Minorities In A Pinch - from thinkprogress.org

Yesterday, the Center for American Progress released a report indicating that Latinos and African-Americans have "lost economic ground" more quickly than their white counterparts and will likely regain it at a slower pace due to fundamental structural problems in the U.S. economy. CAP Senior Fellow Christian Weller and Research Associate Amanda Logan point out that all racial minorities are being pulled down by labor market segmentation, credit market steering, and discrimination. But the fact that many Latinos are undocumented or legal permanent residents means that they also face a host of barriers related tolanguage, culture, and immigration status. The Census Bureau reported this week that the number of foreign-born people living in the U.S., particularly low-skilled immigrants from Mexico, has dropped for the first time in four years as construction and manufacturing job cuts have driven many immigrants back home. However, immigration rates will rise once the recession is over and faster job growth alone won't automatically create the same opportunities for minorities and whites. Unless policymakers do something to "level the playing field," the economic disparities will persist.

A WIDENING GAP: Weller and Logan point out that minorities aren't just the "first to be fired in recessions," they are the first to feel "more economic pain" and "wait longer than whites to share the benefits of an expanding economy." Unemployment has increased from the end of 2007 to the second quarter of 2009 by an average annualized rate of 4.2 percentage points each quarter for African-Americans and 4.1 percentage points for Latinos, compared to 2.8 percentage points amongst whites. African-Americans and Latinos were also the hardest hit by the sub-prime mortgage bust, as African-American and Latino borrowers were three times more likely than white borrowers to be discriminated against by lenders and saddled with unfair loans. African-Americans and Latinos also lost significantly more ground in terms of earnings, income, health insurance coverage, and retirement savings plans. The gap between whites' and minorities' incomes actually widened from 2000 to 2007 by $1,862 for African-Americans and $1,293 for Latinos as African-Americans' incomes fell at an average annual rate of 0.7 percent, Hispanics' at 0.5 percent, all while whites' income declined at an average annual rate of 0.003 percent during the last business cycle. Consequently, by 2007 the poverty rate for African-Americans (24.5 percent) was more than three times that of whites (8.2 percent) in 2007 and Latinos' poverty rate (21.5 percent) was nearly three times larger than whites'.

IMMIGRATION'S IMPACT: There is a common misconception that Latinos are all "job stealing immigrants." However, the current recession has done much to highlight significant economic disparities between all minorities and whites and says a lot more about the difficulties that all Latinos and African-Americans collectively endure. Nonetheless, though most Latinos are native-born Americans, the fact that more than 8.5 million of the approximately 21.8 million Latino workers are non-citizens presents another set of challenges. Latinos are the fastest-growing segment of the American workforce and their economic plight is intricately linked and amplified by the country's broken immigration system. The National Council of La Raza (NCLR) points out that this system has left many Latinos "without secure legal footing in the workplace" and concentrated them in occupations where "labor law violations are prevalent." These facts help explain why more Latinos earn poverty-level wages and have less access tohealth, life, and disability insurance and retirement plans at work compared to any other group. And they're actually the population of workers that need the benefits the most, considering the fact that Latino worker deaths increased by 76 percent between 1992 and 2007. The exploitation of immigrant workers has also led to a situation in which millions of Latinos under-report work-related injuries and are the least likely to join a union out of fear that they will be fired or deported. Meanwhile, the recession has heightened anti-immigrant rhetoric and hate crimes against Latinos. Despite the fact that there is an "absence of a discernible statistical relationship between recent immigration and unemployment" across racial and ethnic lines at the regional, state, and county level, rabble-rousers have effectively incited resentment and violence against a population which some Americans blame for their economic woes.

A WAY FORWARD: Weller and Logan present a variety of policy recommendations to pave the way forward for all minorities, including an extension of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to "help the hardest hit." They also suggest policymakers support the creation of "green jobs" in low-income communities, expand the Earned Income Tax Credit, institute fair lending practices, and lower the cost of doing business by promoting investment in less economically volatile renewable energy sources and enacting comprehensive health care reform. Both NCLR and CAP agree that it's necessary that Congress pass the Employee Free Choice Act to make it easier for all workers to join a labor union that will stand up for their workplace rights. Nonetheless, it's undeniable that the hiring of undocumented immigrants -- many who come from Latin America -- creates a "trap door" that artificially suppresses wages and working conditions. Passing immigration reform that legalizes the 12 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the U.S. would ensure that all employees are legal workers who pay taxes, punish unscrupulous employers who undercut honest competitors, lift wages and working conditions for all workers, and restore a bit of fairness in the U.S. labor market and integrity in the immigration system.  
 

