by Richard Eskow | Jan 11, 2013 | Blog
Well, there they go again. Less than a week after its chief economist apologized for wrongly imposing austerity on European nations – hey, sorry about that, unemployed millions! – the International Monetary Fund is misleading another country into the miasma of...
by Terrance Heath | Jan 11, 2013 | Blog
It's that time again. The folks at the Heritage Foundation (Jim DeMint's new perch) have published another "Index of Economic Freedom." I first encountered the index in April of 2010, when Heritage ranked Ireland in the top ten countries with the greatest degree of...
by Dave Johnson | Jan 11, 2013 | Making it in America
Washington frets about the budget deficit, which is money we owe mostly to each other and have spent on things we do for each other to make our lives better. But the trade deficit is money that actually leaves our economy, making us poorer and less able to make our...
by Digby | Jan 11, 2013 | Blog
It remains one of the strangest and saddest aspects of our current economic debates that nobody seems to care all that much about our still painfully high unemployment. And it's probably a lot higher than we know: In December, the Bureau of Labor Statistics counted...
by Bill Scher | Jan 11, 2013 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: Disarm The GOP Hostage Bomb OurFuture.org's Dave Johnson: "It is time to defuse the hostage-taking bomb. Do not negotiate with hostage-takers – and that includes shutdown threats ... How long have we been governed through hostage-taking, threats,...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jan 10, 2013 | Economy
The annual "State of American Business" speech delivered today by Thomas J. Donohoe, the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, was largely predictable and not particularly noteworthy. But it did contain one of those moments reminiscent of those oil company...
by Dave Johnson | Jan 10, 2013 | Blog
There is a big push going on to get the Senate to "fix the filibuster" so the majority can get things done, and the minority will stop obstructing literally everything. Today is a DAY OF ACTION for contacting senators to let them know that you want them to FIX THE...
by Dave Johnson | Jan 10, 2013 | Blog
A nation whose constitution begins with the words "We, the People" should not be governed through threats and intimidation and lies. It is time to defuse the hostage-taking bomb. Do not negotiate with hostage-takers – and that includes shutdown threats. The "fiscal...
by Terrance Heath | Jan 10, 2013 | Reagan Revolution
By now, you've heard all about the "platinum coin option", in which the president averts the next debt limit "crisis" by issuing a trillion dollar platinum coin. It's a solution right out out of The Simpsons. No seriously. It's episode twenty, season nine — "The...
by Jeff Bryant | Jan 10, 2013 | Education
It's altogether fitting that this week's marking of the 11th anniversary of the No Child Left Behind legislation coincided with yet another groundbreaking, revolutionary, radical advocacy piece for "fixing" America's "broken" public school system. NCLB is now a policy...
by Bill Scher | Jan 10, 2013 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: Questions For Lew OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "The International Monetary Fund just acknowledged that it underestimated the negative impact of government spending cuts. What will you do to prevent our own austerity measures from further harming the...
by Richard Eskow | Jan 9, 2013 | Blog
The job of Treasury secretary is arguably the most important one President Obama will fill in his second term. It's certainly the choice that will most affect the American people's daily lives, future hopes and aspirations. And it may well shape the president's...
by Bill Scher | Jan 9, 2013 | Blog
Congressional Republicans are really struggling to come up with a strategy for avoiding the blame if they refuse to raise the debt limit, allowing the Treasury to pay off the debts that Congress already voted to incur. Newt Gingrich already warned his party that...
by Dave Johnson | Jan 9, 2013 | Blog
How many real and serious national problems can you list? And how many obvious solutions can you come up with literally off the top of your head? Now an experiment: list how many of them are being worked on by our DC elites or even discussed my our elite media? The...
by Digby | Jan 9, 2013 | Blog
Well, just a shot across the bow, so far: A conservative advocacy group is targeting Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell with a series of online ads in his home state for helping to negotiate the fiscal cliff deal. “It’s a statement we’re making and I suspect there...
by Bill Scher | Jan 9, 2013 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: "Death Panel" of GOP Governors Refuse Medicaid Expansion OurFuture.org's Terrance Heath: "All 10 members of the GOP Governors’ Death Panel offer the same excuse for refusing to expand Medicaid in their states, or wanting to get full federal funding...
by Terrance Heath | Jan 8, 2013 | Minimum Wage
A growing number Republican Governors are refusing to expand their state Medicaid programs. The Supreme Court weakened the Medicaid expansion written into the Affordable Care Act, when it ruled that the federal government can't penalize states that refused the...
by Digby | Jan 8, 2013 | Blog
I hope Greg Sargent is right about this: It’s true that Boehner insists above that Republicans won’t back down from the demand that spending get cut by the same amount as the debt ceiling rises. But all that really means is that they will use the size of the debt...
by Leo Gerard | Jan 8, 2013 | Blog
Last week, as Congress opened its new session, two regular Joes - Sen. Manchin of West Virginia and Vice President Biden of Delaware - gave a hand to Sen. Mark Kirk, a Republican from Illinois, who'd suffered a stroke a year earlier. Joe and Joe assisted Sen. Kirk in...
by Bill Scher | Jan 8, 2013 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: Two New Fraud Deals OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "It must’ve been like old home week when the old gang of Wall Street and Washington insiders finalized a couple more cushy settlements last week. Everybody knew the drill: Ignore the potential...
by Richard Eskow | Jan 8, 2013 | Blog
It must've been like old home week when the old gang of Wall Street and Washington insiders finalized a couple more cushy settlements last week. Everybody knew the drill: Ignore the potential criminal charges and agree on settlement figures they think the public will...
