Archive
The Empty Center: Challenge and Opportunity for Progressives
The Republican Congress offers no hope. The bipartisan agenda only digs us deeper in a hole. Americans are looking for real change. This poses both the challenge and the opportunity for progressives.
What You Need To Know When Obama Talks Trade
To sell a new trade pact, President Obama's State of the Union address is expected to feature a small business that increased its exports after we signed the South Korea free trade agreement. What is the real record?
What Congress isn't Seeing When the Government Spends
The House adopted a new rule requiring lawmakers to take long-term macroeconomic effects into consideration when voting on tax and spending bills. This "dynamic scoring" has little to do with the way the economy actually works.
Another GOP Mission Accomplished: "Devastating Erosion" At The IRS
The New York Times notes that in the last four years, the IRS budget "has been cut by 17 percent after taking inflation into account." The passive "has been cut" language begs the question: Who cut the IRS budget?
Romney Splits The GOP Establishment. Can The Tea Party Seize The Moment?
Now that Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney are poised to duke it out over donor checks and electability claims, will that provide an opening for a Tea Party presidential candidate to squeak past them?
"Why Wages Won't Rise" Robert Reich explores "Why Wages Won't Rise": "... there's reason to believe the link between falling unemployment and rising wages has been severed ... it's easier than ever for American employers to get the workers they need at low cost by...
On Tuesday, Will Obama Stand Up for Social Security?
Unexpectedly fierce Republican attacks on Social Security offer the president an opportunity to set the political tone for the next two years. During the State of the Union we'll see whether he seizes that opportunity.
Senate Democrats Propose Wealthy Pay A 30 Percent Minimum Tax
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse has released a "tax fairness plan" that would ensure that people with multimillion-dollar incomes pay their fair share in taxes. Meanwhile, conservatives cling to their tax-cuts-for-corporations agenda.
The 2015 Economic State of the Union: Get Ready For The Next Debt Crisis
What I could not even have imagined in the 1990s is that EVERY four-year period from 1985 until today has seen federal and household debt soar by more than the total nominal growth in GDP.
Rep. Alan Grayson Explains Trade Deficit Harm
If people come to understand and worry about the very real trade deficit, they will demand policies that are very good for regular, working people, and "Main Street" businesses that make or do things in America.
