Americans across the political spectrum can agree on one thing: Congress is ineffective and dysfunctional.

The recent dismal failure of the much-ballyhooed Super Congress is just another example of their inability to govern. Last August Congressional Republican gamesmanship forced a downgrading of the US credit rating when they dragged their feet on raising the US debt ceiling– an exercise that had been repeated several times by the Congress in the past.

Republicans like Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan, John Boehner, and Arizona’s own Jeff Flake were all over the news– insisting on cuts to entitlement program (cuts to the 99%) rather than raising taxes on the wealthy or cutting corporate welfare (cuts to the 1%); part of the final deal was the creation of the Super Committee. They also railed against Obama’s stimulus package and stood against any attempt by the President to put American’s back to work. (And they wonder why the Occupy movement spread like wildfire across our cities and towns just weeks after the debt ceiling fiasco?)

The failure of the Super Committee to reach a deal by their Nov. 23, 2011 deadline  will trigger automatic spending cuts (a Republican idea) beginning in 2013 (conveniently scheduled for the next Congress to deal with). President Obama said he will veto any Congressional attempt to roll back the cuts; after all, Republicans made a big deal last summer about how they strong-armed the President into the debt ceiling deal, the necessity of the massive cuts, and the creation of the Super Committee. Now let them live with the consequence of their ideology.

The failure of the Super Committee will bring cuts to education, cuts to military spending, and cuts to unemployment insurance– just to name a few. If Congress doesn’t act in the next few weeks, 1.8 million Americans will lose their benefits in January 2012. (That will tank the economy for sure.)

From the Huffington Post…

Beginning in 2013, the federal government faces two oncoming trains. When the supercommittee was unable to find agreement by Wednesday, it triggered spending cuts of $1.2 trillion starting in January 2013 and extending over 10 years. Half of the cuts would come from defense spending, the other from education, agriculture and environmental programs, and, to a lesser extent, Medicare.

At the same time, tax cuts adopted during the presidency of George W. Bush will expire at the end of 2012, meaning an increase for every taxpayer.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said the cuts would “tear a seam in the nation’s defense.”

Meanwhile, the tax increases would hit a still-fragile economy, endangering a recovery and raising prospects of another recession.

But while neither side wants those outcomes, Washington’s recent history of tackling fiscal problems shows Congress does not act unless faced with a dire deadline. It extended Bush-era tax cuts in 2010 just days before they expired, it avoided a government shutdown by hours and it put off a debt crisis this summer in the face of a government default.

Not surprisingly, the current Congressional approval rating is at a dismal 9%– dead even with American’s approval rating of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Congress is so unpopular that the Internal Revenue Service (40%), BP at the height of the Deep Water Horizon oil spill crisis (16%), and the idea of Communism taking over the US (11%) are more popular than the Do-Nothing Congress.

The US is in a financial crisis… thanks to Wall Street gamblers, thanks to Congress’ insistence on extending tax cuts we can’t afford, thanks to corporations sending good-paying jobs overseas, thanks to growing wealth disparity, thanks to runaway healthcare costs, thanks to the disappearance of the middle class, thanks to widespread poverty in the richest country in the world…

As the US population ages, our current financial crisis will pale in comparison to our impending public health crisis.

Congress needs to get to work. In poll after poll, the people have said they want a balanced approach– spending cuts + revenue increases– to balancing the budget. Super Committee members like Arizona Senator Jon Kyl should be ashamed of themselves– putting ideology and protection of the 1% ahead of the welfare of Americans.

Funny how silent Cantor, Ryan, Boehner, and Flake have been lately.

Since 2005, Tucson and Pima County have sunk millions of dollars into the economic development group Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities, Inc. (TREO).

Until I read Josh Brodesky’s recent Arizona Daily Star article on TREO, I mistakenly thought it was primarily funded by governmental entities like Tucson, Pima County, and other municipalities in Southern Arizona. Wrong.

