Growth & Justice Blog

Wonkish Ryan's budget specifics take center stage

Congressman Paul Ryan is routinely described as a "wonk." And all of us policy enthusiasts have to like the new focus on substance--budgets and taxes and who gets how much--that's likely to occur with the naming of a fellow wonk as Mitt Romney's running mate.

Conservative and liberal commentators also agree that the choice of Ryan signals a harder turn by Romney toward a more specific anti-tax, anti-government policy agenda. It reflects an even more pronounced valuing of private interests over public interests on the GOP side, and perhaps the strongest attack since before the 1930s on our federal government's fundamental role in providing economic security for all Americans.

The best and most comprehensive critique of Ryanism, and the spectacular claim to be able to reduce the federal deficit by cutting taxes, can be found at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) blog post headlined "Everything You Need to Know About Chairman Ryan's Budget.''

Here's how CBPP President Robert Greenstein summarized the Ryan blueprint: "It would likely produce the largest redistribution of income from the bottom to the top in modern U.S. history and likely increase poverty and inequality more than any other budget in recent times (and possibly in the nation’s history)."

The ramifications for Minnesota of the Ryan budget were teased out of the CBPP studies late last week by the Minnesota Budget Project (MBP). The MBP reported that "Minnesota would lose an estimated $420 million in federal funding for education, law enforcement, clean water, and other state and local priorities in 2014 under the House-passed Ryan budget...The total impact from 2013 to 2021 would be a loss of $3.8 billion in federal funding to Minnesota and local communities."

Meanwhile, on the libertarian end of the spectrum, the Cato Institute is much more bullish on Ryan's budget, but Cato also faults him for inconsistency and for not taking a similar whack at the huge military-industrial complex that taxpayers support through military spending.

It's common knowledge that Ayn Rand, the novelist and amateur philosopher who worshipped capitalists as godlike Atlases to whom everything was owed, has had strong influence on Rep. Ryan. The New Yorker reminds us that her novel, Atlas Shrugged, once was required reading for his staff. But Ryan has since attempted to disavow Rand, in large part because of her militant atheism and utter contempt for religion and the altruistic values of Ryan's Catholic faith. The American Values Network offers an intriguing challenge to Christians to choose between Ayn Rand and Jesus Christ.

--Dane Smith

 

 

A religious observance of Statehood Day, and the constitutional obligation to tax and invest for public good

Mainstream religious leaders today are hosting a vigil by the statue of populist champion and former Gov. Floyd B. Olson, in honor of Statehood Day.  On the 153rd anniversary of the North Star State, our state's most respected faith leaders will be drawing attention to the absolutely vital role of our state government in providing for  the "security, benefit and protection of the people.''   

Those words - "security, benefit and protection of the people'' - are not just some modern liberal interpretation of the role of state government.  The phrase looms large in the first sentence of Article I of our state constitution (in which there is no mention of protecting wealth and property and privilege, or keeping taxes and labor costs low.)  And those inspiring and inclusive words in Article I about the essential "Object of Government'' are being emphasized by the Joint Religious Legislative Coalition in "calling the public and our elected officials to a more just and compassionate public stewardship."

The JRLC is an alliance our state's largest denominations (Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Islamic) and they are a member of the Invest in Minnesota coalition, which advocates for a balanced approach to the budget crisis, opposes an all-cuts strategy, and supports restoration of the higher income tax rates of a decade ago on high-income Minnesotans.

These leaders of faith are producing a strong counterpunch to the weekend's anti-tax, anti-government rally, which ironically coincided with recent news stories documenting that federal and state effective tax rates have fallen to historic lows, even as the economic condition of low- and moderate-income families decline.  Public investments in health, education and human services help ameliorate this growing inequality and public investments in human capital and physical infrastructure also are good for business in the long run.  Church leaders, who often are called upon by conservatives to apply their meager financial resources to plug the holes left by cuts in government budgets, know these realities better than most.

 

-Dane Smith 

Less please, of the sarcasm and oblivious disregard for facts about race and privilege

Minnesota's racial disparities in education, unemployment, income and health are among our biggest public policy problems right now, and these differences rightfully have been dominating news coverage in recent years. But in her latest Star Tribune column, featuring 753 words of ridicule directed at a conference designed to raise some rather uppity questions about this disadvantage, Katherine Kersten did not write a single phrase acknowledging that racial inequality might be of any concern whatsoever. Kersten combs through the White Privilege Conference events (organized by the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs) archives in recent years to find the angriest rhetorical excesses and then dismisses the entire event as a “rich smorgasboard of white guilt.” I too personally disagree with some of the harsher statements Kersten attributes to some of the organizers. But a closer look at the agenda uncovers plenty of positive and constructive content, and the conference actually seems to be suffused with the spirit that more knowledge and cultural awareness can and must lead to reconciliation and greater equity. In following up on Kersten's “story,” FOX TV right-winger Sean Hannity actually did a better job at balance, rounding up Bucknell University professor James Peterson to defend the event, between being interrupted rather rudely, of course.

