by Terrance Heath | Jul 10, 2014 | Conservatism
What’s the matter with Kansas? That was the question posed by Thomas Frank’s 2005 book and the eponymous documentary, which examined how the 19th century hotbed of left-wing populism became an outpost of the most extreme right-wing conservatism. Nine years later, not...
by Bill Scher | Jul 10, 2014 | Uncategorized
Obama Pushes GOP To Help Solve Child Immigrant Influx Obama calls on TX Gov. Perry to get House Republicans behind border bill. AP: "Following a meeting with Perry in Dallas Wednesday, the president suggested there was little daylight between Perry's calls for...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jul 10, 2014 | Blog, Jobs and Growth
[fve]http://youtu.be/pqw3FFJjqHg[/fve] Trudy Goldberg, chair of the National Jobs For All Coalition, talks about the effort to build a full employment movement. When Chris Horton was asked to speak to a group of grassroots activists Wednesday at the opening of a...
by Dave Johnson | Jul 9, 2014 | Blog
As Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade negotiators meet in secret to try to conclude the agreement several members of Congress held a press conference on the steps of the U.S. Capitol Wednesday morning to press for labor, environmental, consumer, health and human...
by Dave Johnson | Jul 9, 2014 | Blog, Trade
Our enormous, humongous, continuing trade deficit dropped a bit in May from the month before, after five months of increases, according to the Commerce Department. The change was mostly because of an 11.3 percent increase in petroleum products and not so much because...
by Jeff Bryant | Jul 9, 2014 | Blog, Education, Winning Issues for 2014
Political pundits who try to tamp down talk of divisions within the Democratic Party must not be paying any attention to education policy. For quite some time, close observers of the nation's education policy have been calling attention to the fault lines between...
by Sam Pizzigati | Jul 9, 2014 | Blog
Almost everyone knows how Al Capone went down. We’ve seen the movies. The biggest and baddest gangster in American history extorted and murdered for years. But the feds could never convict him on anything, until the green eyeshade guys went to work. They finally...
by Bill Scher | Jul 9, 2014 | Uncategorized
WH Moves On Child Immigrant Influx Mixed reception for Obama's $3.7B proposal to address child immigrant influx. The Hill: "Senate Democrats on Tuesday moved to quickly pass a $3.7 billion package that provides funding to care for but also more quickly deport the...
by Robert Borosage | Jul 9, 2014 | Blog, Economy, Populist Majority
Over at the Washington Post, the usually sensible Greg Sargent endorses the notion that divisions among Democrats are “mostly trumped up.” The tension between the Wall Street wing of the party and the Warren (as in Elizabeth) wing is an overblown fiction of a press...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jul 8, 2014 | Tax Reform
To add insult to the injury being done by corporations that essentially renounce their U.S. corporate citizenship to avoid U.S. taxation, many of these same companies are winning federal contracts – often in violation of laws designed to limit these contracts to...
by Dave Johnson | Jul 8, 2014 | China Currency Showdown, Trade
The sixth annual U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) starts tomorrow in Beijing. This is like a "summit" meeting between the two countries, with high-level discussions of issues ranging from North Korea and wider regional security problems, to...
by Terrance Heath | Jul 8, 2014 | Minimum Wage
Fast food CEO Andy Puzder says that raising the minimum wage will harm workers and kill job growth. A new study of the 13 states that have tried it – including eight states where Puzder runs restaurants – says otherwise. Andy Puzder, CEO of CKE Restaurants, told...
by Leo Gerard | Jul 8, 2014 | Blog, Jobs and Growth
Americans devoted Friday to celebrating independence. Flags and fireworks, picnics and pledges of allegiance abounded. But there's no liberty and justice for all if Americans aren't economically independent. Low wages, debts and dim prospects all subjugate. This is...
by Richard Eskow | Jul 8, 2014 | Blog, Financial Reform
It was good to hear President Obama say that reining in Wall Street’s high-risk behavior is an “unfinished piece of business.” It would be even better if this observation were quickly followed by action - the kind of concrete action he can take immediately, with or...
by Bill Scher | Jul 8, 2014 | Uncategorized
Ex-Im Bank Expected To Pass Senate "Export-Import Bank supporters aim for show of strength in Senate" reports The Hill: "Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) are scheduled this week to unveil legislation that would reauthorize the bank, and Democratic...
by Dave Johnson | Jul 8, 2014 | Blog, Trade
Different factions of the Republican Party are at war over the Export-Import (Ex-Im) bank. "Corporate/business" Republicans (and most Democrats) want to continue the operation of the Export-Import Bank because it helps companies sell their products outside of the U.S....
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jul 7, 2014 | Blog, Economy, Tax Reform
Fortune Magazine is out with its list of "Top American corporate tax avoiders," members of the S&P 500 that "sure seem American—except when it comes to paying taxes." These are companies that even a top cheerleader for the corporate class can't bring itself to defend....
by Bill Scher | Jul 7, 2014 | Blog, Democracy
Friday I explained at The Week "How Obama's immigration push could hand the House to Democrats." In short, Democrats need a net gain of 17 seats to take back the House. And there are 19 Republican-held House districts – 16 in which the incumbent is running for...
by Jeff Bryant | Jul 7, 2014 | Blog, Education
Meeting at their annual convention in Denver, members of the National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers union, have passed a resolution calling for the resignation of U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. As first reported by the Associated...
by Thom Hartmann | Jul 7, 2014 | Economy
The denial of fundamental economic principles is setting the world up for another Great Crash. Although wages have been flat or declining since the West started following Thatchernomics and Reaganomics in the late '70s and early 1980s, the stock market has risen to...
