by Richard Eskow | Feb 24, 2010 | Blog
Steven Pearlstein of the Washington Post waxed lyrical today about the compromise deal on financial regulations proposed Sens. Dodd and Corker, calling it a "creative bipartisan proposal." It's certainly "bipartisan," and it may even be "creative." What it isn't is...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 24, 2010 | Blog
The other day I posted Whirlpool Bites Hands Of American Taxpayers That Feed It saying, in summary, • Whirlpool closes a plant in Evansville • Taxpayers will shoulder the unemployment and other costs. • All the local supplier, transportation and other third-party jobs...
by Bill Scher | Feb 24, 2010 | Blog
All week long, conservatives have been whining that President Obama's offer for a televised bipartisan health care summit was a trap. As Jon Stewart said, it's only a trap if you "got nothing." If you come prepared with compelling ideas, it's not a trap, it's an...
by Robert Borosage | Feb 24, 2010 | Blog, Economy
"Yesterday, we took a step, a strong first step toward putting Americans back to work, but ... it's a first step. This is the beginning, not the end," Senate Majority Leaded Harry Reid said, hailing the pending passage of a $15 billion jobs bill, as five...
by Robert Borosage | Feb 24, 2010 | Blog
In Oregon, citizens mobilized to pass progressive tax hikes -- on corporations and families making over $250,000 -- to help avoid cuts in children's and health care programs. Now in Montana, citizens are mobilizing for an initiative to put a cap on the interests pay...
by Bill Scher | Feb 24, 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. Dem Ready To Pass Health Care As...
by Richard Eskow | Feb 23, 2010 | Blog
Before we get to the specifics, here's what you need to know about the credit card companies: They're out to shaft you. They'll shaft you every chance they get. They'll shaft you six ways from Sunday. They'll shaft you with bells on, while whistling the "Hallelujah...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 23, 2010 | Blog, Economy
The warnings are dire. Just yesterday, for example: Recession Tightens Grip on State Tax Revenues, The recession can now claim another troublesome record: state tax collections shrank at the end of 2009 for a fifth consecutive quarter, the longest period of continuing...
by Bill Scher | Feb 23, 2010 | Blog, Economy
On a blogger conference call earlier today, representatives from AFSCME, Economic Policy Institute and Progressive States called for a major grassroots push to secure critical aid for fiscally distressed state governments and help tackle the jobs crisis. While aid to...
by Alex Lawson | Feb 23, 2010 | Blog
In honor of the 75th anniversary of Social Security we are kicking off a blog series called "Social Security Works..." every post will examine an aspect or group of people that Social Security works for, today we will examine how Social Security works for America....
by Sara Robinson | Feb 23, 2010 | Blog
The Tea Party is shaping up to be 2010's first major media darling. First came the storm of coverage that surrounded the Tea Party convention in Nashville two weeks ago. Then, they stole the show at last weekend's CPAC conference in DC. Now, they're gearing up for a...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 23, 2010 | Blog
The President is setting up a "Deficit Commission." Many, especially on Wall Street, are demanding that Social Security -- the retirement program that people paid into all of their working lives -- be cut. They want it cut rather than start paying back what was...
by Zach Carter | Feb 23, 2010 | Blog
WEEKLY AUDIT The Global Economic Crisis Over the past thirty years, Wall Street has waged a steady war against governments around the globe, convincing policymakers of various ideological stripes that whatever raises profits for bankers and traders will be good for...
by Bill Scher | Feb 23, 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. Jobs Tax Credit Advances On...
by Alan Jenkins | Feb 22, 2010 | Blog
Last week President Obama used a strategy that should become an important part of his leadership going forward. On February 18, he issued an executive order creating a bipartisan commission on addressing the budget deficit, after the Senate failed to enact legislation...
by Richard Eskow | Feb 22, 2010 | Blog
The White House has just released "The President's Proposal" on health reform. It must be considered in context, and the context is this: The House and Senate have each passed a bill and they're deadlocked on the differences between them. The President is outlining...
by Bill Scher | Feb 22, 2010 | Blog
Five Republican Senators joined most of the Democratic caucus to forge the necessary 60-vote supermajority allowing the Senate's first jobs bill of the year to advance. Is this a cause for celebration? Is this proof that a 59-seat Democratic caucus can actually...
by Sam Pizzigati | Feb 22, 2010 | Blog
The new conservative 'Mount Vernon Statement' unveiled last week claims that right-wingers are upholding what the Generation of 1776 held dear. But those right-wingers, history shows, are conveniently overlooking what the Founders truly feared. The pillars of American...
by Terrance Heath | Feb 22, 2010 | Blog
The Sideshow Glenn Beck, in a sense, is right. CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, is not and could never be a "big tent." Neither is the brand of conservatism it tries so hard to sell. The "big tent," to borrow his circus analogy is usually reserved...
