Julianne Malveaux
After the Election- Sequester
No matter who wins the November 6 election, he will have a mess on his hands. The Budget Control Act of 2011 will cut $109 billion from the federal budget in 2013 unless Congress is able to figure out how to either reduce the deficit or cut another deal. The cuts will range from seven to nine percent, and they’ll hit everything – Pell Grants, housing, employment services, and defense. Already, some government contractors are cutting back in anticipation of sequestration, and some politicians are saying that our national defense will be “hallowed” by sequestration. While Mitt Romney talks about getting more ships for the Navy, the fact is that all of us will have to do with less if Congress cannot see its way out of this sequester.
Congress pushed itself into sequestration in 2011 when our nation’s credit rating slipped because our leaders failed to pass a budget. …
The Scam That Stole Thanksgiving
When I think of Thanksgiving Day, I think of family, gathered around a table that groans with turkey and dressing, green beans and candied yams, mac and cheese or whipped potatoes, and lots of other goodies. I look forward to seeing folks I haven’t seen in awhile, savor the food and fellowship, bring in the late evening over coffee and pie. Nobody is rushing out to go shopping – most people save that for the Friday after Thanksgiving, often called: Black Friday, because many stores find themselves in the black after the profligate shopping that day.
There have been tragedies associated with Black Friday shopping. A few years back a Walmart employee was trampled to death by a crowd way too eager to get to the consumer goods. There have also been fights, altercations, bruises, and cuts as customers have vied for some of the scarce goods available or …
When Public Policy Hurts the Poor
Discussions of the fiscal cliff also include discussions about ways to change Social Security and Medicare benefits in order to save money. One of the proposals is to raise the Social Security retirement age to 70. After all, some argue, there is nothing magic about 65 or 67, so why not push the rate up to 70?
The difference is the kind of work we do. I can’t imagine that I will ever stop talking and writing, advanced age notwithstanding. However, someone who is waiting tables, working in a nursing home, or doing private household work might not want, but need, to slow it down after 65, or maybe even earlier. Some people take their Social Security earning, although they are lower, at age 62. Tired, and with sometimes broken bodies, they’d rather take less money than keep working. Consider the construction worker who has not moved up into management. …
March On Washington
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Motown
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Surviving and Thriving
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The Equivalency of Human Life
The national support for the victims of last week’s Aurora shootings is great. However, if we believe in the equivalency of life, what about the lives of young men in Chicago, where there have been more deaths than in Afghanistan so far this year. While the hospitals in Aurora say they will cover hospital bills for those without insurance (one in three in Colorado), who will cover bills for those who are hospitalized after a drive-by? We mourn some deaths and ignore others, which suggests that some life is valued and some life is cheap.
Does it have anything to do with media attention? In Tuscaloosa, Alabama, a crazed man walked into a bar looking for “a Black man”. He shot a man who did not know him, and with whom he had no beef. He also wounded 17 other people. Why has this story not made national news?
If …
” God’s Plan” to Kill
George Zimmerman, the Florida man who killed Trayvon Martin, told Fox News personality Sean Hannity that the events that occurred on February 26, 2012 were “God’s will”. What a cynical manipulation of our Creator, to suggest that the massacre of an African American teenager by a crazed vigilante is the will of God. Actually, if one wants to know about God’s will, one might simply to go to the Ten Commandments, the sixth of which is quite explicit. Thou shall not kill.
George Zimmerman has proven himself to be a multiple liar. He called himself destitute while collecting tens of thousands of dollars from a website that was formed to fund his defense. A judge put him back in jail for that lie. He declined medical attention the night he killed Trayvon, and then showed up the next day with bumps on his head, but no evidence of who put …
Out of the Closet on Mental Health Issues
Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-Ill) has been away from Congress on medical leave for so long that his colleagues have been clamoring to know what’s wrong, and NBC’s Andrea Mitchell reported that the Congressman was receiving treatment for addiction. The truth, according the Rep. Jackson’s staff, is that the Congressman is being treated in a residential facility for exhaustion and mood disorders.
Why not say that in the first place? Because divulging one’s mental health status is often the kiss of death in politics and public life. It may be okay in Hollywood to speak exhaustion, mood swings, and other mental health issues. In that world, treatment is often followed by a late night talk show interview and a career revival. In contrast, any politician who has come out of the closet about his or her mental health gets anything but a hard time.
Senator Thomas Eagleton (D-MO), who had …
ARE REPUBLICANS CAUSING HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT?
The unemployment rate has hovered above 8 percent for several months, most recently holding ground at 8.2 percent, the same as last month. Meanwhile the African American unemployment rate went up, technically to 14.4 percent, and we all know that means the real rate is even higher, in excess of 25 percent. Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney interrupted his vacation to gloat about the number of Americans who are experiencing misery, and his gloating might be at least somewhat amusing were this not the same man who says he likes to fire people.
The 8.2 percent unemployment is not in President Obama’s best interest. Many who are feeling the misery and pain are open to an alternative, even if it is one as muddled and confused as Mr. Romney who doesn’t support health care reform, but pushed a plan similar to the one President Obama passed. This man has so talked …
- AT LAST
May 13, 2013 - THE FLAWED IMMIGRATION REFORM BILL
May 6, 2013 - ACHIEVEMENT GAP OR OPPORTUNITY GAP?
April 30, 2013 - DIVERSITY FOR CATHOLICS, NOT FOR OTHERS
March 18, 2013 - WHOSE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION HAS IMPROVED?
March 11, 2013 - TURNING THE CLOCK BACK ON VOTING RIGHTS
February 27, 2013 - STATE OF THE UNION HITS HIGH MARKS
February 19, 2013 - FASCISM BY ANOTHER NAME: WHOLE FOODS AND WHOLE FOOLS
February 11, 2013 - BUDGET CUTS WILL SLOW ECONOMY
February 5, 2013 - PRESIDENT OBAMA SPEAKS: ALL OF US, SOME OF US OF US, NONE OF US.
January 28, 2013
Other Julianne Malveaux
Haiti Oasis Institute
The War On Drugs Is A War On Us
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