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OPINION: Checkmate! In the High Stakes Game of Political Leadership, Congresswoman Maxine Waters Illustrates She is Master Queen

SOUTH BAY BLACK JOURNAL — Whether she was advocating for $10 billion in funding for Section 8 when that program faced dire circumstances; or securing $50 million in funding for Youth Fair Chance; the $400 million for Minority Aids Funding or the $6 billion for Neighborhood Stabilization, Congresswoman Maxine Waters has always been at the forefront of what is best for the communities she serves.
The post OPINION: Checkmate! In the High Stakes Game of Political Leadership, Congresswoman Maxine Waters Illustrates She is Master Queen first appeared on BlackPressUSA.

Published

8 months ago

July 22, 2024

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By Kenneth Miller, Publisher of the South Bay Black Journal

In about a month when the Democratic National Convention convenes in Chicago, the eyes of America and the world will be anxiously watching how the party nominee for president unfolds.

Conventions of both the Republicans and Democrats are lavish, exuberant celebrations of four-day events to showcase their leaders, define their ideology and confirm their candidates for president and vice president.

Somewhere amid all of the blowing horns, balloons and wacky outfits will be Congresswoman Maxine Waters, arguably the most powerful Black elected official in America. In some way shape or form she will be impacting the most significant decisions the Democrats make.

For more than 40 years (33 years in the United States House of Representatives), “Auntie” Maxine Waters, as she is so affectionately hailed by her legions of constituents, has proven that without her, so much would be lost.

Whether she was advocating for $10 billion in funding for Section 8 when that program faced dire circumstances; or securing $50 million in funding for Youth Fair Chance; the $400 million for Minority Aids Funding or the $6 billion for Neighborhood Stabilization, she has always been at the forefront of what is best for the communities she serves.

As citizens, we are always hopeful and prayerful that our public servants will influence legislation on our behalf that will provide healthcare, affordable food and housing, good paying jobs, funding for small business, safe communities and safe places for our children to be educated.

However, in today’s divided political universe, many of us are torn or swayed by propaganda to believe that our system of governance is failing us. As a result, we accuse our elected officials of being out of touch and not adhering to our concerns.

These persuasive but frightening perceptions play right into the hands of those that denied Blacks voting rights. This rhetoric, fueled by broadcast networks, social media, podcasts and streaming platforms, can lead us to be so discouraged that we just say “to hell with all of it” and not exercise the most powerful difference making tool at our disposal: THE RIGHT TO VOTE, and suffer our ultimate demise.

That is why leadership is paramount. Some perceive leadership as some fancy title that is only available to the chosen elite, but real leadership is demonstrated by the actions and deeds of the individuals elected to serve.

Trusted and reliable leaders advocate for what is right, even when contradicted by members of their own political party.

Such was the case when Waters learned California Governor Gavin Newsom had released his budget for the state without any funding for the Martin Luther King Community Hospital (MLKCH), which was on the brink of closing yet again.

Fuming, Waters encountered Newsom at an event and cornered him about the MLKCH dilemma.

In a letter sent to Newsom, Waters appealed; “I call on you as the Governor of the Great State of California to reverse your decision of 2022 and immediately support legislation that will adjust MLKCH’s supplemental funding methodology to include outpatient services, including the approximately 125,000 ED services provided by the hospital every year. This will cost an estimated $25 million per year. More importantly, it will save countless lives.”

Newsom had previously vetoed Assemblymember Mike Gipson (Carson)’s AB 2426 to expand MLKCH’s supplemental funding in order to cover hospital-based outpatient services provided in the emergency department. The bill provided MLKCH approximately $25-$30 million in additional funds annually.

Not long after Waters sent a letter to Newsom on June 14, Newsom reversed course and signed off the legislation to fund MLKCH.

