Archive
Washington's Stupid, Destructive Game
It’s Monday morning in America. That means we’re about to endure another week of pointless debate over the precise methods by which our federal government will impose more needless misery on the hapless population, instead of addressing its eminently fixable economic...
From Inequality, We Can't Take a Vacation
What more vivid symbol of the indignity our corporate-driven inequality imposes than the Carnival Triumph. Thousands of people adrift, going nowhere in a nightmare of sewage and stench, while a billionaire chief exec sits faraway in a courtside seat and cheers.
Austerity -- "But?" Or Maybe, "Of Course!"
I noticed something interesting in this USA Today report, Moody's cuts U.K.'s AAA credit rating, Credit ratings agency Moody's Investors Service has downgraded Britain's government bond rating one notch from the top AAA to AA1, citing weaknesses in the economy's...
On Social Security, Pollsters Need To Ask The Right Questions
Two polls released in the past 24 hours send decidedly different messages on Social Security. The lesson: Be careful what you ask. One poll released Thursday by Bloomberg seems to show that a significant majority of the public would be willing to see Social Security...
Privatization And Postal Service Podcast
If you listen to any one audio segment talking about what is going on with the Postal Service this week I recommend this interview I did with The Matthew Filipowicz Show, (which you can also hear on We Act Radio in the DC area.) Click here to listen to the interview....
Slowing Air Traffic Is Serious Sequester Hardball From The White House
The Clinton administration didn't play as much hardball as it could have during the 1995 and 1996 federal shutdowns because it decided that the air traffic control system was a critical government activity.
Doing the opposite -- and it definitely was a discretionary presidential decision rather than a legislated mandate -- likely would have ended the shutdowns much faster because of the outcry when planes were grounded and everything from Fed Ex to business trips to honeymoons were affected. The economic damage and anger would have been immediate and intense.
The Obama White House appears to be going in a very different direction with the sequester
Small Government, Low Taxes, Strong Military? The GOP Pillars Are Being Sequestered.
For years liberals were jealous of conservative Republicans for being able to fit their fundamental principles on a bumper sticker: small government, low taxes, strong military. But that Republican mantra is being sequestered before our eyes. By agreeing to last...
Progressive Breakfast
MORNING MESSAGE: Will Pete Peterson’s Half Billion Buy a New Recession? OurFuture.org's Robert Borosage: "The sequester cuts added to spending cuts and tax increases already scheduled will slow growth and cost jobs ... Why would the U.S. repeat this folly, despite...
Deficit Reduction: From Pain or from Gain?
The best way to reduce the deficit is to put people back to work. For proof, compare the U.S. and Spain. The U.S. has witnessed slow growth since coming out of the Great Recession in 2009. The result has been a deficit that has come down from over 10 percent of...
The Latest Lie: Republicans Oppose Spending Cuts
Republicans are now claiming President Obama is for big spending cuts that gut government and the things we do to make our lives better, and that Republicans are not for gutting spending. This one is almost funny, if it weren't for the damage that will be done to...
