Puget Sound Liberals Weekly Newsletter #192
Enhancing Freedom, Opportunity and Cooperation in
Through informing and networking Liberals and Liberal Organizations.
Our vision is hundreds of thousands of well-informed
Our Website Our Editor To Unsubscribe Table of
Contents * Featured Articles Calendars of Events Communication with Our Members Opportunities Petitions Commentaries from Our Members Elizabeth Walter: Different Health Care Systems* Todd
Boyle: Reframe Orwellian Corporate Media Phases Allison Mardini: Complain to Bellevue School District Liberals and Democrats Links to the Beef Unlike Conservatives, Liberals Respect Democracy* Teabag Protestors Are Confused* State and Local Links
to the Beef How Much Do We Need More Boeing Jobs Here?* What If Everything Goes Wrong in Washington?* Featured Advocacy Group: Puget Sound Sage Most Bellevue Council Candidates Have Small Vision* Nation and World Links to the Beef What If Everything Goes Wrong Nationally? Honesty Returns to Mortgage Lending Our Liberal Spirit Our
Political Priorities ·
Fair Clean
Elections and Open Government ·
Fair Taxes and
Competent Spending ·
Investment for
Productivity ·
Quality
Health, Education, Jobs, Income ·
Environmental
Protection and Energy Independence ·
Security and
Equal Rights ·
Justice and
Peace Everywhere ·
International
Cooperation and Leadership Conservatives oppose all of these Let’s
End Our National Nightmare
Let’s
Restore Our American Dream More on Conservative opposition to our
American Dream Washington State’s 5 Major Needs · Federal Funding for Health and Education · Substituting
a Progressive Income Tax · Stopping
BIAW and Corporate Abuse · Replacing
Conservative Legislators Quote of the Week I think. Therefore I am. René Descartes, 1596 - 1650
Calendar of Events
Saturday,
September 19 at 6:30 PM at Lila Spratt’s home (7633
West Green Lake Dr. N., Seattle) - inSPIRe Potluck and Discussion, Global Population: 6.8 Billion and Growing.
Are We There Yet?
Sunday,
September 20 at 6 PM at Spitfire
(2219 4th Avenue, Seattle) - Sierra Club
Introduction of its endorsed candidates: Dow Constantine - King County Executive; Michael McGinn - Seattle Mayor;
Mike O'Brien - Seattle City Council #8; Richard Conlin - Seattle City Council
#2; Nick Licata - Seattle City Council #6; and Rob Holland - Port Commission
#3.
Tuesday, September 22 at 6:30 PM at Eastshore
Unitarian Church (12700 SE 32nd Street, Bellevue) - Bellevue Health Care Town Hall: Dispelling
Myths, Understand Choices, sponsored by 41st LD Democrats and
Physicians for a National Health Program of Western Washington.
Tuesday, September 29
at 7:30 AM at Swedish Cultural
Center (1920 Dexter Avenue North, Seattle) - Washington
CAN's Annual Social Justice Breakfast. $60. To register.
Saturday,
October 3 at 6:30 PM at Jim Simpson’s home (1120 24th Ave E, Seattle) - inSPIRe Salmon Barbecue and Fundraiser
for Dow Constantine. RSVP.
Thursday, October 15 at 5:30
- 9:30 PM at Seattle Center's Fisher Pavilion - Washington Toxic Coalition’s
Ninth Annual Auction for Action.
$100, $85 before September 18. To register.
Thursday, October 29 at 5:30 PM at Town Hall Seattle
(1119 Eighth Avenue, Seattle) - 2nd
Annual Puget Sound Sage Vision for Justice Dinner.
Communication
with Our Members
Now that Senate Finance Committee Chair
Max Baucus has presented his health care reform proposal, actions by his
committee and then both the senate and house should finally inform us within a
month or six weeks about the type of reform that is likely to result. We will also see whether the Republicans are
going to continue their self destructive obstruction and rabid attacks.
Opportunities
Useful
Websites: contacts, maps, community organizing tools, and more.
Access
to jillions of political cartoons.
Download
Sightline Institute’s climate policy primer ‘Cap and Trade 101’. About
Sightline.
Conduct your own home energy audit.
Petitions
Thank
EPA for determining that 79 mountaintop removal mining permits may violate
Clean Water Act.
