by Robert Borosage | Jan 31, 2013 | The Sequester
The U.S. economy shrank unexpectedly in the last three months of 2012, ending over 30 months of economic growth. Exports lagged, reflecting, in part, declining markets in Europe, now suffering a costly recession inflicted by misguided austerity policies. But the...
by Digby | Jan 30, 2013 | Blog
Josh Holland has a nice succinct rundown on the possible roadblocks to the immigration reform effort. It's a little bit more complicated than it seems at first: [C]onventional wisdom may be underestimating the degree of fractiousness that defines the conservative...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jan 30, 2013 | Economy, Making it in America
Now that he is a freshman senator, Connecticut Democrat Chris Murphy says he plans in the coming weeks to continue the push he started as a member of the House to advance a "Make It in America" jobs agenda. That agenda includes cracking down on China's currency...
by Terrance Heath | Jan 30, 2013 | Conservatism, Financial Reform
In Part 1 of this series, I wrote that Republicans who were incensed that President Obama had nothing to say to them in his inaugural address should be far more worried the possibility that the president realizes he doesn't need to spend time and energy reaching out...
by Terrance Heath | Jan 30, 2013 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: Day of Action Against Poverty – And The Assault Against The Poor OurFuture.org's Isaiah J. Poole: "An effort to move the fight against poverty to the top of the national agenda begins today, led by the Half in 10 campaign and the Coalition...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jan 30, 2013 | The Sequester
An effort to move the fight against poverty to the top of the national agenda begins today, led by the Half in 10 campaign and the Coalition for Human Needs. The major campaign goal is to persuade President Obama to talk about poverty and its solutions in his State of...
by Digby | Jan 29, 2013 | The Sequester
I hope everyone understands that when Paul Ryan said they were going to leave "entitlements" alone and the sequester would take place that it was a form of political trash talk before the negotiation, right? Nobody really believes that either side will allow defense...
by Leo Gerard | Jan 29, 2013 | Blog
Last week, 11 European nations forged ahead to create a new tax while American Republicans walked backward into a no-new-tax trap. On Jan. 22, the European Union gave 11 member countries – including economic giants Germany and France – permission to institute a...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jan 29, 2013 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: Smart Talk On The Next Austerity Disaster OurFuture.org's Robert Borosage and Richard Eskow: "Mass unemployment, declining wages, and faltering growth suggests the United States has already suffered too much austerity, too soon. And yet the political...
by Richard Eskow | Jan 28, 2013 | Blog
Tim Geithner left office on Friday and the revisionism's already underway. By any objective measure except one, Geithner's tenure failed to achieve its goals. And that one success, in rescuing the mega-banks of Wall Street, may prove to be the undoing of Obama's...
by Robert Borosage | Jan 28, 2013 | Minimum Wage, The Sequester
The United States is in the midst of the most protracted unemployment crisis in modern history, and for vast segments of the population, the recession has never ended. Wages are still sinking; more than 20 million people are in need of full-time work. Yet, the...
by Stan Collender | Jan 28, 2013 | Blog
It now looks like the Senate on Wednesday will pass the "no budget no pay" version of the debt ceiling increase that has already been adopted by the House. This will be the third GOP budget miscalculation, misstep and mistake in a row. The first was the fiscal cliff,...
by Digby | Jan 28, 2013 | Blog
Chris Bowers caught the Very Serious Man of Integrity Paul Ryan in a slick little sleight of hand: Earlier today on national television, he attacked President Obama for even supposedly saying that healthcare drives the deficit (emphasis mine): "I don't think that the...
by Richard Eskow | Jan 28, 2013 | Blog
We needed heroes after the financial crisis. Instead we got bureaucrats, compromisers, and perhaps something much worse. Federal law enforcement officials, our "thin gray line" against banker crime, were charged with restoring the balance of justice and reducing the...
by Terrance Heath | Jan 28, 2013 | Blog, Conservatism
It was, of course, to be expected that Republicans would not like President Obama's inaugural address no matter what said. In fact, it's safe to say that the only speech Republicans would have been happy to hear from President Obama is one that began with "I here by...
by Terrance Heath | Jan 28, 2013 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: As Federal Prosecutors Cash In, Big Bankers Go Unpunished OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "We needed heroes after the financial crisis. Instead we got bureaucrats, compromisers, and perhaps something much worse. Federal law enforcement officials,...
by Sam Pizzigati | Jan 27, 2013 | Blog
The world's wealthy gathered in the Alps again last week to discuss how to 'solve' the world's problems. The world's biggest problem, suggests one top global anti-poverty outfit, may be their fortunes. Apologists for inequality have a standard retort to anyone who...
by Dave Johnson | Jan 25, 2013 | Blog
A penal of three Republican judges today knocked down the President's three recess appointments last year to the National Labor Relations Board. The President appointed the three NLRB members following Republican filibusters of his nominees, intended to keep the...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jan 25, 2013 | Blog
The fight for filibuster reform does not stop with what MSNBC talk show host Ed Schultz on Thursday dubbed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's "fail-ibuster." Communications Workers of America President Larry Cohen told Schultz that "we have to continue that fight."...
by Bill Scher | Jan 25, 2013 | Blog
To get House conservatives to capitulate on temporarily suspending the debt limit without securing any spending cuts, Boehner made a stunning pledge: the upcoming House budget would eliminate the deficit in 10 years. As a talking point, that sounds great. As a budget,...
