Category Archives: Austerity

Teachers Union Sues NYC Mayor Over ‘Draconian’ Budget Cuts

“We are already seeing more overcrowded classrooms,” said a union leader. “We are seeing children with special needs not getting their mandated services. And if these cuts go through, all of these situations get worse.”

By Jessica Corbett. Published 12-21-2023 by Common Dreams

New York City Mayor Eric Adams hosted his inaugural Black History Month event, “Bridging The Gap” at The Apollo in Harlem on Thursday, February 24, 2022.. Photo: nycmayorsoffice/flickr/Public domain

As New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday delivered a speech claiming he has been able to “get stuff done” for working people over the past two years, a teachers union in the largest U.S. public school district sued the Democrat for trying to slash the education budget for fiscal years 2024 and 2025 “by staggering amounts.”

“The approximate $547 million in immediate budget cuts to the New York City School District announced on November 16, 2023, together with the further cuts proposed that may amount to close to $2 billion stripped from city schools this fiscal year and next, will have a far-reaching and devastating impact on teachers and New York City children,” says the complaint filed in state court by the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) and individual educators.

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Milei Couples ‘Total Crackdown’ on Protest With Economic Shocks in Argentina

“Protest is elemental to Argentine social and political life, so it’s not difficult to imagine how this ends,” said one journalist.

By Julia Conley. Published 12-15-2023 by Common Dreams

Argentinian President Javier Milei. Photo by  Mídia NINJA

As the human impact of Argentinian President Javier Milei’s “shock treatment” to the South American country’s economy became increasingly clear with rising prices on Thursday, Security Minister Patricia Bullrich announced what one journalist said were doubtlessly “preemptive” new controls on protests to discourage a struggling population from speaking out.

Bullrich said four security forces—the Federal Police, the Gendarmerie, the Naval Prefecture, and the Airport Security Police—will work together to stop protests that block streets and suggested the protocol is aimed only at ensuring “that people can live in peace” without demonstrators blocking traffic.

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Far-Right Climate Denier Javier Milei Wins Argentina Presidential Runoff

“No one so extremist on economic issues has been elected president of a South American country,” said U.S. economist Mark Weisbrot.

By Brett Wilkins. Published 11-19-2023 by Common Dreams

Javier Milei. Photo: Vox España/flickr/CC

Javier Milei—a far-right admirer of former U.S. President Donald Trump who says that climate change is a “socialist lie” and who pledged to take a “chainsaw” to social programs—will be Argentina’s next president after winning a decisive victory in Sunday’s presidential runoff.

Sergio Massa, Argentina’s Peronist economy minister, conceded defeat Sunday evening to the 53-year-old Milei, a radical libertarian economist often called the “Trump of Argentina” who will take office amid a looming recession, triple-digit inflation, and a nearly 40% poverty rate in Latin America’s third-largest economy.

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$10 Trillion in Added US Debt Since 2001 Shows ‘Bush and Trump Tax Cuts Broke Our Modern Tax Structure’

“In their blind loyalty to their mega-donors, Republicans’ fixation on giant tax cuts for billionaires has created a revenue problem that is driving up our national debt,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse in response to new Treasury Department figures.

By Jon Queally. Published 10-21-2023 by Common Dreams

Photo: White House Archives

The U.S. Treasury Department on Friday released new figures related to the 2023 budget that showed a troubling drop in the nation’s tax revenue compared to GDP—a measure which fell to 16.5% despite a growing economy—and an annual deficit increase that essentially doubled from the previous year.

“After record U.S. government spending in 2020 and 2021” due to programs related to the economic fallout from the Covid-19 crisis, the Washington Post reports, “the deficit dropped from close to $3 trillion to close to $1 trillion in 2022. But rather than continue to fall to its pre-pandemic levels, the deficit unexpectedly jumped this year to roughly $2 trillion.”

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With Funds Opposed by GOP, IRS to Target Ultrawealthy Tax Delinquents

“This news stands in stark contrast to the approach taken by House Republicans, who want to allow wealthy tax cheats to continue business as usual,” said U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden.

By Jessica Corbett. Published 9-8-2023 by Common Dreams

Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Daniel Werfel . Screenshot: C-SPAN

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service on Friday won praise from congressional Democrats and progressive groups for announcing “a sweeping, historic effort to restore fairness in tax compliance by shifting more attention onto high-income earners, partnerships, large corporations, and promoters abusing the nation’s tax laws.”

