The House is in crisis.

Favoring the wealthiest 0.2 percent, House Republicans would eliminate estate taxes, increasing deficits for a decade by $320 billion. Do families of megarich magnates, who own more than the bottom 90 percent, need charitable relief?

As for spending, Republicans’ 2015 House budget chops food stamps by $125 billion; cancels Pell Grants for many students; and block-grants Medicaid, cutting health care for the destitute.

Mainstream Republicans also oppose health coverage for 16 million new insureds; obstruct realistic laws reducing the annual carnage of 32,000 gun deaths; and reject crucial infrastructure repairs and jobs.

House Republicans neglect justice. They eagerly demolish both taxes and spending to benefit the uberwealthy—at everyone else’s expense.

The Tea Party believes these policies are not sufficiently strict. Jim Jordan of Ohio spearheaded the sequester’s automatic dire cutbacks—too large to execute—but enacted due to right-wing rigidity.

With a dysfunctional process, America’s AAA credit rating was downgraded, triggering historically high debt-servicing costs. Louisiana’s John Fleming contended, “If we miss the deadline it’s no big crisis. We can use it politically.”

Jordan organized some 40 iron-fisted Tea Party members into the “Freedom Caucus.” Their Dickensian proposals make establishment Republicans appear liberal.

Consider Louie Gohmert of Texas. He introduced a farm bill amendment to cut off food stamps for 47.6 million needing food—including 16 million children. Afflicting America’s most vulnerable, this survival-of-the-fittest mentality would deliver many diseases and death sentences.

Kansan Tim Huelskamp and numerous colleagues promote privatizing Medicare. This would boost premiums and co-pays considerably, eliminating coverage for millions.

Libertarian David Brat of Virginia advocates demolishing Social Security and Medicare, cutting benefits by two-thirds. He also justifies decimating education funds: “Socrates trained in Plato on a rock. How much did that cost?”

Instead of balancing national debt interest with the deficit—nearly achieved—Arizonan Matt Salmon joins many Tea Partyers who claim we must balance the budget. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says this would “kill the economy.” This requires ripping apart America’s safety net, discarding all discretionary programs, and significantly reducing Social Security and Medicare. This crushing austerity also slams the brakes on the economy, substantially increasing unemployment.

Colorado’s Ken Buck wants to privatize the VA. After criticism, he denied favoring “fully privatizing” veterans’ health care. As to Medicare, Medicaid and ‘Obamacare,’ he states, “We need to let the market work, make people responsible for their own insurance…” Such free-market fundamentalism is despicable, denying health insurance to about 100 million seniors and indigents.

Some howled when Florida Democrat Alan Grayson depicted the Republican health plan for the uninsured who get sick: “Die quickly.” Actually, about 19,000 lives are saved annually by Obamacare, yet the Tea Party pushed for more than 50 votes to expunge this essential health care. They offer no bills to replace it.

Tea Party austerity neglects justice.

In a 2013 Mother Jones exposé, “Inside the Republican Suicide Machine,” author Tim Dickinson concludes, “[Tea Party] insurgents are championed by wealthy ideologues who simply seek to tear down government.”

Mainstream Republicans inflict austerity measures, but Tea Party austerity is even worse: Slashing taxes for the wealthy is combined with plundering programs affecting disabled, jobless, working-class and middle-class Americans. This poisonous plot would delight Ebenezer Scrooge.

So why don’t voters choose Democrats? In 2012, they did—by 1.4 million votes. The outcome: Republicans, 234 seats; Democrats, 201. The system is rigged. With gerrymandered districts, voters don’t choose politicians; politicians choose voters. Analyst Sam Wang calculated that to control the House, Democrats needed to win by seven, not 1.2, percentage points.

Democracy is defeated. Austerity adored. Justice neglected—as the Tea Party worships the wealthy.

The House crisis is deeply rooted. It may require several election cycles but, with passionate resistance, perhaps our nation will yet overcome Tea Party tyranny.

Rev. Harry Rix is a retired pastor and mental health counselor living in Providence, RI. He has 50 articles on spirituality and ethics, stunning photos, and 1200 inspiring quotations available at www.quoflections.org.

