by | Mar 2, 2012 | Blog
FIGHTING FOR OUR HEALTH Everyone involved in the 2009-2010 crusade for health care reform will want to read this new book by Richard Kirsch, who was on the front lines of the fight as the director of Health Care for America Now (HCAN). Click here to purchase a copy of...
by Jeff Bryant | Mar 2, 2012 | Blog, Education
This week the US House of Representatives, with bipartisan support, passed a bill, H.R. 2117, with the misleading title of The Protecting Academic Freedom in Higher Education Act. The title is misleading because the bill has absolutely nothing to do with "protecting...
by Bill Scher | Mar 2, 2012 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: Who Is Keeping DeMarco In Charge Of Housing? OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "George W. Bush brought a far-right ideologue named Edward DeMarco into the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which controls Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and therefore has power...
by Richard Eskow | Mar 2, 2012 | Blog
Republicans love to say that nothing's more important cutting the Federal deficit. So why is Sen. Richard Shelby wasting $28 billion of taxpayer money? Shelby's used parliamentary tricks to put more than half of the nation's mortgages under the rule of an unelected...
by Robert Borosage | Mar 1, 2012 | Blog, Economy
What we have here is a failure to communicate. Poll after poll shows that voters are concerned most of all about jobs and the economy. Yet in Washington and on the campaign trail, attention has turned to deficits and how to get our books in order. Voters live in the...
by Dave Johnson | Mar 1, 2012 | Blog
Recent stories about the conditions of Apple's contractors in China have opened many people's eyes about where our jobs, factories, industries and economy have been going, and why. The stories exposed that workers live 6-to-12-to-a-room in dormitories, get rousted at...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Mar 1, 2012 | Blog
Today, we are calling on the acting head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Edward DeMarco, to either move or be removed: Stop standing in the way of the mortgage relief millions of homeowners need. Join us by sending a message to DeMarco: Allow sensible mortgage...
by Terrance Heath | Mar 1, 2012 | Blog
As a Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney should wear a warning label: "CAUTION: following changes in this candidate's positions could cause whiplash and other injuries." Seriously, you could hurt yourself trying keep up with the speed with which this guy...
by | Mar 1, 2012 | Blog
And to think the Republicans called John Kerry a flip-flopper for saying he voted for war funding before he voted against it and are now very likely to put a ping-pong ball on their presidential ticket. Hypocrisy doesn't begin to describe it: Mitt Romney sparked...
by | Mar 1, 2012 | Blog
Originally published at Capital Gains and Games. Corporate tax reform as it's most often discussed these days sounds great in theory: Lower the overall tax rate and offset the budget impact by eliminating various special provisions. Who isn't in favor of that? As Greg...
by Bill Scher | Mar 1, 2012 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: Bankers Should Worry About Subpoenas, Not Drum Circles OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon recently said that he felt safer in Lebanon than he did when Occupy marched past his house. If nothing else, it proves that Wall...
by Robert Borosage | Mar 1, 2012 | Blog
We're headed into an election that will feature the clearest ideological divide since Goldwater-Johnson. Romney and Gingrich and Santorum paint America on the brink of ruin -- about to "descend" into becoming an "entitlement society, not an opportunity society," a...
by Richard Eskow | Feb 29, 2012 | Blog
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon recently said that he felt safer in Lebanon than he did when Occupy marched past his house. If nothing else, it proves that Wall Street bankers haven't gotten any better at risk management - the art of knowing where danger lies and...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 29, 2012 | Blog, Minimum Wage
Unions have been fighting the 1% vs 99% fight for more than 100 years. Now the rest of us are learning that this fight is also OUR fight. The story of organized labor has been a story of working people banding together to confront concentrated wealth and power. Unions...
by | Feb 29, 2012 | Blog
Originally posted on Capital Gains and Games. Yesterday's The New York Times had a good story by Binyamin Appelbaum about how low interest rates are significantly driving down the government's borrowing costs. Appelbaum said that, given the continuing very strong...
by Bill Scher | Feb 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: Forget Michigan....
by Richard Eskow | Feb 29, 2012 | Blog
Forget Michigan. Worry about Steny Hoyer. While most political eyes are fixed on Romney's primary results, the middle class faces a threat to its financial security right in the heart of the Capitol.The Democratic Party does, too. House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, who...
by | Feb 28, 2012 | Blog
Originally published at Capital Gains and Games. Congressional Republicans so far have been adamant that reductions in the projected spending assumed in the federal budget baseline for projected continuing military activities in Afghanistan must not be used to offset...
by Eric Lotke | Feb 28, 2012 | Blog
The private prison industry is on the march. In recent months the industry moved to take over 24 state prisons in southern Florida and buy five prisons in Ohio. Now it’s making moves in Michigan. But the industry doesn’t always win. Resistance isn’t futile. The...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 28, 2012 | Blog
Who are the 1%? Who is getting rich exploiting the 99%? Meet the worst of the 1%. This is a series of 1-minute videos by Brave New Films. "The 1% in 1 Minute. These videos show the facts, plain and simple. Share them with your friends and family so Americans can...
