February, 20 2009, 03:36pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Tim Rusch, Demos, (212) 389-1407, trusch@demos.org
Christy Hicks, TCF,
(212) 452-7723,
hicks@tcf.org
Demos and The Century Foundation Announce Launch of 'The Fiscal High Road' Project and Website -- www.fiscalhighroad.org
Initiative Aims to Strengthen Social Insurance, Promote Broadly Shared Prosperity and Set the Record Straight on Federal Spending
NEW YORK
Demos and The
Century Foundation, two national public policy research organizations focused on
economic inequality and the middle class, today launched an initiative to
strengthen social insurance programs and develop a roadmap for a fair and
responsible federal budget. The project gets underway as the White House
prepares for its February 23 "Fiscal Responsibility Summit."
Recognizing
that there is a wealth of sometimes competing and confusing information in our
national discussions about the economic crisis and the path to a recovery, "The
Fiscal High Road" project will provide information and analysis squarely aimed
at strengthening America's social insurance programs, such as Social Security
and Medicare. The effort's central message is that these social investments,
along with robust infrastructure spending to support good jobs, education and
opportunity for America's families, are the key to widespread economic stability
and long-term prosperity.
The project will advance its message and policy
goals, based on in-depth research and empirical data, while rebutting widely
perpetuated, misleading claims of an "entitlements crisis" that distracts our
elected leaders from focusing on solutions to some of our greatest challenges,
such as containing rapidly rising health care costs and addressing comprehensive
health care reform.
"It is not necessary to choose between adequate
social investment and fiscal prudence," said Robert Kuttner, an economist and
Distinguished Senior Fellow at Demos. "We can have both if we finance the costs
of well designed and comprehensive social insurance, and reform our health
system."
As part of the launch of The Fiscal High Road project
(www.fiscalhighroad.org) Demos and The Century Foundation are making available
several publications designed to advance new ideas for strengthening America's
social insurance programs, rebuilding an opportunity infrastructure and planning
for a robust, good-jobs-based economy of the future. The project's documents
outline the reality of our current challenges and counter many of the false
claims now fueling much of the media and political debate about the economy.
These pieces include: a powerpoint presentation for use by advocates and
lawmakers; a primer detailing the current condition of our social insurance
programs and offering ideas for a path forward; and a new "claim versus reality"
factsheet that sets the record straight about entitlement spending, the public
debt and the future of the nation's economy.
Greg Anrig, Vice President
of Programs at The Century Foundation, said: "With the enactment of a $787
billion economic recovery plan, combined with additional federal commitments in
excess of $1 trillion to help repair the broken financial services industry,
many Americans are understandably fearful about the nation's long-term fiscal
health. The numbers are big, the issues are complicated, and media reports
related to federal deficits and debt are often enormously confusing. That's why
we need less scare-mongering and more reality-based perspective."
"One of
the key arguments advanced by fiscal conservatives over the years is that
spending on social insurance and infrastructure needs is the equivalent of
'mortgaging our children's' future," said Tamara Draut, Vice President for
Policy and Programs at Demos. "The reality is quite the opposite. These
investments are vital for the well-being of future generations and fueling the
US economy of the future. Without them, the real danger is an eroding
opportunity ladder and a vanishing middle class."
In the coming months,
The Fiscal High Road project will launch a data and policy resource center,
develop an advocacy network, and will be engaged in educating journalists,
legislators, and the public about issues critical to fair and sustainable
economic policy at the national and state level. In the process, it will serve
as a peacemaker in the generational wars that are being stoked by well-financed
groups that want to cut Social Security and other successful government
programs.
Demos is a think tank that powers the movement for a just, inclusive, multiracial democracy. Through cutting-edge policy research, inspiring litigation, and deep relationships with grassroots organizations, Demos champions solutions that will create a democracy and economy rooted in racial equity.
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UNICEF Warns Area Israel Pushing Rafah Residents to Is 'Not Safe'
"It is a narrow strip of beach on the coast that lacks the basic infrastructure—like toilets and running water—needed to sustain the population," said the agency chief.
May 09, 2024
As Israel's tanks and warplanes continued attacking eastern Rafah on Thursday amid fears of a full-scale invasion, United Nations leaders warned that the area to which Israeli forces are directing Palestinians in the southern Gaza Strip city is unsafe.
The Israel Defense Forces this week has
circulated a map and claimed that "the IDF has expanded the humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi to accommodate the increased levels of aid flowing into Gaza. This expanded humanitarian area includes field hospitals, tents, and increased amounts of food, water, medication, and additional supplies."
However, in an interview published Wednesday, Tess Ingram of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
said that "the area that they're being directed to evacuate to is not safe. It's not safe because there aren't the services there to meet their basic needs, water, toilets, shelter."
"But it's also not safe because we know that that area has been subject to strikes despite being a so-called safe zone. So we're really concerned about that impact of a ground offensive on one of the most densely populated areas in the world," she told The Intercept's Jeremy Scahill.
"Israel's latest evacuation orders and their ground operations will bring more death and displacement."