It was a gangsta move as we say in the hood, and copied on the letter were a long list of community stakeholders including:

Dr. Elaine Batchlor, CEO, MLK Community Healthcare Assemblyman Mike Gipson
County Supervisor Hilda Solis, 1st District
County Supervisor Holly Mitchell, 2nd District
County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, 3rd District
County Supervisor Janice Hahn, 4th District
County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, 5th District
Los Angeles City Councilmember Tim McOskar, District 15 LAUSD Board Member Tanya Ortiz Franklin, District 7 Compton Mayor Emma Sharif
Mr. John Baackes, CEO, LA Care Health Plan
Ms. Wajeha A. Bilal, Founder, Build Plus Community Marketplace
Dr. David Carlisle, President and CEO, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science
Rev. Timothy Coston, Jr., Senior Pastor, Grant AME Church
Ms. Robin Daniels, CEO, Sisters of Watts
Rev. Dr. Sonja R. Dawson, Senior Pastor. New Mount Calvary Missionary Baptist
Church
Mr. Ryan Ferguson, Manager, Government and Community Relations-LA South, Kaiser
Permanente Watts Medical Offices and Watts Counseling and Learning Center Mr. John Jones, III, President and Co-Founder, East Side Riders Bike Club
Mr. Donny Joubert, President, Watts Gang Taskforce
Ms. Yumi Kawasaki, Principal, Edwin Markham Middle School
Ms. Olusheyi Lawoyin, COO, Watts Healthcare Corporation
Ms. Elsa Madrid, Principal, Maxine Waters Employment Preparation Center Dr. Cynthia Mendenhall, Founder and President, Chosen Angels Inc.
Rev. Kenneth Miller, Senior Pastor, Hays Tabernacle CME Church
Rev. Dr. Ivan Pitts, Macedonia Baptist Church
Mr. Brandon “Stix” Salaam-Bailey, Founder and CEO, Think Watts
Ms. Dolores Sheen, Founder, Sheenway School and Culture Center
Mr. Aqeela Sherrills, Co-Founder, Community Based Public Safety Collective Rev. Robert Taylor, President, Watts Area Ministers
Mr. Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith, CEO, Top Dawg Entertainment
Mr. Tim Watkins, CEO, WLCAC
Ms. Autumn Ybarra, Watts/Century Latino Organization

“This unique hospital serves some of the poorest and sickest people in the State of California and perhaps the entire country. Our community depends on MLKCH, and we cannot allow it to close,” Waters wrote.

Waters was just warming up after the victory for MLKCH, she then turned her attention to the City of Inglewood in her Congressional District.

According to an article in the Los Angeles Times, and confirmed by Waters in an interview with South Bay Black Journal, Waters is now objecting to one of Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts’ most prominent projects, The People Mover (ITC), a $2-billion transportation line that would link SoFi Stadium to one of Los Angeles’ newest rail lines (K-Line).

“It will not provide convenient connectivity to employment or public services for local residents,” she said. “The ITC is designed primarily to allow public transit users to connect the extra 1.6 miles from Metro’s K Line to sports and entertainment venues. Shuttle buses could most likely accomplish the same goal at a fraction of the cost, but have not been seriously considered as an alternative,” Waters told the Times.

In affirming her commitment to prevent the project from going forward, Waters stated:

“To the degree that I can do anything to stop it, I will do it,” she said Wednesday. “It’s a project that has turned out to be totally unnecessary and totally much too costly.”

“The ITC threatens to exacerbate this crisis by displacing long-time Inglewood residents and small and minority-owned businesses and diverting resources away from some of the most urgent needs of the local communities in my district,” she wrote.

The four-term mayor has courted billionaires and inked deals to build SoFi Stadium and Intuit Dome that have transformed his community.

As one might expect, Butts was not happy about Waters’ position.

“You can’t come in at the 11th hour with a little fairy tale story about how something is so terrible,” he said. The letter was “ill-conceived” and many of the points “fully invalid,” Butts told The Times that Waters did not reach out to him to discuss the matter.

However, this is what leadership is all about, challenging the most powerful within your own party with conviction.

These individuals wake up with a strategy to improve the lives of their constituents and everyday Americans and they go to sleep contemplating what more can be done.

Explore the entire political universe from the local, to the state upward to the federal level and few have been as reliable as Maxine Waters.

