Democrats have a huge opportunity between now and the midterm elections to frame the national conversation as it should be framed -- around corporations with record profits raising their prices to consumers and fueling inflation, stock buybacks that have also reached a record level, CEO pay that's now reached almost 350-to-1 relative to median worker pay, billionaire gains of $1.7 trillion during the pandemic while almost everyone else struggled, corporate union-busting, and hugely profitable corporations and billionaires paying little or no taxes. If Democrats don't highlight these abuses of our economic system and show how the Republican Party has become a shill for big business and the super-rich, the public will hear only Republican culture war messaging -- pedophilia, abortion, gay and transgender people, as well as illegal immigration and what's taught in schools -- all of it deflecting attention from the real economic abuses endured by ordinary people.
Thank you for your service to this nation, Professor Reich.
It could not have been easy listening to the utter fecklessness coming out mouth of a political hack like Graham, but the truth has to be told, and heard by the American people.
Moreover, POTUS must do a much better job of selling his administration's accomplishments, spelling out what still must be done and raking the authoritarian, dangerously delusional GOP over the coals to American, before the midterms.
Well done, sir. Well done indeed. Its not enough to say thank you when an explanation would be more valuable.
Many years ago, my company secured the contract to design and build a new exhibition for the Los Angeles Museum of Science and Industry. In public exhibition work, using 4th grade comprehension metrics, enables visitors to absorb and retain new information so rapidly, it’s almost automatic. This is especially important with heavy subjects like physics, science, medicine, computer language, engineering, aerospace, etc.
Luckily, the Museum provided us with consultants in these specialized fields. At our first meeting, the consultants used language so far above my head I could not make sense of anything they said. While I asked, repeatedly, for them to help me interpret this information at a 4th grade level, they used even more obscure language. I was humiliated until an old memory popped into my head.
When I was a kid, my uncle, who happened to be a rocket scientist at JPL, had been my tutor. One day, my uncle got so angry with me, he dismissed me – our lesson was over. That evening, my uncle called me into his study, and told me, I was never to allow anyone do that to me again. Huh? Boy, was I confused. My uncle, a humble man, went on the explain that he had the doctorate degrees, he was the rocket scientist, and he knew this information inside out – not me. His job was to teach me, not bully or impress me with his knowledge. If someone cannot explain their field of expertise to you, he said, they were not experts – and I was to dismiss them.
But you dismissed me, I whined (to be honest, I was crying). Yes, he said, and that was wrong – and I was not allowed to let anyone dismiss me again.
Thanks to Uncle Norman, I told these experts, I needed better consultants, thanked them for trying and dismissed them. Yup, my 26 year old self, picked up my notebook, stood up and walked away. I had just gotten to the door, when one of the consultants asked me what was wrong. I told them the story of my uncle. Suffice to say, these men apologized, stopped their intellectual bullying and we got the work done.
Dr. Reich, I was impressed by your testimony – because I could understand it.
Dr. Reich it seems your preparation and expertise made Lindsey Graham uncomfortable to the point of trying to cut you off. Way to go! Thanks for your dedication to country and speaking 'truth to power'.
Robert Reich ; I am so glad that you were there to endorse the windfall profits tax on those large profitable corporations that are raising their prices. It's so wrong to blame consumers and Biden for 'inflation'.
We all benefit whenever Robert Reich has the opportunity to lay out the reality of our economic condition with the Senate Budget Committee. Yesterday’s participation is a perfect example of this. I couldn’t agree more that we need a “windfall profit tax” and we need it now. These monopolistic corporations have profited off the financial suffering of all of us for entirely too long. If passed, the tax could greatly reduce the amount we spend at the stores, pump and every other industry that has enjoyed record profits while negatively impacting consumers.
I loved how quickly Robert Reich shut down Graham when he tried to divert the conversation to immigration boarders. Graham and the likes of him have devoted their political careers on protecting the profits of their corporate donors for decades. The mere fact that republicans are trying to blame the “American Rescue Act” as the cause of inflation reveals how little they cared about the well-being of the people during the pandemic. They could have raised taxes on the wealthy to provide for our nation during the crisis to help avert inflation, but of course they refused, instead helping to create this crisis in their attempt to use American suffering as a political attack on the Biden. The midterms are close at hand, I really hope that we see as large of a turn out as we did in 2020, it’s imperative that we don’t lose one seat and that we gain several more.
You GO! You nailed every point. Many thanks. By God I wish there were a Katie Porter to corner these muthafuggas relentlessly and force them to reveal their evil wishes for the planet and the people. Absent that, I wonder what it takes to win.
It's striking to hear statistics that confirm what we've experienced beginning in the 80s. One third of our working population was unionized vs. the current six percent?!
The callous increases in corporate charges to consumers and the resulting profits to those corporations - those oligopolistically organized :) - seems grossly unpatriotic.
I was always proud to work; it's wonderful to find work one loves and commit to it. I feel sorry for the very wealthy who don't seem to understand or respect that exhilaration.
Thank you for your knowledge, your ability to express that knowledge in a clear and succinct language and for speaking to Americans who need to hear the information you know so well.
