Government Accountability

Working as an intern at United for a Fair Economy (UFE) has helped me realize that taxes, economic policy and government play vital roles in improving our communities. UFE warns against and strives to dilute concentrated wealth and power. They work on a national scale to promote progressive economic policies that can enable all levels of government to invest in the common good, and support a grassroots economic justice movement that can bring those policies to fruition.

When we zoom in to see what's happening at the local level, in too many areas we're finding that community development remains stagnant, including in our own, Boston. Here, local decision-makers continue to place the interests of monied special interests above the needs of most residents – especially those in underdeveloped neighborhoods. Here's a snapshot of what we've been dealing with...  Read more >>

August 12, 2010

Good stuff from Sarabeth Guthberg at 1115.org (via Steve Benen) taking apart Senator Kyl (R-AZ) for his most recent bit of idiocy about taxes. The second ranking Republican in the Senate told the world that he believes there is no reason to offset the cost of tax cuts. His comments drew a lot of attention, and so he tried to explain himself. Sarabeth goes to town on his clarification.

"First of all, o confused eminent personage of the Republican persuasion, the question wasn’t how to offset increased spending, the question was how to offset reduced tax collections.

Secondly, increased spending gets offset by reduced savings? If the government spends more and saves less, that’s a deficit-neutral plan? This entirely backward “reasoning” explains a hell of a bloody lot, doesn’t it, about why the deficit and the national debt got to where it is?

Thirdly, even if the master plan is to shrink government — in fact, especially if the master plan is to shrink government — the budget effect of a tax cut has to be offset. Kyl doesn’t even seem to realize that the deficit-shrinking tool kit includes spending cuts. Or that, if you want to shrink the government, it’s not enough to cut taxes, you have to bloody well cut spending too. Then, and only then, does the government shrink. And — this will probably come as a very rude shock to the guy, so as an act of Christian charity, we should make sure that Jon Kyl is sitting down when this is broken to him — the spending cut offsets the tax cut, to make it deficit-neutral."

Well said.

Of course, this is nothing new for Kyl who routinely sponsors horrible estate tax legislation and just a few months back tried hanging the unemployed out to dry to get his way. But the problem goes deeper than Kyl. Ezra Klein gets sad by paying attention to Mitch McConnel (R-KY) and finding that the problem is endemic to Republican leadership in the Senate.

For the record, that's the two highest ranking Senate Republicans (and in McConnel's words, "the view of virtually every Republican") denying the existence of facts about taxes.

July 15, 2010

Photo credit: DavidDubov

The US foreclosure crisis was cause for mass hysteria leading up to the 2008 financial meltdown, and the crisis continues to this day.  Despite that, the mainstream media has recently largely ignored widespread foreclosures and the deceptive and racially-discriminatory financial practices behind many of them.

Being that the housing bubble was the flimsy core of this Great Recession—and it has resulted in the biggest loss of wealth to communities of color in US history, we’d like to see this issue paid all due attention.

Today, we’ve got the good, the bad and the ugly on the foreclosures situation. We’ll start with the ugly so we can end on a high note.

The ugly: Subprime loans were at the epicenter of the initial stage of the foreclosure crisis, and even now, foreclosure rates are holding steady at high levels that are not expected to drop any time soon. Last month, we learned that one-tenth of all US mortgages are delinquent. Of those who’ve managed to hold onto their homes, one in four is “underwater,” meaning they owe more than their house is actually worth (January 2010 data).

Chart h/t Rortybomb

Communities of color are most impacted by this prolonged crisis, because high-cost home lending was racially targeted. People of color—including many who solidly qualified for prime-rate loans—were over three times more likely to receive a subprime loan than whites. Many banks are engaging in loan modifications, but more than 70% of those modifications are leaving homeowners with more to owe on their principal, which increases their probabilities of re-default.

The bad: Most of the moratoria on foreclosures have expired, without an effective solution to the crisis in place. Last year, a bill was brought to the Senate advocating for judicial modification of loan principles (also known as “cramdown”). But the banking lobbyists flexed their too-powerful political muscles, effectively cramming down cramdown and preventing the bill from passing.

Seems grim, doesn’t it? Don’t throw your hands up quite yet.

The good: Effective solutions are out there.  Read more >>

June 10, 2010

UFE's Mazher Ali explores the real costs of disaster on economies - the human costs.

September 1, 2009

Being informed is an important first step we must all take together to shape a more fair and equitable economy.

June 1, 2009

Obama is right to take on the very rich. They're paying far less of their incomes in taxes than average Americans.
February 26, 2009

In the stimulus plan from the Senate, where the money goes is the hot debate. February 6, 2009

Much has been made about the prospect that Barack Obama's presidency might, due to economic necessity and the president-elect's interventionist inclinations, be a reprise of the New Deal era. The Nation
December 9, 2008

UFE staffer Steve Schnapp writes: "Barack Obama certainly owes his success to a newly energized and well-organized coalition of Democrats. But he also benefited greatly from the confluence of economic disasters that burst upon the campaign in its final weeks. Obama's response proved to be the right one..." December 6, 2008

The killing of Marcello Lucero has stirred tensions that were all but buried in the political fervor of the presidential race, a grim reminder that genuine change in race relations still eludes many communities. The tragedy has resonance throughout the country. Newsday. November 12, 2008