Yes, Pima County kicked in $350,000 this year (down from $1.2 million in previous years) and the City of Tucson kicked in $520,000 (down from $1.5 million), but did you know that TREO has a membership structure in which businesses buy-in for $25,000 or $50,000 per year?

From the Star…

The TREO board is a veritable country club filled with the region’s heavy hitters in government and business. Members pay $25,000 to join the board. [I wonder how much the TREO membership overlaps with the Southern Arizona Leadership Council (SALC)?] But that pales in comparison to the exclusive Chairman’s Circle.

“Over the years, what I’ve realized are big players, CEOs of companies, we charge $50,000,” Snell said of the circle. “They can’t make board meetings or are in New York all the time, you know, living the lives that none of us do. But they want to have a say in shaping economic policy.”

Talk about the 1 percent.

This pay-to-play structure troubles Robert L. Davis, a commercial broker with Grubb & Ellis, because TREO operates on private and public funds. It also cuts out people in the business community who don’t have the cash.

“You can spend $50,000, but it doesn’t mean you should have a greater voice than Jim Smith,” he said. “I offered to do a big amount a year if they would just list all of their investors in alphabetical order” and create a separate, independent board of members chosen for their skill, not their wealth. “That went over like a lead balloon.”

One of the big criticisms of Snell and TREO is simply being missing in action.

“I don’t see them,” Pima County Supervisor Richard Elías told me.

“I don’t see him out in the community very often,” Davis said.

“We don’t know what’s going on,” Marana Mayor Ed Honea said back in 2008 when Marana bolted from TREO. “We’re really not apprised of what’s happening on a month-to-month basis. It seems like we just send a check, and that’s it.”

After having read Brodesky’s article, I was left wondering: What are TREO members buying for their $25,000-$50,000 membership? And who are these businesses? The Chairman’s Circle membership– including local heavy-hitters like Jim Click, Carondelet, Raytheon, TMC, and COX Communications– is listed on the TREO website; the Board of Directors is also listed. But what about the other businesses? I agree with Davis (above); there should be more transparency regarding the how TREO operates.

Between Pima County and the City of Tucson, we– the taxpayers– are contributing nearly $1 million per year. I think we have the right to know who the other players are, how this organization really works, and who they are working for.

Speaking with commentator Keith Olbermann on national television , Occupy Tucson spokesman Craig Barber outed the Tucson’s Mayor and Council for “hiding behind” the bureaucrats in Tucson Police Department (TPD) and the Parks and Recreation Department and avoiding to make a decision regarding the legality of the peaceful Armory Park occupation.

Prior to Tuesday’s City Council Meeting– which was flooded with Occupy Tucson supporters– City Council Members told the Occupiers that their “hands were tied” and that the Occupiers had to comply with the city’s anti-vagrancy laws which dictate a 10:30 p.m. park curfew. Since the beginning of Occupy Tucson on Saturday, October 15, 2011, TPD has been arresting protesters and dispensing fines up to $1000 (for breaking the curfew) nightly.

Since it is against state and federal law to step on anyone’s first amendment freedom, the protesters are dubbing the $1000 fine– “The First Amendment Fine”– and their lawyers are investigating legal recourse.

Approximately 25 stalwarts representing National Nurses United, Progressive Democrats of America (PDA), and MoveOn.org braved 108 degree temperatures to protest outside of US Senator Jon Kyl’s suburban Tucson office on September 1, 2011.

The lcoal demonstration was part of a national movement to encourage Congress to think about Main Street– rather than Wall Street– when making spending (and cutting) decisions in the near future. Kyl’s office was chosen as the site for the local demonstration because he has been appointed to the Super Congress, which will make tough spending and cutting decisions this fall.

Kyl’s staff locked themselves in a conference room as peaceful protesters knocked on the office door and chanted outside.

Since Kyl’s staff refused to open the doors and listen to local constituents, activists left dozens of Post-It Note messages on his door encouraging him to save social safety net programs (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, and unemployment), tax the rich and corporations to raise revenue, and put Americans back to work.

