Trump’s infrastructure plans are empty promises not backed by money [feedly]

Trump's infrastructure plans are empty promises not backed by money
http://www.epi.org/blog/trumps-infrastructure-plans-are-empty-promises-not-backed-by-money/

It has been declared "infrastructure week" by the Trump administration. On the face of it, that should be excellent news. The U.S. economy would benefit enormously from an ambitious increase in public investment, including infrastructure investment. Such investment would create jobs and finally lock-in genuine full employment in the near-term, and would provide a needed boost to productivity growth (or how much income and output each hour of work generates in the economy) in the medium-term. Further, infrastructure investments would ensure that we do not leave future generations a deficit of underinvestment and deferred maintenance of public assets.

This clear need is why we at EPI have been such enthusiastic backers of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) plan to boost infrastructure investment. The CPC investment plan is up to the scale of the problem, and it confronts the need to make these investments head-on, without accounting gimmicks or magical thinking about where the money for these investments will come from.

Despite being long-standing and loud proponents of the need for more infrastructure investment, however, we cannot say we expect much from the Trump administration's infrastructure week. Why not? Because the most common theme in the Trump administration's approach to infrastructure is pure obfuscation about how it will be paid for. If you're not willing to say forthrightly how you're going to pay for infrastructure investments, you really cannot be serious about it. As the old adage goes, "show me your budget and I'll tell you what you value".

The recently released Trump federal budget plan guts infrastructure, period. Read the link—the damage the Trump budget would do to public investment and infrastructure is staggering. This alone should make any open-minded person extraordinarily skeptical of their claims to value infrastructure spending.

The Trump campaign plan on infrastructure was notable only for its shallowness and its determination to increase cronyism in infrastructure provision. The plan claimed that the problem with American infrastructure investment was a lack of innovative financing, and that the private sector could somehow be convinced to build infrastructure at no cost to taxpayers. This was obviously false. Even long-standing, bipartisan efforts to leverage private sector financing of infrastructure have ranged from disappointing to disastrous. And in no case did they provide a free lunch to taxpayers—unless taxpayers have a huge preference to paying tolls to private companies rather than the same amount of tolls or taxes to governments.

The problem holding back increased investment in American infrastructure is simple: politicians are simply unwilling to increase public spending in a transparent way. This must be overcome—America needs a significant investment in public assets, and it needs this investment to be transparent, subject to democratic accountability, and long-lived.

The sketch of the new Trump infrastructure effort included in their budget shows clearly that they do not get this. Instead, the plan is more obfuscation and magical thinking. They claim their plan will lead to $1 trillion in new investments. Yet only $200 billion in new federal spending is specified (and again, this must be balanced against the enormous cuts to public investment already embedded in their overall budget plan). Where does the rest of the funding come from? In a word, nowhere. There is hand waving about leveraging the private sector and vague claims that federal "divestment" from infrastructure provision will somehow empower state and local governments to do more (but without any new funding source for these governments!). But like Trump's campaign plan, this is an unserious document meant to sound like an infrastructure investment plan, but one that would radically underinvest in projects overall, and which would prioritize projects that can provide profits to private entities (like toll roads to airports) rather than projects that provide the largest welfare boost to vulnerable communities (say replacing lead-laced water pipes for communities like Flint, Michigan).

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How Trump Made Wage Theft Routine

How Trump Made Wage Theft Routine

via Portside

Eric Cortellessa June 5, 2017 The American Prospect   "The Trump administration's rhetoric on immigration and its approach to enforcement have made immigrant communities obviously fearful in a new way," says Laura Huizar, a staff attorney with the National Employment Law Project. "This is going to prevent a lot people from filing wage complaints that they otherwise would have."

Enrique is a farmworker in California. He has a wife and two sons living in Mexico who depend on the money he sends them. For parts of the year—from May to November—he goes north to Washington to pick apples and cherries. Sometimes, he says, he isn't paid for all the work he does. On one such occasion, he and his coworkers wanted to complain. Stiffing employees, after all, is a federal crime.

But it's not so simple. Enrique is worried that reporting the crime could backfire against him by exposing his immigration status. 

"When we get paid—sometimes we get paid and sometimes we don't—we notice that there are hours missing, and we just fear saying anything, because we've been told repeatedly that if we say anything, they are going to call immigration on us," he says.

