by Dave Johnson | Feb 26, 2014 | Making it in America, Trade
Bloomberg News has a great report on the pressure to ban "Buy America" procurement policies in the trade agreements the United States is currently negotiating. Bloomberg focuses on an Oregon company making streetcars to show the damage that banning Buy America...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Feb 25, 2014 | Jobs and Growth
It was 95 years ago today that Oregon, faced with rapid adoption of a new contraption called the automobile, instituted a one-cent tax on gasoline to cover the cost of paved roads for these vehicles. The slogan supporters used to sell the tax: "Get Oregon Out Of The...
by Damon Silvers | Feb 25, 2014 | Economy, Financial Reform, Progressive Vision
Every day you read in the news about some new big bank outrage. Foreclosing on families without the right paperwork. Charging hidden fees, conspiring to rig markets, defrauding investors. Refusing to lend to small business. A lot of people I’m sure ask every day over...
by Leo Gerard | Feb 25, 2014 | Blog
Right-wing billionaires threw a hissy fit in recent weeks. The 99 percent are persecuting them, the wealthy ones whined. That whole Occupy Wall Street thing hurt their feelings, conservative 1 percenters pouted. The right-wing rich didn’t threaten to take their...
by Bill Scher | Feb 25, 2014 | Uncategorized
Bipartisanship Afoot on Minimum Wage, Jobless Aid Obama to meet privately with Boehner today. Bloomberg: "President Barack Obama will host House Speaker John Boehner at the White House today for a closed-door meeting as lawmakers weigh the administration’s call to...
by Richard Eskow | Feb 25, 2014 | Economy, The 2015 Budget
The nation has been treated to a sneak preview of President Obama’s 2015 budget, scheduled to be released next Tuesday. As we asked in Part 1 of this two-part budget update, that’s an occasion for reflecting on the nature of a White House budget. Is it a negotiating...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 24, 2014 | Trade, Trans-Pacific Partnership
A law affecting content on the Internet that was rejected by Congress shows up in a trade agreement designed to bypass and override Congress. Small, innovative companies that manufacture low-cost, generic drugs find their products blocked. Those are examples of what...
by Joshua Holland | Feb 24, 2014 | Conservatism, Democracy, Economy
The IRS is considering new rules that would clarify what political activities 501(c)4 “social welfare” organization can participate in. Unlike traditional political action committees (PACs), c4 organizations aren’t required to disclose their donors. As a result, these...
by Digby | Feb 24, 2014 | Conservatism, Progressive Vision
Think Progress explains that this rather astonishing decline in deaths among young people in car accidents is the result of a concerted government and private industry effort of education, regulations, laws. It's quite a success story. A lot of people are alive today...
by Bill Scher | Feb 24, 2014 | Uncategorized
Trade Talks Spin Wheels TPP negotiators report little progress during talks in Singapore. Kyodo News International: "Countries involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade negotiations remained apart over thorny issues, including tariff removal and...
by Richard Eskow | Feb 24, 2014 | Chained CPI, Retirement Security
There are two major debates currently underway about President Obama’s upcoming budget, scheduled for next week: One involves the President’s proclamation that this budget will signal the “end of austerity,” while the other involves the decision to abandon the chained...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Feb 24, 2014 | Unemployment Benefits
Ted Drost was a six-figure marketing and client development specialist based in Chicago who has worked for several Fortune 100 financial institutions. He also says he was "born and raised a Republican" and has supported Illinois freshman Republican Sen. Mark Kirk...
by Terrance Heath | Feb 21, 2014 | Blog, Conservatism, This Is The GOP
It's been another rough week on the right. A high-profile GOP governor, and potential 2016 presidential contender, could be brought low by a trove of scandalous emails. And it's not Chris Christie. Wisconsin governor Scott Walker is up for reelection this year, and...
by Terrance Heath | Feb 21, 2014 | Conservatism, This Is The GOP
Even before Michael Dunn encountered Jordan Davis and his friends, he was primed to see young black men as dangerous “thugs” to be eliminated, and empowered by right-wing culture to believe he had the absolute right to do so. “You Are Not Going Talk To Me Like That”...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Feb 21, 2014 | Conservatism
The second season of "House of Cards" debuted on Valentine's Day last week, but one week later the show's producers are complaining that they're not getting enough love from Maryland taxpayers. They've notified Gov. Martin O'Malley that "we will have to break down our...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 21, 2014 | Conservatism, Democracy
Here is how it works these days: You start hearing about a big, national problem and then it becomes a drumbeat. First there are a few articles and columns mentioning that such-and-such is a problem. Then a number of articles appear, then a “study” from a “think tank”...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 21, 2014 | Minimum Wage
The Gap announced this week it is raising the minimum wage that it will pay employees. Walmart said it is considering doing the same. Last year voters in New Jersey and many municipalities passed minimum wage increases. President Obama ordered federal contractors to...
by Bill Scher | Feb 21, 2014 | Uncategorized
Obama Stands Down On Social Security Obama takes Chained CPI offer out of 2015 budget. NYT: "White House officials said on Thursday that since Republicans in Congress have shown no willingness to meet the president’s offer on social programs by closing loopholes for...
by Roger Hickey | Feb 21, 2014 | Chained CPI, Retirement Security
Great news! The Associated Press reported on Thursday that an unnamed Obama administration official (speaking on background) announced that the chained CPI will not be in President Obama’s budget. Just so we all really believed this signal, the White House Office of...
by Bill Scher | Feb 20, 2014 | Minimum Wage
Over at The New Republic, Danny Vinik notes that the Republicans are attacking President Obama's approach for raising incomes with a higher minimum wage, ostensibly for fear of job losses. Yet Republicans refuse to coalesce around any alternatives for either raising...
