states
GRITtv: Kai Wright: Outside Action Moved DADT, DREAM Act
This weekend saw critical votes on Don't Ask Don't Tell and the DREAM Act--one victory and one defeat for progressives. Kai Wright of ColorLines notes that it was grassroots organizing and militant activism that brought both these bills to the point of passage. "In the end it's the outside that moves people. Literally outside the White House, chained to the fence, or DREAM act students hunger striking," he notes. Kai joins Laura in studio to talk about what can be learned from the movement around the DREAM Act and Don't Ask Don't Tell, moving beyond "inside/outside" strategy, and why the military is traditionally a first step toward wider equality and rights for all Americans.
Email this pageGRITtv: The F Word: Attacks On Govt. Workers in Tax Deal
Republican activist Grover Norquist once famously declared that he'd like to shrink the federal government to the point where he could drown it in a bathtub — but a little-noticed provision in the “tax cut compromise” we discussed today with Bernie Sanders might well drain the states' sinks first. Distributed by Tubemogul.
GRITtv: Donna Smith & Wendell Potter: Fixing Health Care For Real
As Republican freshmen head to Congress, many of them are riding a wave of promises to repeal "Obamacare." As Jamie Court noted on our show last week, one of the most unpopular elements of the bill is the mandate that Americans purchase private health insurance. But Wendell Potter, former health insurance industry insider, notes that that is the part of the bill that is most popular with the insurance companies that bankrolled those same Republicans. Donna Smith of National Nurses United (and of Michael Moore's health care film Sicko) asks, meanwhile, if there's any value at all created by the private health care industry. We try to answer that question with Donna and Wendell in our studio, as well as the question of what luck Republicans will have with repeal, and what can be done on a state level.
GRITtv: Beyond SB 1070: Immigration Bills and the States
The Obama administration set up a clash with Arizona over the state's immigration bill, SB 1070, this week when it filed suit in federal court claiming that the law is a breach of federal authority. The law goes into effect later this month and would allow law enforcement officials to stop anyone on suspicion of being undocumented. In the wake of SB 1070's passage, states around the country have initiated copycat bills and other legislation aimed at cracking down on immigration. But in addition to the Holder Justice Department's lawsuit, progressive state legislators are fighting back on the state level, and activists are pushing for commonsense immigration bills on both a state and federal level. We are joined by Arizona state legislator Kyrsten Sinema and Suman Raghunathan of the Progressive States Network to discuss the continuing fight.
GRITtv: The F Word: Gambling States Down the Drain
Does it seem right to you that a state's ability to stay afloat should be the stuff of secretive betting pools? No? Well that's just what's going on. As states like California struggle to pay their bills, traders are gambling, buying credit default swaps, on the fate of our biggest state. And it's worse. The same banks that sell and profit off the swaps, at the same time underwrite and price the state's assets -- their municipal bonds. GRITtv with Laura Flanders brings participatory democracy onto your computer screen and into your living room, bridging the gap between audience and advocates. Watch any show, at any time: http://grittv.org. Distributed by Tubemogul.
GRITtv: Resource-Strapped States and the Jobs Struggle
Almost every state is suffering some sort of budget crisis after last year's financial collapse, and yet jobs programs largely come through the states. Green jobs have been the solution on everyone's lips, but where are they right now? And what about state subsidies for corporations that provide jobs with lousy pay and working conditions? Carrie Brunk, executive director of New York Jobs With Justice, joins Ed Ott in the studio to talk about bailouts, corporate subsidies, and why those aren't helping working people on the ground.
GRITtv: Making Infrastructure Sexy Again
After our terrifying experience with a manhole explosion and fire at the office last Thursday, the pressing need for infrastructure investment was brought home to us here at GRITtv in a very real way. Years of budget cuts and tax cuts have led to public safety hazards around the country, and the stimulus bill isn't enough to fix all the electrical, structural, and other problems. We talk to Fabiola Carrion of the Progressive States Network, Amanda Little, Grist contributor and author of Power Trip: From Oil Wells to Solar Cells---Our Ride to the Renewable Future, and Glenn Von Nostitz, former director of the Office of Policy Management, Office of the NYC Comptroller and Senior Fellow in Policy Research and Development at the Center for an Urban Future, about the problems with infrastructure and ask where our priorities should lie: with public safety or green technology.
GRITtv: Why States are Ignoring Welfare Funds
According to a report from ProPublica and USA Today, billions of dollars earmarked for social services and public programs have been left untouched because states can't come up with the 20 percent in matching funds necessary to access the money. So what's the real story? Christopher Flavelle, an investigative reporter with ProPublica, Rita Henley Jensen, editor of Women's eNews, C. Nicole Mason, executive director of Women of Color Policy Network at NYU, and Iowa State Sen. Jack Hatch, chair of the White House Working Group of State Legislators on Healthcare Reform, discuss why states are ignoring welfare funds.
