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The Green Party blasted the Emergency Fiscal Plan outlined by Andrew Cuomo in his State of the State Message as a continuation of the failed policies of previous administrations of the Democratic and Republican Parties.
Andrew Cuomo is reading from the same 30-year old major party script, which says the bad economy and fiscal problems are the fault of big government and the solution is to cut taxes and spending. It’s the same old banker’s agenda to create an unprecedented concentration of income, wealth, and power in a tiny elite and stagnant or declining income, wealth, and public services for the rest of us. Wall Street blew up the economy, but Cuomo wants to blame public employees,
Cuomo is using this crisis to advance a ‘shock doctrine” on NY just like the bankers and Wall Street had been doing with the IMF and third world countries for decades. Slashing public spending for essential services and selling off public assets to pay off debts and deficits only works for looting the economy. Cuomo is continuing the bipartisan push to bail out Wall Street at the expense of Main Street. How is his austerity plan supposed to help an upstate described 4 years ago by Spitzer as part of Appalachia? Cuomo is advocating class war on behalf of the rich, and we think it’s time working NYers fought back.
We say that the problem is concentrated wealth and power and the solution begins with progressive tax reform to make the rich pay their fair share of taxes again so government can invest in what the people want: secure jobs, good schools and health care, clean energy, and a sustainable environment.
The state needs to go way beyond Cuomo’s government reform measures to full public campaign financing and independent redistricting into multi-member districts for proportional representation. Cuomo’s proposed $100 million competitive grants program for green economic initiatives was far short of what is needed.
Betty Davis speaks at Public Area at Hofstra 10/18/2008
Betty Davis and Ralph Poynter of the Green Party’s Black Caucus and public education committee said Cuomo’s proposal for competitive grants for school performance would serve as a means for Cuomo to force reluctant parents, teachers, and school boards to accept his education reform agenda of charter schools, mayoral control, and union busting. They said schools instead need full funding, community control, and programs to redress the poverty and alienation at the root of low achievement in the schools of low-income communities. Read more »
Filed under: 3rd party, Action Alert!, activism, campaign finance reform, Ecology, economy, Election 2010, Environment, grassroots democracy, Green Party, health, health care, Healthcare, new york, New York State Politics, News, politics, social & economic justice, third party | Tagged: AIG bonus payments controversy, andrew cuomo, fracking, green, new york, Single-payer health care, State of the State address, wall street | 2 Comments »
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