'Beyond Unacceptable': Progressives Rip Senate Republicans for Blocking Birth Control Bill

"Today, Republicans showed the American people where they stand: No abortions, and no birth control to prevent the need for one," said Sen. Ed Markey.


BRETT WILKINS

July 27, 2022

Democratic U.S. lawmakers and reproductive freedom advocates on Wednesday denounced Senate Republicans for blocking proposed legislation that would safeguard access to contraception as GOP-led states enact total abortion bans in the wake of Roe v. Wade's reversal.

"These extremists are pulling back the curtain to reveal just how out of touch they are with Americans. Voters won't forget it come November."

Arguing that the bill "purposefully goes far beyond the scope of contraception," Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) objected to a request from Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) to pass the Right to Contraception Act by unanimous consent.

The House of Representatives passed the measure—which would codify the right to obtain and use contraceptives and protect physicians who provide them—last week. Just eight Republican House lawmakers joined all 220 of their Democratic colleagues in voting for the bill.

"It has been nearly 60 years since the Supreme Court decided Griswold v. Connecticut—and affirmed Americans' right to privacy and with it: their right to contraception," Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said in a statement. "So you'd think this would be a settled issue. And for the vast majority of Americans—it is. Yet, as we just saw, somehow—in the year 2022—this isn't a settled issue for Republican politicians."

Markey asserted that "today, Republicans showed the American people where they stand: No abortions, and no birth control to prevent the need for one. The right-wing extremists in the United States Senate and on the Supreme Court are way out of touch with the vast majority of the American people, and yet they still want to tell them what to do with their bodies and their lives.

"While Republicans refuse to protect our fundamental rights as the Supreme Court and right-wing state legislatures take them away," Markey added, "my Democratic colleagues and I will continue our efforts to keep in place the fundamental, privacy-based rights that Americans have had for decades, and codify into federal law the right to contraception."

Progressive activists have been warning that access to contraceptives could be imperiled by the U.S. Supreme Court's right-wing supermajority. In his concurring opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the 6-3 May ruling that voided half a century of constitutional abortion rights, Justice Clarence Thomas explicitly took aim at Griswold—as well as landmark cases legalizing same-sex intimate relations and marriage—as previous high court decisions that should be revisited.

Reproductive rights groups echoed the Democratic senators' frustration and resolve.

"Senate Republicans' refusal to protect contraception access is beyond unacceptable," NARAL Pro-Choice America president Mini Timmaraju said in a statement. "As our country grapples with the ripple effects of the Supreme Court ending the right to abortion, MAGA Republicans continue to find every excuse to exert power and control over us all."

"Contraception is a key way people can decide if, when, and how to start or grow a family," she added, "and these extremists are pulling back the curtain to reveal just how out of touch they are with Americans. Voters won't forget it come November."

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Nearly every House Republican votes against codifying right to contraception

"If they had the chance they would ban it," said Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.).

By

 Julia Conley

 -

July 22, 2022

SOURCECommon Dreams

With many lawmakers expressing disbelief that a law codifying the right to use birth control is needed in the U.S. in 2022, House Democrats passed the Right to Contraception Act on Thursday—joined by just eight Republicans as the party denied access to contraception is under attack.

All 220 Democrats voted in favor of the bill.

“One hundred ninety-five House Republicans just voted against protecting your right to access contraception,” said Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.).

“Birth control is a basic form of healthcare we ALL deserve to access.”

The legislation defines contraception as “any drug, device, or biological product intended for use in the prevention of pregnancy, whether specifically intended to prevent pregnancy or for other health needs, that is legally marketed under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, such as oral contraceptives, long-acting reversible contraceptives, emergency contraceptives, internal and external condoms, injectables, vaginal barrier methods, transdermal patches, and vaginal rings, or other contraceptives.”

Rep. Kathy Manning (D-N.C.) introduced the bill weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court’s right-wing majority overturned Roe v. Wade, eliminating the right to abortion care for millions of women and likely reducing access to abortions even in states where the right is still protected.

In an opinion concurring with the ruling, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that “in future cases, we should reconsider all of the Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell,” naming cases that affirmed Americans have the right to contraception, same-sex relationships, and marriage equality.

Thursday’s vote showed that opposition to contraceptive rights “is not just an opinion of one man,” said Rep. Andy Kim (D-N.J.). “This is their plan.”

“If they had the chance they would ban” contraception, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) added.

