by Jeff Bryant | Feb 20, 2015 | Blog, Education
Is forcing every child to take annual standardized tests in reading and math a civil rights issue? That certainly seems to be one of the questions most in consideration in Washington, since deliberations began on how to rewrite the federal government's most...
by Bill Scher | Feb 20, 2015 | Uncategorized
Walmart Goes To $10 An Hour Walmart raising its wages. NYT: "...all of its United States workers would earn at least $9 an hour by April and at least $10 by next February. Some labor advocates, however, who are demanding $15 an hour for service workers, called the...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Feb 20, 2015 | Jobs and Growth
With much of America suffering through oppressively cold weather, perhaps a summer baseball analogy is in order: American workers have just scored a run in the middle innings of a battle for economic justice and dignity. There are more innings to play and more runs...
by Emily Schwartz Greco | Feb 19, 2015 | Blog, Climate
What do the executives who run money-losing companies make? Millions of dollars if they’re coal overlords. Take Gregory Boyce. He’s pocketed more than $60 million over the past nine years while steering Peabody Energy into a ditch. Shares in Peabody, the world’s...
by Meghan Byrd | Feb 19, 2015 | Education
Amid increasing concerns about rising college tuition costs and crushing student debt, the Center for American Progress has weighed into the debate with a “College For All” proposal to eliminate barriers to college access. The proposal specifically targets students...
by Bill Scher | Feb 19, 2015 | Uncategorized
Greece Stalemate Continues Germany rejects Greece's request for loan extension. Bloomberg: "The Greek government is trying to agree bridge-financing without meeting the conditions of its existing rescue program, German Finance Ministry Spokesman Martin Jaeger said in...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 19, 2015 | Blog, Financial Reform, Jobs and Growth
Contract talks between the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) and the U.S. Postal Service for a new contract start Thursday. Along with asking for fair wages and benefits, the APWU wants improvements in customer services, including postal banking. “There are two...
by Richard Eskow | Feb 19, 2015 | Blog, Economy
We talk a good game about opportunity in this country, but here are three signs that we're failing to provide young people a fair shot at prosperity. Sign #1: People typically achieve most of their earnings gain in the first 10 years of employment. A new study from...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Feb 18, 2015 | Economy
[fve]http://youtu.be/GYGGkUzV6YU[/fve] Progressives need to step up their opposition to any moves by the Federal Reserve to increase interest rates in the near future, economist Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research told a group of progressive...
by Terrance Heath | Feb 18, 2015 | Blog, Climate, Conservatism
On Monday, a tanker train carrying more than 3 million gallons of oil derailed in Fayette County, West Virginia, just outside of Montgomery. Nineteen tanker cars, each carrying up to 30,000 gallons of crude oil, left the track and caught fire, setting off an explosion...
by Robert Reich | Feb 18, 2015 | Blog, Economy, Jobs and Growth, Trans-Pacific Partnership
Suppose that by enacting a particular law we’d increase the U.S.Gross Domestic Product. But almost all that growth would go to the richest 1 percent. The rest of us could buy some products cheaper than before. But those gains would be offset by losses of jobs and...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 18, 2015 | Blog, Trade
The Interfaith Working Group on Trade and Investment – representing Quaker, Jewish, Protestant and Catholic organizations, Catholic sisters and clergy – has joined the opposition to "fast track" trade promotion authority that corporate groups and President Obama are...
by Bill Scher | Feb 18, 2015 | Uncategorized
Deportation Relief Delayed WH expects to prevail after federal judge blocks deportation relief. W. Post: "Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Tuesday that his department will comply with a federal judge’s order to halt the controversial immigration actions...
by Richard Eskow | Feb 18, 2015 | Blog, Conservatism, Economy
Cultural references may seem frivolous in the face of a financial crisis, but the Eurozone's Greek crisis is at least as much cultural as it is economic in nature. It's partly an anthropology problem: Europe's negotiators are under the spell of a German-driven...
by Lynne Stuart Parramore | Feb 17, 2015 | Blog, Conservatism, Economy
Woe to the American president who says anything sensible on the subject of religion. President Obama forgot that unwritten rule recently at the National Prayer Breakfast when he pointed out what an eighth-grader could tell you: that acts of violence have been...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 17, 2015 | Blog, Trade, Trans-Pacific Partnership
Fast track trade promotion legislation is likely to be introduced soon and will be used to push through the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement – but the public knows very little about what this would mean to them. To help get the word out, there will be a...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Feb 17, 2015 | Democracy
It is unacceptable that the Supreme Court has given corporations the constitutional right to use their money to manipulate how ballots are cast in our elections, but has yet to assert that citizens have a constitutional right to cast those ballots to begin with....
by Leo Gerard | Feb 17, 2015 | Blog, Jobs and Growth, Progressive Vision
The federal agency that investigates refinery catastrophes released its final report late last month on the massive fire, volatile vapor release and toxic smoke plume at Chevron’s Richmond, Calif., refinery in 2012 that imperiled 19 workers and sickened 15,000...
by Terrance Heath | Feb 17, 2015 | Uncategorized
Greek Austerity Drama Continues Meeting on Greek Debt Produces an Ultimatum. NYT: "The standoff between Greece and its European lenders appeared to reach a new low on Monday as European officials handed Athens an ultimatum: Agree by Friday to continue with a bailout...
by Robert Borosage | Feb 17, 2015 | Blog
Polls show Democrats want a contest, not a coronation, for their presidential nomination. The press yearns for a primary contest, if only to have something to cover. A raft of reasons are floated for why a challenge would be useful, most of them spurious. Hillary...
