Let’s be honest. We didn’t really expect Congress to come up with a "bold" stimulus plan, did we? But do we agree that NO action will only aggravate our current crisis?
The GOP surprised us when it failed to respond more constructively to the bipartisan overture from Barack Obama. I personally witnessed the precedent-setting bipartisan dinner for his defeated opponent (my photo of the President-elect at the dinner honoring McCain, January 19) and noted the subsequent meetings with Congressional Republicans. And what did we get in the way of proposals from the loyal opposition? More of the dogma-driven, supply-side ideology that contributed to our current mess: tax cuts!
On the other hand, GOP critics have a point: the bill that passed the House and was embraced by Obama essentially is an accumulation of favorite Democratic spending proposals.
What is missing is CHANGE. The CHANGE Obama advocated in his campaign for the Presidency. The CHANGE that won him a resounding mandate to govern for four years. The CHANGE from policies that have worked to benefit few and imperil many. Where are the first steps toward affordable health care, a sustainable green economy and alternative energy? And why are we not moving boldly to address the systemic failures that underlie the current crisis in credit markets?
Obama asked for ideas. And Paul Krugman and Robert Reich, among others, obliged. But what these brilliant men offer is predictable: rationales for orthodox Keynesian solutions and concern about labor market distortions, respectively. More is needed, not just in additional spending, but in fresh ideas that advance the President's policy agenda. So, if suggestions are still welcomed, here is my two-cents worth. And please do keep the CHANGE.
Health Care
Obama has promised the nation affordable health care similar to his own Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), to be available to all by the end of his first term. There is no need to back off this goal. Health care is one of the largest drags on our economy and the stimulus bill provides a real opportunity to begin managing its cost. In addition to the bill’s provisions to help state governments fund Medicare and work projects, I suggest that the federal government reimburse all state and local governments for their employer's share of health care for the rest of this year. In exchange, recipients may not fire government workers and must commit to integrating their health care plans with the existing FEHBP starting in 2010. That provides additional and immediate financial assistance to state and local governments, while paving the way for the establishment of a Public Employees Health Benefits Program. By January 2010, the federal government’s negotiated health care program would expand its base and economies of scale. The next step will be to apply the system to businesses, and subsequently to capture the un- and under-insured.
Energy Independence
Most honest leaders recognize that in due course government will have to produce the substantial additional revenue to pay for the stimulus. But good luck finding a politician willing to propose increasing taxes of any kind. So let me suggest instead a hefty tariff on imported oil to fund the “green economy.” A tariff of 50 percent or more on the landed cost of all imported energy (probably with some form of accommodation for our NAFTA partners) can be justified because of national security as well as the external costs to our environment inherent in the use of fossil fuels. And such a levy would promote conservation, subsidize domestic production, and help to fund and protect our investments in alternative energy. This is a measure that should be welcomed by Republicans who advocate "drill, baby, drill” as well as environmentalists interested in promoting clean energy. The windfall earned by American producers could be invested domestically or taxed as profits. And while there may be a marginal increase of fuel cost at the pump, it will pale in comparison with the amounts we forked over to foreign potentates rather than our own Treasury these past few years, when oil was effectively 200% greater than its current price.
Reestablish a ‘Risk-Free’ Investment Benchmark
Explanations for our current credit crisis and financial market meltdown abound, including the Washington Post's excellent series. But absent from all the expert analyses is any mention of the Treasury Department's October 2001 decision to discontinue issuing 30-year Bonds. That decision, on the heels of 9/11 and the cusp of Bush's costly war on terror, both lowered mortgage yields and prompted increased sales of bundled mortgages marketed as alternative 'risk-free' instruments, which in turn fueled the housing bubble and distorted both government and corporate credit point spreads. Treasury Bond auctions have resumed, but a clear provision to finance America’s recovery through borrowing would repair yield spreads – both between short and long term sovereign debt and in relation to all other debt instruments. Transparent budget financing will help re-establish more realistic risk pricing and global confidence in the US economy. But the 30-year Bond will not regain its position as a benchmark for 'risk-free' long-term investment if Fed meddling in the market, as it proposes to do with its planned purchase of Treasuries from troubled banks. In fact, this central-bankers-gone-wild approach will only create a greater Treasury bubble that will seriously aggravate our problems. Once markets are allowed to properly price the cost and risk of our recovery without Fed manipulation, global confidence in the US economy has a chance to be recover.