Thank EPA for
determining that 79 mountaintop removal mining permits may violate Clean Water
Act. (A different petition from the one above.)
Tell your congress members
to support health care reform which curbs private insurance abuses.
Commentaries
From Our Members
Elizabeth Walter:
Different Health Care Systems
The other night I attended a
presentation by T. R. Reid, author of a new book entitled “The Healing of
America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Healthcare.” Reid is a veteran correspondent for the
Washington Post, a commentator for National Public Radio, and the author of
nine books.
We know that America must
reform its healthcare system, but like most Americans, my knowledge of
healthcare systems around the world is extremely limited. As a consequence of America’s ignorance about
alternative healthcare systems, our attempts at reform generally fail because
we have no clue what we are talking about, and U.S. insurance companies like to
keep it that way. So, though I have not
read Reid’s book, I did take some notes while listening to his Town Hall
presentation, which I would like to share because I learned a great deal.
U.S. Spends More and Covers Fewer People
One of the things Reid
discovered while researching his book is that other advanced countries spend
half as much money on healthcare as the U.S. and cover all of their citizens.
Not All Systems Are Socialized Medicine
In America we have generally
been led to believe that socialized medicine, with a single payer (the
government) is the norm in countries that provide cost effective healthcare for
all. This is not the case. Many of the
countries that provide cheaper healthcare coverage for all use private doctors,
private insurance companies, and private hospitals.
There are basically four different models used around the world for healthcare payment and
delivery. The two primary elements are
who provides the healthcare and who pays.
The first is the Beveridge model which is used by Britain,
Spain, New Zealand, and Scandinavia. In this system the government takes over
the function of providing and paying for healthcare. They use government
hospitals, labs and government employed doctors. A patient never receives a
doctor’s bill.
The second is the Bismarck model. Under this model, everybody receives
insurance through their employer and the employer and employee split the cost
of the insurance premium. Delivery is through private doctors and private
insurance. Hmmm, sounds a little
familiar doesn’t it? Well not
really. There are some huge differences
between America’s employer provided healthcare model and the Bismarck model
that is used in countries such as Germany, France and Japan. In these countries, when you lose or leave your job you get to keep your insurance. The government takes over the employer’s
portion of the premium If you are unable
to pay your half of the premium, then the government will pay your portion as
well. Another big difference, the private
insurers are regulated. They must cover you without exception; they cannot deny
your claim or cut you off. And, the
really big difference is that the insurance companies must be a non-profit endeavor!
The U.S. is the ONLY country that allows health insurance companies to make a
profit.
The third is the National Health Insurance model which is a
blend of the Beveridge and Bismark models.
This model is used by Canada, Australia, and beginning some time in the
year 2010, Mexico. Yes, Mexico, a much
poorer country than the U.S., plans to provide healthcare for all its
citizens. Under this model the
government is the payer and the providers are private physicians and hospitals,
much like our Medicare system.
The fourth is the Out of Pocket model. You will find this model in countries like
Angola, Afghanistan, and the United States.
Unless you have adequate insurance, your healthcare must be paid for out
of pocket. If you can’t pay for it, then
you don’t get treatment.
As you can see from the
description of the various models, the United States has no single system. This
is one reason why healthcare in America is so expensive. Some citizens (the
elderly, the poor) are covered by a National Health Insurance model. Veterans
are generally covered by a Beveridge model. Some working Americans are covered
by a modified Bismarck model, and many working and none working Americans are
covered by the Out of Pocket model.
Single System Is Simpler and Cheaper
T.R. Reid found that using a
single system, for everybody, not matter which model, is simpler and therefore
results in cost savings. Furthermore, if
everyone is part of the same system, from cradle to grave, there is a strong
economic incentive to prevent illness in order to save on future costs. Illness
raises the costs of healthcare (think diabetes treatment for years, cancer
treatments, drugs for high blood pressure, etc …) therefore preventing illness
lowers costs.
In America, this incentive is
lost because most people stick with the same insurance company for only a few
years, and once we reach age 65, when healthcare becomes the most expensive
because illness is most prevalent, the government takes over. Therefore the
for-profit insurance companies have no incentive to prevent illness because
they know that when most people get ill, they won’t have to pay for it.
