https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-K0bqNrGZo
Monday, August 2, 2021
Sunday, August 1, 2021
Sustainable food systems are possible outside corporate agriculture
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2021/07/29/sustainable-food-systems-are-possible-outside-corporate-agriculture/
The United Nations Food Systems Summit has become one of the most controversial events of this year due to corporate take over. Civil society activists came together during the pre-summit to register their protestJuly 29, 2021 by Jyotsna Singh
La Via Campesina and other organizations are boycotting the United Nations Food Systems Summit over corporate capture of the space. Photo: La Via Campesina
On World Food Day on 16 October 2019, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called for a Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) to be held in 2021. The purpose, as claimed on the website of the Summit, was to find solutions to transform food systems to deliver progress on Sustainable Development Goals ending in 2030. However, the Summit, scheduled to be held in September 2021, has come under severe attack for being exclusionary in nature and selling itself to corporate interests.
During the pre-summit, held from 26-28 July, activists across the world came together in the “Peoples’ Counter mobilization to Transform Corporate Food Systems” to express their dissatisfaction with the turn the event was taking. The Counter mobilization was held from 25-27 July and consisted of events ranging from discussions on privatization of food systems, corporate capture of governance and science, to a global virtual rally against the UNFSS.
The people against corporate-led food systems
At the heart of the issue is the promotion of corporate-led food systems by the United Nations, undermining struggles for food sovereignty and security. A handful of transnational companies dominate the current global food and commodity trade. From the sowing of seeds and growing of crops to the processing, distribution, and consumption of food, transnational agribusinesses control and decide everything. However, despite controlling nearly 75 percent of the world’s food production-related natural resources, they can barely feed a third of the global population. They are also responsible for most of the $400bn worth of food lost annually and for the emission of large amounts of greenhouse gases.
The agenda of the Summit and people associated with its management are known to encourage privatization at the cost of public systems. For example, the appointment of Agnes Kalibata as the UN Special Envoy for the Summit was put into question. As president of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), she was involved in advocating for a shift of African agricultural systems towards industrial and agro-toxic-reliant agriculture models. The presence of the likes of Ramon Lauarta, Chairperson and CEO of Pepsico, and independent sessions by private companies such as Nestle did not go unnoticed. Since the planning stages of the summit, these companies have evidently been in consultation with the organizers.
In their opposition, some organizations such as La Via Campesina are boycotting the Summit while others plan to attend in order to raise concerns on health and human rights. Speaking about the People’s Counter mobilization, Patti Naylor, a farmer from the United States said, “The counter-mobilization focused on the pre-Summit will help us continue to organize and speak out about the UNFSS. The Counter-mobilization is the beginning of our public actions.”
People and organizations across movements came together — Those who focus on climate change, social justice, farmworkers, unions, immigrant rights, women, youth, and elders, to name a few. “Through virtual meetings and written documents, the connections of food and agriculture systems to each of these causes were made clear. This mobilization has been a powerful tool for building solidarity,” added Naylor.
International discussions on food systems, including the ones led by the UN, have not always been so exclusionary. The 1996 FAO World Food Summit was attended by actors across the spectrum, and food sovereignty was recognized as the term that defined struggles against corporate agriculture systems. It supported the right of people to autonomously produce healthy and nutritious food, which is also climatically and culturally appropriate, using local resources. Importantly, food sovereignty was also recognized as a means for achieving food security.
Some governments, such as those of Ecuador, Venezuela, Mali, Bolivia, Nepal, and Senegal have included these ideals in their public policy, and food sovereignty became part of policy backed by UN institutions. At least in theory, the idea is still part of UN documents, such as the 2018 UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People working in Rural Areas (UNDROP).
Efforts were made to point out early on about the exclusionary nature of the Summit. In March 2020, 550 organizations, comprising some of the world’s biggest peasant and indigenous movements, wrote to the UN Secretary-General warning him that the summit is not building on the legacy of past world food summits convened by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The FAO was given the mandate to organize these events by its member states and it allowed the active participation of civil society through parallel self-organized forums.