Enrique, 49, has heard this all before. It's not new for him, as an undocumented immigrant in this country for more than ten years, to be underpaid at work and faced with the threat of retaliation should he bring it to the attention of the authorities. All it would take is a phone call to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Only now, with Donald Trump as president, more employers think wage theft is even easier to get away with.

Enrique (whose name has been changed to protect his identity) says that he and his coworkers wonder whether it's worth it to file a claim with the Department of Labor or the appropriate state agency. "All the workers in the fields that are immigrants experience this fear," he says. "We don't really know what we can do."

But after deliberation and some soul-searching, Enrique did something that exposed him to a risk most of his friends aren't willing to take. He got a lawyer.

 

ENRIQUE'S PLIGHT REFLECTS the growing reality in Trump's America—that immigrants who are victims of wage theft are increasingly afraid to pursue legal remedies. 

"The Trump administration's rhetoric on immigration and its approach to enforcement have made immigrant communities obviously fearful in a new way," says Laura Huizar, a staff attorney with the National Employment Law Project. "This is going to prevent a lot people from filing wage complaints that they otherwise would have."

Since taking office, Trump has sought to make good on his vow to harden the nation's immigration policies. His Department of Homeland Security secretary, John Kelly, issued sweeping guidelines in February that broadened the definition of "removable aliens" and empowered federal authorities to more aggressively detain and deport undocumented immigrants. Trump has also said he wants to hire an additional 5,000 border agents and 10,000 ICE officers.

Immigrants have already felt the weight of a heavier and more pugnacious ICE presence. In March, the chief justice of California, Tani Cantil-Sakauye, sent a letter to Kelly asking him to stop immigration agents from "stalking courthouses and arresting undocumented immigrants." In response, both Kelly and Attorney General Jeff Sessions wrote her a letter back saying that ICE officers will continue to make arrests in public places.

And, indeed, arrests have skyrocketed. Between January 22 and April 29 of this year, ICE arrested 41,318 people on charges of being in the country illegally—a nearly 40 percent increase from the number of people arrested over that same period in 2016. Worse yet, the number of arrests for immigrants with no criminal records doubled.

It's no wonder that, in such a climate, victimized immigrant workers are becoming ever more reluctant to assert their rights. "The atmosphere of fear in the immigrant community is as high as I've ever seen it," a former senior-level Labor Department official says. "People aren't going to school. People aren't going to church. You can imagine that people aren't going to the Labor Department to complain."

 

A BROADLY ENCOMPASSING term, wage theft can include paying workers less than the minimum wage, forcing them to work off the clock, not paying them for overtime, or not paying them at all.

These practices have long been a reality—a 2010 UCLA Labor Center report found that low-wage workers in Los Angeles alone lose roughly $26 million in wage-theft violations each week—but under President Trump, the problem is quickly becoming exacerbated, according to multiple sources who monitor these matters.

"What I have been seeing more and more is a fear on behalf of immigrant workers that they cannot safely come forward to report wage theft and workplace violations," says Marc Cote, a Seattle-based employment lawyer who represents Enrique. "This has always been an issue, but it's become more and more evident since the election of Trump."

Those who advocate on behalf of immigrants have also noticed that some workers have become disinclined to tell their stories even to them—something that has distressed Analia Rodriguez, who heads the Latino Union of Chicago.

Rodriguez, an immigrant herself, recently came across an undocumented woman who resisted her group's help. That worker was getting "shortchanged at work," Rodriguez says. It was only because one of her friends—who was already receiving the Latino Union's assistance—told them about her situation that Rodriguez learned of it.

"What I'm concerned about right now are people like this worker, who was actually not even willing to come forward to us," Rodriguez says. "We really don't know how many people are not coming to community organizations like ours to even try and figure out their case."

 

UNDER PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agreed—through a 2011 memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Department of Labor—not to interfere with labor disputes or wage investigations.

"Under this administration, ICE agents are feeling like they can do whatever they want," the former Labor Department official says.

While immigration activists worry the Trump administration may revoke that MOU, close observers contend that ICE is now ignoring its edict whether or not it's revoked. "Under this administration, ICE agents are feeling like they can do whatever they want," the former Labor Department official says.

That violates both the letter and spirit of American labor law. Since the Fair Labor Standards Act passed in 1938, every Labor Department—Democrat and Republican alike—has determined that one's immigration status is irrelevant at the workplace. "If you work, you get paid, and you get paid at least the minimum wage," the official add. "The Fair Labor Standards Act applies to people who work in this country."

