by Bill Scher | Jun 11, 2014 | Blog
There are 506,065 registered voters in Virginia's 7th congressional district. About 364,000 of them, or 72 percent, support immigration reform that includes legalization of those currently undocumented, according to a new Public Policy Polling survey. Only 36,120 of...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jun 11, 2014 | Jobs and Growth
The next time you are stuck in traffic because a congestion-relieving road project has been placed on the back burner, or the next time you have to jam yourself on an overcrowded bus or rail car, consider the vote House Republicans cast Tuesday night to sharply limit...
by Richard Eskow | Jun 11, 2014 | Blog, Conservatism, Financial Reform
[fve]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhDDDsN8SpA [/fve] The above interview with Thom Hartmann took place Monday night on "The Big Picture," his television program. The first half of the discussion is based on a recent piece of mine about “The People’s Fed,”...
by Bill Scher | Jun 11, 2014 | Uncategorized
Cantor Loss Rocks Washington, Corporate Lobbies Don't blame immigration. Politico: "About 72 percent of registered voters in Cantor’s district polled on Tuesday said they either “strongly” or “somewhat” support immigration reform that would secure the borders, block...
by Dave Johnson | Jun 11, 2014 | Blog, Economy, Tax Reform
This one is simply outrageous. Corporations currently owe up to $700 billion in unpaid, "deferred" taxes. The country needs the money – partly because these companies owe so much in taxes. Which of the following choices should the country make? 1. Tell the companies...
by Richard Eskow | Jun 11, 2014 | Blog, Education
President Obama signed an executive order Monday limiting student debt payments to 10 percent of their income, telling an audience in the East Room of the White House that he and his wife only paid off their law school loans about ten years ago. "This is why I feel so...
by Editors | Jun 10, 2014 | Education
Massachusetts native Andy Wordell spent much of the 1990s getting her undergraduate and graduate degrees, with a dream of becoming a social worker. Two decades later, she's still paying the price for pursuing that dream – with $75,000 in student loan debt. That's why...
by Thom Hartmann | Jun 10, 2014 | Conservatism
There were two terrorist attacks in America over the weekend, but don’t expect the mainstream media to call them that. On Friday, 48-year-old Georgia resident Dennis Marx was scheduled to appear at the Forsyth County Courthouse in Cumming, Georgia, to face charges on...
by Sam Pizzigati | Jun 10, 2014 | Blog, Economy
Back in 1979, notes a new Economic Policy Institute report released last week, households in America’s statistical middle — the 20 percent of households making more than the nation’s poorest 40 percent and less than the nation’s most affluent 40 percent — averaged...
by Leo Gerard | Jun 10, 2014 | Blog
A dozen North Carolinians had the brazen idea that, as American citizens, they could exercise their right to express their concerns to one of their elected representatives, Thom Tillis, who is the general assembly’s Speaker of the House. They waited patiently...
by Bill Scher | Jun 10, 2014 | Uncategorized
Obama Issues Executive Order To Ease Student Debt Obama issues executive order as Senate readies vote on broader student loan reform. W. Post: "Most student-loan borrowers already have the option to limit payments to 10 percent of their income under recent legislation...
by Derek Pugh | Jun 10, 2014 | Education
Today is the day to urge your senator to stand for students over millionaires by voting for the Bank on Students Emergency Loan Refinancing Act. The bill – almost identical to a bill Sen. Elizabeth Warren introduced in May – would allow borrowers with existing student...
by Emily DiVito | Jun 9, 2014 | Education
President Obama, telling supporters in the East Room of the White House that “I am only here today because this country gave me a chance through education,” signed an executive order today capping student loan repayments at 10 percent of the borrower’s monthly income....
by Dave Johnson | Jun 9, 2014 | Blog, Conservatism, Health
The city of Texarkana sits on the border of Texas and Arkansas. Arkansas expanded Medicaid under Obamacare but in Texas Republicans blocked it. Meanwhile in Virginia, Republicans bribed a Democratic senator to resign, enabling Republicans to block people from getting...
by Harvey J Kaye | Jun 9, 2014 | Blog, Conservatism, Progressive Vision
If you ever doubt the powers of the past, just consider how much the Right fears them. It is a fear that drives them to continuously try to control the past and our memory of it: They try to deny history. They try to manipulate it. They try to suppress it. Indeed,...
by Terrance Heath | Jun 9, 2014 | Conservatism
Republicans can’t pass immigration reform, but they can take time out from obstructing anything that might remotely do the economy some good, to confer citizenship on a genocidal colonialist who’s been dead for over two hundred years. "Bernardo de Galvez". Licensed...
by Bill Scher | Jun 9, 2014 | Uncategorized
Obama To Act On Student Loans President Obama to take executive action to reduce student loan debt. NYT: "Mr. Obama’s main action will be to expand on a 2010 law that capped borrowers’ repayments at 10 percent of their monthly income. The intent is to extend such...
by Richard Eskow | Jun 8, 2014 | Blog, Democracy
[fve]http://youtu.be/OMxwFn_YCgE[/fve] A few months back the filmmakers Carl Deal and Tia Lessin got some bad news. The PBS funding that they had counted on to complete their documentary on campaign financing was being withdrawn. This setback came not long after PBS...
by Terrance Heath | Jun 6, 2014 | Blog, Conservatism, This Is The GOP
The safe release of an American POW is usually a cause for celebration. But there will be no yellow ribbons on the right for Army Sgt. Bowe Berghdal, who was released after being held by the Taliban for five years. Sgt. Bergdahl was the last American held by the...
by Dave Johnson | Jun 6, 2014 | Blog, Trade
Wednesday's trade balance report showed that just two years after signing a "free trade" agreement with South Korea we have reached a record monthly trade deficit of $2.3 billion with that country, up from $1.3 billion the month before. Now South Korea is attacking...