Multistakeholderism as a means for industrial takeover of the UN
The exclusion of activists and domination by corporations comes on the heels of a pushback by civil society regarding multistakeholderism in UN bodies. Multistakeholderism is a term that is being increasingly used to indicate that all stakeholders are present at the table in decision making. However, in reality, this is an attempt to replace multilateralism, which prioritizes governments’ participation. In this sense, multistakeholderism has become synonymous for many, with the increasing private capture of UN institutions. Civil society actors in other UN forums, such as the World Health Organization, are fighting the same battle.
The Counter Mobilization is demanding that the UN shifts away from corporate capture and re-grounds itself in individual and collective human rights, and the experiences and knowledge of the peoples most affected. It is also demanding transformation of corporate food systems and defending democratic public institutions and inclusive multilateralism.
Strong voices of support for alternatives to the corporate system have been heard within the official pre-summit sessions as well. Jeffery Sachs, Advisor to UN Secretary-General António Guterres on sustainable development goals was extremely critical of the privatization of food systems during one of the main panel discussions hosted by the UNFSS. He described privatization as an oppressive mechanism, similar to colonization. He said, “We have a world food system that is based on large multinational companies; private profits; and low measures on international transfers to help poor people, sometimes none at all. It is based on extreme irresponsibility of powerful countries with regard to the environment. And it is based on radical denial of the rights of poor people.”
Sachs also said that the privatization of food systems is often backed by the interests of rich countries, citing in particular the United States government, who is known to have given military support to the US-based United Fruits company that has exploited South American countries such as Honduras. He added that “We have a system, but we need a different system which is based on principles of human dignity, sovereignty and economic rights.”
3 Million People Have Died of Covid Since Rich Nations Began Obstructing Vaccine Patent Waiver
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/07/27/3-million-people-have-died-covid-rich-nations-began-obstructing-vaccine-patent
"Every one of those deaths is a mark of shame for the governments of countries like the U.K. and Germany who have protected patents over human lives."
JAKE JOHNSONJuly 27, 2021
More than three million people across the globe have died of Covid-19 in the roughly nine months since India and South Africa first proposed a temporary patent waiver for coronavirus vaccines, a popular measure that Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, and other rich countries have blocked.
According to an analysis released Tuesday morning by the U.K.-based advocacy group Global Justice Now, 3.08 million people have succumbed to the coronavirus since members of the World Trade Organization began considering the patent waiver in October, when the pandemic death toll stood at just over a million. Earlier this month, the global death toll surpassed four million.
More than 100 WTO member countries—including the United States—have backed the patent waiver, along with hundreds of civil society organizations, Nobel Prize-winning economists, intellectual property scholars, and the head of the World Health Organization.
But because the WTO operates by consensus, several powerful rich countries have been able to thwart the patent waiver push, leaving pharmaceutical companies in control of vaccine manufacturing even as it has become abundantly clear that current production levels are not sufficient to meet global needs.
"Millions have died while the governments of rich countries have been bickering over monopoly rights for Covid-19 vaccines," said Nick Dearden, the director of Global Justice Now. "Every one of those deaths is a mark of shame for the governments of countries like the U.K. and Germany who have protected patents over human lives."
Global Justice Now's figures come as the WTO General Council, the organization's highest-level body, is set to convene in Geneva on Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss the status of patent waiver talks, which have gone virtually nowhere since the U.S. belatedly endorsed the proposal in May.
Negotiators are asking for more time to hammer out a potential intellectual property agreement as the WTO is set to break for vacation in the month of August. The WTO's TRIPS Council—the body tasked with monitoring global intellectual property rules—is not set to formally meet again until mid-October, a nearly three-month gap in the talks as the Delta variant continues to wreak havoc in undervaccinated regions.
Global Justice Now noted that nearly a million people have died of Covid-19 over the past three months.
"It beggars belief that governments could delay progress for another three months," said Dearden. "The virus is ravaging the world's poorest while rich governments buy booster shots and vaccinate low-risk groups. Extreme vaccine inequality will be never-ending unless we remove the corporate monopolies which are preventing the world from ramping up production."
"Britain has thrown more vaccines in the bin than it has donated or exported to date," he continued. "No wonder most countries don't trust the rich world to deal with Covid-19. At the very least, it's time we got out of the way and allowed countries to make their own jabs. Many of the deaths we mourn today could have been prevented if not for the shameful intransigence of governments like our own."
