Dispatches

REPORT FINDS INFLATION LARGELY DUE TO CORPORATE GREED. A new report from Groundwork Collaborative shows the inflation we continue to see across the country is mostly driven by corporate profits. According to their findings, “corporate profits drove 53% of inflation during the second and third quarters of 2023 and more than one-third since the start of the pandemic.” To put that into perspective, only 11% of price growth in the previous 40 years (before the pandemic) was due to corporate profits, Walter Einenkel reported at Daily Kos (1/22).

While corporate profits were up across the board, some companies have really taken advantage of raising their prices. Groundwork Collaborative highlights (or lowlights) Procter & Gamble Co. and Kimberly-Clark Corp, which control 70% of the United States’ diaper market. The companies have increased their prices 30% since 2019. Costs for wood pulp, a major component in making diapers, soared between 2021 and the beginning of 2023, driving up consumer costs. However, those costs have gone down 25% over the last year and yet, no such savings have been passed on to American families.

These new findings add to a federal report released late last year showing profits had increased beyond labor costs for the first time in 18 months. President Biden leaned on that report to call out “price gouging” in December of last year, admonishing companies pulling in record profits in a speech on supply chains: “Let me be clear: To any corporation that has not brought their prices back down — even as inflation has come down, even [as] supply chains have been rebuilt — it’s time to stop the price gouging.”

The pandemic exposed how exploitative unchecked corporations have become. After CEOs loudly blamed the Biden administration’s stimulus package for rising costs, numerous studies have come out showing that the causes of rising inflation during the pandemic had very little to do with rising costs of labor or the supply chain. Even as the pandemic began to wind down, costs to consumers remained high and corporate profits continued to surge.

There has been proof positive of price gouging and even collusion. Right-wing media made a lot of hay around the skyrocketing prices of eggs during the pandemic. It turned out that two of the country’s largest egg producers were colluding (and had been for decades) on raising prices. Companies like Chick-fil-A have had to pay out class action lawsuit settlements for their pandemic price gouging. Chick-fil-A continues to raise prices on their food at the expense of the consumer.

Corporate greed and the nature of corporate profits are an important issue for Biden and the Democratic Party to focus on. Polls continue to come out showing that many Americans, though cautiously optimistic about the economy, are not seeing themselves as the benefactors of the improving economy. Even considering how well Biden has managed the economic garbage fire left to him by the former guy, voters aren’t necessarily seeing him as an important force in its reshaping. While many more Americans have jobs—better-paying jobs than they did before Biden and the Democratic Party took the reins—the rising costs continue to outpace them.

PROGRESSIVE LAWMAKERS UNVEIL BILL TO ATTACK ‘DISEASE’ OF CORPORATE GREED. Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep. Barbara Lee, and other progressives in the U.S. Congress have introduced legislation to raise taxes on corporations that pay their top executives over 50 times more than their median workers—a change that would require Walmart, Google and other major companies to pay hundreds of millions of dollars more in taxes each year, Jake Johnson reported at CommonDreams (1/22).

The Tax Excessive CEO Pay Act would incrementally hike a company’s tax rate based on the size of its CEO-to-median-worker pay ratio.

For companies that pay their chief executives more than 50 times as much as their median workers but less than 100 times more, the corporate tax rate would go up by 0.5 percentage points. If a company’s ratio is more than 500 to 1, its tax rate would go up by 5 percentage points.

According to the AFL-CIO’s executive pay tracker, more than 40 U.S. companies have CEO-worker pay ratios over 1,000 to 1, including Apple (1,177 to 1) and McDonald’s (1,224 to 1).

The AFL-CIO is one of more than 20 organizations backing the Tax Excessive CEO Pay Act.

Sanders’ office estimated that a typical McDonald’s worker would have to work for more than 1,200 years to make nearly $17.8 million, which is what CEO Chris Kempczinski was paid in total compensation in 2022. If the Tax Excessive CEO Pay Act had been in place that year, McDonald’s would have paid up to $92 million more in taxes.

The new bill is an updated version of legislation that Sanders first introduced in 2021.

“The American people understand that today we are moving toward an oligarchic form of society where the very rich are doing phenomenally well, while working families continue to struggle to put a roof over their heads, feed their families, and pay for the basic necessities of life,” Sanders (I-Vt.) said.

“The American people are sick and tired of CEOs making nearly 350 times more than their average employees while over 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck,” Sanders added. “At a time of massive income and wealth inequality, the American people are demanding that large, profitable corporations pay their fair share of taxes and treat their employees with the dignity and respect they deserve. That is what this legislation will begin to do.”

The latest available executive pay data, as analyzed by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), shows that top US CEOs on average were paid 344 times more than their typical employees in 2022. Between 1978 and 2022, EPI found, top executive pay skyrocketed by 1,209.2% while worker pay grew by just 15.3%.

Supporters of the Tax Excessive CEO Pay Act argue that it would, if passed, put pressure on companies to raise worker pay. The legislation would also bring in an estimated $150 billion in federal revenue over the next decade, according to a summary.

SENATE FINANCE CHIEF RIPS GOP’S ‘BACKROOM SCHEME’ TO CUT SOCIAL SECURITY, MEDICARE. The chair of the Senate Finance Committee said legislation advanced Jan. 18 by the GOP-controlled House Budget Committee is a “backroom scheme” to cut Social Security and Medicare outside of the regular political process, a warning that came as Republicans signaled their intention to attach the bill to a must-pass government funding measure, Jake Johnson reported at CommonDreams (1/19).

“Republicans in Congress know their plans to gut Americans’ Social Security and Medicare benefits are deeply unpopular, so they are resorting to schemes that short-circuit the legislative process, rushing through cuts to Americans’ earned benefits,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) said of the Fiscal Commission Act, which passed out of the House Budget Committee in a largely party-line vote.

Three Democrats—Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Scott Peters (D-CA), and Jimmy Panetta (D-CA)—joined Republicans in supporting the bill, which now heads to the full House.

Wyden argued that “the term fiscal commission’ is the ultimate Washington buzzword, and it translates to trading away Americans’ earned benefits in a secretive, closed-door process.”

“Instead of trying to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid,” Wyden added, “Republicans should work with Democrats to ensure the wealthy pay their fair share, which would go a long way towards securing Social Security and Medicare long into the future.”

If passed, the Fiscal Commission Act would establish a bipartisan, bicameral, 16-member panel consisting of both lawmakers and individuals from the private sector, all chosen by congressional leaders.

The commission would be tasked with crafting and voting on policy recommendations for Social Security, Medicare and other trust fund programs. If approved by the commission, the recommendations would receive expedited consideration in both the House and Senate, with no amendments to the final document allowed.

Social Security defenders have long warned that the GOP-led push for a fiscal commission is a ploy to slash the New Deal program, which helps keep tens of millions of seniors and children above the poverty line every year.

During the budget committee hearing, Republican members did nothing to assuage concerns about their intentions, voting down a proposed amendment from Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-PA) that said the fiscal commission “shall propose recommendations to strengthen and secure Social Security” by “protecting Social Security benefits” and requiring the wealthy to contribute more to the program.

Republican committee members also rejected Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee’s (D-TX) amendment stating that the fiscal commission “shall propose recommendations to strength-en and secure Medicare” by “protecting the traditional Medicare program” and extending its solvency by “requiring taxpayers with incomes above $400,000 to contribute more” and closing a loophole that allows rich business owners to avoid Medicare taxes.

BIDEN MARKS ROE ANNIVERSARY WITH NEW PROTECTIONS FOR ABORTION. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris commemorated the 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade (1/22), kicking off what will be a year-long campaign to put abortion and reproductive health rights at the forefront in 2024. The White House announced new steps to strengthen protections and access to contraception, abortion medication, and emergency abortions at hospitals, facing Donald Trump and his packed Supreme Court head on, Joan McCarter reported at Daily Kos (1/22).