But as the Trump administration continues to ramp up its aggressive immigration agenda, certain employers feel freer to ignore the law, hire more—not fewer—undocumented workers, not pay them the wages to which they are entitled, and save on labor costs.

What adds to the concerns of activists and attorneys is that the more immigrant workers submit to these conditions, the more widespread they are likely to become. "The problem is that this results in even more violations, because unscrupulous employers who think their workers won't report them will think they can act this way with impunity," Cote says.

For Enrique, initiating a formal complaint was not an easy decision.

The minimum wage in Mexico was raised last December to 80 pesos a day, which is less than $4. If deported, he doesn't think he could afford to support his family. "If I go back to Mexico, they are not going to be able to eat; they're able to eat because I work here," he says. "I'm here out of necessity, not out of desire."

Nevertheless, he's willing to take a risk that many other immigrants these days are not. "If something happens to me," he says, "I'll have to live with it."

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John Case
Harpers Ferry, WV

The Winners and Losers Radio Show

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Enlighten Radio:The Poetry Show, Storytelling with Fanny and Stas, the Dunwich Horror

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Post: The Poetry Show, Storytelling with Fanny and Stas, the Dunwich Horror
Link: http://www.enlightenradio.org/2017/06/the-poetry-show-storytelling-with-fanny.html

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Stiglitz: Trump’s Rogue America

Trump's Rogue America

Joseph Stiglitz

NEW YORK – Donald Trump has thrown a hand grenade into the global economic architecture that was so painstakingly constructed in the years after World War II's end. The attempted destruction of this rules-based system of global governance – now manifested in Trump's withdrawal of the United States from the 2015 Paris climate agreement – is just the latest aspect of the US president's assault on our basic system of values and institutions.

The world is only slowly coming fully to terms with the malevolence of the Trump administration's agenda. He and his cronies have attacked the US press – a vital institution for preserving Americans' freedoms, rights, and democracy – as an "enemy of the people." They have attempted to undermine the foundations of our knowledge and beliefs – our epistemology – by labeling as "fake" anything that challenges their aims and arguments, even rejecting science itself. Trump's sham justifications for spurning the Paris climate agreement is only the most recent evidence of this.

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For millennia before the middle of the eighteenth century, standards of living stagnated. It was the Enlightenment, with its embrace of reasoned discourse and scientific inquiry, that underpinned the enormous increases in standards of living in the subsequent two and a half centuries.

With the Enlightenment also came a commitment to discover and address our prejudices. As the idea of human equality – and its corollary, basic individual rights for all – quickly spread, societies began struggling to eliminate discrimination on the basis of race, gender, and, eventually, other aspects of human identity, including disability and sexual orientation.

Trump seeks to reverse all of that. His rejection of science, in particular climate science, threatens technological progress. And his bigotry toward women, Hispanics, and Muslims (except those, like the rulers of Gulf oil sheikhdoms, from whom he and his family can profit), threatens the functioning of American society and its economy, by undermining people's trust that the system is fair to all.

As a populist, Trump has exploited the justifiable economic discontent that has become so widespread in recent years, as many Americans have become downwardly mobile amid soaring inequality. But his true objective – to enrich himself and other gilded rent-seekers at the expense of those who supported him – is revealed by his tax and health-care plans.

Trump's proposed tax reforms, so far as one can see, outdo George W. Bush's in their regressivity (the share of the benefits that go to those at the top of the income distribution). And, in a country where life expectancy is already declining, his health-care overhaul would leave 23 million more Americanswithout health insurance.

While Trump and his cabinet may know how to make business deals, they haven't the slightest idea how the economic system as a whole works. If the administration's macroeconomic policies are implemented, they will result in a larger trade deficit and a further decline in manufacturing.

America will suffer under Trump. Its global leadership role was being destroyed, even before Trump broke faith with over 190 countries by withdrawing from the Paris accord. At this point, rebuilding that leadership will demand a truly heroic effort. We share a common planet, and the world has learned the hard way that we have to get along and work together. We have learned, too, that cooperation can benefit all.

So what should the world do with a babyish bully in the sandbox, who wants everything for himself and won't be reasoned with? How can the world manage a "rogue" US?

Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel gave the right answer when, after meeting with Trump and other G7 leaders last month, she said that Europe could no longer "fully count on others," and would have to "fight for our own future ourselves." This is the time for Europe to pull together, recommit itself to the values of the Enlightenment, and stand up to the US, as France's new president, Emmanuel Macron, did so eloquently with a handshake that stymied Trump's puerile alpha-male approach to asserting power.