To watch other videos from around the country, click here.

‘Nuff said.

On August 31, 2011, join Progressive Democrats of America Tucson Chapter, local MoveOn activists, and local nurses at Jon Kyl’s Tucson office (yes, he has one) at 6840 N. Oracle Rd., Suite 150, 6 p.m. Click here for a map. Click here to RSVP.

Arizona Senator Jon Kyl is a member of the new Super Congress which will decide our future and the future of our children and grandchildren. Tell Kyl to “have a heart”– not an ideology.

Given: System-wide, US healthcare costs have been on an upward trajectory for decades.

Given: The #1 reason Americans go bankrupt is that they cannot pay their medical bills.

Given: As we grow older, our healthcare (and health insurance) costs increase.

Given: Baby Boomers are entering their Golden Years, and between 2010 and 2040, the US population over 65 years of age will double.

Given: Fiscal hawks at the state and federal level want to reduce, dramatically change, or eliminate government-backed health insurance (Medicare and Medicaid), as well as social safety net programs (ie, Social Security, food stamps, and unemployement).

Given these facts: It is not difficult to see how the colliding forces of an aging population, increasing healthcare costs, and decreasing government support could create a perfect storm in US in the not-so-distant future.

New research published in the September 2011 issue of The American Journal of Medicine gives us a glimpse of what that perfect storm may look like.

Using statistical modeling, scientists from the University of California, San Francisco and Columbia University reported that without significant changes in risk factors or treatments, “…the aging of the US population will result in a sizeable increase in coronary heart disease incidence, prevalence, mortality, and costs.”

More specifically:

• “…incident coronary heart disease [new cases] is projected to increase by approximately 26%, from 981,000 in 2010 to 1,234,000 in 2040…
• “Prevalent coronary heart disease [is projected to increase] by 47%, from 11.7 million to 17.3 million.
• “Mortality will be affected strongly by the aging population; annual coronary heart disease deaths are projected to increase by 56% over the next 30 years, from 392,000 to 610,000.
• “Coronary heart disease-related health care costs are projected to rise by 41% from $126.2 billion in 2010 to $177.5 billion in 2040 in the United States.”

The public health and economic consequences of these projections are staggering– particularly if extremist Teapublicans like Congressman Paul Ryan and sheep-like followers (including Arizona’s own Jeff Flake) have their way.

Let’s assess the current situation…

• 52 million Americans don’t have health insurance.
• 61% of bankruptcies in the US due to medical costs.
• 9.1% of Americans are unemployed.
• Teapublicans– with the help of President Obama– want to fix the “deficit problem” by cutting entitlement programs WITHOUT cutting military spending or raising revenues or creating jobs (which would boost the economy).

If you think income disparity and greed are destroying our country now, just wait. If Teapublicans like Michelle “down with entitlements” Bachmann, Rick “minimum wage” Perry, Mitt “the oligarch’s baby” Romney, Sarah “cut NPR to balance the budget” Palin, Jeff “I was against austerity before I was for it” Flake*, and, of course, FOX “the poor need to pay their fair share” News have their way, there will be literally millions of sick, elderly Americans living at the subsistence level without healthcare services or medicine.

Is this the future we want?

The balanced budget deal passed earlier this month is the only one in history that includes cuts in spending and no increases in revenue. We need sanity in government, and I’m not sure we’ll get it from the Gang of 12.

We need to put people back to work– at good-paying jobs (not the kind Perry created in Texas)– so they can contribute to the economy and contribute to Medicare and Social Security through their paychecks. To control healthcare costs, we need universal healthcare– instead of this hybrid system that allows insurance companies to continue their rape of the American people. We need to eliminate the Bush era tax cuts for the rich and cut tax loopholes for individuals and corporations. We need to end the wars and cut military spending.

Yes, we need sanity in government.

* In all fairness, this is also the position of Senators Jon Kyl, John McCain, and Mitch McConnell and Congressmen John Boehner and Paul Ryan.

