by Isaiah J. Poole | Apr 6, 2012 | Blog, Economy
Today's jobs report—120,000 new jobs created in March—underscores what we have been arguing for months: We must have a dramatic increase in the investments we need to make in infrastructure, education and other fundamentals of economic growth. The right-wing effort to...
by Bill Scher | Apr 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: Stop Blocking...
by Dave Johnson | Apr 6, 2012 | Blog, Economy
Whatever the March unemployment numbers are today, they are far, far from robust enough to employ everyone who needs work any time soon. (Please, surprise me!) There is something that can be done to really improve things. This something also gives Republicans a chance...
by Richard Eskow | Apr 5, 2012 | Blog
He's at again - and we're glad. A lot of smart people are dedicating their lives to fighting the corrosive effect of Wall Street on our economy and our democracy, but the best spokesman for that cause comes from Wall Street itself. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon is...
by Bill Scher | Apr 5, 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: What Republicans...
by Dave Johnson | Apr 5, 2012 | Blog
House Republicans passed a budget that phases out Medicare. Of course this could cause big problems for Republicans if the public learns about this. Solution? Accuse Obama of phasing out Medicare, and use the right-wing noise machine to spread that story far and wide....
by Robert Borosage | Apr 5, 2012 | Blog
In The Washington Post, columnist Matt Miller gleefully notes the parallels between President Obama’s campaign and that of President Bill Clinton’s 1996 re-election campaign. Then, Republican opponent Bob Dole was lashed to the radical then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich...
by Richard Eskow | Apr 5, 2012 | Blog
Score one for the good guys: After being pressured by Color of Change and other progressive groups, Coca-Cola has left ALEC - the cynical corporate coalition that has pushed a bevy of anti-democratic, anti-middle class, and anti-consumer initiatives. Now that Coke's...
by Bill Scher | Apr 5, 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: How The GOP Budget...
by Terrance Heath | Apr 4, 2012 | Blog
Well, as the saying goes, "It's all over but the shouting." Having slogged through a primary process that felt even longer than it was, it looks like Republicans finally have a nominee to go mano-a-mano with Barack Obama come November. Around ten o'clock last night,...
by | Apr 4, 2012 | Blog, Rick Perlstein
During the 2008 campaign Rick Perlstein offered some important advice to Democrats on how to steal GOP rhetoric, advice that they have, so far, failed to heed: Reagan didn't praise FDR. He stole from him. As in, "This generation has a rendez vous with destiny." We...
by Dave Johnson | Apr 4, 2012 | Blog
The most important thing the President said about the Republican Budget in his big speech Tuesday was when he described just some of the damage it does, and said, "This is not an exaggeration. Check it out yourself." Seriously, do that, and see if you can get your...
by Robert Borosage | Apr 4, 2012 | Blog
Game on. President Obama delivered a fierce speech yesterday, calling out the radical nonsense of the Republican budget, and defining the themes of the choice Americans will face in the Fall. The speech was long, detailed, and unrelenting. I recommend taking the time...
by | Apr 3, 2012 | Blog
Although we’ve only been back on the air for a couple of months, in your letters, e-mails and webpage comments a single theme emerges time and again – thank you for the reporting, for the interviews and for your commentary, you tell us, but the problems seem so...
by Dave Johnson | Apr 3, 2012 | Blog
In a speech today President Obama called the Republican proposals a "prescription for decline." The President reminded listeners how we got where we are -- Republican policies that led to collapse -- and said that Republicans are now "doubling down" with their new...
by Dave Johnson | Apr 3, 2012 | Blog
To "save money" the government is letting poultry companies do "voluntary" inspections. So guess what happens? Hint: the same thing that always happens when you let profit-seeking companies police themselves. Seriously, what do you think is going to happen? One...
by | Apr 3, 2012 | Blog
In his newest book, "Rebuild the Dream," green economy pioneer Van Jones reflects on his journey from grassroots outsider to White House insider, shares intimate details of his time in government, and provides a blueprint to reinvent the American Dream. Along the way,...
by Bill Scher | Apr 3, 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: GOP Budget Would...
by Alan Jenkins | Apr 3, 2012 | Blog
Most Americans correctly understand that the economic meltdown was caused by a perfect storm of misconduct in the lending and financial industries and inadequate rules and enforcement. A 2010 Pew Financial Reform Project poll, for example, found that American likely...
by Leo Gerard | Apr 3, 2012 | Blog, Making it in America, Minimum Wage
A trio of governors and a duo of lieutenant governors last week dined on pink slime burgers and pronounced them mouth-wateringly-delicious-and-nutritious as TV cameras rolled on their barbeque in a Nebraska factory that manufactures the stuff. Shoppers have reacted...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Apr 3, 2012 | Blog
The "move your money" movement made a lot of noise a few months ago by encouraging individuals to close their accounts at the big banks at the root of the financial crisis. That movement is now well into what Ilana Berger, the co-director of New Bottom Line, calls...
