Americans for Democratic Action

Obama: Shared Social Commitments Make Us Great
Posted by Sean Cribben on Feb 11 2013
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By: Bob Lucore

In his inaugural address, President Obama encouraged liberals by presenting many progressive themes. After a campaign season in which global warming seemed to be a forbidden topic, his address called for action. His advocacy of equality for lesbians and gays was a first. He spoke confidently of the need to reform the immigration system, and explained that with changing times, we need a bold and activist government that can address the issues of the future and bind us together as Americans.

One of the most welcome parts of the address was this:

“We do not believe that in this country freedom is reserved for the lucky, or happiness for
the few. We recognize that no matter how responsibly we live our lives, any one of us at any
time may face a job loss, or a sudden illness, or a home swept away in a terrible storm. The
commitments we make to each other through Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security, these
things do not sap our initiative, they strengthen us. They do not make us a nation of takers; they free us to take the risks that make this country great. “

The last sentence of that paragraph encapsulates the difference between conservatives and
liberals on the role of government in providing a social safety net and social insurance.

Conservatives deride programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security as “entitlements,”
and nothing more. Disaster assistance, nutrition programs, income supports, and health care are giveaways. This is the view that was captured so well in Mitt Romney’s famous 47% video, and in this infuriating video from the American Enterprise Institute. These programs are making us a risk-averse, morally weak nation of takers and moochers, claim many conservatives. They hope we won’t notice the contradiction when they claim that the corporate-rich won’t have an incentive to create jobs unless we reduce their taxes and increase their subsidies.

The president was right to point out that our mutual social commitments do not sap us of
initiative, make us risk averse or weaken our spirit of entrepreneurship. Liberals recognize that people will be more accepting of change, more able to take risks and more free to be creative if they know that they have a strong social safety net to fall back on should misfortune strike. A system that provides no insurance or support for those who fall on hard times, or need a helping hand to gain a chance for success, is a system in which no one wants to risk being innovative orcreative, because no one can afford to fail. It is a system motived by fear of loss, not incentives for success.

The idea that mutual social commitments can lead to economic success and a spirit of innovation is not merely abstract. In the decades that followed World War II, America expanded its welfare systems, educated an unprecedented number of baby-boom children in the public schools, created a national health insurance system (called Medicare) for the elderly, and opened up opportunities through affirmative government efforts that enabled previously excluded groups to contribute to our nation’s success. Higher rates of unionization, fairer taxes and policies that drove down unemployment assured that prosperity was shared more broadly. At the same time, ours was an economy that led the world in innovation and creativity.

Looking abroad today, the Scandinavian countries teach similar lessons. Finland is known as a
world leader in education and hi-tech creativity. Stockholm is known as a clean, green city of
that is a hub of technological innovation. H -tech trains move passengers between Scandinavian cities at a pace unknown in the United States. As Uwe Becker’s review of the Scandinavian Model shows, a high level of government involvement in the economy, a generous welfare state, high rates of unionization and a wage system that ensures broadly shared prosperity are very compatible with economic competitiveness.

Liberals know it will be no easy task to renew our nation’s system of shared social commitments. We must encourage the President to lead this effort with actions that match his words.

Bob Lucore, a long-time ADA board member, is the former Director of Research and Policy for the United American Nurses and has worked for the Teamsters and the Department of Economic Research at the AFL-CIO. . He taught economics for several years at Centre College and Colorado State University and is currently studying Library and Information Science at San José State University. Bob is a member of UAW Local 1981, the National Writers Union.

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THE PROGRESSIVE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION ARE 100 YEARS OLD THIS YEAR: LET'S MAKE PROGRESSIVE HAY WITH THESE IMPORTANT CENTENARIES!	By Unknown on Jan 29 2013 at 8:35 AM
EXACTLY ONE HUNDRED YEARS AFTER THE PROGRESSIVE ERA, IT'S FORGOTTEN. LET'S USE THE CENTENARIES OF THE PROGRESSIVE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION TO REMEMBER THAT IT'S POSSIBLE TO CREATE GOOD CHANGE. It's said that those who don't remember history are doomed to repeat it, but I'm not so sure. Americans have largely forgotten about the great century-ago Progressive Era that peaked exactly 100 years ago this year, in 1913, with the passage of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Amendments to the Constitution, providing for the Progressive Income Tax and establishing the Popular Election of U.S. Senators, respectively. But we sure aren't repeating the Progressive Era! The U.S. has lately been working its way through something more like the Regressive Era! A partial remedy to this could lie in a 100th Anniversary Commemoration of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Amendments, the flagship national creations of the century-ago Progressive Era -- to be celebrated in 2013 with the proposal and robust promotion of our own era's equally radical and useful reforms in the tax and electoral areas. Americans for Democratic Action -- hopefully the conscience and institutional memory of progressivism and liberalism in America -- needs to invoke this pair of amendments on their centenaries. The 100th anniversary of the Sixteenth Amendment, establishing the progressive income tax, is in just a few days, on February 3rd. ADA should acknowledge this important date in the ADA press conferences being held tomorrow in Washington, January 30th to "Demand Fair Taxes, Not Cuts"! ADA, as a primary representative of the current generation of American progressives, should commemorate the Sixteenth Amendment while promoting 2013's equally progressive and urgently needed tax reforms and initiatives: perhaps the creation of a new "EZ Tax" -- a global financial transactions micro-tax that uses the 21st century's brilliant computer financial networks to create a global Climate Change Prevention / Mitigation / Green Development Fund that will vastly improve the lives of the world's lower-carbon-per-capita people, typically the poor of both developing and developed countries, while funding reforms to the comfortable lives of the highest-carbon peoples (hint: that's most of U.S.) that make them more energy-efficient and less carbon-creating. The symbol for this new carbon-avoided currency should be the cent sign: carbon crossed out, carbon and climate degradation avoided! (See www.adaction.org/pages/posts/the-economics-of-prosperity821.php?id=821.) The Seventeenth Amendment, establishing the electoral reform of direct election of Senators, will reach its 100th birthday on April 8th, some eight weeks from now. This too deserves commemoration in the context of our best current proposals -- maybe with the production of a geographically distorted map of the 50 states that shows the wildly disproportionate share of political power exercised by the voters in the various states (hint: Wyoming and the Dakotas will be enormous; California and New York tiny) and use this infographic-argument to blast every bit of U.S. Senate procedure that makes that body even less democratic, such as all of its supermajorities, filibusters and cloture rules. Or to robustly promote Congressional enactment of the democratic reform of Weekend Voting (no Constitutional amendment needed for that, btw -- as I've needed to remind my Congressman, ADA member Brad Sherman, not once but twice)! The Teabaggers who think they are so history-minded know nothing about this more recent but, in collective memory, effectively more remote period of our American history, the Progressive Era -- and our country is much the poorer for it following that day of infamy, November 2nd, 2010. If we progressives spoke and wrote about such stuff as the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Amendments as much as the right wing harps about the Second Amendment and the Tenth Amendment, maybe Americans would remember and embrace -- and build upon -- the more enlightened parts of their history as much as the crappy parts. Today's Republicans are trying, in the 21st century, to keep the worst aspects of America's 20th century (war, carbon, noise, crap) going as long as possible, pushing 19th-century governance based on the dysfunctional and half-worn-out 18th-century Constitution. Let's work our progressive will and bring that to an end.
THE CENTENARIES OF THE PROGRESSIVE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH AMENDMENTS: MAKING PROGRESSIVE HAY WITH PROGRESSIVE HISTORY	By Unknown on Jan 29 2013 at 8:39 AM
The above essay/comment was authored by Gregory Wright, Southern California ADA; greg@newciv.org
Hear! Hear!	By Unknown on Jan 29 2013 at 2:35 PM
Bob, As usual, you say it all and say it so well. Mary
What a shame, no intelligent discourse, just liberal rant	By Unknown on Jan 29 2013 at 9:25 PM
It is disappointing to read your article because I have not yet seen a liberal address the out-of-control government spending by Pres Obama and the congress. It never fails to amaze me that liberal (& conservative) idealogues do not address the facts of the issues but like to make statements that are provacative and evoke outrage from their idealogical constituents in favor of whatever policy they are promoting. It would be refreshing to have promenant pundits from both camps addressing the very issues that conservatives & liberals consider important instead of repeating talking points. This country is in real trouble. The American people see it. Why can't the politicians and their lapdogs.
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Obama: Shared Social Commitments Make Us Great

By: Bob Lucore

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