by Bill Scher | Feb 22, 2010 | Blog
The White House's health care proposal takes the Senate path and excludes a public health insurance option. The apparent logic, as indicated by White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, was that a public option couldn't get even 50 Senate votes today. This may be...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 22, 2010 | Blog
In last week’s post, Whirlpool Bites Hands Of American Taxpayers That Feed It, I wrote about Whirlpool closing a factory in Evansville, Indiana. In summary, • Whirlpool closes a plant in Evansville • Taxpayers will shoulder the unemployment and other costs. • All the...
by Richard Eskow | Feb 22, 2010 | Blog
Since the nation's capital is enamored of bipartisanship in all its forms, it's surprising that today's letter from five former Treasury Secretaries - both Democratic and Republican - isn't front page news. The secretaries strongly endorsed the so-called "Volcker...
by Mary Bottari | Feb 22, 2010 | Blog
Even before a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision blew the lid off corporate campaign spending, it was clear that the big banks would be key players in the 2010 election cycle. Unemployment will remain high and so will resentment against the banks, a volatile...
by Bill Scher | Feb 22, 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. WH To Post Health Care Proposal...
by Sam Pizzigati | Feb 21, 2010 | Blog
Never before in modern American history, suggests a new look at America's highest 400 incomes from the IRS, have so few made so much at the expense of so many. Or paid so precious little in taxes. The IRS has released, with not a trace of fanfare, the latest figures...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 21, 2010 | Blog, Economy
One legacy of the Reagan tax cuts is that we stopped maintaining - and never mind modernizing - our infrastructure. As a result there is a LOT of work that needs doing. And there are a very, very large number of unemployed people. Hmmm... There are so many more ways...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 19, 2010 | Blog
Whirlpool, recipient of federal stimulus "smart grid" dollars, is closing an Evansville, Indiana freezer-topped refrigerator and icemaker production plant and moving the 1,100 jobs to Mexico. Whirlpool knows that taxpayers will shoulder the unemployment and other...
by Bill Scher | Feb 19, 2010 | Blog
The Huffington Post headline states "Public Option Support Surging In Senate" after 18 Senators, with more possible to come, signed a letter calling for the choice of a public health insurance plan to be included in the final health care bill. Now, a surge is not a...
by Bill Scher | Feb 19, 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. Dems Ready Reconciliation Bill...
by Richard Eskow | Feb 18, 2010 | Blog
It's been a fascinating anthropological exercise to watch the health excise tax concept (the so-called "Cadillac tax") keep its popularity among Democratic and liberals, even as one study after another discredits the assumptions behind it. It's the Democratic...
by Terrance Heath | Feb 18, 2010 | Blog
President Barack Obama doesn't begrudge Wall Street's banksters their bonuses. The president, speaking in an interview, said in response to a question that while $17 million is "an extraordinary amount of money" for Main Street, "there are some baseball...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 18, 2010 | Blog
I believe that global warming is the most serious threat humanity faces. So we need to use every possible technology we can to replace energy sources that put greenhouse gases into the air. This includes nuclear energy. One big problem with nuclear is figuring out...
by Roger Hickey | Feb 18, 2010 | Blog
This morning President Obama signed an executive order creating a National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. This commission is based on an idea promoted by two Senators, Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) and Judd Gregg (R-N.H.). Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max...
by Bill Scher | Feb 18, 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. White House Health Care Proposal By...
by Robert Borosage | Feb 18, 2010 | Blog
Now is the winter of Democratic discontent. And the knives are out. Liberalism, the Wall Street Journal tells us, has cracked up once more. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704804204575069520491303964.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read Obama, sobered by trying...
by Robert Borosage | Feb 18, 2010 | Blog
Yes, there is a class war, Warren Buffett once said, and my class is winning. The IRS study of taxes paid in 2007 makes his point. The top 1% of taxpayers averaged about $138 million in income, and paid taxes at a rate of 16.6%. As Buffett says, their secretaries pay...
by Sam Pizzigati | Feb 17, 2010 | Blog
The British already have universal health care. So why do average life expectancies in the UK vary so dramatically by neighborhood? A new UK blue-ribbon commission has some answers to questions that Americans ought to be asking. Policy makers in the United States...
by Robert Borosage | Feb 17, 2010 | Blog
Evan Bayh abruptly announced he was quitting the Senate days before the filing deadline for his Senate seat, without notice to his constituents, to his colleagues, to his party's leaders or to the White House. He deprived the Democratic voters in Indiana who had voted...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Feb 17, 2010 | Blog
An august group of conservative leaders released a statement early Wednesday asserting a recommitment to “the ideas of America’s founding.” The statement is meant to be a 21st-century version of a 1960 declaration that set the ideological framework that, among other...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 17, 2010 | Uncategorized
Conservatives claim that President Obama "tripled the deficit" and point to the huge 2009 budget deficit as proof. They use charts that show the fiscal-year 2009 deficit, as reported in October was, indeed, about triple the prior year's borrowing. But the 2009 budget...
