Robert B. Reich's Blog, page 83

Bernie and the Big Banks

The recent kerfluffle about Bernie Sanders
purportedly not knowing how to bust up the big banks says...

Stop Voter SuppressionA crowning achievement of thehistoric...

Stop Voter Suppression

A crowning achievement of the
historic March on Washington, where Dr. Martin Luther King gave his “I
have a dream” speech, was pushing through the
landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965. Recognizing the history of racist
attempts to prevent Black people from voting, that federal law forced a
number of southern states and districts to adhere to federal guidelines allowing
citizens access to the polls.

But in 2013 the Supreme Court
effectively gutted many of these protections. As a result, states are finding
new ways to stop more and more people—especially African-Americans and other
likely Democratic voters—from reaching the polls.

Several states are requiring
government-issued photo IDs—like drivers licenses—to vote even though
there’s no evidence of the voter fraud this is supposed to
prevent. But there’s plenty of evidence that these ID measures depress voting,
especially among communities of color, young voters, and lower-income
Americans.

Alabama, after requiring photo IDs,
has practically closed driver’s license offices in counties with
large percentages of black voters. Wisconsin requires a
government-issued photo ID but hasn’t provided any funding to explain to prospective voters how
to secure those IDs.

Other states are reducing
opportunities for early voting.

And several state legislatures—not
just in the South—are gerrymandering districts to reduce the political
power of people of color and Democrats, and thereby guarantee Republican
control in Congress.

We need to move to the next stage
of voting rights—a new Voting Rights Act—that renews the
law that was effectively repealed by the conservative activists on the Supreme
Court.

That new Voting Rights Act should
also set minimum national standards—providing
automatic voter registration when people get driver’s licenses, allowing
at least 2 weeks of early voting, and taking districting away from the
politicians and putting it under independent commissions. 

Voting isn’t a privilege. It’s
a right. And that right is too important to be left to partisan politics.  We must not
allow anyone’s votes to be taken away.

Why The Major Media Marginalize Bernie

“Bernie did well last weekend but he can’t possibly win the nomination,” a
friend told me for what...

Why Either Trump’s and Cruz’s Tax Plans Would Be the Largest...

Why Either Trump’s and Cruz’s Tax Plans Would Be the Largest Redistributions to the Rich in American History

The tax cuts for the rich proposed by the two leading Republican candidates for the presidency – Donald Trump and Ted Cruz – are larger, as a proportion of the government budget and the total economy, than any tax cuts ever before proposed in history.

Trump and Cruz pretend to be opposed to the Republican establishment, but when it comes to taxes they’re seeking exactly what that Republican establishment wants.

Here are 5 things you need to know about their tax plans:

1. Trump’s proposed cut would reduce the top tax rate from 39.6 percent to 25 percent – creating a giant windfall for the wealthy (at a time when the wealthy have a larger portion of the nation’s wealth than any time since 1918). According to the Center for Tax Policy, the richest one tenth of one percent of taxpayers (those with incomes over $3.7 million) would get an average tax cut of more than $1.3 million each every year. Middle-income households would get an average tax cut of $2,700. 

2. The Cruz plan would abandon our century-old progressive income tax (whose rates increase as taxpayers’ incomes increase)  and instead tax the amount people spend in a year and exclude income from investments. This sort of system would burden lower-income workers who spend almost everything they earn and have few if any investments.

3. Cruz also proposes a 10 percent flat tax. A flat tax lowers tax rates on the rich and increases taxes for lower-income workers.

4. The Republican plans also repeal estate and gift taxes – now paid almost entirely by the very wealthy who make big gifts to their heirs and leave them big estates.

5. These plans would cut federal revenues by as much as $12 trillion over the decade – but neither Trump nor Cruz has said what they’ll do to fill this hole. They both want to increase the military. Which leaves them only two choices: Either explode the national debt, or cut Social Security, Medicare, and assistance to the poor.

Bottom line: If either of these men is elected president, we could see the largest redistribution in American history from the poor and middle-class of America to the rich. This is class warfare with a vengeance.

How the Peoples Party Prevailed in 2020

Third parties have rarely posed much of a threat to the
dominant two parties in America. So how did...

Tell Your Senators to Do Their JobThe Constitution of the United...

Tell Your Senators to Do Their Job

The Constitution of the United States is clear: Article II Section 2 says the President “shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint … judges to the Supreme Court.”

It doesn’t say the President can’t appoint in the final year of his term of office. In fact, a third of all U.S. presidents have appointed a Supreme Court justice in an election year. Yet many Republicans argue that no appointment can be made in the election year.

And the Constitution doesn’t give the Senate leader the right to delay and obstruct the rest of the Senate fro voting on a President’s nominee. Yet this is what the current Republican leadership argues.

In refusing to vote or even hold a hearing on the President’s nominee to the Supreme Court, the GOP is abdicating its constitutional responsibility. It’s not doing its job.

Senate Republicans are trying to justify their refusal by referring to a comment Joe Biden made when he chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1992, urging then-President Bush to hold off on nominating a Supreme Court justice until after the election. But Biden was speaking hypothetically – there was no nominee before the Senate at that time – and he concluded by saying that if the President were to nominate someone he was sure the Senate and the President could come to an agreement.

This fight has huge implications. A new Supreme Court justice might be able to reverse “Citizens United” and remove the poison of big money from our democracy. It might reverse “Shelby v. Holder,” and resurrect the Voting Rights Act.

And think of the cases coming up – on retaining a woman’s right to choose, on the rights of teachers and other public employees to unionize, on the President’s authority to fight climate change, and the rights of countless Americans with little or no power in a system where more and more power is going to the top. That’s the traditional role of the Supreme Court – to protect the powerless from the powerful.

Which is exactly why the Republicans don’t want to fulfill their constitutional responsibility and allow a vote on the President’s nominee.

So what can you do? There’s only one response – the same response you made when Republicans shut down the government because they didn’t get their way over the debt ceiling: You let them know they’ll be held accountable.

Public pressure is the only way to get GOP senators to release their choke hold on the Supreme Court. Public pressure is up to you. Call your senators now, and tell them you want them to do their job.

The New Truth About Free Trade

I used to believe in trade agreements. That was before the wages of most Americans stagnated and a...

Are Trade Deals Good for America?

Both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump are blaming free-trade
deals for the decline of working-class...

The American Fascist

I’ve been reluctant to use
the  “f” word to describe Donald Trump because
it’s especially harsh, and...

Why the Critics of Bernienomics Are Wrong

Not day goes by, it seems, without the mainstream media bashing
Berney Sanders’s economic plan...