Members of Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) Tucson Chapter demonstrated their support for Medicare on the recent 46th anniversary of this important component of President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty.

Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, and other social safety net programs were under attack by Congressional Republicans during the recent budget deficit/debit ceiling fiasco in Congress.

Extremist Teapublicans– including Arizona’s five Teapublican Congressional Representatives, Paul Gosar (CD1), Trent Franks (CD2), Ben Quayle (CD3), David Schweikert (CD5), and Jeff Flake (CD6)– brought the country to the brink of default by choosing to cling to their ideology, rather than thinking about what’s best for our country and voting with the majority of Americans.

For the final vote, Gosar joined Democratic Blue Dog Gabirelle Giffords (CD8) and voted for the compromise debt ceiling bill. Progressive Democrats Raul Grijalva (CD7) and Ed Pastor (CD4) voted against the bill– since it included no revenue increases and leaves Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid volunterable to future cuts.

Franks, Quayle, Schweikert, and Flake voted the straight Teapublican line on every vote– including voting against the debt ceiling deal because it didn’t include a balanced budget amendment.

In these tough economic times, it is disheartening that so many Congressional representatives are more concerned with ideology over the health and economic well-being of US citizens.

It’s highly ironic that the current social and political battle over our nation’s debt and deficit is occurring this week with the 46th anniversary of the signing of Social Security Act of 1965 on Saturday, July 30.

After a long political battle dating from Harry Truman’s presidency to Lyndon Johnson’s, Johnson signed this legislation creating universal, single payer healthcare insurance for the nation’s elderly (Medicare) and indigent (Medicaid).

From The Nation…

With reporters and photographers surrounding them, Johnson took a place beside former President Harry Truman, who the sitting president thanked for “planting the seeds of compassion and duty which have today flowered into care for the sick and serenity for the fearful.” [Emphasis added.]

These healthcare reforms were part of Johnson’s Great Society, which had two primary goals: to eliminate poverty and to eliminate racial injustice. After his landslide victory over Barry Goldwater in 1964, Johnson and his progressive Democratic Congress enacted forward-thinking reforms that were reminiscent of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal and began the full-on War on Poverty, which reduced the poverty rate significantly over the subsequent 10 years. Many important Great Society programs– aimed at improving labor, healthcare, and education for poor and working class Americans– are still in existence: Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, student loans for college, work study, and Head Start. These programs were strengthened under Republican Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.

It is so sad how far we have fallen from this level of compassion. The programs of Roosevelt’s New Deal and Johnson’s Great Society– programs that have provided a social safety net for millions of Americans and wiped out many inequities of the past– are now facing a full-frontal attack by conservatives, bankrolled by big business.

Republican Congressmen would have you believe that the nation’s financial problems can be fixed by just cutting spending– specifically dramatically changing Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid (long-term spending) and dramatically cutting other discretionary (non-military) spending (ie, food stamps, children’s healthcare, food safety, pollution abatement, etc) which actually makes up less than 20 percent of the budget. Oh, yeah, and they want to protect oil subsidies, corporate tax loopholes (which allow multinational corporations like Bank of America to pay no taxes; tax loopholes for the rich; continue the Bush era tax cuts that they fought so hard for in December 2010; dismantle Social Security (so retirement funds for those under 50 can be gambled on the stock market); and offer more tax cuts (more trickle down economics).

At a time of high unemployment, high gasoline costs, high food prices, escalating college education tuition, skyrocketing healthcare expenses, a disintigrating social safety net, and soaring corporate profits– Republicans want workers, the elderly, and the indigent to “tighten their belts” to protect the profits and tax breaks of corporate jet owners, big oil, big pharma, big insurance, and Wall Street gamblers and corporate execs everywhere.

From the Associated Press (via the Arizona Daily Star)…

Two years after economists say the Great Recession ended, the recovery has been the weakest and most lopsided of any since the 1930s.

