Good morning, friends,
Monday mornings can be bracing, like a slap across the face.
The wrangling over the debt ceiling is but one more way that the Republicans like to waste everyone’s time and hold the people’s business hostage. We have plenty of real problems to solve and we can’t allow the party of insurrection to also manufacture bonus existential crises.
My ‘cousin’ Janet, the Treasury Secretary, fully supports the abolition of the debt ceiling. (We are not really related…just the same last name.)
“I believe when Congress legislates expenditures and puts in place tax policy that determines taxes, those are the crucial decisions Congress is making,” Ms. Yellen said. “And if to finance those spending and tax decisions it is necessary to issue additional debt, I believe it is very destructive to put the president and myself, as Treasury secretary, in a situation where we might be unable to pay the bills that result from those past decisions.”
Call on Senate Democrats and President Biden to use their power to end the debt ceiling.
One enduring real problem is the great lengths that wealthy people will go to avoid paying taxes. The Pandora papers is a recent leak of 2.94 terabytes of data — a google search and a quick calculation and reveals that it’s roughly equivalent to more than 13.2 million eBooks of 200 pages — about international financial doings that are usually concealed.
This is not a uniquely American problem, however, like most American versions of international phenomena, ours is often bigger and uglier.
[T]he secrecy offered by tax havens has at times proven attractive to tax evaders, fraudsters and money launderers, some of whom are exposed in the files.
[T]he US emerges from the leak as a leading tax haven. The files suggest the state of South Dakota, in particular, is sheltering billions of dollars in wealth linked to individuals previously accused of serious financial crimes.
The $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill relies on increased tax revenue from folks who are concealing their earnings — both legally and illegally — and are plenty able to pay.
Contact your congressional representative and make clear that you support raising taxes on the rich and funding the IRS to enforce tax law.
The real problems include the negotiation of a meaningful infrastructure package. Nancy Pelosi plans to delay the vote on the infrastructure bill until 31 October to leave time for a compromise on the larger reconciliation bill with climate and care provisions.
This delay means that we have four exhausting weeks of action ahead, to remind members of Congress of our priorities.
Let your representative in Congress know that we need a care infrastructure!
In spite of the virtue signaling by corporations who are promising to cut emissions and ‘go green’, the reality is that many are supporting organizational efforts and corporate lobbyists who are working against climate action plans in the reconciliation bill.
“Major corporations love to tell us how committed they are to addressing the climate crisis and building a sustainable future, but behind closed doors, they are funding the very industry trade groups that are fighting tooth and nail to stop the biggest climate change bill ever,” said Kyle Herrig, president of watchdog group Accountable.US, which compiled the analysis.
Stop the corporate lobbyists from poisoning our legislators against us!
An article about why De Blasio won’t release more people from Rikers using the 6a option of supervised release, which he used liberally at the outset of the pandemic, tells a disturbing, if unsurprising story. It seems that appearances are of more concern to the mayor than actual outcomes.
Maybe that’s unsurprising; he’s a political animal and he has repeatedly said that he wants to continue to serve the public, which he equates with elected office. So, he doesn’t want the police saying that he released people and crime went up.
The director of jail reform at the Center for Court Innovation, Michael Rempel, has examined the results of the “6a” program and other supervised release initiatives.
“So we did see a significant increase in violent crime, but clearly people released under this program were in no way contributing to that.”
There is also evidence, laid out by the mayor's own office of criminal justice, which shows people released under “6a” do not typically re-offend at a higher rate than people released under normal circumstances.
Last week, the mayor released just seven people from Rikers. Essentially, the mayor is failing to serve the public that he may continue to ‘serve’.
And, it’s not as though incarcerating people improves public safety in other respects. Rempel points out that the trauma and job loss associated with jail sentences contributes to the likelihood of homelessness and recidivism upon release.
Tell the mayor to make liberal use of the 6a release program. The ready-made message reflects recent developments.
As I noted last week, legislative fixes to the situation at Rikers are still months away, since the legislature doesn’t reconvene until January. But Zach Katznelson, executive director of the Independent Commission on New York City Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform, believes that there is a provision of the Less is More Act that is already in effect, and he told an Assembly hearing that around 160 people at Rikers qualify for immediate release.
“Anybody who's in Rikers right now [who] has been held longer than the possible sentence they could receive under Less is More should be released immediately,” Katznelson said.
Call on Governor Hochul to release those who have already served more than the maximum sentence for the crimes they are alleged to have committed!
I’ve only been slapped in the face once in my life. It left a red handprint on my left cheek that I can still feel if I close my eyes and remember. It made me defiant and determined.
Have a good day!
with love,
L