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Towards a just & healthy democracy in the Commonwealth... and beyond!
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Wed Sep 08, 2010 at 11:32:36 AM EDT
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| BOSTON - Jill Stein sparkled in the first televised gubernatorial debate of the 2010 elections, according to her supporters.
"It is now absolutely clear that Jill has the only truly progressive vision in this race." said Daryl Sprague, Stein's campaign manager. "All the others promised deep cuts next year to education, the state workforce, and health care. Jill was the only candidate to propose cutting the big giveaways tucked into the state's economic development portfolio. It was amazing to hear Deval Patrick threaten education and health care and then act as if he didn't hear Jill when she said it would be better to put the $1b in questionable corporate giveaways on the table."
While Baker and Cahill advocated general tax cuts as an all-purpose solution to economic woes, Stein was the only candidate to insist that tax cuts be part of a balanced package making the tax system more progressive.
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| eli_beckerman :: Stein emerges from debate as the progressive choice |
| On health care, Stein noted that "None of the Beacon Hill candidates had a long term solution to the problem of rising health care costs. "None of them were willing to take on the big insurance companies and go after insurance waste, which is consuming one-third of our health care dollars."
Patrick and Baker clashed over whether Baker was responsible for the Big Dig debt. Baker claimed he was involved with only 10% of the project cost. Stein dismissed this entire argument with the observation that "It's time to admit that failure to control costs at the Big Dig was very much a bipartisan problem. The initial Big Dig contract may have been signed under a Republican Administration, but the Democratic Party controlled the state legislature and refused to insist on tight oversight. Both parties were focused on pocketing campaign donations from Big Dig contractors. The solution to problems like this will have to come from outside the Democratic or Republican Parties, with their money-driven political machines. I'm the only candidate calling for the fundamental reforms in campaign finance that can really solve this type of problem."
Stein observed that "The low point for me was when Tim Cahill claimed that undocumented immigrants were taking jobs and resources away from 'our people'. And neither Baker or the Governor offered any clear challenge to this dangerous and divisive assertion. The Governor said only that we already had laws in place to deny services to immigrants, and that crackdowns were a Federal responsibility. I think that anyone who aspires to be the Governor of this Commonwealth should be quick to stand up and stop attempts to turn people against each other - and especially attempts to get struggling people to blame the poorest and least powerful among us for our problems. Our current economic crisis has everything to do with the greed and abuse coming from Wall Street and we need to stop the scapegoating of undocumented immigrants."
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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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