by Terrance Heath | Jun 3, 2011 | Blog
Two years ago I blogged about being one of millions of Americans who has to swallow one of Big Pharma's bitter pills every morning. Over the last few years, drug-makers have embraced a startlingly simple tactic for fending off competition from generic brands: paying...
by Brian Dockstader | Jun 3, 2011 | Blog
I thought my outrage meter was about pegged today after learning that coal companies are essentially bribing schools to lie to children about fossil fuels (e.g. "Our world is deficient in carbon dioxide, and a doubling of atmospheric CO2 is very beneficial."...
by Josh Ney | Jun 3, 2011 | Blog
Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont has a voice that is noticeably absent from the Sunday morning news programs. He is opposed to cutting Social Security. He is in favor of raising taxes on the wealthy. He stands firmly for economic views that have the support...
by Adele Stan | Jun 3, 2011 | Blog, Rick Perlstein
By Rick Perlstein First, they came for the spinach. I remember the day last September. The supermarket had a new kind of salad dressing, one that looked like it would taste good with spinach. I went to the produce section to buy a bag. But they all had been recalled....
by Richard Eskow | Jun 3, 2011 | Blog
In light of today's terrible job numbers, it's a bittersweet experience to re-read a recent report from Wells Fargo Bank which argues that high unemployment is "the new normal." While it's comforting to find Wells Fargo employees who aren't laundering money for the...
by Bill Scher | Jun 3, 2011 | Blog
The Washington Post published an investigative report on how fossil fuel companies are "spending significant sums of money" to directly fund public schools that teach biased curriculums that promote their industries. And the most brazen example is buried in the middle...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jun 3, 2011 | Blog, Economy
Now can we agree that there is a jobs crisis? The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported an anemic number of new jobs created in May, 54,000. In other words, we're moving backward in terms of putting Americans back to work, as indicated by the uptick in the unemployment...
by Bill Scher | Jun 3, 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: It's Indisputable:...
by Jeff Bryant | Jun 2, 2011 | Blog, Education
As educators close out this school year and go into planning mode for the next, what many of them truly dread is the fiscal nightmare being handed to them by miserly state governments who've decided to balance their budgets on the backs of helpless school children....
by Sam Pizzigati | Jun 2, 2011 | Blog
From a top financial analyst group, new evidence that the human race, as a whole, has never been richer. So why are governments forcing austerity on so many of the world's peoples? “2010 was a damn good year,” Monish Kumar, a senior partner at the Boston Consulting...
by | Jun 2, 2011 | Blog
Originally published at Beat The Press Major news outlets like to adhere to the pretext that the truth in any political argument always lies in the middle. This means that they feel the need to say that the truth in the current battles over the budget and Medicare...
by Bill Scher | Jun 2, 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: Jobs Fix Deficits...
by Dave Johnson | Jun 1, 2011 | Blog
Most people don’t know that there is a huge loophole in the Social Security tax. Believe it or not, after $107K income you don’t pay any Social Security tax. This loophole is called the “cap.” The "cap" loophole is bigger than the loopholes that let big corporations...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jun 1, 2011 | Blog
Hours after I called attention to a column by former Reagan and Bush 41 economic adviser Bruce Bartlett that debunked the right-wing narrative that taxes on the wealthy are too high (it's quite the opposite), Citizens for Tax Justice released a preliminary report of...
by Richard Eskow | Jun 1, 2011 | Blog
An email entitled "Lies of Eskov in HP AOL Ariticle" (sic) was received this morning at the office of the Campaign For America's Future and forwarded to me with the comment, "Here's a nice complimentary one ... geez." Hate mail comes with the job and this note was...
by Bill Scher | Jun 1, 2011 | Blog
Today, Speaker John Boehner released a list of 150 economists who back the Republican position that an hike in the debt limit should be conditional on spending cuts greater than that increase. Nothing in the statement mentions fairer taxation or investments in job...
by Bill Scher | Jun 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: GOP, Get Out Of...
by Robert Borosage | Jun 1, 2011 | Blog
Over the last two weeks, progressives have sparked a massive grassroots groundswell for Elizabeth Warren's appointment to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and rein in reckless bankers. And how did the Senate Republicans respond? By using parliamentary...
by Dave Johnson | May 31, 2011 | Blog
The House is voting on a “clean” debt ceiling bill this evening -- a bill to raise the debt ceiling without any "hostage-taking" conditions. This is the right thing to do for the country and every Democrat should vote for this. Voting for a clean bill will draw the...
by Isaiah J. Poole | May 31, 2011 | Blog
Common sense on taxing corporations and millionaires continues to come from surprising places, such as an article on the New York Times Economix blog by Bruce Bartlett, who had economic policy roles in the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush and who...
by | May 31, 2011 | Blog
Originally published at Capital Gains and Games. House Republicans said last week that they were planning to bring up a “clean” debt ceiling bill for a vote, possibly as early as this week. A “clean” bill is an increase in the amount the government is allowed to...
