The Economy

As Congress heats up the debate on Cap & Trade legislation are we to expect the same productivity we have seen for the past year on Health Care Reform?

The issue of producing clean, sustainable renewable energy while lessening dependence on foreign sources for our energy requirements seems pretty straight forward to us. We’re not sure if Cap & Trade is the most effective way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, we do know that 28 States have enacted Renewable Electricity Standards where certain percentages of electricity come from renewable resources such as the sun and wind. Do we need national legislation to get our country moving forward on this issue - it appears that is what it will take as there are 50 States and way too many special interests trying to impede the implementation of renewable energy.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders today held a press conference announcing a solar initiative.

Solar Industry Leaders to Support

Green Job Chairman’s Solar Legislation

Environment America to Roll Out Report on Solar Industry

WASHINGTON, March 9 – Sen. Bernie Sanders and environmental advocates will hold a press conference on solar energy at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, March 9 at the Senate Swamp.

Sanders (I-Vt.), chairman of the Senate’s green jobs subcommittee, will discuss his legislation to encourage the installation of 10 million solar systems on the rooftops of homes and businesses over the next decade.

Environment America will release a report, Building a Solar Future: Repowering America’s Homes, Businesses and Industry with Solar Energy, highlighting the potential of solar energy and the many ways that solar power can transform life by enhancing energy security and reducing pollution.

Who: Senator Bernie Sanders; Sean Garren, clean energy advocate for Environment America; James Resor, chief financial officer of groSolar (White River Junction, Vt.); Anthony Clifford, chief executive officer of Standard Solar (Gaithersburg, Md.); and Kathy Weiss, vice president at First Solar (Tempe, Ariz.).

What: News Conference on Solar Legislation and Report on the Solar Industry

When: 10 a.m., Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Where: Senate Swamp, across from the Capitol’s Senate Steps (map here).

Contact: Michael Briggs or Will Wiquist at 202-224-5141

This is the type of activity we need from Congress to address the 6 Billion tons of carbon emissions we’re putting into the environment. Senator Sanders, you continue to do the right things for the people of this country.

OK folks - the snow storm is gone. Let’s hope this time off enabled Congress to clear their respective heads and get down to the business - not as usual, but in the best interest of the people of this country.

Quit playing games and do your jobs to address the issues of jobs, the economy, health care reform, and an energy policy for clean, renewable energy.

Take a look at this release from Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders - tell me we don’t need health care reform!

It Never Ends: Health Insurance Profits Soar

WASHINGTON, February 12 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today blasted the country’s five largest health insurance companies that posted $12.2 billion in profits last year, 56 percent more than in 2008.

“In the midst of the worst recession in memory, with working families struggling to keep their heads above water, insurance companies are siphoning more and more profits out of American consumers,” said Sanders, a member of the Senate health committee.

“These horrendous rate increases will not only impact millions of individuals, but make our entire economy less competitive,” he added. “This outrage is more evidence, as if any were needed, that we cannot stop fighting to reform the health care system in the United States.”

Health Care for America Now conducted a study of public records and found that WellPoint Inc., UnitedHealth Group, Cigna Corp., Aetna Inc. and Humana Inc. covered 2.7 million fewer people than they did the year before.  Some of the insurers actually cut the proportion of premiums that went to medical care and put more into salaries and profits.

The companies’ 2009 profits soared while insurers raised premiums and denied coverage to millions of Americans.

WellPoint’s profit margin of 7.2 percent was the highest of the five big insurers.  Anthem Blue Cross, a California subsidiary of WellPoint, has come under fire for jacking up premiums by as much as 39 percent this year on some individual health policies.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius insisted that the company justify the rate increase in detail. “Look,” Sen. Sanders said, “insurance companies are ripping off the American people from coast to coast. It is absolutely appropriate for the secretary of Health and Human Services to call them out on that.”

Contact: Michael Briggs or Will Wiquist (202) 224-5141

As we all struggle through this economy,  jobs are on everyone’s wish list. One area we believe can have a significant impact is by having a nationwide program in full gear that encourages the implementation of renewable energy technologies like PV (photovoltaic) solar, wind turbines, PV Solar thermal (using the sun for heating hot water). Repower America has been pushing this agenda, and now Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has introduced a bill to fund a solar initiative. These are jobs that can not be exported to other countries. Way to go Senator Sanders - clean energy generation will address major economic and environmental issues!

Sanders Introduces Major Solar Energy Initiative

WASHINGTON, February 4 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), chairman of the Senate’s green jobs subcommittee, today introduced legislation with nine cosponsors to encourage the installation of 10 million solar systems on the rooftops of homes and businesses over the next decade.

“At a time when we spend $350 billion importing oil from Saudi Arabia and other countries every year, the United States must move away from foreign oil to energy independence,” Sanders said. “A dramatic expansion of solar power is a clean and economical way to help break our dependence on foreign oil, reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming, improve our geopolitical position, and create good-paying green jobs.”

