by Terrance Heath | Jul 13, 2012 | Blog
If your neighbor’s house is on fire, you don’t haggle over the price of your garden hose. - Franklin Delano Roosevelt I wasn’t planning on writing about this today, but take a moment to Andrew Leonard’s Salon piece, "Thank God for Taxes." Read it from beginning to...
by | Jul 13, 2012 | Blog
I have been wondering obsessively why Romney is so keen on saying that he left Bain in 99 instead of 02. I mean it's not as if he's running from his career there in general. So why is so adamant that he not be associated with it during that period? The easiest answer...
by Bill Scher | Jul 13, 2012 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: Where's The Media on Bain? OurFuture.org's Dave Johnson: "Back when Bill Clinton was President there was a huge media-swarm controversy because a decade before her husband was elected Hillary Clinton had made $100,000 over ten months by investing in...
by Richard Eskow | Jul 13, 2012 | Blog
If only. If only Brian Moynihan designed fashionable shoes, Jamie Dimon pitched a mean slider, and Lloyd Blankfein had written the song "Boyfriend" for Justin Bieber. Then they'd prosecute bank fraud. The Justice Department used as many people to investigate one...
by Jeff Bryant | Jul 12, 2012 | Blog, Education
Left-leaning people everywhere recently got a hoot when the Texas Republican Party declared its opposition to the teaching of "Higher Order Thinking Skills," including "critical thinking skills," in public schools. Although a party spokesperson later back-peddled from...
by Terrance Heath | Jul 12, 2012 | Blog
Almost six years ago, the nation watched poor, mostly African-Americans suffer and die waiting for government help in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Meanwhile, conservative pundits declared that Katrina victims only had themselves to blame. Then Sen. Barack Obama...
by | Jul 12, 2012 | Blog
Originally published at Capital Gains and Games.. The story is that Republicans want and need the federal budget to be a big campaign issue in the presidential election. The Republican hierarchy supposedly thinks the president is very vulnerable on the issue and that...
by Bill Scher | Jul 12, 2012 | Uncategorized
Each morning, Bill Scher and Terrance Heath serve up what progressives need to effect change on the kitchen-table issues families face: jobs, health care, green energy, financial reform, affordable education and retirement security. MORNING MESSAGE: Romney And...
by Terrance Heath | Jul 12, 2012 | Blog
I confess, when I heard Mitt Romney would be making his official pitch for the African-American vote at the NAACP convention, I groaned. "Why, oh why couldn't it have been Newt Gingrich?" Seriously, it would have been so much more fun to watch. Or even Rick Santorum....
by Dave Johnson | Jul 11, 2012 | Blog
In the news, Republicans are running ads attacking Obama for "sending taxpayer dollars" out of the country in the stimulus… They depend on the news media to cover with as a "both sides do it" story, which it will, leaving voters confused and misinformed. The...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jul 11, 2012 | Blog
On Wednesday the stock market remained in the doldrums, thanks largely to the release of Federal Reserve June meeting minutes that revealed that at least some members of the Fed believed the economy needs "further policy stimulus," but the Fed nonetheless took no...
by Bill Scher | Jul 11, 2012 | Blog
The booing of Mitt Romney at the NAACP convention is just the latest hilarious result of Republican presidents and presidential candidates straining to court the African-American vote at the annual event. Here's a trip down Memory Lane… 1981: President Ronald...
by Bill Scher | Jul 11, 2012 | Blog, Minimum Wage
My argument that liberals should bargain with corporations and not outright fight them, in the New York Times opinion piece "How Liberals Win," is not terribly populist, for better or worse. And I expected people on the populist left would not readily accept it. But I...
by | Jul 11, 2012 | Blog
And he's supposed to be one of the reasonable ones: Rep. David Dreier (R-Calif.) said on Monday evening that he didn't believe highly expensive health care should be provided to uninsured patients with pre-existing conditions… "While I don't think that someone...
by Bill Scher | Jul 11, 2012 | Uncategorized
Each morning, Bill Scher and Terrance Heath serve up what progressives need to effect change on the kitchen-table issues families face: jobs, health care, green energy, financial reform, affordable education and retirement security. MORNING MESSAGE: Republican...
by Richard Eskow | Jul 11, 2012 | Blog
A new survey showing the extent of bankers' criminal inclinations, together with the "LIBOR" scandal, gives us more insight into how deeply corrupt the banking industry has become. Big banks have metastasized into a kind of "Financial/Industrial Complex" which is...
by Roger Hickey | Jul 11, 2012 | Blog
The Affordable Care Act is already working. And those who vote to repeal it will hurt the 2.5 million college age kids who are now covered through their parents' plans -- the 24 million seniors who got checkups through Medicare or the 17 million kids who can no longer...
by Terrance Heath | Jul 10, 2012 | Blog, Economy, Making it in America
While on vacation last week, I came across a CNN analysis that asked an important question, especially in light of Friday’s jobs numbers: Where are the jobs bills? Another month, another weak jobs report. And don’t expect Congress to do much about it anytime soon....
by Dave Johnson | Jul 10, 2012 | Blog, Economy
We have a jobs emergency that is hollowing out the middle class. Some say automation is the cause of our high unemployment and that it will get worse. Others say there are other structural problems and that our high unemployment is a "new normal." Perhaps these are...
by Bill Scher | Jul 10, 2012 | Uncategorized
Each morning, Bill Scher and Terrance Heath serve up what progressives need to effect change on the kitchen-table issues families face: jobs, health care, green energy, financial reform, affordable education and retirement security. MORNING MESSAGE: Clear Choice On...
