by Dave Johnson | Jul 21, 2014 | Blog, Trade
The main presenter at Saturday's Netroots Nation panel "Manufacturing a Middle Class with Quality Jobs" was Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.), representing Flint. Get to know about this guy – he is an absolute rock star. He is sharp, funny and, most important, he is right on...
by Richard Eskow | Jul 21, 2014 | Blog, Progressive Vision
[fve]http://youtu.be/-co-eK__Wa8[/fve] At the emotional high point of this year’s Netroots Nation conference in Detroit, Rev. William Barber II concluded his roof-raising opening-night invocation by asking, “Can I be a preacher for three minutes?” “My son is an...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jul 18, 2014 | Blog
President Obama's announcement Thursday of an executive order that would facilitate public-private partnerships for transportation projects is the latest in a years-long series of efforts to coax more private sector funding for public goods. One benefit these deals...
by Bill Scher | Jul 18, 2014 | Blog
Over at Politico Magazine today, I analyzed the meaning of Sen. Elizabeth Warren's busy 2014 schedule, stumping and raising money for a wide range of Democratic candidates on the ballot this November. Many speculate this has something to do with 2016, but she has...
by Dave Johnson | Jul 18, 2014 | Blog, Progressive Vision, The New Populism
Senator Elizabeth Warren took her fight against a rigged system to the Netroots Nation gathering in Detroit Friday morning, saying that she is fighting back, and if We the People "push back and fight hard, we can win." Outside the hall, people were passing out "Ready...
by Bill Scher | Jul 18, 2014 | Uncategorized
Border Gridlock "Prospects fade for resolution on border crisis" reports AP: "Prospects for action on the nation's border crisis faded Thursday as lawmakers traded accusations rather than solutions ... Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas announced plans to try to cancel...
by Terrance Heath | Jul 17, 2014 | Blog, Conservatism, This Is The GOP
Thank heaven for American wingnuts’ short attention span. The apparent shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over the Ukraine gave us a respite from the usual sexist, racist, homophobic, xenophobic rantings. A brief one, but a respite nonetheless. Fox News...
by Dave Johnson | Jul 17, 2014 | Blog
As Vice President Joe Biden was delivering a speech to the Netroots Nation convention in Detroit on Thursday, he was interrupted by a group chanting, "Stop deporting our families, stop deporting our families." Biden stopped his speech and responded, “I respect your...
by Editors | Jul 17, 2014 | Retirement Security
The link is simple and clear: Women earn less than men in the workplace – almost $450 billion less in total each year nationwide – resulting in lower Social Security payments after retirement. The pay discrimination against women not only hurts their current...
by Terrance Heath | Jul 17, 2014 | Economy
Debra Harrell was trying to do the best she could. Harrell lives in North Augusta, South Carolina, and has a nine-year-old daughter. She works at McDonald’s. During that the school year, Harrell’s daughter has some place to go during the day. Harrell can go to work,...
by Bill Scher | Jul 17, 2014 | Blog
Today Speaker Boehner warned that Congress may not be able to pass legislation to help address the influx of Central American child migrants, because too many Democrats are unwilling to alter the 2008 human trafficking law, and give President Obama's Border Patrol...
by Jeff Bryant | Jul 17, 2014 | Blog, Education
Who could ever forget comedian Jon Stewart's commentary in early 2009 on how financial reporters totally botched reporting of the Great Recession. Stewart mocked journalists at CNBC for missing all the warning signs of the overvalued housing market and their failure...
by Bill Scher | Jul 17, 2014 | Uncategorized
Will Dems Take Sides In The Class War? American Prospect's Harold Meyerson argues "Why the Democrats Need to Take Sides": "Since the 1940s ... the Democrats’ preferred method of helping working- and middle-class Americans has tilted more toward spurring economic...
by Robert Borosage | Jul 17, 2014 | Blog, Jobs and Growth, Progressive Vision
House Democrats released their 2014 election year platform Wednesday, entitled "Middle Class Jump Start: 100 Day Action Plan to Put the Middle Class First." Naturally, the release of a major party’s election year agenda received virtually no press coverage, far less...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jul 16, 2014 | Jobs and Growth
House Republicans today unanimously rejected an agency funding amendment by Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) that would have required the federal government to pay a minimum wage of $10.10 an hour to its employees. The vote – 193 to 230 – came a day after a bizarre exchange...
by Diana Anahi Torres-Valverde | Jul 16, 2014 | Progressive Vision
In a bustling room at the Third Presbyterian Church in Albuquerque, New Mexico a group of white and Latino parishioners gathered for a workshop on immigration. They wanted to learn more about the issue. Julio Alvarez, a Mexican immigrant, was there to answer their...
by Emily DiVito | Jul 16, 2014 | Economy
Working in Congress might be hard – but being poor is so much harder. That’s the lesson several members of Congress and congressional staff members were able to learn in a poverty simulation held on Capitol Hill Tuesday, put together by Catholic Charities USA with the...
by Bill Scher | Jul 16, 2014 | Uncategorized
House Hopes To Jam Senate On Border House GOP seeks to pressure Senate Dems on border bill. Politico: "As Congress moves closer to the monthlong August recess, the speedy action sends a clear message to Senate Democrats: Take it or leave it ... The House Republicans’...
by Richard Eskow | Jul 16, 2014 | Blog, Retirement Security
[fve]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFntSIjxIaw[/fve] Sen. Sherrod Brown discusses Social Security expansion with Richard (RJ) Eskow on The Zero Hour William Galston writes in the Wall Street Journal about a Republican senator’s plans to force a confrontation on...
by Dave Johnson | Jul 15, 2014 | Blog, Trade
Going into last week's U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) a key issue was China's ongoing currency manipulation. This matters. A February study by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) showed that China’s currency manipulation costs between 2.3 and...