After previous recessions, people in all income groups tended to benefit. This time, ordinary Americans are struggling with job insecurity, too much debt and pay raises that haven’t kept up with prices at the grocery store and gas station. The economy’s meager gains are going mostly to the wealthiest.

Workers’ wages and benefits make up 57.5 percent of the economy, an all-time low. Until the mid-2000s, that figure had been remarkably stable – about 64 percent through boom and bust alike.

Executive pay is included in this figure, but rank-and-file workers are far more dependent on regular wages and benefits. A big chunk of the economy’s gains has gone to investors in the form of higher corporate profits.

“The spoils have really gone to capital, to the shareholders,” says David Rosenberg, chief economist at Gluskin Sheff + Associates in Toronto.

Corporate profits are up by almost half since the recession ended in June 2009. In the first two years after the recessions of 1991 and 2001, profits rose 11 percent and 28 percent, respectively.

And an Associated Press analysis found that the typical CEO of a major company earned $9 million last year, up a fourth from 2009.

Driven by higher profits, the Dow Jones industrial average has staged a breathtaking 90 percent rally since bottoming at 6,547 on March 9, 2009. Those stock market gains go disproportionately to the wealthiest 10 percent of Americans, who own more than 80 percent of outstanding stock, according to an analysis by Edward Wolff, an economist at Bard College.

But if the Great Recession is long gone from Wall Street and corporate boardrooms, it lingers on Main Street:

• Unemployment has never been so high – 9.1 percent – this long after any recession since World War II. At the same point after the previous three recessions, unemployment averaged just 6.8 percent.

• The average worker’s hourly wages, after accounting for inflation, were 1.6 percent lower in May than a year earlier. Rising gasoline and food prices have devoured any pay raises for most Americans.

• The jobs that are being created pay less than the ones that vanished in the recession. Higher-paying jobs in the private sector, the ones that pay roughly $19 to $31 an hour, made up 40 percent of the jobs lost from January 2008 to February 2010 but only 27 percent of the jobs created since then.

Hard times have made Americans more dependent than ever on social programs, which accounted for a record 18 percent of personal income in the last three months of 2010 before coming down a bit this year. Almost 45 million Americans are on food stamps, another record…

Federal Reserve numbers crunched by Haver Analytics suggest that Americans have a long way to go before their finances will be strong enough to support robust spending: Despite cutting what they owe the past three years, the average household’s debts equal 119 percent of annual after-tax income. At the same point after the 1981-82 recession, debts were at 66 percent; after the 1990-91 recession, 85 percent; and after the 2001 recession, 114 percent. [Emphasis added.]

At a time when Americans can least afford it and the income gap between the richest 1 percent and the rest of us is larger than the Grand Canyon, Republicans are asking for even further financial sacrifices from Main Street Americans AND they are willing to throw the world into financial crisis as they cling to their trickle down ideology of protecting the rich while casting the rest of us aside. If they want to “fix” Social Security, they should put Americans back to work at good-paying jobs. According to 2009 figures from the US Census, 14.3 percent of Americans (and 20.7 percent of American children) are living in poverty; 43 million Americans– the largest number ever.

What can you do about it?

Call your Congressional Representatives today and tell them to vote to:

• raise the debt ceiling (and stop the grandstanding),
• raise revenues (by cutting military spending, eliminating corporate loopholes that allow them to avoid paying taxes, eliminate Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, etc.),
• protect the programs that benefit millions of Americans: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, unemployment, college tuition grants, etc.
• solve the deficit problem by putting Americans back to work.

Here are the numbers:
CD8 Gabrielle Giffords: 520-881-3588 (local) or 202-225-2542 (DC)
CD7 Raul Grijalva: 520-622-6788 (local) or 202-225-2435 (DC)

CD6 Jeff Flake from Mesa (We need to lean on this guy who wants to be our next Senator.):
480-833-0092 (in Mesa) or 202-225-2635 (DC)

Senator Jon Kyl 520-575-8633 (local) or 202-224-4521 (DC)
Senator John McCain 520-670-6334 (local) or 202-224-2245 (DC)

What else can you do?

