by Dave Johnson | Feb 22, 2012 | Blog, Making it in America
Robert Reich says the economy's problem is that regular working people are not sharing in the gains that the economy makes. He says the idea that bringing back manufacturing will fix this is an illusion. I agree and disagree. In Manufacturing Illusions, Reich writes...
by | Feb 22, 2012 | Blog
Originally posted at Capital Gains and Games. I promise you this is a true story even if it sounds way too convenient. Last Wednesday I got an email challenging my comments about House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan's (R-WI) poor decision to move ahead with...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Feb 22, 2012 | Blog
Thousands of people who tuned into Tuesday night's "National Teach-In to Take Back the American Dream" got a remarkable one-hour tutorial on how the economy collapsed, and with it the economic security of millions of working Americans. They also received a sobering...
by Terrance Heath | Feb 22, 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: Lessons From The...
by Terrance Heath | Feb 21, 2012 | Blog
Thanks in large part to the phenomenon of Barack Obama's presidential campaign, 2008 was known as the year of the small donor. While Barack Obama can't called it's herald, his decision to accept, if not embrace, the reality of super PACs suggests that the 2012...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 21, 2012 | Blog
In Will We Choose A Chinese Future, David Sirota asks the core question: "Do we accept an economic competition that asks us to emulate China?" THIS is the choice that the "job creators" are demanding that we make when they say we need to be more "business friendly."...
by Richard Eskow | Feb 21, 2012 | Blog
Close your eyes and imagine: The year is 2027. President Peace N. Love lost his re-election bid three years ago,after the disaster created by his military and intelligence cuts turned millions of Americans into homeless refugees. His successor quickly appointed...
by Richard Eskow | Feb 21, 2012 | Blog
Once again we're hearing that a foreclosure fraud deal is about to be announced between major banks, the US government, and most or all of the states. We've heard that before, only to have the deadline pushed back so that holdout Attorneys General can be brought on...
by Robert Borosage | Feb 21, 2012 | Blog
Bankers who committed bank fraud deserve to be prosecuted and sent to jail. Enforcement of the law is vital to deter such behavior in the future. Some of America's best state attorneys general are trying do just that —trying to get justice for Americans hurt by what...
by Richard Eskow | Feb 21, 2012 | Blog
If the President thought his mortgage investigation announcement would be an easy sell to progressive critics, he was only half right at best. The announcement—especially the appointment of New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman— did win praise from a number of...
by Richard Eskow | Feb 21, 2012 | Blog
Above is a video of a conversation I had the other night with Thom Hartmann on his television show, The Big Picture, about the latest - and one of the most shocking - revelations about the government-sponsored housing finance agency Freddie Mac: That it created...
by Leo Gerard | Feb 21, 2012 | Blog
First, Republicans opposed extending the payroll tax cut that put an extra $20 a week in the pockets of 160 million working Americans. Next, they supported it. If the cost were offset the way they wanted. Even though Republicans previously had said that tax cuts never...
by Terrance Heath | Feb 21, 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: Obama vs....
by Sam Pizzigati | Feb 20, 2012 | Blog, Financial Reform
Lawmakers make laws. They don't enforce them. Corporate America understands that difference — and exploits it with a relentless regularity. The latest case in point: the battle over outrageous CEO pay. Towers Watson, the corporate consulting powerhouse, last week shot...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 18, 2012 | Blog
This is the 3rd anniversary of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, commonly known as President Obama's "stimulus." Republicans say it made the economy worse. Let's see... House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday, "Today, there's no denying the fact that his...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 17, 2012 | Blog, Economy
PBS' NewsHour had a terrific segment exploring the question, Are Chinese Business Partnerships a Good Deal for U.S. Companies? Watch Peter Navarro describe what he calls "weapons of job destruction." Interviewed on the segment were Peter Navarro, professor of...
by | Feb 17, 2012 | Blog
The president did something agile and wise the other day. And something quite important to the health of our politics. He reached up and snuffed out what some folks wanted to make into a cosmic battle between good and evil. No, said the president, we're not going to...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 17, 2012 | Blog, Making it in America
Presidential candidate Rick Santorum has gained popularity by saying he supports efforts to revitalize American manufacturing. But he remains silent about House Republicans keeping the China Currency Bill from being brought to the floor for a vote. That includes 61...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Feb 17, 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: Burr/Coburn...
by Jeff Bryant | Feb 17, 2012 | Blog, Education
Conventional wisdom among the Very Serious People in Washington DC has long maintained that the severely punitive nature of current policies governing America's public schools cannot be called an "attack" on those institutions or the teachers who inhabit them. We're...
