by Mary Bottari | Dec 16, 2010 | Blog
Are you one of the lucky ones? Have a good job, live in a nice neighborhood, enjoy your cozy home? Think foreclosure only impacts the reckless or the unemployed? Think again. George Mahoney worked and saved and built his cozy, colonial-style home in Lynnfield,...
by | Dec 16, 2010 | Blog
Roger Simon, Politico: Don't like the way wealth is distributed? Then you can join congressional Democrats and grump about it, or you can get some wealth for yourself. I've been waiting for some real push back on this "inequality" stuff from the well-off Villagers....
by Leo Gerard | Dec 16, 2010 | Blog
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas Ev’rywhere you go; Take a look in Tiffany’s store, glistening once again With Wall Street bonus trinkets all aglow. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas Art flies from Christie’s. But the amazing sight to see is the...
by Bill Scher | Dec 16, 2010 | Uncategorized
Each morning, Bill Scher and Terrance Heath serve up what progressives need to affect change on the kitchen-table issues families face: jobs, health care, green energy, financial reform, affordable education and retirement security. MORNING MESSAGE: What About Wall...
by | Dec 15, 2010 | Blog
Oh my goodness, here are some Republicans trying to help Obama pass his tax cut bill. How bipartisan of them: You may recall Crossroads GPS – the shadowy third-party group that doesn’t disclose its donors, which spent tens of millions of dollars running campaign ads...
by Bill Scher | Dec 15, 2010 | Blog
Many politicians have an annoying habit of putting their own opinions in the mouth of "the American people." But Tea Party favorite Rep. Mike Pence showed particular audacity yesterday. Appearing on Sean Hannity's radio show, Pence announced his opposition to the tax...
by Bill Scher | Dec 15, 2010 | Uncategorized
Each morning, Bill Scher and Terrance Heath serve up what progressives need to affect change on the kitchen-table issues families face: jobs, health care, green energy, financial reform, affordable education and retirement security. MORNING MESSAGE: "No Labels" The...
by Richard Eskow | Dec 14, 2010 | Blog, Financial Reform
From 'Single Mom': "I lost everything, I am now losing the roof over our heads, my 30 year history of good credit, my self-respect. I cried at night, sobbed really, about how I had destroyed my life, how I can't look my son in the face now sometimes, for fear he will...
by Terrance Heath | Dec 14, 2010 | Blog, Economy
Unless something drastic happens between now and the vote on President Obama's tax-cut "compromise" with congressional conservatives, America is headed for its next failed conservative stimulus. Even with the proposed tweaking around the edges, there is...
by Bill Scher | Dec 14, 2010 | Uncategorized
Each morning, Bill Scher and Terrance Heath serve up what progressives need to affect change on the kitchen-table issues families face: jobs, health care, green energy, financial reform, affordable education and retirement security. MORNING MESSAGE: America's Next...
by Robert Borosage | Dec 14, 2010 | Blog
The Washington Post publishes a poll showing most Americans support the tax deal. No surprise: selling a tax cut doesn’t require a profile in courage. http://is.gd/iJ0n2 The poll provides two clear cautions to the leaders of both parties. Remarkably, Americans oppose...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 13, 2010 | Blog
We had bailouts and bonuses for Wall Street but letdowns and layoffs for Main Street. We had a deficit commission but no jobs commission. We have tax cuts for the rich and budget cuts for the rest of We, the People. And this week the President is having a "summit"...
by Bill Scher | Dec 13, 2010 | Blog
In a completely expected development, a conservative activist judge made a conservative activist decision, ignoring decades of judicial precedent to declare the main provision of the health reform law -- requiring most Americans to purchase health insurance --...
by Bill Scher | Dec 13, 2010 | Uncategorized
Each morning, Bill Scher and Terrance Heath serve up what progressives need to affect change on the kitchen-table issues families face: jobs, health care, green energy, financial reform, affordable education and retirement security. MORNING MESSAGE: How About A Summit...
by Richard Eskow | Dec 13, 2010 | Blog
Right-wing billionaire Pete Peterson continues to use the Washington Post as an outlet for deceptive anti-tax and anti-government propaganda. His "Fiscal Times" is a factory for churning out James Frey-like mendacity, which the Post then deceptively packages and...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 12, 2010 | Blog
(Updated to include statements from labor and other organizations.) The President wants a win – but is the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement (KORUS) a win? Jobs are the win we need. A good trade deal can really help working people and the economies on both sides of the...
by Sam Pizzigati | Dec 12, 2010 | Blog
The tax cut pact the Obama administration announced last week has angered a good many Americans. But the pact's lavish generosity toward America's rich should not have given anyone a surprise. Most of the chatter on the tax cut deal the White House has bargained out...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 11, 2010 | Blog
Yesterday I wrote that the President may have sacrificed his long-term vision on trade and economic/industrial policy to day-to-day concerns and politics. The tax-cut deal is another indicator that a big-picture vision has been sacrificed. But however much smoke gets...
by Richard Eskow | Dec 10, 2010 | Blog, Financial Reform
Here's something the administration may want to take to heart: Trust is a lot like money. If you spend more than you earn, it could be gone when you need it the most. Consider the Attorney General's highly-touted announcement of a "crackdown" on financial fraud....