Progressive Democrats of America’s Tucson Chapter is holding a demonstration to show support for protecting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid on Saturday, July 30 from 10 a.m. – noon at the corner of Speedway and Campbell.

MoveOn.org is calling on us– all of us– to visit our Congressional representatives’ offices today, July 26, at noon and tell them to protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Don’t let extremist Teapublicans destroy our economy and our country’s social safety net– as they play chicken with President Obama and the world financial markets over raising the debt ceiling. (If you know anyone who lives in John Boehner’s Ohio district, forward it to him.)

From Move On…

This weekend, it became 100% clear that Republicans would rather see America default, Social Security checks stop going out, the stock market plummet, and unemployment soar than give one inch on their position: that the very richest people and most profitable corporations shouldn’t pay one penny more in taxes.

Even after the president offered Republicans a debt-ceiling deal most MoveOn members probably consider unconscionable—with trillions in cuts, even to Medicare and Social Security—speaker Boehner still walked away from the table.

Republicans hope the threat of default will be enough to force Democrats to sacrifice and compromise even more.

But Democrats like Raul Grijalva are standing strong. Rep. Grijalva is one of 80 Democrats who have joined Leader Pelosi in saying that cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security benefits are off the table. Over the next few days, Rep. Grijalva will face extreme pressure to cave into every Republican demand and let irresponsible threats drive terrible decisions in Washington.

That’s why, with other leaders of the American Dream movement, we’re putting out an urgent call for every patriotic American to show up outside progressive congressional offices on Tuesday at noon to deliver a crucial message of support: “Thank you for protecting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Keep standing strong.”

Can you deliver the message to Rep. Grijalva at his office on Tuesday at noon?

Yes, I can drop by on Tuesday!

We’ll follow up with all the details and a link to print your own “Keep standing strong” signs to bring to Rep. Grijalva.

Then you just have to show up on Tuesday here:

738 North 5th Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85705

We need to show as much public support as possible, so please pass this along to anyone else you know who could join in on Tuesday. This is a moment when we need to bring the progressive movement together to show our strength and show our boldest leaders that we’re with them. 

Let’s get out there on Tuesday and let leaders like Rep. Grijalva know how important it is to keep standing up to Republican threats. We can’t let Republicans crash the American economy to protect tax giveaways for the rich.

As someone who lives in CD8– Gabrielle Giffords’ district– I received a different version of this MoveOn letter urging CD8 residents to go to her office (3945 E. Fort Lowell Road, Suite 211) to encourage her to support the position that Pelosi and Grijalva have taken. I don’t know how many people will show up at Giffords’ office, but I think it’s a good idea because it emphasizes that CD8 residents need to have a dog in this fight.

Raising the debit ceiling and reducing the deficit by cutting corporate subsidies and tax loopholes for the rich– while protecting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid– are crucial issues. If you can’t go to your Congressional representative’s office today in person, contact them. Here is their contact information: Raul and Gabby.

Summertime swimming-- especially with temperatures over 100-- is sheer delight. (Photo Credit: Pamela Powers)

For two years now, only a handful of Tucson’s public swimming pools have been opened to the public, thanks to budget cuts.

Last summer, I wrote about access to public pools and complained that only people who could afford fitness club memberships or who lived in communities with their own pools could enjoy the luxuries of cooling off in the water during the hot summer months.

This spring–not happy with the sad state of public pools in Tucson– Jim Hannley, president of the El Rio Neighborhood Association and a life-long swimmer, started a one-man crusade to open at least one pool on Tucson’s west side for the 2011 season. He met with one of the top Parks and Recreation administrators, along with Ward One Councilwoman Regina Romero, the West Side Coalition, and public health researchers at the University of Arizona. He even considered starting a fund-raising campaign to open at least one pool. The West Side Coalition of eight neighborhoods passed a resolution to appeal to the Tucson Mayor and Council to open more pools but to no avail. Hannley was told that each pool costs the city $50,000 for the season– not an extraordinary amount of cash– but his crusade to provide swimming and swimming lessons for children and families in some of Tucson’s poorer neighborhoods was thwarted by bureaucracy and lack of resources.