HEALTH CARE -- INSURANCE GIANT AETNA PAYING $80,000 FOR REFORM 'TOWN HALL' MODERATED BY CNN HOST: Health insurance giant Aetna is paying $80,000 to sponsor a "town hall conversation on the national health system reform debate" set to take place today at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, GA. CNN's Tony Harris, who has called Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) a "reasonable voice" in the health care debate, will be moderating the panel, which features lobbyists from the health insurance industry and opponents of reform. One of the panelists, Mohit Ghose works for Aetna as the Vice President of Public Affairs, the lobbying division of the company, and has served for years as a spokesman and lobbyist for the health insurance trade group America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP). Ghose helped push focus-group tested attacks against Michael Moore and his movie SiCKO as part of the industry's campaign tosmear the film. Dr. Sheila Robinson, another panelist, is a representative from the Georgia Medical Association, an organization led by Todd Williamson. Williamson has gone on the record attacking health reform and been heavily involved in an anti-reform front group known as the "Coalition to Protect Patients' Rights." This town hall is part of a larger strategy of "listening tour" events the insurance industry has encouraged to convince the public that insurers support reform. Aetna is one of the companies on the "Strategic Communications Committee" for AHIP and helps devise communication strategies to derail health reform. The committee coordinates positive messages from the insurance industry, while secretly funding and planning stealth attacks against reform.

USA Today reports that "Republican campaign committees outraised Democrats by $1.7 million in August as they have aggressively collected political cash amid the rancorous debate over health care." The GOP "also held an edge over Democrats in the amount of money available, when counting debts." In their push to overhaul the health care system, lawmakers "have largely rejected restrictions on how much insurers can charge, sparking fears that consumers will continue to face the skyrocketing premium increasesof recent years." "If the government is going to require people to buy an insurance policy, they have to guarantee it is affordable," said Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) is putting together a global warming "truth squad" that will travel to the Copenhagen international climate treaty negotiations in December and argue against mandated reductions in carbon emissions. Inhofe won't say whom will be part of his entourage. "I'll seewho's willing to come," he said. President Obama plans to use his forum at the U.N. Security Council today to push for a new nuclear weapons treaty that would slow nuclear proliferation and reduce global stockpiles. The U.S. hopes to get a resolution on the nuclear treaty passed through the Security Council as a "presidential resolution," meaning all 15 Security Council members need to be co-sponsors. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, denied that there is any discord between him and the President. "To me, there's no rift. There's no boxing anybody in," he told the New York Times. "I believe success is achievable. ... I can tell you unequivocally that I have not considered resigning at all." The Obama administration will not be seeking "new legislation from Congress authorizing the indefinite detention of about 50 terrorism suspects being held without charges at Guantanamo Bay." Officials said they "would rely on authority already provided by Congress," but rejected the Bush position that the president has "inherent power" to "detain terrorism suspects indefinitely regardless of Congress." Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) released a statement yesterday calling the Obama administration's new policies on state secrets inadequately transparent. "While I am pleased that the Obama administration recognizes that the Bush approach was a mistake, its new policy is disappointing because it still amounts to an approach of 'just trust us,'" the Wisconsin senator wrote. "Congressional Democrats and the White House are softening some elements of the Obama administration's proposal to overhaul financial-market supervision as they begin a push to win broader support for the bill," the Wall Street Journal reports. For instance, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) said "he would limit the types of companies that could face scrutiny by a proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency." Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said yesterday that "Iran is willing to have its nuclear experts meet" with U.S. and other Western scientists "as a confidence-building measure" over Iran's nuclear program. He also said Iran would seek to buy enriched uranium from the U.S. and suggested that American agreement "would demonstrate that the Obama administration is serious about engagement." And finally: After getting rid of his beard last month, New York Gov. David Paterson (D) has decided to shave his mustache as well. "Additional deficit means additional cutting and it's likely before the end of this process [of closing the deficit] you will see me bald," Paterson joked.