by Terrance Heath | Mar 28, 2013 | Uncategorized
"The Time is always right," Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, "to do the right thing." Unfortunately, that's not always true in Washington. Courage and conviction is too often in short supply in Washington. Those with the power to set in motion the kind of change that...
by Digby | Mar 28, 2013 | Blog
It would seem so: Speaking to Megyn Kelly about the Supreme Court's hearing on Proposition 8, O'Reilly--who has previously compared gay marriage to bestiality--appeared to have "evolved" on the subject. He said he didn't "feel that strongly" about gay marriage "one...
by Bill Scher | Mar 28, 2013 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: Austerity Lovers In D.C., Austerity Haters At Home OurFuture.org's Dave Johnson: "They cry for cuts, cuts, cuts. When the cuts happen in their districts they cry for cuts somewhere else ... Rep. Michelle Bachman (R-WI) decries government spending but...
by Dave Johnson | Mar 28, 2013 | Uncategorized
In Washington, austerity-hungry Republicans called the sequester's "across the board" spending cuts a "victory" – until their districts feel them. Then they complain about the cuts, but still demand cuts somewhere else and add new demands that someone ELSE decide what...
by Dave Johnson | Mar 27, 2013 | Economy, Minimum Wage
A new study, Democracy and the Policy Preferences of Wealthy Americans, by Professors Benjamin I. Page, Jason Seawright and Larry M. Bartels sought to gauge the political and policy priorities of the wealthy, and how these concerns contrast with the concerns of the...
by Bill Scher | Mar 27, 2013 | Climate
Republicans are always warning us of the scourge of federal power and glorifying the genius of the states – aka the laboratories of democracy. On clean energy standards, conservatives have been getting their way. While Republican obstructionism has prevented the...
by Bill Scher | Mar 27, 2013 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: The Rip Off That Bankrupts America OurFuture.org's Robert Borosage: "The International Federation of Health Plans has depicted our ridiculous health care system in 21 graphs. We don’t get more health care; we just pay more — much more. And this...
by Robert Borosage | Mar 27, 2013 | Blog
The International Federation of Health Plans has depicted our ridiculous health care system in 21 graphs. We don't get more health care; we just pay more -- much more. And this entirely accounts for the scary long-term deficit projections. If we paid what every other...
by Terrance Heath | Mar 26, 2013 | Blog
I was chatting with my neighbor this weekend, as we watched our children playing together, she brought up the subject of the Supreme Court hearing oral arguments for and against marriage equality today. We discussed the odds that the court will ultimately overturn the...
by Richard Eskow | Mar 26, 2013 | Blog
The debacle in Cyprus is far from over, but it's already taught us some very important lessons. We've seen, for example, that the world's financial leaders insist on clinging to the principles of austerity economics even after they've failed over and over again. They...
by Richard Eskow | Mar 26, 2013 | Uncategorized
Last week the Senate passed the Sanders-Harkin-Hirono Amendment which opposed the Social Security cut and tax increase known as the “chained CPI.” That's a smart move, and a victory for the public. It's also very timely, since the "chained CPI" has repeatedly been...
by Mary Bottari | Mar 26, 2013 | Financial Reform, Too Big To Jail
A JPMorgan Chase employee stepped onstage at a black-tie gala on Wall Street last week to accept a “best crisis management” award given by an investor relations magazine. The bank, which was recently the subject of a U.S. Senate investigative hearing and an ongoing...
by Jeff Bryant | Mar 26, 2013 | Education
This post is republished from the Education Opportunity Network, a new online publication edited by Jeff Bryant. Chicago, the city famous for "big shoulders," has a big mouth, too. Spurred by an alarming level of school building closures – 61 in all – mandated by...
by Leo Gerard | Mar 26, 2013 | Uncategorized
It’s hard to believe considering what happened in 2008 on Wall Street and in Washington, but banking is built on trust. A worker hands his hard-earned dollars to a teller and trusts the money will be deposited and available for withdrawal when needed. Despite the...
by Bill Scher | Mar 25, 2013 | Reagan Revolution
Today, The Week published my essay "Why Obama's Legacy Doesn't Need a Grand Bargain." While austerity ideologues like Alan Simpson are insisting that President needs a "grand bargain" -- swapping entitlement reform for tax reform -- to have a great historical legacy,...
by Terrance Heath | Mar 25, 2013 | The Sequester
With apologies to Victor Hugo, apparently nothing in Washington is as powerful as a bad idea whose time has come — or at least, a bad idea no one in Washington has the political will or ability to stop. The sequester is one such idea. Born from the ashes of the...
by Dave Johnson | Mar 25, 2013 | Blog
There is a lesson from the Cyprus situation: If you are a large depositor you need to watch your back bank. You can't just assume someone will bail out the banks -- and you. The big banks have been able to keep governments from reigning them in, while getting...
by Sam Pizzigati | Mar 25, 2013 | Blog
All across Corporate America, top execs are feathering their own nests at the expense of their workers. The French have a better idea. The founder of modern management science, Peter Drucker, considered excessive executive pay an assault on good enterprise management...
by Bill Scher | Mar 25, 2013 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: 147 People OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "Anthropologist Robin Dunbar tried to find out how many people the typical person 'really knows.' ... Dunbar concluded that the optimum number for a network of human acquaintances was 147.5 ... Economist Simon...
by Richard Eskow | Mar 25, 2013 | Uncategorized
Can 147 people perpetuate economic injustice - and make it even worse? Can they subvert the workings of democracy, both abroad and here in the United States? Can 147 people hijack the global economy, plunder the environment, build a world for themselves that serves...