The IRS effort is enabled by some of the $80 billion in funding for the agency included in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which President Joe Biden signed into law last year. About a quarter of that money is set to be clawed back as part of his recent deal with congressional Republicans to temporarily suspend the nation’s debt limit.

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Union Warns GOP Proposal Would ‘Devastate’ the Social Security Administration

“More cuts to SSA will result in a rapid increase of wait times, force SSA offices to close in many communities, and reduce service hours to the public.”

By Jake Johnson Published 7-20-2023 by Common Dreams

social security office in Worcester Massachusetts. Photo: LEONARDO DASILVA/Wikimedia Commons/CC

A union representing more than 750,000 federal employees warned Wednesday that the House GOP’s proposed cuts to the Social Security Administration for the coming fiscal year would deeply harm the already strained and understaffed agency, potentially forcing it to close offices and slash service hours.

Such impacts would “devastate the agency’s ability to serve the American public,” Julie Tippens, legislative director of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), wrote in a letter to the top members of the House Appropriations Committee.

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‘Disgraceful’: GOP Advances Bill That Could Remove 220,000 Teachers From Classrooms

“If left to their own devices, Republicans would gleefully take public education to the graveyard,” said Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro.

By Jake Johnson. Published 7-15-2023 by Common Dreams

Day 2, UTLA Strike, Teachers rally in Little Tokyo. Photo credit: Mike Chickey

House Democrats warned that hundreds of thousands of teachers could lose their jobs if legislation advanced Friday by a Republican-controlled appropriations subcommittee becomes law.

The panel’s draft Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies funding bill for the coming fiscal year calls for nearly $64 billion in total cuts, a proposal that Democrats said “decimates support for children in K-12 elementary schools and early childhood education” and “abandons college students and low-income workers trying to improve their lives through higher education or job training.”

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‘Enormous Policy Failure’: States Throw Hundreds of Thousands—Including Many Children—Off Medicaid

“We knew this was coming,” wrote one policy expert. “But we still treat these burdens like they’re unavoidable natural disasters.”

By Jake Johnson. Published 5-27-2023 by Common Dreams

Photo: Ted Eytan/CC

With a green light from the federal government, states across the U.S. have thrown hundreds of thousands of low-income people off Medicaid in recent weeks—and many have lost coverage because they failed to navigate bureaucratic mazes, not because they were no longer eligible.

More than a dozen states, including Florida and other Republican-led states that have refused to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, have begun removing people from Medicaid as part of the “unwinding” of a pandemic-era federal policy that temporarily barred governments from kicking people off the program.

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‘Despicable and Dangerous’: Missouri Republicans Vote to Defund State’s Public Libraries

“First they ban books, now they go after libraries. What will be next?”

By Brett Wilkins.  Published 4-12-2023 by Common Dreams

Children and parents participate in an event at the St. Louis Public Library in this photo dated April 11, 2023. (Photo: St. Louis Public Library/Facebook)

Literacy and civil liberties defenders on Wednesday excoriated Republican state lawmakers in Missouri after they gave their final approval to a budget that would completely defund the state’s public libraries and other essential services.

In addition to cutting the $4.5 million allocated for public libraries in Missouri’s $45.6 billion state budget, the final package approved on Tuesday cuts all government support for diversity initiatives, childcare, and pre-kindergarten programs, Heartland Signal reports.

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‘Either Trade Unions Win This, or It Will Be the Far Right’: Labor Sees High Stakes in French Pension Fight

A new poll shows that Marine Le Pen would beat French President Emmanuel Macron in a head-to-head rematch, making the left’s struggle against Macron’s pension attack a struggle for democracy in France.

By Kenny Stancil.  Published 4-7–2023 by Common Dreams

A demonstration on the 11th day of nationwide strikes against the government’s proposal to raise the retirement age in Paris, France on April 6, 2023. Photo: Alexandros Michailidis/Twitter

 As French workers intensify their fight against President Emmanuel Macron’s deeply unpopular plan to raise the nation’s retirement age from 62 to 64, the stakes couldn’t be higher.

A poll released Wednesday shows that reactionary lawmaker Marine Le Pen—leader of the far-right National Rally party, the largest opposition force in Parliament—would beat Macron by a margin of 55% to 45% in a head-to-head rematch. The neoliberal incumbent defeated Le Pen in a runoff election last April, but the openly xenophobic and Islamophobic challenger has gained significant ground since their first matchup in 2017.

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