But more important, the article drips with disdain and a strong implication that ANY concern about racism and disadvantage is laughable, now or then. Kersten mocks the assertion that the United States was founded “by white people, for white people,” even though that is essentially accurate and in fact the original Constitution counted African American slaves as 3/5 of a person. As recently as my own birth, mid-20th Century, more than 2/3 of the American population – women and all racial minorities, were discriminated against or lacked full legal or de facto equal rights, in some ways in most states. And yes, in the way the world really works, this discrimination and unfairness and white privilege continues. Lucky for all of us, Kersten is distinctly at odds with our mainstream business, religious and community leadership on this score. The literature of the Minnesota Business Partnership and the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce is replete with analysis and prescriptions, including investment in early childhood education and reforms in schools, to reduce the racial achievement gap. Mainstream church leaders rank our racial unfairness as a growing and pressing problem that must be addressed. And one of the organizations that sponsored the White Privilege Conference, the St. Paul Foundation, has done some particularly constructive work through its Facing Race initiative, which will hold its annual “Ambassador Award” event on May 3.

We are still a long, long ways from the Promised Land of racial harmony alluded to by Martin Luther King. And we probably won't get there in our lifetimes. But we can make faster progress if we acknowledge some uncomfortable truths about the past and present.

Dane Smith

Business-backed early childhood quality-rating proposal must be resurrected

We all make mistakes and the Minnesota House made a big one last week.  It can and must somehow perform a do-over on an early childhood measure that was defeated, in large part through the behind-the-scenes influence of social and religious conservatives in the Republican Party base.

The legislation would take advantage of private donations to establish a statewide rating system that would help parents assess and find high-quality early childhood care and education offerings for their children.  This initiative will be of great and lasting benefit to disadvantaged and middle-income parents who are most in need of this cost-effective investment in human development.  And the proposal actually puts a premium on parental choice, a favorite mechanism for free-market conservatives.

Moreover, the Quality Rating proposal, and the Parent Aware system it would help expand and develop, enjoys strong business leadership backing and a truly rare breadth of consensus in these polarized times.  As education reporter Beth Hawkins of MinnPost assessed it, "the bill was revenue-neutral, meaning its implementation would not cost a cent, and it enjoyed the backing of (DFL Gov. Mark) Dayton, the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce and pretty much everyone on the political continuum between them."  The author of the proposal was Rep. Jenifer Loon, an Eden Prairie Republican and a leading critic of the GOP vote to strip it was Duane Benson, executive director of the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation, a former executive director of the Minnesota Business Partnership and a former Republican Senate minority leader.

Leading the effort to undermine and defeat the proposal were social and religious conservatives, represented by the Minnesota Family Council and the Education Liberty Watch.  With all due respect to both, on this issue these groups simply do not reflect the mainstream views of the state's business community, our  leading economists, and a vast array of education experts on this issue.  The Minnesota Family Council puts a high priority on "Biblical Worldview" education and generally favors all things private in education, seldom voicing general support for our public institutions or governments in general.  And the Liberty Watch, in a 10-point statement of principles, does not offer a single word of support for public education or schools, positing instead that "nonpublic education without government interference is essential to a healthy education system."

In Minnesota, a clear moderate and progressive majority, joined by many conservatives, essentially agrees that early childhood education is a growing public responsibility, and that the growing percentage of children showing up not ready for kindergarten represents a real threat to our long-term prosperity.

Mainstream business owners and leaders agree that higher-quality early childhood education is essential for the long-term quality of Minnesota's workforce.  And it just doesn't make policital or policy sense for the House majority caucus to continue defying that wisdom and consensus.

Dane Smith

Catholic and Lutheran mainstream leaders fight for justice in budget-balancing

Anti-government conservatives often cloak their movement in a religious mantle and enjoy disproportionate support from the fundamentalist brand of Christendom, while unfairly dismissing progressives, economic and otherwise, as irreligious.  So it's a powerful refutation of that notion when our states' Catholic and Lutheran bishops, representing a vast mainstream of some 2 million Minnesotans, issue the kind of statement they publicized last week.  In a joint letter to lawmakers detailed on MinnPost.com, the Roman Catholic and ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) bishops pointedly advised that "the most telling measure of how well we care for each other is to consider how we treat those who are most vulnerable among us."  And lest one think that's too vague about whether to impose an all-cuts budget or to raise some taxes, the letter pointedly describes the state budget defict as "an enormous challenge that suggests both dollar savings and increased income (italics mine) to achieve a balanced budget that avoids devastating cuts in services to vulnerable people."  Some budget hawks in demanding less government for social services will point to the churches as having that primary responsiblity.  The leaders of our state's largest churches are saying, in effect, that they can't do it all and that the government has that primary responsibility.  The organization that embodies a compelling and truly broad religious alliance for economic equity and justice is the Joint Religious Legislative Coalition, which adds other Prostestant mainstream denominations and Jewish and Islamic leaders to the voices for common good and a more progressive tax structure.  This week, watch for a strong presence at the Capitol and visits to legislators' offices from the Lutheran bishops in particular.

