by Digby | Oct 21, 2013 | Conservatism, Health
As I watch the talking heads all clutch their pearls over the insurance exchange website, I can't help but notice once again that none of them seem to know a thing about what's really happening out here to people who have to deal with the private insurance market. I'm...
by Sam Pizzigati | Oct 21, 2013 | Economy
A tiny tax on global personal wealth over $1 million could ensure that no child anywhere on the planet has to live in extreme poverty. The folks at Rolls-Royce have just opened a brand-new dealership — in the poverty-stricken Philippines. This nation of nearly 100...
by Bill Scher | Oct 21, 2013 | Uncategorized
No Movement Toward Grand Bargain Senate Minority Leader McConnell calls Obama's insistence on tax revenue for Social Security changes "$1 trillion ransom." Politico quotes: "Unfortunately, every discussion we've had about this in the past has had what I would call a...
by Richard Eskow | Oct 20, 2013 | Retirement Security
As the Bob Dylan song says: “Things should start to get interesting right about now.” You may think they’re already interesting – what with government closings, threats of a debt default, and extremist rhetoric under the Capitol Dome – but chances are we ain’t seen...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 18, 2013 | Blog
Republicans are always saying their policies will bring prosperity, to get people to vote for them. But when their policies are actually put to the test we see very different results. (Just look at how our society has been transformed since Reagan.) A recent study...
by Bill Scher | Oct 18, 2013 | Conservatism
The GOP's shutdown debacle exposed a three-way-split within the party: Tea Party amateurs, cooler-headed conservatives and Establishment players. What's odd about this split is that it doesn't involve much in the way of ideological differences. All camps are basically...
by Bill Scher | Oct 18, 2013 | Uncategorized
Reid, Union Push Back Hard Against Grand Bargain Sen. Majority Leader Reid draws line on Social Security, in HuffPost interview: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has no interest in a budget deal that trades sequestration relief for entitlement cuts,...
by Richard Eskow | Oct 17, 2013 | Blog
According to anonymous Capitol Hill sources, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi cautioned Democratic members of Congress on Thursday against "gloating" over the spectacular crash-and-burn that was the Republicans' government shutdown. No gloating over the...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 17, 2013 | Blog
Republicans believe that a bad economy works for them at election time. The thinking is that the public will turn on Democrats for not making things better. So they do what they can to make the economy bad. But maybe they went too far this time. This hostage-taking...
by Emily Foster | Oct 17, 2013 | Health
When House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said on Wednesday, “We all agree that Obamacare is an abomination,” the “we” he was referring to certainly was not the majority of Americans. In fact, an “intense new majority” of citizens support the implementation of...
by Terrance Heath | Oct 17, 2013 | Conservatism, Economy, Health, Retirement Security, Shutdown, This Is The GOP
Remember in 2009, when Jim DeMint said health care reform would be President Obama's Waterloo? Four years later, defunding health care reform became the GOP's Alamo. But Republicans aren't done damaging their party, or the rest of the country, yet. Not by a long shot....
by Dave Johnson | Oct 17, 2013 | Blog
Democrats stood strong and look what happened! The Republican government shutdown has collapsed and their threats to blow up the economy backfired blowing them up instead. So now is the time to finally push for JOBS! Democrats literally stepped in at the last minute...
by Bill Scher | Oct 17, 2013 | Uncategorized
Welcome Back Government Government open, debts paid. AP: "The Senate approved the legislation by an 81-18 vote; the House followed suit by a tally of 285-144, with 87 Republicans in favor and 144 against, breaking an informal rule in which a majority of the majority...
by Robert Borosage | Oct 17, 2013 | Blog
Republicans finally caved. In the third week of the government shutdown, on the eve of an unimaginable default on U.S. debts, the craven Republican leadership, for months cowed by Tea Party zealots, finally ended its destructive folly. Majorities in both the Senate...
by Richard Eskow | Oct 16, 2013 | Uncategorized
It’s a major victory. The shutdown has ended, the government isn’t defaulting (at least not yet), and Democrats didn’t yield in the face of threats and bullying. But what happens next could shape our fate for many years to come. Congratulations are in order. President...
by Bill Scher | Oct 16, 2013 | Democracy
The manufactured debt limit and shutdown crises are about to be put behind us. But the deal also launches a new around of House-Senate budget negotiations that are sure to be contentious. Democrats need to be careful not to let Republican intransigence chew up the...
by Digby | Oct 16, 2013 | Current Issues, Economy, Retirement Security
I know there is no more trite phrase in America, but Lord, this Thomas Friedman column is bad. It's so bad you have to read the whole thing to experience the full horror of it. In fact, I'm not even sure he wrote it himself. It reads more like something the messaging...
by Derek Pugh | Oct 16, 2013 | Minimum Wage
A new report from researchers at the University of California at Berkeley estimates that low-wage jobs in the fast-food sector are costing American taxpayers nearly $7 billion every year. The report—Fast Food, Poverty Wages: The Public Cost of Low-Wage Jobs in the...
by Bill Scher | Oct 16, 2013 | Uncategorized
Senate Deal Appears Imminent House scraps vote, eyes on Senate. AP: "Senate leaders are optimistic about forging an eleventh-hour bipartisan deal ... It was expected to mirror a deal the leaders had neared Monday. That agreement was described as extending the debt...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Oct 16, 2013 | Conservatism, Shutdown
Tea Party Republican extremism has already taken a bite of as much as $31 billion out of the economy since October 1, according to Wall Street analysts. And the price tag is about to get much higher now that the recalcitrants in the House of Representatives have...