Earlier this week, the House passed a bill codifying the right of same-sex couples to marry, with the vast majority of Republicans voting against it.

After the ruling overturning Roe was handed down, a health system in Missouri—where abortion is now banned—temporarily stopped providing emergency contraception, better known as Plan B, saying the state needed to “better define” its abortion ban.

Republicans in Missouri have also tried to stop Medicaid funding from being used for contraception.

GOP legislators on Thursday, however, claimed the right to access contraception is not being threatened, with Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) accusing the Democrats of “spreading fear and misinformation” and calling the bill “a Trojan horse for more abortions.”

After the House bill passed, advocates called on the Senate to promptly pass the Right to Contraception Act, which was introduced by Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) this week.

Republicans in the Senate have also denied people are at risk of losing their right to use contraception, with Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) calling the Democrats’ efforts “pure hysteria.”

“Birth control is a basic form of healthcare we ALL deserve to access,” said the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights after the House bill was passed. “Senate must follow.”

Some US Lawmakers Want to Bar Using Espionage Act to Target Journalists"When one journalist is prosecuted for doing his or her job, that's a threat to all journalists," said Rep. Ro Khanna.
Supporters of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange protest outside London's Old Bailey court as his fight against extradition to the U.S. resumed on September 7, 2020.                         (Photo: Richard Baker/In Pictures/Getty Images

 KENNY STANCIL

July 27, 2022

A trio of congressional lawmakers reintroduced the Espionage Reform Act on Wednesday to prevent reporters from being prosecuted for publishing classified information—a common journalistic practice used to expose government wrongdoing.

"Journalists should never be prosecuted by the government for what they publish. Especially when politicians abuse the law to keep the public in the dark."

Unveiled by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), the measure aims to narrow the scope of the 105-year-old Espionage Act and similar laws enacted during the First World War—ostensibly to protect the United States from spies but, according to critics, to criminalize anti-war dissent, resulting in the imprisonment of nearly a thousand people, including leading socialist Eugene Debs.

The Espionage Act and related secrecy statutes "go far beyond their stated purpose... to prevent government employees and other individuals entrusted with the government's secrets from selling or revealing that information to our enemies," the three lawmakers argue in a summary of the bill, "and have been repeatedly abused by the executive branch to chill investigative journalism and to prevent oversight of illegal government surveillance programs by Congress and the Federal Communications Commission."

The bicameral bill, which is identical to legislation introduced in 2020 but now has bipartisan support, would reaffirm First Amendment protections for journalists who share secret documents and expand avenues for whistleblowers to report government malpractice to members of Congress.

"When one journalist is prosecuted for doing his or her job, that's a threat to all journalists," Khanna said in a statement. "Our nation's strength rests on the freedom of the press and reporters must be allowed to work without fear of persecution."

Wyden echoed Khanna's message, saying: "Journalists should never be prosecuted by the government for what they publish. Especially when politicians abuse the law to keep the public in the dark."

"The Espionage Act currently provides the executive branch with sweeping powers that are ripe for abuse to target journalists and whistleblowers who reveal information some officials would rather keep secret," Wyden continued. "This bill ensures only personnel with security clearances can be prosecuted for improperly revealing classified information and that whistleblowers can reveal classified abuses directly to Congress, federal regulators, and oversight bodies."

According to Khanna, Wyden, and Massie, the bill would:Protect journalists who solicit, obtain, or publish government secrets from prosecution.
Ensure that each member of Congress is equally able to receive classified information, including from whistleblowers. Currently, the law criminalizes the disclosure of classified information related to signals intelligence to any member of Congress, unless it is in response to a "lawful demand" from a committee. This puts members in the minority party and those not chairing any committee at a significant disadvantage.
Ensure that federal courts, inspector generals, the FCC, Federal Trade Commission, and Privacy & Civil Liberties Oversight Board can conduct oversight into privacy abuses.
Ensure that cybersecurity experts who discover classified government backdoors in encryption algorithms and communications apps used by the public can publish their research without the risk of criminal penalties. It is up to governments to hide their surveillance backdoors; academic researchers and other experts should not face legal risks for discovering them.

However, a summary of the bill adds, "every single person convicted, to date, under the Espionage Act could still have been convicted had this bill been the law at the time they were prosecuted."

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This means that Daniel Hale—the whistleblower who one year ago to the day was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for sharing classified materials about the U.S. military's drone assassination program with a journalist—could still have been charged with espionage.