Medicare Is Going Broke
Medicare is going broke
because it insures the most costly segment of the population – older people who
get sick the most often. When LBJ
implemented Medicare, his goal was to expand coverage to everyone over
time. If Medicare covered everyone and
we had twenty and thirty year olds paying into Medicare, because they tend to
be healthy and therefore need less expensive medical care, Medicare would be
able to pay for itself over the long term. Cost savings comes in part from everyone
participating in the same system because it becomes less complex; the more
complex the more expensive.
An Issue of Fairness
When Reid began his research,
he hoped to find the answer to two questions. The first, why does a country
make a commitment to provide healthcare to all its citizens? The second, why
hasn’t the richest country in the world made this commitment? He believes the answer to the first is that
the countries who have made the commitment view it as a moral issue. The people
have decided that it is the fairest thing to do. Although none of the systems are perfect, he
found that people were less concerned about the imperfections if they felt
everyone had equal access and that any limitations applied to everyone, rich or
poor. As to the second question, Reid said he still has not been able to come
up with an answer. Elizabeth Walter
Read a commentary by T. R. Reid.
Todd Boyle: Reframe
Orwellian Corporate Media Phases
Can we stop calling it health
care, and call it the medical industry? Can
we stop saying that people want coverage, are afraid of losing their coverage,
etc. and instead, we should say, people need medical services sometimes? We want the services. We don't want the
friggin "coverage" or interventions from insurers.
Similarly can we stop saying that people want jobs? We want the
STUFF. We want primary goods and services like housing, food, medical
services, and fuels for heating, cooking and transportation. We want
internet connectivity and so forth.
Wall Street wants us all to be working, of course. They want us to want
jobs, to fear idleness or vacations or a 4-day week. There are many Orwellian phrases and words
coming at us, continually from the corporate media. Can we have a regular
column identifying some of them in every issue?
Kind regards, Todd Boyle
Allison Mardini:
Complain to Bellevue School District
The School Board is meeting
today (Tuesday, September 15) at 4:30; I am going to voice my displeasure at
the way the school district caved to the right-wing racists. I got a call last week from the
superintendent’s assistant and she said "They royally
screwed up."
The problem with moderates is: they are too damn moderate! A few loud people are deciding policy for the
whole country because the rest of us are silent, partly because their arguments
are so ridiculous, who would believe them?
But they are gaining ground. So,
a show of numbers would be good. Anyone
interested? Tell your friends Allison Mardini
It’s too late to
attend this meeting. But you can call
the Bellevue School Board
at 425-456-4040 to complain about their failure to show President Obama’s
speech to motivate students to study.
Dave Thomas
Liberals
and Democrats
Government Watch
Also go to Whitehouse.gov. And see all of President
Obama’s weekly (Saturday) addresses.
President Obama’s Health Care Reform Proposal
|
The President's Plan for Health Reform
It will provide insurance to those who don’t. And it will lower the cost of health care for our families, our
businesses, and our government."
|
||
|
If You Have Health Insurance, · Ends discrimination against people with pre-existing conditions. · Limits premium discrimination based on gender and age. · Prevents insurance companies from dropping coverage when people are
sick and need it most. · Caps out-of-pocket expenses so people don’t go broke when they get
sick. · Eliminates extra charges for preventive care like mammograms, flu
shots and diabetes tests to improve health and save money. · Protects Medicare for seniors. · Eliminates the “donut-hole” gap in coverage for prescription drugs. |
If You Don’t Have Insurance, · Creates a new insurance marketplace — the Exchange — that allows
people without insurance and small businesses to compare plans and buy
insurance at competitive prices. · Provides new tax credits to help people buy insurance. · Provides small businesses tax credits and affordable options for
covering employees. · Offers a public health insurance option to provide the uninsured and
those who can’t find affordable coverage with a real choice. · Immediately offers new, low-cost coverage through a national “high
risk” pool to protect people with preexisting conditions from financial ruin
until the new Exchange is created. |
For All Americans, · Won’t add a dime to the deficit and is paid for upfront. · Requires additional cuts if savings are not realized. · Implements a number of delivery system reforms that begin to rein in
health care costs and align incentives for hospitals, physicians, and others
to improve quality. · Creates an independent commission of doctors and medical experts to
identify waste, fraud and abuse in the health care system. · Orders immediate medical malpractice reform projects that could help
doctors focus on putting their patients first, not on practicing defensive
medicine. · Requires large employers to cover their employees and individuals who
can afford it to buy insurance so everyone shares in the responsibility of
reform. |
President
Obama’s health care reform proposal receives increased public support. Without health care reform, many
employers are planning to pass on higher costs of health insurance to their
employees. Others will quit
providing health insurance.
