Sept. 30. 2023

John Burnett

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - As Congress used their best efforts to successfully keep the government open, it was also hard at work to re-authorize the farm bill, providing affordable food, assuring that farmers are able to insure their crops, and that ranchers can export their products to foreign markets. It’s not an understatement to say it’s one of the most important bills Congress can send to the president’s desk, which is why it is so important to get it right.

Yet, some in Congress think getting it “right” means restricting certain consumers' food items as “wrong” to buy. According to a recently introduced proposal, Americans enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program would be prohibited from purchasing snacks, fruit juice, and soda – including beverages that are low calorie or zero sugar – with their benefits. It’s the equivalent of putting the federal government in between consumers and the products they enjoy. 

Bottom line: consumers deserve to have choices in the grocery store. SNAP recipients are Americans in need and are fully capable of making their own food choices, and limiting their options also stigmatizes them as incapable of responsible decision-making. This approach undermines the dignity and self-respect of SNAP participants, and it puts the government in the position of choosing what people can serve their families. This is a slippery slope that would open the door to a government good-food or bad-food list that could apply to other everyday items on the grocery list.

Nevertheless, lawmakers like Marco Rubio and others may be seeking to jam this misguided idea into the farm bill. The legislative process is hard enough as it is, but it becomes significantly more difficult as individual members of Congress and D.C. special interest groups seek to attach pet projects or priorities to what should be bipartisan legislation. And in Congress, it’s easy for a few lawmakers to derail the progress on must-pass legislation.

The basis of the idea is about removing choice, but the authors of the so-called “Healthy SNAP Act” claim it’ll help reduce spending, but the data doesn’t support it. SNAP recipients will still have the same amount of benefits.  

On the SNAP side, lawmakers could look at generating savings by capping benefits, implementing work requirements, or reducing the overall size of the program.

We all want Americans to make good choices that promote healthier eating habits, but restricting the treats parents buy their kids is not the solution. It's a shortsighted and ineffective approach that infringes on individual freedom, further stigmatizing lower-income communities, and won’t yield the savings Senator Rubio is promising. Instead, we should focus on real policies that improve access to nutritious foods and empower all individuals, regardless of their income, to make healthier choices.

As Republicans, we are proud to be the party of individual choice and freedom. These foundational principles are essential to the promise of liberty for all – that we trust our fellow Americans to make their own life choices, even if we don’t agree with them. I’m proud to subscribe to these values, which is why it is important we push back on ideas from within our party that restrict the ability for us to make our own decisions. 

These values should apply at the grocery store, so lawmakers should reverse course on their misguided SNAP restriction proposal. The last thing Americans need is more nanny state decrees from politicians who think they know best for them.

John Burnett is a business and political analyst and an adjunct assistant professor at New York University.

To Be Equal 
October 1, 2023

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - “A government shutdown means that people who are doing critical work that is about upholding the structures of our government and all that we rely on in terms of those services could shut down. So let's start there. It would be completely irresponsible.  Second, people are playing politics. They're playing political games. There's a lot of showmanship that you're seeing. And if those people put those same levels of effort and talent into actually something that was productive, I don't think we'd be in this place of talking about a government shutdown.” Vice President Kamala Harris 

Based upon most of the punditry around the looming federal government shutdown, one might assume the only person with anything to lose is Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy. 

Indeed, he and his cohort in the House are behaving as if McCarthy’s speakership, which he may have to defend if he doesn’t pander to extremists’ every whim, is the highest stake in their playground antics.

Largely missing from the public discussion – and completely absent from the House extremists’ debate -- is the potentially devastating human cost of a shutdown. 

Nearly seven million pregnant women, new mothers, and young children – including more than half of all newborns in the United States -- who rely on Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children will lose access to a source of healthy foods, health care referrals, and nutrition education. 

Another 42 million Americans risk losing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits. 

At least 10,000 preschool children will be denied the education, health, nutrition, and parent involvement services of Head Start and risk falling even further behind in school readiness. 

Small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs will lose a vital source of funding as the Small Business Administration is blocked from accepting, reviewing, or approving new business loans.  American small businesses would lose out on more than $100 Million in critical financing every day of the shutdown.  Furthermore, a shutdown would delay the issuing of licenses and certifications that small businesses need to operate.

Infrastructure projects that provide employment, stimulate local economies, and rectify historical and structural inequities would grind to a halt. 

The last three government shutdowns cost taxpayers at least $3.7 billion in back pay to furloughed federal workers, and at least $338 million in other costs associated with the shutdowns, including extra administrative work, lost revenue, and late fees on interest payments. 

The 2018-2019 shutdown precipitated by then-President Trump’s thin-skinned response to criticism from television commentators slowed the nation’s economic growth, reducing real GDP by $11 billion over the fourth quarter of 2018 and the first quarter of 2019. 

Meanwhile, the only major credit rating agency that still assigns the United States a top grade has warned that a shutdown “would underscore the weakness of US institutional and governance strength relative to other Aaa-rated sovereigns.” A downgrade to the US credit rating would drive up interest rates for all Americans.  

