by Leo Gerard | Jul 27, 2011 | Blog, Economy, Making it in America
Written with Leo Hindery Jr., Chair of the Smart Globalization Initiative at the New America Foundation America is facing a catastrophic jobs crisis. Not since the Great Depression has official unemployment hovered above nine percent – where it is today – for more...
by Robert Borosage | Jul 26, 2011 | Blog
Seldom have we witnessed a more dishonest speech in prime time than that delivered by House Speaker John Boehner last night on the debt ceiling crisis. “The sad truth,” he declared, “ is that the president wanted a blank check six months ago, and he wants a blank...
by Robert Borosage | Jul 26, 2011 | Blog
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; .... The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity. -William Butler Yeats, The Second Coming "It is clear we must enter an era of austerity; to reduce the deficit through shared sacrifice,"...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jul 26, 2011 | Blog
Thousands of citizens fanned out to congressional offices across the country this afternoon to tell their members of Congress to not pay the ransom being demanded by congressional conservatives—deep cuts in economic security programs for seniors, the sick and the...
by Terrance Heath | Jul 26, 2011 | Blog
It turns out President Obama was more right than he knew when, back in April, he spoke of the GOP's vision of a "shrunken America." There's just one more thing about which, in his speech last night, John Boehner was more wrong than he knew or probably cared to know....
by Dave Johnson | Jul 26, 2011 | Blog
Does free trade create jobs? This is the wrong question. Of course new trade agreements create jobs. The right question is do they create more jobs than they kill, and are those new jobs good-paying jobs? Will the agreements be used to break unions and pressure US...
by Dave Johnson | Jul 26, 2011 | Blog
Washington is engaged in one more Chicken Little game of chicken. "The sky is falling" they cry, whipping up the fear and panic, demanding we solve the latest "crisis" by cutting taxes for the rich, cutting the things We, the People do for each other, and handing over...
by | Jul 26, 2011 | Blog
Ed Kilgore has a thoughtful piece in Salon about why liberal elites are so angry and why they have so little influence on the White House. It's the numbers, basically. president Obama still has the support of the vast majority of the Democratic party and the activist...
by Richard Eskow | Jul 26, 2011 | Blog
Today's preferred political posture is that of "the adult in the room," the one who's prepared to compromise during negotiations. But there's a little problem with that pose. By definition, it means that you're compromising with children. The adult in the room at a...
by Bill Scher | Jul 26, 2011 | 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: Speaker Boehner's...
by Richard Eskow | Jul 25, 2011 | Blog
People in the capital were thrilled by Twitter's role in 2009's Iranian uprisings. They probably weren't as excited this weekend when a new "hashtag" (topic) suddenly climbed toward the top of Twitter's trend list. It's not printable here, but the first word began...
by Dave Johnson | Jul 25, 2011 | Blog
Step back from the day-to-day, hour-to-hour details of the debt-ceiling negotiations for a minute and look at the bigger picture. Look what we're in the middle of. Our legislators are being stampeded by a manufactured "crisis" into profoundly changing the nature of...
by Roger Hickey | Jul 25, 2011 | Blog
Americans have learned in the past few days that conservative Republicans in Congress are willing to risk default on America's financial obligations, to protect the tax breaks for the rich and force cuts to our retirement security. Republicans would rather break our...
by | Jul 25, 2011 | Blog
Bill Daley to David Gregory: "People like you and me that have done well in life need to sacrifice a little more." Gosh that would be really generous of them to agree to "sacrifice" a little more. I wonder what that "sacrifice" would feel like to them? From what I...
by Richard Eskow | Jul 25, 2011 | Blog, Financial Reform
"Who does Standard & Poor's think it is?" asks Matt Miller, the reasonable and congenial host who represents the "center" on NPR's "Left, Right, and Center." Miller's understandably outraged that this discredited organization still has so much power and influence. But...
by Dave Johnson | Jul 25, 2011 | Blog
The latest conservative hostage-taking involves a fight over unions and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) budget. Conservatives refuse to fund the FAA unless the Senate agrees to block airline and railroad unions from being able to organize. Result: the agency...
by Sam Pizzigati | Jul 25, 2011 | Blog
Looking for a lesson in the goings-on in D.C. these days? Here’s one: The more our nation's wealth concentrates, the more our democratic give-and-take becomes all take — by the rich. Once upon a time in America, back a century ago, our nation's rich paid virtually...
by Dave Johnson | Jul 25, 2011 | Blog
Our deficit and debt came from cutting taxes on the rich and big corporations, increasing military spending and sweetheart deals with big pharma and health insurance companies. Elite “solutions” always involve cutting back what We, the People do for each other while...
by | Jul 25, 2011 | Blog
Here's some more good news, sort of, from Greg Sargent; Yes, the ground is shifting on the debt ceiling — big time. From the new Washington Post/ABC News poll: More than eight in 10 — including 80 percent of Republicans — say there will be serious harm to the U.S....
