by Jeff Bryant | Mar 19, 2013 | Education
This post is republished from the Education Opportunity Network, a new online publication edited by Jeff Bryant. This week, here was Paul Krugman's assessment of the current policy agenda governing the nation's public schools: "We have the illusion of consensus, an...
by Terrance Heath | Mar 19, 2013 | Back to Work Budget
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 Society of Civil Engineers gave America a D+ on its 2013 infrastructure report card, and on the eve of a...
by Richard Eskow | Mar 19, 2013 | Back to Work Budget
There are jungle birds that can imitate human speech perfectly. Ever hear one sing a sad song? They can do it so beautifully that human listeners are moved to tears. The bird, on the other hand, has no idea what it’s singing about. David Brooks is like that bird. He...
by Dave Johnson | Mar 19, 2013 | Back to Work Budget
The House Progressive Caucus' "Back To Work Budget" was announced almost a week ago, and the "mainstream media" still refuse to cover it. The Back to Work Budget is literally forced out of the discussion by being kept out of the news. The public doesn't have the...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Mar 19, 2013 | Blog
Adele Stan, the Washington editor of AlterNet, says that as crazy and extreme as some of what is said and done at the Conservative Political Action Conference seems to be, progressives should still be concerned about the ability of conservatives to win the political...
by Leo Gerard | Mar 19, 2013 | Back to Work Budget
Just four months ago, Americans told the Romney-Ryan team: “No.” The electorate rejected them. Many voters objected to Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan treating them the way arrogant 1 percenters treat “The Help.” Rep. Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin, exposed his...
by Bill Scher | Mar 19, 2013 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: Who Stands With The Middle Class? OurFuture.org's Robert Borosage: "...the members of the House of Representatives will choose. At a time of mass unemployment and slow growth, they will vote for more austerity or for more jobs ... These choices will...
by Robert Borosage | Mar 19, 2013 | Back to Work Budget
As early as today, the members of the House of Representatives will choose. At a time of mass unemployment and slow growth, they will vote for more austerity or for more jobs. At a time of Gilded Age inequality, they will decide whether the rich bear too large a...
by Sam Pizzigati | Mar 18, 2013 | Blog
Egalitarian-minded academics have just subjected a central political question of our time to some rigorous research scrutiny. Billionaire Warren Buffett is still paying taxes at a lower rate than his secretary. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz last year collected $117.5...
by Richard Eskow | Mar 18, 2013 | Blog
HuffPost Live had a discussion segment based on a piece I wrote a couple of weeks ago about the racist BusinessWeek cover that depicted greedy minority borrowers raking in fistfuls of cash from "liar loans." The session included a mistreated homeowner named Rose...
by Bill Scher | Mar 18, 2013 | Minimum Wage
Today the Republican National Committee released its "autopsy" of its 2012 electoral defeat, officially titled the "Growth and Opportunity Project." On one hand, it's a serious attempt to assess how the Republican Party has become uncompetitive nationally, and...
by Richard Eskow | Mar 18, 2013 | Back to Work Budget
There was panic in Cyprus today as ordinary citizens learned that the government was about to take nearly seven percent (6.75 percent) of the money in their bank accounts as part of a package to bail out reckless banks. The outrage was justified, predictable, and...
by Derek Pugh | Mar 18, 2013 | The Sequester
Conservatives are using the sequester as leverage in their latest attempt to hold our economy and government hostage. All in all, nine percent of non-defense programs and 13 percent of defense programs will be cut in a seven-month time span. Aside from the million...
by Thom Hartmann | Mar 18, 2013 | Blog
When you think European financial crisis, you think Greece, or Spain, or Italy. But economic trouble in the small island nation of Cyprus is causing a serious panic throughout Europe. Because of Cyprus banks' exposure to the financial troubles in neighboring Greece,...
by Adele Stan | Mar 18, 2013 | Blog
At the Conservative Political Action Conference, the large annual gathering of right-wing activists and followers, people say a lot of crazy things -- too many, in fact, for me to cram into a single story. So I’ve picked a random 10 -- random insofar as they were...
by Derek Pugh | Mar 18, 2013 | Back to Work Budget
Just as Liberals have time honored pilgrimages, such as the annual march on Washington, so do conservatives. Last week, thousands of conservative activist and nearly a dozen possible 2016 Republican candidates gathered in Washington to attend the annual Conservative...
by Bill Scher | Mar 18, 2013 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: Vote for the Back to Work Budget. Win in 2014. OurFuture.org's Roger Hickey: "Every American who cares about jobs and a healthy US economy should pick up the phone right now, call your Congressperson’s office, and tell whoever answers “I want my...
by Roger Hickey | Mar 17, 2013 | Back to Work Budget, Minimum Wage
Every American who cares about jobs and a healthy U.S. economy should pick up the phone right now, call your Congressperson’s office, and tell whoever answers, “I want my representative to vote this week for the Back to Work Budget introduced by the Congressional...
by Richard Eskow | Mar 17, 2013 | Back to Work Budget
Are you in or are you out? That was George Clooney’s line in Ocean’s 11. Remember? “Tell me, right here … because if you’re out you can go back to feeling up stockbrokers.” Clooney’s movie was a remake of the Rat Pack film made in 1960, back when Democrats were...
by Leo Gerard | Mar 16, 2013 | Gender Justice
The GOP must really love the character that Lucille Ball created in the 1950s show “I Love Lucy.” Just as her husband Desi Arnaz, aka Ricky Ricardo, believed, the party thinks women are empty-headed twits. Women are so vacuous, right-wingers figure, that they don’t...
