Fact Sheets & Briefs

Banksters Run Amok: The Facts

Brian Dockstader — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 14:51:48 -0400

The Unprecedented Crises Our Nation Now Faces

The huge sums of federal money taxpayers are being asked to spent to cover bad bets could have been used to make America better:

• Fix a broken health care system. In 2007, 45.7 million Americans were without health insurance; 8.1 million of these Americans are children.
(United States Census Bureau. Current Population Survey 2007. Table C-1: Health Insurance Coverage: 1987 to 2007. Pg 61. Table C-3: Health Insurance Coverage by Age: 1999 to 2007. Pg. 66. August 2008. (Adjusted 2008 Dollars)).

• End our addiction to oil. Since September 2001, U.S. oil imports have increased 12 percent.
(Oil Price Information Service and AAA. Daily Fuel Gauge Report. 2008. (Adjusted 2008 Dollars).
(Energy Information Administration. U.S. Crude Oil and Petroleum Products Imports from All Countries (Thousand Barrels). 26 August 2008)..

• Rebuild a country that’s falling apart:

♦ One out of four bridges in the United States is structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. Every $1 billion of federal funding invested in transportation infrastructure creates 47,500 jobs.
(United States Department of Transportation. “Deficient Bridges by State and Highway System.” Federal Highway Administration. 14 August 2008)

♦ One third of United States’ schools need extensive repair. Investing $20 billion in deferred school maintenance would generate 250,000 skilled maintenance jobs.
(United States General Accounting Office. School Facilities: Condition of America’s Schools. February 1995)
(Mary Filardo. Good Buildings, Better Schools: An Economic Stimulus Opportunity with Long-Term Benefits. Economic Policy Institute. Briefing Paper #216. 29 April 2008)

♦ Investing $500 billion in a comprehensive economic strategy to build America’s 21st century clean energy economy over the next 10 years would generate 5 million high-quality, green-collar jobs.
(Apollo Alliance. The New Apollo Program: Clean Energy, Good Jobs. September 2008)

Wall Street Is A Monster Donor to Both Political Parties

From 1990 through July 2008, the banking, real estate and insurance industries poured more than $2 billion into federal election campaigns, including $311 million just in the first seven months of 2008. The money follows the party in power: Republicans got more money when they controlled Congress; now that Democrats do, they’re getting more. Plus, these industries spent $415,259,323 on lobbying in 2007.
(Center for Responsive Politics)

The Dubious Priorities of the President's Fiscal 2009 Budget

OurFuture.org Staff — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 16:30:44 -0500

President Bush’s fiscal 2009 budget would provide more tax cuts heavily skewed to the most well-off while cutting vital services for low- and moderate-income Americans, generating large deficits, and increasing the strain on states already confronting budget problems as a result of the economic downturn. The budget reflects misguided priorities that would leave the American people more vulnerable in a number of ways.

Penny-Wise, War-Foolish

Ian Mishalove — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 00:04:22 -0500

The Real Cost of Presidential Obstruction On Human Needs

President Bush wants to veto spending sought by Congress on important national priorities. The fight is over appropriations bills that cover a wide range of essential services. Bush acts as if he wants to protect the budget, but the facts are otherwise. The amounts in question are modest -- especially when compared to the amount of money the administration recklesly spends on the misbegotten war in Iraq. Here are some examples from budget bills President Bush threatened to veto.

President Bush has threatened to veto
bills that would:

What the items
would cost

How long it takes to spend that on the Iraq War

Help economically distressed communities by providing investment incentives to banks (HR 2829)

$70 million

Less than 6 hours

Increase military pay an extra 0.5 percent for the next five years (S 1547)

$2.2 billion over 5 years

7 days

Help poor people pay for record-high home-heating costs in the winter (HR 3043)

$880 million

About 2 and a half days

Increase the funding health clinics can use to better prepare for a bioterrorist attack (HR 3043)

$135 million increase

11 hours

Upgrade voting systems nationwide, eliminating the "hanging chads" of the 2000 election (HR 2829)

