Archive
Democracy Leaves The Room At Trade Rep Hearing
The nominee for US Trade Representative (USTR) has just promised Congress that he will push for "Fast Track" authority. Fast Track essentially removes democracy from the trade negotiating and agreement process.
Common Core Meets The Education Spring
With the 59th anniversary of Brown vs. Board of Education rapidly receding, it's important to remember that the original purpose of federal intervention in local education was to guarantee access and equity. Any Southerner on the front lines of that effort can attest...
Sequester Watch: Denying a Head Start in Washington State
Denying a Head Start in Washington State (via Moyers & Company) To get a sense of just how foolish and shortsighted the $85 billion across-the-board sequester cuts are you don’t have to look any further than Head Start. The federal government’s only pre-K program,...
Corporations Are Colonizing Us With Trade Deals – and Wall Street Wants In
After 237 years, we’re becoming a colony again. Our nation's losing the right to self-determination it fought so hard to win, and it’s happening on a scale unseen since the days of George III. As is so often the case these days, this wholesale loss of our rights is...
Conference Calls For Bold Approaches To The Jobs Emergency
Down with the deficit rhetoric; it's time for a bold approach that addresses our true crisis: a stagnant economy coupled with high unemployment. On Tuesday, progressives gathered at the Roosevelt Institute's first jobs conference, “A Bold Approach to the Jobs...
Sens. Brown, Sessions, Schumer, Graham, Stabenow, Burr, Collins and Casey Introduce New China Currency Bill
Ahead of President Obama's meeting China's President Xi Jinping later this week, and with our trade deficit with China up yet again, eight Senators from both parties joined today to introduce The Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Act of 2013. The eight are U.S....
Hourly Compensation Posts Record Drop
U.S. worker compensation posted its biggest drop since 1947 during the last quarter. The year 1947 is when the Labor Department began tracking the statistic. The Bureau of Labor Statistics released data today showing a 3.8 percent drop in the first quarter. According...
Succor the Banks; Gouge the Kids
The U.S. Congress votes readily to subsidize the big banks to our peril. The Congress lavishes subsidies to Big Oil to our shame. Congress allows Big Pharma to help health care costs bankrupt us. But Republican senators Lamar Alexander, Tom Coburn and Richard Burr say...
Christie's Choice: Break The Fever Or Keep Washington Sick
I'm on record as not liking Gov. Chris Christie. Two years ago I deemed him the "biggest sham in American politics." Now he has the opportunity to prove me wrong. While there is much political fuss over Christie's decision, following the death of Sen. Frank...
The New York Times "Room For Debate": How About A Family Friendly Economy
Late last week, I was invited to be a debater in today's New York Times "Room for Debate" online discussion. The debate is focused on last week's news that mothers are now the primary breadwinners in 40 percent of American households, and the hand-wringing about the...
