Robert B. Reich's Blog, page 88

Why Big Tech May Be Getting Too Big

Conservatives and liberals interminably debate the merits of
“the free market” versus “the...

Why the Republican Assault on Planned Parenthood is Morally Wrong and Economically Stupid

The
Republican assault on Planned Parenthood is filled with lies and distortions,
and may even lead...

4 Reasons Why The Wall Street Journal’s Attack on Bernie is Bogus

I’ve had so many calls about an
article appearing earlier this week in the Wall Street...

Why We Must Fight the Attack on Planned ParenthoodOn...

Why We Must Fight the Attack on Planned Parenthood

On Thursday, right-wing
extremists in the U.S. House of Representatives will vote to try to defund
Planned Parenthood, one of the nation’s largest providers of women’s health
care and family planning services.

Planned Parenthood is under attack and it’s up
to all of us to fight back.  Any society that respects women must respect
their right to control their own bodies.  There is a strong moral case to
be made for this — but this video isn’t about that.  This is about the
economics of family planning – which are one more reason it’s important for
all of us to stand up and defend Planned Parenthood.  


Reproductive
rights, family planning, and women’s health are all interrelated. All girls and
women need full information and access to family planning services, including
abortion—regardless of their income level—so they can determine if or when they
have children.


Public
investments in family planning—enabling women to plan, delay, or avoid
pregnancy– make economic sense, because reproductive rights are also productive
rights. When women have control over their lives, they can contribute even more
to the economy, better break the glass ceiling, equalize the pay gap, and much
more.

 

Take the
state of Colorado’s highly successful family planning program. Over the past
six years, in Colorado health department has offered teenagers and low-income
women free long-acting birth control that prevents pregnancy over several
years. Pregnancy and abortion rates plunged—by about 40 percent among teenagers
across the state from 2009 to 2013.

In 2009,
half of all first births to women in the poorest areas of the state occurred
before they turned 21. But by 2014, half of first births did not occur until
the women had turned 24, a difference that gives young women time to finish
their education and obtain better jobs.


Nationally,
evidence shows that public investments in family planning result in net public
savings of about $13.6 billion a year—over $7 for every public dollar spent.


This sum
doesn’t include the billions of additional dollars saved by enabling women who
may not be financially able to raise a child and do not want to have a child or
additional children to stay out of poverty.


Yet, over
the last five years Republicans have cut 10 percent of the Title X federal
budget for family planning, which also pays for critical services such as
cancer screenings and HIV tests. And the Republican-controlled House
Appropriations Committee has gone as far as trying to eliminate the program.


Meanwhile,
many states have been cutting or eliminating family-planning funds.  This
isn’t just morally wrong; its bad economics. 


Obviously,
these crass economic numbers don’t nearly express the full complexity of the
national debate around abortion and family planning. And they help make the
case that we all benefit when society respects women to control their bodies
and plan their famili

Please
watch my latest video, which includes the economic argument for funding family
planning and women’s health services, and why it’s critical that all of us step
up right now to defend Planned Parenthood.

Ranking Colleges

After heavy lobbying from
some of the nation’s most elite institutions of higher education, the...

A Crisis of Public Morality, Not Private Morality

At a time many Republican presidential candidates and state legislators are furiously focusing on...

What Happened to the Moral Center of American Capitalism?

                                                             IAn economy depends fundamentally on...

Labor Day 2028

In 1928, famed British economist
John Maynard Keynes predicted that technology would advance so far...

The Upsurge in Uncertain Work

As Labor Day looms, more Americans than ever
don’t know how much they’ll be earning next week or...

CORPORATE WELFARE IN CALIFORNIACorporate welfare is often...

CORPORATE WELFARE IN CALIFORNIA

Corporate welfare is often camouflaged in taxes that seem
neutral on their face but give windfalls to big entrenched corporations at
the expense of average people and small businesses.

Take a look at commercial property taxes in California,
for example.

In 1978 California voters passed Proposition 13 – which began
to assess property for tax purposes at its price when it was bought, rather
than its current market price.

This has protected homeowners and renters. But it’s also given a
quiet windfall to entrenched corporate owners of commercial property. 

Corporations don’t need this protection. They’re in the real economy. They’re supposed to compete on a
level playing field with new companies whose property taxes are based on
current market prices.

This corporate windfall has caused three big problems.

First, it’s shifted more of the property tax on to California
homeowners.

Back in 1978, corporations paid 44 percent of all property taxes
and homeowners paid 56 percent. Now, after exploiting this loophole for years,
corporations pay only 28 percent of property taxes, while homeowners pick up 72
percent of the tab.

Second, it’s robbed California of billions of dollars to support
schools and local services. If all corporations were paying the property taxes
they should be paying, schools and local services would have $9
billion dollars more in revenues this year.

Third, it penalizes new and expanding businesses that don’t get
this windfall because their commercial property is assessed at the current
market price – but they compete for customers with companies whose property is
assessed at the price they purchased it years ago.

That’s unfair and it’s bad for the economy because California
needs new and expanding businesses.

Today, almost half of all commercial properties in California
pay their fair share of property taxes, but they’re hobbled by those that
don’t.

This loophole must be closed. All corporations should be paying
commercial property taxes based on current market prices. 

The giant corporations that are currently exploiting the
loophole for their own profits obviously don’t want it closed, so they’re
trying to scare people by saying closing it will cause businesses to leave
California.

That’s baloney. Leveling the playing field for all businesses
will make the California economy more efficient, and help new and expanding
businesses.

Besides, California’s property taxes are already much lower than
the national average. So even if corporations pay their full share, they’re
still getting a great deal.

Right now, a grassroots movement is growing of Californians
determined to reform this broken commercial property tax system, and who know
California needs more stable funding for its schools, libraries, roads, and
communities.