by Bill Scher | May 25, 2011 | Blog
Assistant to the President and Special Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury Elizabeth Warren is now testifying to a House Oversight subcommittee, pitting America's best middle-class champion against conservative defenders of unregulated banks who don't want her to...
by Bill Scher | May 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: Wall St. Goon...
by Richard Eskow | May 25, 2011 | Blog, Financial Reform
A group of Democratic representatives has joined consumer groups- along with prominent figures like Dr. Phil (yes, that Dr. Phil) - in calling on the President to make a "recess appointment" of Elizabeth Warren. That will allow her to get to work running the new...
by Isaiah J. Poole | May 25, 2011 | Blog
When Elizabeth Warren, the White House adviser who is setting up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, went to speak before the U.S. Chamber of Commerce this morning, one of the things she compared the visit to was the Biblical story of Daniel in the lion's den....
by Richard Eskow | May 25, 2011 | Blog, Financial Reform
The post-bin Laden afterglow is fading. Those video clips of his home movies seem like scenes from a reality show, not glimpses of an Existential Threat. It's the master terrorist as an addled Ozzy Osbourne, minus the Beverly Hills couturiers and groomers. And while a...
by Richard Eskow | May 25, 2011 | Blog, Financial Reform
The bankers are endangering innocent people, their pals are roughing up the law, and the people who should be helping out are sitting on the sidelines doing nothing You can almost hear Tex Ritter singing "Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darlin'," the theme song from High...
by Eric Lotke | May 25, 2011 | Blog
Enough with blaming public employees for all of America’s problems. Last week public employees in Oregon marched on the state Capitol with a billion dollars worth of recommendations for government efficiencies and revenue enhancements. On Monday in Lansing, Michigan,...
by Richard Eskow | May 25, 2011 | Blog
"Money doesn't talk," sang Bob Dylan, "it swears." Rep. Patrick McHenry gave the week's most famous seventy year old a dark birthday gift on Tuesday by proving that those lyrics still ring true after nearly half a century. McHenry's savage attack on Elizabeth Warren...
by Dave Johnson | May 24, 2011 | Blog
In DC the elite are gathered around tables discussing budget cuts but not jobs to cure a deficit largely caused by a lack of jobs and by tax cuts. The last time these DC geniuses gathered around tables they extended tax cuts for the wealthy, dramatically worsening the...
by Brian Dockstader | May 24, 2011 | Blog, Financial Reform
“There is only one person who should lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and that is the brilliant advocate who championed it, the remarkable administrator who has helped get it off the ground, and the middle class champion who will make it work – Elizabeth...
by | May 24, 2011 | Blog, Economy
How can we make sense of the spectacle that's been unfolding across the American political landscape? Politicians in Wisconsin, Ohio and a dozen other states are trying to take away workers' right to organize and bargain for a better life. But that's not all. In...
by Dave Johnson | May 24, 2011 | Blog
"Budgets are more than collections of numbers. They are a statement of our values." All we hear about in the corporate/conservative "mainstream" media is the Tea Party (Koch) line saying we need to cut taxes for the rich and pay for it by cutting the things We, the...
by Bill Scher | May 24, 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 Elizabeth...
by Isaiah J. Poole | May 23, 2011 | Blog, Economy, Making it in America
House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer laid out his bottom-line principles for how he believed the deficit should be addressed in a speech today before the Bipartisan Policy Institute. None of the five elements he listed address what voters say is the No. 1 economic problem:...
by | May 23, 2011 | Blog
Any political observer with even a modicum of sense could see that the Ryan Plan was going to be a complete disaster. And most of us have been wondering ever since what the hell made them go for it. Politico has a fascinating inside story today which says that they...
by | May 23, 2011 | Blog
I wish I knew why the GOP has suddenly gone kamikaze on this Ryan plan, but I guess I don't care. They've been so close to the edge of insanity for so long now that it's a good thing for the country if they self-immolate before they are able to somehow seize total...
by Richard Eskow | May 23, 2011 | Blog
Gov. Tim Pawlenty announced his candidacy today by setting a tone that could resonate with the American people. A lot of people assume that President Obama's above-the-fray campaign strategy will ensure his re-election, no matter what happens to rest of his party's...
by Bill Scher | May 23, 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 Black...
by Terrance Heath | May 22, 2011 | Blog
Almost a year ago, I wrote that African Americans and Latinos are the "canaries in our economic coal mine." In early mines, ventilation was poor at best, non-existent at worst. So, miners would take a caged canary into the mine with them. Canaries, being...
by Terrance Heath | May 22, 2011 | Blog
Lost in the media tsunami after U.S. special forces killed Osama bin Laden is news that may prove as economically devastating the terrorism bin Laden masterminded. For a lot of Americans, "returning to the private sector" means practicing saying "You...