Democrats have a huge opportunity between now and the midterm elections to frame the national conversation as it should be framed -- around corporations with record profits raising their prices to consumers and fueling inflation, stock buybacks that have also reached a record level, CEO pay that's now reached almost 350-to-1 relative to median worker pay, billionaire gains of $1.7 trillion during the pandemic while almost everyone else struggled, corporate union-busting, and hugely profitable corporations and billionaires paying little or no taxes. If Democrats don't highlight these abuses of our economic system and show how the Republican Party has become a shill for big business and the super-rich, the public will hear only Republican culture war messaging -- pedophilia, abortion, gay and transgender people, as well as illegal immigration and what's taught in schools -- all of it deflecting attention from the real economic abuses endured by ordinary people.
Thank you for your service to this nation, Professor Reich.
It could not have been easy listening to the utter fecklessness coming out mouth of a political hack like Graham, but the truth has to be told, and heard by the American people.
Moreover, POTUS must do a much better job of selling his administration's accomplishments, spelling out what still must be done and raking the authoritarian, dangerously delusional GOP over the coals to American, before the midterms.
Well done, sir. Well done indeed. Its not enough to say thank you when an explanation would be more valuable.
Many years ago, my company secured the contract to design and build a new exhibition for the Los Angeles Museum of Science and Industry. In public exhibition work, using 4th grade comprehension metrics, enables visitors to absorb and retain new information so rapidly, it’s almost automatic. This is especially important with heavy subjects like physics, science, medicine, computer language, engineering, aerospace, etc.
Luckily, the Museum provided us with consultants in these specialized fields. At our first meeting, the consultants used language so far above my head I could not make sense of anything they said. While I asked, repeatedly, for them to help me interpret this information at a 4th grade level, they used even more obscure language. I was humiliated until an old memory popped into my head.
When I was a kid, my uncle, who happened to be a rocket scientist at JPL, had been my tutor. One day, my uncle got so angry with me, he dismissed me – our lesson was over. That evening, my uncle called me into his study, and told me, I was never to allow anyone do that to me again. Huh? Boy, was I confused. My uncle, a humble man, went on the explain that he had the doctorate degrees, he was the rocket scientist, and he knew this information inside out – not me. His job was to teach me, not bully or impress me with his knowledge. If someone cannot explain their field of expertise to you, he said, they were not experts – and I was to dismiss them.
But you dismissed me, I whined (to be honest, I was crying). Yes, he said, and that was wrong – and I was not allowed to let anyone dismiss me again.
Thanks to Uncle Norman, I told these experts, I needed better consultants, thanked them for trying and dismissed them. Yup, my 26 year old self, picked up my notebook, stood up and walked away. I had just gotten to the door, when one of the consultants asked me what was wrong. I told them the story of my uncle. Suffice to say, these men apologized, stopped their intellectual bullying and we got the work done.
Dr. Reich, I was impressed by your testimony – because I could understand it.
Dr. Reich it seems your preparation and expertise made Lindsey Graham uncomfortable to the point of trying to cut you off. Way to go! Thanks for your dedication to country and speaking 'truth to power'.
Robert Reich ; I am so glad that you were there to endorse the windfall profits tax on those large profitable corporations that are raising their prices. It's so wrong to blame consumers and Biden for 'inflation'.
Excellent presentation - clear and oh, so right
We all benefit whenever Robert Reich has the opportunity to lay out the reality of our economic condition with the Senate Budget Committee. Yesterday’s participation is a perfect example of this. I couldn’t agree more that we need a “windfall profit tax” and we need it now. These monopolistic corporations have profited off the financial suffering of all of us for entirely too long. If passed, the tax could greatly reduce the amount we spend at the stores, pump and every other industry that has enjoyed record profits while negatively impacting consumers.
I loved how quickly Robert Reich shut down Graham when he tried to divert the conversation to immigration boarders. Graham and the likes of him have devoted their political careers on protecting the profits of their corporate donors for decades. The mere fact that republicans are trying to blame the “American Rescue Act” as the cause of inflation reveals how little they cared about the well-being of the people during the pandemic. They could have raised taxes on the wealthy to provide for our nation during the crisis to help avert inflation, but of course they refused, instead helping to create this crisis in their attempt to use American suffering as a political attack on the Biden. The midterms are close at hand, I really hope that we see as large of a turn out as we did in 2020, it’s imperative that we don’t lose one seat and that we gain several more.
Thank You for being there for us!
Excellent presentation …direct, informative and convincing…this should be included in the news cycle…
That Lindsey Graham trying to change the topic at hand and you so smoothly moving it back. Kudos to you. 🙂
Yes, it is and would be a good position for political candidate to take.
You GO! You nailed every point. Many thanks. By God I wish there were a Katie Porter to corner these muthafuggas relentlessly and force them to reveal their evil wishes for the planet and the people. Absent that, I wonder what it takes to win.
It's striking to hear statistics that confirm what we've experienced beginning in the 80s. One third of our working population was unionized vs. the current six percent?!
The callous increases in corporate charges to consumers and the resulting profits to those corporations - those oligopolistically organized :) - seems grossly unpatriotic.
I was always proud to work; it's wonderful to find work one loves and commit to it. I feel sorry for the very wealthy who don't seem to understand or respect that exhilaration.
Thank you for your knowledge, your ability to express that knowledge in a clear and succinct language and for speaking to Americans who need to hear the information you know so well.
The phrase is "speaking truth to power." Thank you so much.
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