Archive
Federal Reserve: Are You Listening To Your Own Data?
The Federal Reserve today releases industrial production data with good news. Will it draw the right conclusions? First the good news. Industrial production increased 0.8 percent in November, and capacity utilization for total industry moved up 0.7 percentage points...
Why Not 'Cash For U.S. Jobs'?
The last time I made a trip to Home Depot was for a space heater for my bedroom, and I did what I suspect many people are doing on purchases like this: In addition to comparing the price tags, looking for the "Energy Star" label and asking whether this heater is any...
Progressive Breakfast - 12/15/2009
The daily Progressive Breakfast serves up what progressive movement members need to know to start their day Medicare Buy-In Expected To Be Dropped From Deal Medicare buy-in about to be jettisoned from Senate deal. USA Today: "Senate Democrats said Monday they are...
You Can't Shame The Shameless. (Or Negotiate With Them.)
The hot You Tube of the day -- dug up by The Plum Line, and spreading like wildfire -- is Sen. Joe Lieberman supporting the expansion of Medicare to 55-64 year-olds ... a mere three months before he announced his opposition to it yesterday. Of course, Lieberman needs...
Come On Now! -- Claiming Workers Don't Want Trade Laws Enforced?
Those advocating capitualtion on trade and manufacturing are hard at work. From the National Journal's Congress Daily today, Trade Restraint? Those who follow U.S.-Chinese trade frictions must be working overtime these days. The number of high-profile trade complaints...
An Overlooked Number: How Overstated Is That CBO Estimate of $149 Billion in Excise Tax Revenue?
The $149 billion number - the amount of revenue the CBO estimates the excise tax will bring in - has becoming gospel in Washington. But there's a very good chance the number is overstated, possibly by tens of billions of dollars, and the mistake seems to have been...
The Front Line: Senate and House Anti-Tax Fighters
The battle to resist the excise tax continue, with a front line of resistance forming in the House and Senate. Efforts include the movement to drum up support for the Sanders-Franken-Brown Amendment, which replaces it with a high-earner tax similar to that contained...
NY Post: Raising Taxes On Health Care Doesn't Equal Cost-Cutting
Kirsten Powers has an editorial at the New York Post attacking the excise tax. "(N)no topic has gotten more ink during the health-care debate than cost," she observes. "This question has become the obsession distracting us from the moral imperative to provide health...
Progressive Breakfast - 12/14/2009
The daily Progressive Breakfast serves up what progressive movement members need to know to start their day Lieberman's Double-Cross Flip-Flop Threatens Health Care Bill TPMDC reports Lieberman and Reid had a "confrontation in Reid's office" after Lieberman declared...
Peterson, Conrad Weaken Democracy, Social Security, Medicare, & Recovery
On Monday morning, wealthy hedge fund mogul Peter Peterson and his Commission on Budget Reform will hold a press conference to issue a "Call to Action to Stem the Mounting Federal Debt." Their scary promotional material declares, "The ever-growing federal debt is...