by Dave Johnson | Jan 8, 2013 | Economy
In DC the geniuses are busy with the billionaire agenda, fighting the things We, the People do to make our lives better. Meanwhile, in the real world yet another report is out that shows how one-sided trade deals with China and others are killing off our jobs and...
by Sam Pizzigati | Jan 7, 2013 | Blog
The Bush years gave America's rich new and unprecedented preferential treatment at tax time. The fiscal cliff deal enacted in the early moments of 2013 leaves that preferential treatment in place. Who won the New Year’s eve standoff over the “fiscal cliff”? In one...
by Digby | Jan 7, 2013 | Blog
Why Austerity May Be Worse Than We Thought--And Hard To Predict Taking an axe to a governmental budget can cut off growth in a most troubling way. Indeed, austerity has proved worse for a country than most economists suspected. That is, in essence, what a new IMF...
by Dave Johnson | Jan 7, 2013 | Blog
Senate Republicans have been using filibusters to block ... everything. You might not even know it, because the filibuster is no longer the talk-all-night event that most people expect. Democrats are trying to fix this by restoring the old "talk all night" rules. They...
by Bill Scher | Jan 7, 2013 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: The GOP Threat: Cut Social Security and Medicare or We’ll Kill The Economy. OurFuture.org's Roger Hickey: "Here we go again. Republicans are very clear about their latest extortion threat to the American people: Unless you cut Social Security and...
by Roger Hickey | Jan 6, 2013 | Chained CPI, The Sequester
Here we go again. Republicans are very clear about their latest extortion threat to the American people: Unless you cut Social Security and Medicare benefits, within the next two months we will throw the US economy back into recession - by refusing to allow the US...
by Richard Eskow | Jan 6, 2013 | Blog
Three public figures associated with the movement to cut government spending - marketed in this country as "deficit reduction" - appeared in the news this week. It was like a modern-day morality play, those church-sponsored medieval performances meant to dramatize the...
by Terrance Heath | Jan 4, 2013 | Blog
After a day or so of public shaming by fellow Republicans like New Jersery Gov. Chris Christie, and New York Rep. Peter King (R, N.Y. 3), House Republican leadership managed a vote on Hurricane Sandy relief — albeit a meager $9.7 billion of the $60 billion requested...
by Dave Johnson | Jan 4, 2013 | Blog
Bloggers have learned some hard lessons about engaging with right-wing nutcases who leave nasty comments: "Don't feed the trolls." Starve them of the attention they seek. Ignore them and move on. This advice also applies to the right-wing nutcases threatening to bring...
by Robert Borosage | Jan 4, 2013 | Economy
The December Jobs Report is a warning to Washington: This economy is growing – with 155,000 new jobs and 7.8 percent unemployment. But that’s barely enough to cover the new workers coming in to the workforce. Now every working American will face an increase in their...
by Bill Scher | Jan 4, 2013 | Economy
Overlooked in the aftermath of the "fiscal cliff" deal and the questions about what spending cuts may be around the corner, was this part of President's Obama statement following the bill's passage: I think we all recognize this law is just one step in the broader...
by Bill Scher | Jan 4, 2013 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: Deficit Debate’s Sick Secret Is Killing Us OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "The problem, of course, is our health care system – although 'system' seems like a flattering word for this greed-driven, anarchic three-ring circus ... Where does all the...
by Richard Eskow | Jan 3, 2013 | Blog
Imagine a nation with a terrible problem - one its leaders refuse to discuss. The problem will needlessly drain trillions of dollars from its economy in the next ten years. Now imagine that this problem also robs that nation's citizens of life itself, draining years...
by Digby | Jan 3, 2013 | Blog
When I read David's post about the intransigence of the Confederate rump of the Republican Party, I thought of this tweet from the other night: Buzzy: @reptomprice told WMAL this morning that GOP needs "red state leadership." As @larryoconnor notes, that doesn't...
by Dave Johnson | Jan 3, 2013 | Blog
TODAY is a day of action demanding that the Senate fix the filibuster and make them talk. Pick up the phone right now and urge your Senator to support Senate Rules Reform. Call 1-866-937-5062 or text FIXTHESENATE to 69866. Fix The Filibuster We have a chance to...
by Robert Borosage | Jan 3, 2013 | Minimum Wage, The Sequester
Washington is careening off the fiscal cliff smack into the debt ceiling. These mind-numbing mixed metaphors are not the currency of a well-governed nation. Once more, Washington is fixated on what and how to cut. Once more, the media is clamoring for a deal, for...
by Bill Scher | Jan 3, 2013 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: So Can We Focus On Jobs NOW? OurFuture.org's Dave Johnson: "Now that the idiotic “fiscal cliff’ is out of the way, maybe we can start to get around to doing something that will actually help We, the People, fix the economy and reduce the borrowing....
by Bill Scher | Jan 2, 2013 | Blog
Progressives ranging from Paul Krugman, Noam Scheiber, Greg Sargent and OurFuture.org's own Robert Borosage are down on the latest tax deal. They feel President Obama caved on the threshold for higher tax rates and, in turn, set himself up another another bad deal in...
by Terrance Heath | Jan 2, 2013 | Blog
Now that the "fiscal cliff" deal has gone down, we have a couple of months to argue over the "winners" and "losers" before the country is dragged into the next of DC's. It's a good time to consider what comes next, and how it will impact people of color — and, by...