$300 million

One day

Support entrepreneurs starting their own business through the Small Business Administration (HR 2829)

$80 million

6 hours and 30 minutes

Provide disaster relief for flood, earthquake, fire and other victims of natural disasters (HR 2638)

$2.1 billion

One week

Fund Amtrak and fuel-efficient mass transit (HR 3074)

$1.4 billion

Less than 5 days

Provide Community Development Block Grants that expand economic opportunities for low- and moderate-income persons (HR 3074)

$1 billion

3 days

Provide food over the next five years for lower-income children in summer programs, when school breakfast and lunch programs end (HR 3161)

$29 million over 5 years

2 hours and 15 minutes

Repair the nation's bridges, dams, coasts and waterways through the Corps of Engineers Civil Works Program
(HR 2641)

$713 million

57 hours
(2 days, 9 hours)

Fund environmental protection (HR 2643)

$887 million

Less than 3 days

For more on the cost of the Iraq war, see "The Real Cost of the Iraq War."

Record-Breaking Republican Obstructionism

Isaiah J. Poole — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 05:39:01 -0500

Never have so many filibusters been threatened as in the first quarter of the 110th session of Congress. At this rate, by the end of the session in 2008, there will be more than double the highest number of cloture votes of any session of Congress in history.

While the filibuster is a tactic used on both sides of the aisle, these numbers are unprecedented. Republican obstructionism is preventing the vast majority of legislation from moving forward and is thwarting the will of the American people.

LEARN MORE: Read our up-to-date report on Republican obstruction and chart on judicial nominations.

The Progressive Solution

Rick Perlstein — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 13:32:22 -0500

Progressives need to take a broad and bold approach to helping Americans establish a solid three-legged stool of retirement security.

Make the economy work. Most importantly, progressives must champion economic policies that benefit the many and not simply the few. With full employment and rising wages, Americans can save better, workers can demand better retirement benefits from employers and Social Security's projected shortfall can be reduced. Universal health care would reduce what families have to spend on health care costs and protect seniors against soaring drug and medical costs. Improved energy policies can help Americans save better by sparing them from rapidly-rising gas and home heating prices.

Strengthen Social Security. Progressives must work to strengthen Social Security and protect it from future assaults.

Hold companies accountable for pensions. Progressives must hold companies to their existing pension obligations. At the very least, progressives should require the following.

Every company must provide a retirement program for its workers, supplemented with an employer contribution.

The shop floor must be treated the same as the top floor. If the CEO has a defined benefit pension, workers should get the same; if the CEO has retirement stock options, workers should also. If worker pensions are cut back for a company in distress, CEO pensions should be as well.

Congress must require companies to fund the pension commitments they make. Congress must shore up the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation's balance sheet to help workers whose companies go belly-up. At the same time, worker pension commitments should be at the front of the line, not the back of the line, in corporate bankruptcy proceedings.

Help Americans save. Progressives should also champion new ideas to help with personal savings. Congress has tried to help with tax deductions for retirement accounts, but this mostly helps the affluent at the top of the pay scale. These benefits should be consolidated into one tax-free savings account, in which the government provides a partial match for the savings of low-income workers (who don't benefit from the Bush tax breaks).

Start investment accounts. Every American should be provided with an investment account at birth a small sum that will expand tax-free over time and could be tapped to pay for higher education, housing, or retirement. Conservatives will like creating a new generation of investors; progressives will like giving poor and working people a chance to build up assets from birth.

Voting Scorecard: House of Representatives (109th Congress) Hurricane Relief

Alex Carter — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 11:45:26 -0500

Energy Facts At A Glance

Rick Perlstein — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 12:19:44 -0500

A 10-year, $300 billion investment in energy efficiency could create 3.3 million new jobs in the United States.

Gas prices at the pump are up 50% since 2000, and the price of home heating oil has almost doubled over the same period.

The 2005 energy bill pushed through the Congress and signed by President Bush created $6 billion in subsidies and tax breaks for oil and gas companies though in the same year those companies raked in more than $64 billion in profits.

