by Dave Johnson | Mar 19, 2012 | Blog, Minimum Wage
... is separation from reality caused by internalizing decades of endlessly repeated right-wing propaganda. This time it shows up in a discussion of the effect of top tax rates by Christina Romer. I hate to pick on Romer again, but... In the New York Times' Economic...
by Terrance Heath | Mar 19, 2012 | Blog
Republican presidential wannabe/spoiler Rick Santorum has said a lot of crazy things. And I mean a lot. His latest, however, may take the prize. Not satisfied with being a leading voice on climate change denialism, Santorum is trailblazing new ideological territory:...
by | Mar 19, 2012 | Blog
This behind the scenes look at the Grand Bargain doesn't change my original impression of the negotiations, but it does lend some details that actually make it worse than I thought: A lot of red ink, the Republicans thought. But the major elements of a bargain seemed...
by Jeff Bryant | Mar 19, 2012 | Blog, Education
Last week in Florida there was an important victory for progressive Democrats that not many Democrats know about. Even worse, most Democrats may not even be aware why this was a victory. The important win was generated by a coalition of parent groups, schoolteachers,...
by Dave Johnson | Mar 19, 2012 | Blog, Making it in America, Minimum Wage
“There was clearly something wrong with the U.S. economy long before the crash.” Consensus Consensus. Again and again, people who examine what went wrong with our economy leading up to the great recession come to the same conclusions! Study after study, book after...
by Bill Scher | Mar 19, 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: The Consensus For...
by Dave Johnson | Mar 18, 2012 | Blog, Reagan Revolution
(This post was originally published June 16, 2010) It seems that you can look at a chart of almost anything and right around 1981 or soon after you'll see the chart make a sharp change in direction, and probably not in a good way. And I really do mean almost anything,...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Mar 18, 2012 | Blog, Reagan Revolution
There's another chapter to add to the narrative my colleague Dave Johnson sketched out some weeks ago about how the Reagan revolution has come home to roost, based on sobering statistics uncovered this morning by David Cay Johnston at Tax.com about how The Great...
by Dave Johnson | Mar 18, 2012 | Blog
The Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO promised a big infrastructure push. The AFL-CIO pushed, the Chamber backed off. Democrats and President Obama should embrace a big investment in jobs – and challenge the Republicans to support it. The American Majority wants it....
by Sam Pizzigati | Mar 18, 2012 | Blog
Austerity budgets are spreading everywhere, but wealth, new data show, has become more concentrated at the global economic summit than ever before. From Cairo to Palo Alto, even some conservatives are now talking wealth tax. Forbes magazine started tracking America’s...
by Richard Eskow | Mar 18, 2012 | Blog
Question: What are the connecting threads between these two recent Mitt Romney news items - the announcement that he's not enrolling in Medicare, and the revelation that Bain Capital helped him make money helping the Chinese government spy on its people? Answer:...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Mar 16, 2012 | Blog
A report today in The Huffington Post that the AARP is organizing a "salon" dominated by supporters of cuts to Social Security benefits—as part of a larger "listening tour"—has advocates for preserving Social Security hopping mad. Apparently, the AARP has not learned...
by | Mar 16, 2012 | Blog
Social Security Works spoke to several conservatives at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) this past Friday, who were none too pleased to hear Mitt Romney he plans to cut Social Security and Medicare. Below is a video Social Security Works put...
by | Mar 16, 2012 | Blog, Economy, Making it in America, Minimum Wage
The following is an official statement from the AFL-CIO Executive Council. The economic policies that led to the financial crash of 2008 and the subsequent Great Recession should have been permanently discredited by their epic failure. Instead, the Republican...
by Bill Scher | Mar 16, 2012 | Blog
First they came for the women who use contraception, and sought to deny them insurance coverage. Then they came for the women seeking abortions, and sought to force them to have ultrasounds. Now, they coming for the domestic violence survivors, and threatening to...
by Bill Scher | Mar 16, 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: Not Just Goldman...
by Richard Eskow | Mar 16, 2012 | Blog
This week people have been buzzing about Goldman Sachs executive Greg Smith's high-profile resignation from Goldman and his description of the way that company's ethics and morals have declined over the last decade and more, especially under current CEO Lloyd...
by Terrance Heath | Mar 15, 2012 | Blog
Yesterday, I wrote that Mitt Romney will have a long, humiliating road to the GOP convention. Michael Tomasky has detailed the stops along and humiliations along that road, and it's not pretty. He predicts Romney may end up with enough delegates to win the nomination,...
by Dave Johnson | Mar 15, 2012 | Blog
People are organizing to protest in front of Apple stores timed to coincide with the iPad 3 launch tomorrow, to remind people that Apple is using exploited Chinese workers to build their products. I have been writing about the situation of exploited Apple workers in...
