Activism

COMMENTARY: DC Delivers Some Good News – Yes, Really

NNPA NEWSWIRE — We hear a lot about the growing gulf between the two major parties in America. But there’s a difference between politicians and voters. The people of Kansas just voted to protect the right to abortion care under the state Constitution in the face of Republican legislators’ efforts to impose a complete ban on abortion. I think there are a lot of people—including Republicans—who need lower drug costs and smaller energy bills—and think the richest people and companies in America should not get a free pass to avoid paying their fair share of taxes.

Published

2 years ago

September 10, 2022

Oakland Post

Ben Jealous serves as president of People For the American Way and Professor of the Practice at the University of Pennsylvania. A New York Times best-selling author, his next book “Never Forget Our People Were Always Free” will be published by Harper Collins in December 2022.

By Ben Jealous

We could all use some good news out of Washington.

I’ve got some.

The passage of the Inflation Reduction Act is good news for families, the economy, the planet, and even our democracy.

This is a big deal.

For starters, it is the biggest investment in fighting climate change in our country’s history. The bill puts a whopping $360 billion toward developing affordable, clean energy sources.

It creates tax breaks if you buy an electric vehicle. Supporters say it will slash carbon emissions by 40% in just eight years; great news for our kids and grandkids, but also great news for all of us right now. Because not only will we have cleaner air and measurable progress against climate change, the investment in renewable energy generation should save families money on their electric bills. It also means we should suffer less from big ups and downs in oil prices caused by turmoil in unstable parts of the world.

I especially like the parts of the bill that include money for cities being hit particularly hard by climate change and for Native American communities. The harms caused by climate change aren’t shared equally. This legislation recognizes that and does something about it.

The bill also promises to put more money back in families’ pockets by using the government’s bargaining power to lower Medicare prescription drug prices. That is great news for seniors in our communities.

And it tackles a nagging problem we’ve had for years: getting big corporations to pay their fair share in taxes. The bill creates a 15% minimum tax on corporations that make more than $1 billion in profits. It gives the IRS more money to collect taxes from big businesses and wealthy people who use loopholes and legal tricks to avoid paying what they owe.

The bill will also put downward pressure on inflation. It may take a little while to see all the effects, but saving families money on health care, prescriptions and energy – while reducing the deficit – is a firm push in the right direction for the economy.

The bill isn’t perfect. Because of the political compromises necessary to get it passed, some important pieces were dropped. For example, it doesn’t extend the federal Child Tax Credit enacted as part of COVID relief, which had a big impact on children living in poverty.

There is more work to be done, but this bill shows what serious, committed public servants— in this case, Senate Democrats—can accomplish when they work together.

If there’s a cloud around this silver lining, it’s that not one Republican senator voted for this bill. Not one. Maybe they’re worried about ticking off the big drug companies, which fought lower drug prices tooth and nail. Maybe they think voters will forget by November. But I don’t think they will.

I don’t think Americans will forget who voted for lower drug prices, clean energy, and making billionaires and corporations pay their taxes – and who didn’t.

We hear a lot about the growing gulf between the two major parties in America. But there’s a difference between politicians and voters. The people of Kansas just voted to protect the right to abortion care under the state Constitution in the face of Republican legislators’ efforts to impose a complete ban on abortion. I think there are a lot of people—including Republicans—who need lower drug costs and smaller energy bills—and think the richest people and companies in America should not get a free pass to avoid paying their fair share of taxes.

When we step into the voting booth, we are voting for individuals. And those individuals have voting records. This fall, voters get to decide whether our elected representatives are serving us or working against our best interests, our families, and our future. If your member of Congress isn’t putting you first, you can vote them out. If they are doing what’s best for you, you can send them back. And that’s the best news of all.

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Oakland Post: Week of October 9 – 15, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of October 9 – 15, 2024

Published

17 hours ago

October 13, 2024

Oakland Post

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‘Respect Our Vote’ Mass Meeting Rejects Oakland, Alameda County Recalls

The mass meeting, attended mostly by members of local Asian American communities, was held in a large banquet room in a Chinese restaurant in Alameda. The Respect Our Vote (ROV) coalition, consisting of concerned community members and groups, is organizing meetings in Oakland and around Alameda County leading up to the November election.

Published

2 weeks ago

September 28, 2024

Oakland Post

Some of the leaders who spoke at the Respect Our Vote – No Recalls!” mass meeting were (left to right): Elaine Peng, Mariano Contreras, Pastor Servant B.K. Woodson, and Stewart Chen. Photo by Ken Epstein.