The WTO General Council is expected to adopt a report this week indicating that little progress has been made toward a final agreement on the patent waiver, which has been co-sponsored by Mozambique, Kenya, Indonesia, Namibia, and other nations struggling to gain access to vaccine doses as the highly transmissible Delta strain tears through their populations.
Namibia, which has one of the highest Covid-19 death rates in the world, has thus far been able to provide a single vaccine dose to just 1% of its population.
Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch division, blasted the WTO for preparing to shut down for six weeks of vacation while "monopoly protections for pharmaceutical corporations remain an obstacle to scaling up the production of vaccines, tests, and treatments needed to beat Covid."
"The Delta variant is burning a murderous path through a world where most people are literally dying for a vaccine but there simply is no supply," Wallach said in a statement Tuesday. "Until the WTO intellectual property barriers are waived, and governments force technology transfer and fund major new manufacturing capacity so the needed vaccines are made to inoculate the world, it will be one variant after another getting hatched."
'Turn This Destruction Around': 5 Months Left in 2021 But Humanity's Used Up Earth's Ecological Budget
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/07/29/turn-destruction-around-5-months-left-2021-humanitys-used-earths-ecological-budget
"Together we can choose one-planet prosperity over one-planet misery."
ANDREA GERMANOS
July 29, 2021
Humans are continuing to gobble up Earth's resources faster than the planet can generate them, with this year's "Overshoot Day" landing on July 29.
"If we need reminding that we're in the grip of a climate and ecological emergency, Earth Overshoot Day is it," said Susan Aitken, leader of the Glasgow City Council, urging that the day be "our call to arms."
Driven by factors including a projected energy-related CO2 emissions growth of nearly 5% and a spike in Amazon deforestation, this year's milestone marker comes nearly a month earlier than 2020's August 22 Earth Overshoot Day. Last year's improved timeline was attributed to coronavirus-triggered shutdowns.
"Governments need to turn this destruction around," tweeted Greenpeace in reaction to the milestone day. "#ClimateAction, anyone?"
According to the metric, grounded in 15,000 data points per country, humanity would need 1.7 "Earths" to consume the biological resources currently used per year. If the world's population lived like the U.S. or Canada, the date would have fallen (pdf) on March 14.
The Global Footprint Network, which tracks the metric, along with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) on Thursday also announced the launch of the "100 Days of Possibility" initiative for the lead-up to COP 26, the key United Nations climate summit that begins October 31 in Glasgow. The initiative will highlight solutions for states and communities to take to "reverse overshoot and support biological regeneration," organizers say.
"The pandemic has demonstrated that societies can shift rapidly in the face of disaster," said Global Footprint Network CEO Laurel Hanscom. "But being caught unprepared brought great economic and human cost. When it comes to our predictable future of climate change and resource constraints, individuals, institutions, and governments who prepare themselves will fare better."
The new initiative's website explains:
We are entering a 'storm' of climate change and resource constraints. The earlier we start preparing ourselves for this predictable future, the better positioned we will be.
Fighting the climate and resource crisis will be easier with international cooperation. Without it, the need for companies, cities, and countries to prepare themselves for the future becomes even more existential.
For 100 days, from Earth Overshoot Day 2021 to COP 26, we're showcasing many ways we can use existing technology to displace business-as-usual practices we can no longer afford.
Among the solutions so far highlighted is a 23-kilometer (14-mile) stretch of a former railroad line in Germany converted into the Nordbahn walking and cycling path. In the city of Wuppertal, through which the Nordbahn route passes, the proportion of cyclists has gone up from 2% to 8% of commuters over a decade—a rise attributed to the revamped infrastructure.
"If we reduce our footprint from driving by 50% around the world and assume one-third of car miles are replaced by public transportation and the rest by biking and walking, Earth Overshoot Day would move back 13 days," the initiative states.
Looking ahead to the upcoming climate summit, SEPA CEO Terry A'Hearn said it must be a moment to ensure a climate-friendly, post-Covid recovery.
"In November, as a weary world turns its attention to Scotland and COP 26, together we can choose one-planet prosperity over one-planet misery," he said. "We can and must build from the pandemic—our global ability to plan, to protect and move at pace."
"In 2021," A'Hearn added, "the Glasgow summit and the future we choose as each community, city, company, or country offers real hope for a new net-zero revolution."