by Terrance Heath | Feb 20, 2014 | Conservatism, Current Issues, This Is The GOP
Clarence Thomas is renowned for his silence during proceedings in the Supreme Court. When he does speak, he reveals himself as utterly vacuous and oblivious to anything resembling reality. Thomas latest comments on race are a supreme example. During a recent...
by Bill Scher | Feb 20, 2014 | Uncategorized
Obama Tries To Sell Trade Deal Obama promotes TPP during North American summit. AP: "Closing a day of talks with the leaders of Mexico and Canada, Obama said the North American partners must maintain their 'competitive advantage' on trade, in part by expanding into...
by Robert Borosage | Feb 20, 2014 | Trans-Pacific Partnership
The Obama administration continues to push a fast track to nowhere. U.S. Trade Representative Michael B. Froman now has launched a charm offensive, meeting with legislators, consumer, union and environmental groups to try to defuse growing opposition to fast track...
by Jeff Bryant | Feb 20, 2014 | Education
Last week, NBC News reported about a school near St. Louis that conducted an "active shooter drill" in which campus law officers and teachers instruct high schoolers on what to do “when you get shot." "'Close your fingers and keep ‘em in,'” they were told, because,...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Feb 19, 2014 | Economy
The top 1 percent captured all of the income growth between 2009 and 2011 in 26 out of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, the Economic Policy Institute found in a report released today. The report is a detailed look at the geography of income inequality. The...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 19, 2014 | Blog
The public gets it that one-sided trade agreements are shipping jobs out of the country – and they want our government to do something about it. A new Gallup poll shows that jobs and unemployment has risen to the No. 1 spot on the country's "most important problem"...
by Thom Hartmann | Feb 19, 2014 | Conservatism, Economy, Health
Another rural Georgia hospital is closing its doors as that state continues to block the Medicaid expansion. The Lower Oconee Community Hospital does not have enough volume to stay open, yet many of the nearby residents are being refused much need health insurance...
by Derek Pugh | Feb 19, 2014 | Financial Reform
The U.S. economy in its current state offers plenty of anecdotal and empirical evidence that Wall Street lobbyists and bankers are nothing more than thoughtless, money-hungry zombies. So film director David Yates, who made the last four Harry Potter movies,...
by Bill Scher | Feb 19, 2014 | Uncategorized
Trade Tops Agenda For Obama In Mexico President Obama in Mexico today to talk trade. NYT: "Michael B. Froman, the president’s trade representative ... noted that as a candidate, Mr. Obama promised to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, known as Nafta....
by Richard Eskow | Feb 19, 2014 | The Jobs Challenge
It’s been five years since the passage of President Obama’s stimulus bill (officially known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act). Its successes are well documented: an increase in the gross domestic product of between 2 and 3 percent from late 2009...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Feb 18, 2014 | Minimum Wage
Here's what you need to keep in mind about the Congressional Budget Office report that is generating headlines that a $10.10 minimum wage could cost 500,000 jobs: That report is not the indictment that it is being made out to be in the mainstream media and by...
by Bill Scher | Feb 18, 2014 | Blog
Seven years ago, Newt Gingrich stood next to John Kerry said that there is "clear agreement that human activity has helped increase the level of [global] warming" and therefore, "it is a problem, we should address it and we should address it very actively." There is...
by Leo Gerard | Feb 18, 2014 | Conservatism, Health, This Is The GOP
"Doctor, doctor, give me the news I got a bad case of lovin' you No pill's gonna cure my ill I got a bad case of lovin' you Whooaaa" ~ Robert Palmer, 1979, Bad Case of Loving You On this Valentine’s Day, as many as 4.4 million more Americans than on Feb. 14 last...
by Bill Scher | Feb 18, 2014 | Uncategorized
More Proof The Stimulus Worked New WH report shows how much the 2009 stimulus worked. Politico: "By itself, the stimulus bill saved or created an average of 1.6 million jobs a year for four years through the end of 2012, [WH aide Jason] Furman said in a White House...
by Richard Eskow | Feb 18, 2014 | Retirement Security
President Obama's budget is scheduled to be released on March 4, and a critical question remains unanswered. Will he or won't he reprise the "chained CPI" cut to Social Security that he proposed in last year's budget? Nobody on his team is talking. The answer to that...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 17, 2014 | Blog
Today is the fifth anniversary of the day President Obama signing the "stimulus," the American Recovery Act. In December I published this post," Did The Stimulus Work? See For Yourself." On this anniversary occasion, we republish it, in full: Did the "stimulus" work?...
by Sam Pizzigati | Feb 17, 2014 | Jobs and Growth
The long days for GM’s flacks began — on an upbeat note — back in December when the automaker’s board of directors named Mary Barra, a veteran General Motors executive, the company’s new CEO. That announcement made instant international headlines. A major global...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Feb 14, 2014 | Retirement Security
NOTE: After this post was published, The New York Times reported that PBS has returned a $3.5 million grant it had received from the right-wing Laura and John Arnold Foundation to produce a series of reports on what it called "The Pension Peril." The PBS decision was...
by Bill Scher | Feb 14, 2014 | Blog
Earlier today I brought my annoying optimism to MSNBC to make the case that Washington is not broken. Yes, Republicans are furiously obstructing all they can, and this Congress may be end up being one of the least productive in history. But Republicans have relented...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 14, 2014 | Trans-Pacific Partnership
There are signs that the Obama administration is backing off from its push to get fast track trade promotion authority through Congress. First it was 151 members of Congress signing a letter opposing fast track. Then, in the State of the Union address, President Obama...