So Pay the Bill, and Keep the CHANGE
Barack Obama attended his last inaugural event, the Staff Ball, at the DC Armory on January 21. But he arrived after a performance by the opening act, Arcade Fire. So here are some insightful lysircs from their “Intervention”:
You say it's money that we need As if we're only mouths to feed I know no matter what you say There are some debts you'll never pay
You say it's money that we need
As if we're only mouths to feed
I know no matter what you say
There are some debts you'll never pay
The message is relevant to the stimulus bill now before Congress.
We can act responsibly and cautiously if we:
Pay the Bill and Keep the CHANGE.
One of the most important issues to me is autism - not just finding a cure but also early detection, education and adult protection. My daughter Fiona is the absolute example of how early intervention can change the world - and how much more education & funding is going to be crucial to all people with autism.
1 in 150 children has autism. I do not have a position on vaccines, simply because I do not believe that was a factor in Fiona's development. Maybe someday I'll have the time & energy to find out "why" my daughter has autism. Right now, I'm too busy making sure that autism doesn't have my daughter.
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One year ago this month, Fiona said "Bye bye" to her brother as he left for his second deployment to Iraq. My son the Marine burst into tears.
Not because he was leaving his family or facing an uncertain future, but because that was the first time Fiona had ever spoken to him. Or said "Bye bye" to anyone. It was the first time my 27 month old daughter had ever expressed herself without being prompted.
Fiona is my third child. Both my son & my other daughter Alexa were highly verbal and bright. I've grown up literally raising 5 younger siblings, as well as having two children of my own and babysitting countless others. When Fiona didn't smile, or reach out her arms to be picked up or respond to her name by about 8 months old, I instinctively knew that there was a problem. By 10 months old, I was convinced.
Our family doctor dismissed me immediately. "She can't have the "A word" (yes, he called it the "A word") - she's looking to you for comfort." While it was true that Fiona was cowering in my lap, that didn't change the fact that she also was frantically flapping her fingers ("stimming") and did not answer to her name. Or look at people. Without my doctor's referral, there would be no screening for "the A word" unless we were willing to pay thousands of dollars to various clinics - after waiting for months on a waiting list. And so we waited and I went online.
At about 14 months old, I went back and started in on the doctor again. He smiled benignly and told me I was over reacting. "Lots of kids suddenly begin talking at 2 years old" was his wisdom. But Fiona was not only non-verbal - she was also refusing to eat solid food, make eye contact or respond to her name. She had been nicknamed "Zen Baby" or "Buddha Baby" because she was so calm and peaceful and quiet in public. Flight attendants complimented me on what a "good baby" she was. Fiona's autism was not a problem because Fiona was not a problem.
But I was.
I made monthly trips to the family doctor until finally, to shut me up, he wrote the Golden Ticket.
By the time I walked into the clinic with Fiona, she was 20 months old. I had given her the CARS test,which is used by professionals to measure where a child falls on the autism scale. My score was 43, which is Severely Autistic. I had been working with her day and night from the first day I suspected autism, using whatever therapies or tools or tricks I could find online and she was a 43. I shudder to think where she would have fallen had I not recognized the signs.
I was wrong.
The specialists measured her as a 45. Even worse than I thought.
I took no joy in being right. I also wasted no time. I got on the phone & learned that services were available through the school district. Appointment set. Then I called the Children's Hospital to be placed on waiting lists for Speech, OT & feeding clinics.
Imagine my fury when I learned that my husband's medical insurance covered all of those therapies - as long as the diagnosis wasn't autism. Another issue for another blog.
The St Paul School District was amazing. Unbelievable. As long as I live, I will never forget how supportive everyone was. We had Fiona's educational assessment within a month of my call and another week after that, we began having 2 therapists visit. One hour each, once a week. Not the 40 hours most experts recommend but it was all the school could do. I made it my business to fill the other 38 hours.
Now, Fiona is 3 years, 3 months old. She has been in a classroom with other autistic children since September. We had her assessment last week, using the CARS test and taking all of the observations of her educational team and family into consideration.
30.5
Fiona's score is 30.5. Had it been 30, she would no longer qualify for special education. She went from Severe to Mild in less than 2 years. We were warned that she was developmentally disabled and that she would most likely be non-verbal her entire life in August 2006. Today, her skillset ranges from 36 months to 54 months.
And her vocabulary? We have lost count of the number of words.