by Leo Gerard | Jul 10, 2012 | Blog
The United Steelworkers would not take “shut” for an answer. Steelworkers demonstrated, petitioned, held press conferences, conducted candlelight vigils, demanded studies, pestered lawmakers, organized meetings and ultimately helped save about 1,200 good-paying...
by Richard Eskow | Jul 10, 2012 | Blog
More and more Washington insiders are asking a question that was considered off-limits in the nation's capital just a few months ago: Who, exactly, is Attorney General Eric Holder representing? As scandal after scandal erupts on Wall Street, involving everything from...
by Dave Johnson | Jul 9, 2012 | Blog, Making it in America
Here is a second short video with highlights from the Take Back the American Dream conference panel, Making It In America: Reviving and Strengthening U.S. Manufacturing. This video, Straight Talk About American Manufacturing, comes is from the Inernational Association...
by Bill Scher | Jul 9, 2012 | Blog
After the 2010 tax cut deal between President Obama and congressional Republicans, some on the left presumed Obama was giving up on ending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. But I argued at the time that he was simply playing for time while facing a hostile House, and...
by | Jul 9, 2012 | Blog
Thomas Edsall devoted his blog post today to several economists who claim that the upward redistribution we have seen over the last three decades is a result of revolutions in technology and that it will be difficult to reverse this development. In fact, much of this...
by | Jul 9, 2012 | Blog
This is a sick story about sick people from a sick state in a sick country: Governor Nikki Haley, a Tea Party-backed Republican, was among the first state leaders to oppose expanding Medicaid after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the federal government can’t make...
by Bill Scher | Jul 9, 2012 | Uncategorized
Each morning, Bill Scher and Terrance Heath serve up what progressives need to effect change on the kitchen-table issues families face: jobs, health care, green energy, financial reform, affordable education and retirement security. MORNING MESSAGE: Are Republicans...
by Dave Johnson | Jul 8, 2012 | Blog
Republicans have been holding to a no-tax pledge for decades as a strategy to undermine government. But more and more people are noticing that our schools, roads, police and fire departments, bridges, courts, food-safety system -- and everything else non-military that...
by Dave Johnson | Jul 6, 2012 | Blog, Economy
Another lackluster jobs report with 80K new jobs and an unchanged 8.2% unemployment, Keep in mind that we lost 815,000 jobs in Bush's last month, but this still is not good enough. Republicans are intentionally sabotaging job-creation efforts thinking it will help...
by Bill Scher | Jul 6, 2012 | Blog, Economy
Mitt Romney received a double blast from the conservative circular firing squad, as the Wall Street Journal editorial board and The Weekly Standard's BIll Kristol both publicly complained that the candidate is failing to campaign on a vision to boost the economy. The...
by Richard Eskow | Jul 6, 2012 | Blog
In the ongoing scandal about Barclays' employees tampering with the "LIBOR," or London interbank lending rate - which is to say, bank fraud - The Economist offers this brilliant cover. It's not just the word "banksters," or the fact that it shows bank executives...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jul 6, 2012 | Blog, Economy
Updated 8:47 a.m. — Today's unemployment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics will be closely watched for its political impact on the presidential race. But it is not the numbers that will be most consequential. What will determine whether President Obama will...
by Robert Borosage | Jul 6, 2012 | Blog, Economy
Today’s jobs numbers reinforce what we already know about this economy: The growth is too slow; the jobs created too few. Last month’s 80,000 additional jobs does not keep pace with the number of new workers coming into the economy. We are essentially limping in...
by Richard Eskow | Jul 6, 2012 | Blog
Recently my friend and colleague Bill Scher challenged progressive critics of President Obama's conciliatory approach toward corporations with a New York Times op-ed entitled "How Liberals Win." Far from being "business as usual," Bill writes, "the Supreme Court's...
by Bill Scher | Jul 6, 2012 | Uncategorized
Each morning, Bill Scher and Terrance Heath serve up what progressives need to effect change on the kitchen-table issues families face: jobs, health care, green energy, financial reform, affordable education and retirement security. MORNING MESSAGE: Challenge Congress...
by Bill Scher | Jul 6, 2012 | Blog, Financial Reform
The following is an excerpt of an article published by Grist. Recently The New York Times published my op-ed “How Liberals Win,” in which I argued that throughout American history, liberal advancements have been mainly achieved with corporate support, and...
by Dave Johnson | Jul 5, 2012 | Blog
What did you think the word "trade" meant? You probably thought it meant we buy from them, and they buy from us, and we both get richer. I'll bet you never thought "trade" means we buy from them, and they don't buy from us, and they get richer and we get poorer, did...
by Terrance Heath | Jul 5, 2012 | Blog, Climate, Conservatism, Jobs and Growth
This is understatement of the year. The top utility regulators in Maryland and the District accepted a measure of the blame Tuesday for the lingering power outages that have plagued the region for years, saying they did not move swiftly enough to hold Pepco to...
by Dave Johnson | Jul 5, 2012 | Blog
The worldwide battle to get away from the coal and oil industries has been underway for some time. Countries are fighting to gain a share of the new green manufacturing industries with millions of jobs and trillions of dollars on the line. Country after country is...
by Bill Scher | Jul 5, 2012 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: Re-Declare Independence OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "George III is gone. But there are other tyrants, and it's time to re-declare independence from them: from the cynical cheaters on Wall Street and the politicians in both parties who serve them;...
