Banks Need to Have More Skin in the Game

If you only contact your US Representative and Senators about one thing this year, it should be about putting in place sensible banking regulations.

Check out this New York Times opinion piece to find out why:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/26/opinion/were-all-still-hostages-to-the-big-banks.html

Here's a sample:

Prudent banks would not lend to borrowers like themselves unless the risks were borne by someone else. But insured depositors, and creditors who expect to be paid by authorities if not by the bank, agree to lend to banks at attractive terms, allowing them to enjoy the upside of risks while others — you, the taxpayer — share the downside.

Implicit guarantees of government support perversely encouraged banks to borrow, take risk and become “too big to fail.” Recent scandals — JPMorgan’s $6 billion London trading loss, an HSBC money laundering scandal that resulted in a $1.9 billion settlement, and inappropriate sales of credit-card protection insurance that resulted, on Thursday, in a $2 billion settlement by British banks — suggest that the largest banks are also too big to manage, control and regulate.

NOTHING suggests that banks couldn’t do what they do if they financed, for example, 30 percent of their assets with equity (unborrowed funds) — a level considered perfectly normal, or even low, for healthy corporations. Yet this simple idea is considered radical, even heretical, in the hermetic bubble of banking.

When we deposit money in a bank, we are lending it to the bank and they invest it.  If banks were risking more of their own money (equity) and that of their shareholders' (potential dividends), they would be inclined to take fewer risks with our money.

Calling out Republican "Insurgents"

It's not just ideology on steroids, it's a plan.  A plan to sabotage the Obama administration.  It involves taking hostages - and they are us.

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/17993-are-you-prepared-to-shoot-the-hostage

After you read this, you might just want to let Republicans in Congress know what you think.

Republicans in Congress are taking US health care in the wrong direction

OK, I get that Tea Party Republicans hate President Obama and are automatically against whatever he tries to do.  They have done and are doing everything imaginable to get rid of the Affordable Care Act / ObamaCare.  Then they point to delays in implementation of a few provisions of the ACA (which they helped cause by moves like the sequester of funds that's degrading services to all of us) as proof that ObamaCare should be repealed.

If you want to get the big picture of why the Affordable Care Act is so important for all of us, I recommend this video: http://www.iihealthcare.org/iihealthcare-blog/2011/8/31/the-future-of-us-healthcare.html. It's one you'll want to share with your representatives in Congress, especially those who think the private sector (insurance companies) is going to put the health of people above profits. Tell your representatives to back off and give ObamaCare a fair chance.

The Problem Republicans Refuse to Address

Here's an excellent video explaining how the current situation of inequality in America developed.

Inequality exists, but it doesn't have to.  Tell Congress to fix it.  We'll have to lean heavily on Republicans because they don't think it's a problem.

Senator Carl Levin promises to tackle "secret money" before leaving at the end of his term

Although I'm sad to hear that Senator Carl Levin (D - MI) will not be running again in 2014, I'm happy to know that one of his priorities during the next two years is doing something about the "secret dollars" flowing into political campaigns.  From Senator Levin's recent email:

A third item I want to tackle is a growing blight on our political system that I believe I can help address: the use of secret money to fund political campaigns. Our tax laws are supposed to prevent secret contributions to tax exempt organizations for political purposes. My Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations needs to look into the failure of the IRS to enforce our tax laws and stem the flood of hundreds of millions of secret dollars flowing into our elections, eroding public confidence in our democracy.

In my opinion, "secret money" as well as big, but not-so-secret money is the main reason the Republicans in Congress are refusing to consider increasing revenue through closing tax loopholes that are essentially welfare for the wealthy and corporations.  As a result, average citizens have to bear cuts like these:  32 of the most damaging Sequester cuts.

Many of the biggest donors to Republicans, for example, the Koch brothers oil & gas barons,  do not like government and have an "I've got mine, to heck with the rest of you" attitude.  Their political agenda includes issues like these:

Repealing health care reform
Dismantling collective bargaining rights*
Fighting Wall Street reform
Keeping corporate money in elections

* Michigan becomes a "Right to Work" state later this month in large part because big money from the Kochs and Michigan's own Dick DeVos was used to bludgeon the Republicans with threats of funding "righter" candidates to run against them.

As Involved Voters, we need to get the message out about what happens when we let our government go up for sale to the highest bidder.  One dollar, one vote is the opposite of democracy and is counter to our Constitution.

Wealthy-fare: THE Republican Priority

There's a perfect storm brewing for Michigan's middle and low income folks.  The components are the Republican's changes in the Michigan Tax Code and the plans that Congressional Republican's have for protecting tax breaks for the wealthiest among us.

Read about the Michigan situation here:
http://www.freep.com/article/20130216/NEWS06/130216005

And for information about what Republicans in Congress have in mind, check out this article and accompanying graphic:
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/budget/news/2013/02/15/53606/infographic-60s-retro-budget-plan-by-republicans-unfit-for-today-2013-update/

Let your representatives at the State and Federal level know how the changes are affecting you.

How to Separate the Electoral College Even More from the Popular Vote

Plans are afoot in Michigan (and elsewhere) to change how the State awards its electoral votes in presidential elections by dropping the winner-take-all system for one based on the winner of each of the state's congressional districts.

According to the plan, for the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, Michigan would award 14 of its 16 electoral votes according to the U.S. House district lines drawn by Republicans in 2011 to favor Republican candidates. (As evidenced by the fact that almost twice as many Michigan citizens voted for Democratic candidates as for Republicans, but the Republicans won more of the races.)

Governor Rick Snyder has signaled he is willing to consider this major change in how electoral votes are allocated in Presidential elections.  He told The Associated Press for a story looking at Republican efforts to drop the winner-take-all system in states that have reliably gone for the Democratic presidential nominee in recent elections that he "could go either way."

Here's an example of what the change could mean: According to an analysis by Daily Kos, in 2012, Republican Mitt Romney would have won nine of the districts and President Barack Obama the other five, so Mr. Romney would have pulled nine electoral votes to seven for Mr. Obama, who won the state by 9.5 percentage points.

So, it's clear that the proposal to allot electoral votes by congressional district would run counter to the popular vote in a significant way.

If Synder hopes to be a Governor for ALL the people of Michigan, he'll quash this blatantly Republican-serving plan to do away with the winner-take-all system.  But, unless he hears strong protests from Involved Voters, I think he's likely to go with the flow and support the plan of fellow Republicans.

Update: For a satirical look at this topic, watch Stephen Colbert here: http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/423114/january-22-2013/the-word---win--lose--or-redraw