The same is true of Edward Snowden—the former National Security Agency contractor who gave reporters access to a cache of files to sound the alarm on top-secret mass surveillance programs in 2013—along with Reality Winner, John Kiriakou, Chelsea Manning, Jeffrey Sterling, and others.

When it comes to Snowden, "this bill would have no impact," the lawmakers acknowledge. "The bill leaves in place criminal penalties for current and former government employees and contractors who reveal classified information they obtained through a trusted relationship with the government."



In addition, "the government would still be able to prosecute Julian Assange," the lawmakers note, neglecting to explain why the Wikileaks founder who published classified information that revealed U.S. war crimes should not be considered a journalist protected by the bill.

Presumably, Assange would fit under the provision that "keeps in place criminal penalties for foreign spies, individuals who are working for foreign governments, or those violating another federal law, who conspire, aid, or abet a violation" of the Espionage Act and related secrecy laws.

Last month, the United Kingdom approved the extradition of Assange to the U.S., where he has been charged with 17 counts of violating the Espionage Act as well as breaking the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, a minimally defined anti-hacking statute. Charges were originally brought by the Trump administration, which also reportedly considered kidnapping or killing the journalist.

Earlier this month, lawyers for Assange made a final appeal to the U.K's High Court in a last-ditch effort to block his transfer to the U.S. At a demonstration in support of Assange, 79-year-old Gloria Wildman, told Agence France-Presse that the Wikileaks founder has "been in prison for telling the truth."

"If Julian Assange is not free, neither are we; none of us is free," she added.

Only Massie mentions the incarcerated Wikileaks publisher in his statement, saying that "ongoing attempts to prosecute journalists like Julian Assange under the Espionage Act threaten our First Amendment rights, and should be opposed by all who wish to safeguard our constitutional rights now and in the years to come."

Consecutive U.S. presidents have gone to great lengths to prevent leaks and punish government officials for divulging information to reporters. Before Donald Trump launched a "war on whistleblowers," the Department of Justice under Barack Obama prosecuted nine leak cases, more than all previous administrations combined.

Last year, the Washington Post's publisher accused Joe Biden of exacerbating the Trump-era assault on press freedom.

In response, the DOJ prohibited prosecutors from using secret orders and subpoenas to obtain journalists' phone and email records, but the Biden administration continued to prosecute Hale and is also still pursuing the case against Assange despite ongoing opposition from human rights and free press advocates.

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Sanders Warns That 'Like Trump, Bolsonaro Is Attempting to Undermine Democracy in Brazil'

"The enemies of democracy are working together across borders," said the Vermont senator, "and supporters of democracy must do the same."


Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro speaks during the formal launch of his reelection campaign on July 24, 2022 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 

(Photo: Buda Mendes/Getty Images)

JAKE JOHNSON

July 27, 2022

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders warned after meeting with Brazilian civil society leaders on Tuesday that the Latin American country's far-right leader, President Jair Bolsonaro, appears poised to replicate Donald Trump's attempt to subvert the democratic process in a bid to stay in power as he trails in the polls to leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

"Like Trump, Bolsonaro is attempting to undermine democracy in Brazil, the largest country in Latin America," Sanders (I-Vt.) told the Washington Post's Ishaan Tharoor. "It is important that the Biden administration and the U.S. Congress stand for democracy and support the results of the upcoming election. The enemies of democracy are working together across borders, and supporters of democracy must do the same."

"We hope very much that the results of the election will be recognized and respected and that democracy will in fact prevail in Brazil."

Following a playbook that Trump drew from in his 2020 presidential campaign, Bolsonaro has been preemptively casting doubt on the legitimacy of Brazil's October 2 presidential election—including by questioning the integrity of the country's electronic voting machines—before a single ballot has been submitted.

Alarmingly, the leaders of Brazil's armed forces have joined Bolsonaro in questioning the electoral system, heightening fears of an attempted military coup should voters opt to unseat the incumbent leader in favor of Lula, who served as the country's president from 2003 to 2010 and left office massively popular among the Brazilian public.

During an event formally launching his reelection campaign on Sunday, Bolsonaro—who has presided over a disastrous Covid-19 response and accelerated deforestation in the Amazon—declared to cheers from his supporters that "the army is on our side."

"It's an army that doesn't accept corruption, doesn't accept fraud," Bolsonaro said. "This is an army that wants transparency."

