by Dave Johnson | Dec 13, 2013 | Conservatism
This article first appeared at AlterNet. The word is out that Republicans are attempting to rebrand themselves as compassionate conservatives (again). “Compassionate conservatism” is a term that typically comes up after Republicans have taken things to such an extreme...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Dec 13, 2013 | Budget Talks, Economy, Unemployment Benefits
On Thursday, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi reportedly told her fellow Democrats to embrace the suck" and vote for a federal budget deal that, in the name of bipartisan compromise, compromised away financial support for more than a million of the long-term...
by Richard Eskow | Dec 13, 2013 | Uncategorized
Our new piece for Salon.com is called "Don't Call Them Centrists." It addresses the media habit of referring to lobbying groups and politicians as 'centrist," even though those groups and individuals hold economic views that are far to the right of the public's. They...
by Bill Scher | Dec 13, 2013 | Uncategorized
Tea Party Loses Budget Battle... "House exhales after passing compromise budget" reports McClatchy: "Conservatives fumed that the plan didn’t take the kind of bold steps to reduce spending and deficits they have long sought. Democrats were not pleased that the package...
by Bill Scher | Dec 12, 2013 | Uncategorized
On Tuesday, Slate columnist Aisha Harris made the case for depicting Santa Claus as a penguin instead of a white man to "spare millions of nonwhite kids the insecurity and shame that I remember from childhood." On Wednesday, Fox News' Megyn Kelly retorted that "Santa...
by Richard Eskow | Dec 12, 2013 | Retirement Security
“When you are old and grey and full of sleep,” the William Butler Yeats poem begins, “And nodding by the fire …” Our culture has always been emotional – sentimental, even – about old age. So when did older people become The Enemy? Last week a judge ruled that Detroit...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Dec 12, 2013 | Budget Talks, Unemployment Benefits
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid today said that continuing extended unemployment benefits to the long-term unemployed will be the first order of business in the Senate when it returns after Congress' Christmas vacation. Good, but not good enough for the 1.3 million...
by Bill Scher | Dec 12, 2013 | Uncategorized
Source: National Review The Murray-Ryan budget deal neither maintains nor repeals the sequester. Instead, as you can see in the chart above, it creates a kindler, gentler sequester. The original sequester drove the budget baseline down to a low point in 2014, then...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 12, 2013 | Uncategorized
Austerity is holding back our economy -- and that's the plan. There is simply no other way to explain it. Republicans know voters blame (or credit) the party of the President for the economy, and they are doing everything they can to make things as bad as can be. This...
by Bill Moyers | Dec 12, 2013 | Budget Talks, Economy, Minimum Wage, Progressive Vision, The Jobs Challenge
I met Supreme Court Justice William Brennan in 1987 when I was creating a series for public television called In Search of the Constitution, celebrating the bicentennial of our founding document. By then, he had served on the court longer than any of his colleagues...
by Terrance Heath | Dec 12, 2013 | Conservatism, Economy, Progressive Vision, This Is The GOP
While conservatives obsessed over “selfies," handshakes, and pseudo-symbolic statements, President Obama honored legacy of Nelson Mandela, and underscored how relevant and urgently needed it is today. The “Selfie.” So What? A handful photos of President Obama chatting...
by Bill Scher | Dec 12, 2013 | Uncategorized
House To Vote On Budget Deal Today "This deal fails America!" CLICK HERE to tell your House representative: "It abandons the unemployed, picks the pockets of federal workers and leaves every last corporate loophole and tax dodge in place." Budget deal splits...
by Robert Borosage | Dec 12, 2013 | Budget Talks, Economy
The bipartisan budget agreement released late Tuesday is being celebrated, largely for showing that a deal is possible. The deal is admittedly small ball, reducing about half of the sequester cuts in 2014 and one-quarter in 2015, a total of $41.7 billion in increased...
by Derek Pugh | Dec 12, 2013 | Budget Talks, Populist Majority
It’s true that the American public is tired of gridlock in Washington and would welcome signs that conservative obstruction is ending. But let’s be very clear here. The federal budget deal reached in Congress this week is not one that is supported by the majority of...
by Richard Long | Dec 11, 2013 | Budget Talks, Retirement Security
There was one small victory that progressives could claim from the otherwise troubling congressional budget deal that was announced Tuesday: Social Security and Medicare were left untouched. Credit goes to progressives who made calls, signed petitions and showed up at...
by Jeff Bryant | Dec 11, 2013 | Education
"We have to fight for our children's education." Those words, from Philadelphia parent Kia Hinton, crystalized a national sentiment expressed during a Day of Action to Reclaim the Promise of Public Education held on December 9 in over 100 sites across the country. The...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 11, 2013 | Uncategorized
I joined a conference call yesterday that talked about the upcoming Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement and the "Fast Track" process that the big corporations are trying to push on Congress to smooth the way for them to push this "trade' deal through. The...
by Digby | Dec 11, 2013 | Budget Talks, Conservatism, Economy, The Jobs Challenge
So it looks like Capitol Hill may get to have a holiday this year: The deal, which was negotiated over the past few weeks by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.), would set spending for the...
by Robert Borosage | Dec 11, 2013 | Budget Talks, Economy
The Beltway breathed a huge sigh of relief with the announcement of the budget deal cobbled together by Senator Patty Murray and Rep. Paul Ryan. It is the deal, not the substance, that is being applauded. If it overcomes opposition from a hostile right and largely...
by Bill Scher | Dec 11, 2013 | Uncategorized
Budget Deal Sealed Congressional negotiators reach two-year budget deal. NYT: "The agreement, which would finance the government through Sept. 30, 2015, would eliminate about $63 billion in across-the-board domestic and military cuts. But it would provide $23 billion...
