Sunday, June 30, 2024
Louisiana GOP Tries To Force Religion On School Children
Dan Rather comments on the Louisiana GOP's mandate to put the Ten Commandments in every school classroom:
Just when you think the audacity meter has reached its zenith, along comes the Republican-dominated Louisiana state legislature. This week it passed — and the state’s far-right governor signed — a law requiring all public classrooms to display the Ten Commandments.
Governor Jeff Landry argued that the Commandments are not simply religious treatise but “foundational documents of our state and national government,” perhaps trying to circumvent the inevitable hue and cry from just about everyone.
I’ll get to the hue and cry in a moment. First, if one wants to talk about foundational documents of our government, I think the Constitution is a better place to start. The First Amendment guarantees the separation of church and state. Full stop. Requiring the displaying of the Ten Commandments violates the constitutional principle of religious neutrality.
Honoring Supreme Court precedent is another foundational tenet of our democracy. Yes, this has happened before. In 1980’s Stone v. Graham, the Supreme Court struck down a Kentucky law that also required the display of the Ten Commandments in schools. The court found that the law violated the First Amendment’s establishment clause. In its opinion, the court wrote that the Ten Commandments are “undeniably a sacred text in the Jewish and Christian faiths” and displaying them “serves no ... educational function.”
One could argue that Louisiana should be more concerned with the quality of the education in those classrooms than what is on their walls. The state ranks near the bottom nationally for education and 50th for overall quality of life. Perhaps instead of this political stunt, Louisiana lawmakers should think about raising teacher pay, among the lowest in the nation. Or maybe try to keep kids in school? The state ranks 48th in graduation rate.
Putting an 11-by-14-inch poster “in a large easy to read font” in every classroom from kindergarten through graduate school will cost money. Don’t worry — it will be paid for by private donations. But who will pay for the inevitable and orchestrated legal fight to come? Louisiana taxpayers.
After eight years of a Democratic governor, the Republican- controlled state legislature is making up for what it sees as lost time. It recently turned down federal aid for summer food assistance, claiming it wants Louisiana families to be self-sufficient. Those same families suffer from a higher rate of food insecurity than most of the country. And Louisiana is the first state to advance a measure designating abortion pills as dangerous controlled substances.
Now to the hue and cry. It was loud and it was immediate, coming from, among others, the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Southern Poverty Law Center, which jointly stated that the law “violates students’ and families’ fundamental right to religious freedom.”
So why would Louisiana bother with what seems to be a cut-and-dried case of unconstitutionality?
“I can’t wait to be sued,” Governor Landry said at a Republican fundraiser in Nashville, according to The Tennessean. Good thing, because the ACLU has already filed suit.
All this is part of a larger national plan by a minority of Christians to inject expressions of their faith into everyday life, whether we like it or not. With a highly politicized and far-right majority on the Supreme Court at the ready, these groups believe they will get a friendlier reception from the court and could ultimately be successful.
They have reason to be hopeful. In 2022, the court sided with a high school football coach who argued he had the right to pray on the 50-yard line after games. The increasingly porous boundary between church and state seems to be eroding faster than a snowball in July. Even so, legal experts think this one is a real stretch.
Charles C. Haynes, an expert in religious liberty and civil discourse, told The New York Times that he believes the state is “overreaching,” adding that “even this court will have a hard time justifying” what Louisiana lawmakers came up with.
But perhaps most interesting is how do parents and lawmakers square the behavior of their revered MAGA leader with the Ten Commandments?
Democratic strategist David Axelrod on X had this recommendation: “Here’s a suggested quiz for the schoolchildren of Louisiana: ‘Look at the poster on the wall of the Ten Commandments and write down the total number Donald Trump has broken.’”
We could quibble about the total number, but let no one be mistaken: This new Louisiana law is a dangerous development for our country. Donald Trump champions a national movement to eliminate the separation between church and state.
Saturday, June 29, 2024
Biden Had A Poor Debate - But Nothing Has Changed
President Biden did not have a good debate. And the talking heads on cable news can't get over it. Many of them seem to think his poor performance has handed the election to Donald Trump. And the newspaper pundits are following suit. At least three New York Times columnists are calling for Biden to drop out of the race.
The hysteria is misplaced. This is just one debate, and there are months to go before the election. And to be blunt - absolutely nothing has changed.
Joe Biden and Donald Trump will receive the nominations of their respective parties - and no one is going to drop out of the race. Either Joe Biden or Donald Trump will be elected as president in November.
