With the passage of the Obama Stimulus Package, a.k.a. the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Vermont legislature is in the process of integrating its financial provisions into our state budget. Not surprisingly, the goals of Gov. Douglas differ fundamentally from the goals of Democrats and Progressives. Many of us will have a chance to hear from our local legislators this week at Town Meeting. On Monday, March 16th, we will have the opportunity to hear from Speaker of the Vermont House, Shap Smith, at our Chittenden County Democrats meeting. This meeting will take place at 7:30 PM at the IBEW Union Training Hall, 5 Gregory Drive, South Burlington.
Also, the Chittenden County Democrats Show on CCTV Channel 17 in Burlington and surrounding towns taped on Monday, March 2nd, features freshman representative Terry Macaig of Williston. We talked about his experiences adapting to his responsibilities as a legislator. You can look for rebroadcasts of the program on CCTV, LCATV and VCAM later in the month, or you can stream it online at http://www.cctv.org/node/71238.
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AN OPEN LETTER TO VT REPS:
Dear RepresentativE:
The next two weeks will, in my opinion, be the most important two weeks in your career of service to the state. The decisions that you make with regard to the spending of the federal stimulus monies are indeed life and death decisions. I beg you to consider all ideas and options before casting your vote.
As you probably know, I am both Liberal Democrat and a vocal opponent of the federal stimulus plan. (I, unlike many, do not see those two positions as being ideologically in conflict with each other.) I oppose the stimulus plan not on the basis of spending, per se. I am always in favor of spending monies for the public welfare when in fact we have those monies to spend. Attempting, however, to utilize deficit-spending as a tool to ‘stimulate’ economic growth on a mass scale is in my opinion a flawed proposition. Even worse, attempting to utilize deficit-spending to stimulate systemic growth---growth whose very survival is predicated upon the ability of the government to facilitate a return to the system of ‘money-as-debt’ that brought us to this place---when it is our addiction to consumer debt-based “growth” that got us here is almost unforgivable. Tonight at Norwich Town Meeting I listened to Representative Margaret Cheney as she optimistically discussed the good things that may come to our town vis-à-vis Washington’s stimulus plan: Funding for road work and bridge work, money for education, money to support technological-infrastructural advancements, etc. And I have absolutely no doubt that Representative Cheney has the best interest of her constituents at heart. I am 100% certain that she is a fine and hard-working professional. But with all due respect, I feel compelled to point out to Representative Cheney---and to those who agree with her---that “spending” and “stimulus” are two entirely different things. Spending billions of dollars to repair highway infrastructure and to fund education initiatives and to lay high-speed cable, etc. is “stimulative” only in that the money supply, for a brief time, does not collapse. And the women and men who fixed the roads and who repaired the bridges and who laid the fiber-optic cable and who taught in our schools are fortunate to have received pay checks rather then pink slips for another year, maybe two; but their ongoing employment did not “grow” the economy. They did not open new businesses and start new schools and buy new homes. They carried on as usual, happy to find themselves with enough money to service their mortgage debt and fill the cupboards and put gas in the car and oil in the heater. And so the $800 billion lifeline has not in fact stimulated growth: it has simply held back the flood.
But I am not an ostrich. I of course recognize that the stimulus plan has been signed into law; that the money is coming and that the money will be spent. And so it is in that spirit that I beg you to read on to see how I, and many others with whom I discuss such critical issues, believe these stimulus monies can best be spent to promote the common welfare of the citizens of Vermont.
Your current responsibility is truly awesome. I cannot be more straightforward then this: Should you vote to use the stimulus monies to fund the types of projects above, Vermonters will die unnecessarily. Should you, however, show the courage and foresight to use the stimulus monies to prepare for the difficult times ahead, than yours will be the legislature that will be remembered for going against the tide, and in doing so saved lives. I know this sounds melodramatic. It is not. People are dying around the nation, right now, as a direct result of this economic catastrophe. With right action, such suffering can be minimized here in Vermont. Spending hundreds of millions of federal stimulus dollars to keep several thousand Vermonters from losing their jobs for a couple of years feels like a very good thing. But the truth is, it is only “good” for these few individuals and their families; its benefits are finite, and its cure temporary. This type of spending does not stop the greater economy from continuing to choke on tens of trillions of dollars in unserviceable debt; it does not stop the crisis from deepening as unprecedented deflation morphs into catastrophic hyper-inflation in the years that follow; it does nothing to address the root issue of unchecked deficit-spending and a carcinogenic reliance upon consumer debt as the primary source of GDP growth.