by Dave Johnson | Apr 3, 2012 | Blog, Making it in America
American tax dollars should employ American workers and build American companies. But the Bay Bridge project not only didn't do that, it paid to build up a new Chinese state-owned competitor that will bid against American companies on future projects! Let's not make...
by Terrance Heath | Apr 2, 2012 | Blog, The Sequester
In 2010, Christopher Beam reported that Rep. Paul Ryan (WI, R) required his congressional staff to read Ayn Rand's Objectivist tome, Atlas Shrugged (now a major motion picture). Ryan has made no secret of his admiration for Rand's philosophy, and has cited her as "the...
by Richard Eskow | Apr 2, 2012 | Blog
The name in the headlines this month is George Zimmerman, shooter of Trayvon Martin. But another Zimmerman named the phenomenon we're witnessing almost fifty years ago, when he described the unnamed gunman who shot civil rights leader Medgar Evers: The deputy...
by | Apr 2, 2012 | Blog
Originally posted at Capital Gains and Games. From the beginning there were two reasons I didn't think the plan that Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson proposed to the deficit reduction commission they co-chaired was as special or game-changing as they and their...
by Bill Scher | Apr 2, 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: Deficit Trouble -...
by Dave Johnson | Apr 2, 2012 | Blog
River City faces a terrible deficit, and if we don't cut spending on the things We, the People do for each other right now, there will be trouble. We gotta do some austerity! We gotta eat that seed corn. We gotta stop taxing the 1% and stop paying for things the 99%...
by Dave Johnson | Mar 31, 2012 | Blog, Making it in America
You can sit on your couch and tweet things out there all day, but Twitter doesn't knock on doors, and Twitter really doesn't get in people's faces. The Should Be Made In America campaign shows how to get that done. And the big impact this campaign is already having...
by Richard Eskow | Mar 30, 2012 | Blog
Economic radical Paul Ryan has endorsed Mitt Romney, Romney's embraced the Ryan budget, and the House Republicans have voted to enact the Romney/Ryan vision of the future into law. Yet an eerie silence has settled over the vision itself: How would it affect our daily...
by Dave Johnson | Mar 30, 2012 | Blog
The "independent" audit of working conditions at Apple's Chinese manufacturing supply chain is out, and it is not good. Workers are being exploited in ways that violate human rights standards and laws, and letting them get away with this is costing us our own jobs....
by Bill Scher | Mar 30, 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: Who Voted For The...
by Jeff Bryant | Mar 29, 2012 | Blog, Education
Coming in over the transom this week, the ever-vigilant bloggers at Education Week's Politics K-12 who were camped out at hearings for the House Education and the Workforce Committee tweeted out that Rep. Judy Biggert from Illinois, "a moderate Republican," is...
by Richard Eskow | Mar 29, 2012 | Blog, Chained CPI
When millions of dollars are being pumped into Washington by anti-government and anti-tax ideologues, you're bound to find Democrats willing to play along. And when your Washington press corps can't be bothered to get even the smallest details right - well, that must...
by Sam Pizzigati | Mar 29, 2012 | Blog
Behind this week’s record-smashing $2 billion-plus sale of the Los Angeles Dodgers, a global economy that’s enriching only the world’s super rich The Los Angeles Dodgers didn’t win all that many baseball games in the eight years owner Frank McCourt signed the...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Mar 29, 2012 | Blog, Minimum Wage
The Progressive Caucus Budget for All, the embodiment of the progressive vision for rebuilding the economy, was voted down overwhelmingly on the House floor Thursday. But that vote was just the beginning of what should be an epic debate over the choice between...
by Robert Borosage | Mar 29, 2012 | Blog, Economy, Minimum Wage
In 2010, as the economy began its slow recovery from the Great Recession, a new study shows the richest 1 percent of Americans captured a staggering 93 percent of all income growth, while the incomes of most Americans stagnated. Ninety-three percent. Occupy that. The...
by Dave Johnson | Mar 29, 2012 | Blog
“EMPLOYEES OF U.S. SUBSIDIARIES OF GERMAN COMPANIES, ESPECIALLY T-MOBILE USA, SHOULD BE ABLE TO EXERCISE THEIR UNRESTRICTED RIGHT TO OPT FOR ORGANIZED REPRESENTATION IN THE COMPANY WITHOUT FEAR.” In an ad in the NY Times yesterday, 11 leading German legal scholars and...
by Bill Scher | Mar 29, 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: House Republicans...
by Dave Johnson | Mar 28, 2012 | Blog
The new Republican budget (called the "Ryan Budget" by DC insiders) reflects current electoral reality: billionaires and corporations now finance candidates, and we get government of, by and for billionaires and corporations. The rest of us no longer matter, except as...
by Bill Scher | Mar 28, 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: Vote For The...
