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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 20, 2017)
Page 2 The Skanner December 20, 2017 ® Challenging People to Shape a Better Future Now Opinion Bernie Foster Founder/Publisher Republican Tax Bill Robs the Poor to Feed the Rich Bobbie Dore Foster Executive Editor T Jerry Foster Advertising Manager Christen McCurdy News Editor Patricia Irvin Graphic Designer Melanie Sevcenko Reporter Monica J. Foster Seattle Office Coordinator Susan Fried Photographer 2017 MERIT AWARD WINNER The Skanner Newspaper, es- tablished in October 1975, is a weekly publication, published every Wednesday by IMM Publi- cations Inc. 415 N. Killingsworth St. P.O. Box 5455 Portland, OR 97228 Telephone (503) 285-5555 Fax: (503) 285-2900 info@theskanner.com www.TheSkanner.com The Skanner is a member of the National Newspaper Pub lishers Association and West Coast Black Pub lishers Association. All photos submitted become the property of The Skanner. We are not re spon sible for lost or damaged photos either solicited or unsolicited. ©2017 The Skanner. All rights re served. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission prohibited. he Tax Cuts and Jobs Act recently passed on a nearly straight par- ty line Republican vote in the U.S. Senate is, like the House-passed bill, a moral abomination. Their enact- ment would be the death of America’s dream for tens of millions of children. The House and Senate bills favor the wealthiest Americans and most powerful corporations over poor and moderate-in- come children and families — billionaires over poor babies and powerful corporations over poor children. They are evil. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. warned that “America is go- ing to hell if we can’t use her vast resources to end pover- ty and make it possible for all of God’s children to have the basic necessities of life.” With both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives now having passed extremely unjust tax bills, I must ask— how can 278 political leaders, 51 Senators and 227 House members, act against the best interests of so many in their states and across our nation to line the overstuffed pock- ets of powerful special inter- ests with government money? What religious texts do these Members of Congress and those who lobby them read? How did they miss the clear warnings of the proph- ets and gospels and tenets of every great faith to care for the poor, the sick, the lame and the orphan? Where did they learn that acting as Rob- in Hood in reverse by denying the poor and powerless child LOCAL NEWS BRIEFS d ay ! • L i ke u s o n F ebo m me • nts TheSkannerNews o k • learn • co in y o u r c o m m u n to y • ac it Updated daily at TheSkanner.com Children’s Defense Fund the basic survival needs of food and shelter to give to the wealthy and powerful is ac- ceptable? There are 565 billionaires in the United States — the 400 richest of whom have a com- bined net worth of $2.7 tril- lion. More than 13.2 million “ They will deny poor and moder- ate-income children and families healthcare, food, housing, child care and other surviv- al assistance children — 1 in 5 — live in pov- erty in America. Their fam- ilies of four make less than $24,563 a year. More than six million children live in deep poverty, at less than half the poverty level. A majority of both houses of Congress and the Trump Ad- ministration seek policies to reward millionaires and bil- lionaires and non-needy cor- porations and add nearly $1.5 trillion — around $150 billion a year for the next ten years — to our national deficit to do so. And to pay for it, they will deny poor and moderate-in- come children and families healthcare, food, housing, child care and other survival assistance or help parents get needed jobs at livable wages to support their families. Consider some of the facts about these tax cut bills: • Both the Senate and House bills lavishly benefit the wealthiest households and individuals. The Senate bill doubles the estate tax threshold, enabling individ- uals to inherit tax free up to $11 million and couples up to $22 million. The House bill would eliminate the es- tate tax entirely. • More than 60 percent of the Senate bill’s individual tax cuts in 2027 go to the rich- est one percent of house- holds making $1 million or more; 48 percent of cur- rent tax-paying households would face tax increases ac- cording to the Tax Policy Center. The Senate bill ends individual tax benefits af- ter ten years while making permanent tax cuts for cor- porations. The House bill continues both individual and corporate tax cuts. • The Senate’s $1,000 Child Tax Credit increase to ben- efit families with children and make up for elimina- tion of the personal exemp- tion for