Naomi Walker on Covid-19 Relief, Johanna Bozuwa on the Last ‘New Normal’
This week on CounterSpin: Dozens of groups and state and local officials have just sent an open letter to Congress: The $150 billion designated for state, local and tribal governments as relief from the Covid-19 crisis is nowhere near what those governments will need—and not just that, but forcing them to cut budgets just as they need to be spending more is going to drive a cycle that only hurts more those already hurting. We’ll talk about what could be done instead with Naomi Walker, director of the Economic Analysis and Research Network, working out of the Economic Policy Institute—who spearheaded the letter.
Also on the show: Last October, USA Today ran a story headlined, “With Raging Fires, High Winds and Blackouts, California Is Living a Disaster Movie. Is This the ‘New Normal’?” Little did they know. The distress and dystopia, and the fear of media’s normalization of it, led us to questions then that we hold on to today: What could journalism be doing, not just to give context to factors behind the crisis, but to illuminate different ways forward that are so obviously called for? We talked last November with Johanna Bozuwa, co-manager of the Climate & Energy Program at the Democracy Collaborative. We’ll hear part of that conversation today.