Corrente’s campaign has been an all around unorthodox one. He began campaigning for mayor last December, with almost two years until the next election. Corrente has also released a publication called “Warwick Taxpayers News,” which some believe suggest that he may align more with the Tea Party, rather than the Democratic party. The first page reads that Warwick is “Taxed Enough Already,” stylized to spell out the word “TEA.”

His main objection to current Mayor Scott Avedisian’s administration is that he has raised taxes every year for the past 15 years. Because of this, Corrente said, Warwick has lost 5,800 taxpayers in the last ten years, and has closed 4,666 businesses.

“If we keep going the way we’re going, we’re going to be a ghost town in six or seven years,” he said. “I disagree with that. I don’t think that’s the way it should be. I want to cut taxes, I want to cut spending, and I want to repopulate the city of Warwick so that we don’t have 9,000 people in our schools when we used to have 19,000.”

Corrente is dedicated on running for the Democratic ticket, even though some doubt that he’s actually a Democrat, and would effectively represent the party.

“We need to elect a mayor of Warwick who is a Democrat, […] but it’s important that Warwick have a Democratic mayor, and a Democratic mayor who cares for Democratic values,” Sam Bell told meet and greet attendees. Bell then proceeded to read Corrente’s publication aloud, blatantly stating that it does not align with progressive Democrat values.

“I believe in Democratic values. I think it’s an embarrassment that Warwick has a so- called Democratic candidate for mayor, who, inside his booklet for a fundraiser, says “TEA” as his slogan. We don’t need a Tea Party Democrat,” Bell said after the meeting. “It epitomizes everything that’s wrong with the Rhode Island Democratic Party. I think that a city like Warwick, which has some decent Democrats on the council, can do a lot better. It’s an embarrassment, and I want the folks in Warwick to know that. Warwick needs a better Democrat running for mayor.”

Jennifer Siciliano, the Warwick Progressive Democrats Coordinator, was also somewhat perplexed by Corrente’s campaign.

“He should probably be running as a Republican, but he probably assumes that Avedisian will get the Republican nomination, so he’s just trying to run as a Democrat,” she said.

“I’ve seen conservative Democrats but not this far conservative,” she added. “I think its beyond conservative.”

Even with the criticism, Corrente not only remains positive, but adamant about running as a Democrat. When asked exactly what a “Tea Party Democrat,” was, he said, “a progressive Democrat.”

“I consider myself a progressive Democrat,” he said. “I want to do what’s right. Whether it’s raise taxes or lower taxes, and in this case it’s lower taxes.”

Corrente added that he doesn’t believe in TEA, but rather TBARD, which stands for “Taxed Beyond All Reason.” He believes that Warwick taxpayers are at a point where they are unable to pay the taxes, and will move away from the city.

His reasoning for running as a Democrat can be boiled down to the fact that he doesn’t believe in labels, but thinks that one is necessary for such a situation.

“I am running as a Democrat, because although I am fiercely independent, if I had to pick a party, it would be the Democratic Party,” he said.

“I don’t believe in labels. I don’t believe in Republican labels or Democratic labels. I don’t believe that if you are striving for a certain principle, it makes you a Democrat, or it makes you a Republican,” he added. “I consider myself progressive, and I consider myself a Democrat.”

Corrente said he would not entertain the idea of running as an independent because he believes a candidate is more respected if they belong to a particular party, and have a label they can be associated with.

“A candidate that belongs to the Democrats or the Republicans has a personality that can be associated with. It labels them a little bit more- they stand for something. Therefore, I think the independent voter will respect a candidate more, if they are represented by the Democrats or the Republicans,” Corrente said.

Warwick’s mayoral election is still over a year away, but if Corrente does succeed in winning the Democratic ticket, he’ll be fighting an uphill battle against Mayor Avedisian, who has been mayor since 2000.

In a stunning turnaround, the RI Tea Party today made a full-throated endorsement of some of the most intrusive government regulations on the books. In a fundraising email, the group called on its supporters to “…rise up against this assault on everything you’ve worked your entire life to earn” — by defending existing zoning and land-use regulations throughout the suburban and rural parts of our state.