Biden also presented a 60-second ad featuring Dr. Austin Dennard, an OB/GYN and a mother of three, who fled the state to get an abortion. The fetus she was carrying had a fatal deformity and carrying it potentially threatened her life.

“In Texas, you are forced to carry that pregnancy, and that is because of Donald Trump overturning Roe v. Wade,” Dennard says in the ad. “The choice was completely taken away. I was to continue my pregnancy, putting my life at risk,” she continued. “It’s every woman’s worst nightmare, and it was absolutely unbearable.”

Biden’s statement on the anniversary of Roe makes the stakes of this election clear: Abortion opponents want women in every state to be subjected to what Dennard faced. “Even as Americans—from Ohio to Kentucky to Michigan to Kansas to California—have resoundingly rejected attempts to limit reproductive freedom, Republican elected officials continue to push for a national ban and devastating new restrictions across the country.”

It also puts forced birth advocates on the spot. They want a national abortion ban, but they know that saying that out loud is a political suicide. Even at the Jan. 19 March for Life, prominent lawmakers and activists steered clear from talking about abortion bans, or even from taking a victory lap at having finally succeeded in overturning Roe. Instead, many talked about efforts to divert federal funding to anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers, trying to put a caring face on forcing people to carry unwanted, often dangerous, pregnancies.

BIPARTISAN PLAN COULD EASE CHILD POVERTY — IF GOP WILL LET IT HAPPEN. A bipartisan, bicameral pair of powerful committee chairs have a deal to resurrect (at least partially) the COVID-era child tax credit expansion that raised millions of children up out of poverty. The plan is part of a larger tax proposal agreed upon by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), who is chair of the Senate Finance Committee, and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO), Joan McCarter reported at Daily Kos (1/18).

“Sixteen million kids from low-income families will be better off as a result of this plan, and given today’s miserable political climate, it’s a big deal to have this opportunity to pass pro-family policy that helps so many kids get ahead,” Wyden said when announcing the agreement, which would expire in 2026. The plan would expand the credit to families whose income is too low to receive the full child tax credit. It would also raise the refundable cap on the tax credit from $1,600 per child to $1,800 for the 2023 tax year, to $1,900 in 2024, and $2,000 in 2025.

Wyden didn’t pull that $16 million figure out of thin air. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities analyzed the plan, saying the lawmakers’ “top priority is getting more of the credit to most of the roughly 19 million children who currently get a partial credit or none at all because their families’ incomes are too low.”

“The expansion would meaningfully reduce child poverty,” CBPP wrote. “In the first year, the expansion would lift as many as 400,000 children above the poverty line. Three million more children would be made less poor as their incomes rise closer to the poverty line.”

The proposal is smaller than the American Rescue Plan tax credit expansion passed by Democrats in March 2021. The monthly payments in the pandemic relief program brought a record drop in child poverty rates, keeping about 3 million children from poverty in a matter of a few months. That was before Republicans, along with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), killed it, refusing to extend the program in 2022.

The effects of that expansion expiring were totally predictable: Millions fell back into poverty immediately. “January 2022 marked the first month that the American Rescue Plan’s expanded Child Tax Credit monthly payments expired, and child poverty rates increased sharply in response,” the Center on Poverty and Social Policy reported in early 2022. “Monthly child poverty is 4.6 percentage points (38 percent) higher in February 2022 than December 2021, representing 3.4 million additional children in poverty in February relative to December,” the report said.

The expansion helped families cover household expenses and pay down debt, according to a Census Bureau survey. It found that 59% of families bought food with the money, 52% made utility payments, 45% paid the rent or the mortgage, 44% bought clothing, and 40% paid education costs.