by Richard Eskow | Oct 15, 2013 | Blog
A recent column by Andrew Ross Sorkin is instructive, although not in the way Sorkin might have wished. His portrayal of JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon as the innocent and beleaguered victim of “writers, editors and bloggers” is likely to stand as a cautionary tale, a...
by Jeff Bryant | Oct 15, 2013 | Education
The latest news stories from the brave frontiers of a movement known as "education reform" are in, and the consensus view is that down continues to be the new up. Personnel programs such as teacher merit pay that were supposed to improve the financial efficiency of...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 15, 2013 | Blog
There is a miscalculation at the core of Democratic strategies for ending the shutdown and avoiding default. Democrats keep saying, "They wouldn’t really do that." But this calculation doesn't "get it" about who and what the country is dealing with. Here is the...
by Leo Gerard | Oct 15, 2013 | Conservatism, Health, Shutdown
In the early days, the iconic image of D.C.-hating Tea Partiers was a sign reading: “Keep your government hands off my Medicare.” Occasionally their protest placards added a little profanity to that directive. Right now, though, Tea Partiers should be cursing their...
by Bill Scher | Oct 15, 2013 | Uncategorized
Senate Deal Close, House Uncertain Senate close to deal. AP: "It lacks the budget cuts demanded by Republicans in exchange for increasing the government's $16.7 trillion borrowing cap. Nor does the framework contain any of a secondary set of House GOP demands, like a...
by Robert Borosage | Oct 15, 2013 | Shutdown
With the ugly government shutdown headed into its third week, Senate leaders are said to be close to a deal that could avert the unimaginable – the default on U.S. debt that could easily drive the world economy into depression. Even if senators reach a deal today, it...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 15, 2013 | Shutdown
The government has been shut down for two weeks, and the prospect of default and resulting economic chaos is on the horizon. There is no question the shutdown is damaging the recovery. We do not yet know how much damage, we just know damage is occurring. There is no...
by Sam Pizzigati | Oct 14, 2013 | Blog
If the Supreme Court chooses to erase our remaining post-Watergate campaign finance reforms, Richard Nixon's scandalous reign may come to seem — thanks to growing inequality — mere kid's play. The U.S. Supreme Court last week heard oral arguments in a case that could...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 13, 2013 | Blog
Did you know that Republicans filibustered to obstruct raising the debt ceiling Saturday? The bill to raise the debt ceiling received 53 votes in favor and 45 against, with every Republican senator voting to filibuster. Yes, 53-45 is a majority vote to raise the debt...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 12, 2013 | Blog
You might be hearing that some Democrats are "willing to make a deal" involving the "small" ($40 billion) medical device tax. It's a good idea to know what is going on -- especially the "offset" some are talking about. 1) The tax is on the windfall that the ACA is...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 11, 2013 | Blog
In business "bad profits" are short-term gains at the expense of a business' long-term viability. For example, soaking your loyal customers might bring you some increase in short-term profits but the customers won't remain loyal, and your future market share will...
by Terrance Heath | Oct 11, 2013 | Conservatism, Economy, Shutdown, This Is The GOP
Punishing the Poor In the first days of the shutdown, conservatives alternated between celebrating and downplaying the impact. RedState.com's Erick Erickson insisted Americans would barely notice the government shutdown. But the consequences of the government shutdown...
by Digby | Oct 11, 2013 | Conservatism, Shutdown
[fve]http://youtu.be/IIJ-nxOvpzU[/fve] Maybe today's Republicans don't know that the Greatest Generation went through the depression and WWII and their president throughout both was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, not Ronald Reagan. Eisenhower was to the left of Barack...
by Joshua Holland | Oct 11, 2013 | Conservatism, Economy, Shutdown, This Is The GOP
Rep. Peter King (R-NY) once claimed that “80 to 85 percent of mosques in this country are controlled by Islamic fundamentalists” and called those who worship in them “an enemy living amongst us.” He held McCarthyesque hearings into the supposed “radicalization of...
by Bill Scher | Oct 11, 2013 | Uncategorized
Talks Intensify Around Short-Term Debt Limit Hike WH, House GOP leaders talk through night. AP: "No agreement was reported and plenty of hurdles remained, but both sides cast their meeting positively ... Obama planned a late-morning White House meeting Friday with GOP...
by Richard Eskow | Oct 10, 2013 | Blog
A time bomb with a six-week fuse is still a bomb. And as long as the Republicans keep issuing threats and shutting down the government, they're still playing with dynamite. It was initially reported that the GOP's "offer" to extend the debt ceiling for six weeks was...
by Bill Scher | Oct 10, 2013 | Shutdown
In July, Speaker Boehner said, "We’re not going to raise the debt ceiling without real cuts in spending." On Sunday, Boehner said, "I'm not going to raise the debt limit without a serious conversation about dealing with problems that are driving the debt up." And...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 10, 2013 | Blog
Wow! In just a day and a half we got more than 140,000 (and still rising fast) signatures on a petition to encourage Representatives to sign a "discharge petition" to force a vote to end the shutdown. Progressives are united. If Democrats don’t cave we can stay united...
by Bill Scher | Oct 10, 2013 | Uncategorized
Here Comes The Cave House GOP prepares to retreat. AP: "House Republican leaders are considering a short-term increase in the U.S. debt limit as a possible way to break the gridlock ... These officials said there is far less urgency inside the leadership about ending...
by Digby | Oct 10, 2013 | Conservatism, Economy, Shutdown
Via Jake Tapper yesterday: There are conversations under way as to what we will discuss, you know, what we will negotiate over, what things will be on the table. But what we said is – open the government, pay our bills and let's have this honest conversation," said...
