Also on today’s menu:
Response To Houthi Attacks Not A Strong Deterrent
Bill Would Allow Undefined ‘Parenting Decisions’
Under the Biden administration, the United States is experiencing a robust labor market, with unemployment at a historically low level, while hiring is still strong. Inflation is dropping, there are stronger domestic supply chains, and prescription drug costs have fallen. Mortgage rates are lower than a year ago, with Fannie Mae’s index of home-buying sentiment rising 10% in December, year-over-year. Americans indicate plans to buy cars, homes, and big-ticket appliances, according to a survey of consumer confidence from the Conference Board. The S&P 500 is just off a record high.
Still, Republicans are saying President Joe Biden Jr. has ruined the economy. While families making $100,000 a year or more are quite comfortable now, those with lower incomes are still struggling with high gas and grocery prices. The Federal Reserve’s efforts to curb inflation by increasing borrowing rates have made it harder for households and businesses, and, while those pressures are easing, the full impact of the hikes has not yet made its way through the economy.
Robert Reich, in his ninth installment of “Why American capitalism is so rotten”, makes some important points that have been overlooked.
The so-called “Reagan Revolution” that shifted the focus away from governmental oversight with his famous “government is the problem” quote undermined the “countervailing power” of clubs, associations, political parties, and trade unions. “Because wages stagnated, most people had to devote more time to work in order to make ends meet,” Reich writes. “As sociologist Robert Putnam has documented, Americans stopped being a nation of ‘joiners.’ By the 1980s, the expansive mosaic of local organizations that had given meaning to American pluralism was being replaced by national advocacy organizations headquartered in Washington. ‘Membership’ no longer meant activism at the local and state levels. It meant sending money in response to mass solicitations.”
The Democratic Party has joined the Republican Party in promoting policies that would benefit the big businesses and the wealthy who contributed to their political campaigns.
In 1964, just 29 percent of voters believed that government was “run by a few big interests looking out for themselves.” By 2013 — after the Wall Street bailout — 79 percent of Americans believed it.
In 2006, 59 percent of Americans felt that government corruption was widespread. By 2013, 79 percent of Americans felt that way.
Even before Trump, most Americans disdained politics and politicians and had become cynical about the possibilities for meaningful political change.
The 2016 presidential election was a perfect storm: a record concentration of income and wealth at the top. Unprecedented amounts of campaign spending and influence peddling by corporations, Wall Street, and wealthy individuals, much of it in secret. Deep cynicism about government among the electorate. And countervailing power all but gone.
Enter Trump and Bernie Sanders, polar opposites who tapped into the anti-establishment sentiment. “Trump is a fake populist, of course,” Reich says. “Joe Biden is as close to a progressive populist as we have come in the last half-century — reviving American manufacturing, boldly enforcing anti-monopoly laws against giant corporations, and protecting workers’ rights to unionize. But Biden has not taken direct aim at the growing political power of giant corporations, Wall Street, and the ultra-wealthy.”
He continues, “The life of the [Democratic] party — its enthusiasm, passion, youth, principles, and ideals — was elicited by Bernie Sanders’s 2016 campaign. This isn’t to denigrate what Hillary Clinton accomplished in 2016 or what Joe Biden did in 2020. It’s only to recognize what all of us witnessed: the huge outpouring of excitement that Bernie’s campaign inspired, especially from younger people. This is the future of the Democratic Party. It is the future of progressive populism.”
Discussion: As I have previously noted, the Democratic National Committee and the Associated Press conspired to destroy Bernie Sanders’ campaign by claiming ahead of important primary elections that Sanders did not have a chance of winning over Hillary Clinton — a crucial error in judgment that helped usher in Donald Trump’s presidency. Joe Biden was far from progressive, but Sanders’ campaign demonstrated that Democrats and Independents supported his views, and Biden took up some of those issues. There remains a bias against poorer Americans in the national economy, which accounts for a lot of the support Trump is receiving, since (according to him) only he can solve the nation’s problems.
Response To Houthi Attacks Not A Strong Deterrent
In world affairs, President Joe Biden Jr. is caught between trying to de-escalate tensions in the Middle East amidst concerns about the way Israel is handling its war against Hamas and the potential of broadening the conflict in order to protect shipping that is being disrupted by the Iran-backed Houthis.
Biden has acknowledged that the United States’ airstrikes against Houthi targets will not significantly deter them or degrade their capabilities, but, as Gerald Feierstein, a former US ambassador to Yemen, said, “Basically, they came to the conclusion that this was the least bad of the bad options that they had.”
The Houthis have said they will keep up their drone and missile strikes that have disrupted shipping in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait until Israel stops its bombing campaign in the Gaza Strip. Biden knows that Israel will not agree to that.
Discussion: The Houthi attacks and the response by US and UK forces have reduced the number of shipments making their way through the strait that previously handled 12% of global seaborne trade. John Kirby of the National Security Council said every strike against the Houthis makes it harder for them to keep up their attacks — but is that kind of a result worth risking a broader Mideast war?
Bill Would Allow Undefined ‘Parenting Decisions’
House Bill 1012, sponsored by Leah Cushman (R-Weare), would provide an exemption from criminal penalties for “certain parenting decisions intended to encourage a child’s independence and freedom”. To qualify for the exemption, the decision must not cause any “actual injury or harm, or any actual injury or harm is the result of an unavoidable or unforeseen accident”.
The bill would add a new paragraph to RSA 639:3 to allow the exemption, providing that such a decision does not violate any law; that it is based on “a reasoned approach” that weighs both benefits and risks; and that it “is in keeping with the parent or guardian’s family values”.
The bill notes that it “adds, deletes, or modifies a criminal penalty, or changes statute to which there is a penalty for violation. Therefore, this bill may have an impact on the judicial and correctional systems, which could affect prosecution, incarceration, probation, and parole costs, for the state, as well as county and local governments.”
Other sponsors are Potucek (R), Vose (R), Edwards (R), Gorski (R), Osborne (R), Post (R), Tony Lekas (R), Burnham (R), Avard (R), and Pearl (R).
Discussion: The bill’s lack of specificity is troubling. It does not define what “certain parenting decisions” means or even provide general examples of what sorts of parenting decisions might be covered. Perhaps we’ll learn more during committee hearings.