by Jeff Bryant | Dec 11, 2014 | Blog
"Failure is not an option," has been a popular slogan in public education for years. Although, flight engineers and astronauts in the Apollo 13 program originally coined the phrase as a motivator for competing against the Russians in the space race, some well-meaning...
by Bill Scher | Dec 11, 2014 | Uncategorized
Bill To Fund Government May Pass Narrowly Boehner thinks he has the votes. Politico: "The margin could be razor thin, but House Republicans think they will pass their funding bill before the government shuts down Thursday. Top aides and lawmakers on the GOP whip team...
by Robert Borosage | Dec 11, 2014 | Blog, Conservatism
The first signs of the November election returns are apparent in the $1 trillion spending bill the lame duck Congress is about to pass in Washington. Ironically, this spending bill was forged with resurgent Republicans on their best behavior. They are still a...
by Richard Eskow | Dec 11, 2014 | Blog, Economy, Financial Reform
It sounds like one of those fundraising emails Democratic groups kept sending out during the last election season, warning of imminent impeachment and other inflated threats: “Listen, I'm pleading.” “CRUSHING blow.” “Disaster.” “Kiss all hope goodbye.” “SHOCKING...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Dec 10, 2014 | Financial Reform
We're calling for an all-out push today to stop a backroom deal that would reopen the Wall Street derivatives casino that caused so much damage in 2008, with taxpayers stuck with the bill for cleaning up the mess. We've joined forces with Americans for Financial...
by Joshua Holland | Dec 10, 2014 | Blog, Progressive Vision
On Tuesday, amid much controversy and after a year of political combat between the Senate Intelligence Committee and the CIA, a long-anticipated summary of the committee’s report on the CIA’s detention and interrogation program was released. Here’s what you need to...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 10, 2014 | Blog
Are we a nation of laws or not? No one is held accountable for invading Iraq, bank fraud, shooting unarmed citizens or even torture. It's time to restore the rule of law. Everyone please, please watch this 4-minute segment from All In with Chris Hayes: Are really we a...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 10, 2014 | Blog, Trade
On a media call today, several immigrant rights leaders talked about the relationship between "NAFTA-CAFTA-Style" trade deals and the number of people forced to immigrate north to the U.S. They worry that the massive Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will move jobs from...
by Bill Scher | Dec 10, 2014 | Uncategorized
Conservative Riders Mark Bill To Keep Government Open Wall Street reform weakened in final spending bill: "The deal was announced late yesterday after Democrats accepted Republican demands to undo some regulations including the banking provision, a big victory for...
by Richard Eskow | Dec 9, 2014 | Blog, Financial Reform
It's been six years since Wall Street's recklessness and criminal fraud caused trillions of dollars in economic damage and nearly shattered the global economy. The 2008 financial crisis opened millions of Americans' eyes to the widespread corruption and mismanagement...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Dec 9, 2014 | Blog, Financial Reform
Incredibly, the Wall Street caucus in Congress is trying to slip a major attack on hard-won financial reforms into a spending bill designed to keep the government running. As reported by The Huffington Post's Zach Carter, the deal would "provide taxpayer backing for...
by Bill Scher | Dec 9, 2014 | Blog
On MSNBC's "Morning Joe" today, Politico's Mike Allen and former Governor Howard Dean discussed my analysis for Politico Magazine, "Can The Left Launch Its Own Tea Party?" Allen noted that progressive Democrats a newly "hungry" to play "hardball" against party...
by Leo Gerard | Dec 9, 2014 | Blog
Holiday bells are silent in the homes of America’s struggling working poor, even with gasoline prices at their lowest levels in years. These are people derided as moochers because their starvation wages force them to accept food stamps to feed their children. On the...
by Terrance Heath | Dec 9, 2014 | Blog, Progressive Vision
Fox News hosts Bill O’Reilly and Megyn Kelly assured us that the “Ferguson story” would be over in a week. [fve]http://youtu.be/_Fx6AUZDZ7E[/fve] That was before a grand jury declined to indict NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo for killing Eric Garner with an illegal...
by Sam Pizzigati | Dec 9, 2014 | Blog, Economy
A rising tide lifts all boats. A growing economic pie means bigger slices for everybody. Wealth that flows to the top will always trickle down. Cheerleaders for wealth’s concentration have over the years invoked a variety of images to justify the ever larger fortunes...
by Bill Scher | Dec 9, 2014 | Uncategorized
Hiccup In Talks To Keep Government Open Bill to keep government open delayed. The Hill: "[The bill] won't be released Monday night and will instead be unveiled Tuesday. This could complicate the House and Senate's efforts to end the lame-duck session this week ... The...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 8, 2014 | Blog, Trade, Trans-Pacific Partnership
Shouldn't it be a trade violation to threaten to move someone's job to another country? Shouldn't we negotiate trade agreements that increase people's wages on both sides of a trade border? These are the kinds of agreements we would make if We the People were...
by Robert Reich | Dec 8, 2014 | Blog, Economy, Financial Reform, Progressive Vision
In Washington’s coming budget battles, sacred cows like the tax deductions for home mortgage interest and charitable donations are likely to be on the table along with potential cuts to Social Security and Medicare. But no one on Capitol Hill believes Wall Street’s...
by Dean Baker | Dec 8, 2014 | Blog, Economy, Financial Reform
Sen. Elizabeth Warren kicked off a firestorm last month when she said that she would not support Antonio Weiss, President Barack Obama’s nominee to be undersecretary of the treasury. Her reason was that Weiss had made his career at Lazard, an asset management company...