by Thom Hartmann | Mar 22, 2013 | Blog
Republicans are already plotting their next opportunity to take our nation hostage. At his weekly press conference, John Boehner said the GOP will refuse to raise the debt ceiling in May, if the president doesn't agree to more spending cuts. President Obama already...
by Benjamin W. Veghte | Mar 22, 2013 | Chained CPI
The Peterson syndicate has just released another volley in their campaign to undermine Congressional support for Social Security – this time a report from its Moment of Truth arm entitled “Measuring Up: The Case for the Chained CPI.” It makes a series of specious...
by Robert Reich | Mar 22, 2013 | Back to Work Budget, Chained CPI, Too Big To Jail
Prominent Democrats — including the President and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi — are openly suggesting that Medicare be means-tested and Social Security payments be reduced by applying a lower adjustment for inflation. This is even before they’ve started budget...
by Bill Scher | Mar 22, 2013 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: Tell Your Senators. Defend Social Security & Medicare. Support These Amendments. OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "As early as today, two Senate budget amendments could affect the future of everybody reading these words – presuming we live long enough...
by Dave Johnson | Mar 22, 2013 | Back to Work Budget, Making it in America
First it was Fix the Debt, with tax-dodging corporations "leading the charge for massive new corporate tax cuts paid for with cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid." Now there's a new "LIFT America coalition," pushing for massive, massive corporate tax cuts,...
by Richard Eskow | Mar 21, 2013 | Chained CPI
This week two Senate budget amendments could affect the future of everybody reading these words - presuming we live long enough to reach our retirement years. That's not an overstatement: The Sanders-Harkin-Hirono Amendment would prevent the government from cutting...
by Digby | Mar 21, 2013 | Blog
David Ignatius wrote his Iraq mea culpa today and it's a good one. He admits that Iraq was an epic strategic blunder and that he was wrong to have been such an enthusiastic cheerleader for it. But in chronicling his mistakes, I find this one to be almost shocking...
by Dave Johnson | Mar 21, 2013 | Back to Work Budget
The House voted on budgets yesterday and austerity won. 84 Democrats voted for the jobs and growth "Back To Work Budget" from the Congressional Progressive Caucus. 102 Democrats voted against it. (1 voted "present" and 13 were not voting.) Here is the roll call vote...
by Bill Scher | Mar 21, 2013 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: 2014 - The Democrats’ Dilemma OurFuture.org's Robert Borosage: "Voters tend to blame the party in power – the president’s party – for the economy. And the 2014 economy is likely to be lousy. Americans are struggling with falling wages and growing...
by Alan Jenkins | Mar 21, 2013 | Blog
Home Opportunity is at a crossroads, and with it the American economy. Misconduct by banks, inadequate rules, and lax enforcement have cost 4 million families their homes since the financial crisis began, devastated communities around the country, and triggered a deep...
by Robert Borosage | Mar 21, 2013 | Back to Work Budget, Minimum Wage
Washington has been fascinated by Republican self-laceration since the 2012 election. Karl Rove triggered a circular firing squad by vowing to take out unwashed challengers in GOP primaries. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal begged Republicans to stop being the “stupid...
by Richard Eskow | Mar 20, 2013 | Blog
$16 billion. That’s how much JPMorgan Chase has paid in fines, settlements and other litigation expenses in the last four years alone. More than half of that amount, $8.5 billion, was paid out in fines and settlements as the result of illegal actions taken by bank...
by Ben Johnson | Mar 20, 2013 | The Sequester
The next time your Republican representative says they support the troops, laugh and call them a liar because they obviously don’t care enough to make sure the men and women in the military will be able to afford college. Due to the sequester many branches of the...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Mar 20, 2013 | Back to Work Budget
The Congressional Progressive Caucus Back to Work Budget, as expected, did not prevail on the floor of the House of Representatives today. It went down to defeat, 84-327. In fact, it did not even win support from a majority of Democrats. But it did win a dramatic...
by Daniel Marans | Mar 20, 2013 | Blog
As the US kicked off the Iraq War on the evening of March 19, 2003, with the infamous "shock and awe" bombardment of Baghdad, I huddled into a small high school classroom for an antiwar gathering organized by several faculty members. Little did I know at the time...
by Dave Johnson | Mar 20, 2013 | Blog
Watch this video, Movin' in, kids! Then click through and give it a rating because the video with the most view and best rating wins! [youtube]http://youtu.be/ZZQlbtlErLo[/youtube] This video comes to you from Just Scrap The Cap. The Story The Peter G. Peterson...
by Derek Pugh | Mar 20, 2013 | Back to Work Budget, The Sequester
Campaign for America’s Future, the AFL-CIO, and more than 60 national organizations today had one simple message for Congress: Repeal the sequester. Over 300,000 activists joined forces for a national day of action in Washington and in their local communities....
by Dave Johnson | Mar 20, 2013 | Back to Work Budget, Making it in America
A new bill was introduced in the House today to fight currency manipulation, including China's. The bipartisan Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act was introduced by Representatives Sander Levin (D-MI), Tim Murphy (R-PA), Tim Ryan (D-OH), and Mo Brooks (R-AL). This bill...
by Digby | Mar 20, 2013 | Blog
Jared Bernstein has posted some very important information that one can only hope both the White House and the Democrats are aware of and prepared to change direction because of. It shows that our runaway medical costs are actually slowing down and he posits that...
by Bill Scher | Mar 20, 2013 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: If You Don’t Own An Ark, Vote For The "Back To Work" Budget OurFuture.org's Terrance Heath: "It’s somewhat fitting that a 30-foot geyser erupted from a broken water main practically around the corner from my home the night before the the American...
