Clinton/Sanders - Minimum Wage

Dear Friends,

The minimum wage has been getting more attention since there have been large protests primarily by fast food workers and their supporters demanding a $15 an hour minimum wage.  President Obama has called for an increase in the Federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour but has not exactly gone all out trying to achieve that increase.

Senator Warren has been a huge advocate for increasing the minimum wage.  She has given great visibility to how the minimum wage has failed to keep up with other increases.  There is short article in The Huffington Post (here) that describes Senator Warren's comments in a Senate committee meeting last spring.  Two of the points that she made were:

If the minimum wage had risen at the same rate as worker productivity since 1960, it would now be $22 an hour.  Since the minimum wage is now $7.25, that means that the other $14.75 an hour has gone to increased profits.

If the minimum wage had risen at the same rate as the incomes of the top 1% of Americans, it would now be $33 an hour.  That is over 4.5 times what the Federal minimum wage is today. Yet another of the ever growing statistics demonstrating the huge and increasing disparity in wealth and income in this country.

Individual cities and other municipalities are raising the minimum wage.  San Francisco raised its minimum wage above the Federal level over a decade ago, and it is now at $10.74.  A study done by the University of California, Berkeley demonstrated that there is no adverse impact on employment by raising the minimum wage at least up to $13.00 per hour.  The Seattle Times has an article about the study that is very interesting (here).  Seattle, of course, has decided to raise the minimum wage to $15 in increments, and most recently Los Angeles has raised its minimum wage to $15.00.

So do not let it be said that we cannot raise the minimum wage to $15.00 an hour so that no American working full time will be forced to live in poverty.

Bernie Sanders has been an outspoken advocate for a $15.00 per hour Federal minimum wage.  Hillary Clinton has now adopted the populist language of Senators Warren and Sanders on this subject.  In April she tweeted,

Every American deserves a fair shot at success. Fast food & child care workers shouldn't have to march in streets for living wages.

It is much easier to adopt the language than it is to actually indicate what you think the Federal minimum wage should be.  Senator Clinton has refused to say what she thinks the Federal minimum wage should be.  CNN Money published an article earlier this month on the subject (here).  After going through Senator Clinton's support for the idea of raising the minimum wage. The article concludes

Just how high a wage hike Clinton supports, however, remains a mystery. The candidate has not provided a figure yet. Her campaign did not return a request for comment Sunday night.

This issue sums up the problem that I have with Hillary.  She is walking a tightrope between the liberal wing of the Democratic party and the Wall Street and big business money that she courts and is rapidly becoming part of.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal

Should I Support Bernie Sanders?

Dear Friends,

I am not at all excited about Hillary Clinton as our next President, except for the fact that she would be the first woman President which would be a great glass ceiling to break and except for the fact that she is way better than any of the Republican candidates, already running or considering running.

I am not excited about supporting Hillary because I do not know where she really stands on almost all issues.  On many key issues, she is refusing to take a clear position and on others she is bowing to pressure from Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, in order to try to thwart Bernie's campaign.  I have no confidence whatsoever that she will maintain those positions once she is elected.

Her campaign is already claiming that supporting Bernie Sanders or Martin O'Malley will damage Hillary's chances against a Republican in the election.  There are two problems with the approach her campaign is taking.  First, it is not true, and second, I really do not like to be bullied.

There is an article on the Daily Kos entitled "The difference between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton in one paragraph" (here).  Below is the lead in and the paragraph:

Politico is out with a great article exploring the historic relationship between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton.
As you can imagine, Bernie was skeptical of a centrist Bill Clinton running for president in 1992, and immediately after Clinton won the election and appointed Hillary to lead health care reform, Bernie set to work attempting to convince her of the virtue of a single-payer, Medicare-for-all system. As you can probably also imagine, he wasn't successful. Still, please do read what follows. The dialogue between Hillary and a Harvard Medical School physician supporting single-payer -- accompanying Bernie to his meeting at the White House -- is important for the record.