This week, as Tharoor reported Wednesday, a "delegation of Brazilian civil society leaders, coordinated by the Washington Brazil Office, a human rights organization, is touring the American capital city and pressing U.S. officials to back Brazil's democratic institutions."

"On Tuesday, they had meetings at the State Department and called on Sen. Bernie Sanders," Tharoor noted. "They will also meet with Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), a member of the House panel investigating the Capitol riot."

The U.S., which supported the 1964 military coup in Brazil that Bolsonaro has praised, has in recent weeks spoken out in defense of the Latin American country's elections, with the State Department calling them a "model for nations in the hemisphere and the world."

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Sanders said that Bolsonaro's attempts to sow doubt and suspicion about the integrity of Brazil's upcoming presidential election "sounds all too familiar to me because of the efforts of Trump and his friends to undermine American democracy."

"So I'm not surprised that Bolsonaro would try to do the same in Brazil," the Vermont senator added. "We hope very much that the results of the election will be recognized and respected and that democracy will in fact prevail in Brazil."



In a column for The New Republic on Wednesday, historian Andre Pagliarini noted with trepidation that "Bolsonaro is right, to a point, that the army is on his side: He has stuffed his administration with men in uniform who have so far proved willing to back his authoritarian designs."

"Crucially, however, the active-duty heads of every military branch insist they will not support anything other than the proper constitutional order," Pagliarini continued. "Bolsonaro retains a strong core of support among the law-and-order crowd, a segment of the population more likely than most to be armed in a country where, compared to the U.S., it is still relatively difficult to purchase guns."

"One can only hope," he added, "that the military and the police stay out of the election and that Bolsonaro's fate is the same as Trump's: to crawl unceremoniously out of the presidential palace and await possible criminal indictments."

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CPAC Welcoming Orbán at Dallas Summit Days After 'Pure Nazi' Speech

"Orbán didn't speak into being a new project, he articulated one that's already unfolding," said one critic.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stands in front of a U.S. flag after addressing a keynote speech during a session of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Budapest, Hungary on May 19, 2022. (Photo by Attila Kisbenedek/AFP via Getty Images)

JULIA CONLEY

July 27, 2022

With right-wing officials suggesting there is not yet enough evidence of Hungarian authoritarian Viktor Orbán's racist views despite his recent speech which has drawn comparisons to Nazi propaganda, the largest annual gathering of conservatives in the U.S. is moving forward with plans to host the prime minister next week.

"Let's listen to the man speak," Matt Schlapp, chair of the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC), said Tuesday, ahead of the group's summit scheduled to take place in Dallas next week. "We'll see what he says."

"I don't know how you didn't notice that the speech you delivered is a purely Nazi diatribe worthy of Joseph Goebbels."

CPAC's welcoming of Orbán shows that his "racist speech [is] welcomed there," said MSNBC columnist Ruth Ben-Ghiat.

Speaking to supporters in Romania last weekend, Orbán said Hungarians "do not want to become a mixed race" and that countries where Europeans and non-Europeans live amongst each other are no longer nations. He added that a "flood" of migrants and asylum-seekers is being "forced" on Hungarians.

Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu called Orbán's comments "unacceptable" and the prime minister's long-time adviser, Zsuzsa Hegedus, announced her resignation from his government over what she called the "pure Nazi" speech.

"I don't know how you didn't notice that the speech you delivered is a purely Nazi diatribe worthy of Joseph Goebbels," Hegedus wrote in an op-ed directed at Orbán.

Right-wing leaders drew condemnation earlier this month when they invited Orbán to speak at CPAC in Dallas and in May when they held an auxiliary meeting of CPAC in Hungary. At that gathering, the Hungarian leader advised the Americans present to take control of the media in order to hold onto power.

Writer Zack Hunt said conservatives are still welcoming Orbán to CPAC "because" of his speech in Romania, not "despite" his comments.



With his recent speech, wrote Emily Tamkin at The New Statesman on Tuesday, Orbán described "the world European and American conservatives are trying to create":

The language of preserving the purity of white America, of protecting it from other, non-white people, permeates policy... Orbán’s speech isn't about the threat to any one law, or case, or policy. That his vision is wholeheartedly embraced by the American right isn't about that either. It's a threat to many. Or, rather, it’s not only a threat to policy, but to all those, everywhere, who do not wish to live in a society where full membership is dependent on race, or religion, or sexuality. Orbán didn't speak into being a new project, he articulated one that's already unfolding.