By Ken Epstein

A recently organized coalition, “Respect Our Vote – No Recalls!,” held a standing-room only mass meeting on Sept. 14, urging residents to vote ‘No’ on the two East Bay recalls funded by conservative billionaires and millionaires with the help of corporate media and instead to support the campaign to protect residents’ democratic right to choose their representatives.

The mass meeting, attended mostly by members of local Asian American communities, was held in a large banquet room in a Chinese restaurant in Alameda.

The Respect Our Vote (ROV) coalition, consisting of concerned community members and groups, is organizing meetings in Oakland and around Alameda County leading up to the November election.

Speaking at the meeting, prominent East Bay leader Stewart Chen said that local leaders, like Alameda County D.A. Pamela Price and Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, worked hard to get elected, and our system says they get four years to carry out their policies and campaign promises. But rich people have “broken” that system.

Within two months after they took office, they were facing recalls paid for by billionaires, he said. “(Billionaires’) candidate did not get elected, so they want to change the system.”

“(Our elected leaders) were elected through the process, and the people spoke,” said Chen. “It’s the entire system that the billionaires are trying to (overturn).”

“If a candidate does something wrong or enacts a policy that we do not like, we let it play out, and in four years, we do not have to vote for them.

“The democratic system that we have had in place for a couple of hundred years, it needs our help,” said Chen.

Pastor Servant B.K. Woodson, a leader of the coalition, emphasized the diversity and solidarity needed to defend democracy. “We need each other’s wisdom to make our nation great, to make it safe. We are deliberately African American, English-speaking, Latino American, Spanish-speaking, and all the wonderful dialects in the Asian communities. We want to be together, grow together, and have a good world together.”

Mariano Contreras of the Latino Task Force said that people need to understand what is at stake now.

The recall leaders are connected to conservative forces that will undermine public education, and bilingual education, he said. “The people behind (the recalls) are being used by outside dark money,” he said. The spokespeople of these recalls are themselves conservatives “who are wearing a mask that says they are progressives.”

In 2017, Oakland passed an ordinance that gave teeth to its “Sanctuary City” policy, which was brought to the City Council and passed because it was supported by progressive members on the council.

“That would not be possible anymore if the progressive alliance – Sheng Thao, Nikki Fortunato Bas, and Carroll Fife – if they are pushed out,” he said.

Elaine Peng, president of Asian Americans for Progressive America, said, “I strongly oppose the recalls of Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price.”

Citing statistics, she said Alameda County’s murder rate was higher when Alameda County D.A. Nancy O’Malley was in office, before Pamela Price was elected to that position.

“The recall campaign has been misleading the public,” said Peng.

She said Oakland is making progress under Thao. “Crime rates are falling in Oakland,” and the City is building more affordable housing than ever before and is creating more jobs.

Attorney Victor Ochoa said, this recall is “not by accident in Oakland – it is a political strategy.”

“There is a strategy that has been launched nationwide. What we’re seeing is oligarchs, (such as Phillip Dreyfuss from Piedmont), right wingers, conservatives, who can write a check for $400,000 like some of us can write a check for $10.”

“They aligned themselves with so-called moderate forces, but they’re not moderates. They align themselves with the money, and that’s what we have seen in Oakland.”

Ochoa continued, “You got to put up signs, you’ve got to talk to your neighbors, volunteer whatever hours you can, have a house meeting. That’s the way progressives win.”

Pecolia Manigo of Oakland Rising Action spoke about what it will take to defeat the recalls. “This is the time when you are not only deputized to go out and do outreach, we need to make sure that people actually vote.

“We need everyone to vote not just for the president, but all the way down the ballot to where these questions will be. Remind people to fill out their ballot, and mail it back.”

Former Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, who had herself faced a recall attempt, said, “In this recall, they used a lot of money, had paid signature gatherers, and they moved very fast. I talked to many of the people gathering signatures. They didn’t know what was going on. Many of them didn’t live in Oakland. It was just money for them.”

“Sam Singer, the guy who is their spokesperson, is a paid PR guy. He has media ties, so they’ve swamped the media against Sheng,” Quan said.

‘Oakland is… a city that implemented some of the first rent control protections in the country. So, developers and big apartment owners would love to get rid of rent control,” said Quan.

“We also established ranked-choice voting, which allows people with less money to coalesce and win elections,” she said. “That’s too democratic for people with big money. They would rather have elections the way they were.”