by Robert Borosage | Jul 25, 2011 | Blog, Economy
The backroom Senate gang of five or six (its membership changing over time) released a plan yesterday that swept through the Washington. It got the support and the opposition of all the right people (the President carefully called it “broadly consistent with the...
by Steven Capozzola | Jul 25, 2011 | Blog, Making it in America
Both the U.S. and Germany are high-wage economies with a substantial union workforce. However, Germany is an export powerhouse, while the U.S. runs massive annual trade deficits. Why is this the case? Washington Post columnist Harold Meyerson suggests that...
by Bill Scher | Jul 25, 2011 | 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: Discredited S&P...
by Sam Pizzigati | Jul 24, 2011 | Blog
Corporate America, advises one of the nation's most prestigious management consulting companies, needs to wake up and stop rewarding employee loyalty and performance. With one exception. You work hard. You do good work. You loyally stick with your employer through...
by Eric Hunt | Jul 22, 2011 | Blog
There's a common misconception that young people simply do not care about Social Security. But research by pollster Celinda Lake of Lake Research Partners shows precisely the opposite. “The younger you are, the more opposed you are to raising the age of retirement,”...
by Richard Eskow | Jul 22, 2011 | Blog
Psst! Hey, you! Yeah, you, in the expensive suit. Listen, Mr. Banker, are you worried that a little oversight and enforcement might be bad for business? I hear ya. I really do. But listen ... hey, come a little closer, pal. I won't bite ya! I got an offer and I don't...
by Bill Scher | Jul 22, 2011 | 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: Dodd-Frank, One...
by | Jul 22, 2011 | Blog
Three years ago this summer, the flood tide of Wall Street recklessness began to overtop the weakened levees of restraint erected decades ago to protect our nation from financial disaster. By the fall of 2008, the economy was drowning in a sea of recession, with...
by Richard Eskow | Jul 21, 2011 | Blog
As online "Countdown Clocks" count the hours before there's a debt ceiling disaster, the spotlight is on the individuals and groups who can make or break a deal. We've heard a lot about the Senate's Gang of Six, members of the Administration, House leaders Boehner and...
by Dave Johnson | Jul 21, 2011 | Blog
The conservatives are following up on their decades-old plan to use tax cuts to create terrible deficits, and then use the resulting "debt crisis" to cut government. But cutting government doesn't mean the costs go away, it means that we each have to bear those costs...
by | Jul 21, 2011 | Blog
Last month, I joined with MoveOn.org and launched the Rebuild the Dream campaign to help give a voice to the millions of Americans who aren't being heard in Washington. This past weekend, we organized nearly 1,600 house meetings across the country -- nearly double the...
by Leo Gerard | Jul 21, 2011 | Blog, Minimum Wage
The Bush administration told taxpayers to hand over hundreds of billions of their hard-earned dollars to bail out Wall Street banks because the financial institutions were too big to fail. Now, Rupert Murdoch, owner of politically powerful publications and broadcast...
by | Jul 21, 2011 | Blog, Economy
The New York Times on Wednesday featured another Casey Mulligan episode of "There Is No Unemployment." Mulligan's argument is that if we look at employment rates for the older population we see that they have actually risen in the downturn even as...
by Bill Scher | Jul 21, 2011 | 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: Gang Of Six...
by | Jul 20, 2011 | Blog, Chained CPI
The Gang of Six’s “Bipartisan Plan to Reduce Our Nation’s Deficits" proposes immediate and significant cuts to Social Security benefits, and a process for addressing the program’s funding shortfall projected to appear 25 years from now. The process would...
by | Jul 20, 2011 | Blog
Yesterday House Republicans voted on a “cut, cap and balance” bill that would effectively freeze federal spending at less than 20 percent of total gross domestic product (GDP). They insist that they will hold America’s budget and financial solvency hostage unless a...
by Bill Scher | Jul 20, 2011 | Blog
Yesterday, Wisconsin Republicans failed to oust a sitting Democratic state senator in the first of nine recall elections slated for this summer. While most of the recall elections targeting incumbent Republicans who support Gov. Walker's anti-public worker law,...
by Bill Scher | Jul 20, 2011 | 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 Gang Of Six's...
by Richard Eskow | Jul 20, 2011 | Blog
History books record an empire's fall as a series of dates and events. Battles are fought, people resist, elections are called, arrest warrants are issued. But those are just details. An empire really falls in that moment when people stop believing that it's...
by Terrance Heath | Jul 19, 2011 | Blog
If your family was facing economic hardship, what steps would you take to deal with it? Would you look for ways to reduce spending, increase your income, pay your bills, and cover basic necessities as well as invest for the future? Or would you reduce your spending,...
by Anne Thompson | Jul 19, 2011 | Blog, Minimum Wage
The Austin American-Statesman ran an op-ed Saturday under the head-spinning headline ”Low Texas Wages are Mostly Good News.” No joke. American-Statesman staff writers Lori Taylor and Heather Gregory noted that Texas had the highest percentage of low-wage workers in...
