Robert B. Reich's Blog, page 58
April 6, 2018
The largest block of voters in America isn’t Democrats...
The largest block of voters in America isn’t Democrats or
Republicans. It’s the people who don’t vote. Our latest video with voting
rights expert Heather McGhee looks at what we could achieve if everyone voted.
April 4, 2018
April FoolsCon Mannity
here. Shrink deficits! States’...
April Fools
Con Mannity
here. Shrink deficits! States’ rights! Stand up to Russia! Free
Markets! I’m a conservative from the old school, with a capital
“Con.” And I love Donald Trump because he’s sticking to the time-tested
conservative beliefs I’ve been pushing on this show for years.
For Example, if
there’s one thing we conservatives believe its that we’ve got to shrink the
deficit.
[News bulletin: Trump and Republican tax cut will explode the deficit]
Huh? [agitated] Actually, a
lot of people don’t understand this, but I tell people all the time… if the
real conservative goal is to cut the deficit, then sometimes, maybe the best
way to do that is to expand the deficit – so there’s more to cut! Just think
about that. …
Old school conservatives like me have other principles, too, that Trump is
championing. States’ Rights! We conservatives hate having big
government in Washington telling the states what to do.
[News bulletin: Trump and Sessions attacking California law legalizing pot]
Ok, I’m cool! [More agitated] When something bad is going down, like hippies smoking grass,
that’s more important than states rights. I hate hippies, don’t you? And
hate is a basic Republican principle. …
Back to Basics! You can’t trust Russia. Which is why Republicans came out against Obama’s
New Start treaty with Moscow, and complained that Obama wasn’t doing enough to
deter Russia in Ukraine. We have to get those bad-guy Ruskies and teach
em’ whose boss!
[News bulletin: Russia helped Trump win election.]
What? Russia
helped Trump? [Wildly agitated] I mean, one thing I know, Trump’s the boss, so Russia helping him
get elected is teaching ‘em who’s boss.
Finally and not the
least – basic conservative principle – free trade! Government, bad! Free
markets, good!
[News bulletin: Trump starts trade war.]
Okay, we’re back. [He’s now upside down] It
appears that everything is upside down. But that’s okay. As long as
we stay just…like…this… I’m still a conservative. I’m still Con Mannity, and
this is still Rox News.
March 31, 2018
Dollars for Decency
March 29, 2018
IS TRUMP THE WORST PRESIDENT IN AMERICAN HISTORY?America has had...
IS TRUMP THE WORST PRESIDENT IN AMERICAN HISTORY?
America has had its share of crooks (Warren G. Harding, Richard
Nixon), bigots (Andrew Jackson, James Buchanan), and incompetents (Andrew
Johnson, George W. Bush). But never before Donald Trump have we had a president
who combined all these nefarious qualities.
America’s great good fortune was to begin with the opposite – a
superb moral leader. By June of 1775, when congress appointed George Washington
to command the nation’s army, he had already “become a moral rallying post,” as
his biographer, Douglas Southall Freeman, described him. He was,“the embodiment
of the purpose, the patience, and the determination necessary for the triumph
of the revolutionary cause.”
Washington won the war and then led the fledgling nation “by
directness, by deference, and by manifest dedication to duty.”
A president’s most fundamental legal and moral responsibility is
to uphold and protect our system of government. Donald Trump has degraded that
system.
When he threatens to loosen federal libel laws so he can sue
news organizations that are critical of him and revoke licenses of networks
critical of him, he isn’t just bullying the media. He’s threatening the
constitutionally guaranteed freedom and integrity of the press.
When he equated Neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members with
counter-demonstrators in Charlottesville, Virginia, by blaming “both sides” for
the violence, he wasn’t being neutral. He was condoning white supremacists,
thereby undermining the constitution’s guarantee of equal rights.
When he pardoned Joe Arpaio, the former sheriff of Maricopa
County, Arizona, for a criminal contempt conviction, he wasn’t just signaling
it’s okay for the police to engage in violations of civil rights. He was also
subverting the rule of law by impairing the judiciary’s power to force public
officials to abide by court decisions.
