by Robert Borosage | Jun 20, 2013 | Minimum Wage
Can the economy recover if workers don't? Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke yesterday suggested as much, but investors were clearly skittish. Bernanke announced that while the Fed would continue its extraordinary measures to prop up the economy, the end might be in...
by Dave Johnson | Jun 20, 2013 | Student Debt Relief
The clock is ticking. Without action by Congress student loan rates double at the end of the month -- less than two weeks. If you don't want student loan rates to go up or even double, contact your member of Congress today. Please click this link and call your two...
by Bill Scher | Jun 19, 2013 | Climate
Before the end of the Barack Obama presidency, the EPA will place a cap on carbon pollution from all power plants. This is no longer a mystery. This is happening. And there's nothing Republicans in Congress can do about it. Though if you've been paying close...
by Richard Eskow | Jun 19, 2013 | Financial Reform
Nearly 100 years ago two young Detroit girls visited a now-vanished island park that had a dance pavilion, amusement rides, and swimming, and wrote that they were “having fun” on a piece of paper. Then they put the paper in a bottle and tossed it into the St. Clair...
by Jeff Bryant | Jun 19, 2013 | Education
As a populist wave of discontent with top-down education mandates continues to sweep the country, more than 25,000 concerned citizens have coalesced behind an Education Declaration to Rebuild America. If you haven't already, show your support for the Declaration here....
by Terrance Heath | Jun 19, 2013 | Uncategorized
When Paul Ryan first introduced his first "Path to Prosperity" budget proposal, he framed it as an attempt to build upon the "successful" welfare reform of the late 1990s. At the time, I wrote that "welfare reform" was a "catastrophic success," because of its...
by Dean Baker | Jun 19, 2013 | Uncategorized
While meandering the streets of Paris, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman apparently awakened to the fact that the assignment of claims to wealth through patents, copyrights, and other forms of intellectual property is a really big deal. This is good news for those...
by Jane Yurechko | Jun 18, 2013 | Student Debt Relief
The clock is ticking on student loan interest rates. The rates for federally-backed student Stafford loans will double from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent on July 1. And what has Congress done to help these already struggling students? Absolutely nothing. Student debt now...
by Dave Johnson | Jun 18, 2013 | Blog
You may have heard that Republicans are forcing (even more) cuts in programs like Meals On Wheels. Big deal, another "budget cut" to reduce the dreaded "government spending." But what does all of this this mean to actual, real people? Read this because what really...
by Richard Eskow | Jun 18, 2013 | Blog
For an estimated 4 million people, including about 210,000 schoolchildren, the farm bill the House is scheduled to start debating today could mean they will be going hungry a lot more often. That has promoted organizations such as Half in 10 and the Food Research and...
by Leo Gerard | Jun 18, 2013 | Blog
The Farm Bill that is expected to pass the U.S. House this week explains income inequality in America. The Republican-sponsored proposal slashes food stamps for poor children and pads farm subsidies for wealthy agri-businessmen. This comes just a week after Senate...
by Adele Stan | Jun 17, 2013 | Blog
What kind of society abandons its own young? What kind of society allows the generations in power to favor themselves over those who follow them, and then lets them claim they're doing it out of selflessness? Look around you. This weekend we reviewed nine ways an...
by Terrance Heath | Jun 17, 2013 | Blog
Last week, when thousands of Greeks took to the streets to protest the Greek government's austerity driven shut-down the state-run television broadcaster, ERT, I asked whether the latest European backlash against austerity would begin to turn the tide against...
by Derek Pugh | Jun 17, 2013 | Blog
A new CNN/ORC International poll released today reveals that Democrats may be in trouble during the 2014 midterm elections. Amid political controversies, an anemic economy and high unemployment, President Obama’s approval rating dropped eight percentage points in a...
by Dave Johnson | Jun 17, 2013 | Blog
Texas Governor Rick Perry is on a "job-poaching" trip to New York. Let's say he "attracts" some businesses to move to his low-wage, low-tax state. That means good-paying jobs in one part of our country become low-paying jobs in another and business taxes that...
by Stan Collender | Jun 17, 2013 | Uncategorized
You would think that this poll showing "Americans' confidence in Congress is not only at its lowest point on record, but also is the worst Gallup has ever found for any institution it has measured since 1973" would be so embarrassing to those on Capital Hill that they...
by Sam Pizzigati | Jun 17, 2013 | Uncategorized
Let's place private corporations with government contracts under surveillance — to make sure no one is getting rich off our tax dollars. Only 23 percent of Americans, says a new Reuters poll, consider former National Security Agency employee Edward Snowden a “traitor”...
by Eric Glatt | Jun 17, 2013 | Uncategorized
To Whom It May Concern at the White House: I have three little words for you: Pay Your Interns. It is unconscionable for the White House — as for so many other “public” sector organizations — to engage in a practice that structurally reinforces privilege, closing off...
by Richard Eskow | Jun 16, 2013 | Uncategorized
Conservatives keep claiming liberals want a "cradle-to-grave nanny state." That rhetoric has distracted us from the real social re-engineering taking place all around us. The right, along with its "centrist" collaborators, is transforming our nation into a bloodless...
by Greg Kaufmann | Jun 14, 2013 | Uncategorized
Congress Turns Its Back on Rural America (via Moyers & Company) For fifteen years in Neodesha, Kansas (population 2,486) there were only two options for early childhood education services in town: a program for at-risk 4-year-olds operated by the school district, and...
