Archive
Five Messages About Public Education That Don't Sell (And Ones That Will)
[The following is from a talk given at a meeting of the Young Elected Officials last week in Washington, D.C.] Thanks for having me here today. I'm feeling a little out of context at a meeting for the Young Elected Officials. And it's not because I'm not an elected...
Happy Birthday Medicare!
Today is the 48th birthday of Medicare! President Johnson signing the Medicare program into law, July 30, 1965. Photo credit: LBJ Presidential Library. Before Medicare only half of older Americans had any health insurance at all. The elderly had on average half the...
Reversing the Tide that Swamped Small Boats
Barack Obama said in a speech last week that America should invest in itself and build out from the middle class. His ideas so frighten Republicans that they’re threatening to wreck the U.S. economy.
Progressive Breakfast
Obama To Propose Compromise For Jobs Obama today to propose new "grand bargain": corporate tax reform for infrastructure investment. Reuters: "Obama wants to cut the corporate tax rate of 35 percent down to 28 percent and give manufacturers a preferred rate of 25...
Cruel Arithmetic and President Obama's Big Speech
Last week President Obama gave a speech at Knox College in Illinois in which he announced plans to return his focus to the economy. The agenda he outlined centered on policies to rebuild the middle class leading to growth "from the middle out," as he put it. The basic...
This Is Who They Are: Not Our Role To Rescue Students Drowning In Debt
Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) thinks that it is not Congress’s job to keep college affordable. That’s what she said at a House Education and the Workforce Committee markup last week of a GOP-backed bill that would prevent the U.S. Department of Education from enforcing...
The Economic Terrorists Are At It Again...
Republicans are gearing up to hold our economy hostage yet again. The last fight over the debt limit cost our economy $18 billion dollars, and despite that, the GOP is ready to do it all over again to try and force President Obama to accept even more extreme austerity measures. Last week, House Speaker John Boehner said, “we're not going to raise the debt ceiling without real cuts in spending. It's as simple as that.”
Jobs Fix Economy, Cuts Cut Economy
The President is pushing a jobs agenda to grow the economy "from the midddle out." Insider DC is mocking him because the ideas -- infrastructure, American manufacturing, fund our schools -- are not "new." Here is what else isn't new: budget cuts take money out of the...
A Larry Summers Joke
A friend in Washington told me this last week:
The president, Larry Summers, a dirty hippie and the pope were all on Air Force One when it started to have engine trouble. The pilot opened the door of the cockpit and said with terror in his voice, “The plane is going down, so put on a parachute and jump! I’ll show you how.” The pilot grabbed a parachute from the pile, strapped it on, opened the plane’s door, and took the leap.
Progressive Breakfast
GOP Backs Off Shutdown Threat Senator behind government shutdown threat over ObamaCare, says there will be no shutdown. Politico: "Pressed repeatedly on 'Fox News Sunday' by host Chris Wallace on whether he's prepared to shut down the government over defunding the new...
