Archive
Overall Cost Of Living "Constant" After Capping Carbon
The first congressional hearings regarding comprehensive clean energy and climate protection legislation were held yesterday, and the most important fact mentioned did not get much traditional media attention. When Energy Secretary Steven Chu was asked by a...
Progressive Breakfast - 4/23/2009
Restoring Rules on Credit Cards Credit card crackdown bill moves. CNN/Money.com: " A key House panel on Wednesday advanced a bill to crack down on credit card interest rates and fees amid signs the Obama administration will try to toughen the bill further before it...
Progressive Breakfast - 4/22/2009
Simple Majority Vote For Health Care? The Hill reports likely Senate support for simple majority vote on health care reform, including possibly Bayh: "Democrats appear to have the votes for a budget measure that would allow reform of the nation’s healthcare system...
Arm the COP on the Bank Beat
"The decisions that are made in the next six months or so are likely to set the economic course of this country for the next 50 years," says Elizabeth Warren, who chairs the COP, the Congressional Oversight Panel charged with reviewing the banking bailout. "That's...
The Truth About Consequences: Conservatives, Progressives, and Accountability Moments
Whew. Run your bank into the ground? Hey, it was our fault for not keeping a better eye on you. Here's some cash. Since you're rich guys, we trust you to do the right thing going forward, so we're not going to bother you with a bunch of rules and oversight—but you...
Corporations Negotiating Health Care Bill While Funding Obstruction
Senate leaders are negotiating health care reform with a wide range of "lobbyists representing doctors, hospitals, insurers, drugmakers, the American Cancer Society, the seniors lobby AARP and others," the Washington post reminds us today. Fair enough. Everyone...
Progressive Breakfast: June Benchmark for Health Care
Senate Sets June Benchmark for Health Care Sens. Baucus and Kennedy tell President Obama they plan a June mark-up of health care legislation. Time's Jay Newton-Small: "The letter [to the President] is significant as it sets a time table that will now have political...
Torture, Accountability, and the Future
Article 1 of the International Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment provides, in simple terms, that “torture means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on...
Progressive Breakfast - 4/21/2009
Senate Sets June Benchmark for Health Care Sens. Baucus and Kennedy tell President Obama they plan a June mark-up of health care legislation. Time's Jay Newton-Small: "The letter [to the President] is significant as it sets a time table that will now have political...
How To Get 60 Votes For a Carbon Cap
In an oped published Sunday by the Omaha World-Herald (and reprinted today by Grist), I argued for a climate compromise with the coal- and oil-state Senators needed for a 60-vote supermajority: a strong carbon cap that makes pollu
