‘Creeping Socialism’ Would Be Good for America

By BOB HERTZ

Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, Newt Gingrich, and CPAC conservatives constantly complain that the Democrats would impose “European-Style Socialism” on America.

To which the natural question is:

“And how bad would that be?”

Will Americans really be corrupted by national health insurance, mandatory vacations, paid maternity leave, rent subsidies, or child allowances?

After all, Australia hasn’t been destroyed yet – despite having gun control, a national health system, a minimum wage over $16.50, four weeks mandatory vacations and two weeks guaranteed sick leave.

Some conservatives wax nostalgic about life in America “when men were free.”

Yes – free to work until they dropped, free to be dependent in old age on their relatives, and free to go without medical care.

Conservatives predicted economic doom after every social improvement of the last 120 years – after female suffrage; the eight hour day, the end of child labor, worker’s compensation, Social Security, Civil Rights laws and Medicare. They were wrong every time, of course.

When Harry Truman proposed National Health Insurance, the AMA accused the White House of “trying to turn a brave, risk-taking people into a bunch of dainty, steam-heated, rubber-tired, beauty-rested, effeminized, pampered sissies”—easy pickings for the godless Soviet cold war foe.

Any day in Sweden, we were led to assume, free dentistry would mutate into a socialist police state.

In the real America today, apart from conservative fantasies, there are millions of us who are ‘living poor’ –

• unable to afford to pay basic bills

• working low-wage jobs, if they can even find them

• begging each other online for money to pay for medicine

• indebted for life over education and housing

We all need what used to be called the Social Wage.

The Social Wage is nothing less than the rights of citizenship – which means programs that are free, after paying your taxes.

The rights of citizenship must not depend on getting a good job.

We need universal programs – not employer mandates, which are easy for low-road employers to avoid.

We must also avoid programs that are narrowly tailored to the poor. Middle-class people resent paying taxes for programs from which they are excluded.

What we need now are big, blunt interventions.

We should make on-budget, direct payments to beneficiaries – not skimpy, devious ‘tax credits.’

Government should be a spender, not a lender. We must give people grants, not loans.

If this means higher taxes, then raise the taxes. There is nothing wrong with using the power of government to collect taxes on a progressive basis. We must identify basic needs, figure out what programs would satisfy them, and then establish a tax level high enough to fund them.

Instead, both Democrats and Republicans in recent decades have enacted multiple “tax credits” in place of honest spending programs. Clinton and Obama were leaders in this wretched process.

Here are universal programs we can enact right away.

#1 — Add Family Leave to Social Security

Unlike every other developed nation, the US government does not offer workers paid leave for the birth of a child or to care for a seriously ill family member.

In a nation where most families now have no one at home to provide care, workers need paid time off from work to care for one another.

It is patently unfair for some mothers and fathers to fear for their jobs to care for a newborn. Access to time off should not be determined by how much you earn or what size employer you work for.

Individual companies should not have to pay for these leaves out of pocket, however. This would disproportionately affect companies with staff who are prone to serious health problems, who have ailing family members who need their care, or who are of child-bearing ages.

We must pass the Family Act, now pending in Congress as HR 1185, which would grant two-thirds of monthly income for 12 weeks to cover parental or medical leave. This would be funded by Social Security, and would apply to all employers.

The act would be funded by employee and employer payroll contributions. If leaves are allowed for childbirth and care for persons who are completely disabled, the total cost would be approximately 0.8% of wages. This means $200 a year for both employer and employee, or about $16 per month for a worker making $40,000 a year.

This hardly counts as a major tax increase for anyone.

#2 — Federalize Unemployment Insurance programs under Social Security

Unemployment should be a fully federal program, funded by increased Social Security taxes.

This would remove the state variations in eligibility and benefits; this will end the race-to-the-bottom among states to have lower tax rates for employers.

Some states are quite frankly looking to push poor people away; therefore the Federal Government has to act as the protector of the disadvantaged.

It is time to stop this state’s rights nonsense – not only on unemployment, but also gun laws, voting rights, environmental legislation, mining and logging rights, water management – and any other areas that allow states to preserve bigotry and cheap labor.

Most years, the total cost of unemployment benefits has been about $100 billion in normal years.

To pay for it federally, we should Increase the Social Security payroll tax by 1.5%, to raise $150 billion a year.

Employers would pay 1%; employees pay one half of 1% – another $16 a month for an average worker.

#3 — Increase Pell Grants to $10,000 a year and make them available to any family whose household income is under $80,000.

This will benefit about 10 million students. The federal expense would be $100 billion a year in total, Since we pay out $35 billion in Pell Grants today, there would be $65 billion more annual spending.

This could be covered by small increases in either income or capital gains taxes.

The Pell Grant is essentially a voucher, as was the GI Bill in the 1940s and 1950s.

When we give vouchers to parents for elementary education, even right-wingers applaud. No one has to pay interest on a voucher.

The new Pell Grants must be available to any student — even those who are in default on prior loans. Pell Grants can even include childcare benefits and housing credits for adult students.

With the new Pell Grants, students can attend vocational schools and live at home, with relatively very little debt.

Tuition must be funded with grants. No grants would ever be repaid. People would simply pay their taxes.

We must make it possible for any full-time worker to afford middle-income goods and services. We can start on this goal with ‘creeping socialist’ programs to pay for health care, child support, and higher education.

Bob Hertz is a retired insurance broker in Minnesota. You can read his articles on the Social Wage at NewLawsforAmerica.com, or contact him at Bob.Hertz@frontiernet.net.

From The Progressive Populist, June 15, 2021

Populist.com