Orbán gave his speech in Romania "with apparently zero fear that his words would impact his participation at CPAC," said business consultant Jeff Kemp. "It's very possible that he said what he did because he reckoned that it might heighten audience anticipation for his CPAC appearance."
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CHIPS GIVEAWAY
Progressives Slam Senate Passage of $76 Billion 'Corporate Giveaway'

"Rather than give aid to needy American families," said one progressive group, "the Senate decided to rise to the occasion to cut taxes for already-profitable technology companies like Intel."

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) speaks alongside a bipartisan group of senators following passage of the CHIPS Act on July 27, 2022. (Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

JAKE JOHNSON

July 27, 2022

The U.S. Senate on Wednesday passed sweeping bipartisan legislation that Sen. Bernie Sanders and progressive advocacy groups decried as a massive giveaway to corporations such as Intel, whose CEO has been lobbying aggressively in support of the bill's subsidies for the profitable microchip industry.

"Congress should be ashamed to pass this corporate giveaway after a year of complete failure to do anything whatsoever for needy American families."

Known as the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) Act, the $280 billion legislation is purportedly an attempt to bolster domestic manufacturing and alleviate the U.S. shortage of microchips, which are used in cars, phones, medical equipment, and other everyday electronic devices.

Intel congratulated the Senate on its vote, hailing it as a step toward advancing "American leadership in semiconductor manufacturing" and strengthening "American national and economic security."

But Sanders (I-Vt.) has repeatedly warned that the bill's $52 billion in subsidies for the microchip industry—as well as its $24 billion in tax credits for semiconductor plants—lack safeguards to prevent companies from using the taxpayer money to buy back their own stock, offshore U.S. jobs, or fight unionization efforts.

Sanders was the only member of the Senate Democratic caucus to vote against the bill, which passed by an overwhelming margin of 64-33. The House is expected to follow suit later this week.

In a speech ahead of Wednesday's vote, the Vermont senator reiterated his criticism of the measure, characterizing it as a no-strings-attached handout to profitable companies.

"Whenever it comes to protecting the needs of low-income or working families, I hear over and over again, 'We just cannot afford to do that because of the deficit,'" Sanders said. "All of that profound and serious concern about the deficit fades away when it comes to providing a $76 billion blank check to the highly profitable microchip industry with no protections at all for the American taxpayer."

In a statement following the bill's passage, Morris Pearl, the chair of the Patriotic Millionaires, said that "after months of paralysis on Build Back Better, today the Senate finally took action."

"But rather than give aid to needy American families... the Senate decided to rise to the occasion to cut taxes for already-profitable technology companies like Intel," said Pearl. "I'm sure this is great for billionaires like [Intel co-founder] Gordon Moore, but it doesn't do a thing for millions of Americans who need support in these challenging economic times. And it won't do much to encourage companies to invest in chip fabrication—Intel is already building chip factories as fast as they can."

As Recode's Rebecca Heilweil wrote Wednesday, "while its biggest champions have connected the CHIPS Act to the ongoing chip shortage, the legislation won't really help, at least in the short term."

"The chip factories produced by this package won't be complete for years, and the bulk of the funding won't necessarily go toward basic chips, also known as legacy chips, which account for much of the ongoing shortage," Heilweil explained. "And that shortage may be nearing its end anyway."

Echoing Sanders, Pearl said that "there are so many things that our government could do to decrease the gross inequality that is spreading like a cancer in our nation; it is hard for me to believe that they want to run for reelection with a platform of giving tax breaks to some of the biggest and most successful companies in our nation."

"Congress should be ashamed," he added, "to pass this corporate giveaway after a year of complete failure to do anything whatsoever for needy American families."
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'Racism—Pure and Simple': Buffett Lender Redlined Philly-Area Homebuyers, Says DOJ

"This settlement is a stark reminder that redlining is not a problem from a bygone era," said Kristen Clarke, an assistant U.S. attorney general, announcing a $20 million deal with Trident Mortgage.


Billionaire businessman Warren Buffett speaks at a Fortune Most Powerful Women in Washington, D.C. on October 26, 2013. (Photo: Fortune Live Media/flickr/cc)

BRETT WILKINS

July 27, 2022

The U.S. Justice Department announced Wednesday that a mortgage company owned by billionaire businessman Warren Buffett engaged in an illegal "pattern or practice of lending discrimination" by "redlining" in the Philadelphia area, and will pay $20 million in a settlement agreement.