by Terrance Heath | May 22, 2011 | Blog
When white America catches a cold, the saying goes, black America gets pneumonia. Or in this case, when white America has a recession, black America gets a depression. It was true in the Great Depression, and it's no less true in the "Great Recession." It seems...
by Sam Pizzigati | May 21, 2011 | Blog
Back in the mid 20th century, colleges and universities helped America beat down economic inequality. Now they reinforce it. The American Dream isn’t quite unfolding the way Richard Silva expected. The 20-year-old Silva is currently studying at Cerritos College,...
by | May 20, 2011 | Blog
That is the conclusion that readers of a Politico article headlined, "budget surplus to deficit: how we got here," must conclude. This article attributes the increase in the deficit in the Obama years to increased spending coupled with tax cuts, only mentioning in...
by Jeff Bryant | May 20, 2011 | Blog, Education
While America's political leaders happily take a meat axe to our nation's public school system, the national media continues to turn our gaze toward more pressing issues. But down here on the ground, the outlook for the nation's school children is looking grimmer and...
by | May 20, 2011 | Blog
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner came to New York this week to press President Obama’s case for a budget deal and taking action now to reduce the future budget deficit. Sometimes it helps to be a New York writer. A relative outsider to Washington, I...
by Bill Scher | May 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: Appoint Elizabeth...
by | May 19, 2011 | Blog
With Republicans going far beyond line drawing to a full blown assault, a big Democrat finally digs in. Greg Sargent: “It is a flag we’ve planted that we will protect and defend. We have a plan. It’s called Medicare.” That’s from Nancy Pelosi, who called me from...
by Bill Scher | May 19, 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 Next Voting...
by Terrance Heath | May 19, 2011 | Blog
It's almost enough to make you feel sorry for Republicans. Almost. The mess the GOP finds itself in, after appointing itself to Medicare's "death panel," would be laughable if it weren't also so pathetic. Especially since it's a mess of GOP's own making, and...
by Isaiah J. Poole | May 19, 2011 | Blog
In a column posted at the New Republic, Ruy Teixeira points out that the current inside-the-Beltway focus on deficit reduction to the exclusion of meaningful steps to put Americans back to work makes no more sense politically than it does economically. "The simplest...
by Isaiah J. Poole | May 19, 2011 | Blog
The kind of fights that were waged in the 1960s to ensure that African Americans had equal access to the right to vote have to be fought again today for millions of voters across the country. INTERVIEW Tova Wang of Demos disusses the impact of conservative-led voter...
by Richard Eskow | May 18, 2011 | Blog
When it comes to the economy, America's newspapers may be failing their readers. A new report by the National Journal confirms that our major papers have dramatically decreased their coverage of the country's enormous unemployment problem, while at the same time...
by Dave Johnson | May 18, 2011 | Blog
Here is how our government works as we transition into the post-democracy era. Against the express wishes of The American Majority DC’s elite are getting ready to finalize “trade” treaties designed to move American jobs out of the country. This pits American workers,...
by Terrance Heath | May 18, 2011 | Blog
It really shouldn't come as a surprise that Republican Senators voted to protect oil subsidies — along with Democrats Mark Begich, Ben Nelson — and Mary Landrieu after getting big money from Big Oil. (How big? See here.) On Tuesday night, Republicans in the Senate...
by Bill Scher | May 18, 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: Social Security Is...
by Richard Eskow | May 17, 2011 | Blog
The word for today is "choice," not "crisis." It's time to stop saying the country "can't afford" Medicare, Social Security, or other programs that benefit the middle class. If I told my mother that I "can't mow the lawn" or "I can't do all that homework" when I was a...
by Dave Johnson | May 17, 2011 | Blog
America's infrastructure is crumbling, hurting our competitiveness as other countries spend hundreds of billions. The Chamber of Commerce claims it supports spending on infrastructure. President Obama should call them on it because a majority of the public supports...
by | May 17, 2011 | Blog
Corporate media coverage of tax/budget issues often seems to be an argument between right-leaning Democrats and conservative Republicans. In the midst of a national discussion of budget deficits, raising taxes on the wealthy is considered a non-starter--even though...
by | May 17, 2011 | Blog
New York Times business reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin wrote a piece on Sunday (5/15/11) that tried to advance the argument that $250,000 actually isn't that much money to make in a year. The complaint is that politicians who advocate raising tax rates on income above...
by | May 17, 2011 | Blog
Originally published at Capital Gains and Games. The U.S. Treasury said the existing federal debt ceiling was reached Monday. That means that the nation is about to enter the two-and-a-half-month period during which Treasury says it will have to resort to various...
