Yes We Can! Long Island 2012Urging Swift, Decisive Action to Rescue the Economy
America’s economy is in its worst shape since the Great Depression. Since the recession’s onset in December 2007, 3.6 million U.S. jobs have been lost.
Swift and decision action is needed to stem this tide before the crisis reaches catastrophic proportions. That’s why passage of President Obama’s economic stimulus plan, which would create four million new jobs and invest in improving our ability to compete in the global economy, is critical.
Even though Long Island has fared better than other parts of the country, we are not immune from the recession’s effects. Employment in sectors such as financial services and construction has been hard hit. Reduced tax revenue is forcing county government to shed jobs, roll back wages and cut services.
Yes We Can! Long Island supports President Obama’s recovery strategy, and we want to make sure Long Island receives its fair share of the economic stimulus package.
A good way to help upgrade the economy is on the Labor front, by helping build up the middle class. That way would be is supporting the Employee Free Choice Act of 2009. It would leave the choice of the methodology and the desire to unionize up to the employees not the employers. EFCA would not take away the secret ballot. Let’s continue to build momentum and continue to put pressure on our Congressional Officials, especially the ones that are ”on the fence” to get them to pass EFCA into law this year. If it does not become law in this Congressional Session, than just keep pursuing the issue for the 112th Congress and not give into the anti-EFCA, anti-union groups. Thank You !
The Rockville Centre Democratic Club would like to invite all members of YWCLI to our upcoming meeting on April 22nd, which will analyze President Obama’s economic plan.
Dr. Martin Melkonian, Adjunct Associate Professor of Economics at Hofstra University will analyze President Obama’s Economic Plan and its impact on Long Island.
Dr. Melkonian has taught economics for over 30 years, and he specializes in the Long Island regional economy. He also has worked as an economist in government and in the finance industry. We are sure that he will provide us with a useful analysis that will give us an idea of what to expect in the coming months.
Please join us for Dr. Melkonian’s talk:
“Analyzing the Obama Economic Plan and its impact on Long Island”
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
7:30 p.m.
Sandel Center
50 South Park Avenue
Rockville Centre, NY 11570
We hope to see you there in what is sure to be an interesting evening filled with ideas and camaraderie.
Hope to see you on April 22nd.
Rockville Centre Democratic Club
Insane Republicans Reveal An Insane Budget Plan
It only makes sense that a party currently being wagged by fringe crazy people like Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Michele Bachmann would release its alternative budget on April Fools’ Day.
Not only does the Republican plan freeze discretionary spending for five years in the midst of a recession which, by most accounts and proved by history, will countermand any sort of economic recovery, but it also cuts taxes by 10 percent for the same Wall Street executives whose actions largely got us into this economic mess in the first place. In other words: Congratulations, Republicans, you just released a budget that rewards wealthy corporate executives while blocking any attempt to dig us out of the economic catastrophe they created.
Smart!
Read the entire piece by Bob Cesca on Huff Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/insane-republicans-reveal_b_182045.html
Obama’s Next Gauntlet: Reviving the Middle Class
Robert Borosage, Huff Post, March 4
It ain’t easy. No use jokin’. Everything’s broken.”
-Bob Dylan
We can’t go back to the old economy. That economy — marked by booms and busts, Gilded Age inequality, declining wages, growing household debts, and unsustainable trade deficits — didn’t work very well for most Americans. President Obama is faced with the difficult task of creating the structure for the new economy even as he works to lift us out of the collapse of the old.
That’s why his stunning budget calls for health care reform, ending our addiction to oil and investing in education as both a way out of the mess and a down payment on the future. His pace is as unrelenting as the crisis. Next up: reviving America’s middle class, insuring that once growth returns, its blessings are widely shared. And the centerpiece of that is the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA).
Article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-l-borosage/obamas-next-gauntlet-revi_b_171610.html
Solar power plant to be built at BNL (thanks, Robert)
Henry E. Powderly II, Long Island Business News, Feb 27
New York Gov. David Paterson on Friday announced the creation of a solar power plant at Brookhaven National Laboratory that will generate enough energy to power 6,500 homes.
It would be the largest solar-energy plant in the state.
The Long Island Power Authority will pay for the project, but the state has pledged $15 million to help with the costs.
LIPA will also seek funds from the $787 billion economic stimulus bill signed into law by President Barack Obama.
Last April, the state and LIPA issued a request for proposals for the creation of solar energy installations on Long Island that would generate a total of 50 megawatts. To put that in perspective: The aging natural-gas burning Port Jefferson Power Plant generates 350 megawatts of electricity.
LIPA chief executive Kevin Law told LIBN the utility will negotiate with companies BP Solar, whose installations would generate 37 megawatts by erecting solar panels on the BNL property, and enXco, which would generate the remaining 13 megawatts by installing solar panels at landfills and on the roofs of hospitals and office buildings in both Long Island counties.
Law also said the construction costs will be lower because it will not have to pay equipment rental fees to BP Solar. That’s because the energy department has contracted BP to build a separate block of solar generators to power parts of BNL.
Final approvals for the project will come in May, Law said.
Apart from the solar plant, Paterson announced that the DOE will grant $912 million to lab for the construction and support of its National Synchrotron Light Source II. Building that facility, which specializes in research of molecule-sized nanomaterials, is expected to create 1000 jobs, 90 percent of which would be filled locally.
The New York Power Authority also intends to grant 15 megawatts of hydro-electric energy to power the new facility.
“The Department of Energy provided the funds, Brookhaven supplies the experts and New York will supply the power,” Paterson said.
Construction on that facility will begin in April.
A Weekend Talking Point for You (thanks, Lynn)
Bobcesca.com, Feb 27
(Jindal is either an inventor of the truth or on Limbaugh’s payroll. Take your pick. –Marvin)
A little something for when you’re confronted by the “but it’ll hurt small businesses” talking point:
…the Tax Policy Center has estimated that a mere 2 percent of tax returns reporting small business income in 2007 earned enough income to be affected by the expiration of the Bush tax cuts on individuals earning more than $200,000 per year and families earning more than $250,000 per year — not 80 percent.
In short: allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire will not effect 98 percent of small business owners.
For more on Republican lies and distortions about President Obama’s tax plans, read: http://mediamatters.org/items/200902270005?f=h_top
To begin a thread on economics I’ve selected a passage from ‘Obamanomics’ (John Talbott, SevenStories Press, 2008). I would be interested in your response to Talbott’s thinking–Marvin
“Truly we have a great gross national product, almost $800 billion, but can that be criterion by which we judge this country? Is it enough? For the GNP counts air pollution and cigarette advertising and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts locks for our doors and jails for the people who break them . . . The GNP does NOT allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, the joy of their play. It is indifferent to the decency of our factories and the safety of our streets alike. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of public officials. It measures neither wit nor courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our duty to our country. . . It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile, and it can tell us everything about America, except why we are proud to be American.”