When he criticized NFL players for kneeling during the national
anthem, he wasn’t just demanding they demonstrate their patriotism. He was
disrespecting their – and, indirectly, everyone’s – freedom of speech.
When he berates the intelligence agencies and the federal bureau
of investigation, he isn’t just questioning their competence. He’s suggesting
they’re engaged in a giant conspiracy to remove him from office – potentially
inviting his most ardent supporters to engage in a new civil war.
When he boasts that he made up information in a meeting with the
prime minister of Canada, he isn’t just undermining his own credibility. He’s
undermining the credibility of the united states in the eyes of the
world.
Donald Trump is degrading the core institutions and values of
our democracy.
But America is fighting back.
In Alabama, voters turned out in droves to elect a Democrat to
the senate for the first time in 25 years. In Pennsylvania, Republicans lost
control of a congressional district that went for Trump by nearly 20 percentage
points. Since Trump took office, Democrats have flipped 39 Republican-held
state legislative seats.
The 2018 midterm elections are approaching. It’s up to all of us
to keep up the momentum. In the face of the worst president in history, we are
at our best when striving to strengthen our democracy.
March 26, 2018
How Trump is Preparing for War
March 19, 2018
THE BUYBACK BOONDOGGLE IS BEGGARING AMERICATrump and Republicans...
THE BUYBACK BOONDOGGLE IS BEGGARING AMERICA
Trump and Republicans branded their huge corporate tax cut as a way to make American corporations more profitable so they’d invest in more and better jobs.
But they’re buying back their stock instead. Now that the new corporate tax cut is pumping up profits, buybacks are on track to hit a record $800 billion this year.
For years, corporations have spent
most of their profits on buying back their own shares of stock, instead of
increasing the wages of their employees, whose hard work creates these
profits.
Stock buybacks should be illegal, as they were before 1983.
Stock buybacks are artificial efforts to interfere in the
so-called “free market” to prop up stock prices. Because they create an
artificial demand, they force stock prices above their natural level. With
fewer shares in circulation, each remaining share is worth more.
Buybacks don’t create more or better jobs. Money spent on
buybacks isn’t invested in new equipment, or research and development, or
factories, or wages. It doesn’t build a company. Buybacks don’t grow the
American economy.
So why are buybacks so popular with Corporate CEOs?
Because a bigger and bigger portion of CEO pay has been in
stocks and stock options, rather than cash. So when share prices go up,
executives reap a bonanza. The value of their pay from previous years also
rises – in what amounts to a retroactive (and off the books) pay increase on
top of their already outrageous compensation.
Buybacks were illegal until Ronald Reagan made them legal in
1982, just about the same time wages stopped rising for most Americans. Before
then, a bigger percentage corporate profits went into increasing workers’
wages.
But since corporations were already using their profits for stock
buybacks, there is no reason to believe they’ll use their tax windfall on
anything other than more stock buybacks.
Let’s not compound the error. Make stock buybacks illegal, as
they were before 1982.
March 17, 2018
The Menace of a Mad King
The Mad King
March 15, 2018
TRUMP’S HUMONGOUS INFRASTRUCTURE CONIt’s the biggest Trump con...
TRUMP’S HUMONGOUS INFRASTRUCTURE CON
It’s the biggest Trump con since he told Americans the tax cut would help them more than the rich. He’s calling for a $1.5 trillion boost in infrastructure spending – but he’s proposing just $200 billion in federal funding.
So where does the rest come from? Tax hikes on the middle-class and poor, and from private investors.
1. State and local governments, already starved for cash, would have to raise taxes.
2. Private investors, for their part, won’t pitch in unless they’re guaranteed a good return on their investment, most likely in the form of tolls and other user fees. Or worse, governments might be forced to transfer ownership of roads and bridges to private corporations.
So the public will end up paying twice: in higher taxes and higher tolls, and won’t even get what’s needed.
