by Bill Scher | Aug 27, 2013 | Uncategorized
Debt Limit Showdown Rapidly Approaching Debt limit expected to be reached earlier than expected, in mid-October. Roll Call: "The upcoming spending debates on Capitol Hill will almost converge, setting up a tough slog in September and October ... [Treasury Secretary...
by Richard Eskow | Aug 26, 2013 | The Unfinished March
When Bayard Rustin addressed the March on Washington in 1963, he said this: "We demand that there be an increase in the national minimum wage so that men may live in dignity." The crowd cheered in response. But after fifty years of commemorating that march, after...
by Dave Johnson | Aug 26, 2013 | Blog
If your core cause is the environment, LGBT, health care, women's rights, social justice, civil rights, labor, economic equality, YOU NAME IT you are seen by the giant corporations as the same enemy. But for too long all of these groups have been divided. Here is the...
by Dave Johnson | Aug 26, 2013 | Trans-Pacific Partnership
There is a big strike in Colombia, and you probably don't know about it. Farmers and others are protesting over a variety of grievances including the devastating effect of free-trade agreements, privatization and inequality-driven poverty. Corporate-owned American...
by Digby | Aug 26, 2013 | Economy, Financial Reform
This excerpt comes from a piece by Michael Winship on how much Washington has changed since the Nixon years. The social and cultural changes are quite striking. But this says it all: [T]he biggest difference between then and now, as the great Washington journalist...
by Stan Collender | Aug 26, 2013 | Conservatism, Economy
Yes...The headline on this post is inflammatory and intended to attract eyeballs, visitors and clicks. It's also totally accurate. I'm posting this is because of this editorial in today's The New York Times that is both absolutely correct and incredibly naive when it...
by Bill Scher | Aug 26, 2013 | Uncategorized
March of Washington Anniversary Re-Energizes Progressive Agenda 50 years later, blacks lag behind whites "by almost every measure" reports Bloomberg: "Since the June 2009 end of the recession, median income for black households has dropped 10.9 percent, compared with...
by Terrance Heath | Aug 26, 2013 | The Unfinished March
On Saturday, thousands came to Washington, to walk in the footsteps of those who came to the capital 50 years ago, for the "March on Washington For Jobs and Freedom." The event became an iconic moment for the African-American civil rights movement and set the mold for...
by Sam Pizzigati | Aug 25, 2013 | Blog
Back in Al Capone’s day, Prohibition helped give rise to a rash of epic crime-boss fortunes. In our day, deregulation has spawned on Wall Street an entire new generation of fabulously rich racketeers. What crimes did Al Capone, the notorious 1920s crime boss, have his...
by Dave Johnson | Aug 23, 2013 | Trans-Pacific Partnership
Members of Congress are starting to pay attention to the upcoming, secretly-negotiated Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) "trade" agreement that isn't really about trade. And the public is also becoming aware that this runaway job-loss express train is coming straight at...
by Wenonah Hauter | Aug 23, 2013 | Trans-Pacific Partnership
The United States is negotiating a NAFTA-style trade deal that should be alarming to American consumers. The main reason it’s not getting much attention is that the mainstream media is largely ignoring it. This pact deserves more news coverage. It threatens to...
by Digby | Aug 23, 2013 | Conservatism, Health, This Is The GOP
The Heritage Foundation Obamascare traveling revival show continues: Former U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina organized an evening town hall meeting, which called for defunding the federal health care law. More than 300 people attended the event. [...] Opponents...
by Thom Hartmann | Aug 23, 2013 | Democracy, Economy, Financial Reform
This won't come as a surprise to many of you, but unless you are an bankster or a billionaire, you're not being represented in the United States Senate. According to a new study published in Political Research Quarterly, Senators in the last five Congresses have...
by Terrance Heath | Aug 23, 2013 | Uncategorized
Dream Deferred, Now Due Peter Dreier, writing at WaPo, asks "What would King march for today?": "What would the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. march for if he were alive today? America has made progress on many fronts in the half-century since King electrified a crowd of...
by Richard Eskow | Aug 22, 2013 | The Unfinished March
Our nation is about to commemorate the 1963 March on Washington. Over the next few days there will be new marches and new speeches, along with lots of black-and-white photographs and film clips of that historic day. We’ll remember the wisdom and courage of the civil...
by Dean Baker | Aug 22, 2013 | Blog
On Wednesday the Associated Press fielded its entry in the classics in bad reporting on economic policy contest: a profile it did of David Walker, the former head of the Government Accountability Office and also former president of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation....
by Richard Eskow | Aug 22, 2013 | Blog
The share of our national income which goes to corporate profit is the highest it’s been since they started tracking it in 1929, while the share going to people – as salary and wages – is the lowest. And the percentage of that corporate profit which goes to Wall...
by Terrance Heath | Aug 22, 2013 | Conservatism, The Sequester
In their effort to reach Latino voters with their economic message, Republicans have run into an interesting problem. In Spanish, "sequester" translates as "secuestrar," which literally means to kidnap someone, or take someone hostage. It's ironic, and appropriate....
by Dave Johnson | Aug 22, 2013 | Making it in America
We have to have things to sell to others to bring in the money to buy things from others. Detroit’s bankruptcy shows what happens when a country forgets that. I hosted a blogger call yesterday with Carl Pope and Scott Paul to discuss the new book ReMaking America. I...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Aug 22, 2013 | Uncategorized
Reflecting On The Next March on Washington Rep. John Lewis reflects on the 50 years after the March on Washington. At just 23 years old, he was chairman of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, one of the most important groups in the American civil rights...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Aug 22, 2013 | The Unfinished March
As the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington approaches, Dr. Martin Luther King’s “dream” remains unfulfilled. Great progress has been made against racial discrimination, but Dr. King’s call for economic justice remains unanswered. In the 50 years since King at...