They got their meeting at the White House that month, and the two doctors laid out the case for single-payer to the first lady. “She said, ‘You make a convincing case, but is there any force on the face of the earth that could counter the hundreds of millions of the dollars the insurance industry would spend fighting that?’” recalled Himmelstein. “And I said, “How about the president of the United States actually leading the American people?’ and she said, ‘Tell me something real.’ ”

Wow. This paragraph -- the interaction it describes -- brilliantly highlights the core difference between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton as candidates (and people!): Bernie believes that American politics can overcome the power of corporate wealth, Hillary is resigned to that power dictating the direction of our politics -- and public policy.

I want a President who will lead and create the change that we need in our great country, not the President who says, "Tell me something real".

I am going to undertake a project to try to compare the stated positions of Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton.  It will be much easier to figure out the stated positions of Bernie Sanders than it will be for Hillary Clinton for two reasons.  First, Bernie has held and advanced his positions for years.  Second, Hillary's positions change from time to time, and she refuses to be transparent about where she stands unless she absolutely is forced to take a clear position.  There are, of course, some issues on which both Hillary and Bernie agree and are very clear, like women's reproductive health.

Here is a list of the issues that I have identified to look into.  They are in no particular order, and the list is certainly not exhaustive so feel free to let me know other issues that you are interested in.

Environmental regulation
Reliance on fossil fuels, including the XL Pipeline, fracking and alternative energy
Universal single payer healthcare
Trade, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership
Minimum wage
Education including free education, pre-k to 12 and undergraduate
Citizens United and PACs
Social Security
Regulation of Wall Street, big banks and big business
Taxes on the rich, Wall Street and big business
Job growth
Budget deficits
War, ISIS, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the draft, etc.
Israel and Palestine
Whistleblowers, including Edward Snowden
Immigration, including dream act, path to citizenship, deportation and asylum

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal

Racist Terrorism in America

Dear Friends,

The news of yet another act of terrorism against black people in America seems to come as a shock each time it happens.  There is always hand wringing and the usual denial of racism and terrorism in America by the Republicans and the usual call for gun control by the Democrats, but as Jon Stewart said, "We still won't do jack shit."  Rick Perry calls it an "accident" later corrected to an "incident", but it was not just an incident.  It was a racially motivated terrorist attack by an American on other Americans.

People say it was a single person who assassinated those nine people in Charlestown.  It was one person who pulled the trigger, but he was created, supported and encouraged by a community of racist terrorists.  His white supremacy website was just one of thousand on the internet. This community thrives on and encourages each others' hatred which ultimately, predictably and obviously leads to somebody carrying out a violent act of racist terrorism.

But it is not just the white supremacy community that creates, supports and encourages racist terrorism.  It is our leaders who use dog whistles to gain the votes and the support of the racists among us.  It is the institutional racism in America that is exemplified by the inherent racism in our justice system.  When blacks are stopped and harassed by the police far more frequently than whites, when blacks are arrested far more frequently than whites, when blacks are killed by police far more frequently than whites, when blacks receive sentences far longer than whites, all not because of what they have done but because they are black, our racist justice system provides a perfect example for the racists among us and encourages their terrorism.

Our racist justice system terrorizes the black community every day and destroys more lives than just the lives of the blacks killed by the police or a racist, terrorist gunman.  We, as a society, are destroying lives by not providing equal opportunity and a level playing field for all.  We deny the poor and particularly minorities a good education, good healthcare and real opportunities for them to attain their true potential.  Our society continues to treat them as "other" and therefore not entitled to the same treatment as "us".

Our first black President makes essentially the same speech each time the racist terrorism surfaces in the form of the violent assassination of black people.  He calls for minimal gun control, but lobbies harder for an ill-conceived trade agreement than for those minor controls.  Certainly gun control is important, but the availability of guns just makes committing the acts of terrorism easier.  The reason for the terrorism is much deeper.  It is embedded in the institutional racism in America.

Our leaders will not be the ones that end this monstrous evil that afflicts our country.  We must act.  We must join with all of our brothers and sisters to create an active community of people who name racism and terrorism wherever it exists, who work to change our racist justice system, who demand that all people are given a chance to attain their potential, who denounce acts of racism, terrorism and violence regardless of who the perpetrator is and who strive to provide a living example of the best of humanity.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal