A Christmas (Budget) Carol

My family and I love to see Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol performed at this time of year. (I must admit that the Muppets’ version with Michael Caine is one of our favorites.)

(c) 1992 Jim Henson Co. from IMDb.com

Ebenezer Scrooge’s London is apparently the ideal model for the “you’re on your own” crowd in America today.  Scrooge and his fellow financiers and factory owners are able to create great wealth, free of any government constraints. They keep most of this wealth for themselves. As a result, the mass of workers are on starvation wages. Poverty is the norm. Working conditions are inhumane and unsafe. Scrooge's clerks don't have the coal they need to keep warm. London’s factories pollute the air, creating Victorian London’s famous “pea soup fog.” Without access to affordable health care, Tiny Tim is doomed.

Those were the good old days of limited government, and free markets unconstrained by regulation that today’s conservative activists seem to want back.

The conditions Dickens portrayed in 1870’s London were real. The rest of the story is a fantasy. There were no ghosts of Christmas past, present and future to convince the Scrooges of the day to mend their ways. Instead, the determined efforts of real workers, leaders of the labor movement, progressive public officials, conscientious citizens, “muckraking” journalists, and responsible business people over many years brought about reforms through public policies. These policies included restrictions on child labor; a five-day work week; minimum wages; unemployment compensation and injured workers’ compensation; progressive taxation; safety and sanitary regulations; and many other measures that we have taken for granted for decades.

Today, we must rebuild and re-energize the progressive coalition to protect these reforms and to expand opportunities. We can start with a few good policies here in Maryland in 2012:

• A budget that protects education, health care, and supports for families struggling in the poor economy.
• A law to end housing discrimination based on the tenants’ source of income.
• An increase in the state minimum wage to cover Maryland’s actual cost of living.

The ghosts of Christmas will not be calling on Governor O’Malley and the members of the legislature to promote these policies. We need to do that.

Happy Holidays to you all. We look forward to working with you in 2012 to help Tiny Tim and all of Maryland’s Cratchits.