by Terrance Heath | 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: Trickle-Down in...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 14, 2012 | Blog
Saying the country can't "cut our way to growth," the President has some serious infrastructure money in his budget, along with serious help for America's manufacturers. This will create jobs and make our economy more competitive. Republicans are already blasting it...
by Terrance Heath | Feb 13, 2012 | Blog
The Republican coalition, and indeed American conservatism itself over the past 30 years, has been characterized as an odd, almost unnatural pairing of "culture warrior" social conservatives and Ayn-Rand-fixated fiscal conservative, held together by little more that...
by | Feb 13, 2012 | Blog
I have always wondered why the libertarians almost always choose the right wing party in America, when theoretically, they could just as easily choose the left. I have variously chalked it up to hypocrisy, selfishness or greed, since when it comes down to it, most of...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 13, 2012 | Blog, China Currency Showdown
Get to know the name Xi Jinping. He is currently Vice President of China, and in 2013 is expected to become general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, the next leader of the country. Xi is traveling in the US this week, meeting with President Obama and them...
by Sam Pizzigati | Feb 12, 2012 | Blog, Minimum Wage
GOP White House hopefuls want taxes on the rich cut even lower than they've already been cut. What might a tax-the-rich-even-less future bring? The land of the kiwi offers one frightful answer. Where in the developed world do rich people pay the least in taxes? To...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 11, 2012 | Blog
For the last several days there has been an absolute furor over the Obama administration's decision to require employer health insurance plans to cover birth control. Republicans went so far as to claim that the Obama administration is "at war with religion" -- and...
by Steven Capozzola | Feb 11, 2012 | Blog, Making it in America
An analysis of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) from Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) Media Director Steven Capozzola... I've talked with many domestic U.S. manufacturers over the past decade or so-- mostly small and mid-sized manufacturers...
by Richard Eskow | Feb 10, 2012 | Blog
The Alonya Show with Richard Eskow on the foreclosure fraud deal Two thousand bucks for having your home illegally foreclosed on is an insult. But two billion dollars' worth of lawyers suing bankers on behalf of wronged homeowners could change everything. And a real...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 10, 2012 | Blog, Minimum Wage
"Producers" and "parasites." Cruel language justifying extreme greed seems to be mainstream now. Even Presidential candidates feel free to disparage 99% of us! In today's right-wing folklore government by We, the People is an evil thing that takes from "producers" and...
by Terrance Heath | Feb 10, 2012 | Blog
I have to admit, for a progressive being at CPAC can feel like being a "stranger in a strange land." For a black, gay progressive it's a bit like being dropped on another planet, with almost no breathable atmosphere; a very lonely, claustrophobic place. It's hard to...
by | Feb 10, 2012 | Blog
This week a $25 billion settlement was announced in which big banks pay up for a portion of their bad deeds in the home foreclosure crisis. Everyone is trying to determine whether this is a good deal or a bad deal. Here is how I score it. This deal represents small...
by Terrance Heath | Feb 10, 2012 | Blog
Rick Santorum arrived at CPAC today, but he was everywhere at CPAC yesterday. As David Frum noted, there were no Romney stickers to be seen at CPAC yesterday, but Santorum stickers were everywhere. (With Gingrich stickers running a close second.) As he walked onto the...
by Terrance Heath | Feb 10, 2012 | Blog
OK. I'll admit it. Newt Gingrich got me on this one. I walked into the CPAC 2012 conference this morning with my guard down (first mistake), and picked up what I thought was up updated schedule of events for the main ballroom. Then I read it. Ouch. "Rick Santorum (PA)...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 10, 2012 | Blog, Economy
President Obama is preparing to roll out his 2013 budget. If he wants a budget that gets rid of the deficit, meets human needs and does the things that polls show the public overwhelmingly wants done, The People's Budget Is The Template! This is the budget proposal...
by Terrance Heath | Feb 10, 2012 | Blog
I knew it was going to be a good day when the first thing I saw at CPAC was Herman Cain's bus. I'm going to give Herman the benefit of the doubt that he sat in the front of the bus this time. I got my laptop open just in time to catch the "It's the Spending, Stupid!...
by Terrance Heath | Feb 10, 2012 | Blog
Michele Bachmann's speech at CPAC 2012 wasn't quite the start turn that her appearance in 2011 — when Americas Bachmannia infection started spreading. I guess that's the difference between being a newly-announced presidential candidate and being a...
by Terrance Heath | Feb 10, 2012 | Blog
I caught most of Sen. Marco Rubio's speech at CPAC this morning, and it was very well received. Based on that alone, I'd be tempted to agree with his categorization as a "CPAC darling." He's rumored to be on the short list for VP, though he says he's not interested....
by Bill Scher | Feb 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: Romney, Lead Your...
by Robert Borosage | Feb 10, 2012 | Blog
They’re at it again. The same congressional Republicans who find any excuse to cut taxes for multimillionaires are blocking renewal of tax cuts to help the middle class stay afloat in this struggling economy. Just when the economy seems to be gaining momentum,...
