Ask the powerful five questions

Like wealth of most kinds, power seems to make people smaller. Washington, D.C., (for example) is not known for its champions of selfless idealism.  Yet many of those same people came into politics with a hope of doing good.  I suspect it is a very hard place from which to keep focused on justice.

Tony Benn, Labour‘s second-longest serving member of parliament in the U.K., proposes five plain-spoken questions:

Those might raise a fuss, eh? (h/t Homeyra!)

Here’s another Benn thought-provoker:

“If you talk about a global answer to a global crisis, you can’t just talk about the movement of capital, now we are told all the time we must not have protectionism, but the most powerful protectionism in the world is immigration policy. Capital can move anywhere in the world to boost its profits. But labor can’t move because of the immigration control. Now I am raising huge questions, I recognize that. But if it is legitimate for a big American company to go to Malaysia where the wag[es] are low and triple their profit, why shouldn’t a Malaysian looking for high [wages] just go to America?“

Well?  Immigration as protectionism – now there’s a fresh insight!

Ads target GOP senators who might block stimulus bill

After the bill passed the House without Republican support, a series of ads and publicity campaigns will ask voters to contact GOP senators, enlisting their support.  This one’s directed toward Iowa‘s Chuck Grassley:

Tax cuts and smaller government won’t put people back to work, won’t create demand for manufactured or retail goods, won’t rebuild our nation’s infrastructure, won’t forestall home foreclosures, won’t return money to retirement portfolios, won’t help people get the education they need to care for their families.

Every economist that I’ve read sees stimulus as the best hope for stopping our economic free-fall.  Is this the time for ideological mantras —and partisan politics—or for taking our best shot, together?

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Tags: Grassley, video, stimulus, GOP+opposes+stimulus, Monte Asbury

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