Green Party says: Current government economic recovery plans favor corporations

The press release with more details, links and quotes is at: www.onthewilderside.com

Green Party leaders say economic recovery plans from Obama and Congress favor giant corporate lenders, Wall Street firms, and insurance companies over the needs of Americans

• The White House bid to seize workers’ retirement health benefits to pay off GM’s debt is illegal, say Greens
• White House and Congress must outlaw lending and credit card usury

Green Party leaders said today that measures to end the recession must focus on the financial needs of middle- and lower-income Americans, and accused Democrats and Republicans in Congress and President Obama of favoring big banks, financial institutions, and insurance firms.

“The very banks, Wall Street firms, and insurance companies that are responsible for the economic crisis are calling the shots for economic recovery…” said Laura Wells, former candidate for California State Controller…

“The measure of the health of the economy is the stability of the nation’s households.  The current economic ‘remedies’ offered by Republicans, Democrats, and the Obama Administration are designed to ensure the well-being of corporations at the expense of our households,” said Jill Bussiere, co-chair of the Green Party of the United States.

• Congress and the White House have refused to take real action against skyrocketing interest rates, especially on credit cards, by restoring laws against usury and imposing interest rate caps.  Greens called the Democrats’ “Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights” a small step in the right direction but severely inadequate, with no limits on future credit card interest rates…

• While the recent massive taxpayer-funded bailouts for Wall Street firms and major banks have imposed minimal conditions, the Obama Administration forced General Motors into bankruptcy and now demands that the retirement health benefits of workers be used to pay off the GM’s debt.

The 1974 Employment Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) protects benefits that workers have already paid for, prohibiting their use to pay off an employer’s debt.

• A Harvard Medical School and Ohio University study reported in the American Journal of Medicine reveals that medical bills are behind 60% of bankruptcies in the US.

“Insurance companies are chiefly responsible for the breakdown of US health care and skyrocketing medical costs, and for contributing to the greater economic crisis by sending Americans into bankruptcy.  The only solution is to remove for-profit insurance from the health care system and converting to a Single-Payer/Medicare For All national health care plan, which would protect everyone from financial ruin because of illness or injury,” said Ron Forthofer, PhD, Green candidate for Congress in 2000 and for governor of Colorado in 2002 and retired professor of biostatistics, the University of Texas School of Public Health.