Jackson County Democrats

By Allen Hallmark  See Full Article,Transcripts of Speakers, Video of Speakers, Photographs

The enthusiastic crowd that turned out Thursday to listen to four views of President Barack Obama's first 100 days in office heard panelists sing the president's praises but were reminded that Obama was handed a big mess and it will take much more than 100 days to turn things around.

Some 60 Democrats attended a special meeting of the Jackson County Democratic Central Committee at the OEA Office in Medford to hear Professor Ric Holt on the economy, Pepper Trail on the environment, Steve Neuberger on health care and Abi Kurfman on education. Paulie Brading, former chair of the Jackson County Democrats and current Medford School Board member, served as facilitator. 

Full Article  Summaries of Speakers Video of Speakers Photographs

"You have to remember that Obama inherited an absolute mess from Bush," said Holt, a professor of Economics at Southern Oregon University.  For the first time in his career, Holt said, some economists were seriously concerned that the nation's economy might tank, creating another Great Depression.  The measures taken by Obama and his financial team have quelled talk of a depression, but the recession is likely to remain with us for quite some time, Holt said.

Holt is "disappointed" with the bailouts handed to the banking industry because the Obama measures haven't rid the banks of the "toxic assets" -- bundled mortgages, including many foreclosures. The professor said he'd rather see the government nationalize banks that are on the verge of failure rather than keep bailing them out.

 On the other hand, Holt said, he's very pleased with the Obama stimulus package of about $750 billion because he believes much of the money is going into project that not only "maximize job creation" but will also make long-term structural changes, like establishing solar, wind and other green energy power projects, insulating public buildings and repairing roads and mass transit systems that will help get the US off its dependence on foreign oil.

Pepper Trail, a forensic pathologist with the National Wildlife Forensic Laboratory in Ashland and conservation chair of the Rogue Valley Audubon Society, said he is so relieved and thrilled to have a thoughtful and articulate president in the White House after eight awful years of Bushisms.  Trail discussed Obama's initiatives in the areas of energy, global warming and public lands management.  The $100 billion in the president's stimulus package for alternative or green energy development will be a lasting legacy that will pay dividends for many years, Trail predicted.  He was less enthusiastic about Obama's early efforts in the arena of forcing auto manufacturers to increase the gas mileage of the cars they manufacture.

Trail noted that while Obama has overruled Bush's order to the EPA to disapprove California (and Oregon's) mileage standards for auto manufacturers that are much higher than the federal standards (Obama's EPA is studying the California standards), Obama has set federal standards are a fleet average of only 27.3 mph for 2010, which Trail thinks isn't nearly enough.

But Trail gives Obama good marks for putting environmental regulations back in place that the Bush administration tore down, forcing industry to keep track of its pollutants, cracking down on mercury pollution in particular and other regulation.

Bush's policies in the management of our public lands was a disaster and Obama is already at work to restore oversight by the US Fish & Wildlife Service of plans by any federal land management agency that might impact an endangered species.  Obama has ordered a review of a Bush rule to allow the BLM and Forest Service to ignore Northern spotted owl protection in their timber sales planning and has cancelled some oil and gas leases in Utah and elsewhere that threatened scenic and fragile eco-systems.  Trail noted that the stimulus package is providing big bucks to the National Park Service, Forest Service and BLM for thinning of over-stocked forest lands, including lots of money for this work in Oregon.  Obama also signed into law a wilderness bill that added hundreds of thousands of acres to the wilderness system, including creation of the Soda Mountain Wilderness near Ashland.

Steve Neuberger, Southern Oregon field organizer for HCAN (Health Care for America NOW!) said he's excited about Obama's plans to overhaul the nation's broken health care system and replace it with one that provides health care for almost everyone in America and includes a government run plan to compete with private insurance plans.  But he noted that the insurance lobby is hard at work trying to get Congress to delete the public plan option from the legislation.  Neuberger said he totally understands those who favor a single-payer plan that doesn't include private insurers at all and urged folks to contact their congressman and senators on behalf of single-payer.

Neuberger said Obama has already moved health care forward by signing SCHIP, the health care plan for children into law.  That legislation also includes care for immigrant children, he said.  In addition, he noted that Obama reversed a Bush executive order so that federal dollars can once again be used for stem cell research.

Neuberger believes that the Obama health care team has learned a lot from the mistakes made by the Clinton administration in 1993, the last time a push was made to restructure the health care system.  The Obama plan is much, much simpler than the one Hillary Clinton's team tried to implement and can be summarized in one page versus 100 pages for the Clinton plan.  However, Neuberger said the Obama planning got off to a rocky start when former Senate leader Tom Daschle had to withdraw his name as nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services.  Neuberger believes that Kathleen Sebelius will be a strong leader as Daschle's replacement.

Times are different than in 1993 and now even the insurance companies themselves are "crying to be regulated," Neuberger said.  He noted that there will be a series of house parties on Sunday, May 17th, including one at the Jackson County Democratic HQ from 4 to 6 pm to build support for health care reform with Congressman Earl Blumenauer speaking by phone to hundreds of parties across the state.

Abi Kurfman, representative of Stand for Children, a grassroots advocacy group promoting schools and education, addressed Obama's first 100 days record in regard to how he's doing with three campaign promises:

1.  Reforming Bush's "No Child Left Behind" law.  Kurfman said Obama still talks about doing this but hasn't begun the push to do so yet.

2. Investing more money in early childhood education.  Obama has placed about $5 billion of the stimulus package money into programs for this cause.

3. Making a college education more affordable.  Obama's stimulus package includes about $30 billion for higher education, including help with tuition and other costs for students.

Kurfman said that overall the Obama stimulus package allocates about $117 billion for education or about 15 percent of the total package.  Most of it -- about $77 billion -- is targeted for kindergarten through 12 grade schools and programs.  For Oregon this financial help will mean that most school district won't have to cut days from their school calendars or, if they do have to make cuts, those cuts won't be nearly as deep as they would have been without the federal funding.

Kurfman said Obama has issues four "Assurances" about improvements he wants to make in the education arena:

1. Increase the quality of teaching.

2. Set higher standards for colleges and technical institutes

3. Provide help for low-performing schools

4. Improve data-gathering to help with the above goals

Kurfman said it's too early to tell how well the Obama administration is doing in terms of accomplishing candidate Obama's promises and assurances, but she is optimistic that much will be accomplished.

Jackson County Commissioner Dave Gilmour provided the audience with some facts and figures about applications the county has made or will make to take advantage of federal stimulus money.  He spoke of $74 million for a large solar installation and $9 million for a green renovation of the courthouse among other projects.

The audience seemed to be energized by the discussion and asked many good questions of the panelists.