Health care
cooperatives proposed by Senator Kent Conrad are designed to fail, due to having
too few members to lower costs.
Group Health Cooperative in Washington State has developed slowly over
many decades. It offers superior
coordination of preventive, treatment and hospice services, but doesn’t cost
less than private for-profit insurance.
While private for-profit insurance companies have much greater
administrative costs, they reduce costs by restricting its coverage of many
people, conditions and people. It would
be great if like other countries, we required any private health insurers to be
non-profit organizations controlled by their consumers. That is, like Group Health Cooperative.
Senate Finance
Committee Chair Max
Baucus has finally presented his proposed health care reform proposal. The full finance committee is expected to
refine and pass a proposal by the end of September. Once that is done, both the house and senate
will reconcile the proposals that have been adopted by their various
committees. Reconciliation requiring on
50 favorable votes will be used if necessary to pass the bill through the
Senate. Then the house and senate bills
will be reconciled and presented to President Obama for final passage.
Since no
workable alternative to a public health insurance option has been proposed for
competing with private insurance coverage, a public health insurance option
will be included. Otherwise, there is
nothing to stop the increase of health coverage costs by private health
insurers.
Regulating Financial Companies
President
Obama promotes regulation of financial companies. For
more. But large financial
companies are lobbying to prevent regulatory reform. In addition, congressional
subcommittee turf wars are hindering the consolidation of regulatory powers.
Eliminating Bank Participation in Making Student Loans
As requested by
President Obama since 2007, our congress is passing legislation that student
loans will be made by our government without participation by banks. Removing this subsidy for banks will lower
the cost of student loans and save money which can be used to make more loans.
Environmental Actions
In spite of
popular support, the cap
and trade carbon emissions bill will likely be significantly weakened in
the Senate.
EPA reviews 79
mountaintop mining permits concerning their violation of Clean Water Act. EPA announces plans to
protect salmon from toxic pesticides.
Foreign Policy
U.S. and other nations
will meet with Iran. President
Obama is canceling President Bush’s plan to construct missile defense systems
in Eastern Europe. For more. But he is still proposing a mobile
system. Spending lots of money on an
unworkable technology which defends against a non-existent Iranian threat.
Unlike Conservatives, Liberals Respect Democracy
In spite of the
fact that Barack Obama was fairly elected by 54% to 46%, Conservatives are
calling him a Nazi or Communist, falsely accusing him of committing or wanting
to commit various things and suggesting he should be killed. They complain that President Obama will
restrict gun rights; although he has indicated his support for gun rights. After Bill Clinton was elected president,
Conservatives similarly attacked him.
Such Conservative attacks on elected Democratic presidents include
President Franklin Roosevelt and Truman.
The emergence of Conservative hate radio and television programs has
stimulated an increase in such attacks.
Many Liberals
greatly disliked President Bush’s actions and would have been glad to see him
removed from office. But Liberals didn’t
call for his assassination. Liberals
questioned the circumstances under which Bush became president in 2000, but accepted
that he had won the majority of votes in 2004.
Instead of viewing him as illegitimate, Liberals increased their efforts
to elect Liberals.
Some Liberals
worried that Bush’s attempts to strengthen the presidency at the expense of the
congress and courts could undermine our constitutional democracy. But he was not accused of being a Nazi.
Many
Conservatives don’t believe that Americans should have the right to elect
someone who doesn’t share their Conservative values. They place their values before our
Democracy. Instead of defending our
constitution, Conservatives would change many of its features to ones which
would further Conservative values.
Teabag Protestors Are Confused
Teabag
protestors complain about big government and big deficits, which they
attribute to President Obama. But it was
Reagan and the two Bushes who brought us big government and big deficits. President Obama’s stimulus-recovery package
will produce mostly private jobs instead of government jobs.
Teabag protestors
complain about higher taxes, but President Obama has lowered taxes for almost
all Americans. In short, many of the
protests of the teabaggers should be directed at the Bush Administration
instead of the Obama Administration.
