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Published March 14 2010
Bunning was busy pitching
What do Jim Bunning and John Kenneth Galbraith have in common? Unemployment compensation, that’s what.

By: James Lein, Minot, N.D.

Bunning, of course, is the U.S. senator who single-handedly held up these benefits for many Americans out of work. Galbraith, a renowned economist who died in 2006 at age 97, wrote of the widespread economic benefits of unemployment compensation. I read his bestselling book, “The Affluent Society,” the summer of 1961, between my sophomore and junior years of college.

Recently, when I followed news reports of Bunning’s action, I recalled some the book: how unemployment compensation during the Depression helped families with no income, as well as businesses in their community. Money flowed again, in a manner that was immediate and obvious. What Galbraith would have thought of recent bailouts to Wall Street, I’m not sure. I doubt he would have advised them – unless they came with the strings of re-regulation and accountability.

Neither Bunning nor Galbraith ever used unemployment compensation, to my knowledge. Yet Galbraith extolled it; he went to work for FDR three years after its inception. Bunning apparently sees it as something that can be trifled with to make a political point.

Some countries, such as Norway, grant unemployment compensation right away – until the person returns to work. There are no time limits.

People do not abuse the system, and communities continue to have money flowing when there are layoffs. Norway also has no elaborate legal procedures for workers to go through to prove injury on the job or that their layoff wasn’t their fault.

Here, we seem to think that laid-off or injured-on-the-job workers are latent criminals who were just waiting for the opportunity to fleece the system. And we seem to think Wall Street bankers and investment people are honest and noble enough to police themselves.

How did we come to such conclusions? We will mistrust our neighbors or family members but trust people like Bernie Madoff. Go figure.

If there is to be anyone on the honor system, it’s the average person living paycheck to paycheck, not those with billions of other people’s money.

In my 40 years of mental health work, I’ve encountered many hardworking people who had to live on virtually nothing while they battled with their employer for unemployment compensation, or with Workplace Safety and Insurance (formerly Workers’ Comp) or with Social Security Disability for some assistance – processes that can take years.

We make average folks clear many hurdles to get something to pay for shelter, utilities and food. Yet we trust those who almost brought on another Great Depression. We seem more for Wall Street than Main Street.

In hard times, however, when the economy needs stimulating, unemployment compensation gives us more bang for the buck by putting money right back into the local economy.

I suspect that Bunning didn’t read about this in Galbraith’s bestseller the summer of 1961. He was busy pitching for the Detroit Tigers, while Roger Maris was hitting his 61 homers for the Yankees. None of the homers were off Bunning, who in 1964 threw a perfect game for the Phillies.

Lein is a retired psychotherapist who writes an occasional column for North Dakota newspapers.

E-mail onlein@srt.com

Published March 13 2010
Canadian health care works well
I am an American citizen and a former resident of North Dakota, who has lived in Canada for 37 years. I encourage Americans to support publically-funded health care for all.

By: Charlotte Schumacher Majic, Port Hope, Ont.

My husband had a kidney transplant 27 years ago and has had two heart attacks (regularly sees a number of specialists) and is in excellent health. As in the US, some procedures take priority over others. He did wait for a kidney to become available, but he never waited when he had a heart attack.

We have never received a bill or made co-payments. And, it never felt wrong, that we had something everyone needs. Canada has a single-payer, publically-funded system. We pay slightly more income and sales tax than the U.S., but these taxes do not come close to the outrageously-high premiums my U.S. relatives pay.

Canadian medical costs are half as much per capita as the US pays for health care, and, it covers all Canadians. We do not fill in forms and wait for reimbursement. We simply give our Health Card number and see our doctor of choice, no questions asked.

Republicans agree that there is a need for the government to end annual and lifetime caps on insurance benefits, to end denial of coverage based on pre-existing medical conditions and on the need for regulation to contain rising costs and combat fraud. Therefore, they cannot also argue that the government has no role to play in health care coverage. This also undercuts the core Republican argument that Democrats need to throw out all the legislation and start over, since they agree with the core.

So, let’s get on with it and pass this for the people, not keep the status quo for the insurance industry, who are the only ones benefiting from the status quo.

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* MARCH 12, 2010

District Tackles Woes Money Didn't Fix
Decision to Shutter Dozens of Kansas City Schools Marks Major Shift After Reliance on Court-Ordered Special Funding

KANSAS CITY, Mo.—Arthur Benson fought in court for decades to improve the Kansas City School District. This week, he voted to close nearly half its schools.

The decision by Mr. Benson and his colleagues on the Kansas City School Board to shutter 26 of the district's 61 schools marks a sea change for the inner-city district, once viewed as an experiment in using generous spending as a way to improve performance.

Now, administrators are using the recession-driven funding shortfalls to tackle problems many observers say should have been addressed years ago.

"These closings are absolutely in the best interests of our kids," said Mr. Benson, a 66-year-old civil-rights attorney who said he had filed about a dozen suits against the district since 1970 before joining the board two years ago.

Faced with half-filled schools and a $50 million annual deficit, the board hopes that Wednesday's decision, reached after a five-to-four vote, will help shore up the district's finances and free resources to revamp the district's academic offerings.

The closings, scheduled to take place before the next academic year, will eliminate about 700 of the district's 3,300 jobs, including 285 teachers. Enrollment today is less than 18,000 students, half what it was a decade ago.

The district has turned to more than two dozen superintendents over the past 30 years to tackle its problems. No longer can it look outside for help. "Now we have to fix from the inside," Mr. Benson said.

http://tinyurl.com/y98hmvr

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