by Alan Jenkins | Apr 19, 2013 | Uncategorized
April is fair housing month and, this year, it’s also the 45th anniversary of the passage of the Fair Housing Act. Adopted in the wake of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Fair Housing Act transformed the legal rights that all Americans have to...
by Terrance Heath | Apr 19, 2013 | Uncategorized
Do you want to know what sequestration looks like on the ground, and where the real casualties will be found? Look to West, Texas, where an explosion at a fertilizer plant has claimed as many as 40 lives, injured more than 200, leveled entire neighborhoods, and driven...
by Bill Scher | Apr 19, 2013 | Blog
Yesterday, Sen. Marco Rubio was questioned on-air by a perplexed Rush Limbaugh about the bipartisan Senate immigration reform bill. The tone was gentle, but the gulf between the two was so wide, it may mark the beginning of a fundamental rift that will break the...
by Bill Scher | Apr 19, 2013 | Uncategorized
Disproven Austerity Still Reigns NYT"s Paul Krugman rips flawed Reinhart-Rogoff paper: "What the Reinhart-Rogoff affair shows is the extent to which austerity has been sold on false pretenses. For three years, the turn to austerity has been presented not as a choice...
by Dave Johnson | Apr 19, 2013 | Minimum Wage
The Walton (Walmart) heirs now have as much wealth as up to 40 percent of all Americans combined, and Walmart's sales have been slowing down. What does the first fact have to do with the second? (Hint: Sign this petition for raising the minimum wage.) The top 1...
by Digby | Apr 18, 2013 | Blog
So, according to Brian Beutler, the Republicans are balking at having a conference to iron out the differences between the Senate and House budgets. This is hypocritical in the extreme,obviously, since they've been braying about the Democratic senate failing to...
by Richard Eskow | Apr 18, 2013 | Blog
A recent “Spreadsheet Scandal” has rocked the economics world. It also seems to have eliminated the last remaining technical argument in support of the President’s “chained CPI” Social Security cut. Not weakened it. Eliminated it. I believe the President proposed the...
by Bill Scher | Apr 18, 2013 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: Time To Demand A Vote To Increase The Minimum Wage OurFuture.org's Isaiah J. Poole: "As of late Wednesday, more than 15,000 people have signed a SignOn.org petition posted by the Campaign for America’s Future. The goal is to have several hundred...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Apr 18, 2013 | Minimum Wage
It is time – in fact, it is past time – to demand that Congress act to increase the minimum wage. This week, the effort to get Congress to act is accelerating. As of late Wednesday, more than 15,000 people have signed a SignOn.org petition posted by the Campaign for...
by Dave Johnson | Apr 17, 2013 | Uncategorized
Earlier this week I wrote about Executive PayWatch from the AFL-CIO. This site tracks the huge wage gap between CEO pay and the average employee. Something many people don't know is that the Wall Street reform law was supposed to do this, but years later the...
by Dave Johnson | Apr 17, 2013 | Uncategorized
Earlier this week I wrote about Executive PayWatch from the AFL-CIO. This site tracks the huge wage gap between CEO pay and the average employee. Something many people don't know is that the Wall Street reform law was supposed to do this, but years later the...
by Dean Baker | Apr 17, 2013 | Uncategorized
That's the question millions will be asking when they see the new paper by my friends at the University of Massachusetts, Thomas Herndon, Michael Ash, and Robert Pollin. Herndon, Ash, and Pollin (HAP) corrected the spreadsheets of Carmen Reinhart and Ken Rogoff. They...
by Dean Baker | Apr 17, 2013 | Uncategorized
That's the question millions will be asking when they see the new paper by my friends at the University of Massachusetts, Thomas Herndon, Michael Ash, and Robert Pollin. Herndon, Ash, and Pollin (HAP) corrected the spreadsheets of Carmen Reinhart and Ken Rogoff. They...