This proposal won’t help as much as the Rescue Plan’s expansion, but it will still provide relief to millions. Wyden and Smith hope to see it passed in time for filing 2023 tax returns, but other Republicans—not wanting to give Democrats anything they can claim as a victory in an election year—might not let that happen. The tax bill has to start in the House, and Speaker Mike Johnson has made no commitments to bring it to the floor.

NEW INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR RULE CAN PROTECT WORKERS. Democrats in Congress and unions were among those applauding (1/16) as the US Department of Labor announced its final rule on when employers can treat workers as independent contractors under the Fair Labor Standards Act, Jessica Corbett reported at CommonDreams (1/17).

“Misclassifying employees as independent contractors is a serious issue that deprives workers of basic rights and protections,” acting Labor Secretary Julie Su said in a statement. “This rule will help protect workers, especially those facing the greatest risk of exploitation, by making sure they are classified properly and that they receive the wages they’ve earned.”

Welcoming the rule—set to take effect in March—the Teamsters said on social media that “it’s long past time for American employers to recognize and respect their employees, to stop exploiting loopholes to pay workers less and deprive them of benefits, and to honor every worker’s right to organize and collectively bargain a union contract.”

Economic Policy Institute (EPI) President Heidi Shierholz highlighted that the rule rescinds a Trump-era policy and, like Su, stressed how “employer misclassification of workers as independent contractors robs workers of labor rights and threatens their economic security.”

“Many workers are harmed by employer misclassification—particularly those in the lowest-wage and most difficult jobs, such as nail salon workers, truck drivers, and construction workers,” Shierholz said. “A previous EPI analysis found that in 11 commonly misclassified occupations, workers misclassified as independent contractors lose out on thousands of dollars in earnings and benefits per year, compared with workers doing the same job with employee status.”

“Since this rule was proposed, opponents of this rule have waged an all-out misinformation war, claiming that independent entrepreneurs and business owners will now be forced into employee status against their will,” the economist noted. “The reality is that if the Trump administration’s rule was allowed to stand, workers with far less power to actually set the terms and conditions of their employment—not bonafide contractors—would have continued to lose out on basic worker protections, earnings, and benefits to which they should be entitled.”

The Washington Post reported Tuesday that “the rule is expected to face an onslaught of legal challenges from companies. It has faced extensive criticism from businesses and industry groups, including those representing Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, and other ride-share and delivery platforms. But labor officials say they have carefully considered possible litigation and are confident that the rule would withstand a court challenge.”

TURNS OUT AMERICANS ARE FEELING PREtTY GOOD ‘VIBES’ ABOUT THEIR FINANCES. If we’ve learned anything from Trump-era post-fact politics, it’s that old polling metrics don’t exactly translate at the ballot box the way they used to, Kerry Eleveld noted at Daily Kos (1/18).

A major part of the 2022 “red wave” narrative was informed by the fact that President Joe Biden’s approval rating was hovering around a dismal 40% and the right track/wrong track numbers were abysmal—net -40s for the final few months of the midterm campaign. In days of old, Democrats, who controlled the White House and both chambers of Congress, would have been toast. Instead, they barely lost the House and miraculously managed to pick up one Senate seat.

The point isn’t that old metrics aren’t meaningful: It’s that we have to view them through a new-era lens. At the same time, pollsters need to find new ways to measure the views of the electorate—particularly ones in which responses aren’t as driven by partisan bias.

The Axios Vibes surveys seem to be an attempt at that. Yes, the name and concept seem almost laughable—except that, well, maybe they’re onto something here.

One of their latest Vibes surveys conducted by Harris Polls finds that, contrary to popular belief, Americans are feeling pretty bullish about their personal finances. Indeed, 63% rated their current financial outlook as good, with 19% calling it “very good.”

Additionally, they feel optimistic about their future finances, with 66% saying 2024 will be better than 2023 and 85% betting they can improve their personal financial situation this year.