"The complaint also alleges that Trident's employees exchanged emails where they referred to neighborhoods of color as 'ghettos' and made racist jokes."

The DOJ, which launched a Combatting Redling Initiative last October, is calling the deal the first it has ever reached with a nonbank lender and the second-largest settlement in the agency's history involving the illegal practice of denying mortgage loans to potential homebuyers of color.

The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau alleged in a complaint filed Wednesday that from at least 2015 until 2019, Trident Mortgage Company—which is owned by Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc.—violated the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act by avoiding "providing home loans and other home mortgage services in majority-minority neighborhoods" in metropolitan Philadelphia, including in New Jersey and Delaware. The lender also "discouraged those living in, or seeking credit to purchase properties in, these neighborhoods from seeking or applying for credit from Trident."

Under the terms of the agreement, Trident will invest over $20 million in boosting credit opportunities in neighborhoods of color in the Philadelphia metropolitan area.

"This settlement is a stark reminder that redlining is not a problem from a bygone era. Trident's unlawful redlining activity denied communities of color equal access to residential mortgages, stripped them of the opportunity to build wealth, and devalued properties in their neighborhoods," said Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general of the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, announcing the deal.

"Along with our federal and state law enforcement partners, we are sending a powerful message to lenders that they will be held accountable when they run afoul of our fair lending laws," she added.

Speaking at a Wednesday press conference announcing the settlement, Clarke said that "Trident's office locations were concentrated in majority-white neighborhoods, and that Trident's loan officers were directed to not to serve—and did not serve—the credit needs of neighborhoods of color."

"The complaint also alleges that Trident's employees exchanged emails where they referred to neighborhoods of color as 'ghettos' and made racist jokes," she added. "There's even a photo of a senior Trident manager posing in front of a Confederate flag."

Jacqueline Romero, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, asserted that "for far too many years Philadelphia's Black, Latino, and other communities of color have lacked equal access to lending and legal deed ownership. These historically redlined areas of Philadelphia continue to experience disproportionate amounts of poverty, poor health outcomes, limited educational attainment, unemployment, and violent crime."


Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said that "this was systemic racism—pure and simple. This is about real people. People who were ignored and who were harmed and left behind."

Although redlining officially ended following the passage of the Fair Housing Act in 1968, studies have shown the policy persists in practice in scores of metropolitan areas across the nation. Additionally, communities that were redlined remain predominantly minority and low-income today. A 2015 study by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition found that in Baltimore, race—and not economic status—was the most important factor in mortgage lending. Formerly redlined communities also face greater climate-related risks.

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With Latest Rate Hike, Progressive Critics Say Fed 'Making a Big Mistake'

"Rate hikes will force millions of Americans into joblessness and make families poorer," said economist Robert Reich. "It's the last thing we need right now."

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell testifies during a Senate hearing on July 15, 2021. 

(Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)

KENNY STANCIL

July 27, 2022

The U.S. Federal Reserve is on the verge of causing a disastrous surge in unemployment, progressives said Wednesday after the nation's central bank raised interest rates for the second consecutive month—doubling down on its dogmatic quest to reduce prices even as slowing wage growth offers more evidence that inflation is being driven by corporate profiteering and supply chain issues rather than excess demand.

"Our country's lowest-paid, most vulnerable workers have endured too much already to be sacrificed in pursuit of severe rate hikes."

"Rate hikes will force millions of Americans into joblessness and make families poorer," University of California, Berkeley public policy professor Robert Reich wrote on social media after the Fed once again increased its benchmark policy rate by 75 basis points. "It's the last thing we need right now."

"Every time over the last half-century the Fed has raised interest rates this much and this quickly, it has caused a recession," Reich continued.

The string of rate hikes that began in March and has intensified this summer represents the central bank's most forceful cycle of monetary tightening since 1981, when then-Fed Chair Paul Volker imposed an unprecedented regime of financial austerity that is now widely seen as a key turning point in the ruling class-led assault on working-class living standards.

"Working people are already struggling," added Reich, who served as labor secretary under former President Bill Clinton. "The Fed is making a big mistake."

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Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, also responded with concern to the Fed's latest rate hike.

"With the Federal Reserve's pace of monetary tightening now the fastest in decades, I have serious concerns that President [Joe] Biden's promise to 'grow the economy from the bottom up and the middle out' is now at risk," Jayapal said in a statement. "We are all concerned about the impact of inflation and rising costs, but today's decision to raise interest rates will do nothing to address their primary causes."