by Bill Scher | Apr 17, 2013 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: Sinking American Electorate - Unmarried Women On The Edge Page Gardner of Women’s Voices Women Vote Action Fund: "Composed of unmarried women, African Americans, Latinos, other people of color, and youth ages 18-29, the Rising American Electorate, or...
by Jane Yurechko | Apr 17, 2013 | Uncategorized
As millions of Americans raced to the post office this week to mail in their taxes, we were reminded that April is, indeed, the cruelest month. It’s cruel because the sagging economy continues to create economic hardships for working-class Americans — including the...
by Jane Yurechko | Apr 17, 2013 | Uncategorized
As millions of Americans raced to the post office this week to mail in their taxes, we were reminded that April is, indeed, the cruelest month. It’s cruel because the sagging economy continues to create economic hardships for working-class Americans — including the...
by Derek Pugh | Apr 16, 2013 | Climate
“Tell me I’m your national anthem.” That was the theme of the hundreds of environmentalists and labor union members gathered today at the BlueGreen Alliance’s annual conference in Washington. They wanted to remind President Obama and Congress that the middle class is...
by Derek Pugh | Apr 16, 2013 | Uncategorized
“Tell me I’m your national anthem.” That was the theme of the hundreds of environmentalists and labor union members gathered today at the BlueGreen Alliance’s annual conference in Washington. They wanted to remind President Obama and Congress that the middle class is...
by Terrance Heath | Apr 16, 2013 | Uncategorized
The "rebranding" of the Republican party crashed headlong into reality again yesterday. The setting was Upper Senate Park on Capitol Hill. The occasion was a FreedomWorks' rally for the purpose of introducing what FreedomWorks is calling its "New Fair Deal." I was...
by Terrance Heath | Apr 16, 2013 | Uncategorized
The "rebranding" of the Republican party crashed headlong into reality again yesterday. The setting was Upper Senate Park on Capitol Hill. The occasion was a FreedomWorks' rally for the purpose of introducing what FreedomWorks is calling its "New Fair Deal." I was...
by Leo Gerard | Apr 16, 2013 | Uncategorized
Iciness is the defining feature of Margaret Thatcher, the United Kingdom’s first and only female prime minister, who died last week. She was the cold-as-steel Iron Lady. President Obama, warm, friendly, shaking hands, hugging the bereft, is the opposite. It’s the same...
by Dave Johnson | Apr 16, 2013 | Uncategorized
Where does the Republican Party put its energy? On anything that furthers the interests of the wealthiest. Tax cuts and kicking government are right at the top of that list*. Also near the top comes blocking minimum wage increases, blocking workplace safety rules and...
by Dave Johnson | Apr 16, 2013 | Uncategorized
Where does the Republican Party put its energy? On anything that furthers the interests of the wealthiest. Tax cuts and kicking government are right at the top of that list*. Also near the top comes blocking minimum wage increases, blocking workplace safety rules and...
by Richard Eskow | Apr 16, 2013 | Uncategorized
If some pundits have their way, the new blueprint for the Democratic Party will pit generation against generation and ethnicity against ethnicity, fragmenting us into ever-smaller social groups competing for slices of an ever-shrinking economic pie. Call it “Divide...
by Richard Eskow | Apr 16, 2013 | Uncategorized
If some pundits have their way, the new blueprint for the Democratic Party will pit generation against generation and ethnicity against ethnicity, fragmenting us into ever-smaller social groups competing for slices of an ever-shrinking economic pie. Call it “Divide...
by Terrance Heath | Apr 16, 2013 | Blog
In 2012, the GOP's version of "reality" ran headlong into actual reality -- both electoral and otherwise. The collision shattered may Republicans' perception of reality, and lead to current efforts to "rebrand" the party to appeal to the emerging electorate. That's...
by Derek Pugh | Apr 16, 2013 | Climate
Can something be equally beneficial for both the environment and the economy? Leaders of the nation’s largest environmental organizations and labor unions say yes. This week in Washington, the BlueGreen Alliance will be holding its annual conference, appropriately...