by Richard Eskow | Dec 10, 2013 | Uncategorized
There will be time to review the budget deal which was just struck by congressional negotiators in more detail. To that end, the open windows on my computer show the latest labor statistics and economic trends. But the phrase that keeps coming to mind, especially when...
by Thom Hartmann | Dec 10, 2013 | Economy, Financial Reform
Regulators want to start making banking boring again. Today, five different regulatory agencies are expected to adopt the Volcker Rule, which would redraw a line between regular banking and Wall Street gambling. The rule is one of the centerpieces of the Dodd-Frank...
by Bill Scher | Dec 10, 2013 | Uncategorized
Today a new report was jointly released by the Institute for America's Future, Center for American Progress and the BlueGreen Alliance, "The Green Industrial Revolution and the United States: In the Clean Energy Race, Is the United States a Leader or a Luddite?" The...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 10, 2013 | Uncategorized
Did the "stimulus" work? Republicans claim it was a failure, a waste of money, and was the reason the deficit soared. So let's see what happened. And I do mean "see." (Actually, the deficit soared in Bush's last budget year -- all the way to $1.4 trillion! The...
by Digby | Dec 10, 2013 | Economy, Making it in America, The Jobs Challenge
A nasty little Google boy gets mad and says what he really thinks: "Why don't you go to a city that can afford it? This is a city for the right people who can afford it. You can't afford it? You can leave. I'm sorry, get a better job. It's time for you to leave. "...
by Leo Gerard | Dec 10, 2013 | Blog
Witch hunter Joseph McCarthy would be proud of ALEC. So proud! Like McCarthy, the shadowy corporate lobby group wants oaths of allegiance. McCarthy demanded loyalty pledges to the United States. ALEC, by contrast, wants its lawmaker members to vow first allegiance to...
by Bill Scher | Dec 10, 2013 | Uncategorized
Budget Deal May Hurt Workers, Jobless Dems question emerging budget deal. W. Post: "It was unclear Monday whether Democrats would succeed in their campaign to win a year-long extension of emergency jobless benefits, which are set to expire at the end of the month,...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 10, 2013 | Budget Talks, Unemployment Benefits
Unemployment benefits run out at the end of December for 1.3 million long-term unemployed. President Obama's Saturday address called for an extension of the benefits, but apparently some Congressional Democrats don't think this is worth taking a stand that risks...
by Terrance Heath | Dec 9, 2013 | Conservatism, Progressive Vision, This Is The GOP
Conservatives have turned Nelson Mandela’s death in to another reminder of how firmly Republicans stood, and still stand, on the wrong side of history. Here are some of the worst conservative reactions to Mandela’s death. 1. “Don’t mourn for Mandela.” In his December...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 9, 2013 | Uncategorized
Today is a national day of action to support public education. Across the country parents, educators and more than 100 community groups are coming together for this National Day of Action to Reclaim the Promise of Public Education: Our Schools, Our Solutions. This is...
by Terrance Heath | Dec 9, 2013 | Conservatism, Progressive Vision, This Is The GOP
Besides black people, nobody wants racism to be "over" more than white conservatives, if the RNC’s tweet honoring Rosa Parks for “ending” racism is any indication. Why are white conservatives so ready declare racism “over”? They just want to get off the hook. Almost...
by Bill Scher | Dec 9, 2013 | Uncategorized
Budget "Cease-Fire" Expected W. Post describes likely budget agreement this week as a "cease-fire": "Republicans and Democrats are abandoning their debt-reduction goals, laying down arms and, for the moment, trying to avoid another economy-damaging standoff ......
by Richard Eskow | Dec 8, 2013 | Progressive Vision
There was a big dust-up in the Democratic Party last week, triggered by a somewhat incoherent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal from the leaders of a Wall Street-funded "think tank"/lobbying group called Third Way. Many of the responses dealt with the op-ed's attack on...
by Sam Pizzigati | Dec 8, 2013 | Uncategorized
What makes a society a fun place to be? Really nice weather and exciting nightlife options certainly help. So does avoiding a starkly skewed distribution of income and wealth. World Bank economist Branko Milanovic does serious work. His explorations into global...
by Terrance Heath | Dec 6, 2013 | Budget Talks, Conservatism, Economy, Minimum Wage
Despite the excitement over the latest jobs report, it’s too soon to celebrate. Millions of Americans are still struggling with long-term unemployment and hunger. Now is not the time to abandon them. Democrats, in particular, shouldn’t be fooled. A good-but-not-great...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 6, 2013 | Democracy, Making it in America, Trans-Pacific Partnership
This is an urgent warning that the country's big-corporate elite are about to try to push something called "Fast Track" Trade Promotion Authority through Congress, in preparation for pushing through the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) corporate "investor rights"...
by Bill Scher | Dec 6, 2013 | Uncategorized
That's right. With nothing. In the President's speech on inequality he said, "If Republicans have concrete plans that will actually...
by Bill Scher | Dec 6, 2013 | Uncategorized
203K New Jobs Could Prompt Fed Pullback "Unemployment Falls to 5-Year Low" reports NYT: "The jobs picture brightened in November as hiring was stronger than expected and the unemployment rate fell to a 5-year low, data that increases the likelihood that the Federal...
by Robert Borosage | Dec 6, 2013 | Uncategorized
The November Bureau of Labor Statistics job report – with a reported increase in 203,000 jobs and an unemployment rate of declining to 7.0% – shows a continuing but slow recovery. The celebration should be muted. Jobs growth has now averaged about 194,000 jobs...
by Richard Eskow | Dec 6, 2013 | Uncategorized
After democracy came, they tore down the prison where freedom fighters were held and used the bricks to build the nation's first Constitutional Court. Visitors to South Africa are often struck by the depth and breadth of that country's affection for Nelson Mandela. I...