According to a recent article in the Huffington Post, When Did Swimming Become a Privilege in the United States?, Tucson is not the only major city to cut swimming pools and swimming lessons to save money.

… cities and counties all over the country are closing their public swimming pools. In this summer of sweltering heat, with our nation in three overseas conflicts and oil companies reaping windfall profits from high gas prices and Republican politicians fighting to protect the riches of millionaires and billionaires, we cannot seem to find enough resources to keep the pools open for our kids.

“From New York City to Sacramento, Calif.,” the Associated Press writes, “pools now considered costly extravagances are being shuttered.”

Sacramento, according to the story, had 13 pools a decade ago for its nearly half-million residents but will have only three by next summer. Search Google and you’ll find report after report of communities padlocking their pools. Pasco County, Florida, one of the fastest growing counties in the United States with 471,000 residents, is debating whether to close its last two county-run pools. Johnston County, North Carolina… Goodlettsville, Tennessee… Beverly, West Virginia… Utica, New York… Austin, Texas… cities and towns around the country are closing their pools or proposing to do so.

Ours is the wealthiest nation in human history. But we are obviously not all sharing in the wealth.

The top 150,000 families in the United States — meaning the top 0.1 percent of all earners — earn over 10 percent of our nation’s income. From the World War II years through 1980, the top 0.01 percent of all American families earned about 180 times more income than what the bottom 90 percent averaged; today it’s close to 1,000 times more. While income for America’s high earners has soared, it has flatlined for almost everyone else.

In terms of wealth, the top 10 percent of Americans control over 70 percent of our wealth, while the bottom 50 percent holds just 2.5 percent, and in fact the richest 1 percent possess more wealth than the bottom 90 percent of Americans.

Yes, the wealthiest Americans may have their own pools, and pricey swim clubs dot affluent suburban communities whose well-heeled residents can afford a membership and annual dues.

And in those grand backyards of Greenwich, Connecticut or McLean, Virginia — as well as those well-maintained suburban pool clubs — you will hear the squeals of children splashing in water and letting their summer imaginations flow and playing impromptu pool games with foam footballs and noodles. Teenagers will preen themselves for one another or lie in the sun procrastinating about their summer reading. Kids having summer fun, making friends, creating lifelong memories — good for them.

But in the rest of the country, where families have fewer and fewer summer options, childhood will lose yet another of its vivid narratives. There will be no poolside memories for those unlucky kids. Public pools used to be magnets for people of all backgrounds to mingle and splash, but that too will be lost as poolside hobnobbing will be reserved only for those able to afford the privilege.

When our country looks at public spaces simply as expenditures to be cut, we lose a lot more than just a line in the budget. [Emphasis added.]

According to the Tucson Parks and Recreation website, 11 pools are open this swimming season, which ends this Friday, July 29. First of all, it is unconscionable to have 11 pools open in a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million people. Second of all, it is ludicrous in a city that regularly sees temperatures over 100 degrees to have a swimming season that goes from June 6 through July 29.  According to the schedule, some pools will have an extended season through November 15, and three pools– Sunnyside, Clements, and Catalina will be open all year. A neighbor of mine went to the Catalina pool in midtown recently and had to wait in line to swim laps because the pool was so busy on a week day. Too bad the Himmel Park pool has been closed for two years.

Providing safe and affordable recreational facilities for all of its citizens is an important, cost-effective role for local government. Swimming pools, recreation centers, and parks foster good health habits through exercise, reduce long-term public health costs by decreasing the obesity rate, provide activities for teens, improve quality of life, build community and in the case of swimming lessons– directly save lives.

Tucson should start now to develop a plan to open more pools next year.