Humans are continuing to gobble up Earth's resources faster than the planet can generate them, with this year's "Overshoot Day" landing on July 29.
"If we need reminding that we're in the grip of a climate and ecological emergency, Earth Overshoot Day is it," said Susan Aitken, leader of the Glasgow City Council, urging that the day be "our call to arms."
Driven by factors including a projected energy-related CO2 emissions growth of nearly 5% and a spike in Amazon deforestation, this year's milestone marker comes nearly a month earlier than 2020's August 22 Earth Overshoot Day. Last year's improved timeline was attributed to coronavirus-triggered shutdowns.
"Governments need to turn this destruction around," tweeted Greenpeace in reaction to the milestone day. "#ClimateAction, anyone?"
According to the metric, grounded in 15,000 data points per country, humanity would need 1.7 "Earths" to consume the biological resources currently used per year. If the world's population lived like the U.S. or Canada, the date would have fallen (pdf) on March 14.
The Global Footprint Network, which tracks the metric, along with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) on Thursday also announced the launch of the "100 Days of Possibility" initiative for the lead-up to COP 26, the key United Nations climate summit that begins October 31 in Glasgow. The initiative will highlight solutions for states and communities to take to "reverse overshoot and support biological regeneration," organizers say.
"The pandemic has demonstrated that societies can shift rapidly in the face of disaster," said Global Footprint Network CEO Laurel Hanscom. "But being caught unprepared brought great economic and human cost. When it comes to our predictable future of climate change and resource constraints, individuals, institutions, and governments who prepare themselves will fare better."
The new initiative's website explains:
We are entering a 'storm' of climate change and resource constraints. The earlier we start preparing ourselves for this predictable future, the better positioned we will be.
Fighting the climate and resource crisis will be easier with international cooperation. Without it, the need for companies, cities, and countries to prepare themselves for the future becomes even more existential.
For 100 days, from Earth Overshoot Day 2021 to COP 26, we're showcasing many ways we can use existing technology to displace business-as-usual practices we can no longer afford.
Among the solutions so far highlighted is a 23-kilometer (14-mile) stretch of a former railroad line in Germany converted into the Nordbahn walking and cycling path. In the city of Wuppertal, through which the Nordbahn route passes, the proportion of cyclists has gone up from 2% to 8% of commuters over a decade—a rise attributed to the revamped infrastructure.
"If we reduce our footprint from driving by 50% around the world and assume one-third of car miles are replaced by public transportation and the rest by biking and walking, Earth Overshoot Day would move back 13 days," the initiative states.
Looking ahead to the upcoming climate summit, SEPA CEO Terry A'Hearn said it must be a moment to ensure a climate-friendly, post-Covid recovery.
"In November, as a weary world turns its attention to Scotland and COP 26, together we can choose one-planet prosperity over one-planet misery," he said. "We can and must build from the pandemic—our global ability to plan, to protect and move at pace."
"In 2021," A'Hearn added, "the Glasgow summit and the future we choose as each community, city, company, or country offers real hope for a new net-zero revolution."
Bush, Pressley, and Omar Sleep Outside Capitol to Demand Extension of Eviction Moratorium
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/07/31/bush-pressley-and-omar-sleep-outside-capitol-demand-extension-eviction-moratorium
Rep. Cori Bush, who was formerly unhoused, slammed her Democratic colleagues who "chose to go on vacation early today rather than staying to vote to keep people in their homes."
JAKE JOHNSON
July 31, 2021
After many of their fellow Democratic lawmakers skipped town for a weeks-long vacation, Reps. Cori Bush, Ilhan Omar, and Ayanna Pressley slept outside the U.S. Capitol building Friday night to demand that the House immediately reconvene and pass an extension of the soon-to-expire national eviction moratorium.
With the reprieve set to lapse on Saturday, House Democratic leaders scrambled to pull their caucus together at the last-minute to pass legislation that would extend the moratorium until the end of 2021.
But the effort, spurred by the Biden administration's refusal to act on its own, ultimately fizzled out as a number of centrist Democrats made clear they would rather leave Washington, D.C. for August recess than work to prolong the moratorium, which is shielding millions of people across the U.S. from potentially imminent eviction.
