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Towards a just & healthy democracy in the Commonwealth... and beyond!
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Thu Mar 04, 2010 at 17:07:36 PM EST
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(Seems like we're nearing a big turning point in how the people of the state and the nation regard our political economy, and our corporate friends and their corporate pols are trying to speak with a unified voice to defend the status quo. - promoted by eli_beckerman)
Have you heard about the speech given this morning by Speaker of the House Robert DeLeo to the Boston Chamber of Commerce? Sounds like it's going to be a very good year on Beacon Hill for the business lobbyists. But the news isn't so good for the rest of us. Here are some highlights of the speech:
1) Remember all that talk about how casino revenues would be devoted to worthy purposes like education? Now DeLeo has a different idea: the priority is doling casino revenues out as gifts to corporations. You know, building infrastructure for businesses. It's NOT graft - it's economic stimulus. The recent Supreme Court decision allowing corporations to spend unlimited money in campaigns seems to be having its effect already. The politicians aren't even waiting for the money to appear before they sell out. |
| jandrews :: DeLeo's Speech: A Disturbing Vision for Massachusetts |
| 2) According to DeLeo, it's either a job in a casino or joblessness - take your pick. Yes, gambling addiction may ruin lives and wreck families, but DeLeo reminds us "there is also a social cost to joblessness." He doesn't seem to have any alternative vision for our future. Of course, there's the inconvenient truth that studies show casinos also kill jobs by diverting money from other businesses. Guess he hasn't had time to read up on that, being so busy being a big Speaker and all.
3) Community colleges are going to get aligned with business interests. According to DeLeo, "We need to tie our community colleges and vocational schools more closely to specific growth industries in Massachusetts." With the CEOs dictating educational policy, think of all the money they will save on worker training. Who needs educators when we have corporate personnel departments from "specific growth industries" who know what students should be taught?
4) And finally, DeLeo revealed that the budget will be balanced by cuts, cuts, cuts. Forget making businesses give back any of the big tax breaks that have been handed out to them over the last 20 years. "The budget we will propose this spring will not include a tax increase," DeLeo promised. Adequate funding for health, education, and the environment just isn't his job, I guess.
Of the four gubernatorial candidates who will be on the ballot this November only the Green-Rainbow Party's Jill Stein says that we can have a thriving economy without casinos and slot parlors. All the others are debating whether it should be one, two, or three casinos. Stein's alternative vision involves community-based green jobs. She says there's a "jobs bonanza" out there if we start moving to renewable energy. It would be good if she at least got a fair hearing on this alternative, because once a state lets the casino industry in, they tend to take over the political structure. Once you say "yes" you lose the ability to say "no." And that closes down a lot of options. |
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Green Mass Group is an online forum for Green thought and collective action in Massachusetts. It is a community forum for justice, sustainability, democracy and health in the Commonwealth and beyond.
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| Quotes |
"Now, is this the deal I would have preferred? No. I believe that we could have made the tough choices required - on entitlement reform and tax reform - right now, rather than through a special congressional committee process. But this compromise does make a serious down payment on the deficit reduction we need and gives each party a strong incentive to get a balanced plan done before the end of the year. Most importantly, it will allow us to avoid default and end the crisis that Washington imposed on the rest of America."
--President Barack Obama on the debt ceiling "deal"
"Despite Democratic control over the White House, despite Democratic control over the Senate, despite overwhelming opposition from the American people, a small minority of the members of the Republican-controlled House have successfully pushed an extreme right-wing agenda onto the American political landscape. It is an ideology which believes that despite the fact that the rich are getting richer, the middle class is shrinking, and poverty is increasing, all - all of the burden for deficit reduction should rest on working people."
--Independent Senator Bernie Sanders on the debt ceiling "deal"
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Then and Now
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Then...
"Last year Evergreen, a Massachusetts company, agreed to establish their first-ever United States based manufacturing facility here in Massachusetts. They did so, or are doing so, at Devens. They have now agreed and chosen to triple their size at Devens. Their next phase of expansion, right here in Massachusetts, a signature company in a signature sector, and we congratulate all of the folks at Evergreen and look forward to continuing to work with you...
We made a personal commitment to Evergreen for the sake of Evergreen, but also because we wanted to show that there are ways in which state government, in working together with private industry and with the utility companies, could begin to create a different kind of environment, a different kind of business climate here, to grow that sector, and it is happening. It's happening. Evergreen is one of the most prominent examples, but there are a whole host of examples."
--Governor Deval Patrick, April 7, 2008, boasting about state investment in Evergreen.
and Now...
"Evergreen Solar Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection yesterday, completing a stunning reversal of fortune for a high-flying alternative-energy company that once seemed to herald a new era for the Massachusetts economy... At its peak, Evergreen employed roughly 900 people locally and attracted more than $50 million in state support, as its stock price soared above $100 a share.
Yesterday, Evergreen's stock closed at 18 cents. The company shuttered its manufacturing plant in Devens earlier this year and now has only 85 employees left. Massachusetts is one of its top creditors, owed $1.5 million in rent."
--Erin Ailworth, Boston Globe, August 16, 2011
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