Particularly
hypocritical are the many Republicans who voted for tax cuts, expenditures for
the Iraq War and bail out money for large financial companies, without paying
for them, such that our deficits and debt soared. But now they insist that we must pay for the
cost of health care and other reforms.
It is clear that they are not as concerned with our federal deficits and
debt as they are with stopping reforms.
Here’s the Beef
Republican leaders are
organizing teabag protests. For more.
State
and Local
How Much Do We Need More Boeing Jobs Here?
To
save money, Boeing outsourced some of its 787 assembly work to less experienced
workers abroad. The result has been
errors resulting in costly delays in 787 delivery times. Boeing is now threatening to open a second
787 assembly line in non-union South Carolina, unless Seattle area unions agree
to not strike, which is tantamount to accepting whatever wages and benefits
Boeing wants to pay.
It
is understandable that Seattle area Boeing engineers would like to expand the
number of jobs here, but are these jobs valuable enough if they only pay what
Boeing proposes? Boeing has also
threatened to expand elsewhere unless our state grants it various subsidies and
other favors. Will our state benefit or
lose if Boeing stays here under those conditions? One of the major negative impacts upon our
lifestyle and natural and social environment is our increasing population due
to increasing jobs. If Boeing doesn’t
provide an increasing number of jobs here, we would have less demand for
housing, making it more affordable and less likely to cause urban sprawl and
increased commuting, congestion and pollution.
Seattle
is known for its socially responsible businesses. Do we want businesses which are socially
irresponsible? Do we want quality jobs
or just quantity?
What If Everything Goes Wrong in Washington?
Virtually everything has been
going wrong in Washington. Our
government services have been trashed, due to lack of revenue. Our tax system is one of the most regressive
in the nation such that most of us pay to much tax, yet insufficient revenue
results to maintain educational and other state services. Without continuation of federal
stimulus-recovery funds next year, our state deficit will increase, such that
additional state services will be trashed.
Paying too much tax, many
Washington voters find Tim Eyman’s initiatives attractive. If I-1033 passes, it will restrict state
revenue and expenditure to its already inadequate level.
Three major obstacles to
effective government services exist: private campaign financing, our regressive
tax system and BIAW spending to restrict state government revenue, expenditures
and regulation. No civic leadership has
emerged to eliminate the obstacles.
Unless such leadership appears, our legislators are likely to decide
that reforms are too risky. The result
will be continued deterioration of our state services.
BIAW Vulnerabilities
The Building Industry
Association of Washington (BIAW) is the lion on the hill of Washington state
politics. But it may also be a paper
tiger. It is certainly strong, but
various possibilities exist for challenging its power, the way the power is
used, or at least distracting it from its major objectives.
While our legislators and
other politically active people have been aware of BIAW, its intent and
activities, the general public has been largely unaware of even BIAW’s
existence. Only a few one-time
commentaries have appeared in our commercial media and on blogs. For all my interest in Washington politics, I
only became aware one month ago of BIAW’s political activities and clout.
BIAW is certainly
powerful. It has been able to use its
resources to protect its resources as well as realizing its consistently
Conservative objectives. But once it has
been exposed, there are many actions which people can do which may weaken it or
at least distract it from its ideological activities.
Vulnerable due to its Extreme Ideology.
BIAW’s ideology is far from
mainstream Washington values and in conflict with them. Washington’s people value increasing the
access that we all have to quality infrastructure and safety net services
provided by our state government. We
value having a state government which is capable of providing such access. BIAW opposes and obstructs the realization of
our mainstream values. Recognized as a
major obstacle, BIAW attracts our attention and motivates us to render BIAW
ineffective.
Vulnerable due to Questionable Legitimacy
Various questions have
already been raised about the legitimacy of various aspects of BIAW.
·
Are BIAW members
all of one type?
·
Do BIAW members
support their leadership’s Conservative values and attempts to realize their
values?
·
Should BIAW be
able to keep the funds that they erroneously received, (but didn’t report) due
to a state computer programming error?
·
Should BIAW they
be able to spend any of the rebated retro funds for political purposes?
·
Has BIAW violated
campaign contribution and disclosure laws?
·
What about the
legitimacy of BIAW’s name calling and other attacks upon those it opposes?
·
And likely other
questions.
