by Isaiah J. Poole | Mar 12, 2013 | Blog
We were hoping that the Senate Banking Committee would give Mary Jo White, President Obama's choice to be chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, a tough grilling at today's confirmation hearing. What we got most often instead looked more like a friendly...
by Terrance Heath | Mar 12, 2013 | Blog
It's finally here. After a long week of teasing and hint-dropping that kept much of Washington wondering, Paul Ryan has released a new budget. Now, that we can finally see what's in Ryan's budget, it's a bit of a let down. Ryan trots out most of the same old ideas,...
by Dave Johnson | Mar 12, 2013 | Economy, Minimum Wage
Buried in the "pleasant surprise" (NPR) of Friday's "stunning" (USAToday) February jobs report were some numbers that better-reflect the reality of America's declining middle class. Things are pretty bad when you call 7.7% -- and that due to people giving up on...
by Terrance Heath | Mar 12, 2013 | Too Big To Jail
As Robert Borosage wrote, "Too Big Too Fail" has become "Too Big To Jail." According to attorney general, our big banks have gotten so big that bringing criminal charges against them for blatantly criminal acts "will have a negative impact on the national economy,...
by Dave Johnson | Mar 12, 2013 | Blog
Before I get into the new Republican budget (it cuts taxes on the wealthy by almost 40%, greatly increases military spending, and just guts almost everything government does to help make our lives better -- privatizes Medicare, does even less to maintain our...
by Dave Johnson | Mar 12, 2013 | Chained CPI
Dear journalists: Every retired person will tell you that prices on things they buy are rising faster than their cost-of-living-adjustments. So they are falling behind. Meanwhile everyone describes the "chained-CPI" cost-of-living-adjustment as a cut when applied to...
by Bill Scher | Mar 12, 2013 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: The Disempowerment Of Public School Parents OurFuture.org's Jeff Bryant: "The parent trigger has been relentlessly marketed to parents and policy makers as an 'empowerment' that enables parents to conduct a petition campaign in their community to fire...
by Leo Gerard | Mar 12, 2013 | Too Big To Jail
The U.S. Attorney last week confirmed Americans’ fears about Wall Street. The banks, Eric Holder said, were not just too big to fail, they were also too big to jail. That means bankers operate beyond the pale, outside the historical fence line encircling civil...
by Jeff Bryant | Mar 12, 2013 | Education
For years, policy initiatives stemming from right-wing belief tanks have been wrapped in the rhetoric of positive outcomes that are, in fact, the complete opposite of what the measures are really intended to do. A bill called Clear Skies that called for more...
by Dave Johnson | Mar 11, 2013 | Economy
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and U.S. Representative David Cicilline (D-RI) announced today the introduction of the Offshoring Prevention Act. Like last year's Bring Jobs Home Act - filibustered by Senate Republicans - this bill eliminates a special tax break for...
by Bill Scher | Mar 11, 2013 | Blog
A small outbreak of sanity has emerged within the conservative movement, with commentators respected among the Right acknowledging that conservatism is failing to speak to today’s problems and today’s people. This group is suggesting some recalibration and even some...
by Bill Scher | Mar 11, 2013 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: Think Bold On Jobs: A $1T Transportation Plan OurFuture.org's Isaiah J. Poole: "One of the consequences of the federal spending sequester now in place is that $4 billion is being cut this year from transportation and infrastructure programs ... at a...
by Robert Borosage | Mar 11, 2013 | Too Big To Jail
On Tuesday, March 12, the Senate Banking Committee will begin review of the nomination of Mary Jo White to be chair of the Securities and Exchange Committee. The Committee should probe deeply on whether she will be a watchdog or a lap dog for Wall Street. One clear...
by Richard Eskow | Mar 11, 2013 | Blog
Somebody really needs to let Elizabeth Warren know how Washingon society works. Last week Warren and several other Senators rebuked regulators for their refusal to act against felonious banks and bankers when they violate sanctions or criminally assist psychotic drug...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Mar 8, 2013 | Economy, The Sequester
One of the consequences of the federal spending sequester now in place is that $4 billion is being cut this year from transportation and infrastructure programs, according to House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee ranking member Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va.,...
by Dave Johnson | Mar 8, 2013 | Blog, Trade
In an earlier post, "ANOTHER Report On Jobs Lost To China 'Trade'" I wrote about a new report titled, "The Surprisingly Swift Decline of U.S. Manufacturing Employment." This report showed that manufacturing employment would have been higher by over 4 million employees...
by Thom Hartmann | Mar 8, 2013 | Blog
House Republicans won't give up on their efforts to voucher-ize Medicare. In fact, Representative Paul Ryan now wants to make it happen even sooner. As the House GOP is currently preparing their new budget, which will include Ryan's Medicare voucher program, and they...
by Terrance Heath | Mar 8, 2013 | The Sequester
It was only a matter of time. As the debate over the sequester's damaging, "just plain dumb," across-the-board cuts ramped up, I just knew someone on the right would attempt to draw the analogy between government spending and addiction. "Addiction specialist" and "Fox...
by Robert Borosage | Mar 8, 2013 | Economy
Today's employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics – an additional 236,000 jobs in February with unemployment edging down to 7.7 percent – reveals an economy that keeps chugging along against rising headwinds. Most of the growth was in services, with...
by Bill Scher | Mar 8, 2013 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: Renew The American Commitment To Opportunity OurFuture.org's Jeff Bryant: "The simplest way to turn around reduced opportunity in the economy and in education is to put money back into our schools, and on a massive scale. Passing the Obama...
