Mar 04 2014

Daily News Flash with Robert Jensen on Ukraine’s Crisis, Obama’s Budget Priorities, and Targeting of Undocumented Immigrants

Daily News Flash | Published 4 Mar 2014, 11:17 am | Comments Off on Daily News Flash with Robert Jensen on Ukraine’s Crisis, Obama’s Budget Priorities, and Targeting of Undocumented Immigrants -

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Uprising’s guest expert Robert Jensen, a professor of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin, analyzes today’s news headlines:

The US offers Ukraine’s new government its full financial and political support in a defiant move that is fueling fears of a new Cold War with Russia. Russia’s occupation of the Crimean peninsula in Ukraine has been roundly criticized by the US. Secretary of State Kerry is in Kiev this morning, offering a billion dollars in loan guarantees to the fledgling government that took over after President Viktor Yanukovych fled. Meanwhile Russian President Vladimir Putin announced in a televised press conference today that his nation has no plans to go to war with Ukrainians.

Click here to read a New York Times article about the story.

President Obama is announcing a new federal budget this week to the tune of $4 trillion, that targets for extra tax assistance, what media are calling “the lost generation,” – those under the age of 25 who live independently, do not have children, and are struggling with unemployment or underemployment. Married couples with children who own homes have traditionally benefitted the most from tax incentives. Even if the budget priorities are well meaning, the budget is seen as largely symbolic, given the standard party deadlock over budget deals.

Click here for a Guardian newspaper article about the story.

While Obama hopes to reward young American citizens, his administration is cracking down on older undocumented immigrants, who apparently are taking advantage of Medicare to such an extent that it costs the government $67 billion a year. The new budget requires “involuntary disenrollment” of undocumented immigrants from Medicare. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has rejected appeals by the towns of Farmers Branch, Texas, and Hazleton, Pennsylvania who want to enforce ordinances preventing undocumented immigrants from living in rental properties. The justices contend that immigration enforcement is the purview of the federal government, not local municipalities.

Click here for a New York Times article about the Medicare story, and click here for an Al Jazeera article about the story.

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