by Digby | Dec 7, 2012 | Blog
HuffPost Hill with a little reminder: During a press conference demanding unemployment insurance be part of a fiscal cliff deal, Chuck Schumer noted that last December, 5 million Americans relied on federal unemployment insurance, while only 2 million currently do so....
by Stan Collender | Dec 7, 2012 | Blog
Originally posted at Capital Gains and Games. I hate to say I told you so, but… I predicted as far back as May (here, here and especially here) that House Speaker John Boehner's reelection as speaker could be in trouble if it looked to the tea party wing of the...
by Larry Cohen | Dec 7, 2012 | Blog
Originally posted at Communications Workers of America. The American people need to demand that the majority have rules that mean that key issues of the day are discussed — not buried. I appeared on NewsTalk, a Washington, D.C., public affairs television show, on...
by Bill Scher | Dec 7, 2012 | Blog
The simmering but underreported Senate fight over filibuster reform may have greater impact on the legislative success of President Obama’s second term than the heavily watched budget battle. Without an end to filibuster abuse, Obama’s mandate could once again be...
by Bill Scher | Dec 7, 2012 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: Economy Not Ready For Austerity OurFuture.org's Robert Borosage: "The unemployment rate is down to 7.7 percent with 146,000 added jobs in November … which is much better than expected but hardly a clear marker … The economy still faces...
by Richard Eskow | Dec 6, 2012 | Blog
They say "walk before you run," but for politicians like Jim DeMint it's the other way around. First you run, then you walk - walk out, that is, on your commitment to serve. But DeMint's performed one public service by abandoning his post: He's given us a glimpse of a...
by Jeff Bryant | Dec 6, 2012 | Blog, Education
"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste," has become a popular mantra of the ruling class. Of course, these are not the people who usually experience the brunt of a crisis. But a pervasive narrative in the mainstream media is that Americans are a people beset...
by Digby | Dec 6, 2012 | Blog
Nobody who reads this blog will be the least bit surprised by this turn of events: A growing chorus of Republicans is urging House leaders to abandon their staunch opposition to higher tax rates for the wealthy with the aim of clearing the way for a broad deal that...
by Terrance Heath | Dec 6, 2012 | Blog
Since the days of Lee Atwater, Republicans have relied on the politics of division and persecution fantasies. James Inhofe road into the Senate in 1994 on a platform of "God, Guns and Gays." Now? Not so much. Americans just aren't as afraid of the gays as they used...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 6, 2012 | Blog
The other day in the post Call Your Member Of Congress And Say “Discharge Petition,” I wrote about how Nancy Pelosi wants members of Congress to sign what is known as a “discharge petition” to force a vote on keeping taxes at current levels for people making under...
by Bill Scher | Dec 6, 2012 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: Jobs Fix Deficits OurFuture.org's Dave Johnson: "The economy is slowing, with signs of trouble on the horizon. Trade deficits are huge, a bad manufacturing number this week, Europe still stagnant and slipping (because of austerity), China slowing...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 5, 2012 | Blog, Economy
What happened to jobs? The pubic wants government to do something about jobs and getting the economy moving, and in DC the only thing is this weird argument about … anything but jobs and getting the economy moving! "Fiscal cliff?" What about jobs? Fixing the...
by Richard Eskow | Dec 5, 2012 | Blog
Free speech is a beautiful thing. And it's amazing how free someone's speech becomes -- and how unavoidable -- when they're part of a tiny elite with billions of dollars at its disposal: Suddenly you can "speak" in all the major media outlets. You can "speak" on Fox...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 5, 2012 | Blog
"All of a sudden it seems like there is a movement afoot of people saying we're going to push back." "And you know what? There should be a pushback." Henry Blodgett, in Why We Need Labor Unions After All Anyway, it would be great if companies would start sharing their...
by Digby | Dec 5, 2012 | Blog
In case you were wondering who are the biggest jackasses in the Senate, here's a handy list: Alexander (R-TN) Blunt (R-MO) Boozman (R-AR) Burr (R-NC) Chambliss (R-GA) Coats (R-IN) Coburn (R-OK) Cochran (R-MS) Corker (R-TN) Cornyn (R-TX) Crapo (R-ID) DeMint (R-SC) Enzi...
by Bill Scher | Dec 5, 2012 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: GOP Offers to Throw Middle Class, Elderly Over the Fiscal Cliff OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "This rehash of their old, rejected budget ideas is a formula for reducing the United States of America to a crumbling and poverty-haunted land where the...
by Richard Eskow | Dec 4, 2012 | Blog
The Republican Party has a message for the American people: Meet the new deal, same as the old deal. The GOP "counter-offer" to the President's fiscal-cliff proposal isn't really an offer at all: It's a rehash of the tired and extremist right-wing economic warfare...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Dec 4, 2012 | Blog
If any conference was in need of a disruption, it was the "Fix the Debt" roundtable held this morning in the bowels of the Grand Hyatt hotel in downtown Washington. It took a group of protestors—among them a couple of African-American senior women, a male college...
by Richard Eskow | Dec 4, 2012 | Blog, Economy
Who are the real "job creators"? Contrary to conventional wisdom, the answer seems to be: People who have jobs - particularly those which pay well. Well-paid employees buy things, and that creates jobs for other people. And what creates those kinds of jobs? A...
by Stan Collender | Dec 4, 2012 | Blog
The offer made yesterday by House Republicans to the White House to avoid the fiscal cliff got all the headlines, but there were two reasons why it wasn't the most important fiscal cliff-related story of the day. First, it wasn't really a serious offer. In spite of...