And there is a clear difference between them.
Joe Biden was a good president. He got a very good transportation bill passed. More jobs have been created under his administration than any other, and the unemployment rate set a record in the number of months under 4%. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is booming, and is better than in any other developed nation. And while inflation is still higher than most people like, the rate has dropped significantly since he became president.
Donald Trump was not a good president. In fact, a poll of presidential historians rated him as the worst president the United States has ever had.
Trump is a liar. He told over 30,000 documented lies during his term in office, and he's still doing it. He lied time after time during the debate.
Trump is a racist, a homophobe, and misogynist (and a court has determined him guilty of sexual abuse).
Trump has disdain for our constitutional electoral process, and still claims the 2020 election was stolen from him - even though he, and his cohorts, have been unable to find any evidence of that.
Trump wants to make the presidency a more authoritarian position by choosing for his government only those who would do what he wants (even if it violates the Constitution), and by turning the Justice Department into his own revenge vehicle to punish those he doesn't like.
Trump wants to make inflation worse by creating massive tariffs on imported goods.
Trump wants to give millionaires, billionaires, and corporations more massive tax breaks (making our economy even more unfair to most Americans).
I can understand Democrats being worried by Biden's poor performance in the debate, but they now have a choice. They can quit, and give the election to Trump. Or they can redouble their efforts and make sure there is a massive turnout in November. A weak trunout elects Trump, while a massive turnout elects Biden.
I hope they choose to work and vote. A second Trump term would be disastrous for the economy, the rule of law, and our democracy.
Friday, June 28, 2024
About 233,000 Workers Filed For Unemployment Last Week
The Labor Department released its weekly unemployment report on Thursday. It showed that about 233,000 workers filed for unemployment benefits in the week ending on June 22nd. Here is the official Labor Department statement:
In the week ending June 22, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 233,000, a decrease of 6,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 1,000 from 238,000 to 239,000. The 4-week moving average was 236,000, an increase of 3,000 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised up by 250 from 232,750 to 233,000.
Most Think Justices Favor Politics Over Rule Of Law
Thursday, June 27, 2024
Most Support A Formal Ethics Code For The Supreme Court
The chart above reflects the results of the Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between June 16th and 18th of a nationwide sample of 1,600 adults (including 1,396 registered voters). The margin of error is 3.2 points for adults, and 3.1 points for registered voters.
Most Oppose Legal Immunity For Presidents
The chart above reflects the results of the Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between June 16th and 18th of a nationwide sample of 1,600 adults (including 1,396 registered voters). The margin of error for adults is 3.2 points, and for registered voters is 3.1 points.
Wednesday, June 26, 2024
Young Voters Are Solidly Supporting President Biden
The chart above is from the CBS News / YouGov Poll -- done between June 17th and 21st of a nationwide sample of 743 people age 18 to 29, with a 5.2 point margin of error.
The Debate Poses More Dangers For Trump Than Biden
I think the debate poses more dangers for Trump than for President Biden. Trump, and his GOP cronies have lowered the bar for Biden by framing him as a doddering old man. All Biden has to do is present himself as knowledgeable and competent and he's a winner.
But there are several ways in which Trump could blow the debate.
CLAIMING VICTIMHOOD
Trump loves to claim he is a victim - both of the 2020 election and his recent conviction in a New York trial. That may sell well with his die-hard supporters, but not most voters. Most people know he lost the 2020 election fair and square and most believe he was guilty of the 34 felonies he was convicted of in New York. They won't buy his victimhood, and will just consider it whining - and they don't want a whiner but a leader!
UNPOPULAR POLICIES
Trump usually avoids discussing policies, but he has enumerated a few - more tax cuts for the rich and corporations, leaving abortion to the states, abolishing the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), and initiating new tariffs (which Americans would wind up paying). These are not popular stances with the public, and talking about them in the debate will not win any new voters.
BULLYING
This is a favorite tactic of Trump, and he has used it in past debates - calling his opponents names and trying to intimidate them. CNN has tried to eliminate that by having no audience (so Trump can't count of his supporters to hep intimidate) and turning off his microphone when it isn't his turn to talk. But he still might try to interrupt and/or shout down his opponent. It won't help him because most Americans don't like bullies.
WORD SALAD
In his rallies, Trump has had a habit of going off topic and talking about strange things that don't make much sense when he doesn't have a teleprompter. And example is his weird discussion of electric boats sinking and sharks. If he does this during the debate, it will just have many voters wondering if he is mentally competent.