by Terrance Heath | Jun 14, 2013 | Uncategorized
Today I had the honor of being one of few men to join the panel on WETA's "To The Contrary," with Bonnie Erbe, for a Father's Day edition of the normally all-female news analysis program. (The show will air later this evening, and the video will be available online...
by Dave Johnson | Jun 14, 2013 | Uncategorized
Have you heard that China is sending people into space? Have you heard about China's high-speed rail lines linking their major cities? Have you heard that China has built the fastest supercompouter in the world? These are results of the dreaded "government spending"...
by Dave Johnson | Jun 14, 2013 | Uncategorized
"The appeal for each Moral Monday has been the same: urging legislators to govern for the good of the whole, rather than for the wealthy." — Rev. William Barber. Since April, North Carolina citizens have been gathering at the state capital in Raleigh for "Moral...
by Nehemiah Rolle | Jun 13, 2013 | Uncategorized
Starting today, Massachusetts Rep. James McGovern is joining the state’s Health and Human Services Secretary John Polanowicz and other Massachusetts officials in the “SNAP challenge.” For the next seven days, they are going to be living off a food budget of $31.50,...
by Terrance Heath | Jun 13, 2013 | Uncategorized
The IMF has "acknowledged major mistakes" in Greece's bailout, and admitted to seriously underestimating the severity of Greece's downturn. Yet the Greek government continues with draconian spending cuts, in order to comply with the austerity measures based upon those...
by Dave Johnson | Jun 13, 2013 | Uncategorized
The Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) has just released a report on tax havens, Corporate Pirates of the Caribbean. The report shows that the corporations engaged in the "Fix the Debt" austerity push would gain up to $173 billion in tax breaks from their proposal for...
by Richard Eskow | Jun 13, 2013 | Uncategorized
It seems as if the same battle is being fought in every aspect of American society. On one side are the forces of egalitarianism, economic opportunity and self-determination. On the other is a well-funded and entrenched elite bent on hijacking our media, our political...
by Richard Long | Jun 12, 2013 | Uncategorized
Seven homeowners who have faced foreclosure by some of the nation’s biggest banks after doing the best they could to save their homes faced a D.C. Superior Court judge Tuesday. They were in court for the act of civil disobedience their financial plight had driven them...
by Digby | Jun 12, 2013 | Uncategorized
This is a fascinating account of how the Grand Bargain came to be the tired conventional wisdom among the Village wonk crowd. (I'm characterizing it that way, not the author, the esteemed Larry Mishel. ) It's required reading for anyone who has been following this...
by Dave Johnson | Jun 12, 2013 | Making it in America
This week I hosted a blogger call to discuss the outcome of last week's Friday/Saturday meetings between President Obama and Chinese President and General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Xi Jinping. None of this matters much, unless you care about your job,...
by Bill Scher | Jun 12, 2013 | Uncategorized
With the House Republican caucus still squabbling over what ransom they should demand for an increase in the debt limit, Speaker John Boehner issued his own threat yesterday. According to Roll Call, Boehner wants "another round of spending cuts beyond the sequester."...
by Jeff Bryant | Jun 12, 2013 | Education
The growing revolution against top-down education mandates based on high-stakes testing and standardization has been building over the months into a widespread Education Spring. Every revolution needs a declaration calling for a positive, new way forward. This week,...
by Bill Scher | Jun 11, 2013 | Uncategorized
The Senate is on the verge of preventing an initial filibuster of the bipartisan immigration reform bill, with several Republican votes in support of proceeding. Despite all the trumped up "scandals," the Republican Party shows little interest in derailing the top...
by Leo Gerard | Jun 11, 2013 | Uncategorized
When a kid snatches an old lady’s purse, it’s punished as a crime. But when a corporation manipulates bankruptcy law to deny thousands of retired coal miners benefits they labored their entire lives to earn, it’s endorsed by federal court. Late last month, a...
by Dave Johnson | Jun 11, 2013 | Uncategorized
You might have heard that "austerity is dead." You'll certainly be hearing it, and with good reason: the U.S. deficit is down more than 50 percent from what President Bush left behind, projections of the rise in medical costs that drove future deficits are way down,...
by Richard Eskow | Jun 10, 2013 | Uncategorized
It should be self-evident that recent NSA revelations bring up some grave concerns about civil liberties. But they also raise other profound and troubling questions - about the privatization of our military, our culture's inflated expectations for digital technology,...
by Thom Hartmann | Jun 10, 2013 | Uncategorized
One of our nation's richest men, billionaire Nick Hanauer, just destroyed the GOP's economic talking points. In a testimony before the Senate Banking Committee, Hanauer explained why rich people like him are not, in fact, the real job creators. He said, “In the same...
by Dave Johnson | Jun 10, 2013 | Making it in America, Trans-Pacific Partnership
You know how big-company lobbyists get some states to pass laws that block cities and counties from doing something about problems like tobacco or guns? Well there is a "trade" treaty called the Trans-Pacific Partnership in the works that sets down international rules...
by Terrance Heath | Jun 10, 2013 | Uncategorized
The last couple of months in Washington have been punctuated by burst of excitement as policymakers and pundits reacted to what to them was good news for the economy. The stock market is up. Consumer spending is up. Housing is booming again. The era of "uncertainty"...
by Sam Pizzigati | Jun 10, 2013 | Uncategorized
For the grasping managers of Corporate America — and the institutions their wealth dominates — no workers deserve dignity, not even the most amazingly accomplished. Locked-out musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra What do bank executives who make $19 million a year do...