by Derek Pugh | Apr 16, 2013 | Uncategorized
Can something be equally beneficial for both the environment and the economy? Leaders of the nation’s largest environmental organizations and labor unions say yes. This week in Washington, the BlueGreen Alliance will be holding its annual conference, appropriately...
by Richard Eskow | Apr 16, 2013 | Uncategorized
It's hard to think about tax policy or cost-of-living calculations for Social Security when death is in the news, when the grim horror of it hangs in the air like the last wisps of afternoon smoke. The bombs exploded just before the finish line, at mile 26.2 of the...
by Richard Eskow | Apr 16, 2013 | Uncategorized
It's hard to think about tax policy or cost-of-living calculations for Social Security when death is in the news, when the grim horror of it hangs in the air like the last wisps of afternoon smoke. The bombs exploded just before the finish line, at mile 26.2 of the...
by Bill Scher | Apr 16, 2013 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: Why Education Advocates Join the Progressive Opposition to Obama’s Budget OurFuture.org's Jeff Bryant: "The narrative that there’s a sort of generational warfare breaking out in the Democratic Party is remarkably false, though. Because Social Security...
by Jeff Bryant | Apr 16, 2013 | Education
Now that every major media outlet has weighed in on the budget that President Obama introduced last week, the conventional wisdom is that Obama has proposed a "balance" of new revenues and spending cuts with an emphasis on sacrificing "entitlements" enjoyed by old...
by Jeff Bryant | Apr 16, 2013 | Education
Now that every major media outlet has weighed in on the budget that President Obama introduced last week, the conventional wisdom is that Obama has proposed a "balance" of new revenues and spending cuts with an emphasis on sacrificing "entitlements" enjoyed by old...
by Sam Pizzigati | Apr 16, 2013 | Uncategorized
A colossal gift from a fabulously rich patron of the arts has the museum world buzzing. But hold the hosannahs. The rich aren't saving our culture. Thomas Campbell didn't have a good week last week. He had a great week. Campbell directs the Metropolitan Museum of Art...
by Sam Pizzigati | Apr 16, 2013 | Uncategorized
A colossal gift from a fabulously rich patron of the arts has the museum world buzzing. But hold the hosannahs. The rich aren't saving our culture. Thomas Campbell didn't have a good week last week. He had a great week. Campbell directs the Metropolitan Museum of Art...
by Keith Ellison | Apr 15, 2013 | Blog
Last week President Obama announced a budget that includes something called "chained CPI" as a way to reduce Social Security benefits. I will not support it. And will not vote for any plan that includes cuts to benefits Americans have earned. The proposal has already...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Apr 15, 2013 | Uncategorized
In our post-mortem of the 2012 elections, the Campaign for America's Future was one of the few organizations willing to say that "class war" was not only the common theme of many of the Democratic Party's electoral successes but it is a strategy that the party should...
by Dave Johnson | Apr 15, 2013 | Uncategorized
All the smartest people in the executive suites just knew that the taste of Coca-Cola needed "reform." Rival Pepsi was advertising to the "New Generation" and Coke's executives came to believe their product wasn't what the "cool" people wanted to drink. Everyone they...
by Dave Johnson | Apr 15, 2013 | Uncategorized
Take a look at the 2013 Edition of the website called Executive PayWatch from the AFL-CIO. This site, active since 1997, helps drive awareness of the huge wage gap between CEO pay and the average employee. Compare your pay to the pay of top executives. Heck, you might...
by Bill Scher | Apr 15, 2013 | Uncategorized
More Work Needed For Progressive Tax Code Corporations should pay higher taxes, argues James Livingston in NYT oped: "For most of the 1950s, corporate income at large companies was taxed at 52 percent ... by slashing corporate income taxes and forcing a new reliance...