Europe can't rely on a Trump-led US for its defense. But, at the same time, it should recognize that the Cold War is over – however unwilling America's industrial-military complex is to acknowledge it. While fighting terrorism is important and costly, building aircraft carriers and super fighter planes is not the answer. Europe needs to decide for itself how much to spend, rather than submit to the dictates of military interests that demand 2% of GDP. Political stability may be more surely gained by Europe's recommitment to its social-democratic economic model.

We now also know that the world cannot count on the US in addressing the existential threat posed by climate change. Europe and China did the right thing in deepening their commitment to a green future – right for the planet, and right for the economy. Just as investment in technology and education gave Germany a distinct advantage in advanced manufacturing over a US hamstrung by Republican ideology, so, too, Europe and Asia will achieve an almost insurmountable advantage over the US in the green technologies of the future.

But the rest of the world cannot let a rogue US destroy the planet. Nor can it let a rogue US take advantage of it with unenlightened – indeed anti-Enlightenment – "America first" policies. If Trump wants to withdraw the US from the Paris climate agreement, the rest of the world should impose a carbon-adjustment tax on US exports that do not comply with global standards.

The good news is that the majority of Americans are not with Trump. Most Americans still believe in Enlightenment values, accept the reality of global warming, and are willing to take action. But, as far as Trump is concerned, it should already be clear that reasoned debate will not work. It is time for action.

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John Case
Harpers Ferry, WV

The Winners and Losers Radio Show

7-9 AM Weekdays, The Enlighten Radio Player Stream, 

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Unemployment rate fell in May for the wrong reasons: Slack still remains [feedly]

Unemployment rate fell in May for the wrong reasons: Slack still remains
http://www.epi.org/blog/unemployment-rate-fell-in-may-for-the-wrong-reasons-slack-still-remains/

The latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals a noticeable slowdown in job growth this year. Adding in May's 138,000 net new jobs, monthly job growth averaged 162,000 so far in 2017, and just 121,000 over the last three months, down from an average monthly gain of 187,000 jobs in 2016. While employment growth would be expected to slow as the economy approaches genuine full employment, other indicators suggest we are not that close to full employment yet, so this explanation seems insufficient. Specifically, at this point in the recovery, we should be looking to not only add jobs, but also see stronger wage growth in those jobs.

But this is not what we've seen. Unfortunately, wage growth has been flat over the last year. The latest data indicates that year-over-year nominal hourly wages grew 2.5 percent in May. In fact, as shown in the figure below, wage growth has averaged 2.5 percent over the last two years. If anything, we've seen a bit of a slowdown in wage growth this spring, and it is still below levels consistent with the Federal Reserve's 2 percent inflation target combined with trend productivity growth of 1.5 percent. So, why has wage growth continued to be below target levels after recovery has gone on so long? The simple answer is that while the recovery has been long, it has also been weak. And this weakness combined with the extraordinary damage done during the Great Recession means that slack remains.

Nominal Wage Tracker

But, you say, the unemployment rate fell to 4.3 percent in May, its lowest in 16 years! Unfortunately, the unemployment rate fell for the wrong reasons and isn't fully reflective of the state of the labor market. That is, in the past when unemployment was roughly as low as it is today, the labor force participation rate—notably that of the prime-age population—has been much higher. Today, there are lots of would-be workers on the sidelines not being counted, who would take a job if offered one. And, the drop in the unemployment rate in the past month is more of a sign of people giving up on finding a job than more people becoming employed. In the last month, the labor force participation rate fell 0.2 percentage points and the employment-to-population ratio also fell 0.2 percentage points. Taken together, that means that the slight drop in the unemployment rate is, in fact, due to would-be workers leaving the labor force, not getting jobs.

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Enlighten Radio Podcasts:Resistance News Podcast: Stewart Acuff Updates the resistance effort with David Eckstein, former Teamster and AFL-CIO leader and organizer.

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Link: http://podcasts.enlightenradio.org/2017/06/resistane-news-podcast-stewart-acuff.html

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Enlighten Radio Podcasts:RECOVERING YOU! a discussion of addiction, childhood trauma & strategies to recover your sanity & health in the Age of the Opioid Epidemic

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Blog: Enlighten Radio Podcasts
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Link: http://podcasts.enlightenradio.org/2017/06/recovering-you-discussion-of-addiction.html

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