by Jim Hightower | Jul 15, 2014 | Progressive Vision
The Moral Monday movement is mobilizing again. This feisty coalition, based in North Carolina, is an inspiring model of workaday people coming together to reclaim their rights from far-right-wing politicians and plutocrats running amok. Led by the NAACP, tens of...
by Richard Eskow | Jul 15, 2014 | Blog
The Justice Department's settlement with Citigroup was finally announced Monday. A $7 billion settlement against a too-big-to-fail bank? What’s not to love? We’ll answer that with another question: If the settlement that the Justice Department just negotiated with...
by Bill Scher | Jul 15, 2014 | Uncategorized
WH Blesses GOP Transportation Bill WH backs House GOP bill temporarily extending Highway Trust Fund. The Hill: "The surprise endorsement of the bill, which is scheduled to come up for a vote in the House on Tuesday, clears the way for a deal with Democrats in the...
by Alan Jenkins | Jul 15, 2014 | Blog, Democracy
The U.S. Senate last week overwhelmingly confirmed San Antonio Mayor Juliàn Castro to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development. One of Castro’s first official acts as HUD Secretary should be to make concrete the Department’s duty to promote fair housing...
by Dave Johnson | Jul 15, 2014 | Blog, Tax Reform
You've been hearing a lot about corporations "renouncing their U.S. citizenship" through "tax inversions." This is when a company buys or merges with a non-U.S. company and claims to no longer be based in the U.S. to get out of paying certain taxes. The company does,...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jul 14, 2014 | Jobs and Growth
The House is scheduled to begin debate Tuesday on a short-term patch to get past an election-season crisis on federal transportation funding, but the Campaign for America's Future sent a letter to members of Congress today calling on them to "quickly renew robust,...
by Thom Hartmann | Jul 14, 2014 | Economy
It’s time to start helping the people, and stop helping Wall Street. According to an agreement announced earlier today, big bank Citigroup will pay $7 billion to settle a Department of Justice investigation into that bank’s involvement with risky subprime mortgages....
by Dave Johnson | Jul 14, 2014 | Blog, Gender Justice, Health
There is a new "Not My Boss' Business" bill being introduced in the Senate to undo the damage done by the (older, Catholic males on the) Supreme Court in the Hobby Lobby decision. According to the National Women's Law Center, the Not My Boss' Business bill would...
by Sam Pizzigati | Jul 14, 2014 | Economy
Analysts at the OECD, the Paris-based economic research agency, have just shared a grim prediction: If current trends “prevail,” all developed nations will show by 2060 “the same level of inequality as currently experienced by the United States.” If we let those...
by Bill Scher | Jul 14, 2014 | Uncategorized
Obama Turns Up Heat On Highway Trust Fund President's week will focus on saving highway trust fund. McClatchy: "Congress this week will consider a way to avoid a lapse in funding of the Highway Trust Fund ... the White House said Obama 'will continue to urge...
by Roger Hickey | Jul 14, 2014 | Blog, Jobs and Growth
Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008 with a pledge to end the recession and then build a 21st-century, full-employment economy. His program: invest big time in America's transportation and energy infrastructure - and in education and training. Today, Americans...
by Terrance Heath | Jul 11, 2014 | Blog, Conservatism, This Is The GOP
Remember Elian Gonzales? He was the little Cuban boy found clinging to an inner tube of the coast of Florida, on Thanksgiving Day in 1999. He’d been rescued by fishermen after his mother and 11 others drowned in an attempt to reach the U.S. from Cuba. His fate sparked...
by Joshua Holland | Jul 11, 2014 | Blog
Those seething with so much rage and xenophobia that they’d hurl ugly epithets in the faces of children fleeing bloody violence in Central America bring shame to the whole nation. But the response of mainstream America hasn’t been much better. The media’s...
by Bill Scher | Jul 11, 2014 | Blog
Speaker John Boehner, who has long said "the biggest impediment we have to immigration reform is that the American people don’t trust the president to enforce or implement the law that we may or may not pass," made an unusual comment yesterday. Asked at a press...
by Bill Scher | Jul 11, 2014 | Uncategorized
WH Hit From Left and Right On Border Crisis Obama spars with Republicans over spending ask. McClathcy: "Several Republicans on the Senate Appropriations Committee chastised the administration for reacting late to the border situation and expressed skepticism that...
by Richard Eskow | Jul 11, 2014 | Blog, Financial Reform
Pop quiz: Which bank is widely considered too big to fail, needed (and got) a $45 billion government loan during the financial crisis, recently failed a stress test performed by the Federal Reserve – and has enjoyed a revolving-door relationship with both the Clinton...
by Dave Johnson | Jul 11, 2014 | Blog, Tax Reform
Here's the latest corporate tax scam: Companies are renouncing their U.S. corporate status and claiming that their headquarters are instead located in one or some other low-tax country, like Switzerland. The technical word for what they are doing is an "inversion." It...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jul 10, 2014 | Jobs and Growth
Tax-writing committees in both the House and Senate have voted to send to their respective chambers bills that would put a temporary patch on the nation's seriously wounded and weakened Highway Trust Fund. In effect, members of both parties in both houses have elected...
by Thom Hartmann | Jul 10, 2014 | Climate
The world is going solar. According to new data released by the Fraunhofer Institute, in the first half of 2014, renewable energy, like solar power, accounted for almost 31% of ALL electricity produced in Germany. In fact, solar power generation was up 28% during the...
by Emily Schwartz Greco | Jul 10, 2014 | Conservatism
By Emily Schwartz Greco and William A. Collins A wide majority of U.S. voters say black Americans who can’t get ahead should blame themselves for their troubles instead of racial discrimination. That’s one of the more startling findings from a recent Pew Research...
