Arizona Injunction; Baker on CBO and SS

(1) Possibly Irrelevant Image for today:

(2) Judge Blocks Az. Law S.B. 1070. Breaking news–U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton blocked key parts of Arizona’s restrictive and invasive immigration law, which was to go into effect in a couple of days. Here’s what the New York Times has to say:

In a ruling on a law that has rocked politics coast to coast and thrown a spotlight on the border state’s fierce debate over immigration, United States District Court Judge Susan Bolton in Phoenix said some aspects of the law can go into effect as scheduled on Thursday.

But Judge Bolton took aim at the parts of the law that have generated the most controversy, issuing a preliminary injunction against sections that called for officers to check a person’s immigration status while enforcing other laws and that required immigrants to carry their papers at all times.

Judge Bolton put those sections on hold while she continues to hear the larger issues in the challenges to the law.

Read the judge’s order. Read the rest of the Times article.

(2) Dean Baker on the CBO and Social Security:  Dean Baker suspects the Congressional Budget Office is joining in the frenzy to target Social Security as a way to deal with deficits (or rather, the frenzy to use deficits as an pretext for targeting Social Security).  At issue is the way the CBO models the effect of deficits on private investment:

CBO changed its modeling of the impact of deficits and
debt on the crowding out of private investment. As a result, the 2010
projections show that deficits in the near future will crowd out far more
investment than the 2009 projections. This leads deficits to have a far more
negative impact on GNP growth.

Read the full issue brief. For more on “crowding out,” see this article by our own Alejandro Reuss.

(3) Financial Reform, Round Two: As we reported yesterday (item two), the banks have already moved on to figuring out how to influence rule-making related to the new financial regulations–by hiring former regulators. Mary Battari of BanksterUSA has pointed out a second sense in which we are in Round Two of financial reform:  the opportunity to push for further changes like a transaction tax.

Are you ready for Round Two? Our friend Paul Wellstone used to say, “sometimes you have to pick a fight to win one.” Bankster has been working with colleagues in the consumer movement, labor movement, Netroots and grassroots to figure out some fights worth picking. In addition to continued work on breaking up the banks, groups are coalescing around two big issues.

Repo the Dough: The Banksters crashed the economy and $14 trillion in wages, college savings, retirement saving and housing wealth disappeared. We want it back. The best way to do this? Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, the AFL-CIO, SEIU and many others are calling for a teeny tiny Bankster tax, 0.25 % or less on the sale or purchase of a share of stock, bond or derivatives would allow us to recoup our losses and put the money to work rebuilding America. The idea is called a “financial speculation tax.” It would not affect the average investor, but would throw sand in the wheels of the high-speed, high-volume traders and rake in $100 billion a year to create jobs and help provide essential services.
The Rising Tide: A tsunami of foreclosures is sweeping across America. Millions of homes are underwater and the government hasn’t done a single thing to stop it. Where are the helicopters, the aid brigades, the food drops? Why haven’t President Clinton and President Bush been tapped to raise funds for suffering families? A Rising Tide of mighty pissed off Americans is starting to notice and fight back. We will be working with groups like National People’s Action to end the housing crisis and hold big banks accountable for the damage done to our communities.

More interesting posts by Mary and others at BanksterUSA, including a recent one on efforts to make sure Elizabeth Warren is named head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

(4) Employers on Strike:  Last but not least, we just posted John Miller’s latest column, Employers Go on Strike–Because They Can, from our current (July/August) issue. Enjoy!

–Chris Sturr