by | Mar 15, 2012 | Blog
Thing Progress reports: [A]ccording to Reuters, both Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-OH) are ready to cut below the level specified in the debt ceiling deal: Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives are ready to break a hard-fought...
by Dave Johnson | Mar 15, 2012 | Blog
On March 22, workers from the Communication Workers of America and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers will be joined by thousands of supporters to rally around the country to stand up to corporate greed, and in support of good jobs for the 99%. The rally...
by Bill Scher | Mar 15, 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: Can Romney Hang...
by Terrance Heath | Mar 15, 2012 | Blog
Mitt Romney's plight, after his third place finishes yesterday's primaries in Mississippi and Alabama, remind me of a lyric from an old Supreme's hit: "You don't really love me, you just keep me hanging on." Like two halves of a bad relationship, Romney keeps hanging...
by Bill Scher | Mar 14, 2012 | Blog
One of the critical moments in Barack Obama presidential candidacy happened in May 2008, in the days preceding the Indiana and North Carolina primaries. Gas prices were skyrocketing, en route to an all time record $4.12 per gallon. The presidential candidates were...
by Dave Johnson | Mar 14, 2012 | Blog
Advertising people will tell that repetition is important, because it takes a while before people start to pay attention. So I'm repeating this, because you should pay attention. Previously in, You Should Know About The "99% Spring", I pointed this out Action Coming...
by Dave Johnson | Mar 14, 2012 | Blog, Financial Reform
So it's down to Romney vs Santorum now. But when when it comes to the 1% it’s really just a one-man race. The difference between Romney and Santorum is that while Romney’s policies benefit only the 1%, Santorum’s policies only benefit the 1%. In his post, A Budget...
by Dave Johnson | Mar 14, 2012 | Blog
Today the Brown-Merkley Amendment #1819 passed the Senate with a voice vote! Sen. Sherrod Brown made a brief floor speech that noted that the amendment closes a loophole by which companies evaded current Buy America requirements by breaking up jobs into small pieces...
by Bill Scher | Mar 14, 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: The Truth About...
by Richard Eskow | Mar 14, 2012 | Blog
These words are being written from the veranda of a small house in an African valley, in the hour just before dawn. In the past week I've met people from Pakistan, Great Britain, Iraq, Australia, New Zealand and several other countries, as well as South Africans from...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Mar 13, 2012 | Blog
The very name of a Washington conservative conference this weekend is the height of subterfuge. It's called the "Defending the American Dream" conference, which is not about defending the actual American dreams of most Americans (the focus of our own "Take Back the...
by Terrance Heath | Mar 13, 2012 | Blog
Mitt Romney is down South, trying to win votes in the Alabama and Mississippi Republican primaries. So, I will respond as a Southerner to Romney's announcement that he won't be enrolling in Medicare, because he's worth $150-to-$200 million and doesn't need it: Well,...
by Dave Johnson | Mar 13, 2012 | Blog
There’s something happening here. What it is is becoming clear. There’s a company blocking a union over there, and that’s telling you you’ve got to beware. Breaking unions strikes deep. Back to your country it will creep. It starts when they pay low wages and exploit...
by | Mar 13, 2012 | Blog
Originally posted on Capital Gains and Games. The big federal budget news from last week was that, pushed by their tea party wing, House Republicans were seriously considering a fiscal 2013 budget resolution that proposed to cut appropriations below the levels agreed...
by Bill Scher | Mar 13, 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 Backer:...
by Leo Gerard | Mar 13, 2012 | Blog
Across America, people are dying for work. It's not because they're unemployed. It's because they work for corporations that don't care if they die. Every day, 12 workers die on the job in America – often because a corporation has defied regulations or ignored...
by Terrance Heath | Mar 13, 2012 | Blog
When it comes to changing Mitt Romney's image as a rich guy who's out of touch with the economic realities of the lives of middle- and working-class Americans, the Romney's — Mitt, who doesn't follow NASCAR, but has friends who own NASCAR teams; and Ann, who drives a...
by Dave Johnson | Mar 12, 2012 | Blog
There are small signs that real recovery might finally be kicking in. (Republicans have been able to obstruct it for only so long.) But we have not rewired the economic paradigm to work for the 99%, so any recovery will only bring back the imbalances that caused the...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Mar 12, 2012 | Blog
The fight to overturn the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling and to undo its effects on our democracy is now being ratcheted up as a spectrum of progressive organizations are cooperating on multiple fronts. The groups, which include the Campaign for America's...
by Sam Pizzigati | Mar 12, 2012 | Blog
Great economic cataclysms have in the past knocked the super rich off their stride. Our Great Recession's deep pockets, stunning new income data show, are bucking the historical tide. We can wait all we want, but sometimes history never gets around to repeating....
by Bill Scher | Mar 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: Will DeMarco Hear...
