by Dave Johnson | Feb 8, 2010 | Blog
Much of the public believes that tax cuts "create jobs." A recent Rasmussen poll found that 59% of voters believe cutting taxes is better than increasing government spending as a job-creation tool. This proves that repeating a slogan over and over can effect what...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 8, 2010 | Blog
This is something people should know about. Every effort to reform financial regulations is blocked by Senate filibusters. Maybe now we know why. From last week: Republicans Chase Wall Street Donors Last week, House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio made a pitch to...
by Bill Scher | Feb 8, 2010 | Blog
The White House is trying to show it can still invest in its top priorities while also instituting a freeze on the overall level of non-defense discretionary spending. For example, the Energy Department budget for the next fiscal year is still getting a seven percent...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Feb 8, 2010 | Blog
I don't like to use the term "whore" lightly. But what else, in our current economic environment, would you call this? Republicans are rushing to capitalize on what they call Wall Street’s “buyer’s remorse” with the Democrats. And industry executives and lobbyists are...
by Sam Pizzigati | Feb 8, 2010 | Blog
President Obama’s new federal budget plan won’t end plutocracy in America. But this second Obama budget, if adopted, might actually inconvenience it. By Sam Pizzigati The Heritage Foundation, the right wing’s most lavishly funded think tank, doesn't much like...
by Bill Scher | Feb 8, 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. New Rules Needed So Senate Can...
by Brian Dockstader | Feb 5, 2010 | Blog
by Terrance Heath | Feb 5, 2010 | Blog
If you've ever wondered where conservative economic policies like permanent tax cuts for the wealthy, slashed social services and government spending are supposed to lead us, look no further than Colorado Springs. David Sirota's description of what's happening to that...
by Bill Scher | Feb 5, 2010 | Blog, Economy
Yesterday I noted that we 402,000 new jobs a month, for three years if we are to simply return to the level of employment we had before the recession. The latest monthly employment report showed a slight dip in the unemployment rate and underemployment rate, but also...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 5, 2010 | Blog
Senator Shelby is placing "holds" (filibusters) on ALL OF the President's nominees, all by himself Richard Shelby puts hold on President Obama's nominees Shelby is frustrated over the Pentagon’s bidding process for air-to-air refueling tankers, which could lead to the...
by Bill Scher | Feb 5, 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. Senate Shoots For Bipartisan Jobs...
by Robert Borosage | Feb 5, 2010 | Blog
Republican leaders -- led by the perpetually tanned John Boehner, House Republican leader, and his whip Eric Cantor -- are looking to sell themeselves to big bankers angry about financial reform. Cantor says: a lot of bankers who supported Obama are feeling "buyers'...
by Tula Connell | Feb 5, 2010 | Blog
Jack Cafferty at CNN this week
by Eric Lotke | Feb 5, 2010 | Blog, Economy
Two items from my inbox: 1. The Economic Policy Institute has a new report detailing the positive impacts of transportation infrastructure spending. A $34.3 billion jobs package will create approximately 480,000 direct and indirect jobs. The report includes...
by Robert Borosage | Feb 5, 2010 | Blog
The president rightly calls it a "no brainer." Direct lending to college students that saves $90 billion in excess subsidies to big banks and uses it to pay for college grants for poor kids and tax breaks for working families to help pay for tuition. This isn't...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 4, 2010 | Blog
Buy, Buy American Pie by The Capital Steps
by Dave Johnson | Feb 4, 2010 | Blog
Lest we forget where the huge deficits and debt came from... On August 25, 2001, just seven months after taking office, George W. Bush learned that his budgets had already erased the previous administration's huge surplus -- that was paying off our country's debt at a...
by Sara Robinson | Feb 4, 2010 | Blog
A village cannot revise village life to suit the village idiot. -- Frank Schaeffer On Tuesday, the Daily Kos published a new Research 2000 study showing the current state of belief in the GOP. Though the results aren't anything new -- indeed, the study just puts hard...
by Bill Scher | Feb 4, 2010 | Blog, Economy
by Tula Connell | Feb 4, 2010 | Blog
Mike Hall on our AFL-CIO Now Blog staff wrote about the latest Republican maneuvering to kill a qualified nominee for the nation's Labor Board and I want to share it with you. Republican Senate leaders are so frightened that a member of the National Labor Relations...
by Robert Borosage | Feb 4, 2010 | Blog
The GOP: Grand, Old and Preposterous The GOP is unable and unwilling to have a serious conversation with Americans about the fix we are in. Instead the party's leaders posture and pose, as practiced as a Gregorian chorus in chanting their poll tested messaging that...