A parallel effort by Senate Democrats has also failed to get off the ground.
"Earlier Friday afternoon, top Democrats began floating an alternative that they hoped would pick up votes from the moderate wing of their caucus—an extension of just over three months, rather than six months—on what is likely to be the House's final task before departing for its lengthy August recess," Politico reported. "But moderates remained unconvinced."
Because House Democratic leaders attempted to pass a moratorium extension using a procedure known as unanimous consent, a single Republican objection—in this case from Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.)—was enough to block the legislation. There was no full vote in the chamber, so centrist Democrats did not have to go on the record opposing an extension.
The House is not scheduled to return to session until September 20.
Bush (D-Mo.), who was formerly unhoused as a mother of two, expressed outrage that many of her Democratic colleagues "chose to go on vacation early today rather than staying to vote to keep people in their homes."
"That the House suddenly adjourned this evening without a roll call vote on Chairwoman Waters' legislation is a moral failure," Bush wrote in a letter to House Democrats on Friday, referring to Rep. Maxine Waters' (D-Calif.) bill to extend the eviction ban. "I have been unhoused and evicted. I've slept in my car and slept outdoors. I know what it's like, and I wouldn't wish that trauma on anyone."
"I'm prepared to do whatever it takes, including staying in Washington and demanding that the House vote on H.R. 4791," Bush continued. "I cannot in good conscience leave Washington tonight while a Democratic-controlled government allows millions of people to go unhoused as the Delta variant is ravaging our communities. Millions of people are about to lose their homes and, as Democrats, we must not give up on the chance to save their lives."
The Missouri Democrat went on to invite her colleagues to join her in sleeping outside the Capitol, but just two lawmakers—Pressley and Omar—heeded the call, along with a number of activists.
First implemented by the CDC in September, the federal eviction moratorium is set to expire as more than 10 million tenants across the country are behind on rent and relief funds appropriated by Congress to help at-risk households remain largely unspent.
"Six months after the aid program was approved by President Donald Trump in December, just 12% of the first $25 billion in funds had reached people in need due to loss of income from the pandemic," the Washington Post reported Friday. "More than three months after President Biden signed a March relief package with another $21.5 billion for the program, even less of that has been spent."
Housing advocates have warned that a wave of evictions, while unacceptable at any time, would be especially perilous in the current moment, given the nationwide spread of the highly contagious Delta variant. While renters in Hawaii, Maryland, New York, Illinois, and a handful of other states will still be protected by temporary eviction bans after the national moratorium expires on Saturday, experts have argued that federal action is necessary to prevent a looming housing disaster.
"Without immediate action, millions of these households will be at risk of losing their homes and their ability to keep themselves and their families safe and healthy," National Low Income Housing Coalition and other organizations wrote in a letter (pdf) to congressional leaders on Thursday. "The newly surging Delta variant, low vaccination rates in communities with high eviction filings, and the slow rate of distributing [Emergency Rental Assistance] make the necessity of an extension abundantly clear."
The letter came hours after the Biden White House asked Congress to pass legislation to extend the moratorium—just three days before it was set to expire. In a statement Thursday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki insisted that the Biden administration cannot unilaterally prolong the moratorium due to a recent Supreme Court ruling—a justification that many questioned.
"The CDC could extend the eviction moratorium right now," argued Kriston Capps, a staff writer for City Lab. "It would almost certainly be struck down, but it would take time for a challenge to reach the Supreme Court. Instead the White House punted to Congress but with very little time to reach a deal."
From the front of the U.S. Capitol, Bush tweeted Saturday morning that the House could have passed an extension in time, "but some Democrats went on vacation instead."
"We slept at the Capitol last night to ask them to come back and do their jobs," Bush added. "Today's their last chance. We're still here."
After many of their fellow Democratic lawmakers skipped town for a weeks-long vacation, Reps. Cori Bush, Ilhan Omar, and Ayanna Pressley slept outside the U.S. Capitol building Friday night to demand that the House immediately reconvene and pass an extension of the soon-to-expire national eviction moratorium.
With the reprieve set to lapse on Saturday, House Democratic leaders scrambled to pull their caucus together at the last-minute to pass legislation that would extend the moratorium until the end of 2021.