by Thom Hartmann | Jun 6, 2014 | Climate
This week, the President announced plans to cut carbon emissions by 30 percent by 2030. The plan is one of the strongest actions our nation has ever taken to fight climate change, and it puts us on track to meet environmental targets established in a 2009 United...
by Harvey J Kaye | Jun 6, 2014 | Blog, Conservatism
On June 6, 1984, President Ronald Reagan went to Normandy, France, to speak at events commemorating the 40th anniversary of D-Day. Addressing statesmen, dignitaries, and veterans of those landings and their families, he spoke eloquently and movingly, especially at...
by Bill Scher | Jun 6, 2014 | Uncategorized
217K Jobs Created In May NYT on the latest jobs report: "Almost exactly five years into the recovery, total payrolls have finally surpassed where they were before the recession. While the addition of nearly nine million jobs since hiring bottomed out in February 2010...
by Robert Borosage | Jun 6, 2014 | Blog, Jobs and Growth
The May jobs report – 217,000 new jobs with unemployment rate unchanged at 6.3 percent – was largely as predicted. The U.S. economy has finally surpassed the peak jobs level reached before the Great Recession nearly five-and-one-half years later. The jobs growth is...
by Dave Johnson | Jun 5, 2014 | Blog, Jobs and Growth
Low-wage jobs are bad for America's economy. They drive a race to the bottom as people pull back, forcing more layoffs and wage cuts. But America has been replacing good-paying jobs with low-wage jobs for decades, and the wage differential goes to a few at the top....
by Thom Hartmann | Jun 5, 2014 | Economy
The NRA’s brief moment of sanity is over. On Tuesday, the gun group apologized for a statement published on its website that called gun rights protesters in Texas “weird” and “scary.” That statement, which the NRA put out last Friday, came after gun activists in the...
by Emily DiVito | Jun 5, 2014 | Education
High interest rates and more than $1.2 trillion of student loan debt are not the only challenges facing the 40 million Americans with student loans. Student borrowers face intense hardships caused by the deceptive practices of loan providers and servicers, and those...
by Bill Scher | Jun 5, 2014 | Blog
The Republicans want you to think that President Obama's climate rules are going to make your utility bills explode. Unfortunately for Republicans, the utility industry isn't saying that. As I noted earlier this week, the main utility industry lobby, the Edison...
by Editors | Jun 5, 2014 | Education
Student loans made it possible for Brittany Jones to attend Virginia Commonwealth University and pursue her dream of becoming a teacher – yet her $60,000 loan became an immediate pressure as soon as she graduated. “My student loan payment plan required $653 a month,...
by Terrance Heath | Jun 5, 2014 | Conservatism
Guns — their presence, and all it portends — are increasingly invading every corner of our everyday lives. They have morphed into a form of symbolic speech that threatens to shoot down our political discourse. It seemed almost too good to be true, when the National...
by Bill Scher | Jun 5, 2014 | Uncategorized
Sanders, McCain Seek VA Deal Bipartisan talks on Senate VA reform bill. W. Post: "Word of a possible deal first came Wednesday morning when the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee abruptly cancelled plans to hold a hearing on one possible proposal Thursday ... Sanders...
by Richard Eskow | Jun 5, 2014 | Blog, Financial Reform
The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve was created to represent the economic sectors and portions of our population most directly affected by the central bank’s actions. Instead, it's comprised almost entirely of economists and lawyers who are associated with...
by Dave Johnson | Jun 4, 2014 | Blog, Conservatism
When a government "contracts out" – privatizes – one of its services, that is supposed to save taxpayers money. A new study finds that privatization not only costs governments more than it saves, it has forced millions of people into lives of poverty. According to the...
by Sarah Anderson | Jun 4, 2014 | Minimum Wage, The Jobs Challenge
By Sarah Anderson and Frank Clemente Low-income families weren’t the only ones hurt by cuts to food stamps last fall. Top Walmart executives also took a hit. The cutbacks ate into the discount giant’s sales because so many of its low-income customers rely on this...
by Jeff Bryant | Jun 4, 2014 | Blog, Education
In the education policy arena, the whole idea of "reform" has tended to be a pursuit from the top down – imposing standards and "accountability" from Washington, D.C. and state capitals and ramping up competitive providers with big money from private foundations and...
by Dave Johnson | Jun 4, 2014 | Blog, Trade
The Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis released the April trade figures this morning. The news is bad. The trade deficit measures how much more we buy from other countries than they buy from us. It is a way to measure loss of jobs, loss of factories,...
by Bill Scher | Jun 4, 2014 | Uncategorized
GOP Whiffs On Climate Republican attack on rules has been pathetic, says TNR's Danny Vinik: "...when you take a closer look at those arguments: they quickly fall apart. What’s more, Republicans had months to develop their position ... Yet, their three arguments...
by Dave Johnson | Jun 4, 2014 | Blog, Health
Republicans in February filibustered a bill that would have given the Veterans Administration more resources to address delays at its health facilities. Then they whipped up one of their hysterical "scandals" over delays in care (that actually started under President...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jun 3, 2014 | Jobs and Growth
A bipartisan group of senators led by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) plan a private meeting Wednesday to discuss options for funding future transportation projects, according to a spokesperson for the senator. Let's hope what they come up with something better than the...
by Lynne Stuart Parramore | Jun 3, 2014 | Economy
In Boston this past weekend, the Patriotic Millionaires, a group of wealthy Americans fighting to raise tax rates — for themselves! — and HuffPost Live hosted French economist Thomas Piketty, author of Capital in the 21st Century, and Senator Elizabeth Warren, whose...
