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Tag: jacob lew
Tubman’s Twenty Moves Us Closer To A More Perfect Union

Tubman’s Twenty Moves Us Closer To A More Perfect Union

The journey toward a more perfect union was quickened with the announcement that Harriet Tubman, abolitionist, Union spy and activist for women’s suffrage, will grace the front of the $20 bill. The Tubman twenty will be unveiled in 2020, timed to honor the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage.

She will be the first woman on U.S. paper currency in more than a century and the first black American ever. That a black woman who was born a slave will be given such a prominent commemoration is a testament to American exceptionalism, a reminder of the nation’s slow and erratic but continuing march toward a more just version of itself.

Not all Americans see it that way, of course. Some are already grumbling about the demotion of Andrew Jackson, the nation’s seventh president, to the back of the bill. (Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren has called the change “stupid.”) Others insist that the Treasury has simply caved to an ill-conceived political correctness. (Donald Trump claims that’s the case.) A few will venture commentary that has no place in polite society.

Indeed, the announcement of a revamped and more-inclusive currency comes at a fascinating time in our politics, a time when a sizable portion of the electorate is roiled by anger, agitation and fear. While some of that anxiety has its roots in economic uncertainty, much of it — especially among the supporters of Trump’s presidential bid — has its foundation in a deep-seated resentment of the nation’s changing demographics.

It’s no accident that Trump — who is among the “birthers” who insist President Barack Obama is not an American — leads the Republican presidential field while denouncing Mexican immigrants and denigrating Muslims. There is a substantial minority of white American voters who are threatened by the loss of numerical advantage, furious over the election of a black president, and resentful of the growing racial and ethnic diversity in American life.

Trump and his supporters have dominated the political narrative in this election season and ignited a civil war inside the Republican Party. They have panicked the Republican establishment. They have set off alarm bells in faraway capitals.

Yet, the racially intolerant are losing the battle for primacy in the American story. They no longer dominate the nation’s culture or mythology, as the changes in the currency illustrate.

Last year, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew invited the public to comment on his decision to recast a paper bill to feature a woman. Of the 15 women suggested by the activist group Women on 20s, including Eleanor Roosevelt, Susan B. Anthony and Rosa Parks, Tubman received the most votes.

A genuine American hero, she deserves the honor. As a young woman, she escaped the Maryland plantation that had enslaved her, and then made several trips back to assist others. Over a little more than a decade, she helped around 70 enslaved men and women find their way to freedom, traveling by night, using ingenious disguises and employing the hideouts established by the Underground Railroad.

She became an outspoken advocate for abolition, and when the Civil War broke out, she worked first as a cook and a nurse, and later as a scout and spy for the Union Army. After the war ended, she moved to a home she had purchased in upstate New York and campaigned for women’s suffrage.

Giving her prominence on the $20 bill forces the nation to acknowledge its original sin, slavery, as does demoting Jackson, a slaveowner. An accurate history further notes that the seventh president was notorious for his brutal treatment of native Americans, whom he forcibly removed from their lands. From now on, it will be difficult for history texts to ignore Tubman or to venerate Jackson.

Lew plans other changes, as well. A depiction of a 1913 march for women’s suffrage will be added to the back of the $10 bill, as will portraits of leaders of that movement. Images of Marian Anderson, Martin Luther King Jr. and Eleanor Roosevelt will be added to the back of the $5 bill.

That’s as it should be. The journey toward a more perfect union demands an acknowledgment of where we’ve been.

Cynthia Tucker won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 2007. She can be reached at cynthia@cynthiatucker.com.

Photo: Flickr user House Divided Project.

U.S. Budget Deficit Shrinks To Lowest Level Since 2008

U.S. Budget Deficit Shrinks To Lowest Level Since 2008

Washington (AFP) – The U.S. government’s budget deficit for fiscal year 2014 shrank to its lowest level in six years as tax revenues rose amid a growing economy, the Treasury Department said Wednesday.

The deficit stood at $483 billion in the year that ended September 30, a decline of 29 percent from the 2013 fiscal year shortfall of $680 billion.

It was the smallest deficit since 2008, the first year of the severe recession.

As a percentage of the economy, the deficit fell below 3.0 percent of GDP to 2.8 percent, a level last seen in 2007. In 2013 that share was 4.1 percent.

Last year’s deficit-to-GDP ratio was “less than the average of the last 40 years,” Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said at a news conference.

Revenues, mostly taxes, rose nine percent to $3.02 trillion, while spending climbed only one percent to $3.50 trillion.

Lew and Shaun Donovan, head of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), credited President Barack Obama’s leadership in the budget process for driving down the country’s deficit.

Referring to the Democratic president’s proposed fiscal year 2015 budget, they said in a statement that the new budget “continues this progress, bringing deficits down as a share of the economy to about two percent of GDP by the end of the next decade.”