by Robert Borosage | Feb 4, 2010 | Blog, Economy
We expect January’s unemployment numbers, to be released Friday, to show that while Wall Street bankers continue to thrive, American workers continue to suffer under a deep recession. The numbers should serve as a stark reminder to Congress that the time to act...
by Bill Scher | Feb 4, 2010 | Blog
One thing I learned watching the climate debate last year is: don't pick a fight with Joe Romm. For example, the Freakonomics boys had their reputation permanently sullied by the brilliant policy analysis and Climate Progress blogger after daring to play loose with...
by Bill Scher | Feb 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. How Small Is The Senate Jobs Bill?...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 3, 2010 | Blog, Economy
Just one of the many conservative failures cost 1.4 million jobs, all by itself. And never mind how much borrowing it caused. In Macroeconomic effects of Chinese mercantilism, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman took a look at how many jobs have been lost...
by Terrance Heath | Feb 3, 2010 | Blog
Listening to conservatives squawk about deficits is a bit like taking parenting and/or relationship advice from Medea, the Gosselins or "Octomom." At best, they serve as an example of what not to do. As it is with children, so it is with conservatives and deficits....
by Robert Borosage | Feb 3, 2010 | Blog
Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md) and Rep. John Conyers (D-Mi) and chair of the House Judiciary Committee today introduced an amendment to the Constitution to overturn the Supreme Court's decision in Citizen's United that gave corporations the right to spend unlimited funds...
by Bill Scher | Feb 3, 2010 | Blog, Economy
The Senate leadership appears to be on the verge of proposing a jobs package significantly smaller than the $154B bill that has cleared the House, even though everybody agrees even the House bill is not big enough to reverse the 7 million jobs already lost in the...
by Bill Scher | Feb 3, 2010 | Blog
Last week, three Republican senators expected to run for president, Ted Cruz of Texas, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Marco Rubio of Florida, sat for an extended roundtable discussion with ABC's Jonathan Karl. While it was hosted by the Koch brothers organization Freedom...
by Bill Scher | Feb 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. Senate Jobs Package Coming Tomorrow...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 2, 2010 | Blog
Conservatives are constantly talking about Obama's "radical, far-left agenda." "At last!", I said. Hearing their whines and complaints I became hopeful that our government would finally serve We, the People instead of the big corporations and the wealthy. But then,...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Feb 2, 2010 | Blog
Will Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., be seduced by the siren song of bipartisanship and allow the nation's largest banks to gamble with what amounts to a taxpayer-paid insurance policy? There was a somewhat encouraging word from Dodd at...
by Bill Scher | Feb 2, 2010 | Blog
The New York Times made quite an assertion in its news pages -- not the oped page -- today: "For Mr. Obama and his successors, the effect of those [deficit] projections is clear: Unless miraculous growth, or miraculous political compromises, creates some unforeseen...
by Zach Carter | Feb 2, 2010 | Blog
In a landmark decision last week, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations could spend unlimited funds to influence American elections, overturning a century of legal precedent. The Court's ruling in Citizens United v. FEC undermines the integrity of the U.S....
by Robert Borosage | Feb 2, 2010 | Blog
Amid the blizzard of statistics, trillion dollar deficits, howls about impending bankruptcy, and Republican stupocrisy that surround the budget, it is worth repeating a little common sense. 1. The huge deficits are caused primarily by the economic downturn, and the...
by Bill Scher | Feb 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. Split Reaction From Dems. Scorn...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 2, 2010 | Blog
Here’s an easy way to win an argument with a conservative over taxes and spending. Hand the conservative a piece of paper, a pencil and a calculator and ask him or her to write down exactly what spending they would cut, and by how much. And ask them to keep writing...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Feb 1, 2010 | Blog
For a short period on NYTimes.com today, there was a compelling juxtaposition of stories: In one column, President Obama proposes a budget that "pivots to trim future deficits." Next to that story is a photo of firefighters in New York City fighting a blaze in which...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 1, 2010 | Blog
In last week’s State of the Union speech President Obama talked about jobs. It was a great speech. It was SO satisfying to see him scold the Supreme Court for enabling monopoly corporatocracy to replace democracy, scold the Repubicans for obstructing every single...
by Terrance Heath | Feb 1, 2010 | Blog, Economy
If you hope hard enough, and look hard enough, the jobs will appear. At least, that's the thrust of Mark Lange's recent column in The Christian Science Monitor When we imagine that government - and even companies - "create" jobs, we're missing half the story: the...
