Economy
Think Bold On Jobs: A $1 Trillion Transportation Plan
One of the consequences of the federal spending sequester now in place is that $4 billion is being cut this year from transportation and infrastructure programs, according to House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee ranking member Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va.,...
Jobs Report: We Are Still In A Jobs Recession
Today's employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics – an additional 236,000 jobs in February with unemployment edging down to 7.7 percent – reveals an economy that keeps chugging along against rising headwinds. Most of the growth was in services, with...
Renew The American Commitment To Opportunity
A current debate raging among policy makers is whether America's dysfunctional education system has created our sick economy – or whether the country's sick economy has created widespread poverty with disadvantages that our education system can't possibly overcome. In...
Let's Talk About Fixing The TRADE Deficit
The economy is not working for We, the People. But even with $4 trillion already cut from deficit projections, a deficit drop of about 50 percent as a share of gross domestic product, and Congressional Budget Office projections that the deficit is stable for the next...
New Buy America Bill To Help Recovery And Jobs
This morning House Democrats introduced 'Buy America' legislation to make sure taxpayer money that is used for transportation purposes gets used to support U.S. manufacturing and create American jobs. The 'Invest in American Jobs Act of 2013' will strengthen Buy...
Raise the Roof to Raise the Floor
Today, Senator Tom Harkin and Representative George Miller offer a ray of light amid the austerity blight in Washington. They are announcing introduction of a bill – the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013 – to raise the minimum wage gradually to $10.10 and index it so it...
Washington: Into the Vast Inane
Someone asked the Master about the principles of … traveling into the vast inane. – From the Bao Pu Zi, AD 320, Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization in China Welcome to the vast inane. Today the “sequester” – mindless, across the board cuts of military and...
Push Beyond The Limits Of Obama's Infrastructure Jobs Plan
President Obama's infrastructure investment plan, released officially Wednesday afternoon, is an important step in the direction of what America needs: a full-employment plan that puts Americans back to work rebuilding an America of shared prosperity. But it is just a...
Coming Sequester Cuts Will Hurt Jobs, Growth And People – And People Are Mobilizing
In just over a week the government is probably going to enter full-scale austerity. Republicans are refusing to end tax loopholes for big corporations and billionaires, choosing to let the "sequester" occur instead. Unless something changes, and soon, $1.2 trillion in...
40% Of Americans Now Make Less Than 1968 Minimum Wage
The minimum wage would be $16.50 an hour -- $33,000 a year -- if it had kept up with the growth of productivity since 1968. This means 40% of Americans now make less than the 1968 minimum wage, had the minimum wage kept pace with productivity gains.
