Silver Spring I couldn’t believe this when I read it, but somehow Congress and the Bush Administration managed to figure out a way to garnishee social security and disability payments for seniors by eliminating the 10 year statute of limitations on collecting certain debts owed to the federal government. Did you know this? Amazing that while we should be committed to building citizen wealth, instead we are trying to play gotcha with the elderly to attach their small social security checks for federal government debt claims in many cases for an indefinite period. Thanks to Ellen Shultz in an article in the Wall Street Journal called “Seniors Lose Shield on Debts.”
Here’s the horror:
◦ Before you count on social security payments for your senior years, realize that the government can demand payback on veterans payments for health care, defaulted farm and small business loans, student loans (!), income taxes, and almost any other debt, though I’m not sure about housing loans. I would bet it could include hurricane recovery loans.
Washington It’s not spring here, but finally there is a briskness in peoples’ step. Tomorrow there is a major rally for heath care reform called by Health Care for America Now (HCAN), and on Sunday, March 21st, the forces in favor of comprehensive immigration reform are rallying, praying, and marching on the Mall, hopefully with significant numbers. There are front page stories wondering how the Obama administration got so off message, and there’s a real race in Arkansas with Senator Blanche Lincoln dying in the middle of the road. Something good is bound to come of the reemergence of progressives from the lassitude of mindless hope and passivity. Hooray!
But…increasingly there seems to be blood in the water as the Administration becomes the gang that can’t shot straight. Evidence is piling up:
◦ Weatherization strategy for creating jobs and helping working families seems to be nowhere after more than a year. Energy Secretary frustrated, but how hard could this have been?
◦ Teachers all fired in Rhode Island to take the blame for god knows what, probably just to take the blame and the President of the United States weighs in with a gut punch. Why in the world is Obama in this picture?
◦ Big talk about increasing school hours to better education the kids, but school districts strapped for money are cutting down to 4 days per week. Mr. President?
◦ A year after a new administration, don’t ask me about post-Katrina recovery.
Why pile on? The list could go on and on. Maybe if people get their legs moving and voices louder it won’t breakthrough the Congressional logjam, but at least people will start remembering that we only win, when we fight.
New Orleans Two weeks ago we talked about the fact that guest workers might start to get some justice. New DOL regulations are requiring that companies actually look for workers locally before being able to pull migrants in from foreign lands, and they are going to have to pay them more. I saluted the effort, but was skeptical.
It did not take long to find some proof of my skepticism. There was an ad placed under “employment” in the Arkansas Times, a weekly in Little Rock that is largely entertainment ads and a couple of news and current events pieces. The ad was a classic:
“FIELD WORKERS-8 temporary positions; approx 10 months; Duties: to operate tractors during the preparation of the sugar cane crop before, during, and after the harvesting season. $9.09 per hour; Job to begin on 4/1/10 through 2/1/11. 3 months experience required in job offered. Must pass drug test. All work tools provided. Housing and transportation provided to workers who can not reasonably return to their permanent residence at the end of the work day; guaranteed of contract. Employment offered by A&M Farms, Inc. located in New Iberia, LA. Qualified applicants send resume to Guy Viator at (225) 766-0994.”
New Orleans There is no better example of the “theory” of democracy versus the practice that what you find in looking at non-existent voice of shareholders in modern corporations. The biscuit-cookers, as an Arkansas mogul famously called them, who own 30% of the shares of public companies are lucky in most cases to be afterthoughts. All of which is not to say that those of us who often need to leverage big corporations to do the right thing have not done shareholder resolutions dozens of times, sometimes even successfully.
All of which made a piece in the Times catch my eye, particularly when it included a quote from a guy with the Millstein Center for Corporate Governance and Performance at Yale (this name is too long, I give up!) who said: “Up until now, it’s been sort of a Soviet system. We have been operating in the United States under the myth that boards have been accountable to shareholders.” Right on there!
Basically, the rally cry was for the small fry to unite some kind of a way and make their votes (they have no real voice) heard.
They touted a new-ish effort called Moxy Vote (www.moxyvote.com). I checked it out, and it’s interesting enough. I’m sure it attracted the reporter’s attention because of its cartoonish (and effective) graphics. The upshot is that they would like to have small shareholders vote together from their website which is connected to a list of recommendations from advocates.
Silver Spring I couldn’t believe this when I read it, but somehow Congress and the Bush Administration managed to figure out a way to garnishee social security and disability payments for seniors by eliminating the 10 year statute of limitations on collecting certain debts owed to the federal government. Did you know this? Amazing that while we should be committed to building citizen wealth, instead we are trying to play gotcha with the elderly to attach their small social security checks for federal government debt claims in many cases for an indefinite period. Thanks to Ellen Shultz in an article in the Wall Street Journal called “Seniors Lose Shield on Debts.”