by Richard Eskow | Feb 17, 2012 | Blog
There's a new "Medicare" proposal - sorta. It's really the same old bait-and-switch we've seen a dozen times. Still, you gotta hand it to 'em: Republican Sens. Tom Coburn and Richard Burr have taken the usual right-wing think-tank-designed buzzwords, deceptive...
by Terrance Heath | Feb 16, 2012 | Blog, Economy
Four Republican Senators — Thune, Toomey, Hutchison, and Brown — held a press conference today, to remind Americans about their job creation legislation. Wait. Republicans have jobs bills? Oh! That's why they had to remind us. Sen. John Thune, in the YouTube video...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 16, 2012 | Blog, China Currency Showdown
As China's Vice President Xi Jinping visits the US Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney blasts President Obama for not being tough enough on China. Meanwhile Romney says nothing about House Republicans keeping the China Currency Bill from being brought to the...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 16, 2012 | Blog
I want to send a warning to working people in Europe: when you let your businesses save money by mistreating workers in other countries, it might teach them to think they can save money by mistreating you, too. Over here in the US we have learned this the hard way. We...
by Terrance Heath | Feb 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: Super PACs:...
by Richard Eskow | Feb 16, 2012 | Blog
I hate what I've learned about Apple's outsourcing to China. I hate hearing Professor William Black explain why he believes that Steve Jobs, who I admired very much in some ways, must have ignored repeated reports that employees were being cheated and endangered. I...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Feb 15, 2012 | Blog
“If you want to have an argument about whether you want to help people making $40,000 or people making $1 million, we’re happy to have that argument,” Nadeam Elshami, a spokesman for House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, was quoted today by the Christian Science...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 15, 2012 | Blog
China is very, very "business-friendly." Corporate conservatives lecture us that we should be more "business-friendly," in order to "compete" with China. They say we need to cut wages and benefits, work longer hours, get rid of overtime and sick pay -- even lunch...
by Terrance Heath | Feb 15, 2012 | Blog
In this morning's Progressive Breakfast, I referred to Mitt Romney's Michigan TV spot as "Romney's Auto Bailout Spin-Out." Well, as it happens, things are worse than I thought. Just to recap, Santorum is pounding Romney in Michigan. This is a little embarrassing,...
by | Feb 15, 2012 | Blog
Not that we didn't already know it, but the wingnut welfare industry is thoroughly corrupt and it turns out that one of the most thoroughly corrupt is the climate science skeptic sector: The Heartland Institute, an influential rightwing thinktank based in Chicago,...
by Terrance Heath | Feb 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: Obama's Budget:...
by Robert Borosage | Feb 15, 2012 | Blog, Economy
President Obama’s budget, dismissed as “dead on arrival,” by Republicans in Washington, is widely described as a political document, designed to highlight the choices facing Americans this fall in dry budgetary numbers. The president presents Americans with a series...
by Mary Bottari | Feb 14, 2012 | Blog
Governor Scott Walker and his new team of criminal defense lawyers will be meeting with the Milwaukee County District Attorney soon to answer questions in a multifaceted "John Doe" probe being conducted by the DA into potentially illegal activities of Walker’s staff...
by Terrance Heath | Feb 14, 2012 | Blog
Oops. Mitt Romney might want to think twice about taking my earlier advice to ramp up his attacks on Rick Santorum's Washington insider status. At least until he manages to do something about the Washington insiders inside the Romney campaign. For a candidate running...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 14, 2012 | Blog, Making it in America
Chinese Vice President Xi is visiting the United States. He will meet with the President & CEOs, but not labor leaders or the press. We, the People used to be in charge. Now it's "I wanna tell you how it's gonna be." ("You're gonna give your wages, benefits, jobs,...
by Terrance Heath | Feb 14, 2012 | Blog, Climate
I'd like to urge Mitt Romney to disregard his fellow Republicans' warnings not to destroy Rick Santorum, and step up his attacks on Santorum's Washington insider status. Not because I'm a Romney fan. Far from it. It's just that it makes my job...
by | Feb 14, 2012 | Blog
In honor of Valentine’s Day, HBO airs a must-see documentary tonight about the triumph of right over wrong and the loving commitment of an interracial couple, Mildred and Richard Loving. Mildred Loving died of pneumonia in 2008 at her home in Central Point, Virginia....
by | Feb 14, 2012 | Blog
Originally posted at Capital Gains and Games. The fact that President Barack Obama’s fiscal 2013 budget released Monday adds up mathematically is almost entirely beside the point. The real question — the one we’ll be debating all year — is whether it adds up...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Feb 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 Ideologue...
by Leo Gerard | Feb 14, 2012 | Blog
Americans love an underdog. Maybe it’s an artifact of the American Revolution, when a rag-tag rabble of farmers and frontiersmen defeated the disciplined and well-provisioned military of the most powerful nation on earth. Even though the United States has usurped most...