by Leo Gerard | Dec 4, 2012 | Blog
The nation’s debt is a good deal for Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, the leaders of the failed deficit commission. The two are profiting personally by urging fat cats and CEOs to support their two-year-old, already-interred deficit reduction plan. Simpson, a former...
by Bill Scher | Dec 4, 2012 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: "Fix The Debt" Shows Its True, Billionaire-Funded, Anti-Tax Colors OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "'Fix the Debt' is allegedly an impromptu alliance of America’s largest CEOs. But it’ really the latest manifestation of a perenially right-wing,...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 3, 2012 | Blog, Economy
There is a little-discussed proposal that was introduced into the "fiscal cliff" discussions by the CEOs of the "Fix the Debt" campaign. This is for a “Territorial Tax System" idea that lets multinational companies off the hook for taxes on offshore profits. This plan...
by Richard Eskow | Dec 3, 2012 | Blog
"Fix the Debt" is allegedly an impromptu alliance of America's largest CEOs. But it' really the latest manifestation of a perenially right-wing, pro-billionaire, pro-corporate lobby - one created years ago by hedge fund manager and former Nixon Cabinet member Pete...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 3, 2012 | Blog
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi wants members of Congress to sign what is known as a "discharge petition" to force a vote on keeping taxes at current levels for people making under $250,000. Call your member of Congress to let them know you support this. The more...
by Bill Scher | Dec 3, 2012 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: Republicans Have Nowhere To Run OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "'Robert E. Lee was offered easier terms at Appomattox,” [Charles] Krauthammer added, 'and he lost the Civil War.' Mr. Krauthammer might like to bone up on his American history: Lee’s army...
by Sam Pizzigati | Dec 2, 2012 | Blog, Economy
How much can a billion dollars buy? The undivided attention of America's entire political and chattering classes. Case in point: our ongoing national fixation on debt and deficit. Down through the millennia, single individuals have changed the course of history, some...
by Richard Eskow | Dec 2, 2012 | Blog
Right-wingers are in an uproar over the White House's budget offer, which John Boehner says left him "flabbergasted." Outraged pundits like Joe Scarborough, Charles Krauthammer, and Newt Gingrich are saying that Republicans should "walk away" from negotiations....
by Terrance Heath | Nov 30, 2012 | Blog
Word to conservatives: Don't bother trying to peddle your divisive politics to African-Americans; it won't work anymore. A post-election poll conducted by The Economist suggests that social issues may no longer be an effective means for Republicans to get Black voters...
by Robert Borosage | Nov 30, 2012 | Blog, The Sequester
Pressure for a deal to avoid the so-called "fiscal cliff" at the end of the year is building. Even minor tremors in the stock market are treated as auguries of the panic that will attend a failure to act. A multi-million dollar campaign funded by Wall Street...
by Bill Scher | Nov 30, 2012 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: What Progressives Can Learn From Public Education’s "Fiscal Cliff" OurFuture.org's Jeff Bryant: "Public education’s fiscal cliff already happened … new austerity budgets passed by state legislatures [have resulted] in drastic cuts in direct...
by Jeff Bryant | Nov 29, 2012 | Blog, Education, The Sequester
Public education's fiscal cliff already happened. The "austerity bomb" Paul Krugman warns us of in the New York Times was already dropped on public schools at least two years ago. And what impact the sequestration has on education is, in comparison, a ground assault....
by Robert Borosage | Nov 29, 2012 | Blog
Upon rumors of purported "grand bargain" including $400 billion in cuts to Medicare, Social Secuirty and Medicaid, Rep. Keith Ellision. the leader of the House Progressive Caucus, just said NO: WASHINGTON- Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), Co-Chair of the Congressional...
by Digby | Nov 29, 2012 | Blog
Not that anyone cares, but it seems that a vast majority of the American public think raising the Medicare eligibility age is stupid: Greg Sargent talks about this issue in depth in this post. He says that the Republicans are refusing to name their demands on...
by Dave Johnson | Nov 29, 2012 | Blog, Minimum Wage
In a surprise move, fast food workers in New York City walked out to strike for better pay. Like Walmart workers a week ago, they are joining the fight to change our economy. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NYyp89dCE8[/youtube] Fast-food workers are...
by Stan Collender | Nov 29, 2012 | Blog
Originally posted at Capital Gains and Games. I first posted about the budget dilemma Hurricane Sandy presented to congressional Republicans in general and House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) on October 31. At that time I said there were three questions: First, how much...
by Richard Eskow | Nov 29, 2012 | Blog
An extremist website called World Net Daily says that the Campaign For America's Future, where I am a Senior Fellow, is "radical." They're worked up about our Wage Class War website, which documents 2012's successful class-based political campaigns and promotes this...
by Bill Scher | Nov 29, 2012 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: You Can Pay Taxes And Create Jobs OurFuture.org's Dave Johnson: "House Speaker Boehner and Senate Minority leader each claimed this week that higher taxes on the wealthy will cause the 'job creators' to cut jobs and 'hurt growth.' The Heritage...
by Dave Johnson | Nov 29, 2012 | Blog
House Speaker Boehner and Senate Minority leader each claimed this week that higher taxes on the wealthy will cause the "job creators" to cut jobs and "hurt growth." The Heritage Foundation makes specific claims about how this will happen. Let's take a look. The...
by Bernie Sanders | Nov 28, 2012 | Blog
There has been a lot of discussion about Congress enacting a “grand bargain” during the lame duck session of Congress. Many members of Congress have talked about using the plan put forward by Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles as an outline for a “balanced” approach to...
