Archive
The Difference Between Civil Libertarians And Selfish Jerks
This piece in Slate about libertarian philospher Robert Nozick has engendered quite a bit of online chatter and it's very much worth reading if you are interested in the intellectual underpinnings of that side of our economic debates. There are lots of responses...
Blognote in Honor of Thomas Friedman Spending on the Commerce Department Is Going to Bankrupt the Country
The United States has to cut back spending on the Commerce Department or it will bankrupt the country. Okay, I have no evidence for this and it really doesn't make any sense. The Commerce Department's budget is about $10 billion a year, less than 0.3 percent of total...
The Texas Miracle Is A Mirage
There is no "Texas miracle" for workers and job-seekers. There is a Texas mirage, painted vividly by conservatives and being sold as the real deal by arch-conservative Texas governor Rick Perry, who may in a few days declare his intent to run for the Republican...
Social Security and Medicare Cuts Washingtons War on the Young
t's one of modern political life's strange ironies that defending Social Security and Medicare is considered an "old people's issue." Old people are doing just fine with these programs, thank you very much -- at least so far. Anti-government hawks like Alan Simpson...
Progressive Breakfast - 6/22/2011
Each morning, Bill Scher and Terrance Heath serve up what progressives need to effect change on the kitchen-table issues families face: jobs, health care, green energy, financial reform, affordable education and retirement security. MORNING MESSAGE: Deficit Hysterics...
Don’t Believe What You Hear About the Budget Talks
Originally posted at Capital Gains and Games. Last week was the point in this year’s budget negotiations when everyone’s worst fears about what would happen seemed to be on the verge of being realized. The combination of increasingly happy talk about the summit being...
Patriotic Millionaires Get An Unpatriotic Snub From Mainstream Media
Did you hear the story about the group of millionaires who called a press conference Monday and called on Congress to levy higher taxes on them? I didn't think so. On a day in which we were treated with TMI about a New York congressman's errant self portraits, the...
NLRB Success Shows Value Of Recess Appointments
A government agency is blocked from functioning by obstructionist, party-over-country, Republican Senators. The President makes recess appointments to get government functioning again and the agency starts doing its job. The result: working people are protected. Today...
Inside the Corrupt Process
It looks like it won't only be the Republicans who take "Obamacare" apart piece by piece. This article in the Washington Monthly gives us a glimpse behind the curtain of bipartisan corruption --- and spells out why making "deals" with industry is no deal at all: As it...
Medicaid and the Myth of GOP Cost Cuts
In the first post in this series, I noted that in the "Path to Prosperity" — which Republicans approved unanimously — Rep. Paul Ryan cited Medicaid as one of the biggest drivers of our national debt. The Republican budget formerly known as the Ryan budget,...
