Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus at a press conference to announce the "Restore the American Dream for the 99% Act," on Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2011. Photo credit: Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call/Getty Images
KEITH OLBERMANN: As we reported earlier, the Congressional Progressive Caucus announcing this Restore the American Dream for the 99% Act today — not exactly facilely described there.
After some kind of interaction with some Occupy protesters — and the cancellation of a more-formal meeting, after objections by still other members of the Occupy movement — the Caucus co-chairs, Representatives Keith Ellison of Minnesota and Raúl Grijalva of Arizona, telling reporters the bill would give the American people what they want from the federal government:
(Excerpt from video clip) KEITH ELLISON: What they want is five million jobs, which this act calls for. They want to see us have deficit reduction to the tune of about two trillion dollars, saving more than the super committee’s trigger cuts and the Republican budget plan.
(Excerpt from video clip) RAÚL GRIJALVA: And then, the other thing the American people have said — it’s about investment. Protecting Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and investing in the critical necessities of the American people — education and vital domestic programs.
OLBERMANN: For more on the bill, I’m joined by Isaiah Poole, editor of OurFuture.org, the website for the Campaign for America’s Future, the self-described strategy center for the progressive movement. Thank you for your time tonight, sir.
Isaiah Poole on the December 13, 2011 edition of "Countdown with Keith Olbermann"
ISAIAH POOLE: Pleasure to be here.
OLBERMANN: The co-chairs — Representatives Grijalva and Ellison — made some big claims about this bill today and, assuming it were to be enacted — how would it, indeed, achieve goals that — that seem rather ambitious? Two trillion dollars in deficit reduction plus five million new jobs?
POOLE: Well, what it does is put direct federal money into direct hiring for teachers, firefighters, first responders. Also, it creates cores for hiring youth. It creates a core for rehabilitating schools and it pays for a lot of those jobs by a — through a transactions tax on stocks and bonds sales — getting Wall Street to step up to the plate — eliminates various tax benefits for the one percent. And it zeroes out funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which are already funding down.
OLBERMANN: So, there’s — essentially, there is a super stimulus in here. It requires Wall Street to step up. Obviously, there would be — the Republicans would sooner light Washington on fire than let it pass. Why would the caucus be offering this now?
POOLE: Well, it — it draws to contrast, between the kind of debate that we’re having in Washington right now — I mean, we’re having this huge fight over what is, at the end of the day, a Band-Aid that will get people — tide people over while we’re waiting for the private sector economy to recover.
What we really ought to be doing, rather than Band-Aids, is major surgery on the economy, where we’re really injecting — we’re injecting stimulus, we’re injecting reforms into the — economy that will actually rebuild the economy and build a more sustainable economy over the long run.
OLBERMANN: We are hearing of this — this disconnect, after apparent involvement between the Caucus and the Occupy movement, and that’s one point, but — but, inspirationally, would this bill have been presented now, without pressure from or — at least the — the existence of — the Occupy movement and, particularly, that catchphrase, “the 99 percent?”
POOLE: Well, Keith Ellison, Raúl Grijalva, Jan Schakowsky, the other members of the Progressive Caucus have been at this for months, actually but they’re been laboring under not a lot of attention, other than a few of us who are progressive allies. But I think, what has happened with the Occupy movement, is that they have been emboldened. They have been encouraged to sort of keep pushing and keep this debate going.
OLBERMANN: Is there not some suggestion — and I know you don’t know anything about the particulars of how this meeting collapsed or it didn’t occur — but is there not some suggestion that — that the Occupy members are gonna be very strict about staying out of contact with politicians and does — does that not suggest a — a lack of linkage going forward that that — that energy created by Occupy cannot be catalyzed, politically?
POOLE: Well, there is a justified suspicion that a lot of people in the Occupy movement have toward the political process, and I totally understand it.
I think what elected officials have to do, progressive elected officials, and progressive leaders have to do is sort of work through that suspicion, earn the trust of the people who are involved in this movement. We have an agenda that will address the concerns that are being articulated in the street and we need to continue to press that agenda and earn their support.
OLBERMANN: Isaiah Poole, from Campaign for America’s Future, thank you for some of your time tonight, sir.
POOLE: Thank you.