Rafah was home to about a quarter-million people before October 7, but since Israel launched what the International Court of Justice has
called a "plausibly" genocidal assault on Gaza—killing at least 34,904 Palestinians and wounding another 78,514 as of Thursday—the city's population has swelled to over 1.4 million.
UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell
said last week that a major military operation against the crowded city "would bring catastrophe on top of catastrophe" for the young people there, explaining that "nearly all of the some 600,000 children now crammed into Rafah are either injured, sick, malnourished, traumatized, or living with disabilities."
Noting that "many of them have been displaced multiple times already," Ingram, who recently returned from Gaza, similarly told Scahill that "they're exhausted, traumatized, sick, hungry, and their ability to safely evacuate is limited."
Despite warnings from humanitarian leaders and the U.S. government—which has continued to arm the IDF throughout the war—Israeli forces attacked Rafah this week and seized control of the border crossing with Egypt, further restricting aid delivery.
U.S. President Joe Biden previously called attacking Rafah a "red line." While criticizing the IDF assault on the city Wednesday, the American leader was accused of "moving the goal post" because he merely threatened to cut off arms if Israel pursued a major invasion, rather than stopping the flow of arms immediately.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made clear on Thursday that he has no intention of backing down, saying in a video message in Hebrew that "if we are forced to stand alone, we will stand alone."
Russell said in a statement Thursday that "the intensification of military operations in the Rafah area and the closure of key border crossings into southern Gaza have severed our access to fuel, threatening to grind humanitarian operations to a halt."
According to the UNICEF chief:
If the Kerem Shalom and Rafah crossings are not reopened to fuel and humanitarian supplies, the consequences will be felt almost immediately: Life support services for premature babies will lose power; children and families will become dehydrated or consume dangerous water; sewage will overflow and spread disease further. Simply put, lost time will soon become lost lives.
I strongly urge the relevant authorities to provide humanitarian actors with actionable measures and concrete assurances to facilitate safe and secure movement of humanitarian cargo, via all routes, into and within the Gaza Strip.
"I am also deeply concerned about the movement of civilians in Gaza to unsafe areas," Russell continued. "In response to evacuation orders in eastern Rafah, at least 80,000 people have reportedly fled the area, with many seeking shelter in Al-Mawasi and among the ruins of Khan Younis. We have been warning for months that Al-Mawasi is not a safe option. It is a narrow strip of beach on the coast that lacks the basic infrastructure—like toilets and running water—needed to sustain the population."
Plus, as Scott Anderson, deputy director of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, toldPolitico on Wednesday, "there's already 450,000 people in that general area. It is crowded."
Anderson also warned about dwindling supplies, saying that "we're down to no fuel. We're basically out. We've kept enough to meet the minimum security standards we have to meet for the U.N. so we can continue to stay here. But we're down to that level. Some hospitals will start shutting down their generators in three days if we don't get fuel in."
Martin Griffiths, the U.N. under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, stressed in a Thursday statement that "civilians must be protected and have their basic needs met, whether they move or stay."
While warning that "Israel's latest evacuation orders and their ground operations will bring more death and displacement," Griffiths also said that "we remain committed to providing aid to people, regardless of where they are."
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Students at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland protesting the school's complicity in Israeli crimes in Palestine began dismantling their encampment Wednesday after administrators agreed to divest from three companies with ties to Israel's illegal settler colonies in the occupied West Bank.
TCD—which earlier this week
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"We are glad that this agreement has been reached and are committed to further constructive engagement on the issues raised," senior dean Eoin O'Sullivan said. "We thank the students for their engagement."
Outgoing Trinity College Dublin Students' Union (TCDSU) president László Molnárfi called the agreement a "testament to grassroots student-staff power."
Incoming TCDSU president Jenny Maguire contrasted the situation at her school to the violent repression of student-led protests on some U.S. campuses.
"The college was determined that it would be an example going forward," Maguire said, according toThe New York Times. "It refused to follow the U.S. example of bringing police in and made it clear that it would not pursue anything like that here."
TCD's statement affirmed:
We fully understand the driving force behind the encampment on our campus and we are in solidarity with the students in our horror at what is happening in Gaza. We abhor and condemn all violence and war, including the atrocities of October 7th, the taking of hostages, and the continuing ferocious and disproportionate onslaught in Gaza. The humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the dehumanization of its people are obscene. We support the International Court of Justice's position that "Israel must take all measures within its power to prevent and punish the direct and public incitement to commit genocide in relation to members of the Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip."
"Trinity will endeavor to divest from investments in other Israeli companies," the school added, vowing to establish a task force on the issue.
"A real and lasting solution that respects the human rights of everyone needs to be found," the TCD statement said.
The protest camp—which was spearheaded by TCDSU and the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement—was erected Friday night on Fellow's Square, at the heart of Ireland's oldest university. Students demanded that TCD sell off its investments in three Israeli companies included on a United Nations "blacklist" first published in 2020 for their links to human rights violations committed by Israel in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The TCD protest came amid Israel's 216-day assault on Gaza, which has left at least 124,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing in what the International Court of Justice in January called a "plausibly" genocidal campaign. Support for Palestine runs strong and deep in Ireland, which, like Palestine, was also colonized by the British, and where many people see parallels between their historic repression and Israel's crimes against Palestinians.