3. Projects that will be most attractive to big investors are where tolls and fees will bring in the biggest bucks: Brand new highways and bridges rather than the thousands of smaller bridges, airports, pipes, and water treatment facilities most in need of repair.
4. Trump’s infrastructure plan only worsens the racial justice divide in America, by leaving disadvantaged communities behind while giving massive profits to the rich and corporations through new tolls and fees.
5. It’s a double con because now that Trump and the Republicans have enacted a huge tax cut for corporations and the rich, there’s no money left for infrastructure. The White House says the $200 billion of federal spending will be offset by cuts elsewhere in the federal budget, but doesn’t explain how or where. Given what we know of Trump’s and the GOP’s priorities, that means taking money from programs that protect vulnerable Americans, not from the billions in wasted on military spending.
A real infrastructure program – as opposed to Trump’s fake program – would focus on repairing existing infrastructure, doing so based on need rather than financial returns, prioritizing public transportation over private, and clean water and renewable energy over projects that generate more pollution.
And it would be paid for by closing tax loopholes used by big corporations and the rich, not by imposing higher taxes, Trump tolls and user fees on the rest of us.
To really make America great again we need more and better infrastructure that’s for the public – not for big developers and investors.
March 13, 2018
6 WAYS MILLENNIALS WILL CLEAN UP THE MESS BOOMERS LEFT THEMBaby...
6 WAYS MILLENNIALS WILL CLEAN UP THE MESS BOOMERS LEFT THEM
Baby Boomers – my
generation, born between 1946 and 1964 – dominated politics and the economy
for years. There were just more Boomers than people of any other
generation. But that’s no longer the case. Now, the biggest generation is
the Millennials, born between 1983 and 2000.
Millennials are different from boomers in 6 important ways that will shape the future.
1. Millennials are
more diverse than boomers – so as Millennials gain clout, expect America to become more open. More than 44 percent
of Millennials identify as a race other than white. And they’re more accepting
of immigrants: 69 percent of millennials think that newcomers strengthen
American society, compared to 44 percent of Boomers.
2. Millennials are
more distrustful of the political system than Boomers – so as Millennials gain power, expect more anti-establishment politics. A strong majority of Millennials think the country is on the wrong track. Most disapprove of both
the Republican Party and the Democratic party. Virtually no Millennials – only
6 percent – strongly approve of Donald Trump, compared to 63 percent who
disapprove. A strong majority – 71 percent – want a third major party to
compete with Democrats and Republicans.
3. Most Millennials
have a tougher financial road than Boomers – so expect them to demand changes in how we finance higher education. According to Pew
Research, Millennials are the first generation in the modern era, “to have
higher levels of student loan debt, poverty, and unemployment, and lower levels
of wealth and personal income than any other generation at the same stage of
life.” No surprise, then, that Millennials are living at home much longer than
previous generations, and getting married later.
4. Millennials view the social safety net differently than boomers – so expect them to demand that Medicare and Social Security are strengthened. Boomers move into
older age, more and more of the federal budget is going into Medicare,
Medicaid, and Social Security. Many Millennials even doubt
Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will be there for them when they
retire.
5. Millennials care
more about the environment – so expect them to demand stronger environmental protection. Over 90 percent of
them believe climate change is occurring, compared with 74 percent of Boomers.
Over 60 percent of Millennials want to reduce the use of coal as an energy
source, compared with 28 percent of Boomers. And over half of Millennials
support a carbon tax, compared with 23 percent of Boomers.
6. Finally, as wealthy Boomers transfer $30 trillion to their lucky Millennial heirs, expect Millennials to demand a fairer inter-generational tax system. America is now on the
cusp of the largest inter-generational transfer of wealth in history. As very
wealthy boomers expire, an estimated $30 trillion will go to their children and
grandchildren over the next three decades. The tax code allows these lucky
Millennials to inherit rich Boomer assets without paying capital gains on them,
and paying far lower estate taxes than previous generations. Expect this to change.
As I said, I’m a Boomer – born the same year as Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and
Dolly Parton, among others. It’s up to you – the Millennials – to fix a
system we Boomers broke.
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