Please understand that my view is quickly becoming the mainstream view. You are not reading the words of a fringe doom-and-gloomer: a large and vocal cadre of mainstream economists is beginning to use the “D” word when they discuss the financial crisis at hand. We have never, ever been here before. Remember, ALL Depressions are caused by debt, and the current consumer debt ratio to GDP is the highest we have ever experienced as a nation. (In 1930, the consumer debt ratio to GDP was about 275%. Today it stands at a staggering 400 %.) Our largest banks and other financial institutions are leveraged 30:1 and higher, holding all manner of toxic securities that will never be sold, other than to a federal government desperately trying to plug the holes in the dike. (One look at the AIG and Citi debacles should be more than sobering.) This is indeed an economic cataclysm of the highest order, and your votes over the next several weeks on the how to spend the stimulus monies will either set us on a new course away from the false gods of consumer spending and debt-based economic “growth” and toward a new regime of communal self-sufficiency and inter-dependence, or it will be a vote to try and maintain the status quo, and to get us back to our "comfortable", familiar world of 4% GDP growth. My plea is that you, for the sake of your children and their children, in the very least demonstrate the earnest willingness to investigate the possibility that we are experiencing something new, and that holding on to past beliefs and assumptions will hurt your fellow citizens.
I would now like to share ten suggestions with you as to how I, and many others whom I queried, believe you should spend the stimulus monies if true STIMULUS is what you desire. As you read the ideas below, I hope that you will wear your “fiduciary responsibility” cap and “what is truly best for my state” cap simultaneously. Citizens certainly have the right to demand that you spend these monies in a manner that will maximize returns on their investment. These are eventually, after all, their tax dollars. The investment, however, of which I speak, cannot be monetized. It is in the quality of the futures of my children and of yours. It is my most sincere hope that you will not dismiss these thoughts without some earnest consideration:
1. Fund initiatives by churches, synagogues, temples, etc., and other like organic local communities, who are looking to pool labor and ancillary resources and who are investigating the efficacy of turning their houses of worship into community farms and centers for education on such issues as food preservation, canning, etc. This is beginning to happen at a grassroots level in many states, but Vermont could become a leader by looking at ways to use stimulus monies to fund such endeavors.
2. Fund community efforts to turn schools into multi-purpose centers that operate 24-7, 365. Our elementary and high schools should be places where the hungry can eat, the homeless sleep, the lonely be cared for. Using stimulus monies to transform schools into real community centers would take courage, but the rewards would be extraordinary.
3. Fund an ongoing initiative---kind of a 21st century census project---that strives to create a database of information that details which individuals in which communities possess what skills. Publicize the database. Make the database easily accessible to all. Now for a moment consider the value of having a comprehensive, state-maintained list of individuals, their skills, their expertise, their contact information, and a summary of how each of their knowledge and expertise on such matters as milling and gardening and building, etc. could be tapped.
4. Create a fund that pays retirees who possess extensive knowledge and experience vis-à-vis small farm operations to team up with groups of folks in communities who are looking to reconstitute the small farm model of sustainability. We desperately need to rethink our unreflective attitude of promoting “growth” through the large, single-crop, centralized dairy model farming. Small, diversified farming will save lives, plain and simple.
5. Spend stimulus monies on developing a sort of proto-homesteading initiative; one in which the state pays families and small communities to reclaim and reinvent the family farm model for the 21st century.
6. Spend stimulus funds to stockpile---at both the state and local level----certain goods and items that might become scarce during the height of the coming depression.
7. Fund a community-based effort to carry out community inventories. Once these inventories have been completed, spend careful time and effort identifying community strengths and weaknesses vis-à-vis skill sets and resources etc., and then create an agency to help communities team up to promote community preparedness and inter-dependence.
8. Create a fund to investigate the state-wide implementation of open source FREE technologies such as “Edubuntu” Classroom Server, etc. Next, create a fund that pays schools to implement free, open source computing solutions.
9. Spend stimulus monies to create and promote a statewide educational program on “permaculture” and issues of sustainability.
10. Fund the creation of local and statewide “Schedules of Availability”. These lists would be available to the public and would contain a comprehensive schedule of all of the stuff that is available, all of the goods and services in the entire state, and how to contact individuals to set up barter or commercial interactions between those who need and those who have.
I have recently been reading a great deal about Vermont. As I have noted in past emails, I taught high school history for close to 20 years. I understand from vast experience that ‘knowing one’s story’ is central to understanding where one needs to go. I know from reading Vermont’s story that, decades ago, we were compelled, as a state, to abandon community in order to fulfill the dreams of avaricious mill owners and mega-food producers, etc. Our current reality provides us with a most unique opportunity: to turn our backs on the model of unchecked economic “growth” and debt-servitude and mass production that have self-servingly been proffered by the men of Wall Street, and to recreate a Vermont that blends the best of 21st century technological advancement and knowledge with the communal inter-dependence and small-scale production that promotes resource sustainability, environmental responsibility, and community survivability. As far as I’m concerned, therein lays the only possible solution to our deepening crisis.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Dan Weintraub
802.xxx.xxxx
Read by Mike Y. 3/10/09
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