by Richard Eskow | Mar 8, 2013 | Chained CPI, The Sequester
The spectacle of a supposedly liberal President repeatedly and needlessly trying to cut Social Security is enough to bring a reasonable, economically literate person to the point of existential despair. To see leading liberal lights like Rachel Maddow and Ezra Klein...
by Jeff Bryant | Mar 7, 2013 | Economy, Education, The Sequester
A current debate raging among policy makers is whether America's dysfunctional education system has created our sick economy – or whether the country's sick economy has created widespread poverty with disadvantages that our education system can't possibly overcome. In...
by Dave Johnson | Mar 7, 2013 | Blog
While Washington remains self-absorbed in budget deficit arguments over who can cut more of the things We, the People do to make our lives better. Meanwhile January's trade deficit numbers are out, showing where the real damage is being done. The U.S. international...
by Stan Collender | Mar 7, 2013 | Blog
This is not a post about House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan's (R-WI) exercise and diet program. It is, however, a post about how he's planning to produce a budget that gets to balance in 10 years without actually balancing anything. What Ryan is proposing is...
by Dave Johnson | Mar 7, 2013 | Blog
Yesterday we saw what a filibuster should be. Senator Rand Paul did it the right way by talking and talking, and he got his point across. Interestingly, what Senator Paul did is what the public thinks a filibuster already is. Except it isn't. In recent years Senate...
by Richard Eskow | Mar 7, 2013 | Blog
This week the Swiss people voted to limit bonuses for the high-paid executives they call “fat cats.” Last month shareholders at the largest too-big-to-fail bank revamped the bonus system for their senior executives. And the European Union agreed last month to impose...
by Bill Scher | Mar 7, 2013 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: Too Big To Fail. Too Big To Jail. OurFuture.org's Robert Borosage: "Holder’s outrageous admission means that bankers operate – and know they operate – above the law. That renders all the argument about regulations and legal limits risible ... they can...
by Robert Borosage | Mar 7, 2013 | Too Big To Jail
For years, the Obama Administration has been pummeled for failing to bring criminal charges against a single major Wall Street bank or a single leading Wall Street banker for what the FBI termed an “epidemic of fraud” that blew up the entire economy. Investigations...
by Mary Bottari | Mar 6, 2013 | The Sequester
As sequester cuts start to bite a little harder, the Fix the Debt gang is pushing for a "grand bargain," deep cuts to earned benefit programs like Social Security and Medicare in exchange for some vague promises about "tax reform." They may have a powerful ally in the...
by Thom Hartmann | Mar 6, 2013 | The Sequester
Only 4 days after the March 1st Sequester deadline, people around our nation are already starting to feel the pinch of austerity. Customs and Border Protection reduced overtime for TSA agents over the weekend, and delays at some airports were up 200%. According to the...
by Katrina vanden Heuvel | Mar 6, 2013 | Blog
On Friday at midnight, the sequester kicked in, triggering $85 billion in deep, dumb budget cuts that sent “nonessential personnel”— such as air traffic controllers—packing. Not to worry, though: Wall Street’s day was pretty much like any other. Billions of dollars in...
by Liz Rose | Mar 6, 2013 | Blog
Dozens of Americans will be murdered, hundreds of others will be shot, and nearly 1,000 will be robbed or assaulted with a gun — today. The United States has some of the weakest gun laws in the world. To make us, our families, and our communities safer, we need to...
by Bill Scher | Mar 6, 2013 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: Let’s Talk About Fixing The TRADE Deficit OurFuture.org's Dave Johnson: "Instead of the current focus on budget deficits, Washington should be talking about how to fix this vast trade deficit. Here are some of the things they should be talking about —...
by Dave Johnson | Mar 6, 2013 | Economy
The economy is not working for We, the People. But even with $4 trillion already cut from deficit projections, a deficit drop of about 50 percent as a share of gross domestic product, and Congressional Budget Office projections that the deficit is stable for the next...
by Richard Long | Mar 5, 2013 | Minimum Wage
The news just keeps getting better for the millions of Americans making minimum wage. Today, three weeks to the day after President Obama called for raising the minimum wage to $9 an hour in the State of the Union address, two congressional Democrats have done him one...
by Terrance Heath | Mar 5, 2013 | Uncategorized
Gimme an "S"! Gimme an "E"! Gimme a "Q"! Gimme a "U"! Gimme an "E,S, T, E, R"! What's that spell? That depends. If you're almost everyone else, the sequester spells an onslaught of unnecessary, painful, and "just plain dumb" spending cuts. If you're one of the GOP's...
by Terrance Heath | Mar 5, 2013 | The Sequester
Gimme an "S"! Gimme an "E"! Gimme a "Q"! Gimme a "U"! Gimme an "E,S, T, E, R"! What's that spell? That depends. If you're almost everyone else, the sequester spells an onslaught of unnecessary, painful, and "just plain dumb" spending cuts. If you're one of the...
by Dave Johnson | Mar 5, 2013 | Economy, Making it in America
This morning House Democrats introduced 'Buy America' legislation to make sure taxpayer money that is used for transportation purposes gets used to support U.S. manufacturing and create American jobs. The 'Invest in American Jobs Act of 2013' will strengthen Buy...
by Leo Gerard | Mar 5, 2013 | Minimum Wage
The invisible hand of the market, which the GOP worships as an infallible god, is curled into a fist and is pounding America’s lowest-paid workers. Those workers have complained about the grinding poverty level of minimum wage. Wal-Mart warehouse workers and New York...
by Bill Scher | Mar 5, 2013 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: Raise the Roof to Raise the Floor OurFuture.org's Robert Borosage: "Today, Senator Tom Harkin and Representative George Miller offer a ray of light amid the austerity blight in Washington. They are announcing introduction of a bill –the Fair Minimum...