A single terrorist attack on key Saudi facilities could knock 6 million barrels per day off the world market and push oil prices past $100 per barrel.

Unchecked climate change, higher sea levels and temperature fluctuations over the next decades are, insurance companies warn, liable to cost the U.S. $100 billion to $300 billion per year.

The Progressive Solution

Robert Borosage — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 10:44:43 -0500

Education has to become a real national priority. No Child Left Behind was great as a slogan coined by the Children's Defense Fund. It is a disaster as a national education law. College education is exceedingly unaffordable and the cost precludes many potential students from pursuing a college degree. Progressives must unite Americans to meet the challenges facing our education system in the 21st century. We must make progress in several key areas.

More Learning Time: All children should enjoy quality pre-school and kindergarten learning and socialization, and students from 1st through 12th grades should have meaningful afterschool education opportunities. The school year should move from the agricultural calendar of the 19th century to a calendar that maximizes learning.

Quality Teachers and Principals: Skilled educators should teach all students. Every teachers and principal should receive high-quality training before he or she enters school, have on-the-job training opportunities, and be rewarded for excellence. If we hope to retain the best teachers, we need to pay them more and provide them with career opportunities. Our best educators should receive financial incentives to teach in those schools with the most at-risk children.

An Equal Education: Every student should have an opportunity to learn. Adequate health care and nutrition, and an end to the savage inequality in school funding, are all keys to providing an equal education.

A Rigorous Education: Every student should be provided a first-rate education with demanding curriculum standards in core subject areas. Voluntary national standards can help parents hold schools accountable.

Affordable College: Every child must know that he or she can afford a college education. No student should be priced out of the college or advanced technical training they need to succeed in the modern economy. Tuition rates, grant aid, and loan forgiveness must be readjusted to make college affordable.

Progressives should challenge every sector of society and every level of government to make education a top priority. Doubling federal expenditures on education—from three to six percent—should be adopted as a near-term goal, even as states and localities are challenged to invest more. To guarantee the money is used well, we should require that districts are spending money wisely and investing in best practices.

America's future depends on how well we educate our children. To provide every child with a world-class education we need to start sooner, set standards higher and provide opportunities for advanced training and college for all. We need to attract and retain skilled teachers. We need to restructure the school day and the school year. Money alone won't solve the problems facing our schools, but a policy of reforms without resources mocks the scope of our challenge.

Education Facts At A Glance

Robert Borosage — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 10:41:39 -0500

A quarter of students between 4th and 12th grade read below basic standards, and half of ninth graders in disadvantaged urban schools read two to three grade levels below where they should.
Some 14 million 'latch key children' go to an empty house on any given afternoon. The parents of 15.3 million children say their children would participate if an afterschool program were available.
Public school enrollment will reach new records over the next decade; teacher shortages are growing and close to 50% of new teachers leave the profession during their first five years.3 Over the past decade wages for teachers haven't kept up with other jobs that demand similar education and skills.
Higher education tuition costs are rising far faster than inflation, while real wages have been stagnant. Between 2000 and 2005, the average cost of tuition at a public college has increased 42 percent5 but median household income has fallen 2 percent.
The proportion of undergraduate funding in the form of grant aid declines every year. In 1975-76 a Pell grant covered 84% of tuition at a four-year public school—now it only covers 40%.

The Conservative Failure

Alex Carter — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 10:40:06 -0500

For conservatives, public schools are a red flag—bloated, bureaucratic, public institutions. Their first priority is to privatize public education, just as they would privatize Social Security. They push private school vouchers—seeking public funds for tuition to private and religious schools. They starve investment in public schools, arguing that too much is being spent already. Although they profess to believe in the market, they reject the need to pay teachers more and instead push for breaking teachers' unions.

The Bush administration is exemplary. The No Child Left Behind Act mandated testing to identify failing schools, but Bush broke his promise to provide resources to remedy the problems. Despite tuition at four-year public colleges rising by 40% since he came into office, Bush broke his promise to raise the level of Pell grants, the primary federal scholarship program, and cut $12 billion from the student loan program.