Jayapal noted that Fed Chair Jerome Powell has admitted that soaring energy and food prices "are in fact related to the pandemic, supply chain disruptions, and the war in Ukraine—that supply constraints, not excess demand, are responsible for persistent inflation."

"By hiking interest rates to deliberately slow the economy, the Fed could cause hardship to millions of Americans by unnecessarily increasing joblessness, while failing to significantly reduce the price of essential goods and services," said Jayapal. "These rate hikes also threaten to deter companies from making the investments needed to expand the economy's productive capacity."

Polling released earlier this month showed that a majority of U.S. voters are opposed to precipitating a recession to tame inflation.

COMMON SENSE

Poll Shows Majority of US Voters Oppose Triggering Recession to Battle Inflation

"At a time when the Biden administration has been working to reach full employment—creating nearly 9 million jobs and decreasing unemployment to among its lowest levels in 50 years—raising interest rates risks reversing that trend," Jayapal continued, "and could force employers to lay off employees who just got back to work, or slow hiring altogether."

"Just as the burden of high costs is not borne equally, so is the impact of interest rate hikes," she added. "Full employment allows for much-needed income gains, particularly within the bottom spectrum of wage earners—and during high unemployment, disadvantaged, lower-paid, and Black and Latino workers are disproportionately harmed."

"A lost paycheck or even lost hours would far exceed the extra monthly costs due to inflation."

Jayapal urged the Fed to "exercise the utmost caution going forward and resist the urge to further raise interest rates. With wage growth declining in recent months, our country's lowest-paid, most vulnerable workers have endured too much already to be sacrificed in pursuit of severe rate hikes that have far too often triggered recessions."

Claudia Sahm, a former Federal Reserve and White House economist in the Obama administration, argued Wednesday in a Financial Times opinion piece that the notion that "the U.S. needs a recession to bring inflation down... hinges on a simplistic model of the economy and a refusal to see Covid and the war in Ukraine as important sources of inflation now. The stakes are too high to rely on such a questionable approach."

"A recession is worse than inflation," wrote Sahm. "A lost paycheck or even lost hours would far exceed the extra monthly costs due to inflation."

Moreover, "there is no increase in the unemployment rate that would produce microchips for new cars, end China's lockdowns, defeat [Russian President] Vladimir Putin, drill oil, and build apartments," she continued. "The Fed raises interest rates and lowers demand, cooling off the labor market. Whether it inadvertently causes a recession or not, higher interest rates would not fix the supply problems and would probably make some worse by discouraging investments."

"Congress should help ease inflation, too," Sahm wrote. "For example, it could pass legislation to keep health insurance premiums low, reduce tariffs, build affordable housing, and fund sustainable energy production. Only a handful of measures would bring down inflation quickly, but they would all pay off in the coming years and make the U.S. economy more resilient in the next crisis."

"We must aim to protect workers and their families and bring inflation down," she added. "These two goals need not be in tension, but it will take more than outdated rules of thumb and a misunderstanding of our economic challenges to do both. We need many things today; a recession is not one of them."

Jayapal and Sahm were both echoing arguments made earlier this week by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), whose Wall Street Journal op-ed not only made the case for why the Fed's current approach is "largely ineffective against many of the underlying causes of this inflationary spike," but also implored her party, which narrowly controls Congress, "to help working families survive."

Much of the Democratic Party's domestic agenda remains stalled thanks to ongoing obstruction from Senate Republicans and right-wing Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.), who has repeatedly cited inflation to justify his opposition to new, filibuster-proof spending designed to improve the public good.

As Warren argued Sunday, however, many of the progressive policies that Manchin is blocking would help bring down the sky-high costs hurting working households.

"Investing in high-quality, affordable child care would lower costs by bringing more than a million parents into the workforce," she wrote. "Ending tax breaks for offshoring and investing in American manufacturing would create good jobs and strengthen supply chains. Allowing Medicare to negotiate prices for prescription drugs would lower healthcare costs. And giving the Biden administration more tools to bolster competition policy would help crack down on price gouging by large corporations."

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House Dems and Shireen Abu Akleh's Family Urge US to 'Hold Her Killers Accountable'"When Americans are killed abroad it is more or less standard procedure for our government to open an investigation," said Rep. Rashida Tlaib. "But when the murderers wear Israeli uniforms, there is complete silence."