These results may seem impossibly rosy to anyone who has been following voters’ views of the economy over the past couple of years. But for one thing, consumer sentiment is actually a lagging indicator as an economy starts to hum again.

As veteran Democratic campaign strategist Joe Trippi tweeted out regarding the poll, “The Lag means this will start to show up in polling long before November….Americans are actually pretty happy with their finances.”

That would be most welcome from a Democratic perspective.

OHIO PASTOR CHARGED FOR OPENING CHURCH TO HOMELESS PEOPLE IN FREEZING WEATHER. A pastor in Ohio was arrested and charged for opening his church to homeless people when extreme cold weather struck his town gained national attention.

Chris Avell, the pastor of an evangelical church called Dad’s Place in Bryan, Ohio, pleaded not guilty Jan. 11 to criminal charges that he broke 18 restrictions in zoning code when he gave shelter to people who might otherwise have frozen to death, Julia Conley reported at CommonDreams (1/19) .

Avell garnered the attention of the Bryan City Zoning Commission last winter, when he invited unhoused people to stay in his church to avoid the cold and snow.

In November, officials told him Dad’s Place could no longer house the homeless because it lacks bedrooms. The building is zoned as a central business, and Ohio law prohibits residential use, including sleeping and eating, in first-floor buildings within business districts.

According to James Causey, a columnist at the *Milwaukee Journal Sentinel*, Avell ignored the commission’s orders and again opened Dad’s Place to the homeless earlier this winter, until police arrived at the church during a New Year’s Eve service and issued the violations.

“Many of these people have been rejected by their families and cast aside by their communities. So, if the church isn’t willing to lay down its life for them, then who will? This is what we’re called to do,” Avell told Fox News.

Dad’s Place is located next to a homeless shelter, but overcrowding at the facility led Avell to begin offering space to unhoused people. “We have put in things people can use, like a shower and a small ability to do laundry,” the pastor told *The Village Reporter* in Bryan. “Some who found this to be a home for them have stuck around.”

Ashton Pittman, editor of the Mississippi Free Press, said Avell’s story was a rare example in the US of “actual religious persecution of a Christian by the state.”

TEXAS GOV. ABBOTT LAMENTS HE CAN’T SHOOT IMMIGRANTS CROSSING BORDER. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott appeared on right-wing gun fetishist Dana Loesch’s “The Dana Show,” recently to talk about his inhumane border policies.

When Loesch asked about the “maximum amount of pressure” he could apply in his border policy, Abbott responded, “We are using every tool that can be used from building a border wall to building these border barriers,” to passing a law that makes it illegal for undocumented immigrants to enter the state. Abbott did note that the latter move was now the subject of a federal lawsuit from the Biden administration questioning a state’s right to make up immigration law, Walter Einenkel noted at Daily Kos (1/11).

Then the Texas governor added, “The only thing that we’re not doing is we’re not shooting people who come across the border because, of course, the Biden administration would charge us with murder.”

Abbott fails to point why the Biden administration would do this: Shooting unarmed people just because you are unhappy about their presence is murder. But while Abbott is pretending the federal government is letting stupid murder laws get in the way, it actually remains to be seen if shooting at migrants in Texas will result in federal or state charges of any kind.

Abbott has done everything in his power to play to the xenophobia that’s so popular among Republicans. He has championed state policies that treat migrants and asylum-seekers in the most inhumane and money-wasting ways imaginable, including bussing people to other states, through dangerous storms, to score political points.

Critics say Abbott’s hysterical rhetoric concerning immigrants and the border has inflamed violence against nonviolent migrants. It isn’t hard to see why Abbott is derided. After all, he did nothing when 19 young Texas children and two adults were gunned down by a AR-15-wielding dirtbag, and now he’s moaning about not being able to shoot unarmed folks wading across rivers and over rough terrain in search of a better life.

From The Progressive Populist, February 15, 2024

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