussion (only 1 hour), I was left feeling frustrated that: 1) there was no one on the panel who had a critical, different or dissenting opinion; 2) the only question with social implications was skillfully diverted and dismissed, and 3) the event was really an opportunity for Rick DeVos to promote himself and his art competition.
9-17 Urban Foraging Workshop introduced shared skills
This story is reposted from www.OKTjustice.org
Last Saturday morning, a group of about 20 folks gathered at Garfield Park during the Southeast Area Farmers’ Market for an Urban Foraging Workshop, co-sponsored by Our Kitchen Table and The Bloom Collective.
The presenter who was to lead the event had a family emergency so the workshop turned into a skill-share. People in attendance shared how they used various wild medicinal and edible plants (commonly called weeds). Here are a few of those:
- Purslane—a delicious salad green
- Dandelion – use as a salad green; brew as tea that for a good kidney tonic; use the root as a coffee substitute. The flowers are also edible.
- Sorel – a lemony tart salad green.
- Queen Anne’s lace – Deep fry the flowers; the seeds brewed as tea have traditionally been used as a contraceptive among indigenous peoples.
- Wild grape and mulberry leaves – use to wrap rice and meat mixtures, think Middle Eastern cuisine.
- Mulberries – a summer fruit that makes a great snack and a delicious jelly or jam.
- Peppermint – brew as tea to settle an upset stomach; chew a leaf instead of a breath mint.
- Plantain – the leaves can relieve insect bites and bee stings. Roll and crush the leaf, apply it to the sting, use a whole leaf as a “band-aid” to hold the crushed mixture in place.
- Ground cherries – found inside the tomatilla like flower, these are a semi-sweet treat that can be used for jams and jellies as well.
We were also fortunate to have Kristin Tindall, ecology education coordinator from Blandford Nature Center, in attendance. She had lots of good information for the group and let us know that Blandford sometimes hosts foraging workshops.
Kristin also mentioned that a foraging club is forming. The club will be able to provide an ongoing shared experience that will help members to broaden their skills for finding foods and medicinal herbs in their backyards, local parks, parkways and abandoned lots. Kristin also shares this Wild foraging handout.
A word to the wise: When foraging, make sure you are picking plants from an area that has not been chemically contaminated. For example, Tindall shared that utility companies usually spray a swath of herbicides under electricity towers.
Just like the grocery stores have helped us forget that food comes from farms, cultivation of domestic crops has helped us forget that many of the native species we see around us (and label as weeds) once were a prize source of both food and medicine. Let’s learn how to take advantage of the free foods growing all around us.
The Media Spectacle that is ArtPrize
It is now day three of the official beginning of ArtPrize 2011. However, it is strikingly clear that coverage of this year’s ArtPrize began way before the event kick-off on Wednesday.
For the third year in a row there is no way that one could not know about the downtown art competition. The local news media have been falling over themselves trying to “report” on everything from artist profiles, the marketing techniques, venue locations and public reactions.
The Grand Rapids Press ran their own competition, by inviting people to design a front-page cover that would be used for the opening day. The winning design also now adorns Press boxes throughout downtown GR, enticing readers to get a copy of the only daily paper in town’s take on the art competition.
The local TV stations have also been busy making ArtPrize their main focus. Channel 8 and channel 13 both broadcast live all day at the Grand Rapids Art Museum. WOOD TV 8 has an ArtPrize banner to go along with weather and sports. The local NBC affiliate included the art competition logo onto the station’s web design and their meteorologists will be providing “live ArtPrize forecasts every day from the street side studio.”
WXMI 17 also has an Artprize section, but the ABC affiliate WZZM 13 has what they have called the “conversation couch.” WZZM 13 has partnered with the Grand Rapids Art Museum, by setting up a couch with word bubbles behind it. People can sit down and use other word bubbles to talk about what art and the art competition means to them. Corporate sponsors all graciously provided the couch, TV and signage for WZZM 13’s art competition coverage.
Local radio isn’t doing quite as much as TV, but WOOD radio does have a listing of ArtPrize events.
We also can’t ignore what independent media is doing. The Rapidian has their own ArtPrize section, which has been consistent the three years the event has happened in downtown Grand Rapids.
So what is the big deal, there is lots of local media coverage of ArtPrize. This writer doesn’t really have a big issue with the amount of coverage that the art competition is receiving, rather it is the lack of critical coverage and the frustration from not seeing the same intensity of coverage for other issues.
Imagine if elections got the same amount of coverage, with all day live broadcasts and a couch for people to sit in and talk about the meaning of democracy for them. Imagine the Grand Rapids Press invited people to design a front-page for their paper with the theme of environmental justice or sustainability. What if the local TV stations had a banner for racial justice or fighting poverty? Are these issues of less importance than ArtPrize? Do they not deserve the same kinds of journalistic enthusiasm and creativity?
“$4 Trillion in Tax Cuts = $4 Trillion in Budget Cuts”
This article by Jack Rasmus is re-posted from ZNet.