by Richard Eskow | Feb 9, 2012 | Blog
The Federal government and the Attorneys General from 49 states have signed a deal with five major banks over charges of fraud, including reported acts of widespread perjury and forgery, in the so-called “robo-signing” scandal. A few days ago we suggested that any...
by Richard Eskow | Feb 9, 2012 | Blog
A Missouri grand jury handed down multiple felony indictments for foreclosure fraud on Monday. That's the same kind of crime being negotiated in nationwide settlement talks with America's big banks. If people can be indicted for doing it, why should bankers be allowed...
by Alan Jenkins | Feb 9, 2012 | Blog
As Election Day nears, President Obama is regaining his populist mojo. His State of the Union speech was mostly pitch perfect, evoking core American themes of opportunity and optimism, and calling for “an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, and everyone does...
by Robert Borosage | Feb 9, 2012 | Blog
The bank settlement of $25 billion over three years from five major banks for robo-signing forgeries is being hailed in Washington and scoured by leading bank critics. It is hard not to be suspicious of any settlement that the banks would agree to. I’m reminded of...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 9, 2012 | Blog, Making it in America
Economist Christina Romer had an op-ed in the NY Times this weekend, Do Manufacturers Need Special Treatment? The question that keep coming back to me is why did she feel the need to write an op-ed to diss manufacturing? Is it just an economist thing? Or is she, like...
by | Feb 9, 2012 | Blog
Christina D. Romer, the former chairwoman of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, took U.S. manufacturing to task recently in a New York Times op-ed. Headlined “Do Manufacturers Need Special Treatment?” Romer suggests that support for manufacturing...
by Bill Scher | Feb 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: At CPAC,...
by Terrance Heath | Feb 9, 2012 | Blog
In my previous post, I wrote that I'm likely to hear an old favorite conservative talking point repeated over and over again while I'm at CPAC: Married cures poverty, economic inequality, and just about any other economic complaint you can name — especially for black...
by Richard Eskow | Feb 9, 2012 | Blog
Dear Self-Described "Producer": I received your hate mail this morning. Thank you for emerging from your self-creating illusion long enough to write it. I particularly enjoyed your unstated rhetorical debt to the John Galt character in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, who...
by Terrance Heath | Feb 8, 2012 | Blog, Economy
"You gotta have a J-O-B, if you wanna be with me." - Gwen Guthrie, "Ain't Nothin' Goin' On But The Rent" I'm off to cover CPAC tomorrow, where — in light of a federal court ruling California's Proposition 8 unconstitutional — I'm likely to hear a favorite conservative...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 8, 2012 | Blog
PBS NewsHour took a look at why Germany's economy is doing so well, while much of the rest of Europe is not doing so well. Here are a few notable excerpts from the transcript: With just a quarter of America's population and a quarter of its GDP, Germany exports more...
by Terrance Heath | Feb 8, 2012 | Blog
Funny how things change. When Herman Cain and Rick Perry imploded in one week last November, Jon Stewart called Mitt Romney "the luckiest motherfudger on Earth." That was before last night's "shellacking," when Rick Santorum trounced Romney in Minnessota, Missouri,...
by Bill Scher | Feb 8, 2012 | Blog
It was just one month ago when conservatives were complaining that ABC's George Stephanopoulos was displaying his "bias" while moderating a Republican presidential debate by being "obsessed" with contraception and asking Mitt Romney a "gotcha question" about whether...
by Bill Scher | Feb 8, 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: CSI Missouri:...
by Anne Thompson | Feb 7, 2012 | Blog
Co-written with David Reeves. Several GOP presidential candidates have made competing claims to the Reagan mantle this election season. So in order to determine once and for all which candidates truly honor the Gipper’s legacy, we are submitting the following...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Feb 7, 2012 | Blog, Economy
President Obama today will go to a fire house in the Virginia suburbs of Washington to tout his plan to promote hiring of veterans as first responders. It's a program that is sorely needed to address an American travesty: One out of every eight of the veterans...
by | Feb 7, 2012 | Blog, Economy
Along with squandering a federal budget surplus, getting us mired in two “wars” and devastating the net worth of most Americans, today’s revised jobs data show a net loss of 646,000 private sector jobs during the eight Bush/Cheney Republican presidential years—and...
by Richard Eskow | Feb 7, 2012 | Blog
The reaction to January's jobs report shows how tragically our expectations have fallen, especially among some Democrats and their supporters. Their cheerleading isn't just bad policy or bad politics, although it is both of those things. It's also callous and...
by Terrance Heath | Feb 7, 2012 | Blog
Just in case you missed the news, "Insider trading" is back. It's even bipartisan. Well, the truth is that it never really went away after its heyday during the 1980s, when Gordon Gekko served as a stand-in for era villains like Michael Milken and Ivan Boesky. It...
by Robert Borosage | Feb 7, 2012 | Blog
Join thousands of progressives, five months before the critical 2012 elections, to energize the movement and "Take Back the American Dream." Go to OurFuture.org/takeback for "Early Early Bird" discount registration for the Take Back The American Dream conference....