For years, suburban communities in Rhode Island (and elsewhere) have stood firmly against affordable housing through land use regulations demanding such things as minimum lot sizes, height restrictions, and prohibitions on multi-family housing.  Making it perfectly clear that land-owners’ rights to property are not absolute, these zoning regulations set very clear limits on what can and cannot be built on a piece of land, the key reason it is such a surprise to see these restrictions endorsed by the RI Tea Party and other “property rights” defenders.

There is demand for affordable housing in almost every community in Rhode Island. Were the housing market a free market, it would be built, and there would be affordable housing all over the state. But in the suburban and rural communities, local land use regulations often prevent such housing from being built anywhere in town. 

A sensible state would not throw out land use regulation — building codes and zoning regulations exist for a good reason — but would recognize when those rules and regulations had been used in ways that encourage segregation and make finding affordable places to live so difficult.

This is exactly what RhodeMapRI proposes — in the very passage the RI Tea Party quotes in their fundraising email shown here — and perhaps is why the plan enrages them so. Apparently they prefer the old restrictions on market forces to new ones.

Rumor had it that this endorsement would have come out a week or two ago, before the RhodeMapRI plan was approved by the RI Planning Council, but that there were delays in filing the paperwork necessary to renounce the group’s previously held pro-market, anti-regulation, views.

For the RI Tea Party to endorse the status quo of zoning regulation was a surprise for many local observers. As one put it, “It’s really remarkable how flexible they are. It’s almost as if the political philosophy they espouse is just a cover for, well, something else.”

Another man on the street said, on the contrary, it was laudable for the group to be flexible about the government regulations they hated. “It’s the mark of a sophisticated mind that it can believe two completely contradictory ideas at the same time. Somebody smart said that once, wasn’t it Socrates or George Washington or someone like that?” He went on to say, “It’s like Mitch McConnell running against Obamacare in Kentucky while endorsing, and even defending, KyNect, Kentucky’s popular Obamacare exchange. If that kind of flexibility is good enough for Mitch McConnell, it’s good enough for the RI Tea Party!”

A random woman accosted on the street said, “Let go of me!”

In yet another breathless press release from The Center for Freedom and Apple Pie today, I learned that the controversial RhodeMapRI plan will call for the incineration of your house. Right down to the ground.

Be afraid. Very afraid.

Yes, it’s true, your nice comfortable suburban house, the one you dreamed about for years, is to be sacrificed to build an affordable housing skyscraper in its place. The plan calls for you to be offered a semi-private apartment, since private apartments are to be phased out. But you won’t mind sharing the kitchen and bathrooms with your less fortunate neighbors. After all, you’ll be commuting together on public transportation, since the RhodeMapRI also envisions the end of private automobiles. Your car is to be taken via eminent domain and resold to UN bureaucrats, with the proceeds made available to help keep the subsidized birth-control vending machines full in the lobby of your new home.

For those late to this party, the Center for Freedom and Apple Pie has warned all of us about the impending danger to the state posed by “RhodeMapRI” an insidious plan to end capitalism hatched within the bowels of the Rhode Island Division of Planning. The official Rhode Island Tea Party similarly warns of the terrible peril, as do totally-100%-they-promise unaffiliated citizens like Colleen Conley and Gary Morse.

Just in time these citizen activists have alerted us to the dangers within. The jack-booted planners ensconced in a Smith Hill building made of — can you imagine! — pink marble, have gussied up their world-domination plans with such appealing catch-phrases as “sustainable development” and “affordable housing.”  You might think their economic development plan looks like an appealing alternative to the plans of the past. You might be distressed that “economic development” has always seemed like a synonym for “give business whatever they want” and that it’s high time to see economic development plans that actually take everyone into account. You might even think that economic plans that emphasize sustainability are precisely what our state needs these days. But that’s because you’re just an ignorant patsy whose house is going to be burnt.

Remember, the only sensible government plans either benefit rich people or are completely ineffectual. Aren’t you glad to have such patriotic citizens as the folks at the Center for Freedom and Apple Pie to make sure that’s true? I know I am.

