by | Feb 7, 2012 | Blog
Originally posted at Capital Gains and Games. Over at Economix, Bruce Bartlett does a very nice job explaining how House Republicans are trying to change the congressional budget process so that cutting taxes is never a problem no matter what damage that would do to...
by Richard Eskow | Feb 7, 2012 | Blog
The Susan G. Komen breast cancer fund reversed its Planned Parenthood action, and the right wing anti-choice politician it hired has resigned. But the real lesson of this incident is broader than one decision or one person. Our society is permeated with a cultural of...
by Bill Scher | Feb 7, 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: Plutocrats Play...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 7, 2012 | Blog
The FAA reauthorization bill has passed Congress with its anti-union provisions. Once again big companies of the 1% were able to use their money and power to buy legislation that hurts 99% of us. And many Dems joined in. Watch the powerful video at the end of this...
by Leo Gerard | Feb 7, 2012 | Blog, Making it in America
Last week several groups, including the United Steelworkers, petitioned the federal government to whack the latest trade mole – illegally traded auto parts from China. With President Obama announcing creation of a new trade enforcement unit in his State of the Union...
by Bill Scher | Feb 7, 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 GOP's Mutually...
by Terrance Heath | Feb 6, 2012 | Blog
I wrote earlier that Newt Gingrich's campaign is one of mutually assured destruction for the GOP. No one, I wrote, has to lift a finger to destroy Newt Gingrich. Just stand back, give him room, and he'll do it himself. The thing is, you want to stand way, way back —...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 6, 2012 | Blog
Not long ago, in A Win For Labor - FAA Bill Drops Anti-Union Language, I wrote that, "negotiators have dropped the anti-union language for votes to start a union. Republicans were insisting that no-shows be counted as "No" votes. Delta's check must have been mailed...
by Sam Pizzigati | Feb 5, 2012 | Blog
Any resemblance between democracy and U.S. Presidential politics has become, in our new super PAC era, purely coincidental. The only mystery: Why aren't billionaires placing even bigger bets? Life sometimes imitates art. Life also sometimes imitates political cliché....
by Dave Johnson | Feb 4, 2012 | Blog
This is Part II of Companies As Buy-And-Sell Commodities. See Part I, Companies As Buy-And-Sell Commodities - Workers, Customers and Country As Costs. Also see Wall Street's War Against the Real Economy & We, the People. In Part I I wrote about a pattern we see over...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 4, 2012 | Blog
This is Part I of Companies As Buy-And-Sell Commodities. See Part II, Caught In A Machine That Grinds Us Up. Also see Wall Street's War Against the Real Economy & We, the People. As we consider what we need to do to get our economy working again it is useful to look...
by Richard Eskow | Feb 4, 2012 | Blog
The Susan G. Komen foundation has reversed its defunding of Planned Parenthood, at least temporarily, but the falsehoods and hypocrisy haven't ended. An investigation has revealed that at least four other organizations have received Komen money while under Federal...
by | Feb 3, 2012 | Blog
Originally posted at Capital Gains and Games. This should eliminate all doubts about how little some members of Congress understand about federal finances. As Dana Milbank explains in his column from today's The Washington Post, eight House Republican freshman made a...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Feb 3, 2012 | Blog, Economy, Minimum Wage
On Wednesday the House voted to extend a two-year federal worker pay freeze an additional year. These workers, instead of getting a raise at the end of 2012, will have to wait until the end of 2013. (The House vote and our analysis is posted on our sister site,...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 3, 2012 | Blog, Economy, Making it in America
The news is just out, the economy added a healthy number of new jobs last month, even with government jobs still declining thanks to austeridiocy. The better news is that there is an accelerating trend. The bad news, no help for the long-term unemployed and the charts...
by Bill Scher | Feb 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: Don't Break Out...
by Jeff Bryant | Feb 3, 2012 | Blog, Education
Although it's a bit early to know for sure, let's hope that 2012 is the year that the economic policies known as "austerity" finally crashed and burned. Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman is certainly ready to bid adieu to austerity, writing in The New York...
by Terrance Heath | Feb 2, 2012 | Blog
MItt Romney is taking a lot of heat for saying that he's "not concerned about the very poor." To be fair, he also said he's not concerned about the very rich either. Lucky for him the feeling isn't mutual that that side of the economic divide. According to recent FEC...
by Richard Eskow | Feb 2, 2012 | Blog
Last week Republican Mitch Daniels once again pushed the "means testing" argument against Social Security, saying that we can no longer "afford to send millionaires pension checks" or "pay medical bills for even the wealthiest among us." Daniels even appropriated...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 2, 2012 | Blog, China Currency Showdown, Economy, Making it in America
This week three new reports described even more continuing damage to our economy caused by China's trade cheating -- and our own lack of response. Even as the auto industry recovers and auto-assembly jobs are returning, the auto-parts industry and jobs are not. The...