At a Senate committee hearing today, Sanders questioned Energy Secretary Steven Chu about President Obama’s budget for next year. The White House requested $2.4 billion for energy efficiency and renewable energy programs. The requested 5 percent boost overall included a 22 percent increase for solar power.

The potential for solar power also was the subject of testimony last week before Sanders’ green jobs subcommittee by Jeff Wolfe, chief executive officer of groSolar in White River Junction, Vt. Wolfe said Sanders’ bill “would help homeowners and small businesses stabilize their energy costs.”

Sanders’ bill would authorize rebates which, along with other incentives, would cover up to half the cost of the 10 million solar power systems and 200,000 water heating systems. Non-profit groups and state and local governments also would be eligible. The legislation would ensure that participating homeowners and businesses also receive information on incentives to improve energy efficiency.

Sanders said a recent report shows that solar power could help make every state more energy independent if solar units were installed on available rooftop space, because every state can meet 10 percent or more of its electricity needs just through rooftop solar. Moreover, because solar energy creates more jobs per megawatt than other energy sources. Sanders’ bill could create hundreds of thousands of jobs over the next ten years in the solar industry.

The legislation’s cosponsors include Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.),  Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.).

Sanders’ measure is patterned after successful state programs promoting solar energy in New Jersey and California, where prices have fallen as the number of solar units increased.

To read a copy of the bill, click here.

Contact: Michael Briggs or Will Wiquist at (202) 224-5141.

Today the White House released the fiscal year 2011 Budget. The numbers call for a $3.8 Trillion dollar budget that projects an estimated $1.2 Trillion dollar deficit.

Some key areas getting financial attention are: Job Creation; Small Business tax credits; support of  our Educational system, the military and clean energy. We agree that addressing each of these will begin to put a fix on issues that have all too long been ignored. Not much being said about Health Care as it relates to this budget - we wonder why.

Now the real question - What will Congress do to, and with this budget?

President Obama talks tonight about the State of the Union - our country.

All of us who feel the pain of an economic meltdown; lost jobs; either no health care or out of control health costs; an educational system being short changed by just about every State; a fractured energy policy that should be based upon clean, renewable energy generation to lessen foreign dependence and two wars that take our lives while continuing to drain our resources - we pretty much know the State of the Union these days.

President Obama, tonight we hope to hear you say your administration and the 535 people in Congress are going to start acting in the best interest of the people who sent you all to represent us and not special interest lobbyists.

Please, we do not need anymore 2,000 page bills that cover everything but the core issue. Give us legislation that is straight forward, deals only with the issue and requires a simple yes or no vote by Congress. Then and only then will we have real Transparency and Accountability of our elected representation.

Now is the time to deliver on the promise to change the ways Washington does business. Do this for our children and grand children - they will all thank us for being part of the solution rather than the problem.

Could this be the Audacity Of Hope that you wrote about?

The week started off with the Massachusetts Senate election where voters sent a message they are not happy with the ways of Washington. We have recently had three State elections (Virginia and New Jersey Governor races) where the voters have elected the challenger, not the incumbent.  This is sending a clear message We The People are not happy campers.

Next comes President Obama taking a strong position with the banks calling for Banking Reforms. We believe this action is needed. There must be accountability when large financial institutions make high risk financial moves with the money in retirement funds and the deposits of We The People that is being insured by government - in reality our tax dollars. The gamble they made and lost has put a scar on this Country that will not heal for some time.

Then we have the Supreme Court’s controversial decision, Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission, to view corporations in the same light as individuals in the context of financial support for candidates running for political offices. We have Congress scrambling to draft legislation in an attempt to water down the potential effects of increased campaign spending by corporations, lobbyists and special interests. Once again We the People are being put in the position of not being represented the way our founding fathers envisioned.

Yesterday the Speaker of the House comes out and says the House does not have the votes to pass the Senate version of the Health Care Bill, which in our view does little to solve the Health care issue. Apparently, a lot of other folks in Congress agree with us as we now have Congressional gridlock with the Health Care Reform issue. We The People once again are the recipients of either not having access to quality health care, increasing costs, limiting coverages or all of the aforementioned.

We have got to find a way to get Washington to be responsible to the people of this country - we are running real low on confidence and thin with our patience!

A Happy New Year to All!

We would like to thank the folks in Washington that actually represented the People and not the lobbyists over the past year.

Our wish for the New Year and the next decade is that the 535 people in Washington craft legislation that is intended to be in the best interests of the people that elected them. The issues of getting our Economy back on track; an Energy Strategy that is meaningful to us now and future generations; a Health Care system that truly gives the people quality care while putting a stop to costs that are out of control; supporting an Educational System that will turn out the next generation (s) of world leaders in every field; and a peaceful decade that reduces or eliminates the pain and costs resultant of Wars that Nobody Wins.