• Gary Morse stokes suburban fears with racially-charged half-truths
• RhodeMapRI opponents fear future plans, affordable housing
• Racial injustice vs. property rights: Ferguson, RhodeMapRI and the American Dream

“Strip away all the happy talk about walking communities and bike paths, and what RhodeMap RI is really all about is HUD’s demand that low-income housing, particularly low-income rental housing, be implemented side-by-side with existing housing in every neighborhood across America,” he wrote.

Two nights later, Morse gave a presentation that in some ways closely mirrored his more-public op/ed – with one very notable exception. The presentation focused on the idea that the federal Housing Urban Development agency, and by extension RhodeMapRI, wants to force racial integration on affluent suburban neighborhoods.

Compare the op/ed and the presentation.

“This kind of fear mongering is racism at it’s worst,” Steve Fischbach, a member of the RhodeMapRI Social Equity Advisory Committee, said of Morse’s presentation. “He’s lying and trying to scare people.”

Fischbach added, “Morse’s presentation plays on the fears of White people, falsely accusing some outside boogeyman of forcibly moving Blacks and Hispanics into housing projects that will be built in single family – meaning White – neighborhoods. It’s not even that coded. It’s pretty explicit.”

The SEAC is a central problem with RhodeMapRI for Morse and other tea party types opposed to it. And Fischback, a housing and civil rights activist, has been vocal that the opposition to RhodeMapRI is rooted in racism. NBC 10 reported on a state Planning Commission meeting at which RhodeMapRI was hotly debated and Patrick Anderson filed this overview for Providence Business News.

“To me, he’s a segregationist who is opposed to the Fair Housing Act,” Fischbach said of Morse.

According to Morse’s speech, the Fair Housing Act is a root of his concern with RhodeMapRI. This is part of what he said about it at about 2 minutes into his presentation:

Morse said evidence that RhodeMapRI is a social equity plan is that, “if you read the document you find social equity in the document seven times.” RI Future compiled seven examples (not a complete list at all) of Morse indicating RhodeMapRI will result in more people of color living in affluent suburbs from his Monday night presentation.

“He’s trying to scare white people into thinking that HUD and the SEAC will seize control of properties in White neighborhoods to build low income housing,” Fischbach said. “He accuses RhodeMapRI of engaging in social engineering by which the engineering is moving non-white people into predominantly white neighborhoods.”

As he did in his Providence Journal op/ed, Morse spoke about a court decision from Westchester County, NY. But unlike his written piece, he said, “the terms of the settlement agreement was you that you go back and count all these census blocks and look for minority populations and then you start with the census block groups that have the least number of minorities, you don’t start somewhere else, you go to your million dollar neighborhoods and you start putting in low income rental housing.”

Through much of Morse’s presentation, he stated that HUD’s and the SEAC’s mission is to deconstruct neighborhoods. In this clip he says HUD will introduce affordable housing into communities “starting with the ones with the least minority populations.” This is incorrect, Fischbach said. “A lot of what he is saying is incorrect, which further builds fear into the minds of Rhode Islanders.

In this clip, Fischbach says Morse again misrepresents maps highlighting areas of opportunity as maps of where minorities are concentrated, even though no racial data was used in the preparation of the maps. Says Morse, “The people in RhodeMap would say this is where we need to be putting in low income housing because after all look at the color we must not have any minority populations over there.”

In this clip he says there are “federal mandates to balance minority populations.”

Morse explains in this clip how developers will use the social equity committee as a way of “force fitting” an affordable housing project with people of color in neighborhoods such as the most exclusive waterfront neighborhoods in Rhode Island.

RI Future wrote about Gary Morse in May, 2013 when he had a completely different reason for opposing affordable housing. At the beginning of his presentation he says he hopes his lawsuit against the affordable housing project in Barrington can eventually “link up” with the “folks designing the RhodeMap property tax aspects.”

Here’s Morse’s unedited 26-minute presentation:

At the request of Morse and his allies, House Speaker Nick Mattiello asked for a vote on the plan to be temporarily delayed. That vote is now scheduled to happen on Thursday, December 11 at 9:00.

In Providence, there is a “march against police violence” in solidarity with the on-going Ferguson protests at Burnside Park, 7pm. In North Kingstown, there is an “informational meeting” about the ongoing RhodeMapRI flap at the Carriage Inn, also 7pm.

