Former President Bill Clinton speaks at the Democratic National Convention in support of Barack Obama for President.
“People the world over have always been impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power.”
That’s a line that will be remembered.
(Visit the videos page here at the DCDC web site to see more memorable speeches from the 2008 Democratic National Convention.)
Cut the budget, rescue New York
BY DAVID A. PATERSON
Thursday, August 14th 2008, 4:00 AM
DelMundo for News
Gov. Paterson says the coming days are crucial for the state.
New York is running out of time to address its budget crisis, but in the coming days we have a real opportunity to fundamentally change the way our state government responds to financial challenges.
Like many other states, New York is in danger of seeing its credit downgraded by rating agencies, and its deficit balloon to nearly $7 billion or more - a point where we will have no option other than massive layoffs and reductions in services like those now being imposed in states like California. But these problems will be manageable if, rather than delaying our response, we take action now.
All too often, government fails to deal with this kind of challenge. It’s always easier to wait and to hope that revenues will increase in the short term, or that we can solve our problems by adding new taxes or borrowing additional funds. That’s exactly what happened in many past fiscal crises, and today we are saddled with debt that depletes the hard-earned tax dollars the people of the state entrust to government.
There is no denying the urgency of our economic woes. In June of last year, 16 of the largest banks that provide the state tax revenue sent $173 million to Albany. In June of this year, that same group sent $5 million. That’s a decline of 97% - a shocking statistic.
I understand the debate and criticisms over my proposal to make cuts now instead of waiting. Having heard the argument, I ask my friends in labor, and other elected officials, to come forward with their solutions to a budget deficit that has increased by $1.4 billion in 90 days.
But I also invite those who are critical of my call to action to disengage from the politics of the past. Suggesting that we seek new revenues by imposing new taxes or quick one-shot gimmicks, or finding ways to collect revenues that are likely to be tied up in years of litigation, is not a solution to the urgent challenge we face.
On Tuesday the Legislature has an opportunity to partner with me and to cover our operating deficit for this year and also significantly reduce our deficit moving forward. To accomplish this, we will have to summon the courage to do more with less and to reduce our investment in many worthwhile programs, initiatives and benefits we could afford in better times. It’s not easy, but it’s the right thing to do. To do less would be irresponsible.
The $600 million in cuts we’re seeking is a measured, critical response to a precipitous shortfall in revenues. While meaningful and serious, these cuts should be kept in perspective: They are a small part of the state’s more than $120 billion budget, but they are a solid down payment on next year’s budget gap. Even after these reductions, spending is still projected to grow by more than 10% in 2009-10, or more than double the rate of inflation. Clearly, we still have a long way to go to control our spending.
These cuts will help ensure that, just like in any family’s budget, our expenses will not exceed our income. It is never easy to cut, but here we have an opportunity to prevent much greater harm to people who depend on the state for health care, education, public safety and other essential services.
For too long, New York has spent too much money, always banking on the hope that tomorrow more and more revenue will come to the state to cover our bills. Now tomorrow has come, and there isn’t enough money.
By acting now to cut our losses we will protect essential services and the jobs of hardworking employees across the state. If we don’t act now, our problems will get much worse and we will be making an unconscionable gamble on our state’s future.
I am confident that my partners in the Legislature will do the right thing when they convene next week.
Paterson is the governor of New York State.
Outstanding editorial in yesterday’s Daily Star by Cary Brunswick, on the subject of that tacky cover published by the New Yorker last month.
I was shocked not by the message itself, because we’ve already heard too many racists and religious fanatics espouse their fear-mongering accusations about Obama’s middle name and American loyalties. There’s been plenty of such paranoid talk.
No, I was surprised and saddened to see a legitimate neo-liberal magazine feeding that paranoia. The drawing’s intent obviously was satire, but the impact on many people will not be.
It would be a sad, sad commentary on the people of these United States of America if, after all this time and all the water under the bridge, we were still so primitive that we couldn’t bring ourselves to vote for a candidate just because of his race.
A lot of people, if you talk to them, will tell you that we Americans are past all that. But, of course, the McCain campaign and their sympathizers are trotting out the old stereotypes and race baiting and religion baiting (inaccurate religion baiting, since Mr. Obama is not a Muslim … and it shouldn’t matter, even if he were). They wouldn’t be doing that stuff if they didn’t have reason to believe it might work.
Did you think the Karl Rove style of political campaigning had fallen by the wayside, just because the man himself left the White House in disgrace? Of course not … not among Republicans!
Let’s just hope that they’re wrong. I don’t know about you, but I would like to have a better opinion of my fellow citizens than that.
So, have you been whining lately?
I know I have. I live in a rural community full of working class families desperately trying to make ends meet. Nothing here is close to anything else (as is the case with most rural communities), so folks are getting killed at the gas pump.
Lots of farmers, so some folks are getting doubly killed at the gas pump.
It’s a Northeastern rural community, which means its going to be pretty cold here in a few months and we still heat most of our homes with heating oil. Which means a lot of families are going to be getting triply killed by those insanely high fuel prices.
And then there’s the price of food. We have a bunch of regional and national chain supermarkets here, which means a lot of what is sold is not locally sourced. And that means our food prices are not any lower than anybody else’s. (I’ve always thought that people who live around farms ought to eat better than anybody else in the country but, alas, that is not the case.)
The local manufacturing plants are cutting jobs. There is nothing here that remotely resembles a real push to develop the local economy and certainly no organized effort to encourage and support local small businesses.
Whine, whine.
(Pause for musical interlude … )
It must be nice to be Phil Gramm, with the sort of income that let’s you call the rest of us hallucinating whiners. It must be real nice.
Technorati Tags: politics, 2008 presidential campaign, economy, Phil Gramm, John McCain, Barack Obama
This year, we’re looking at the real possibility — probability — of giving Governor Patterson the luxury of Democratic majorities in both the Assembly and the Senate to work with.
There are more reasons for that than the fact that, as Democrats, we’d like to elect Democrats.
As New Yorkers, we want to see a real effort at reforming the way things are done in Albany.
Check out this video, to get a crash course in how things happen in our state capital:
