by Richard Eskow | Aug 4, 2010 | Blog, Financial Reform, Making it in America
Picture this: You're lying in the dark with a broken leg. Somebody comes by every couple of days to give you water and a little food, but you're wasting away. Suddenly a figure appears holding a candle. In the flickering light we see Tim Geithner's face. "Hey, there!"...
by Bill Scher | Aug 4, 2010 | Blog
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid today finally overcame the conservative filibuster blocking aid to fiscally distressed states, securing the votes of the not-as-insane Republican senators from Maine, giving him a 61-vote supermajority to
by Bill Scher | Aug 4, 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. Send A Message: Don't Cut Social...
by Eric Lotke | Aug 4, 2010 | Blog
New York is the most recent state to enact new rules about how people in prison are counted in the U.S. Census. Today… Maryland passed a similar rule in April. Delaware passed one in June. If other states move in this direction, it will become a trend that the Census...
by Richard Eskow | Aug 3, 2010 | Blog
A broad coalition of groups has been formed to defend Social Security, and the videos announcing it are all worth watching. Of all the ideas proposed, my personal favorite comes from AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee: A new reality show starring the people who want...
by Dave Johnson | Aug 3, 2010 | Blog
If 60+ Orgs Representing 30+ million people gave a press conference in a forest and no media covers it ... will these 30+ million people still vote against politicians who vote to cut benefits? You can bet your seat in Congress they will! Last week leaders of more...
by Dave Johnson | Aug 3, 2010 | Blog
We need a Democracy Tariff, imposed at the border on goods that are brought in from countries where the people have not been able to build a strong democracy that protects their workers, wages and environment. Yesterday in Exporting Jobs Is Not “Trade.” It Evades...
by Bill Scher | Aug 3, 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. Vote Delayed To Provide State Aid,...
by Richard Eskow | Aug 2, 2010 | Blog
There's a new undercurrent in Washington debate, an unstated drive to undo the bipartisan consensus that's governed American policy for a century. New pieces by Fareed Zakaria and Clive Crook merely reflect the new unspoken theme that's revealing itself in debates on...
by Zach Carter | Aug 2, 2010 | Blog, Economy
Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., is the Republican Party's latest effort at putting forward a credible economic ideologist. His recent interview with Ezra Klein reveals this effort as a complete failure. Ryan's views about the financial sector completely contradict his...
by Bill Scher | Aug 2, 2010 | Blog
The Senate is expected to vote today on providing $26 billion in aid to fiscally distressed states and cities. The vote is about many things. Jobs. Health care. Tax fairness. But it's not about the deficit. Why? Because Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has completely...
by Dave Johnson | Aug 2, 2010 | Blog, Economy, Minimum Wage
We, the People have fought hard to build and strengthen our democracy. We built up laws and institutions and protections. It has been a particularly hard fight to build a middle class with weekends off, good wages, worker protections and some degree of protection of...
by Dave Johnson | Aug 2, 2010 | Blog
Actually, the title kind of says it all, no? If we spend money on tax cuts, the next year we only have debt and pay interest on the debt. For a clear example, just look at the damage the Bush tax cuts have done to the country. They left behind worse than nothing -- we...
by Terrance Heath | Aug 2, 2010 | Blog
Even a stopped clock, the saying goes, is right twice a day. Taken figuratively, it means that even the people who have been most disastrously, abysmally wrong can occasionally get something damn near right. In that sense, former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan may be...
by Bill Scher | Aug 2, 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. State Aid Fight Renews Today, Tax...
by Sam Pizzigati | Aug 1, 2010 | Blog
A new study says super-rich candidates who personally bankroll their own campaigns almost always lose. But that, unfortunately, doesn't make the rest of us winners. The ticker on billionaire Meg Whitman’s personal outlays for her California gubernatorial...
by Dave Johnson | Jul 31, 2010 | Blog
Social Security is once again under attack. Time after time Social Security has come under attack. Do you remember the Bush "privatization" campaign a few years ago? Each time the attack uses a different myth, repeated over and over. Then, in between attacks, the...
by Zach Carter | Jul 30, 2010 | Blog
What is the penalty for bankers who tell $40 billion lies? Somewhere between nothing and a rounding-error on your bonus. The SEC just hit two Citigroup executives with fines for concealing $40 billion in subprime mortgage debt from investors back in 2007. The biggest...
by Robert Borosage | Jul 30, 2010 | Blog
On the 45th anniversary of the passage of Medicare, the blog corrente offers this charming story about LBJ talking with his press secretary, Bill Moyers, about why he's for Social Security and Medicare. A good lesson at a time when politicians are talking about the...
by Dave Johnson | Jul 30, 2010 | Blog
Our current economic model depends on ever-increasing consumption. This model worked during the early industrial revolution worked because it filled existing needs: Farmers depending on horses needed tractors. Kitchens needed gas stoves and refrigerators, etc....