Our New Years wish is that the House, Senate and Administration spend our money as if it were theirs and dedicate our money to expeditures of the aforementioned issues and not lobby driven special interests.

We heard an excellent point made by Ed Schultz, the radio talk show host and an MSNBC TV show host yesterday. Ed’s comment was in regards to President Obama’s efforts with a Job Summit to accelerate the growth of employment in our country.

Many CEOs of large corporations participated in the Jobs Summit with President Obama. Ed raised a point that may be overlooked. Big Business in the United States is responsible to stock holders/investors and their desire to see quarter-to-quarter increases in sales and profitability - short term performance increases. These increases are what runs up the price of a stock and makes investors in the company money.

As we recently have seen, the employment cuts made by businesses has dramatically increased productivity - the result of fewer people producing more. Just about every quarterly financial report from Big Business exhibits better profitability on the bottom line (due to cost reductions) while few have exhibited top line (sales and revenue) growth.

As the economy improves, Big Business slowly improves (slowly because they are so big) and sales increase. While business improves with the productivity gains, companies have higher profits translating to higher stock prices - all good. However, what is the incentive for a big company and their executives (many of whom own large blocks of their company’s stock) to add jobs until the business dramatically improves? Adding jobs before business is booming will cost more, reduce profits for that quarter and put downward pressure the stock price. The addition of jobs in the “Short Term” (one of President Obama’s stated goals at the Job Summit) is a contradiction to what Big Business has to do to satisfy stockholders.

So where can President Obama and his administration get the most bang for the strained financial resources our government has for creating jobs in the “Short Term”? We want their efforts targeted at Small Business.

As the economy improves, the owners of Small Business will add jobs NOW to meet the increased demand for their products and services. They are not the big behemoth that needs business to be booming to start adding jobs. These are the folks that can add 3, 5 or 10 jobs quickly. They don’t need to concern themselves about what happens to their stock prices or how an analyst will view their performance this quarter versus last quarter - they just want their business to grow and get healthy.

An example of this is the “Green” Jobs we all wanted created in OUR country. Companies like General Electric and Siemens have been given enormous financial incentives from OUR government to fast track the renewable energy effort - we applaud the companies & OUR government for their efforts (see our Latest News, October 3o post: The Economy & Energy). Ed Schultz told us about a Small Business in Indiana (not China) that manufactures gears for wind turbines. They want to add jobs to meet increased demand. They can not get their financial package request through OUR government’s process like a GE or Siemens has been able to do.

President Obama - target the jobs efforts on streamlining the processes and incentives to quickly get resources to Small Business. The banks we bailed out are not doing it for Small Business, so it’s up to US to fast track Small Business so they can change the job picture in the “Short Term” and beyond!

Below is a release from Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders subsequent to President Obama’s speech on Tuesday night.

Isn’t it time to get the bubble around Washington burst and get in touch with the American people?

Senator Sanders’ Statement on Afghanistan

WASHINGTON, December 1 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) made the following statement after President Obama announced tonight that he will send 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan.

“I agree with President Obama that it would be a setback for democracy and stability if the Taliban regained power, but I have serious concerns.

“First, why are American taxpayers and our brave soldiers bearing almost all the burden in what should be an international effort? Where are Europe, Russia, China and the rest of the world?  Second, why in the midst of a severe recession – with 17 percent of our people unemployed or under-employed and one out of four kids on food stamps – are we going to be spending $100 billion a year on Afghanistan when we have so many pressing needs at home?  Third, I worry about how we can forge a dependable partnership with an Afghan government that is ineffective and corrupt. 

“My nightmare is that we may get caught in a quagmire situation from which there will be no successful exit.”

Contact: Michael Briggs or Will Wiquist (202) 224-5141

Now we hear about a tax to pay for the build up of troops for the war in Afghanistan. Maybe it’s time to get out - none of us can afford it - none of US!

President Obama - it is time to take ownership for your promise of change - change we can believe in. It appears to us that politics  in Washington is being conducted no different than before President Obama came into office.

The so called amendment to the Health Care Reform bill that appears to appease a Senator from Louisiana who was “on the fence” about voting to move the bill forward to debate - is that change we can believe in?

The credit card companies that are increasing interest rates while limiting credit and imposing additional charges before legislation goes into effect - is that change we can believe in?

The health insurance companies increasing rates at 30% year-over-year rate in anticipation of legislation - is that change we can believe in?

Those fortunate enough to have something left in a retirement fund have seen it erode by as much as 50% - is this change we can believe in?

And now a war tax? Is this the change we voted for? How much more can we take? People can’t get jobs; their home value is less than the debt on their home; and we keep getting hammered by the credit card and health insurance companies! 

President Obama - we don’t have much left. It is now time to stand up for the American people and give US the leadership we expected. It’s time to give direction to Congress - the American people are losing their hope for change and their trust in the elected Representation in Washington.

If we really want something to be thankful for this Thursday - it would be that Washington truly become responsible to WE THE PEOPLE.