Blogs: Social Contract

I joined Campaign for America's Future's Richard Eskow to talk about the "fiscal cliff" scare, austerity, Social Security, Medicare and how we WON the election so we really should be talking about jobs instead. more »

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Ohio Senator Sherror Brown won reelection by "waging class warfare" using middle-class populism. Here is how. more »

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When it comes to politics, it ain’t over ’til its’ over. And even then it may not be over. With the presidential election just days away, the contest remains close enough to ensure some jangled nerves and nail-biting among Republicans and Democrats. Still, the latest news and numbers should give President President Barack Obama a boost as he delivers his closing argument to voters. 

Should Obama emerge the victor when the dust settles after Tuesday, his closing argument will become the winning message. And voters convinced to reward Obama with a second term on the strength of that message will — and should — expect him to live up to its vision and promise. 

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In Wednesday's debate Mitt Romney repeated his claim that cutting individual and corporate income taxes creates jobs. But when you look at what actually happened, the periods when we had the highest tax rates were the periods we had the greatest job and economic growth. And the periods with lower taxes had lower job and economic growth. (And we all know what happened in the Bush years...) more »

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I think President Obama spoke the best line in the debate last night. Call it a "zinger" if you want.

"If you're 54 or 55, you might want to listen."

Again and again Mitt Romney talked about how under his Medicare plan there would be no changes for "current retirees." He stressed that, without explaining what that means. more »

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In his most recent column, Paul Krugman makes a convincing case that the "real referendum" in this election isn't about President Obama's (real or imagined) economic policies, but about the "the legacy of the New Deal and the Great Society, on Social Security, Medicare and, yes, Obamacare, which represents an extension of that legacy." Krugman predicts that President Obama will win this resolution, and goes on to question whether the President will honor the will of American voters in his second term.

If Obama wins, that means conservatives will have lost the "real referendum." Conservatives have already lost the "real referendum." They've been losing it for a long time — and it's worth considering why that's the case.

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Those of you who read this blog know that I've been nearly apoplectic over the past few months over the behind the more »

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They call it the "fiscal cliff," but it's Social Security that's going to be pushed over it, unless we speak out now.

The forces of austerity in Washington are using the prospect of automatic spending cuts and tax increases at the end of the year to pressure Congress into a "grand bargain," slashing Social Security benefits in the name of deficit reduction.

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This is awful, but I expect it happens every day and is only getting worse with the GOP assault on the "parasites": more »

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Republicans won't abandon the Obama's-gutting-welfare-reform lie, no matter how often it is discredited.

Today Republicans took the lie to the House floor, in the form of a resolution that would block the implementation of a Health and Human Services memorandum that would give states more flexibility in how they move welfare recipients into meaningful jobs.

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