by Bill Scher | Jan 25, 2013 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: Progressives Fire Warning Shot Against Social Security Cuts OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "...The Hill reported Wednesday that Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., was considering using a special parliamentary maneuver to push a budget deal [including] the...
by Richard Eskow | Jan 25, 2013 | Chained CPI
Here's a "Washington insider" story that could affect every family in the country. Congressional newspaper The Hill reported Wednesday that Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., was considering using a special parliamentary maneuver to push a budget deal. But this wasn't just...
by Roger Hickey | Jan 24, 2013 | Chained CPI, The Sequester
A report in The Hill newspaper last night suggested that Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) may be floating a proposal that includes cuts to Social Security and Medicare. If Sen. Schumer's proposal was accurately reported, the senator could not be more wrong. Just as...
by Digby | Jan 24, 2013 | Blog
Following up on David's post below, here's the deal: Progressive senators working to dramatically alter Senate rules were defeated on Thursday, with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and his counterpart, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), set to...
by Dave Johnson | Jan 24, 2013 | Blog
When Republicans get going on with their crazy, Democrats are learning to just say, "Please proceed." The public takes care of the rest. This month Republicans again threatened -- in public, no less! -- to force the United States into default and crash the economy if...
by Bill Scher | Jan 24, 2013 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: Did Obama Pivot On Education? OurFuture.org's Jeff Bryant: "It was hard for a progressive not to get a chocolate high from President Obama’s inauguration speech ... But hardly anyone in the education community had anything notable to say about it...
by Jeff Bryant | Jan 23, 2013 | Education
It was hard for a progressive not to get a chocolate high from President Obama's inauguration speech. Indeed it was full of treats: a "dramatic and sweeping argument for equality" . . . "a commitment to community and the common good" . . . "the most liberal speech of...
by Dave Johnson | Jan 23, 2013 | Blog
The election is over, but right-wingers are back at it with another big, out-of-context lie. This time they are claiming that Hillary Clinton said something that she did not say. There's an immediate context and a bigger context, both wildly distorted. As the...
by Richard Eskow | Jan 23, 2013 | Blog
In his review of Jared Diamond's new book, David Brooks is appropriately horrified by the stories of tribal women who were left to die rather than be cared for by their communities. He's so horrified, in fact, that he seems to reject Diamond's core thesis that these...
by Dave Johnson | Jan 23, 2013 | Economy
When you hear anyone from the big multinationals or Wall Street using the word "reform," watch out! The way they use the word, it means give them more and We, the People get less. They want to "reform" Social Security, "reform" Medicare and "reform" the income tax...
by Digby | Jan 23, 2013 | The Sequester
When it comes to beating back extremists, I'm all in favor of living to fight another day, so the idea of kicking the can down the road on some horrible debt deal never seems like the worst thing that could happen. But I can't figure out why everyone seems to believe...
by Stan Collender | Jan 23, 2013 | Blog
Given what happened in July 2011 when they decided to do the opposite (you remember the anything-but-super committee, right?), we should all be happy House Republicans have agreed that this time they won't hold hostage the increase in the federal debt ceiling the...
by Bill Scher | Jan 23, 2013 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: No More Hostage Taking OurFuture.org's Robert Borosage: "Republicans in Congress are intent on creating yet another manufactured budget crisis. This one is timed to come after bruising negotiations over the next weeks to avoid the deep, across the...
by Robert Borosage | Jan 22, 2013 | The Sequester
Republicans in Congress are intent on creating yet another manufactured budget crisis. This one is timed to come after bruising negotiations over the next weeks to avoid the deep, across-the-board cuts required by the sequester and the threat to shut down the...
by Terrance Heath | Jan 22, 2013 | Blog
Four years ago, my husband and I opted to watch Barack Obama's inauguration from home. The very likely reality of spending most of the day outdoors, standing in the cold, with two very cold and very bored children, waiting for hours to end up not seeing very much...
by Richard Eskow | Jan 22, 2013 | Economy
The President gave a terrific speech. But if great speeches could heal our economic wounds, if they could repair the ever-increasing gap between the rich and the rest of us, if they could re-open the closing doors of opportunity for the young, the African-American,...
by Bill Scher | Jan 22, 2013 | Blog
The strong reaction to President Obama's extended remarks on the climate suggests that he wasn't doing anything on the matter and suddenly feels liberated to do so. Not so. As I have discussed twice previously, after the failure of the Congress to pass a carbon cap in...
by Dave Johnson | Jan 22, 2013 | Blog
Senators, before you vote today on the "make them talk" proposal, go ask members of the public what a filibuster is. The public thinks a filibuster is senators talking all night. It is not a "nuclear option" to change the rules to what the public thinks the rules...
by Leo Gerard | Jan 22, 2013 | Making it in America
Oddly, the top international cyclist – Lance Armstrong – and the top international retailer –Wal-Mart – revealed last week that they have much in common. No, not doping. It’s their dopey concept of the atonement process. Armstrong, already punished for misdeeds he’d...
by Bill Scher | Jan 22, 2013 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: A Million on the Mall OurFuture.org's Dave Johnson: "Before the election reporters and pundits were saying that not so many people would turn out this time, that it would be close at best. But on election day it turned out that it wasn’t even close....