Vulnerable to Exposure
Its almost unique power makes
it a highly prominent target. Exposing
its agenda to subvert our public interest is easy. Our last 7 issues of this newsletter have
each contained one or more commentaries about BIAW. These have shown that BIAW intends to reduce
Washington state government revenue and spending to the extent that it can’t
provide the infrastructure and safety net necessary for our people to
thrive. That BIAW intends to eliminate
regulations which protect consumers and workers. That BIAW has abundant financial resources
and is applying them to elect candidates that favor their views, to influence
our legislators and to win legally. BIAW’s
efforts have often been successful.
Our newsletter reaches 3500
Washington people each week, the majority of them leaders of our Democratic
Party, environmental educational, labor and other advocacy groups. Our sustained attention to BIAW will enable
our members to become aware of BIAW, such that they can join actions to curb
its activities and successes.
Vulnerable due to Size and Inflexibility
BIAW’s size and inflexibility
makes it a sitting target for its many potential opponents. Almost any advocacy group, even quite small
ones, can publicly or legally attack one or more aspects of BIAW’s legitimacy,
leadership, activity, or resources without the BIAW being able to effectively
retaliate.
There appear to be plenty of
aspects of BIAW that can be attacked, plenty of types of attacks that can be
made, and plenty of groups that could make attacks. Attacks could be initiated by various
uncoordinated groups. Or groups could
form alliances to initiate coordinated attacks using more resources.
Trial lawyers might well do a
comprehensive legal audit of BIAW to identify illegal activities which might be
challenged in court. Dissonant members
may attempt to replace the leaders. Or
attempt the adoption of resolutions which prohibit using retro funds for
political purposes. Outsiders might
boycott BIAW members who don’t oppose their leadership. Many strategies are possible.
Vulnerable as a Specific Target
Two other major obstacles to
enabling our state government to better serve our people are private campaign
financing and our regressive tax system which forces most people to pay too
much while bringing in too little revenue.
Unlike the BIAW, neither of these obstacles provides a specific target.
We can point to BIAW and
describe how badly it acts. We can point
out its resemblance to a criminal gang, which receives protection money and
uses it to influence public officials.
We can even identify Tom McCabe as the gang’s godfather, using his own
words expressed in many interviews.
BIAW appears to have much
vulnerability. But proof will only come
from attempts to test its vulnerability.
Will the advocacy groups (that are taking a beating due to BIAW) begin
to fight back?
One hates to blame the
victims. But until conservation, health,
education, labor and other groups, which are most affected by BIAW activities,
fight back, they will continue to suffer from BIAW abuses. To have any chance of realizing their
objectives, these groups need to undertake the difficult tasks of reforming our
private campaign funding, regressive tax system and BIAW political
activities. Dave Thomas
Featured Advocacy Group -------
Puget Sound Sage ------------------------------
Vision
Puget Sound Sage envisions
an economy in which all jobs provide hard working people the wages and benefits
needed to grow and support a family. It foresees a time when growing
inequality has been reversed and democracy strengthened with the participation
of all people. It anticipates a region where safe, clean and affordable
housing and communities are available to everyone.
To achieve this future, the institutions that represent regular people -
unions, faith congregations and community organizations - must work in
partnership with government and business to plan responsibly for the
future.
Sage will help bring about this future by building stronger institutions
for working families, creating policy that balances the drive for economic
growth with economic justice and engaging directly in the day-today decisions
of government that affect our communities.
Mission
Puget Sound Sage brings together labor, faith and community to build an
economy based on shared prosperity. We ensure all families benefit from
economic growth, all workers are free from discrimination in the workplace and
all development meets the needs of our communities.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Most Bellevue Council Candidates Have Small
Vision
Eight
candidates for Bellevue City Council appeared at a forum this week, with most
indicating they support low taxes to maintain a strong economy and preserving
single family neighborhoods. With such a
narrow vision, they are ignoring a series of problems facing Bellevue. They are placing Bellevue’s city government
in a bubble, which ignores the roles that other agencies can play to affect the
quality of life of Bellevue’s people.
Instead of reaching out to collaborate with other government and
non-profit agencies, Bellevue’s city government is taking a not invented here
attitude.