by Bill Scher | Jul 7, 2014 | Uncategorized
Highway Cliff Approaches "Highway fund running on fumes" reports The Hill: "Lawmakers are under pressure to refill the Highway Trust Fund when they return to Washington after the Fourth of July weekend or risk losing thousands of construction jobs that could set back...
by Robert Borosage | Jul 7, 2014 | Blog
On July 4, The Washington Post published an article "reporting" that President Obama has “abandoned talk” of inequality this election year, focusing instead on the “politically palatable theme of lifting the middle class.” This represents, writer Zachary Goldfarb...
by Richard Eskow | Jul 3, 2014 | Blog
The event we celebrate on the Fourth of July is not America’s victory over Great Britain. The British weren’t defeated until September 3, 1783. July 4, 1776 is the day the Continental Congress ratified the Declaration of Independence. That’s the day...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jul 3, 2014 | Jobs and Growth
The June jobs report that is getting so much positive spin does have a dark side that's getting remarkably little attention: There's little evidence of a summer construction boom. In fact, it's been a long time since there's been a dramatic uptick in construction...
by Terrance Heath | Jul 3, 2014 | Blog, Conservatism, This Is The GOP
Just in time for mid-term election campaigning, the Supreme Court handed conservatives the perfect opportunity to remind Americans that their number one obsession is policing women’s sex lives by any means necessary. Wingnuts rejoiced. If anyone has forgotten how...
by Richard Eskow | Jul 3, 2014 | Blog
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg certainly got it right when she said that the Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby decision is going to create "havoc." And as the repercussions mount, so do the questions, in areas that range from economics and taxation to theology...
by Bill Scher | Jul 3, 2014 | Uncategorized
Obama Signals More Bank Reform Obama calls Wall Street reform "unfinished." Bloomberg: "In an interview to be aired today on American Public Media’s Marketplace radio program, Obama said an 'unfinished piece of business' is to address banks that 'take big risks...
by Robert Borosage | Jul 3, 2014 | Blog, Jobs and Growth
The June Bureau of Labor Services jobs report – a higher than expected increase of 288,000 jobs with the unemployment rate declining to 6.1% – provides a splash of good news, following the grim reality of an economy that actually contracted in the first quarter of the...
by Jeff Bryant | Jul 2, 2014 | Blog, Education
This act is wearing thin. As implementations of Common Core State Standards falter around the country, supporters of the new academic benchmarks continue a sort of dog-and-pony show to reinforce the message to "stay the course." The latest such example came from the...
by Terrance Heath | Jul 2, 2014 | Conservatism
By killing a key requirement that lawmakers disclose which lobbyists pick up the tab for their “all-expenses-paid trips around the world,” Republicans prove they can get things done when they really want to. Meanwhile, issues like immigration reform and...
by Robert Borosage | Jul 2, 2014 | Blog, Jobs and Growth
The ruling of the Supreme Court’s conservative gang of five in Harris v. Quinn is a direct attack on the ability of workers to organize and bargain collectively. The ruling, in a case invented by the right-wing National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, is but...
by Bill Scher | Jul 2, 2014 | Blog
Few noticed last week, but the Senate's leading advocate for climate action joined the Senate's leading advocate for coal on the Senate floor to sound the alarm that climate change is real and requires government action. Rhode Island's Sheldon Whitehouse, who goes to...
by Editors | Jul 2, 2014 | Jobs and Growth
President Obama chose an aging bridge connecting Washington’s Georgetown neighborhood to the Northern Virginia suburbs on Tuesday to warn that Republicans in Congress are risking shutting down transportation projects around the country that employ millions of people...
by Bill Scher | Jul 2, 2014 | Uncategorized
Obama Warns Of Job Losses If GOP Doesn't Fund Transportation Soon "Obama Urges Congress to Fund Infrastructure Projects" reports NYT: "...Obama poked derisive fun at Republicans as he urged them to join Democrats to pass legislation that would replenish the Highway...
by Richard Eskow | Jul 2, 2014 | Blog, Progressive Vision, The New Populism
Well, now, this is interesting. Sen. Elizabeth Warren went to Kentucky to campaign for Allison Lundergan Grimes, the Democratic Secretary of State who’s looking to unseat Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. The Louisville Courier-Journal reported that “a wide...
by Emily DiVito | Jul 1, 2014 | Health
Here is the clearest, and scariest, implication of the Supreme Court’s Monday ruling in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, Inc.: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act – “Obamacare” – is fatally flawed. It is clear we now need a public, single-payer health care system –...
by Thom Hartmann | Jul 1, 2014 | Conservatism
As far as the Supreme Court is concerned, we’re still in the 19th century when it comes to women’s rights. In a 5 to 4 decision, the Supreme Court today ruled that for-profit corporations like Hobby Lobby can discriminate against their female employees by denying them...
by Leo Gerard | Jul 1, 2014 | Blog, Trade
In the depth of the recession, some foreign countries made a simple calculation. They’d subsidize their steel industries even though that violates international trade rules. It paid off by keeping their citizens employed, paid and fed. These countries banked on...
by Bill Scher | Jul 1, 2014 | Uncategorized
Supreme Court Sides With Corporations "The Roberts Court Thinks Corporations Have More Rights Than You Do" argues TNR's David Gans: "Prior to 2014, the Supreme Court had never held that a secular, for-profit corporation is entitled to protections for the free exercise...
by Dave Johnson | Jun 30, 2014 | Blog, Jobs and Growth
In case you were wondering why it is so hard for regular working people to get ahead in our economy, look no further than today's Harris v. Quinn Supreme Court decision. In the usual 5-4 pattern, the corporate-conservatives on the Supreme Court struck another blow...
