The Backbencher

Redrawing the Lines 11/16/2010

While the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund is and will be primarily concerned with reapportionment of Congress, redrawing of Congressional district lines once detailed population data from the 2010 Census becomes available at the end of this year or early next year, rather than reapportionment at the County Board of Commissioners' level, I thought that you would find this of interest.

I recall that, when the Cass County Apportionment Commission met following the availability of 1990 census data, the Cass County Republicans' Margaret Stanley took the position that racial composition and distribution in Cass County's population should not and could not, as a matter of law, be a consideration in reapportionment of the Cass County Board of Commissioners--that, in fact, was not then the law nor has it been since.

It was, instead, a demonstration of her (and perhaps Republican) claim of "color blindness", color neutrality (meaning in fact a "whites only" view of reapportionment and society), ignoring American history and law in the process.

While wearing "my hat" as chair of the Cass County Democrats, I would occasionally attend Cass County Republican Party Lincoln Day dinners in the 1970's because of being interested in hearing speakers such as then U. S. House Republican Minority Leader Gerald R. Ford speak, as he did in 1973 (and look what happened to him because I went to hear him speak--he became Vice-President and President).

Later, then Gov. William G. Milliken and then State Rep. Dennis O. Cawthorne (now a Lansing lobbyist) spoke at those annual dinners. They would urge some 200-odd attendees to enlarge the party by reaching out to and recruiting people of color to their ranks; the audience did not listen--the only person of color in the audience was Jerry Hart, of Cassopolis (he ran on the Democratic ticket for Cassopolis Village President, served one term and later became a Republican). For years, Mr. Hart was the only person of color there.

In the later 1970's, I heard then U. S. Rep. David Stockman speak at Sturgis to the St. Joseph County Republicans to a "house of perhaps 150 persons. There was no person of color present.

In that day, the 1970's, Republican leaders spoke of and advocated inclusion. The rank-and-file Republicans didn't buy it, didn't agree with it and didn't do it. Unfortunately for the larger American society, that is largely still true.

When I spoke on Sunday, October 17, 2010, at a Marcellus church at a Laity Day Sunday observance as a lay speaker about hate, fear and racism and ended my remarks with urging others in the sanctuary to join with me in saying aloud Jesus' message of the Golden Rule, "Love others as you love yourself," few in the sanctuary joined me.

We as Americans, as Democrats still have a long way to go. Even getting people to utter, give "lip service" is hard

work, let alone getting everyone to accept, respect and honor all human beings, regardless of status or color. When we get there, we will be democrats with a little "d"--that would be progress.

Sincerely yours,

Burke H. Webb

Republican Class Warfare 11/16/2010

Want to know what Republican class warfare on the working and middle classes would look like--the effect on Social Security, Medicare, existing health care, who pays taxes, the budget deficit, the national debt? Read on.

The Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP)'s Paul N. Van de Water have separately analyzed U. S. Rep. Paul D. Ryan (R-WI)'s A Roadmap for America's Future--introduced by Mr. Ryan in the U. S. House of Representatives as H. R. 4529.

Mr. Ryan is the U. S. House Republicans' budgetary guru. What would Mr. Ryan's Roadmap (H. R. 4529) do?

Mr. Van de Water's October 20, 2010, article, "Ryan Plan Makes Deep Cuts in Social Security" (http:www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3308&emailView=1), makes these points--if enacted, Mr. Ryan's plan would::

1. Radically shift resources from the middle class to the wealthiest ("..[.It would provide] the largest tax cuts in history for the wealthy..."),

2. "...Raise taxes on the middle class...",

3. "...[End] guaranteed Medicare benefits...",

4. "...[Partially privatize] Social Security..." for upper income Americans, at the same time requiring Social Security to make up for any shortfall produced by their investing in the stock market (remember Pres. George W. Bush's proposal to privatize Social Security, which went nowhere, especially after the stock market crashed in 2007-2008.),

5. "...[Make] deep cuts in guaranteed Social Security benefits..." and

6. Although Mr. Ryan makes noises about reducing budget deficits and halting the growth in the national debt, his plan, A Roadmap for America's Future (introduced in the U. S. House as H. R. 4529, provides ",,,very large revenue losses relative to current policies. The Roadmap would give the most affluent households a new round of very large, very costly tax cuts by reducing income tax rates on high-income households; eliminating income taxes on capital gains, dividends, and interest; and abolishing the corporate income tax, the estate tax, and the alternative minimum tax. As a result, despite steep cuts in Social Security, Medicare, and other programs, the Roadmap would allow the federal debt to continue growing for decades to come."

Now that's class warfare by the Republicans, with a vengeance. That modifies years ago U. S. Sen. Russell Long's quote of the old doggerel,

"Don't tax you, don't tax me, tax the feller behind the tree."

In Mr. Ryan's rewrite of the American future, "you and me" are the extremely rich. The "feller behind the tree" is the rest of us.

All of this reminds me of two things:

A. Many Republicans, many Congressional Republicans, many Republican candidates this year (Sharon Angle, of Nevada, Joe Miller, of Alaska, Rand Paul, of Kentucky, etc.) remain unreconciled to the existence of Social Security (75 years old), Medicare (45 years old) and a host of other legislation that has benefited and provided a safety net for workers and the middle class. Some Republicans running this year are opposed to the existence of Minimum Wage and Unemployment Insurance Benefits laws.

B. In the mid-1970's, Elwood H. Schneider, Sr., a Kalamazoo stockbroker and next-door neighbor on Clovelly Road, Kalamazoo, to WKZO Radio and TV and Detroit Tigers owner John Fetzer, said at an Oceana County, Michigan, "happy hour" (cocktail hour) one summer weekend that his clients weren't interested in a six per cent rate of return, nor even 12 per cent. Mr. Schneider said, "They don't want to pay any taxes."

Banana republics, where the super rich are few and the small middle class and the poor are many, are highly unstable places. Does America really want to go there? Even the viciously antiunion Henry Ford, Sr., saw the point in paying his workers enough so that they could buy the product they made.

Working and middle class families should know how far Republicans want to go. With that knowledge, would rational and practical voters want to go along? Not likely.

Sincerely yours,

Burke H. Webb