As I type this, Fiona is reciting her ABCs to her Elmo doll. She and I spent time this morning working on spelling and word recognition. She can sing several songs, can count to 40, identify colors, spell the names of everyone she knows as well as several common items and she tells us what she needs. Fiona says "please" and "kank you" appropriately. She hugs, kisses and climbs up on us. Fiona not only adores her sister but can also point to her brother's picture and say "Jay" or "Colby" (my husband's son, who lives in Omaha). When my cell phone rings, Fiona hears the ringtone and says "Obama Mama!" Fiona loves animals and can identify any animal, from a cat to a yak. She talks to other children she encounters. Fiona laughs at silly jokes and cries when other children are sad. We are hearing 6 word sentences from a child who was non-verbal one year ago. Her father has been the ultimate "good cop", coming home every night from work & getting down on the floor with her to wrestle or build towers while I have been the "bad cop" who drills her on language skills and makes her pick up crayons when she'd rather throw them. Together, we have all unlocked the doors into Fiona's mind and every single day, we connect a little more.
Without a doubt, Fiona would not be functioning without early detection and intervention. Had I not been educated enough to recognize the signs, she very easily could have just drifted along until 4 or 5 years old, because she was "so good". Her doctor, who is otherwise a good physician, was completely wrong in his assessments of her. To this day, he still insists that she wasn't "as severe" as we all thought. Without early detection, Fiona could very easily have retreated to a place where we would never be able to reach her, destined to be trapped in her own world for the rest of her life. Instead, Fiona has flourished. She has found her voice and continues to explore our world.
The defining moment came when her teacher told me that she was recommending that Fiona not be in her class again in the Fall.
"Fiona has moved to a place where she shouldn't be in an ASD classroom any more," she explained. Fiona will be ready to go into a class with "normal" children who have speech or language disorders, where she will work on her social skills. By age 6, Fiona will be able to be fully mainstreamed into a regular kindergarten class, most likely without any special education label at all. She will not be cured because there is no cure for autism. But she will be recovered and she will be educated and she will be able to communicate her thoughts and feelings and opinions with all of us.
She will be our miracle.
Well, as Kermit the Frog croons out the old tune, "It's not easy bein' green", I must say that for this particular presidential candidate, I see that as quite an asset! It is my strong feeling that Barack's "inexperience" is just what we need in our political arena. What is it that stagnant corporations do when their company vision is going nowhere and employees are a dull and lifeless mass of drones? They call in a consultant, an outside firm, to come in and help save the day. Why? Because sometimes it takes someone with an outside view... a fresh perspective, to see, point out, and properly address what the problems are in a particular organization.
What our country needs is an intervention! Have you ever seen the show "What Not to Wear"? The unsuspecting participants in this show are not aware they have a fashion problem and are therefore nominated not by themselves, but by outside parties (friends, family, co-workers) who can see the problem clearly and desire to make a positive change in that loved one. At first, the participants are willing to do the show mainly because they are being filmed and don't want all of their peers (who are all standing right there for the intervention) to hate them if they say no. They give them a camera to record their feelings about this transformation and at first entry, they are nearly always stuck in their rut and proclaim that they are going to go along with this thing, but don't think they can possibly ever change what they believe to be their "style". Both they and their peer group have lived with this absurdity for long enough that it has almost become accepted by all. But then one brave soul speaks up, forms a team, and attacks the problem head-on by nominating them for the show. By the end of the week of fashion do-over, makeup re-vamp, and hair re-coif, they have come out of their cocoon, transformed into a rare new beautiful butterfly. They are so thankful to the hosts of the show that they are often crying and apologizing for how wrong they were and they cannot believe how blind they were to how awful their "style" really was!
Here is where this analogy comes into play. Does America really realize how absurd our political style is? The abnormal has become so normal that we expect dirty politics, unfair and unequal policies, smear campaigns, crooked politicians... and it seems nobody can see eye to eye anymore. Are we blind to what has been done to us? We have such a negative view of our government. Where's the love, people?! We've been programmed to accept this ideology as the norm! Well, I believe Barack Obama was sent here for a political intervention in Washington. He's been sent here to help clear the clouds from the eyes of the common man and woman. He wants to help us all to learn to respect our political machine again and see the possibility for a real change in America which can and will lead to a new style of politics in America. I have renewed hope for my future through Obama. Audacious? Maybe... but I'm cool with that!
My laundry beckons me, so I must end this post for now. Barack on!