dependents pro- vides little or no assistance to poor and middle-income working families. Yet, both the Senate and House bills enable higher income families to qualify for the credit for the first time. Neither Senate nor House bills make the credit fully refundable to help working families with the lowest in- comes. Both bills would end eligibility of children in low-income working immi- grant families for the cred- it without Social Security Numbers. Tax paying immi- grant families are required currently to have only an Individual Taxpayer Identi- fication Number to qualify for the Child Tax Credit. • The Senate’s permanent corporate tax cuts are par- tially paid for by repealing the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate and tax penalty. This will leave 13 million fewer people insured in ten years, raise health insurance premiums for many more and desta- bilize the health insurance marketplace. • The $1.5 trillion ten-year deficit the House and Sen- ate bills create will cause deep cuts in Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition As- sistance Program (SNAP), child care, education, Pell Grants, housing and other critical child services. • No funds will be left over for the next decade to end child poverty for the more than 13.2 million children struggling to grow up healthy and educated. Read the rest of this commentary at TheSkanner.com Lessons from the African American Vote in Alabama T Local News Pacific NW News World News Opinions Jobs, Bids Entertainment Community Calendar Marian Wright Edelman he African Americans who have convinced themselves that one vote doesn’t matter, should take a very close look at what happened during the recent special election in Alabama. In spite of the endorsement of President Donald Trump and the extremely conservative White voters who supported Roy Moore, Doug Jones, the Democratic candidate won the for the United States Sen- ate seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Jones was the first Democrat elected to represent Alabama in the U.S. Senate in 25 years. How he won is very important to African Americans across this nation. Exit polls showed that 98 percent of African American women who voted supported Jones and 93 percent of Afri- can American men who voted chose the Democratic candi- date. The Jones’ victory by 1.5 percent clearly shows that, without the Black vote, Jones wouldn’t have won the special election. Equally important is Dr. John E. Warren NNPA Columnist the fact that this degree of Af- rican American voter partic- ipation in an off-season spe- cial election, demonstrates what we can do, when we choose to get involved. Afri- can Americans cannot allow “voter suppression” tactics, like additional photo identifi- cation requirements, to deter us from going to the polls. According to Nonprofit VOTE, “In all but two states, voting age citizens convicted of a felony are barred from voting for some period of time.” In Washington, D.C., Ha- waii, Illinois, Indiana, Mas- sachusetts, Michigan, Mon- tana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Penn- sylvania, Rhode Island, and Utah, the voting rights of returning citizens are re- stored automatically once they’re released. In Florida, Iowa, Kentucky and Virginia, ex-offenders are forced to pe- tition the government to have their voting rights restored. African Americans are dis- proportionately affected by voter suppression tactics and laws that deny ex-felons the “ We should be focused on ‘voter regis- tration’ and not candidate endorse- ments at this stage of the game right to vote; that’s why we should be focused on “voter registration” and not candi- date endorsements at this stage of the game. We cannot allow apathy and indifference to take the place of the hard won battle for voter partici- pation on the part of African Americans. Just as we ral- lied and voted for President Barack Obama, we must ral- ly and vote against the poli- cies and political candidates promoted by the Trump Ad- ministration. We have to do whatever it takes to defeat those who would continue to support a system of economic inequality dressed up as tax reform that ultimately harms the majority of Americans. Jones’ victory in the special election in Alabama demon- strates that Black votes mat- ter and that Black voters cast crucial votes in elections, where White voters are de- cidedly split; that’s the real lesson. We make our victories and define our value. Let’s not let others do that for us. Ev- ery Black vote counts and can make a difference in the Deep South and across the nation. Dr. John E. Warren is the pub- lisher of the San Diego Voice and Viewpoint and a con- tributing writer for the NNPA Newswire specializing in inter- governmental affairs. nt • lo c a l n e w s • eve