For
some examples, Bellevue doesn’t need more jobs which aggravate the problem of
inadequate affordable housing. Bellevue
needs more affordable housing to allow the people who work in Bellevue to live
in Bellevue, thus reducing urban sprawl (with its increased infrastructure
costs and environmental damage), saving people time from commuting, and
reducing the congestion and pollution that results from commuting. Beyond encouraging affordable housing in the
Bel-Red corridor, Bellevue needs to search for funds for purchasing existing
homes to sell as affordable homes.
Bellevue
schools are doing a poor job and getting worse.
Bellevue’s city government should reach out to the school district and
Bellevue College to explore ways to assist the school district to do a better
job.
As
elsewhere, Bellevue people without health insurance delay seeking care and then
visit our Overlake Hospital’s expensive emergency room. Bellevue needs to explore with our medical
community, the establishment of a consulting nurse phone line and primary care
clinic (similar to Group Health Cooperative’s consulting nurse and urgent
care).
As
elsewhere, people in Bellevue are defaulting on their mortgage payments. Bellevue city government should explore the
provision of advice to people facing foreclosure concerning how they can negotiate
better mortgage terms or best give up their ownership, perhaps to stay on as
renters.
Bellevue
should be reaching out to Renton, Issaquah, Redmond, Kirkland, Totem Lake,
Bothell and Woodinville to explore how to best facilitate travel throughout our
eastside, through a combination of bus and rail services.
Some
problems are best dealt with by individual and family action, instead of by
government action. For example, through
knowing and caring for each other, neighbors can help prevent crime, respond to
people who need help in an earthquake or similar disaster and can protect and
support our children. Bellevue’s
neighborhood outreach program is assisting such neighborliness. But Bellevue should explore doing more to
emphasize the importance of neighborliness and encourage house and block
parties and other forms of neighborhood interaction.
Of
all of Bellevue’s city council candidates, only
Vicki Orrico expresses such a larger vision for Bellevue and the resolve to
collaborate with other agencies and groups to deal with various Bellevue
problems, which are neglected by those with a smaller vision. Her website includes the
following:
·
Collaborate with developers on workable incentives to
achieve our vision for the Bel-Red corridor - such as including greater housing
affordability, open spaces, infrastructure - rather than creating mandates that
make affordable housing less feasible.
·
Partner with schools, such as Bellevue College and the
Bellevue School District, to ensure we have the skilled workforce to attract
and retain strong businesses, to make our tax dollars go farther, and to
improve our neighborhoods to ensure that all of our children and residents have
access to a quality education.
·
Work with our medical institutions to create programs
so our aging and low-income populations have access to prevention and smarter
healthcare rather than resorting to costly emergency care.
·
Work with neighborhoods in respecting differences
through initiatives such as the neighborhood livability initiative and the
Bridle Trails tree ordinance.
·
Leverage our economic development and encourage
businesses to expand within our community, while continuing to foster our
strong downtown economic base.
·
Build a strong eastside coalition to deal with
regional issues like transportation, housing, human services and environment,
so that we speak with one loud, unified voice.
·
Encourage our rich cultures to respect and celebrate
our differences, while ensuring that everyone has access to services that
provide a healthy, happy, strong and smart community.
·
Decrease waste generated by builders by removing
regulatory obstacles to recycling, improving our environment and their bottom
lines.
Dave
Thomas
Here’s the Beef
To
reduce traffic congestion, we need better information as well as new physical
infrastructure.
Tracking
waste will inform us how to better recycle.
Measuring
water evaporation from the sky enables better management of water usage.
Nation
and World
What If Everything
Goes Wrong Nationally?
Since Barack Obama became president, our Executive Branch has changed
markedly from the deception, incompetence and corruption that characterized the
Bush Administration. Although lobbyists
backed by campaign contributions still influence both Republican and Democratic
congress members, this influence is somewhat less than during the previous
administration.
It appears that President Obama’s multi-faceted attempts to stimulate
the recovery of our economy, including the reform of our health care, our
energy production and our regulation of financial companies will succeed. It also appears that the Republicans will
continue to appeal to their consistently Conservative members, such that
increasing numbers of younger and Hispanic voters will further decimate their
numbers in 2010.
Assassination
But we can imagine that various things can go wrong. The worst would be assassination of
President Obama, leaving our administration to the
undisciplined leadership of Joe Biden, with possible prolonging of our economic
recession. Our best protection would be
a grassroots movement to support continuing the reforms that President Obama
has been championing.