“The president’s policies and a strengthening U.S. economy have resulted in a reduction of the U.S. budget deficit of approximately two-thirds — the fastest sustained deficit reduction since World War II,” Lew said.

The significant rebalancing of the U.S. government accounts under Obama, who took office in 2009, follows spending cuts dictated by Congress.

The House of Representatives, which since 2011 has been controlled by rival Republican lawmakers, has pushed through many of the outlay reductions, notably after forcing a 16-day government shutdown in October as fiscal year 2014 got under way.

Republicans and Democrats are at odds over spending; conservatives are keen on slashing the deficit by cutting some social spending while boosting defense funds, but Obama supports more help to low-income families and infrastructure development.

AFP Photo/Paul J. Richards

Kerry: U.S. And China Have Agreed To Disagree On Key Issues

Kerry: U.S. And China Have Agreed To Disagree On Key Issues

By Stuart Leavenworth, McClatchy Foreign Staff

BEIJING — U.S. leaders have accused China of hacking into American companies’ files, bullying U.S. allies in Asia, and treating dissidents and ethnic minorities inhumanely. But pay little heed to the appearance of a hostile Sino-U.S. relationship.

That’s the message U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry delivered Thursday at the conclusion of a two-day meeting between Chinese and U.S. officials in Beijing.

The two countries, Kerry said, “are moving past the differences that have accented the relationship in most recent months.” U.S. delegates and their Chinese counterparts, he said, struck agreements this week on several issues, including cooperation on combating climate change, preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and reducing the chances of maritime mishaps.

At a news conference, Kerry and U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew noted that the United States still has serious differences with China. But the two sides have apparently agreed to disagree in a way that, according to Kerry, seeks to alter conventional wisdom about interactions between superpowers.

“The U.S. and China are committed to a new model of relations, based on practical cooperation, but also constructive management of differences,” Kerry said. “We recognize the need to avoid falling into the trap of a zero-sum competition, and that recognition is driving our partnership on issues from climate change to wildlife trafficking to Afghanistan to peacefully resolving the Iranian nuclear issue.”

Kerry and Lew were in Beijing for the annual U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue, a chance for American business and government leaders to interact with their Chinese counterparts on a range of issues. Kerry said the meeting was one of the best of its kind he’d attended, and at Thursday’s news conference, he and Lew glossed over tensions between China and President Barack Obama that many analysts say are growing almost monthly.

The biggest flash point is China’s increasingly confrontational stance against Japan, the most important U.S. ally in Asia. China’s president, Xi Jinping, visited South Korea last week in a trip clearly aimed at reminding Korea and the rest of Asia of Japan’s past war atrocities. This week, Chinese state media started publishing lurid “confessions” of Japanese World War II criminals that are sure to whip up emotions at home.

Cyber warfare is another source of conflict. In May, the U.S. Justice Department formally indicted members of the Chinese military on charges of hacking U.S. corporate secrets, part of an alleged scheme to help state-owned enterprises in China. Beijing has angrily rejected the accusations.

On Thursday, The New York Times reported that hackers traced to China had attempted to break into federal databases and gain information on government workers with security clearances. Asked about it Thursday, Kerry said he’d only learned about the alleged breach before arriving in Beijing and didn’t raise it with his Chinese counterparts, partly because it was still under investigation.

Some commentators have accused Kerry and President Obama of being softies against China’s aggressions.

“It is hard to exaggerate the audacity with which China now kicks sand in Uncle Sam’s face,” Eamonn Fingleton wrote in Forbes magazine this week. Fingleton, formerly based in Tokyo and other parts of Asia for Forbes, said the United States was regarded as an “empty suit” in China on “everything from trade barriers to industrial espionage to intellectual property theft.”

Kerry said Thursday that he’d had “frank discussions” with Chinese leaders about cybersecurity and reported Chinese crackdowns on lawyers, journalists, and activists. But the discussions were focused on how the two countries could make progress on other issues, such as easing travel between them.

More than his predecessor, Hillary Clinton, Kerry has made clear that he wants to engage China on issues where its leaders feel relatively comfortable. His lighter touch has rankled some in Congress, especially Rep. Frank Wolf, a Virginia Republican who’s seeking to rename the street outside the Chinese embassy in Washington after Liu Xiaobo, the winner of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize and China’s most famous dissident.

AFP Photo / Ng Han Guan

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U.S. Treasury Secretary Lew To Undergo Prostate Surgery

U.S. Treasury Secretary Lew To Undergo Prostate Surgery

New York (AFP) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew will undergo surgery Tuesday in New York to treat a benign enlarged prostate.

The outpatient procedure will keep him at home for the rest of the week, after which he should be able to resume duties, a spokeswoman said Sunday.

Eight days before the scheduled operation, Lew was treated at a Mexico City hospital for what the Treasury called “a minor medical issue.”

Lew, 58, has served as treasury secretary for the past year after replacing Timothy Geithner in early 2013.