by Terrance Heath | Feb 13, 2015 | Blog, Conservatism
More than 50 years ago, Alabama governor George Wallace literally stood “in the schoolhouse door,” to prevent the integration of the University of Alabama. Wallace argued that “states’ rights” allowed Alabama to keep its schools segregated, and that the federal...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Feb 13, 2015 | Conservatism, Tax Reform
Here's a question to ask New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie the next time he appears at a public event: "Why is it in your state the top 1 percent of income earners pay state taxes at a rate that is on average 28 percent less than what middle-income earners pay?" Then...
by Emily Schwartz Greco | Feb 13, 2015 | Blog, Climate
By framing measles vaccinations as a matter of choice, Senator Rand Paul made himself — along with all politicians who value individual liberty more than the common good — look silly. Bruce Jenner is sporting nail polish and a ponytail. If the Olympic gold medalist...
by Bill Scher | Feb 13, 2015 | Uncategorized
Hillary Goes Bipartisan Hillary Clinton co-authors NYT oped with former GOP Senate leader Bill Frist, supporting Children's Health Insurance Program: "...we are concerned that gridlock in Washington and unrelated disputes over the Affordable Care Act could prevent an...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 13, 2015 | Blog, Jobs and Growth
[fve]http://youtu.be/5o6vJw9mkzU[/fve] The Conservative/Wall Street/1 Percent/Republican anti-government strategy is to set government up to fail (usually by starving it of funding). Then they point to the resulting "crisis" they created and say it proves that...
by Terrance Heath | Feb 12, 2015 | Blog, Conservatism, Economy, Health, Jobs and Growth
The president is right. Staples is cutting workers’ hours (and paychecks) to avoid providing health insurance. Shame on them, but that’s only half the story. Earlier this week, Buzzfeed reported that the office supply giant Staples Inc., has begun limiting part-time...
by Jeff Bryant | Feb 12, 2015 | Blog, Education
My colleague Bill Scher recently called our attention to an opinion piece by Thomas Edsall in The New York Times that revealed "the Republican appropriation of leftist populist rhetoric." Republicans "plan to bring the fight to the Democrats on their own turf,"...
by Diane Archer | Feb 12, 2015 | Blog, Retirement Security
Most people pay a Social Security tax of 6.2 percent on their income throughout the year, on every dollar they earn. But the top 1 percent of working Americans are only taxed during the first six weeks of the year, on a small portion of what they earn. They pay the...
by Bill Scher | Feb 12, 2015 | Uncategorized
WH Tries To Toughen Trade Stance WH files WTO case against China. NYT: "The Obama administration accused China on Wednesday of providing illegal export subsidies to critical industries, flexing its muscle on trade as it presses Congress to expand President Obama’s...
by Richard Eskow | Feb 12, 2015 | Blog, Retirement Security
Nine out of ten Americans have fallen behind financially as the well-to-do – especially the ultra-wealthy – capture an ever-increasing chunk of our national income. This inequality threatens the entire economy's future growth and stability. But whenever someone offers...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 11, 2015 | Blog, Trade
[fve]http://youtu.be/sfxMRWVJcrs[/fve] On Sunday I was the speaker on a regular Sunday call for the National Campaign Call to Stop Fast Track for the TPP. (TPP stands for Trans-Pacific Partnership, a NAFTA-style trade deal that is being negotiated in secret right...
by Bill Scher | Feb 11, 2015 | Blog
Tom Edsall at the New York Times argues that the Democrats should be worried because of "how far the Republican Party has traveled since issuing its self-critical post-2012 election report warning loyalists to stay off 'scary' issues." He notes that the "Republican...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 11, 2015 | Blog, Conservatism, Economy
Silicon Valley companies dodge taxes and use some of the money to build shiny, luxurious, and private bus lines for their employees. The rest of us are — literally — stuck, because the tax scams these companies engage in have de-funded our — We the People's — ability...
by Bill Scher | Feb 11, 2015 | Uncategorized
Homeland Security Shutdown Looms With 17 days until Homeland Security shutdown, McConnell and Boehner squabble over immigration. The Hill: "Senate and House Republicans are fighting over who should move first to break the stalemate over funding the Department of...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Feb 11, 2015 | Jobs and Growth
Unless progressives intervene, a scandalous corporate tax ripoff could gain some serious momentum on Capitol Hill today when President Obama's transportation secretary, Anthony Foxx, makes his scheduled appearance before the House Transportation and Infrastructure...
by Sam Pizzigati | Feb 10, 2015 | Blog, Economy
CEOs would never bet against their own companies, would they? CEOs get paid, after all, multiple millions to make sure their companies succeed. Why would they ever put their money on their own companies failing? The quick answer: to make sure those millions keep...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 10, 2015 | Blog, Trade
Today was "Currency Manipulation Day" on Capitol Hill, declared to call attention to how it works and the damage it does to our economy. In the House there was a "Currency 101" briefing, and in both the House and Senate bipartisan bills were introduced that would...
by Leo Gerard | Feb 10, 2015 | Blog
In Anacortes, Wash., last week, approximately 200 Tesoro workers began picketing the oil refinery where an explosion incinerated seven of their co-workers five years earlier. Butch Cleve walks that picket line, serving now as strike captain for the USW local union at...
by Bill Scher | Feb 10, 2015 | Uncategorized
Bernie Teases Run Bernie Sanders suggests he will run for president at Brookings event: "I am giving thought to running for president of the United States. At a time when the middle class is disappearing ... I think it is imperative that we have candidates who stand...
by Terrance Heath | Feb 10, 2015 | Blog, Economy, Greek Crisis
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has written a letter asking Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen to explain her inaction and the Fed’s silence on Greece’s stand against austerity. The stakes are too high for the U.S. to let Greece go it alone. "Make it clear to the...