Either the extremists in Congress who are driving the nation toward pointless chaos and hardship don’t understand the consequences of their actions, or they do understand and don’t care. Either case is horrifying. 

Even more horrifying, there is no coherent public policy agenda behind their reckless behavior. Antagonizing their political adversaries and fanning the flames of partisan hostility is their only aim. 

If Speaker McCarthy cannot use his leadership position to steer the nation away from an avoidable disaster, there is no point in his clinging to it. 

Oct. 1, 2023

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - During the week of the Annual Congressional Black Caucus, NPA was meeting and included many of the same people. The annual meeting of the National Policy Alliance (NPA) held its meeting, too. One of the key leaders presenting the NPA conference was World Conference of Mayors leader the Honorable Johnny Ford, former long-time Mayor of Tuskegee, Alabama. Denise Tyler, NPA’s Executive Director, coordinated the meeting.

The conference dealt with numerous policy issues. Some of the issues were Supporting Black Organizations, Black Psychiatry and Psychology (And the history of anti-Blackness in the work of others), Black Lawyers for Justice, Education for Black Children, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Reclaiming Who We Are as African Descendants, Positive Aspects of Mentoring and How It Improves the Potential for Success of the Recipients, The Green Book—and how it assisted Black travelers, Health Disparities and  Making the Shift to Preventive Health Care, Goals of the National Bar Association—to increase the number of African American judges at the state and national level since they have always been under-represented, Addressing the Climate Crisis, Historical Preservation of Black communities and Black Businesses.

The most riveting story to which we must pay attention was presented by Atty. Malik Shabazz from Black Lawyers for Justice. In detail, he explained to us that six white police officers have now been convicted and incarcerated for a horrible crime, (including shooting one Black man in the mouth), against two innocent Black men in Rankin County Mississippi. We must know these things are still happening and not just in Mississippi, but this is the first time white men have been convicted of such a crime. The lesson is to recognize that such atrocities are still experienced throughout the nation. If Mitt Romney needs to hire private security because it’s not safe for him to speak out against evil, then it’s required that we practice as many security measures as possible.    

We must work together, learn what resources are available to help us build and preserve our communities, and share that information. We must support Black businesses and if we don’t have any, organize some and support them. We must increase our time securing information on which agencies have funds to help in improving our communities —especially Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Agriculture and Energy. The NPA is a coalition of African-American local elected officials and policy-related organizations. We must remember that we are stronger together. NPA is the leadership hub of several major organizations representing African-American public officials from federal, state, and local levels of government, the judiciary, school boards, and member organizations in the U.S. and internationally.  NPA’s focus is to advocate policies that impact the African-American community.

One key award was presented to the Honorable Rev. Jesse Jackson who received the NPA’s Medgar Evers Award.  Rev. Jackson has through the years caused thousands of our people to register and vote. He also ran a most inspiring candidacy for President after Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm and Dick Gregory ran years ago.  I received the NPA’s Charles Evers Award.  I ran a campaign for Congress and did a lot of work getting Black people registered and voting, as well as inspiring numerous Black women to run for mayor in their communities, and more than 20 won shortly thereafter—including in the three largest cities.  I ran in Louisiana when no Black people were running for the U.S. Congress from Louisiana.  Since the time I ran and came in so close to winning (less than ½ percent), New Orleans has had Black people not only running, but the city has had a Black Congressional Member every time there was an election in New Orleans.      

(Dr. E. Faye Williams, President of The Dick Gregory Society. (The Dick Gregory Society.org)

Sept. 10, 2023

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The Sacred Place Where Life Begins. That’s what the Gwich’in people call the coastal plain of Alaska where they live.

The Porcupine Caribou on who the Gwich’in have relied for tens of thousands of years for their subsistence way of life migrate hundreds of miles each spring to give birth to their calves there. So that Gwich’in name rings true.

It was that life that the Biden administration protected for years to come with the announcement last week that it was cancelling oil and gas drilling leases in the 19.6-million-acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and moving to prohibit drilling in another 13 million acres of protected lands bordering the refuge.

It wasn’t just the Gwich’in, who have been fighting drilling for nearly 50 years, and the caribou who won. The Inupiaq people who live at the edge of the Arctic Ocean, polar bears, musk oxen, Dall sheep, and birds you can find in all 50 states have roots in the Arctic Refuge.

That corner of Alaska is one of the world’s last untouched wild places, our country’s largest wildlife refuge, and the only one designed specifically for wilderness purposes. Its continued existence in its pristine, rugged state signals our commitment to nature and our appreciation of its wonder. It’s a sign of our national character.

But the value isn’t just symbolic. We’re on pace this year to produce more oil in the United States than ever before. Creating a glut will only extend our addiction to fossil fuels when we know that we need to move swiftly in the direction of burning less. And the trade-off is infrastructure needed to drill that will destroy the refuge forever.

