It's Still The Economy, Stupid
The old joke about the South and other Republican-leaning states was that they were too wrapped up in wishy-washy "social issues" -- guns, gays, and God -- and not concerned enough with matters of actual public policy. But what have I heard dominating the national conversation ever since President Obama got re-elected?
Gun control. Gay marriage. Immigration. All we need now is some stupid debate over the Ten Commandments or prayer in schools to flare up and Democrats can be as hopelessly mired in social issues as Republicans have been while the economy continues to crash and burn.
Meanwhile, the Labor Department said yesterday that the economy created a pathetic 88,000 jobs nationwide in the last quarter. Last I checked, that's about 25% of the jobs we need to be creating. Perversely, the unemployment rate actually went down slightly, because the labor market is so bad that vast numbers of people are giving up and leaving the work force entirely.
So it was refreshing yesterday when I listened to a speech by US Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon at the City Club of Portland. The speech was about the economy, income inequality and restoring the American middle class. Contrary to what you'd expect from a lot of politicians, the speech was thin on empty political rhetoric. Instead, the senator laid out a point by point blueprint of what we need to be focusing on.
I can't tell you how refreshing it is to have someone like Jeff Merkley representing me in the Senate after having grown up with the likes of Jesse Helms.
Anyway, Senator Merkley wants to focus on four key areas to propel more Americans into the Middle Class: Jobs, Education, Home Ownership, and Small Business.
His plan begins with ending the fruitless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and putting that money back into increasing investment in the US and reducing our ballooning deficits. Yes, there's enough money being sunk into senseless wars to accomplish both.
There's a lot of good stuff here. Many of these ideas were strongly advocated by Ross Perot in his 1992 presidential campaign and others were used effectively by the Clinton Administration to help fuel the economic boom of the late 90's.
The details of Senator Merkley's ideas and his work on these issues are far too numerous for a single blog post. But here are a few key principles:
The inescapable fact is that if we continue to under-invest in the American economy, if we continue to let our infrastructure crumble, if we continue to allow the rot of hopelessness and despair to settle over a large portion of the population . . . all of these things will, in the long run, vastly weaken our national security.
It's incredibly stupid policy to risk the long-term future of the country just to line the pockets of defense contractors in some misguided pursuit of global empire. History teaches us that such a pursuit is almost certainly doomed anyway.
Gun control. Gay marriage. Immigration. All we need now is some stupid debate over the Ten Commandments or prayer in schools to flare up and Democrats can be as hopelessly mired in social issues as Republicans have been while the economy continues to crash and burn.
Meanwhile, the Labor Department said yesterday that the economy created a pathetic 88,000 jobs nationwide in the last quarter. Last I checked, that's about 25% of the jobs we need to be creating. Perversely, the unemployment rate actually went down slightly, because the labor market is so bad that vast numbers of people are giving up and leaving the work force entirely.
So it was refreshing yesterday when I listened to a speech by US Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon at the City Club of Portland. The speech was about the economy, income inequality and restoring the American middle class. Contrary to what you'd expect from a lot of politicians, the speech was thin on empty political rhetoric. Instead, the senator laid out a point by point blueprint of what we need to be focusing on.
I can't tell you how refreshing it is to have someone like Jeff Merkley representing me in the Senate after having grown up with the likes of Jesse Helms.
Anyway, Senator Merkley wants to focus on four key areas to propel more Americans into the Middle Class: Jobs, Education, Home Ownership, and Small Business.
His plan begins with ending the fruitless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and putting that money back into increasing investment in the US and reducing our ballooning deficits. Yes, there's enough money being sunk into senseless wars to accomplish both.
There's a lot of good stuff here. Many of these ideas were strongly advocated by Ross Perot in his 1992 presidential campaign and others were used effectively by the Clinton Administration to help fuel the economic boom of the late 90's.
The details of Senator Merkley's ideas and his work on these issues are far too numerous for a single blog post. But here are a few key principles:
End tax breaks for companies that outsource US jobs overseas.
Make things in America. Without good high-paying manufacturing jobs, fewer and fewer people have a pathway to the middle class.
Focus on "jobs of the future" and emerging technologies.
Green collar jobs. For example, a program to provide funding for low-income people to make green home improvements and install energy-efficient technologies would create lots of good-paying construction jobs.
Invest in rebuilding infrastructure. Popular perceptions aside, infrastructure spending goes far beyond high-profile transportation projects. Our economic competitors, such as China, spend vastly more on infrastructure than the United States.
Student loan reform
Establish rules for and promote crowdfunding as a means of providing access to capital for startup small businesses.
Reform the financial system to truly end "too big to fail"; enact an updated Glass-Stegall act.
Reform the political system to ensures that Congress functions as it should, that money is not considered free speech, and that corporations are not considered to be people.
The inescapable fact is that if we continue to under-invest in the American economy, if we continue to let our infrastructure crumble, if we continue to allow the rot of hopelessness and despair to settle over a large portion of the population . . . all of these things will, in the long run, vastly weaken our national security.
It's incredibly stupid policy to risk the long-term future of the country just to line the pockets of defense contractors in some misguided pursuit of global empire. History teaches us that such a pursuit is almost certainly doomed anyway.