Education Costs, Health Care Will Likely Sway Youth Vote

By Adrianna McGinley

Youth leaders and policy experts cited rising costs in education, health care, child care, and housing as key issues for winning the young vote in 2012.

The discussion at the Center for American Progress was based on a recent report from the think tank Demos and the Young Invincibles entitled “The State of Young America”.

Heather McGhee, Demos’ Washington office Director, noted the report shows that while college tuition has tripled over the last few decades, federal aid has been cut in half. A maximum pell grant that she said covered 69 percent of costs in 1980, today only covers 34 percent. She added that in 2010 the amount of student debt surpassed that of credit card debt and 76 percent of participants in the study reported it has become harder in the last five years to afford college.

McGhee said these numbers make young people “more oriented towards public solutions, more willing to pay higher taxes for higher degrees of service from the government than any generation since the depression generation.”

Aaron Smith, Co-founder and Executive Director of the Young Invincibles, said Congress has the power to help youth but only if they make their voices heard. Smith cited Obama’s Affordable Care Act as “an example of how Congress can really step up to the plate and address one of these big long-term challenges,” and added it would be a grave mistake for Congress to repeal it in 2012.

“Going backwards is obviously, I think, exactly the wrong move…we’re going to be doing more work in the Fall to educate young people about what the health care law actually means for them,” Smith said. “Once you have the education I think then you’re prepared to sort of become an advocate, to tell your story, to explain ‘yes…I’m a young person, but healthcare really does matter to my life,’ and we found that when those stories are told, it can be quite powerful and change the political debate.”

The panel also touched on immigration issues.

Eduardo Garcia, Advocacy Associate for Campus Progress, said the 2012 election will depend on how the administration continues to deal with the undocumented population.

“Young people are very much feeling the impacts of some of the harmful deportation policies that the administration has adopted, and I think that it’s especially hurtful because many of those folks turned out in 2008 to get this president elected.”

The panel cited immigration reform as a possible key to economic recovery as well, saying that while 54 percent of all young adults have or want to start a business, that rate for minority youth is over 60 percent.

Ronnie Cho, White House Liaison to Young Americans and Associate Director of the Office of Public Engagement, said it is up to youth to make their voices heard.

“It is incumbent upon ourselves to really assert ourselves, not ask for an invitation to be a part of the discussion, because that’s simply not going to happen and it hasn’t happened…that’s why the discussion hasn’t been around how this affects young people,” Cho said. “It is our time to emerge as this force to be reckoned with.”

McGhee added that while young voters need to stand up, the federal government must continue to protect voters rights, citing that in 2010, 31 states passed voter ID laws that could inhibit youth from voting since over a third of 18 year olds do not have a federally issued ID.

Dems Want Immigrants To Know Their Rights Under New Alabama Law

By Adrianna McGinley, Janie Amaya

Following their recent visit to Alabama, five House Democrats held a press conference Friday urging undocumented immigrants to educate themselves about their rights under new immigration rules in that state.

“If you have a U.S. citizen child, carry a copy of their birth certificate with you at all times…if your wife is a US citizen, carry a copy of your marriage certificate with you, if you have a mortgage, if you have a diploma, if you have papers that show you have roots in the U.S., carry copies of those with you,” Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) advised.

Gutierrez emphasized that while local law enforcement is being given the power to arrest undocumented immigrants, officers do not have the authority to deport individuals, and ICE agents are under executive orders to focus deportation resources on dangerous criminals.

Gutierrez said undocumented individuals with no criminal record have the right to prove their roots in the community, making them eligible for release under President Obama’s prosecutorial discretion order.

While the fight for comprehensive federal immigration reform appears to be on hold, Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Texas) said they will continue to fight against unjust state laws.

“I doubt very much that we’re going to see the reform that’s necessary in this Congress,” Lofgren said. “In the meanwhile, we [will] work together to make sure that the Constitution is applied when laws are unconstitutional.”

“Let’s stand up against those who make statements like ‘short of shooting them, I will do anything and everything to get them out of this country,’” said Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas). “Not today, not ever again in our country, will we tolerate the kind of rhetoric, the kind of harsh and mean spirited laws that are unconstitutional.”

Jackson-Lee and Lofgren said they support legislation deeming racial profiling as illegal, saying the U.S. cannot revert to institutionalized racism and segregation.

“If we come to a point where we frame ourselves in eras past, eras that occurred in Germany, where people had to be walking around with papers, there were tragedies that occurred because of someone’s ethnicity,” Jackson-Lee said. “I call upon the new South to reject that.”

“We who are from Alabama have fought too hard to overcome our history of intolerance to be taken back by this law,” said Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Ala.).

The Hispanic Congressional Caucus scheduled a meeting for Thursday with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to discuss the impacts of the Alabama law.

“I, for one, plan to appeal to the Secretary, again, to personally…go to Alabama,” Gutierrez said. “Go and take ICE director John Mortan. I invite the President to go as well and see first hand what has happened in Alabama.”

Bloomberg Urges Super Committee To Go Big, Promotes Higher Taxes For All

By Andrea Salazar

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg called on federal lawmakers Tuesday to seriously address the nation’s debt and deficit by allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire.

In a speech at the left-leaning Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C., Bloomberg touted the plan put forth last year by President Obama’s debt commission. The proposal co-crafted by Democrat Erskine Bowles and Republican Alan Simpson, featured large spending cuts, scaled-back tax breaks, increases to personal tax rates and tweaks to federal entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare.