by Leo Gerard | Feb 28, 2012 | Blog, Making it in America
There’s just something about manufacturing. Ask Rosie the Riveter. Ask the computer geeks and artists across America who create “Hacker Space” workshops to help each other invent and fabricate to their imaginations’ content. Yeah, it’s cool to make stuff. The “maker,”...
by Bill Scher | Feb 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: Why The Public...
by Richard Eskow | Feb 28, 2012 | Blog
GE paid an effective tax rate of 2.3 percent or less over the past ten years. What did the government do for GE while it was paying little - and often no - taxes? Let's see: The government let it off with just a slap on the wrist - more than once - after it repeatedly...
by Sam Pizzigati | Feb 27, 2012 | Blog
If a blunder you committed cost your employer $4 million, how long would you stay employed? In America today, a CEO can cost his company $4 billion and still collect both a paycheck and a bonus. People in America get fired all the time. Break too many plates as a...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 27, 2012 | Blog, Making it in America
Again and again (and again and again) we hear -- and learn the hard way -- that our "keep government out of it" approach to economic and manufacturing policy is hurting us. The countries that see themselves as countries and therefore have national strategies -- where...
by | Feb 27, 2012 | Blog
EJ Dionne thinks that Democrats should be wary of getting too cocky because the Obama lead is fragile and the Republicans might just decide to be sane before the election: [T]he GOP's self-correction in Virginia is also a warning for Democrats. Republicans, now aware...
by Robert Borosage | Feb 27, 2012 | Blog
I believe for every drop of rain that falls, A flower grows. Tom Jones Mitt Romney’s economic address at Ford Field in Detroit received more attention for the empty seats in the cavernous field than for the similarly vacant words in his address. But with the speech...
by Bill Scher | Feb 27, 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: CEOs Too Big To...
by Terrance Heath | Feb 24, 2012 | Blog
Now that my post-20th-GOP-debate waves of nausea have subsided, I'd like note one good thing that came of the whole ordeal. Their economic agendas are disastrously wrong-headed, and their attacks on President Obama go beyond borderline bigotry. But when the remaining...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 24, 2012 | Blog
Action Coming -- Spread The Word! This is a Big Deal, just look at end of this post for the list of organizations that are signed on to this so far - and more coming. April 9-15, 2012, the 99% Spring: 100,000 Americans will train for non-violent direct action. Sign...
by | Feb 24, 2012 | Blog
So I've been wondering here lately about why these campaigns cost so much more than they did just a few years ago. What are these Super PACs spending all their billionaire contributions on anyway? Well, surprise ... The Red White and Blue Fund, a "super PAC" backing...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Feb 24, 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: Satan Speaks to...
by Richard Eskow | Feb 24, 2012 | Blog
Psst. Hey, Senator! Just wanted to say thanks for all the free publicity! It's getting even better now that your pal – what's her name, the Half-Governor? - is talking about me too. You know what they say: It's not bad press if they spell your name right! But listen –...
by Terrance Heath | Feb 23, 2012 | Blog
Make it stop. Please, just make it stop. That's the short version of my reaction to GOP primary debate #20. Maybe it was too soon. Maybe I need more time to recover from my two days at CPAC. (After the debate, I felt the same odd sensation that I swear I felt after...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 23, 2012 | Blog
Our politicians are doing and saying increasingly incomprehensible things. The separation from regular people is unbelievable. But in politics you "dance with the one that brung ya," and these things become comprehensible and believable when you look at who is...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Feb 23, 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 President's...
by Robert Borosage | Feb 23, 2012 | Blog
The Obama administration released a “framework” for corporate tax reform yesterday, proposing to lower corporate tax rates, and pay for that by closing various corporate tax loopholes. The “framework” isn’t really a corporate tax reform proposal. It is a message...
by Richard Eskow | Feb 22, 2012 | Blog
The other day we appeared on Sam Seder's program, The Majority Report, to discuss the radical-right ideology of Edward DeMarco, a Bush appointee who became Acting Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and continues in that role because Congress won't...
by Richard Eskow | Feb 22, 2012 | Blog
Anybody who doesn't believe that energy speculators can change election results might want to ask Gray Davis, the former Governor of California who was removed in a recall drive partly prompted by voter frustration over California's ongoing energy crisis. Only...
by | Feb 22, 2012 | Blog
Charlie Pierce has the definitive take-down of Ross Douthat and his budding bromance with Rick Santorum. Here's a taste: [C]an we please have a better definition of "populism" than the one embodied in Rick Santorum, which can be fairly summarized as, "Gulling the...
