Fulfilling America's Promise

One well-respected economic think tank is putting forth positive ideas for expanding prosperity and ending the economic stagnation that working families have experienced. The Economic Policy Insitute http://www.epi.org/ has proposed the following Agenda for Shared Prosperity puts the interests of working families first. Among the proposals put forth are:

Health care and retirement security: Building on existing popular and effective programs to provide accessible and affordable health care and ensure retirement security, we will propose:
(a) that all Americans have guaranteed access to affordable health care through employer-provided insurance or a public plan; and (b) that retirees receive at least 70% of their pre-retirement income via a supplement to a strengthened Social Security.

Fair trade: An alternative approach to globalization and competitiveness will include policies to rebalance trade, to invest in new technologies that generate high-quality domestic manufacturing employment, and to promote environ-mental and labor policies to ensure that globalization benefits working people in both developed and developing nations.

Rewarding work: A plan for rebalancing the labor market will include raising and indexing the minimum wage, ensuring the right of workers to organize unions, and making full employment a central commitment of economic policy.

Building America: Economic growth can be stimulated by public investment in the nation's roads, bridges, dams, water supply, airports, mass transport systems, universal Internet access, and human capital through education and training.

Energizing America: A responsible energy policy can reduce energy dependency and carbon emissions and create hundreds of thousands of jobs by producing renewable energy.

Balancing work and family: Economic and social policy can make it easier for families to balance the obligations of work and family by increasing flexible work hours, providing paid family and paid sick leave, and committing more resources to the education and care of children.

World-class education for all: An agenda for American education will improve public education and close economic and race/ethnic disparities by expanding education to include high-quality early childhood education and after-school and summer programs; understanding that better health and housing policies and poverty amelioration as integral to efforts to close racial and economic achievement gaps; making public schools more effective by improving teacher quality and shrinking classes; making college education available and affordable for every young person who is prepared to do college work; and providing lifelong learning for every American by improving and expanding two-year colleges, adult education pro-grams, and job training and retraining programs.

A new security: A proposal to rebuild the safety net will develop a set of policies to ensure that, for those who are willing and able, work is a pathway out of poverty. We will also detail how to rebuild the nation's safety net so people do not fall into privation.

Managing our fiscal health: An improved federal fiscal system of taxation and expenditures can be created to meet the nation's needs, raise revenues fairly, respond to economic downturns, and be fiscally responsible by not escalating government debt relative to the size of the economy over the long run.

Opportunity for all: Policies to ensure that America's core values of opportunity for all are embedded in our economic and social programs. Each person, regardless of socio-economic, racial, or ethnic background, must be able to contribute to the nation's economy and well-being and to prosper accordingly.

The Agenda for Shared Prosperity is a good start toward reducing America's growing income and opportunity gap.

Jim Webb: Fighting Populist

Newly elected U.S. Senator Jim Webb D-VA is quickly developing a reputation as a fighting populist with a strong concern for economic justice.

The New York Times (January 12 edition) reported:

"Webb said Thursday that he wants to “re-emphasize his commitment” to issues of economic fairness. Among other things, he expressed concern about the growing gap in compensation between corporate executives and average workers."

“Every single speech that I made for the entire campaign, I laid out the fact that we must get back to economic fairness — that we measure the health of a society not by what is happening at the apex, but by what is happening at the base,” Webb said.

“We measure the health of a society not simply by what the stock market is doing,” Webb added, “but whether the people who are doing the work of society are truly receiving a fair share” of the benefits." http://tinyurl.com/yf4mgq

The Richmond Times Dispatch has also profiled Webb's populist advocacy.

"Webb said he is going to be part of a group that includes Sen. Byron L. Dorgan, D-N.D., that will work to develop economic-populism legislation and "intellectual approaches." Dorgan is a populist and advocate for family farmers; he recently wrote a book called "Take This Job and Ship It: How Corporate Greed and Brain-Dead Politics are Selling Out America." Webb said he has also had discussions with newly elected Sens. Jon Tester, D-Mont., Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio."

"While Webb didn't get into details, he hinted at interest in "fair-trade" efforts to protect U.S. workers in an era of globalization."

"We can't simply put demands on the American work force in a global economy and not ask for a level playing field with workers all around the globe," he said. http://tinyurl.com/wl5xq
I applaud Senator Webb for his willingness to speak out against corporate greed and for the interests of American workers.

* SAM NUNN CRITICAL OF BUSH IRAQ POLICY

Sam Nunn built a reputation as "Mr. Defense" during his 24 years of service in the U.S. Senate. The conservative Georgia Democrat chaired the Senate Armed Services Committee for a number of years. Needless to say, Nunn has established his credibility as a true patriot who puts our national security first.

The Naples Daily-News reports that Nunn has criticized George W. Bush for rejecting the Baker-Hamilton findings and plan for a troop surge in Iraq.

"The Baker-Hamilton report gave us a way out," Nunn said. "The president didn't have to agree with everything (in the study group recommendations) but he's rejected all the major recommendations of the report."

"We are in the middle of a civil war (in Iraq). This is no longer the United States vs. terrorists. It's Sunni vs. Shiite. The United States cannot referee a civil war".

"This troop surge is too few and too late.I hope it will be successful, but I don't expect it to go well."

"The biggest threat now is from terrorists who have no country. The United States must team up with other countries to make sure nuclear material never falls into the hands of terrorists," Nunn said. http://tinyurl.com/y7bbpt

Sam Nunn is right. Our involvement in Iraq has been a distraction rather part of the war against terrorism.