Biden will come out of the debate sounding like a competent person. Trump needs to do the same. But I doubt Trump is capable of that. I believe he will do one (or more) of the things above and blow it!
Comparing The Tax Policies Of Trump And Biden
Robert Reich writes about the tax policies of Donald Trump and Joe Biden:
I know that tax policy isn’t the most exciting thing I could be talking about with you today. The mainstream media are focusing on immigration and access to abortions. But tax policy is among the most important and revealing differences between another term of Trump or another of Biden.
Start with Trump.
During his wild term in the White House, Trump had one major legislative accomplishment, if you want to call it an accomplishment: The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act he signed into law in December 2017.
It has an enormous cost: Although Republican leaders claimed it would generate growth and lead to “$1 trillion in additional revenue,” the Congressional Budget Office estimated that it would cost $1.9 trillion before the tax cuts expired in 2025. The CBO’s estimate has proven to be right on the mark. The Trump tax cut has exploded the national debt.
With no benefits: The Trump tax cut did not generate the wave of new investment Trump promised.
It just widened inequality: The Trump tax cut has given an undeserved windfall to its major beneficiaries: the very rich and big corporations.
Corporations didn’t use it to reward workers or increase productivity. Instead, corporations merely increased their stock buybacks, which will exceed $1 trillion by 2025.
The rise in buybacks is another way Trump’s 2017 corporate rate cut translated into higher wealth for the already wealthy rather than a boost in worker pay.
In stock buybacks, corporations distribute profits to shareholders by offering to buy back shares, which automatically raises the stock’s price. This increases wealth for all stockholders, especially those with the most shares, who are wealthier to begin with.
A recent study by economists from the Joint Committee on Taxation and the Federal Reserve Board found that workers below the 90th percentile of their firm’s income scale (a group whose incomes were below roughly $114,000 in 2016) saw no change in earnings from the Trump tax cut. Earnings rose only for those at the top, with the largest gains for those at the very top.
If reelected, what will Trump do? The 2017 Trump tax cut ends in 2025. This gives policymakers an opportunity to move toward a tax system that raises revenue through progressive tax policies — ending the Trump tax cut and increasing the corporate tax rate.
But Trump is telling his largest funders that if he is reelected, he’ll extend his tax cut. That was his message at his April fundraiser that supposedly made $50 million for his campaign.
The cost of extending the Trump tax cut will be mammoth: The Congressional Budget Office has a new estimate of the cost of keeping Trump’s tax cut in place over the next decade: $4.6 trillion, which is more than double the original cost. It would cause the federal deficit and debt to soar.
It would be trickle-down economics on steroids.
GOP lawmakers and some of Trump’s economic advisers are considering even more corporate tax breaks, arguing that they would improve the U.S.’s global competitiveness.
Why do you suppose so many CEOs, big corporations, and the wealthy are coming around to Trump?
Why is the Business Roundtable investing big bucks in Trump? Because he’ll cut their taxes (and roll back regulations), making them even richer. But the rest of us will pay — with more of our tax dollars devoted to paying interest on the larger debt, and fewer devoted to keeping Social Security and Medicare solvent or to any other public need.
And now, Joe Biden’s tax plan. It’s the exact opposite of Trump’s.
Biden says he will not extend the Trump tax cuts.
Biden has proposed to increase taxes on incomes in excess of $400,000 a year, while cutting taxes for lower-income Americans.
Biden wants billionaires to pay at least 25 percent of their incomes in taxes. He wants corporations to pay at least 21 percent.
Biden would end corporate tax breaks for multimillion-dollar executive compensation.
And he’d quadruple the tax that corporations pay when they buy back their own shares of stock.
This would increase revenue. The conservative American Enterprise Institute’s analysis of Biden’s plan found that, rather than costing another $4.6 trillion, as Trump’s plan would, Biden’s changes would result in $3.8 trillion in increased revenue.
It would also make the tax system fairer and progressive.
There are obviously many reasons to reelect Biden in the fall. And tax policy sometimes causes eyes to glaze over. But it’s hugely important.
The $8.4 trillion difference in revenue between Trump’s plan to extend his tax cuts for the rich and big corporations and Biden’s plan to increase taxes on the rich and big corporations needs to be shouted from the rooftops.
It’s the difference between a government that’s capable of responding to what Americans need, and one designed to make the rich far richer.