The sacrifices that she makes have threatened her mere existence as assassination attempts have placed her life and the safety of her family in constant jeopardy.

Whether it’s being at the forefront during civil unrest in Los Angeles or the brutal police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota, we can always count on Maxine Waters being in the middle of the fight. In a sense she’s like Mike Tyson in his heyday, always menacing and going towards the opponent with intentions of securing victory by any means necessary.

The post OPINION: Checkmate! In the High Stakes Game of Political Leadership, Congresswoman Maxine Waters Illustrates She is Master Queen first appeared on BlackPressUSA.

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Recently Approved Budget Plan Favors Wealthy, Slashes Aid to Low-Income Americans

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — The most significant benefits would flow to the highest earners while millions of low-income families face cuts

Published

1 week ago

March 21, 2025

Stacy M. Brown

By Stacy M. Brown

BlackPressUSA.com Senior National Correspondent

The new budget framework approved by Congress may result in sweeping changes to the federal safety net and tax code. The most significant benefits would flow to the highest earners while millions of low-income families face cuts. A new analysis from Yale University’s Budget Lab shows the proposals in the House’s Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Resolution would lead to a drop in after-tax-and-transfer income for the poorest households while significantly boosting revenue for the wealthiest Americans. Last month, Congress passed its Concurrent Budget Resolution for Fiscal Year 2025 (H. Con. Res. 14), setting revenue and spending targets for the next decade. The resolution outlines $1.5 trillion in gross spending cuts and $4.5 trillion in tax reductions between FY2025 and FY2034, along with $500 billion in unspecified deficit reduction.

Congressional Committees have now been instructed to identify policy changes that align with these goals. Three of the most impactful committees—Agriculture, Energy and Commerce, and Ways and Means—have been tasked with proposing major changes. The Agriculture Committee is charged with finding $230 billion in savings, likely through changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps. Energy and Commerce must deliver $880 billion in savings, likely through Medicaid reductions. Meanwhile, the Ways and Means Committee must craft tax changes totaling no more than $4.5 trillion in new deficits, most likely through extending provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Although the resolution does not specify precise changes, reports suggest lawmakers are eyeing steep cuts to SNAP and Medicaid benefits while seeking to make permanent tax provisions that primarily benefit high-income individuals and corporations.

To examine the potential real-world impact, Yale’s Budget Lab modeled four policy changes that align with the resolution’s goals:

A 30 percent across-the-board cut in SNAP funding.
A 15 percent cut in Medicaid funding.
Permanent extension of the individual and estate tax cuts from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
Permanent extension of business tax provisions including 100% bonus depreciation, expense of R&D, and relaxed limits on interest deductions.

Yale researchers determined that the combined effect of these policies would reduce the after-tax-and-transfer income of the bottom 20 percent of earners by 5 percent in the calendar year 2026. Households in the middle would see a modest 0.6 percent gain. However, the top five percent of earners would experience a 3 percent increase in their after-tax-and-transfer income.

Moreover, the analysis concluded that more than 100 percent of the net fiscal benefit from these changes would go to households in the top 20 percent of the income distribution. This happens because lower-income groups would lose more in government benefits than they would gain from any tax cuts. At the same time, high-income households would enjoy significant tax reductions with little or no loss in benefits.

“These results indicate a shift in resources away from low-income tax units toward those with higher incomes,” the Budget Lab report states. “In particular, making the TCJA provisions permanent for high earners while reducing spending on SNAP and Medicaid leads to a regressive overall effect.” The report notes that policymakers have floated a range of options to reduce SNAP and Medicaid outlays, such as lowering per-beneficiary benefits or tightening eligibility rules. While the Budget Lab did not assess each proposal individually, the modeling assumes legislation consistent with the resolution’s instructions. “The burden of deficit reduction would fall largely on those least able to bear it,” the report concluded.

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A Threat to Pre-emptive Pardons

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — it was a possibility that the preemptive pardons would not happen because of the complicated nature of that never-before-enacted process.