by Robert Borosage | Feb 2, 2012 | Blog
The following statement is in response to the newly introduced Republican bill that would block the automatic military spending cuts that are now part of the 2010 deal to increase the debt limit. Republicans believe bloated Pentagon budgets strengthen American...
by Bill Scher | Feb 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: The Republican...
by | Feb 2, 2012 | Blog
The following was originally published at RobertReich.org One of the few things Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich agree on is that President Obama is turning America into “European-style welfare culture.” In his standard stump speech Romney charges Obama with creating a...
by Bill Scher | Feb 2, 2012 | Blog
Today, the nation is abuzz over Mitt Romney bluntly cold comment: "I'm not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there." This is not a slip of the tongue. This is what he believes. We know, because he said it before. In October, I reported here that...
by Bill Scher | Feb 1, 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: Taxpayer-Backed...
by Leo Gerard | Jan 31, 2012 | Blog
On Dec. 18, a dozen retirees, men and women in their 60s, 70s, even 80s, began occupying a median strip along Route 33 in front of the closed Century Aluminum smelter in Ravenswood, W.Va. In tents and under tarps, a small group stays overnight, despite hypertension,...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jan 31, 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. Bill Scher will return on...
by Robert Borosage | Jan 31, 2012 | Blog
China cheats – it openly flouts trade laws – and routinely denies it. It restricts access to its markets, forces companies that want to sell in China to transfer technology and manufacture there, and then often steals the technology. It purposefully underprices its...
by Richard Eskow | Jan 31, 2012 | Blog, Economy
This is the audio clip of an interview I did for The Breakdown this weekend with journalist and author Michael Hudson, who did a terrific piece on GE Capital's mortgage crisis called Fraud and Folly: The Untold Story of General Electric's Subprime Debacle: Hudson's a...
by | Jan 30, 2012 | Blog
Last week the political world was all agog over Ryan Lizza's New Yorker article about the administration in which he revealed that after three long years of GOP obstruction the president resigned himself to the fact that post-partisanship wasn't going to work out. It...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jan 30, 2012 | Blog
The statue of Civil War General James B. McPherson, which sits in the center of the square in downtown D.C. that bears his name, was used by Occupy D.C. protesters today as the center pole for a "tent of dreams," in rebellion against a National Park Service bar...
by Terrance Heath | Jan 30, 2012 | Blog
At the risk of repeating myself, my response to the Romney campaign staffer who summed up the Florida primary by saying "It's about destroying Gingrich," is the same as my response to Sarah Palin's claim that the "liberal media" and "the establishment" were out to...
by | Jan 30, 2012 | Blog
Originally published at Capital Gains and Games It was just two weeks ago that I explained why OMB directors in general are seen as good White House chiefs of staff by the presidents they serve.In a very strong piece in today's The Washington Post, Ezra Klein...
by Eric Lotke | Jan 30, 2012 | Blog
I'm a middle-aged, middle-class PTA dad who participates in Occupy DC because I want a better country for our kids. On Sunday, the National Park Service brutally tased a peaceful, young Occupy DC demonstrator. This was a prelude to their threatened crackdown of Occupy...
by Mary Bottari | Jan 30, 2012 | Blog
The morning after his “State of the State” address where Governor Scott Walker reassured Wisconsin “We are turning things around. We are heading in the right direction,” the Milwaukee County District Attorney charged two more Walker staffers with multiple felony and...
by Bill Scher | Jan 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: Why Aren't Mitt &...
by Richard Eskow | Jan 30, 2012 | Blog
You'd think Social Security would top the list of subjects for a presidential debate in Florida. How many questions did Wolf Blitzer ask about it during Thursday night's Republican debate in Jacksonville? Answer: None. The words "Social Security" never passed his...
by Terrance Heath | Jan 27, 2012 | Blog
Another GOP debate has come and gone, and there's a clear consensus on who won and who lost this round. After two fabulously bombastic debate performances, Newt Gingrich was defeated by the one man he can never seem to beat: himself. Ultimately, Newt's problem is just...
by Dave Johnson | Jan 27, 2012 | Blog, Minimum Wage
Servitude: "a condition in which one lacks liberty especially to determine one's course of action or way of life" Democracy: "a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jan 27, 2012 | Blog
LISTEN The Nation's Greg Kaufmann discusses "This Week in Poverty" and the need to make the plight of poor people more visible. Did you catch the reference in President Obama's State of the Union address to "poverty"? You can be forgiven if you didn't. Greg Kaufmann...
