by Isaiah J. Poole | Jul 12, 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: Ignorance Index...
by Alan Jenkins | Jul 12, 2011 | Blog
As the deadline nears for national default if Congress does not raise the debt ceiling, the two parties appear deadlocked over ending tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans, which Republicans oppose, and deep cuts to Social Security and Medicare, which Democrats...
by Terrance Heath | Jul 11, 2011 | Blog
A light bulb burned out in our house last night. It popped when I turned on the light switch and — as dim bulbs usually do — burned intensely bright just before it went dark for good. That bulb reminds me of the Republican majority in the House, which is set to vote...
by | Jul 11, 2011 | Blog
David Leonhardt: In all kinds of ways — consumer demand, the federal deficit, even the weather — the medium-term future is highly uncertain. But this uncertainty, while the main problem, is not the only problem. We are also committing an unforced economic error. We’re...
by Terrance Heath | Jul 11, 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: Job Bleeding:...
by Dave Johnson | Jul 10, 2011 | Blog
It seems that I begin a post every month by writing, “Another terrible jobs report.” And it seems I end that post each month asking why our leaders are ignoring the problem. Our country is in a jobs emergency, and our government is not doing its part to fill the gap...
by Dave Johnson | Jul 10, 2011 | Blog
In response to today's terrible jobs report Republicans are demanding that even more government employees, contractors and others lose their jobs. They also demand that even more construction workers and others receiving government contracts lose their jobs, too. They...
by Dave Johnson | Jul 10, 2011 | Blog, Economy, Making it in America
Negotiating with crazy people is always a bad idea and negotiating with hostage-takers is dangerous. But negotiating with crazy hostage-takers is worse than dangerously bad. The “debt-ceiling” deal being negotiated to keep the economy from being crashed could crash...
by Dave Johnson | Jul 10, 2011 | Blog, Economy
In the middle of the worst job crisis since the Depression many Democrats forgot about jobs and got all in a tizzy about cutting budgets. All the usual suspects made a lot of noise about deficit reduction, and the cocktail-party and dinner-party circuits all knowingly...
by | Jul 10, 2011 | Blog
Today’s Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs report for June suggests the economy is again nearing even officially-defined recession and weakening further as state, local and federal government cuts to jobs and contracts to private employers begin to take a serious toll....
by Richard Eskow | Jul 8, 2011 | Blog, Chained CPI
This isn't the first time the White House has floated the idea of Social Security cuts as part of a 'grand bargain' with Republicans, and it's not the first time there's been a groundswell of opposition. But that opposition has never crystallized so quickly into...
by Roger Hickey | Jul 8, 2011 | Blog
The Washington Post and NY Times report that President Obama will offer Republican negotiators major cuts to Social Security and Medicare when they meet today. Supporters of these essential programs are outraged -- and rightly so. We've been told that Social Security,...
by Roger Hickey | Jul 8, 2011 | Blog
The unemployment numbers released today are terrible, and they show that budget austerity is crippling the recovery. After the worst recession since the Great Depression, the federal government made an effort to stimulate growth and to help state and local governments...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jul 8, 2011 | Blog
Today's Bureau of Labor Statistics report is a stunner, with only a net total of 18,000 new jobs created in June and the unemployment rate nudging upward to 9.2 percent. Meanwhile, conservatives in Congress have been literally leaving new jobs stranded on crowded,...
by | Jul 8, 2011 | Blog, Economy
If the topline numbers of today’s jobs report weren’t depressing enough, consider some other facts that, taken together, strongly suggest that we are in a serious economic crisis. Let’s start with the basics. The unemployment rate crept up to 9.2% in June. Only 18,000...
by Dave Johnson | Jul 8, 2011 | Blog
In England people "know" many of the same false things that people here "know." Except in England the false things work against English working people instead of against American working people. I am in England this week and next and am enjoying some pub conversations...
by Bill Scher | Jul 8, 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: Job Creation Stuck...
by Terrance Heath | Jul 7, 2011 | Blog
To listen to what's coming out of Washington, D.C., these days is to realize that our elected officials are completely ignoring a deficit that threatens to devastate the American economy, and the lives of millions of Americans. No, not that deficit. I'm talking about...
by Jeff Bryant | Jul 7, 2011 | Blog, Education
Down here on the ground in public schools, what school children, parents, and teachers are experiencing are the first tremors of what will likely be seismic shifts in the reality of our nation's education system. As teacher layoffs start to roll-out in Milwaukee, Los...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jul 7, 2011 | Blog
The Progressive Caucus, in a letter being sent to President Obama today, says any budget deal he agrees to that contains cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid won't get their votes. Given that any deal that President Obama agrees to is unlikely to win over...