by Bill Scher | Dec 8, 2014 | Blog
Updated January 18, 2017 .. with bonus 4th chart! The back-to-back Bush and Obama administrations allow us to easily compare the effectiveness of liberal and conservative economic policies. President George W. Bush's record is highlighted by tax cuts largely aimed at...
by Bill Scher | Dec 8, 2014 | Uncategorized
Government (Probably) Staying Open Deal nears to keep government open. Politico: "...the goal was to file the giant measure by late Monday and then push for quick floor action before the current funding runs out Thursday night. Details were closely held given the...
by Robert Borosage | Dec 8, 2014 | Blog, Progressive Vision
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders released an Economic Agenda for America last week, detailing 12 reforms to help make this economy work for working people once more. “The question of our time,” he said in a fiery speech, “is whether or not we are prepared to take on the...
by Terrance Heath | Dec 5, 2014 | Conservatism, This Is The GOP
Already reeling from the Ferguson grand jury ruling, America learned there would be no indictment in the death of Eric Garner. Right-wingers wasted no time proving how low they’re willing to go. Wingnuts blamed just about everything but police violence for Eric...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 5, 2014 | Blog, Trans-Pacific Partnership
The Obama administration is negotiating a huge trade deal. The President promises CEOs he will go against his own party to push its passage. To get this done the corporations are pushing Congress to pass something called Fast Track -- a process that essentially...
by Robert Borosage | Dec 5, 2014 | Blog
The November Bureau of Labor Services jobs report was relatively good news – a healthy 321,000 new jobs, leaving unemployment unchanged at 5.8%. The BLS also added 44,000 jobs in an adjustment for the prior two months. The Commerce Department reports that the economy...
by Bill Scher | Dec 5, 2014 | Uncategorized
Solid Jobs Report Best month of job growth in three years. NYT: "Employers added 321,000 jobs in November ... average hourly earnings surged 0.4 percent in November, twice what economists had been expecting and a sign the healthier economy is finally translating into...
by Robert Borosage | Dec 5, 2014 | Blog
The following was co-authored by Richard Long As powerful protests of the New York Eric Garner grand jury decision – We can’t breathe – swept across the country, low wage fast food and retail workers walked off their jobs in some 180 cities, demanding a living wage...
by Richard Eskow | Dec 4, 2014 | Blog
Death, like life, occurs within an interconnected web of forces. Eric Garner died at a specific place and time, but he was drawn there by those larger unseen forces. So was the officer who took his life. One of them never left. The neighborhood where Eric Garner died...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Dec 4, 2014 | Jobs and Growth
Our political inaction on properly maintaining our transportation network is criminal. But at least in some corners there is a healthy debate on how best to pay for what is a multi-trillion-dollar task. There is the traditional political argument, perhaps best...
by Jeff Bryant | Dec 4, 2014 | Blog
The following article authored by Education Opportunity Network Director Jeff Bryant has been awarded one of the "top 25 most censored or underreported news stories of 2014." The award came from Project Censored, "a media research, literacy, and education organization...
by Bill Scher | Dec 4, 2014 | Uncategorized
House To Vote On Keeping Government Open Democrats split over bill to keep government open. The Hill: "Some Democrats are signaling support for the Republican proposal, viewing it as the best chance to secure long-term funding for most government functions while the...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Dec 4, 2014 | Blog
"I can't breathe." There is more to this chant – the haunting last words of Eric Garner before he died at the hands of New York City police that were echoed in demonstrations around the country Wednesday night – than a protest against the epidemic of police brutality...
by Richard Eskow | Dec 4, 2014 | Blog, Populist Majority, Progressive Vision
In his examination of former Virginia Senator Jim Webb's potential presidential candidacy, New York Times commentator Thomas Edsall explored Webb's potential appeal to “voters convinced that Wall Street owns both parties, voters tired of politicians submitting to...
by Terrance Heath | Dec 3, 2014 | Progressive Vision
As a grand jury in New York decides not to indict the police officer who killed Eric Garner with an illegal choke-hold, the president’s too-modest proposals fall short of the change America needs. The problems highlighted by Ferguson require more than body cameras and...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Dec 3, 2014 | Blog, Jobs and Growth
Workers in as many as 190 cities around the country are expected on Thursday to demonstrate for a $15-an-hour wage, according to organizers, in what would be a dramatic escalation of the nationwide push to boost the wages of low-wage workers. This builds on the...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 3, 2014 | Blog
Everyone knows the law requires rank-and-file workers to be paid overtime if they work more than 40 hours a week. But do you know that millions of ordinary workers no longer get overtime pay for putting in 50-hour or 60-hour work weeks? President Obama can, and...
by Bill Scher | Dec 3, 2014 | Uncategorized
War Over Nominees Weiss nomination a "proxy fight" between progressives and centrists. Politico: "...Warren and other progressives say the Obama administration continues to send up too many Wall Street-friendly nominees for top economic and regulatory jobs while...
by Richard Eskow | Dec 3, 2014 | Blog, Progressive Vision
Lately there's been a great deal of talk about finding a better Democratic message, one that will unify the party and energize voters. But how, exactly, can Democrats reconcile factions that include both the Wall Street-friendly Clintons (whose relationship with the...
by Robert Borosage | Dec 3, 2014 | Blog, Progressive Vision, The New Populism
Senator Charles Schumer sparked a back-alley Democratic Party brawl when he blamed the sinking fortunes of Democrats in 2014 on the administration’s 2009 decision to press forward on health care reform rather than staying focused on jobs and recovery. Schumer got the...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Dec 2, 2014 | Retirement Security
Republican Party, on January you'll control both houses of Congress and will want to show that you can use that control to actually get things done, and not just use it to hate on all things Obama. The opportunities to do that will be legion, but here's one thing on...