But the effort, spurred by the Biden administration's refusal to act on its own, ultimately fizzled out as a number of centrist Democrats made clear they would rather leave Washington, D.C. for August recess than work to prolong the moratorium, which is shielding millions of people across the U.S. from potentially imminent eviction.
A parallel effort by Senate Democrats has also failed to get off the ground.
"Earlier Friday afternoon, top Democrats began floating an alternative that they hoped would pick up votes from the moderate wing of their caucus—an extension of just over three months, rather than six months—on what is likely to be the House's final task before departing for its lengthy August recess," Politico reported. "But moderates remained unconvinced."
Because House Democratic leaders attempted to pass a moratorium extension using a procedure known as unanimous consent, a single Republican objection—in this case from Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.)—was enough to block the legislation. There was no full vote in the chamber, so centrist Democrats did not have to go on the record opposing an extension.
The House is not scheduled to return to session until September 20.
Bush (D-Mo.), who was formerly unhoused as a mother of two, expressed outrage that many of her Democratic colleagues "chose to go on vacation early today rather than staying to vote to keep people in their homes."
"That the House suddenly adjourned this evening without a roll call vote on Chairwoman Waters' legislation is a moral failure," Bush wrote in a letter to House Democrats on Friday, referring to Rep. Maxine Waters' (D-Calif.) bill to extend the eviction ban. "I have been unhoused and evicted. I've slept in my car and slept outdoors. I know what it's like, and I wouldn't wish that trauma on anyone."
"I'm prepared to do whatever it takes, including staying in Washington and demanding that the House vote on H.R. 4791," Bush continued. "I cannot in good conscience leave Washington tonight while a Democratic-controlled government allows millions of people to go unhoused as the Delta variant is ravaging our communities. Millions of people are about to lose their homes and, as Democrats, we must not give up on the chance to save their lives."
The Missouri Democrat went on to invite her colleagues to join her in sleeping outside the Capitol, but just two lawmakers—Pressley and Omar—heeded the call, along with a number of activists.
First implemented by the CDC in September, the federal eviction moratorium is set to expire as more than 10 million tenants across the country are behind on rent and relief funds appropriated by Congress to help at-risk households remain largely unspent.
"Six months after the aid program was approved by President Donald Trump in December, just 12% of the first $25 billion in funds had reached people in need due to loss of income from the pandemic," the Washington Post reported Friday. "More than three months after President Biden signed a March relief package with another $21.5 billion for the program, even less of that has been spent."
Housing advocates have warned that a wave of evictions, while unacceptable at any time, would be especially perilous in the current moment, given the nationwide spread of the highly contagious Delta variant. While renters in Hawaii, Maryland, New York, Illinois, and a handful of other states will still be protected by temporary eviction bans after the national moratorium expires on Saturday, experts have argued that federal action is necessary to prevent a looming housing disaster.
"Without immediate action, millions of these households will be at risk of losing their homes and their ability to keep themselves and their families safe and healthy," National Low Income Housing Coalition and other organizations wrote in a letter (pdf) to congressional leaders on Thursday. "The newly surging Delta variant, low vaccination rates in communities with high eviction filings, and the slow rate of distributing [Emergency Rental Assistance] make the necessity of an extension abundantly clear."
The letter came hours after the Biden White House asked Congress to pass legislation to extend the moratorium—just three days before it was set to expire. In a statement Thursday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki insisted that the Biden administration cannot unilaterally prolong the moratorium due to a recent Supreme Court ruling—a justification that many questioned.
"The CDC could extend the eviction moratorium right now," argued Kriston Capps, a staff writer for City Lab. "It would almost certainly be struck down, but it would take time for a challenge to reach the Supreme Court. Instead the White House punted to Congress but with very little time to reach a deal."
From the front of the U.S. Capitol, Bush tweeted Saturday morning that the House could have passed an extension in time, "but some Democrats went on vacation instead."
"We slept at the Capitol last night to ask them to come back and do their jobs," Bush added. "Today's their last chance. We're still here."
