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Bipartisan Bickering vs. Job and Energy Security

submitted to Letters to the Editor, Syracuse Post-Standard
Howie Hawkins
July 12th, 2008

To the Editor:

"Congressional candidates in the 25th District sparred Thursday over whether Democratic energy policies or Republican free-trade agreements are to blame" for the latest New Process Gear lay-offs (Post-Standard, July 4).

Republican Dale Sweetland blamed "Democratic" gas taxes and oil drilling bans. Democrat Dan Maffei blamed "Republican" free trade policies.

The truth is that all of these policies have been bipartisan.

The gas tax is not "Democratic." It was enacted and reformed by three Republican presidents with Democratic congressional support. Hoover enacted it in 1932. Eisenhower earmarked it for the Highway Trust Fund in 1956. Reagan authorized some spending from the Fund for mass transit in 1982.

Nor is the ban on offshore and Alaskan drilling "Democratic." The first President Bush (Republican) banned offshore and Alaskan drilling by executive order in 1990. President Clinton (Democrat) extended it by executive order until 2012.

Free trade is not "Republican." Vice-President Gore (Democrat) sang high praises to free trade in his widely viewed 1993 NAFTA debate with Ross Perot. President Clinton then used up all his political capital of pork, patronage, and prestige to get NAFTA and WTO fast track approved by Congress in 1994.

To see Sweetland and Maffei play the same blame game between Democrats and Republicans that we see every day in Washington is a perfect illustration of why we need new representation in Congress that is independent of the both of the entrenched old parties. Congress has become a highly centralized party-based spin room geared to posturing in the 24-hour news cycle rather than policy-making in the public interest.

The energy and trade policies proposed by Sweetland and Maffei did not address the immediate needs of laid off workers.

I favor three measures for immediate relief.

• Higher Unemployment Compensation. Unemployment compensation today covers fewer workers at a lower percentage of wages than at any time since the program was adopted under President Franklin Roosevelt.



• The Right to a Job at a Living Wage. It is long past time for the Economic Bill of Rights that Roosevelt asked Congress to enact in 1944, which started with "the right to a useful and remunerative job." Government should be the employer of last resort to provide work serving neglected public needs.



• A Just Transition Program. All workers who lose jobs due to changes in industrial policy, such as converting from environmentally destructive to sustainable production or from military to civilian production, should receive full income and benefits as they make the transition to alternative work.

The 1990s craze for oversized SUV's, vans, and pick-ups is not coming back to restore New Process Gear as we have known it. Nor should it. Now is the time to finally address the multi-faceted energy crisis of foreign oil dependence, price spikes, peak oil, and climate emergency. Salvaging the auto/truck/roads system that relies on oil and carbon emissions is a dead end from the viewpoint energy security and climate protection.

A real solution must include a shift from fossil-fueled roads to solar-power rails – electrified commuter rails, freight rails, and high-speed intercity passenger rails. Electrified trains use one-twentieth the energy of diesel trucks to move freight and one-tenth the energy of gasoline cars to move people. Solar and wind electricity can provide carbon-free power for the trains as well as the supplementary electric vehicles for the final delivery of freight, packages, and people.

New Process Gear is now diversifying into products for smaller, electric, and hybrid vehicles. Its experienced and technically skilled workforce could also play a big role in rebuilding our railroads.

Howie Hawkins
Green Populist candidate for Congress, 25th District