If our economic recession is prolonged, especially the high
unemployment, and if reforms of health care, energy and regulation of large
financial companies either doesn’t pass or passes with weaknesses such that
they are ineffective, then we can imagine voters withdrawing their support from
Democrats, although it is still difficult to imagine that they would support
Republicans who contribute even more to the failure than the Democrats.
Allowing Unrestricted Corporate
Campaign Contributions
Another major setback is an expected Supreme Court decision that the
legal rights of Corporations as people, include being able to contribute as
much money as they like to political candidates and causes. This would increase the power of corporations
(which already have much too much power) to stop regulations from limiting
their ability to abuse people. Many of
our needed reforms may be stopped.
As reformers, our highest priority should be to remove the legal
definition of corporations as people.
Their charters should require them to perform specific services in our
public interest, while restrictions are placed on their ability to serve their
private interests at public expense. They
should not have freedoms of expression that we grant to people.
In the long run, we may be saved by the influence of European countries
which don’t treat corporations as people and money as speech.
Honesty Returns to Mortgage Lending
Mortgage lenders are now demanding higher down payments, high credit
scores and proof of income. Paperwork
must be correct. Assessments are more
accurate. Subprime loans are not
available. Mortgages have fixed instead
of adjustable interest rates. The result is a mortgage
process that is largely like the one that preceded our housing and credit
bubble. Let us hope this continues,
with qualified buyers able to find affordable housing, while unqualified buyers
must rent.
But large
financial companies are lobbying to prevent regulatory reform.
Here’s the Beef
Our
U.S. was harmed more by President Bush’s ‘War on Terror’ than by the 9/11
attack
California’s
private health insurers deny more than 1/5th of physician requested
benefits.
Some
foods and beverages have much more sugar than others. See how much sugar they have.
Lots
of nuclear waste is stored around the country with no place for permanent
storage.
Our
Liberal Spirit
Creating Stories
We humans are like other
animals in many ways. Our difference is
that we have greater imagination. By
combining concepts of things we have experienced, we can imagine things we
haven’t experienced, even things that don’t exist. Much more than other animals, we can create
elaborate stories, both true and fictional stories.
Many of our stories, often
created or adopted when we are quite young, are major motivators for our
thinking and action, even when they are false.
To the extent that people use their imagination, they view their world
as having many possibilities. Attempting
to realize these, they conduct more experiments. They succeed and fail more often than those
who try to limit their imaginations.
They face the need to pick themselves up after both success and failure,
to imagine a new story of what to attempt next.
We need to be able to see the humor of the incongruity between our story
and what often happens. We need to be
able to discard our story and create another.
Imagine that we live in an
hour glass, in which future moments are grains of sand above the apex, the
present moment is going through the apex and past moments are the grains of
sand down below. If one only lived with
a story of the present, one wouldn’t have any reason to do anything with the
present moment. To decide what to do
with the present moment, we need a story based upon our experience with past
moments and the results of our actions.
People who created rich many
elaborate and varied stories are more fully human than those who don’t. People who insist on only creating true
stories, or immediately useful stories, or place other limits upon their story
creation are more like non-human animals.
They are more like cows. Dave
Thomas
Recommended Books – See our list of books for liberals
Charles
Derber, 2002, People Before Profit
David
Korten, 1999, The Post-Corporate World.
Life after Capitalism
E.
G. Nadeau and David Thompson, 1996, Cooperation
Works! How People are Using Cooperative
Action to Rebuild Communities and Revitalize the Economy
Michael
Moore Movie: Capitalism, a Love
Story
These books concern reducing
the power of corporations to abuse people by putting their profits before
serving people.
Dave Korten’s book offers
some interesting arguments for replacing large businesses with small locally
controlled ones. He argues that instead
of viewing our world as a mechanistically causal one, we should view it as a
organically teleological one. This cannot
be demonstrated and even if it could, it is irrelevant (except as a
motivational story) to how we should organize our economy.
Secondly, David Korten gives
little attention to the fact that not all businesses can be small and
local. National and international
government regulation is necessary to control national and international
businesses.
David Korten notes that
the wild attacks against President Obama divert attention from the need to
regulate large financial companies that caused our present problems. For more.