by Bill Scher | May 31, 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: Reject Bad Advice....
by Roger Hickey | May 30, 2011 | Blog
Last week’s special election in New York’s 26th Congressional district was a political earthquake, demonstrating that the American majority, even in the most Republican of districts, will reject a candidate who embraces cuts to Medicare benefits or major changes to...
by Sam Pizzigati | May 30, 2011 | Blog
The American middle class, concludes a new study from the ad industry’s top trade journal, has essentially become irrelevant. In a deeply unequal America, if you’re over 35 and your income hasn’t yet topped $200,000 a year, you don’t matter. The chain-smoking ad...
by Richard Eskow | May 29, 2011 | Blog
While I'm posting videos, here's a debate on the death of the middle class I did on Russian Television with Harvard economist and Cato Institute maven Jeffrey Miron and Samuel Sherraden of New America. Samuel's a good guy, but Miron and I really went at it. My answer...
by Richard Eskow | May 29, 2011 | Blog
I participated in an MSNBC panel discussion with Cenk Uygur, Sam Seder, and conservative Matt Lewis. We discussed Cain, Mitch McConnell's insistence on Medicare cuts as part of a budget deal, and Eric Cantor's insistence on no disaster relief funds for Missouri unless...
by Richard Eskow | May 29, 2011 | Blog
On Monday we'll hear a lot of Memorial Day speeches about honoring our fallen soldiers and their disabled comrades. On Tuesday some of the politicians giving those speeches will try to cut benefits for them and their families. In the words of Ben Franklin, "Well done...
by Bill Scher | May 27, 2011 | Blog
Faced with a rapidly growing groundswell for Elizabeth Warren to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Agency, the Senate Republican leaders employed the ultimate obstruction on behalf of their Wall Street donors. It's up to us to make sure the public knows whose...
by Robert Borosage | May 27, 2011 | Blog
Democrats have their strut back. The Republican assault on Medicare handed Democrats a club to pummel them with — as demonstrated by Democrat Kathy Hochul’s remarkable special election victory Tuesday in New York’s 26th congressional district, a longtime GOP...
by Bill Scher | May 27, 2011 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: GOP Tries To Shut Down Groundswell For Warren OurFuture.org's Bill Scher: "Faced with a rapidly growing groundswell for Elizabeth Warren to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Agency, Senate Republican leaders employed the ultimate obstruction...
by Richard Eskow | May 27, 2011 | Blog
On Wednesday forty radicals in the United States Senate took an extremist position by voting to end Medicare. That simple sentence will be challenged by a lot of political and media people. They'll say I don't understand the popular mood, and that I'm applying my own...
by Mary Bottari | May 26, 2011 | Blog
Today, Wisconsin Judge Maryann Sumi ruled Governor Scott Walker's "budget repair bill," which would eviscerate collective bargaining rights for most public workers in the state, "null and void." Sumi ruled that lawmakers clearly violated the state's open meetings law...
by Dave Johnson | May 26, 2011 | Blog, Economy
Republicans announced something they called a "jobs plan" today. This time it's different. It really is. This time it really will create jobs instead of just handing even more money to a few at the top at the expense of the rest of us. You might not believe this...
by Terrance Heath | May 26, 2011 | Blog
I won't watch a movie if I've missed the beginning, and I hate missing endings so much that I won't start watching a movie I can't see through to the end. As a writer, the beginning and end are two of the most important parts of the story to me. They answer two...
by | May 26, 2011 | Blog
I have long felt that it was unlikely that the President would allow substantial cuts to health care programs, since it is his signature issue. But since everyone in DC has come down with Deficit Fever, I've become a little bit worried that he might be coerced into...
by Isaiah J. Poole | May 26, 2011 | Blog
Shortly after 5 p.m. Wednesday, a roll call vote that some Republicans were not-so-secretly dreading began, and the public began to know the names of the senators who were willing to throw the middle class under the luxury bus for the corporate class that is the 2012...
by Bill Scher | May 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: Senate Budget Vote...
by | May 25, 2011 | Blog
Originally posted at Capital Gains and Games. Pete Davis' Capital Gains and Games post on Tuesday about not being able to draw a conclusion about the results in the special election held in New York to fill the seat left vacant when Republican Chris Lee resigned is...
by Dave Johnson | May 25, 2011 | Blog
In 2010 Republicans and corporate front groups ran ad after ad after ad after ad claiming that Democrats had "Cut 500 billion from Medicare." Those ads brought them the senior vote, and they took the House. Confident in their ability to "create their own reality" they...
by Terrance Heath | May 25, 2011 | Blog
Remember back in 2004, when Dubya won re-election and liberals started threatening to move to Canada? Well, maybe I should have considered it. Because according to OECD's Better Life Index, Canada is where I belong. But, I'm still not moving to Canada. Hows Life?...