by Dave Johnson | Aug 21, 2013 | Uncategorized
Martin Luther King Jr. outlined his dream 50 years ago this weekend. We made much of it happen. Let's dream some more. Let's dream about what we could do in the next 50 years. Fifty years ago Martin Luther King Jr. led the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and...
by Sam Pizzigati | Aug 21, 2013 | Blog
Fifty years ago, average Americans lived in a society that had been growing — and had become — much more equal. In 1963, of every $100 in personal income, less than $10 went to the nation’s richest 1 percent. Americans today live in a land much more unequal. The...
by Alan Jenkins | Aug 21, 2013 | Blog
It’s the rare occasion when a significant social challenge is raised up in rigorous economic research and almost instantly answered by a creative and dynamic public policy response. Yet, in broad strokes, that’s what’s happening on a critical question of equal...
by Richard Eskow | Aug 21, 2013 | Retirement Security
In every successful struggle there’s a time to celebrate a hard-fought victory. When it comes to Social Security, this is not that time. It’s true that, after including the “chained CPI” benefit cut in his latest budget, President Obama seems to have dropped the idea....
by Isaiah J. Poole | Aug 21, 2013 | Uncategorized
Obamacare: Fear-Mongering Vs. Reality "Health costs are growing really slowly. Americans haven’t noticed." Writes The Washington Post's Sarah Kliff: "Ask any health economist and they’ll no doubt tell you that health care cost growth is slowing, growing at a low,...
by Jeff Bryant | Aug 21, 2013 | Education
Philadelphia, the place where the Declaration of Independence was signed and the Constitution was written, and the site of the oldest residential street in the United States, has become the site where the nation's drift away from its founding ideals is most acutely...
by Richard Eskow | Aug 21, 2013 | Democracy
September’s coming up fast, and we know what that means. Soon Congress will be back in session and we’ll be inundated with fresh evidence that our democracy is broken. That makes this a good time to reflect on the powerful forces arrayed against the public interest –...
by Stan Collender | Aug 20, 2013 | Conservatism
Two weeks or so ago I posted that this fall's (and winter's) budget debate could best be described as "budget bedlam." I was wrong. Since that post the situation has taken a turn for the worse and "bedlam," which sounds more like a Marx Bothers, Mack Sennett, or Three...
by Leo Gerard | Aug 20, 2013 | Health
So many challenging choices for young people today! And it’s not just between Vine and Instagram. More importantly, it’s between burn-baby-burn and health insurance security. FreedomWorks, a Tea Party don’t-think tank, is urging young adults to be rebels with a...
by Dave Johnson | Aug 20, 2013 | Blog
Every new job helps the economy. Because every new job is another person shopping at local stores. And every few new jobs mean the stores are hiring, too. Every new job is another person not trying to take your job. So let’s hire people to fix our roads and bridges,...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Aug 20, 2013 | Uncategorized
Jobs Crisis: 'Ongoing Train Wreck' State Jobs Numbers Show Sluggish Growth (EPI): "July 2013 Bureau of Labor Statistics state employment data ... echoes the national employment data for July, with continued but very slow employment growth and an economic recovery so...
by Sam Pizzigati | Aug 19, 2013 | Current Issues, Economy, Health
Let’s talk life expectancy. The stats first. They tell a shocking story: Americans now live shorter lives than men and women in most of the rest of the developed world. And that gap is growing. Back in 1990, shouts a new study just published in the Journal of the...
by Thom Hartmann | Aug 19, 2013 | Conservatism, Economy, Financial Reform, Health
It turns out that Republican obstructionism is quite costly for big business. A new report from the Huffington Post found that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce isn't getting much return for the $69.5 million dollars they invested in Republican candidates in the last two...
by Digby | Aug 19, 2013 | Current Issues
So, this happened: The partner of the Guardian journalist who has written a series of stories revealing mass surveillance programmes by the US National Security Agency was held for almost nine hours on Sunday by UK authorities as he passed through London's Heathrow...
by Terrance Heath | Aug 19, 2013 | Uncategorized
Detroit Has Just Begun To Fight Braced to Remake Itself, Detroit First Awaits Challenges to Bankruptcy Eligibility [NY Times]: "Before Detroit can start remaking itself in bankruptcy court, there is a basic question that stands in its way: Does it even qualify? That...
by Terrance Heath | Aug 16, 2013 | Current Issues
After a 31-day sit-in that inspired millions and got the attention of Florida lawmakers, the Dream Defenders have ended their occupation of the Florida state capitol. But don't think for a minute that they are going away. As others took to the street to protest the...
by Thom Hartmann | Aug 16, 2013 | Economy, Financial Reform
The bankers, billionaires, and wealthy elite are losing one of their favorite offshore tax havens. The Cayman Islands has finally agreed to cooperate with the U.S., and make it more difficult for the wealthy to stash money overseas. Officials in that nation have...
by Dave Johnson | Aug 16, 2013 | Climate, Making it in America
America used to manufacture silicon chips. Now much of that industry has moved to China. Solar-panel manufacturing will be a huge industry of the future and America deserves to have a chunk of that industry and the jobs and income that industry will bring. But...
by Dave Johnson | Aug 16, 2013 | Blog
The parents of the Republican Party are away for the summer and the Tea-nagers are ransacking the House. But is it really a surprise that people who hate government itself would act to destroy government itself? Shut The Government Vs. Global Meltdown There are more...