Pelosi Is Wrong – Biden Has the Power to Cancel Student Debt, and He Should
https://truthout.org/articles/pelosi-is-wrong-biden-has-the-power-to-cancel-student-debt-and-he-should/
When President Trump used his executive authority to pause the nearly $2 trillion in outstanding student loan payments and interest back in March 2020, there was no pushback from legal experts or uproar from Congress members, from neither Democrats nor Republicans. Of course, the sudden advent of a deadly, airborne viral pandemic signified a future so grim that partial student loan cancellation seemed uncontroversial, even for an unforgiving Trump administration. While former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos didn’t tout the temporary pause as partial debt cancellation, that’s actually what it was. Notably, both DeVos and the Trump White House pointed to the Higher Education Act as authority that made the payment pause legally acceptable. This is the same authority activists and progressive Democrats are urging Biden to use to deliver on his campaign promise of unilateral cancellation for all borrowers.
That’s why Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s claims earlier this week that President Biden didn’t have the power to cancel student debt by executive action were so jarring. “People think that the President of the United States has the power for debt forgiveness,” she said, adding “He does not. He can postpone, he can delay, but he does not have that power…. The President can’t do it. That’s not even a discussion. Not everybody realizes that.”
Legal experts, members of Congress, and actions taken by the Biden administration clearly belie the Speaker’s arguments. As Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) said on CNN later that night, “The president does have the power to cancel student loan debt. You know how I know that? Because President Obama did it. President Trump did it. And President Biden has already done it.” Indeed, the Biden administration extended the federal student loan payment moratorium into September, ensuring more debt cancellation via executive action as a result.
Let’s say you were enrolled in Public Service Loan Forgiveness or an Income-Driven Repayment plan during the moratorium. Non-payment counted toward your monthly qualifying payment timeline, meaning borrowers whose 10- or 20-year payment plan end dates fell under the 16-month pause became beneficiaries of debt cancellation through executive action.
“If you normally pay $400 a month in loans for qualifying PSLF payments, didn’t pay while the moratorium was placed, and received PSLF in July 2021, your accumulated monthly payments, or essentially $6,400 of debt, was canceled via the executive order suspension,” said Alexis Goldstein, Director of Financial Policy at the Open Markets Institute.
Beyond those enrolled in forgiveness programs, for 16 months now, the pause has unilaterally canceled interest for every borrower covered under the moratorium, allowing nearly 45 million Americans to pay significantly less over the same amount of time.
Pelosi is flat-out wrong when it comes to the limits of executive power on debt cancellation. She took the lazy route, long trodden by naysayer politicians: Proclaim the mechanism needed to deliver bold actions doesn’t really work instead of implementing morally just, politically popular proposals that uplift everyone. We see this playing out in realms beyond debt cancellation. For example, despite a massive victory in Georgia, Senate Democrats said the parliamentarian, an unelected nonpartisan that seemingly gained insurmountable influence over the quality and quantity of major legislation, now controls our fate on everything from a $15 minimum wage to the climate crisis. Of course, Biden says he would have “strongly supported” an extension of a crucial eviction moratorium, but due to a pesky opinion by Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, not an actual ruling, the White House was forced to punt responsibility to Congress in the eleventh hour to apply the same moratorium Biden already extended through executive action.
According to Pelosi, when it comes to student debt, Biden’s executive authority legally justifies partial loan cancellation, just not more partial loan cancellation. Along with the theme of abrupt powerlessness, it’s evident that Pelosi and Biden have yet to truly engage with the fundamental arguments for eliminating the $1.8 trillion in student debt, particularly because they’ve both made the weakest possible arguments against it.
Pelosi dug even deeper with her nonsensical remark, questioning the policy wisdom of a student debt jubilee and undermining her Democratic colleagues’ push for cancellation in the process. “Suppose your … child just decided they at this time did not want to go to college, but you’re paying taxes to forgive somebody else’s obligations. You may not be happy about that,” Pelosi said.
This would be a strong point if one were opposed to every single public good. (Bye, bye libraries!) Thanks to economist Stephanie Kelton’s recent expansion on the framework of Modern Monetary Theory, which acknowledges the federal government doesn’t actually need our tax dollars to pay for vital programs, we don’t need to engage and ultimately reify Pelosi’s dangerous argument. As Kelton notes in her book The Deficit Myth, unlike households, the federal government cannot go broke because it issues the currency it spends. In other words, the real challenge isn’t raising funds, rather we’re in a political battle over how public money is spent, and on who — the wealthy or working people.