by Richard Eskow | Mar 15, 2013 | Blog
Forgive us if we begin our discussion of the Senate Subcommittee for Investigation’s JPMorgan Chase hearing with a small victory lap, but as they say down South, “It ain’t braggin’ if it’s true.” We’ve been saying for years that JPMorgan Chase is fundamentally a...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Mar 15, 2013 | Back to Work Budget
There are 124 member of Congress who need to hear from you now about your support for the Congressional Progressive Caucus Back to Work Budget. Between now and an anticipated vote on Tuesday, these offices need to be flooded with calls from constituents saying,...
by Digby | Mar 15, 2013 | Chained CPI
Did you know that? Yes, it is: Did you also know that none of that, by law, can go to fund Social Security's projected "shortfall?" And that if they do change that law, it will forever put an end to the dedicated revenue stream that keeps SS out of the general budget?...
by Adele Stan | Mar 15, 2013 | Blog
Building on his media-star momentum coming out of last week's 13-hour drone-focused filibuster, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., delivered a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference that put on display the tensions currently plaguing the Republican Party, and made...
by Bill Scher | Mar 15, 2013 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: Which Budget Polls Best? OurFuture.org's Dave Johnson: "...the Congressional Progressive Caucus 'Back To Work Budget' reflects what voters voted for and what polls show people want. And, much more importantly, the CPC “Back To Work Budget” reflects...
by Dave Johnson | Mar 15, 2013 | Back to Work Budget
There are two budgets in front of the House now. These are the "Back To Work Budget" offered by the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) and the Paul Ryan/GOP budget. Will the absolutely overwhelming (see polling below) wishes and needs of We, the People determine...
by Richard Eskow | Mar 14, 2013 | Back to Work Budget, Economy
Last night I returned from a nearly month-long trip to Africa. It’s profoundly unsettling to suddenly find oneself immersed in a primitive and superstitious culture – a culture dominated by taboos and rituals, a culture whose primitive beliefs could lead to its...
by Derek Pugh | Mar 14, 2013 | The Sequester
More than 20 members of Congress responded to over 300,000 American voices calling for passage of legislation that would repeal of the federal budget sequester. The bill, H.R. 900, is direct and can be summed up in one sentence: Cancel the sequester. Passing the bill...
by Richard Long | Mar 14, 2013 | Economy, Making it in America
California Representative John Garamendi held a conference call today to build support for H.R. 949, The Invest in American Jobs Act of 2013, with the Campaign for America’s Future’s Robert Borosage and Dave Johnson. This bill, introduced last week, has bipartisan...
by Thom Hartmann | Mar 14, 2013 | Blog
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp is supposed to insure deposits and regulate banks, but the agency has helped the banksters avoid trial for their crimes since the 2008 financial meltdown. The LA Times reports that the very agency responsible for investigating and...
by Robert Borosage | Mar 14, 2013 | Back to Work Budget
Budgets are pure EGO – eyes glaze over. But this week revealed two budgets – Rep. Paul Ryan's Republican "Path to Prosperity" 2014 budget and the Congressional Progressive Caucus "Back to Work Budget" – that in stark terms lay out two visions and two futures for...
by Bill Scher | Mar 14, 2013 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: Back on the Chained-CPI Gang OurFuture.org's Digby: "White House National Economic Council director Gene Sperling said today on his Reddit chat that the president really prefers the Chained CPI and that it’s not just an inducement to get the...
by Digby | Mar 14, 2013 | Blog
Just FYI, White House National Economic Council director Gene Sperling said today on his Reddit chat that the president really prefers the Chained CPI and that it's not just an inducement to get the Republicans on board with the Grand Bargain. This may sound obvious,...
by Terrance Heath | Mar 13, 2013 | Back to Work Budget, The Sequester
After listening to National Economic Advisor to the President Gene Sperling this morning, I think I have a better understanding of at least one reason why we ended up in this sequestration mess, and why no one in Washington can seem to figure way out of it. The White...
by Dave Johnson | Mar 13, 2013 | Back to Work Budget
They say that Washington DC and the major media are "wired for Republicans." Steve Benen explains how this works, ... week in and week out, this debate is dominated by voices from only one party. A couple of years ago, Josh Marshall talked about how the Washington...
by Dave Johnson | Mar 13, 2013 | Blog
The AMERICA Works Act would establish a national credentialing system for manufacturing skills like welding and machining. Sen. Kay Hagan D-NC, Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind. and Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev. are co-sponsoring the bill. The Winston-Salem Journal explains, in...
by Sam Pizzigati | Mar 13, 2013 | Blog
The current European revolt against CEO greed, if successful, might leave Corporate Europe looking just like Corporate America — in the 1950s. In America today, the New York Times reports, we’re living in “a golden age” — for corporate profits. These earnings have...
by Bill Scher | Mar 13, 2013 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: Will The Media Cover The “Back To Work” Budget? OurFuture.org's Bill Scher: "For the past 24 hours, the media has dutifully reported on the budget proposal from Rep. Paul Ryan, even though everyone knows it is extremely unlikely to become law. That’s...
by Richard Eskow | Mar 13, 2013 | Blog
The CEO and Research Director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas have written a clear, smart, and principled proposal for reforming our banking system, and for managing the moral and financial crises our too-big-to-fail banks have caused and perpetrated. The plan...
by Bill Scher | Mar 13, 2013 | Blog
For the past 24 hours, the media has dutifully reported on the budget proposal from Rep. Paul Ryan, even though everyone knows it is extremely unlikely to become law. That’s fine; it’s not the media’s job to short-circuit debate. It’s the media’s job to report...