“The spending cuts in Simpson-Bowles, plus Clinton-era tax rates, plus closing some tax loopholes and ending wasteful subsidies would save $8 trillion and effectively bring our budget into balance by 2021,” Bloomberg said during a speech at the Center for American Progress in Washington.

Bloomberg warned that the current deficit committee’s goal of $1.2 trillion in cuts “would be almost as bad as getting no deal at all.” He called that figure “a drop in the bucket” compared to the nation’s $14.6 trillion debt.

“It will allow Congress to walk away from real deficit reduction until at least 2013.”

Calling for “a flatter and lower” tax, Bloomberg called on President Obama to allow the Bush tax cuts expire for all tax brackets.

“All income groups have to be part of the solution,” Bloomberg said. “It’s fair to ask those who earn more to bear more of the burden. That is the whole idea behind a graduated income tax,” Bloomberg said. “But all of us should help carry the load.”

However, the Mayor, who also happens to be the 12th richest person in the U.S., acknowledged that his recommendations are not a “cure-all,” adding that entitlement, tax and immigration reforms are also necessary.

Addressing the gridlock in Congress, Bloomberg pushed Democrats and Republicans to compromise. “We are not going to be able to cut our ways out of the problem and we’re not going to be able to just tax our ways out of the problem,” he said. “We must do both.”

“All sides have to be willing to give on something,” Bloomberg added. “We don’t have to slaughter the sacred cows but we do need to get a little milk from them.”

Small Business Owners Endorse Piece Of Obama's Jobs Act

By Adrianna McGinley

The House Subcommittee on TARP, Financial Services, and Bailouts of Public and Private Programs questioned a small group of entrepreneurs on the financial burdens they are faced with and gathered their opinions on four pieces of legislation scheduled to be voted on in the House this week.

The Entrepreneur Access to Capital Act is one of the pieces that make up President Obama’s unified American Jobs Act. The legislation focuses on “crowd funding”, which allows small businesses to use the internet and social media to collect capital.

Subcommittee Chairman Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) said securities reform is long overdue, saying that the Securities Act and the Securities Exchange Act of the ’30s “have not been substantially updated since a gallon of gasoline cost 10 cents.”

“The ramifications of not modernizing our securities regulations have lead to registration and reporting requirements so onerous and costly that small companies have great difficulty raising capital,” McHenry said.

Eric Koester, CMO and Co-founder of Zaarly, an online marketplace for local buyers and sellers, said it is cheaper today to start a business than ever before, but entrepreneurs still struggle to gain access to capital. Koester said that Zaarly hired 30 new employees this year and “if I had the opportunity to hire ten more qualified engineers, I certainly would.”

“Our goal is to grow into those large mature businesses that can create thousands and thousands of jobs, so I think across the board any provisions that allow an increase of access to capital, an increased ability to attract and retain employees, and an ability to basically grow our business free of restrictions and limitations are helpful,” Koester said.

Koester asknowledged that immigration reform is also a necessary step to small business success, prompting Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) to announce her commitment to introduce legislation facilitating the visa process for foreign entrepreneurs.

“Improvements to immigration will be an important thing for us to be able to attract talent from around the world,” Koester said. “That’s one of the things that the United States has an incredible advantage at doing.”

Lonna Williams, CEO of Ridge Diagnostics, and Dr. Tsvi Goldenberg, CEO of eemRa, also testified before the committee, representing small businesses in the medical field.

Williams said a slow United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)has become another obstacle for entrepreneurs to overcome, saying a two and half year delay for first action from the USPTO prevented her business from publishing studies and technological findings that could have seriously impacted the medical field.

Rep. Frank Guinta (R-N.H.) emphasized the importance for the U.S. to facilitate capital access for small business in order to create jobs, especially in the medical field.

“There is a lot here that is shrinking in terms of access,” Guinta said. “Some of that is actually going overseas and those companies are being created overseas, and those jobs are being created overseas, and in [the medical field]…these are high paying, high quality jobs that we could be creating right here in America if the access to capital issue was addressed.”

Bipartisan Commission Tasked With Shaping Housing Recovery

By Adrianna McGinley

The Bipartisan Policy Center introduced a new Housing Commission led by former Cabinet members and senators that has been tasked with giving lawmakers policy suggestions for long-term housing wellness.

Former U.S. Senators Kit Bond, George Mitchell, and Mel Martinez; and Henry Cisneros, former HUD Secretary under President Clinton, will serve as co-chairs of the commission that was touted as an idea generator to solve the lingering housing issues plaguing the country. 

Mitchell jokingly said the bipartisan commission “does not have the luxury” of proposing solutions that will not be able to pass in Congress. Instead, Mitchell said he had high hopes that his new team will be able to “assist those in office by demonstrating that it’s possible to come up with a meaningful, practical solution that is deliberately bipartisan in nature.”

One notion that members of the commission came to consensus on was that the revival of the housing market and job creation are linked and should both be considered when designing a path to recovery. 

“I don’t think you can have a meaningful jobs recovery without improvement in the housing sector and I think the reverse is true as well,” Mitchell said.

Cisneros in addition emphasized the importance of addressing homelessness when debating housing policy.

“It’s an example of where we can’t allow other things to be eliminated because they involve real people and real pain,” Cisneros said.

He also acknowledged the role immigration reform could play in boosting the housing market saying he believes immigrant populations will provide the spark the housing market is looking for.

“I suspect that one of the really big surges in the market for housing going forward is going to be the immigrant population,” Cisneros said. “We’re blessed in this country to have that rich infusion of workers and talent and many of them completely believe in the American dream, their definition of the American dream is home ownership.”