It’s a trade that the American people repeatedly have said they don’t want to make. In polls in recent years, roughly two thirds of voters opposed drilling in the Arctic Refuge. After the President’s decision to allow another Alaskan drilling project to proceed months ago, this is the leadership most voters want.

The argument of proponents that Arctic drilling will boost U.S. energy independence and national security fall short when you know that all the oil under that part of Alaska is barely a year of the nation’s consumption by many estimates. We won’t drill our way out of the need for fossil fuels, but we certainly can drill our way to irreparable damage to the climate in just a few years.

Protecting indigenous people and their way of life in Alaska should demonstrate that we can stand firm to defend more communities on the front lines of climate change against the unabated greed of Big Oil. An unscathed, unmatched landscape shouldn’t be the test for doing right be our neighbors and by the planet.

Too often, we’ve allowed a few people lacking political power and desperate for economic opportunities to bear the immediate cost of bad environmental choices. The flaw is that more often than not, we all end up paying.

Whether it’s the cancer alleys created in the communities neighboring refineries along the Mississippi or coastal towns repeatedly crushed by extreme weather, they’re only the first to feel the burden. As the hottest temperatures ever recorded showed us this summer, no one can escape the toll that fossil fuel charges the planet.

Ben Jealous is executive director of the Sierra Club, the nation’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization. He is a professor of practice at the University of Pennsylvania and author of “Never Forget Our People Were Always Free,” published in January.

Sept. 4, 2023

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The federal minimum wage has been stuck at $7.25 an hour since 2009.  Several states have a higher minimum, but a predictable few, including Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Alabama, are stuck at that low minimum.  If the minimum wage kept up with inflation, it would be at least ten dollars an hour today.  However, twenty-two states are stuck on exploitation and refuse to raise their minimum wage.

Restaurant workers get even shorter shrift.  The minimum wage for tipped workers is $2.13 an hour, which means they are expected to earn up to the minimum wage or more with their tips.  But tips are discretionary and arbitrary; sometimes people tip the expected 15 to 20 percent, and sometimes they don’t.  How can they eke out a living wage on other people’s arbitrary judgment?  Were they likable?  Friendly?  Kind?  It doesn't matter.  Did you get your food?  Was it hot and delivered in a timely way?  If I had my way, I'd charge enough for food to pay workers properly.  Tipping is a practice that harkens back to enslavement.  People should be paid for their work and not have to skin and grin to make a living wage.

In the wake of Labor Day, though, it makes sense to consider how workers experience exploitation and what we must do about it.  Workers around the country are resisting exploitation, whether it is Hollywood writers or on university campuses.  As of this writing, the United Auto Workers is on the cusp of a strike, which will have significant repercussions for our economy.  A United Parcel Service Strike was narrowly averted, and it, too, would have weakened the economy.  With labor productivity up, workers are unwilling to settle for paltry 2 and 3 percent annual increases when food and gas prices are rising by 5 and 6 percent.  There seems to be no willingness to increase wages to keep workers "even", and President Biden, with his "Bidenomics” seems to see the big picture, but not the small one.  People are hurting, and employers are pocketing profits and exploiting workers.

The Institute for Policy Studies released a report, Executive Excess 2023, in which they highlight the 100 companies that have the lowest pay and the greater ratio of CEO pay to median worker pay.  Some of these companies have federal contracts, which means when they offer low pay to workers, they also get subsidies from the rest of us, the taxpayers who support food stamps, medical care, and other amenities that workers who earn little qualify for.

The report shows that the ratio between CEO and median worker pay is 603-1.  The average CEO in the Low Wage 100 earned $15.3 million a year, while the average worker earned a scant $31,672 a year.  The most significant offender was Live Nation Entertainment.  CEO Michael Rufino earned $139 million, 5414 times more than the average worker who earned $25,673 a year.  Amazon, a large federal contractor, is among the most exploitative.  But they aren’t alone.  Too many companies rip their workers off and also enjoy federal largesse.

Given these massive paychecks and massive profits, why can’t we raise the federal minimum wage, and why can’t we pay workers more?  Predatory capitalism suggests that employers must extract surplus value from workers.  That means that, despite rising worker productivity, employers should attempt to pay as little as they can.  The outrageous CEO to worker pay ratios suggest that companies benefit from paying so little.  Will workers revolt?  Can they?

Too many workers are frightened to strike.  They need their jobs and their unions may not have sufficient strike funds to allow them to be out for a long period of time.  Do they need their jobs with exploitative terms and conditions of work?  Must they work with unfair pay?  Is it time for workers to unite?

What would happen if you went to your morning coffee shop to find no one there?  Waited for a bus to find no dirver, no bus?  Managed to get to work to find no coworkers?  Wandered to lunch to find no one serving?  Tried to stop at a supermarket heading home to find no one working and no food available?  Managed home to sort out a mess?  We depend on workers but we don’t want to pay them.  We agree with their labor actions but don’t want to manage inconvenience.  We thought about Labor Day, but we don’t think about workers.  When will we raise the federal minimum wage.

Dr. Julianne Malveaux is an economist, author and educator.