by Bill Scher | Jul 7, 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: How Much Would A...
by Robert Borosage | Jul 6, 2011 | Blog
Republicans won't take "Yes" for an answer in the debt ceiling negotiations. As conservative columnist David Brooks writes in the New York Times, this should be the "mother of all no brainers." Republicans have achieved everything they might have imagined at the...
by | Jul 6, 2011 | Blog
On June 23, Van Jones, and a broad cross section of progressive groups launched the Rebuild the Dream Movement. This is a movement of necessity: the American Dream – the dream of being able to reap the benefits from hard work, raise a family, and live with dignity –...
by Roger Hickey | Jul 6, 2011 | Blog
The following is an statement distributed to the news media earlier today. You can call on your representatives in Congress to support a deficit reduction plan based on "shared sacrifice" and a 50-50 split between spending cuts and tax increases on the wealthy by...
by Terrance Heath | Jul 6, 2011 | Blog, Chained CPI
Don't look now, but someone rolled a Trojan Horse right into the middle of the debt deal negotiations. Funny thing is, Democrats don't seem to recognize it as such. Maybe nobody's ever told them the story of the Trojan Horse. The good news is that there are no Greek...
by Terrance Heath | Jul 6, 2011 | Blog, Chained CPI
So, just when it looked like President Obama was finally calling the GOP's bluff debt ceiling negotiations, it turns out he was preparing to fold. Obama administration officials are offering to cut tens of billions of dollars from Medicare and Medicaid in negotiations...
by Bill Scher | Jul 6, 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: Why Won't...
by | Jul 6, 2011 | Blog
The latest pas de deux: Obama administration officials are offering to cut tens of billions of dollars from Medicare and Medicaid in negotiations to reduce the federal budget deficit, but the depth of the cuts depends on whether Republicans are willing to accept any...
by Bill Scher | Jul 5, 2011 | Blog
Today, Speaker Boehner promoted a statistic concocted by the Weekly Standard claiming that President Obama's Recovery Act (aka "the stimulus") cost $278,000 per job. The stat is simply the overall cost of the Recovery Act, both the government spending and the tax...
by Dave Johnson | Jul 5, 2011 | Blog
For years people have been asking why we don’t launch a national effort to save energy and create jobs by retrofitting buildings to be more energy-efficient. Last week I wrote that even simple things, like painting roofs white can save energy and employ a lot of...
by Anne Thompson | Jul 5, 2011 | Blog, Minimum Wage
In his latest attack on the minimum wage,Casey Mulligan charges in his NYT Economix post that the 2007-2009 minimum wage increases are adding to teen unemployment. He writes that “Many teenagers cannot find work this summer, victims of a weak economy and a situation...
by Josh Ney | Jul 5, 2011 | Blog
“Compromise requires all of us to agree to items that we don’t agree with,” Governor Mark Dayton, May 16, 2011. The Minnesota government has officially been shut down after budget negotiations failed to produce a state budget. There will be no trips to Fort Snelling...
by Bill Scher | Jul 5, 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: War of...
by Terrance Heath | Jul 1, 2011 | Blog, Minimum Wage
Remember Sarah Palin? I know she hasn't really gone anywhere (except back home to Alaska until her bus tour resumes, on some date known only to her and possibly her staff), hope as we may that she will some day. No, I mean remember Sarah Palin circa 2008, after her...
by Bill Scher | Jul 1, 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: Will Dems Embrace...
by Robert Borosage | Jul 1, 2011 | Blog
We now have sorry news of the foul deal that the White House is pushing in the debt ceiling talks. About $1.5 trillion in spending cuts -- including $200-300 billion from Medicare and Medicaid -- in exchange for $130 billion in loophole closings -- corporate jets,...
by Richard Eskow | Jun 30, 2011 | Blog, Chained CPI
Do you hear a noise like power saws cutting away at your Social Security benefits? That's the sound of the politicians working on the "Chain Gang." They're promoting the "chained CPI," Washington's latest gimmick for tricking voters and cutting their hard-earned...
by Jeff Bryant | Jun 30, 2011 | Blog, Education
Earlier this week, when a representative of the Beltway-based
by Sam Pizzigati | Jun 30, 2011 | Blog
A decade into a staggeringly unequal 21st century United States, historians have rediscovered a long-forgotten Revolutionary War hero who stirred men’s souls with a remarkably far-sighted egalitarian vision. George Washington. John Adams. Thomas Jefferson. Robert...
by Bill Scher | Jun 30, 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: Holding The...