Activists take part in a candlelit vigil outside the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for West Asia building in Beirut to denounce the killing of Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh. (Photo: Marwan Naamani/picture alliance via Getty Images)


BRETT WILKINSJuly 28, 2022


Progressive U.S. lawmakers on Thursday joined relatives of Shireen Abu Akleh in demanding the Biden administration thoroughly and transparently investigate the Israeli military's killing of the Palestinian-American journalist, with one congressman introducing a bill that would require such a probe.

"From Day One the Israeli government has denied Shireen's murder. There is no reason for them to be conducting an investigation."

"We want to know who pulled the trigger, and why," said Victor Abu Akleh, a nephew of the 51-year-old Al Jazeera reporter, outside the U.S. Capitol. "And we want there to be accountability for the system that gave the green light, so that other families don't suffer the way that we have. The reality, of course, is that in Palestine, our family's grief is not unique."

Speaking at the press conference, Rep. André Carson (D-Ind.) announced the Justice for Shireen Act, proposed legislation that would require the State Department and FBI to investigate Abu Akleh's killing and publish a report on their findings.

"We need answers to hold the perpetrators fully accountable," said Carson, who called the killing an "attack on the Fourth Estate, the free press, which is vitally important to our society."

"From Day One the Israeli government has denied Shireen's murder. There is no reason for them to be conducting an investigation," he continued. "It makes it more important for our government to conduct our own investigation. Shireen needs justice. Every American killed abroad is entitled to our protection. Every human killed, American or not, deserves justice, Palestinians included."

Demanding that the Biden administration investigate the killing of U.S. citizens by Israeli forces, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.)—who is Palestinian-American—said Abu Akleh's death "was not an accident."

Tlaib said it was "shameful" that "Shireen's family is forced to come here and demand that the State Department and our government... hold her killers accountable and prevent this awful tragedy from repeating itself again and again and again."

"Maybe, for some of my colleagues, they need to take out the word 'Palestinian' from 'Palestinian-American' for her life to matter," she speculated. "We have different standards applied when it comes to Israel even as they kill Americans, including 78-year-old Omar Asad or... Rachel Corrie," the 23-year-old International Solidarity Movement volunteer crushed to death in 2003 by an Israeli bulldozer while trying to prevent the destruction of Palestinian homes in Gaza.

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"When Americans are killed abroad it is more or less standard procedure for our government to open an investigation. But when the murderers wear Israeli uniforms, there is complete silence," Tlaib lamented. "Poor Rachel Corrie's family to this day has been waiting for justice since 2003 and still nothing... I knew when her family didn't get justice that Israel would have impunity for future killings of Americans."

Reps. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) also spoke at the press conference. Ocasio-Cortez asserted that President Joe Biden should meet with Abu Akleh's relatives.

"Shireen and her family deserve to be treated the same way that any other American would be in this situation," the Squad member insisted. "An American journalist was killed abroad by a foreign army, by a sniper. This situation demands a thorough and objective investigation."

In a Wednesday Washington Post opinion piece, Lina Abu Akleh, Shireen's niece, noted that multiple investigations—including by United Nations officials and media outlets such as the Post and The New York Times—all concluded the journalist was killed by Israeli fire.

"Yet I read with bewilderment a statement that the Biden administration issued on July 4," she wrote. "Based on reviewing and summarizing the Israeli government and Palestinian Authority's investigations, the United States concluded that Israel was likely responsible for my aunt's killing, but that there was no reason to believe that it was intentional."

"I was alarmed. Why was the Biden administration repeating Israel's spin, given the lengths that the Israel military has gone to manipulate the events around Shireen's killing?" she asked. "Israel initially blamed Palestinians, circulating a misleading video that human rights organizations quickly debunked. Then, an Israeli military spokesman went so far as to suggest that journalists such as Shireen are 'armed' with cameras."

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Abu Akleh lamented that a Wednesday meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken failed to secure a commitment to investigate her aunt's killing.

"We fully understand the U.S. government's role in fueling the belief of Israeli leaders and soldiers that they enjoy impunity for their actions," she wrote. "Yet this is why it is all the more urgent for my family to impress this message upon the administration: Biden can stop this pattern. He can pledge to pursue meaningful accountability for my aunt, starting with a commitment to conduct an independent U.S. investigation in Shireen's case."
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