Ideology aside, arguments like Pelosi’s misrepresent how student debt cancellation works financially. The “cost” to the taxpayer comes on the front-end, when the loans are made. From there, it’s all a guessing game as to how much of the debt will be repaid by borrowers. The government often guesses wrong, and the Department issues re-estimates to correct, as they did in late 2020. Further, the government often employs utterly draconian collection techniques to squeeze payments out of defaulted borrowers who can’t afford it: garnishing wages; seizing Child Tax Credits, EITC, or tax refunds; or taking away social security benefits from seniors in default. (Seniors are the fastest-growing segment of student debtors. In 2015, 40,000 seniors had their Social Security garnished due to student loans.)
To add to the chaos of failed herculean attempts by the government to collect on ballooning student loans, several major loan service providers (Granite State, PHEAA, and Cornerstone) have recently announced they would end their contract collecting student debt for the government, leaving more than 10 million borrower accounts in the lurch and increasing pressure on Biden to extend the moratorium and cancel the debt altogether.
It’s actually cheaper for the government to write off this debt than it is to keep it on government books. In fact, debt cancellation would be one of the largest bottom-up economic stimulants in U.S. history, creating millions of jobs and boosting annual GDP by up to $108 billion per year for the next ten years. And because student debt is disproportionately held by women and students of color, the one-time executive action would narrow enormous gender and racial wealth gaps.
If racial equity and economic prosperity aren’t convincing enough for Pelosi, perhaps she should take a cue from the voters that put her in office. Just this week, San Francisco officials passed a bold resolution calling on Biden to cancel all federal student debt, joining a chorus of other major cities crying out for an economic stimulus and debtor liberation.
But Pelosi isn’t alone in her misunderstanding of how debt works, who holds it, or how it can be wielded. Biden too has made very poor arguments against cancellation, insinuating that canceling student debt would mostly benefit graduates who went to Ivy League universities, individuals who must be unworthy of debt cancellation because the institutions they attended are so elite that free attendance would be unfair, right? This was quickly refuted by activists who pointed out that just 0.3% of federal student loan borrowers are estimated to have attended Ivy Leagues, that 98% of Harvard undergrads have no student loans at all, and that if we really wanted to address Biden’s newfound concerns about the rich getting richer, we could simply impose a wealth tax.
While Biden’s recent remarks on student debt have all been debunked or met with outrage, his dismal record on student loans and borrower protections goes back decades. In 2005, Biden was one of the 18 Democratic senators who broke ranks and cast a vote for a Republican-led bill that stripped bankruptcy protections from private student loans, giving birth to a mammoth predatory industry that caused “enormous financial problems for working families.” In the 1970s, Biden backed the Middle Income Student Assistance Act, eliminating income restrictions on federal loans to expand eligibility to everyone. In 1980, Biden voted to extend loan eligibility to students with no parental financial support, leading to the first explosion of default rates.
Biden’s history as a foot soldier for corporate lenders and their lobbyists is more than troubling. However, the fact that in 2020 he campaigned on unilateral debt cancellation and reversing the legislation he championed decades ago highlights the power of debtor organizing and the severity of our nation’s student debt crisis. Biden campaigned on the “immediate” cancellation of at least $10,000 of student debt per borrower as crucial COVID-19 relief. He later committed to much more, including full cancellation for students who went to public colleges or HBCUs earning under $125,000.
In April, the White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain said Biden would make a decision on student debt cancellation after instructing the Department of Justice to draft a memo on Biden’s legal authority. The White House has not provided an update on when the memo would be released, despite Klain’s initial timeline of a “few weeks,” leaving the verdict out on whether Biden will keep his campaign promise.
It’s unlikely that Biden will cancel student debt out of the goodness of his heart, and it’s doubtful that a memo determining his authority to eliminate debt at broad-scale will be the final feather that weighs the ideological scale in our favor. What we’ll need is strong debtor organizing to push us over the edge — collective financial leverage so powerful it mimics the conditions that allowed for even a Trump administration to cancel debt. The Debt Collective, a debtors’ union and member organization I’m a part of that went as far as to write an executive order for Biden, is planning a Washington, D.C., action in September as the moratorium is slated to end. For those who want to push for full student debt cancellation and free college, joining that action would be a great place to get started.
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