These two events will look much different. The march is at the center of urban Rhode Island and the meeting is on the outskirts of the suburbs. The march takes place on public property while the meeting is being hosted by the private sector. The march starts at the same park where Occupy Providence protested. The meeting is at a new upscale restaurant; salad = $9, steak = priced to market. The march will be multiracial while the meeting will be mostly white people. At face value, they will even be voicing very different messages: the march will focus on racial injustice while the meeting will focus on property rights.

But a deeper look at their concerns shows they are both dancing around the same issue. In Rhode Island life is nice in the suburbs, and some people want to preserve that. Life is not as nice in our cities, and some people want to change that. It’s absolutely not a coincidence that the area where people are looking for change are predominantly populated by Black and Brown people while the areas where people are looking to keep things the same are predominantly populated by White people.

The marchers want police to wear body cameras in hopes it will make law enforcement more accountable when tragedy occurs. But the people opposed to RhodeMapRI are vociferously opposed to any and all new government expenditures. The anti-RhodeMapRI activists feel strongly that affordable housing programs are bad, and that neighborhood planning is best left to market forces. Ferguson activists believe the invisible hand is largely responsible for the continued racial divide in Rhode Island and more, not fewer, public sector tools are needed to remedy this.

“We are fed up with economic injustice and inequality,” reads a Facebook invite about the march. “We are fed up with institutionalized systems of racial oppression. We are fed up with a system that serves the ruling class instead of the people.”

“All citizens of our state should be made aware of this most insidious plan which will deconstruct our American Dream right here in Rhode Island if allowed to be adopted!” reads a Facebook invite about the meeting.

Both events are about the American Dream. The Ferguson activists want more access to it. The anti-RhodeMapRI activists want to keep it for themselves.

I do think the tea party has an outsized influence on state politics and public debate. (They have their own radio station, for crying out loud!) I also think Rhode Island gave austerity a pretty fair shake and it hasn’t served us very well.

News, Weather and Classifieds for Southern New England

“I think people realized that with the imminent beginning of Obamacare, that this was a critical time to make every effort to stop something,” former Ronald Reagan staffer and friend Edwin Meese told the New York Times.

According to the very insightful Times article:

Groups like Tea Party Patriots, Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks are all immersed in the fight, as is Club for Growth, a business-backed nonprofit organization. Some, like Generation Opportunity and Young Americans for Liberty, both aimed at young adults, are upstarts. Heritage Action is new, too, founded in 2010 to advance the policy prescriptions of its sister group, the Heritage Foundation.

The billionaire Koch brothers, Charles and David, have been deeply involved with financing the overall effort. A group linked to the Kochs, Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, disbursed more than $200 million last year to nonprofit organizations involved in the fight. Included was $5 million to Generation Opportunity, which created a buzz last month with an Internet advertisement showing a menacing Uncle Sam figure popping up between a woman’s legs during a gynecological exam.

The Times even dug up a a Defunding Obamacare Toolkit that was put together for astroturfing (astroturfing is when in politics something appears to be a grassroots effort but it is really being funded and formulated by powerful political players).

It seems Justin Katz got some material from the toolkit for our appearance on 10 News Conference this weekend. I asked him if we both agreed that everyone should have insurance and he replied that everyone should have health care (3:00) but not necessarily insurance. Here that is, right on page 11 of the toolkit, right under “Suggested Responses to Congressional Offices & Members of the Press about Defunding Obamacare.”

North Kingstown conservative Doreen Costa brought the Providence Journal’s attention to my traffic stop last weekend. But she also voted against the reason for my traffic stop during the last legislative session. According to a police report, I was detained because an East Greenwich officer noticed I wasn’t wearing my seat belt while we were both stopped at a red light. Costa voted against a bill that allows police officers to make a traffic stop based primarily on not wearing a seat belt.

According to State House lawyer Richard Raspallo:

“Doreen Costa voted against the primary seatbelt bill 6/29/2011. She again voted against removing the sunset on 5/9/2013, and against the Sub A (lowering the fine to $40.00) that passed after the bill came back from the Senate on 6/28/2013. I believe she agreed with the lowering of the fine, but since she was against the primary seatbelt law to begin with, she voted against the bill as a whole, not really against the idea of lowering a fine alone.”