This past Monday, September 19, President Obama revealed his proposals for how to pay for his $447 billion tax cut/jobs bill announced last week. In the same speech, he announced a goal of cutting the deficits and debt by $4.4 trillion. But what he didn’t tell us is that the $4 trillion plus in deficit and debt reduction is almost exactly the amount of tax cuts that have been enacted over the past decade, 2001-2011, roughly three-fourths of which have gone to corporations, banks, investors and the wealthiest 10 percent households.
$4 Trillion Budget Cuts to Pay for $4 Trillion Tax Cuts
Here’s how the $4 trillion tax cuts stack up:
· Bush tax cuts, 2001-2010 $2,900 billion
· Bush 2008 stimulus tax cuts $90 billion
· Obama 2009 stimulus tax cuts $313 billion
· AMT tax “fix” for high income households $70 billion
· Supplemental tax cuts June 2009-October 2010 $50 billion
· Obama December 2010 tax cuts $802 billion
· Obama September 2011 “jobs” bill tax cuts $270 billion
Total tax cuts $4,495 billion ($4.49 Trillion)
Approximately 75 percent of the $4.482 Trillion in tax cuts accrued to corporations, bankers, investors and the wealthiest 10 percent households. Today, the consensus of policy makers from Obama to the Deficit Commission to the Supercommittee is that the appropriate mix of budget cuts should be 75 percent spending reductions and 25 percent tax hikes. Most of the spending cuts will be social programs benefiting seniors; retirees (Medicare, Social Security); the working poor and children (Medicaid, CHIP); students (loans, assistance to schools); and just about every other social program aiding the least fortunate.
In his September 19 speech, Obama “threatened Monday to veto any bill that cuts Medicare benefits without increasing taxes on corporations or the wealthy,” according to the front page story in the September 20 Wall Street Journal.
Among those experienced in bargaining, that statement means, “I am signaling I will cut Medicare if you, Republicans, agree to raise taxes,” but not until you do. In other words, folks, bigger Medicare cuts are not “off the table” by any means. In fact, as a sweetener, Obama has already agreed to start with $320 billion in Medicare and Medicaid cuts out of the gate, which he already announced. Once again, a “freebie” concession up front for nothing in return, which is the president’s negotiating style, it appears. Republicans get an initial pass from agreeing to any tax increase, in exchange for Obama’s first down-payment of $320 billion in Medicare cuts as a prelude to a later final deal in December.
The $4 Trillion Consensus
For some time now there’s been a clear consensus among Democrats and Republicans alike, Obama and Boehner, Deficit Commission, Gang of Six, Supercommittee of 12, and all the rest. That consensus is to cut $4 trillion minimum from the budget.
The original Simpson-Bowles deficit commission report issued last December 2010 called for about $4 trillion in deficit reduction over the coming decade. Then, last spring, Republicans demanded that same amount. Even Tea Party Congressman Paul Ryan’s budget last spring proposed $4 trillion in cuts. It’s just that he wanted the lion’s share taken out of the hides of seniors and Medicare. After that, in June, Vice President Joe Biden held his then secret backroom negotiations with Republican leaders on behalf of the Obama administration. When news of the negotiations leaked out, it was reported Biden had agreed to a $3 trillion deficit reduction, with 87 percent composed of spending cuts, including Social Security and Medicare, and 13 percent in tax loophole closings. The Democrat Party base choked when it found out what was going on. The negotiations blew up and Republican House Leader John Boehner walked out. In July, the magic number of $4 trillion was once again quickly reintroduced by the gang of six senators. President Obama then directly jumped into the public negotiations in July and proposed his grand deal of $4 trillion of deficit cuts, composed of 75 percent spending reduction and 25 percent tax loophole closing. And now, most recently, the magic number of $4 trillion in budget cuts is offered up again by Obama.
One trillion dollars is already in the bag, as they say. This past August’s “debt ceiling deal” between Obama and Republicans amounted to roughly $1 trillion in immediate cuts and required a further minimum $1.2 trillion to $1.5 trillion guaranteed cuts by end of this year from the Supercommittee in Congress that will make its proposals public on November 19. So, that adds up to a guaranteed minimum $2.5 trillion. But wait! Obama’s recent proposed $447 billion jobs bill will raise that $2.5 trillion to $2.95 trillion, since Obama has publicly said the Congressional Supercommittee should add that amount to $1.5 trillion additional cuts mandated by year end. That same Supercommittee is already talking about cutting more than the $1.5 trillion, however. So, to the $1 trillion cuts this past August will be increased, at minimum, by another $2 trillion and possibly more. This writer predicts the eventual final deficit cutting package by year end will add at least another $1 trillion. That adds up to the consensus $4 trillion number.