Published

1 week ago

March 21, 2025

Oakland Post

By April Ryan

President Trump is working to undo the traditional presidential pardon powers by questioning the Biden administration’s pre-emptive pardons issued just days before January 20, 2025. President Trump is seeking retribution against the January 6th House Select Committee. The Trump Justice Department has been tasked to find loopholes to overturn the pardons that could lead to legal battles for the Republican and Democratic nine-member committee. Legal scholars and those closely familiar with the pardon process worked with the Biden administration to ensure the preemptive pardons would stand against any retaliatory knocks from the incoming Trump administration. A source close to the Biden administration’s pardons said, in January 2025, “I think pardons are all valid. The power is unreviewable by the courts.”

However, today that same source had a different statement on the nuances of the new Trump pardon attack. That attack places questions about Biden’s use of an autopen for the pardons. The Trump argument is that Biden did not know who was pardoned as he did not sign the documents. Instead, the pardons were allegedly signed by an autopen. The same source close to the pardon issue said this week, “unless he [Trump] can prove Biden didn’t know what was being done in his name. All of this is in uncharted territory. “ Meanwhile, an autopen is used to make automatic or remote signatures. It has been used for decades by public figures and celebrities.

Months before the Biden pardon announcement, those in the Biden White House Counsel’s Office, staff, and the Justice Department were conferring tirelessly around the clock on who to pardon and how. The concern for the preemptive pardons was how to make them irrevocable in an unprecedented process. At one point in the lead-up to the preemptive pardon releases, it was a possibility that the preemptive pardons would not happen because of the complicated nature of that never-before-enacted process. President Trump began the threat of an investigation for the January 6th Select Committee during the Hill proceedings. Trump has threatened members with investigation or jail.

Oakland Post

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Reaction to The Education EO

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Meanwhile, the new Education EO jeopardizes funding for students seeking a higher education. Duncan states, PellGrants are in jeopardy after servicing “6.5 million people” giving them a chance to go to college.

Published

1 week ago

March 21, 2025

Oakland Post

By April Ryan

There are plenty of negative reactions to President Donald Trump’s latest Executive Order abolishing the Department of Education. As Democrats call yesterday’s action performative, it would take an act of Congress for the Education Department to close permanently. “This blatantly unconstitutional executive order is just another piece of evidence that Trump has absolutely no respect for the Constitution,” said Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) who is the ranking member on the House Financial Services Committee. “By dismantling ED, President Trump is implementing his own philosophy on education, which can be summed up in his own words, ‘I love the poorly educated.’ I am adamantly opposed to this reckless action, said Rep. Bobby Scott who is the most senior Democrat on the House Education and Workforce Committee.

Morgan State University President Dr. David Wilson chimed in saying “I’m deeply concerned about efforts to shift federal oversight in education back to the states, particularly regarding equity, justice, and fairness. History has shown us what happens when states are left unchecked—Black and poor children are too often denied access to the high-quality education they deserve. In 1979 then President Jimmy Carter signed a law creating the Department of Education. Arne Duncan, former Obama Education Secretary, reminds us that both Democratic and Republican presidents have kept education a non-political issue until now. However, Duncan stressed Republican presidents have contributed greatly to moving education forward in this country.

During a CNN interview this week Duncan said during the Civil War President Abraham “Lincoln created the land grant system” for colleges like Tennessee State University. “President Ford brought in IDEA.” And “Nixon signed Pell Grants into law.” In 2001, the No Child Left Behind Act was signed into law by President George W. Bush which increased federal oversight of schools through standardized testing. Meanwhile, the new Education EO jeopardizes funding for students seeking higher education. Duncan states, PellGrants are in jeopardy after servicing “6.5 million people” giving them a chance to go to college. Wilson details, “that 40 percent of all college students rely on Pell Grants and student loans.”

Rep. Alma Adams (D-NC) says this Trump action “impacts students pursuing higher education and threatens 26 million students across the country, taking billions away from their educational futures. Meanwhile, During the president’s speech in the East Room of the White House Thursday, Trump criticized Baltimore City, and its math test scores with critical words. Governor West Moore, who is opposed to the EO action, said about dismantling the Department of Education, “Leadership means lifting people up, not punching them down.”