by Dave Johnson | Dec 10, 2010 | Blog
The "Tea Party" will face many tests when the new Congress convenes next year. Everyone is asking, how long will it take before the Tea Party officeholders are co-opted by the big money insiders? "Free Trade" is one of those tests. Tea Party members absolutely despise...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Dec 10, 2010 | Blog
Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., says that as of this morning she had not been shown the latest proposal of the White House deficit commission, even as she says it is being "shopped around" by its co-chairs in an effort to get the support of a simple majority of its 18...
by Mary Bottari | Dec 10, 2010 | Blog
Last week, the Federal Reserve was finally forced by law to release some (not all) of the details of its back-door bailout of the global financial system. The Fed data focuses on the emergency lending programs initiated in 2007/2008, but it also includes data for the...
by | Dec 10, 2010 | Blog
Kevin Drum wrote an interesting post about the Democrats' dilemma in dealing with a hardcore opposition that literally doesn't care if their policies cause human suffering. (Indeed, they actually promote it, only they call it "tough love".) Democrats are...
by Terrance Heath | Dec 10, 2010 | Blog, Minimum Wage
It has been said before — recently, even — but it bears saying again and again, as any truth does. Conservatives have finally, and completely, abandoned compassion. Progressives spent much of the previous decade declaring the "compassionate...
by Bill Scher | Dec 10, 2010 | Uncategorized
Each morning, Bill Scher and Terrance Heath serve up what progressives need to affect change on the kitchen-table issues families face: jobs, health care, green energy, financial reform, affordable education and retirement security. MORNING MESSAGE: 99ers Meet...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Dec 9, 2010 | Blog
Democrats in the House of Representatives today opted not to settle for the deal on tax cuts handed to them by President Obama and congressional Republicans, and that opens the door for us to fight to fix its worst features. Democratic House members who voted to...
by Zach Carter | Dec 9, 2010 | Blog
Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.C., is almost certain to be chairman of the Senate Banking Committee next year, once current chair Chris Dodd, D-Conn., is out of office. Johnson has never had a good reputation with consumer advocates, in large part because he's opposed nearly...
by Richard Eskow | Dec 9, 2010 | Blog, Financial Reform
In 2008, Barack Obama said this: "I think Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not ..." He might want to rethink that statement, especially now that he seems to be promoting policies that are opposed by large majorities of...
by Bill Scher | Dec 9, 2010 | Uncategorized
Each morning, Bill Scher and Terrance Heath serve up what progressives need to affect change on the kitchen-table issues families face: jobs, health care, green energy, financial reform, affordable education and retirement security. MORNING MESSAGE: The New Silent...
by Zach Carter | Dec 9, 2010 | Blog
Mike Stark has posted a provocative on-the-street interview with Barney Frank about the recently released Fed data. Frank offers what is now a standard defense of the Fed's bailout operations: Without them, the economy would have collapsed, so critics should just quit...
by Robert Borosage | Dec 8, 2010 | Blog
The White House is peddling its tax-cut deal as a needed stimulus plan, a boost to the economy that will create jobs and generate growth. This new-found concern for jobs is laudable, if startling from a White House that has been hawking deficit reduction for months –...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 8, 2010 | Blog
Deal or No Deal? OurFuture.org's Bill Scher and Dave Johnson make their cases for and against the preliminary tax cut deal between the President and Republican leaders. Dave Johnson's case against the deal is below. Click here for Bill Scher's case for the deal. The...
by Bill Scher | Dec 8, 2010 | Blog
Deal or No Deal? OurFuture.org's Bill Scher and Dave Johnson make their cases for and against the preliminary tax cut deal between the President and Republican leaders. Bill Scher's case for the deal is below. Click here for Dave Johnson's case against the deal. Why...
by Robert Borosage | Dec 8, 2010 | Blog
David Leonhardt in the NYT does a good service by laying out simply what $60 billion a year in tax cuts -- the amount that will go to those earning over $250,000 if the Republicans get their way (adding to their income an average of $25,000 per household -- with most...
by Robert Borosage | Dec 8, 2010 | Blog
Politics is not rocket science. Karl Rove and the political witch doctors like to pretend they can concoct mysterious potions to steal elections, but that’s just con man puffery. Politics really is mostly common sense. Democrats just got “shellacked” in an election....
by Robert Borosage | Dec 8, 2010 | Blog, Economy
So now we have the deal. In a society of extreme inequality, the rich – well represented by a unified Republican claque – will make out like bandits: An average tax cut of $25,000 a year for the top two percent (with much of it in six figure numbers for the wealthiest...
by Zach Carter | Dec 8, 2010 | Blog
President Barack Obama and Congressional Republicans are ready to mortgage the American economy to billionaires in exchange for a few months of unemployment benefits. This deal is easily the gravest economic outrage of the Obama presidency to date, and signals that...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 8, 2010 | Blog
Until this week here is what we heard over and over (and over and over and over and over): Because of budget deficits (caused by tax cuts for the rich and huge increases in military spending) we have to cut spending, not invest in the American People, put off...
by Richard Eskow | Dec 8, 2010 | Blog
You know what they always say: Pay now or pay later. Middle-class Americans may pay very dearly for the president's tax deal, and at the stage of life when they can least afford it. By providing a temporary cut in the payroll taxes that fund Social Security, this deal...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 8, 2010 | Blog
If you think the tax cut fight led to a bad deal… it may also lead to an expectation by conservatives they will finally be able to cut, gut or shut the government in the coming fight over raising the debt ceiling. The President and Democrats in Congress should take...