$4 Trillion Tax Cuts and 25 Million Jobless
The $4 trillion in 2008-2011 tax cuts were supposed to create jobs, but they didn’t. Nor will Obama’s $447 billion “jobs” bill – composed of 60 percent of tax cuts – create jobs. We had 25 million jobless when Obama came in office. After $420 billion in tax cuts in 2009 and another $802 billion in tax cuts in 2010, we still have 25 million jobless today. By what logic does anyone think another $270 billion in tax cuts will create jobs when more than $1.2 trillion did not? Whether another $270 billion in Obama’s “jobs” bill or more (which is likely after Republicans take a whack at it), six months from now, there will still be 25 million jobless – as the US and global economies continue to drift inexorably toward a double-dip recession.
$4 Trillion Tax Cuts and $4 Trillion Corporate Cash Hoard
But wait, there’s still more. That $4 trillion in deficit cuts for tax cuts is also just about the amount that big business, multinational corporations and banks have been hoarding in cash since they were bailed out during 2009-10.
According to various sources and estimates, large US corporations – not small businesses – are sitting on a cash hoard of $2 trillion and refusing to invest it and create jobs in the US. Multinational corporations are reportedly hoarding another $1.2 trillion to $1.4 trillion in their offshore subsidiaries, refusing to return it to the US and pay the normal 35 percent corporate income tax rate. And US big banks are sitting on an excess cash reserves hoard of at least another $1 trillion. That’s all just about … guess what? Four trillion dollars.
$4 Trillion Tax Cuts and $9 Trillion US Debt
In 2001 the total federal debt as George W. Bush entered office was approximately $5.5 trillion. That total debt accelerated to $14.5 trillion today. So, the run-up in the total federal debt over the last decade was about $9 trillion. As already noted, about $4 trillion attributable to tax cuts. Another $1 trillion in lost revenue due to chronic joblessness. That leaves … $4 trillion of the $9 trillion debt run-up due to excess spending over the decade. So, where does this $4 trillion in excess spending derive from?
The amount of $2.1 trillion was from escalating defense spending and wars. Defense spending rose at an annual rate of 8.2 percent over the decade. If it had just risen at the normal consumer price rate over the decade of roughly 2 percent, instead of the 8.2 percent, it would have lowered the deficits over the past decade by $2.1 trillion. Add at least another $400 billion to $500 billion in the Medicare Part D prescription drug program introduced by Bush that was not funded, but paid for by borrowing; add another $200 billion in excess inflationary health care cost increases that have pushed government Medicare and Medicaid payments through the roof; add the $700 billion cost of the TARP bailouts of banks in 2008 plus $140 billion in bailout costs for the government housing agencies, Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac; and then add $589 billion in non-tax spending provisions in Obama’s 2009-10 stimulus packages. The total in spending contributing to the $9 trillion debt now comes to roughly … $4.179 trillion. And that’s before any interest charges on the debt from the $4.179 trillion.
Summing it all up, about $4.495 trillion of the $9 trillion debt added since 2000 has been due to tax cuts that didn’t create jobs. And another $4.179 trillion of the $9 trillion is the product of inflationary defense spending, inflationary health care costs, unfunded prescription drug plan, bank bailouts and stimulus spending that didn’t create a sustained economic recovery. (The remaining $500 billion to $1 trillion is a consequence of three years of 25 million unemployed and lost income tax revenue and interest on the $9 trillion debt.)
Some Simple Alternatives to $4 Trillion Budget Cuts
If the consensus budget cut target is $4 trillion, why not just reverse the $4 trillion tax cuts? Or address the four major causes of deficit spending: wars, health care cost inflation, bank bailouts and poorly targeted stimulus spending? Or why not tax the $4 trillion cash hoard big corporations, multinational companies and banks are sitting on and refusing to spend to create jobs after we bailed them out? Or, while we’re at it, how about taxing the $4 trillion that US wealthy investors have squirreled away in offshore tax havens from the Cayman islands to Cyprus to Vanuatu to Seychelles … and, of course, Switzerland?
So, why are politicians, Republican and Democrat alike, Obama and Tea Partyers, liberals and libertarians, all so focused on cutting $4 trillion at the expense of seniors and retirees, students and middle-working class households when they had nothing whatsoever to do with the deficits and $9 trillion debt run-up? They didn’t cause the economic crisis and weren’t bailed out even to this day. They are the 25 million unemployed. They are the 11 million foreclosed homeowners. They are the 20 million with homes “under water.” They are the 44 million seniors who will soon have to pay twice as much for their Medicare and receive no cost of living increases in their Social Security checks. They are the tens of millions of children of the poor who will soon be denied Medicaid. They are the millions of students now facing decades of financial indenture due to accelerating college debt.
Who will speak for them, as the politicians this coming December 23, 2011, cut another $3 trillion from social programs, and as we are offered yet another tax-cut bloated jobs bill from the president that won’t create jobs and only add to corporations’ cash hoarding? Don’t count on the politicians in Washington, whatever their party affiliation or ideological stripe. It’s time to take to the streets and be heard.
