Benefit Cuts, Bank Accountability, and the Compassionate Earth Walk

As Conservatives Push for Benefit Cuts, New Progressive Coalition Campaigns for Social Security Expansion

Interview with Kimberly Fountain, Social Security Expansion campaign director with the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, conducted by Scott Harris

Since the Republican Party took control of the U.S. House of Representatives after the 2010 congressional mid-term election, the GOP majority has demanded massive budget cuts in federal programs. To further that austerity agenda, the GOP majority has provoked crisis after crisis over the debt ceiling, fiscal cliff, the sequester and most recently, a costly 16-day government shutdown.

Many conservative politicians focus their attention on reducing the federal budget deficit and parallel demands to reduce Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits. Since 2011, President Obama has repeatedly stated his openness to trimming these programs in exchange for specific concessions in order to reach a so-called “grand bargain agreement with the GOP.” But despite a well-funded campaign to convince the American people that cuts to the nation’s social safety net programs are both urgent and necessary, opinion polls find that Democrats, Republicans and Independent voters all reject these proposed cuts by wide margins.

Now a new coalition of groups led by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee has gone on the offensive calling for expansion of the Social Security system. These groups and their allies in Congress say increasing Social Security benefits is critical in an age of shrinking pensions and they say they can do it by “scrapping the cap” on what wealthy people pay into the Social Security system. Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Kimberly Fountain, Social Security Expansion campaign director with the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, who explains the goals of this effort.

For more information on the Progressive Change Campaign Committee’s Expand Social Security campaign, visit boldprogressives.org/campaign/expand-social-security.

Struggle to Hold Big Banks Accountable Leads Group to Advocate for Public Banking

Interview with Ellen Brown, chair and president of the Public Banking Institute and author of “Web of Debt”, conducted by Scott Harris

The tentative agreement by JP Morgan Chase Bank to pay the U.S. Department of Justice $13 billion to settle civil investigations into mortgage-backed securities in the period before the 2008 financial meltdown is the largest such settlement on record. But the deal ran into several obstacles in late October when JP Morgan Chase argued that it should not be responsible to pay for errors made by Washington Mutual, the bank it purchased after the housing bubble burst and the world’s financial system went into crisis.

In one of the few trials linked to the 2008 financial crisis, a federal jury in New York found the Bank of America liable on one civil fraud charge on Oct. 23. Countrywide was accused of issuing defective home loans in a process referred to as the “Hustle,” which were then sold to government mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The U.S. Justice Department is seeking more than $848 million in penalties, equivalent to Fannie and Freddie’s losses.

There are few such examples of the U.S. government holding big banks accountable for their reckless or illegal behavior, which many economists point to as being a large part of the abuses that led to the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. And when the government does intervene, more often than not the Justice Department imposes fines, but defers criminal prosecution of bank executives, leading many to observe that America has a double standard for justice when it comes to too big to fail financial institutions. Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Ellen Brown, chair and president of the Public Banking Institute and author of the book, “The Public Bank Solution: From Austerity to Prosperity.” Here, Brown takes a critical look at government regulation and oversight of the nation’s banks and discusses the public banking alternative she advocates.

For more information on the Public Banking Institute, visit publicbankinginstitute.org/.

Buddhist Priest Leads 1,300-Mile “Compassionate Earth Walk” from the Tar Sands of Alberta to Nebraska

Interview with Shodo Spring, Zen Buddhist priest, conducted by Melinda Tuhus

From July to early October, Shodo Spring, a 64-year-old Zen Buddhist priest, who is a mother of two and grandmother of four, led a walk from the tar sands oil extraction region of Alberta, Canada to Nebraska, 1,300 miles along the proposed route of the TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline project.

After being arrested in Washington, D.C. in August, 2011 during a protest against the pipeline that would transport dirty tar sands oil to Texas refineries for export abroad, Spring decided to walk the route to meet people on all sides of the controversy and to bring peace to the area. She says the central impulse for the “Compassionate Earth Walk,” was a response to climate change, which she believes is the most likely cause of the current droughts, floods, and extreme weather events the world has witnessed in recent years. Spring asserts that the situation will get much worse unless people collectively take drastic action. She made the entire journey, walking about half the miles, while a core of six to eight others walked in either Canada or the United States. Other participants joined the walk for shorter periods.

Growing opposition to the extraction of tar sands oil has been provoked by scientific research that finds the energy source produces far more greenhouse gasses that contribute to global warming than conventional production methods. President Obama is expected to make a decision on whether or not to approve the Keystone XL pipeline project sometime in 2014. Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Shodo shortly after she finished the walk and returned to her home in Minnesota. She shared some reflections from her journey and summed up what she considers the walk’s impact.