Earlier this year, she told Matt Allen: “We have to stop controlling every single move we make in this state,” she . “If someone wants to get in the car and not buckle up, that’s their responsibility. The government can’t be controlling what people want to do.”

Justin Katz, who first publicized my run-in with The Law, was also a strong opponent of seat belt violations being a reason for police to pull over a driver – and he’s pointed out to me several times that a more libertarian society would have done me well. Perhaps, though one barometer will be whether or not I learned me lesson.

Katz, to his credit, has been really respectful and very professional throughout my public shaming. It was a good get on his part, and I can’t say I wouldn’t publicize his arrest either. He even wrote on his blog that I’m not a terrible person … or at least not based on my public record, I’m not!

With the possible exception of the recent drug charge (depending on your politics), progressive blogger Bob Plain’s rap sheet is essentially a story of failure to comply with rules and hardly indicates a criminal mentality.  It is, rather, evidence of the obstacle course of compliance that modern life has become.

I’m not sure how I feel politically about a seat belt snafu being a primary offense but we both agree that drug laws should be reformed. Maybe RI Future and Anchor Rising can find a way to work on that issue together?

Allen, in his piece titled “Republicans are their own worst political enemy,” then went on to list a number of examples from across the country in which what he called the “tea party wing” has become the biggest thorn in the side of the GOP “- more than anything Democrats have done,” he wrote.

Is a similar struggle going on here in the Ocean State in which the moderate wing of the GOP is being overshadowed by the conservative fringe? Let’s go through a partial list of ways in which the Rhode Island Republican Party has made news recently and ask yourself if to political outsiders the local GOP looks more like John Chafee or Barry Goldwater.

• Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin says he joined the GOP. This comes after he led a very high-profile and divisive campaign against same sex marriage. At the announcement he was asked for his opinion on “abolishing the welfare state and encouraging private charity in its place. ‘I think Jesus would say that’s terrific,’ Tobin replied.”
• North Kingstown Rep. Doreen Costa, one of the most fiscally and socially conservative legislators in the state, demands an apology after confusion over whom she asked the Bishop to punish at that same meeting. Cranston Rep. Art Handy chided Costa in a press release after WPRI reported that she and others asked Bishop Thomas Tobin if he could somehow “punish” legislators who supported same sex marriage. Costa insists she was talking about the congressional delegation’s support of Obamacare. “My conversation had nothing to do with the civil rights of the gay community as Mr. Handy said,” she said in a press release that did not address the larger issue that she was accused of asking the church to help meter out political punishment.
• Tea partiers and other local hard-line fiscal conservatives led and promoted a protest over a toll on the Sakonnet River Bridge that had already been reduced from $2 to ten cents  (that the state has said it won’t actively collect). When the tolls were set fire the day before the protest, both Matt Allen, of WPRO, and Justin Katz, editor of the Anchor Rising blog and employee of a anti-public sector think tank, both said the fire was a sign of how irate people were about the situation. Organizers distanced themselves from the arson but advocated for lawful forms of sabotage such as sending toll payments in checks to make collecting the fee onerous for the state.
• Woonsocket group, RI Taxpayers organization sues the city of Woonsocket over a tax increase that was instituted by the state-appointed Budget Commission after two ALEC-aligned local legislators defied the mayor and City Council by defeating a similar proposal in 2012. At issue is that the city doesn’t have enough taxable revenue to pay school costs.
• Right wing think tank RI Center for Freedom and Prosperity send out an email alert denying climate change. Yep, the same group that wants you to believe the doing away with all sales tax would be good for Rhode Island want to you to also know they think climate change is a myth.
• GOP Chairman Mark Smiley and Anchor Rising blogger Patrick Laverty both accuse the General Assembly of focusing more on the so-called “calamari bill” than fixing the economy. It would be hard but not impossible to quantify but I’d be willing to bet the aforementioned conservatives in this post have talked about the so-called “calamari bill” more than the entire rest of the state combined, and well more than the General Assembly ever did. It’s certainly true that the talking point has more legs with the far right than the legislation ever did with the rest of Rhode Island.