Dane Smith

Labor Day, economic justice, and progressive capitalists

For a second consecutive year on Labor Day Sunday, I had the privilege of delivering the sermon at my Unity Church in St. Paul (Unitarian Universalist).   I focused on the the great tradition of progressive capitalism in Minnesota,  embodied by people like William Drew Washburn, the founder of the forerunner of General Mills and the founder of the First Universalist Society of Minneapolis, and the subject of a new biography, "Prairie Ligthtning.''    Reviewing Washburn's enormous contributions and his serious shortcomings, I made this point: 

 There are a couple of key points in all this on Labor Day weekend, when we celebrate the vast majority of Americans and Minnesotans who labor for a living, and who mostly don’t OWN OR INVEST for a living, and with whose perspiration our  civilizations have been built.     The first point is a reminder, that some of our direct (Unitarian Universalist) intellectual and spiritual ancestors valued the “me’’ every bit as much or more than the “we.’’   They were intensely self-interested people, empire builders and capitalists, who also tried to balance that side with a conscience and recognition that public stuff, the things we do together for our common good with our  democratic governments, were every bit as valuable as the things we do for ourselves for own profit and enrichment.    Elites like the Washburns and Pillsburys and the Daytons passionately and personally invested in public interest,  and as the decades wore on Minnesota’s capitalists earned a reputation as among the world’s most generous and enlightened, unafraid of social experimentation and democracy, generally supportive of the idea of public-sector growth and  intelligent and humane distribution of an often unfair redistribution imposed by capitalism and the marketplace, on the sound theory that more sharing would be good for private-sector growth in the long run.

 Among the most eloquent and authentic Labor Day op-eds during  the last week was Janice Thurn's excellent commentary ("America Can't Rise Without Its Workers")in the Star Tribune Op-Ed section, and this very clear and compelling  answer to the question "What Does Organized Labor Want?", by AFSCME Council 5 Executive Director Eliot Seide.

It will take a few days to process my latest Unity Church  sermon so that it's available online,  but here is a link to "She Works Hard for the Money (So You'd Better Treat her Right)", the Labor Day sermon I gave last year, focused in particular on the struggle for justice by women workers.

Solidarity Forever!

Dane Smith 

After Labor Day, keep working on economic justice

I had the great privilege of delivering the Labor Day Sunday sermon at my church (Unity Church, Unitarian Universalist, in St. Paul). I offered the best I could find from Abraham Lincoln, the Bible, Catholic and Lutheran teachings on social justice, and recent economic studies to make the case that we have an inequality problem in Minnesota and the nation. And it was a treat to get Donna Summer's great song, "She Works Hard for the Money'' into the liturgy as the postlude.  

Here's one point I made about labor and fairness, and democratic and religious traditions.

As Americans we mark our progress by looking back at forms of liberation from exploitation of labor. In our western hemisphere, we look back in horror at the forced conversion and attempted enslavement of aboriginal people to Christendom and efforts to bring them under the English and Spanish or French yoke. We are proud of the American Revolution and our fight against the illegitimate seizure, without representation, of our labor. We are proud of the great fight led by liberal religious founders of our own Unitarian Universalist denomination against the enslavement of African people. Interestingly, southern defenders of slavery used the Bible’s apparent approval or neutrality on the subject to advance their secessionist cause.

In the last century, we’ve made enormous progress against the much more subtle forms of semi-slavery that come with unbridled capitalism and the slanted bargaining table set up between employers and employees: the simple and basic right to organize, child labor laws, the 40-hour work week and overtime compensation, the minimum wage, the civil rights movement and ongoing efforts to finish the Emancipation Proclamation and end the de facto slavery imposed on people of color, the migrant workers’ reforms, and in more recent years but throughout history, hugely important, the oppression of women in the workforce.

I urged the congregation to consider the mountains of evidence that show economic inequality growing once again, after we reached a high-water level of overall economic equality in the 1970s. And I urged folks to do whatever they possibly could to change policies and laws to bring about more equal outcomes, chiefly through more and better investment in human capital.   

The full text of the sermon is available here [PDF]. 

— Dane Smith