TCD's campus—which is located in the center of the Irish capital—had been shut down for five days, a move that affected the school's income as it houses the Book of Kells, an ancient Celtic manuscript visitors pay from €16-€33.50 ($17-$36) to see. According toThe Irish Times, the Book of Kells generates approximately €350,000 ($377,000) in weekly income during the busy summer months.
Last week, the TCD fined TCDSU €214,000 ($231,000) for financial losses stemming from multiple protests held throughout this academic year.
Meanwhile in the United States—where a pair of Republican senators this week introduced legislation to brand students protesting for Palestine as "terrorists" and add them to the no-fly list—campus encampments continued to spread from coast to coast.
On Wednesday, progressive U.S. Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Cori Bush (D-Mo.) spoke alongside student protesters from George Washington University outside the U.S. Capitol.
https://t.co/MvLg0MMN90
— Congresswoman Cori Bush (@RepCori) May 8, 2024
"We will not stop in defending these students until [the] end in regards to the genocide... until there is an immediate and permanent cease-fire that includes complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza," said Tlaib, the only Palestinian American member of Congress. "We're proud to use our positions in office to bring these voices, so you all don't forget why there are encampments, why there are movements and dissent around this country."
While crackdowns and violence by police and Israel supporters have garnered most of the headlines in the U.S., at least eight schools across the country including California State University, Sacramento; Evergreen State College; University of California, Riverside; Brown University; Rutgers University; State University of New York, Purchase; Northwestern University; and University of Minnesota have agreed to some or all of students' demands.
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"I think it's so significant what we did here because we're essentially raising the bar for all universities," Sacramento State sophomore Michael Lee-Chang toldThe Intercept. "We've had every single one of our demands met, and that's how it should be. We're here for Palestine, and student power shouldn't be underestimated. I can't state just how excited I am and can't wait to see how our win helps other campuses reach their victories too."
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As of Thursday, more than 800 Jewish professors had signed an open letter demanding that lawmakers and U.S. President Joe Biden oppose the so-called Antisemitism Awareness Act, House-approved legislation the educators warn will "amplify the real threats Jewish Americans already face" by "conflating antisemitism with legitimate criticism of Israel."
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A leading human rights organization on Wednesday slammed the Biden administration's decision to indefinitely delay the release of a report on whether Israel and other U.S. allies are using American weaponry in compliance with international law.
"The Biden administration had months to put together a report on information they should already be collecting—whether grave human rights violations and other serious violations of international law are being committed using U.S.-provided weapons in seven conflicts around the world," said Amanda Klasing, national director for government relations at Amnesty International USA. "They must release it urgently."
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Required under a White House policy implemented in February, the report was supposed to be delivered to Congress on May 8.
U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said during a press briefing Wednesday that the administration will "have it up in the coming days," but declined to offer a specific timeline.
"It is overdue for President Biden to end U.S. complicity with the government of Israel's grave violations of international law."
U.S. President Joe Biden admitted in a CNN interview Wednesday that the Israeli military has killed civilians in Gaza with American-made bombs—something human rights organizations like Amnesty have been documenting for months.
In a research brief submitted to the Biden administration last week, Amnesty detailed three cases in which Israel's military has used U.S.-made weapons in violation of international law. In October, Israeli forces used Joint Direct Attack Munitions manufactured by Boeing to carry out airstrikes on two Gaza homes, killing 43 civilians—including 19 children and 14 women.
While applauding Biden's decision to halt a shipment of thousands of bombs to Israel as it attacks Rafah, Amnesty said Wednesday that it was "inexcusable" for the State Department to postpone the long-awaited report.
"It is overdue for President Biden to end U.S. complicity with the government of Israel's grave violations of international law," said Klasing. "Tough conversations with counterparts in Israel are tragically and clearly not doing the job—violations continue unabated, and civilians are paying the price with their lives."
It's unclear why the administration was unable to meet its own deadline for providing U.S. lawmakers with the report on Israel's use of American weaponry.
Kevin Martin, the president of Peace Action, argued in an op-ed for Common Dreams on Thursday that the delay "reflects internal divisions within the State Department not just about Israel's fallacious claim of compliance, but what to recommend to the executive branch in terms of possible action against Israel."
An internal State Department memo that leaked last month showed that officials at four of the department's bureaus did not believe the Israeli government's written assurances that its use of American weaponry in Gaza has followed international law.
Several State Department officials have resigned since October over the Biden administration's decision to arm Israel's assault on Gaza, which has killed more than 34,900 people and sparked an appalling humanitarian crisis.
Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now, said Thursday that the Biden administration's "suspension of massive bombs to Israel is an important but long-overdue acknowledgment that Israel has been using American weapons to indiscriminately kill Palestinian civilians in violation of the most basic laws of war."
"Suspending all weapons transfers to Israel shouldn't be a political tactic," said Whitson, "but rather adhering to long-standing laws that prohibit arming abusers."
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