SHODO SPRING: There was a rancher in Alberta who we met through a church, and we had dinner at his house, and we had a very lovely conversation about the whole thing, you know, climate change and what can you do and what can’t you do, and everything. But he took us out to his ranch where he was keeping part of it as native prairie, and he talked about how he ran the cattle, and he knew exactly how long it was safe to leave them on the prairie, and then how long he had other fields, like alfalfa and the regular stuff, but he was protecting his prairie. So later on, we learned more about this, and every rancher we talked to we learned something from. Later on there was a rancher who, we didn’t talk about his practices, but he actually drove a considerable distance to come and talk with us. I said I wanted the walkers to hear from him, because I had met him last year, and it’s (the pipeline) coming across his land, and he refused to sign, and they took him to court, and he lost.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Can you say more about that? He refused to sign what?

SHODO SPRING: So, what happens is that TransCanada comes in, and they have a contract for an easement, and most people say, Oh, look, money! and they sign it. So you’re getting some money and you’re doing a good thing because it’s getting energy for people, and it’s needed. Some people have gotten together in groups and bargained for better easements is what they usually do, and then a very few people just refused to sign. And he said he wasn’t against the pipeline in the first place, but they lied to him so much that they turned him against the pipeline. People keep saying lying and double-dealing, and refusing to answer questions, and high pressure tactics. He was referring the the Cowboy-Indian Alliance; he said it had put him in contact with so many different kinds of people that he never would have been involved with; he would have stayed with the people who were like him. And instead, he’s become totally easy with people of all kinds.

BETWEEN THE LINES: And the Cowboy and Indian Alliance, that’s white ranchers and indigenous folks who are all against the pipeline, is that right?

SHODO SPRING: Right, yeah. I mean, what a great title, right? And of course the great thing which we’ve observed and everybody’s noticed is, Oh, look! the same people whose ancestors came and took the land away from the Indians now need help from the Indians to protect their land, which used to be the Indians’ land, because treaty rights are major, major help.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Would you say that in general people in the U.S. and Canada have a different view about the pipeline?

SHODO SPRING: Not exactly. In Canada, we met a few people who were against the pipeline, but mostly not; most people were for it. Oh, but we met some farmers and ranchers who were kind of grumbly about it, because they can’t get farm help anymore, because you can make $28 an hour right out of high school if you go to work for the oil and gas industry, and the farmer can’t afford to pay $28 an hour. And so people…this one guy we camped at his place, he said, he could have gone with…I don’t know if he meant sold his land or whatever, but he wouldn’t do it, but it’s really hard to do agriculture anymore, because the labor force is going where the money is. It seemed like till we got about half-way through South Dakota, most people were pro-pipeline. They weren’t thinking about oil spills and they weren’t thinking about climate change. We heard more of the religious thing there – God’s in charge. Then, like southern South Dakota and all of Nebraska, the people we saw, it was all about pipelines and spills and the aquifer and they’re ruining our land and they’re violating our rights, and everything.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Shodo Spring, what did you set out to accomplish, and do you feel like you accomplished it?

SHODO SPRING: The single clear intention that we all had was to walk every foot of that way, and we took turns, so what walking every foot meant, the staff went every foot. And except for three miles where there was road construction and there was no option, we did that. So that we accomplished. Other things were, we did have a lot of positive encounters with people. We don’t know what the effect of those encounters was. Certainly the people who were anti-pipeline frequently felt encouraged and inspired by our being there. The group that was on the walk, I think learned a lot. There were people who just kind of stumbled into it, and they learned a lot about politics and activism and native issues, and all the stuff that came up there. But the people who came more intentionally, they matured in being able to work in a group. People were speaking in front of groups – not often – but everybody made beautiful statements. And so I think in terms of building activists, we had a positive effect.

Find links to more information about the “Compassionate Earth Walk,” by visiting compassionateearthwalk.org.

This week’s summary of under-reported news

Compiled by Bob Nixon

• The long shadow of the 2009 coup against progressive President Manuel Zelaya hangs over Honduras. In the coming November 24th national election, Zelaya’s wife Xiomara Castro is a leading candidate for president of the new left of center Libre Party. Among other candidates she faces pro-coup supporter Juan Hernandez of the rightwing National Party who has pledged to establish a new 5,000-member military-police force to combat rising violence. (“Save all your kisses for Mel,” Economist, Oct. 28, 2013; “Honduras vote: More parties, new politics,” Christian Science Monitor, Oct. 22, 2013; “Controversial Honduras general denies death squads,” Associated Press, Nov. 2, 2013)
• According to Russia’s Federal Migration Service, 1.8 million foreigners work legally in Russia, while another 3 million do so without government authorization. Russia’s energy boom fades, and low wage jobs disappear, nativist resentment against immigrants is growing. “Russia needs immigrants, but can it accept them?” Christian Science Monitor, Oct. 27, 2013)
• Over the past decade low-performing students at the predominantly Latino Bowie High School in El Paso, Texas were kicked out of school after they failed the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test. As a result, many aspiring students who ended up on the failure list had their dreams of higher education and future careers crushed. (“The Children Left Behind,” In These Times, Oct. 28, 2013)

 

 

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