by Richard Eskow | Jul 30, 2010 | Blog
Mort Zuckerman's recent opinion piece in the Financial Times, "Obama needs to stop baiting business," is a tawdry, sorry spectacle. Paul Krugman's already explained how Zuckerman, the publisher of US News & World Report and the New York Daily News, distorted the...
by Bill Scher | Jul 30, 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. Growth Slows, Foreclosures Up,...
by Sara Robinson | Jul 29, 2010 | Blog
The beat goes on. In the nearly two weeks since I wrote Part I of this series, an armed gunman was arrested en route to assaulting an obscure progressive foundation in San Francisco -- one that's often been at the center of Glenn Beck's blackboard (which has become...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jul 29, 2010 | Blog
More than 60 organizations that represent more than 60 million Americans are banding together to deliver a straightforward message to politicians this fall: Don't mess with Social Security. "Don't turn Social Security in the scapegoat for the deficit," said AFSCME...
by Dave Johnson | Jul 29, 2010 | Blog
Dear Senate Majority Leader, you are letting the public down. We, the People need you to get things done but everything is being blocked by a minority. The public doesn't understand that everything is being filibustered, so they are not applying the pressure that...
by Bill Scher | Jul 29, 2010 | Blog
Earlier this week, NYTimes.com highlighted the above Bloggingheads.tv clip of Conor Friedersdorf and myself discussing the effectiveness of, in Conor's words, the attitude of parts of both conservative and progressive movements to treat politics as "war" with...
by Sam Pizzigati | Jul 29, 2010 | Blog
New data — for 2008 — have revealed a shrinking gap between the rich and the rest of us. But the nation's top high-income tracker isn't celebrating. And neither should we. Will the Great Recession, once the dust settles, leave the United States less unequal? A...
by Bill Scher | Jul 29, 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. Major Coalition Forms To Protect...
by Richard Eskow | Jul 28, 2010 | Blog
There's a battle going on between those who are defending Social Security - that is to say, the "good guys" - and those like economist Alice Rivlin and Wall Street banker/giveaway king Neel Kashkari, who would cut it. The attackers pretend to see nuances that don't...
by Dave Johnson | Jul 28, 2010 | Blog
House leaders deserve praise for fighting for working people by launching a "Make It In America" initiative which they officially unveiled today. The country still badly needs an immediate job-creation effort, but this is a very important longer-term initiative for...
by Robert Borosage | Jul 28, 2010 | Blog, Economy
Washington is enmeshed in the economic version of the phony war. The two sides have declared war on one another, but neither has faced up to the fierce battles yet to come. Too few seem aware of the staggering challenges that face this country. Here is a summary of...
by Terrance Heath | Jul 28, 2010 | Blog
In the metro-D.C. area, if it isn't electricity it's the water. The wind shifts direction or a simple summer storm is all it takes to knock out one or the other — and, many times, both. But we don't just have a problem with power. Our biggest challenge is the politics...
by Leo Gerard | Jul 28, 2010 | Blog, Making it in America
Rosie the Riveter defiantly rolls up her blue work shirt to show off a brawny bicep. She’s a symbol of American strength. She worked in a manufacturing job, one of millions that constructed the defense machine that won World War II for the Allies. She said, “We can do...
by Bill Scher | Jul 28, 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. Battle Lines Drawn On Bush Tax Cuts...
by Richard Eskow | Jul 27, 2010 | Blog
Yesterday I co-hosted The Young Turks with Cenk Uygur. Our first interview was with Howard Dean, in a wide-ranging conversation that covered his continued enthusiasm for Barack Obama (but not some of his advisors), Democratic malaise, and the race-baiting he has...
by Dave Johnson | Jul 27, 2010 | Blog, Economy
Simple question: have we reached a point where machines and computers leave us with less work to do? If so it can mean a lot of people are left without jobs and incomes, losing their homes and health, while the rest have our wages dragged ever downward. Or we can make...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jul 27, 2010 | Blog, Economy
Two reports released in the past 24 hours paint a dire picture of the consequences of congressional inaction. In just two sectors of the economy, local government and low-income people in welfare-to-work programs, more than 500,000 jobs could be lost in the coming...
by Zach Carter | Jul 27, 2010 | Blog, Financial Reform
No reformers question whether Elizabeth Warren is the best candidate to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. She's a lauded scholar, an inspiring advocate who will draw talented and dedicated reformers to the new agency and she came up with the whole...
by Bill Scher | Jul 27, 2010 | Blog, Economy
In two weeks at the 70th Annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, hundreds of thousands of bikers will have a chance to send a message to Harley-Davidson, Inc. and its fellow irresponsible corporations: Stop hoarding profits. Create jobs. Support America. Milwaukee-based...
by Dave Johnson | Jul 27, 2010 | Blog
We have a deficit because we cut taxes for the rich, increased military spending, started two decade-long wars and handed tons of money to Wall Street. The Washington elite crowd says therefore, to fix a deficit caused by cutting taxes for the rich and sending...
