by Isaiah J. Poole | Oct 13, 2009 | Blog
The renomination of Ben Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve should not be rubber-stamped by the Senate until Bernanke and the Fed are more transparent and accountable to the public, says a growing coalition of activists roused by Reps. Alan Grayson and Ron...
by Robert Borosage | Oct 13, 2009 | Blog
As the House Financial Services Committee begins markup on Wednesday of key financial reform legislation, the stakes are clear. Without strong regulation of the banks and the shadow banking system, large banks will feel free to gamble with the assumption that...
by Eric Lotke | Oct 13, 2009 | Blog
New public opinion research by the Economic Policy Institute contains reassuring findings. The American people are smarter than they sometimes look on TV. The survey of 802 registered voters in September 2009, revealed a clear sense of who’s winning and who’s losing...
by Bill Scher | Oct 13, 2009 | Blog
Just as the Senate Finance Committee is about to pass a health care bill without a public option, the insurance lobby's last-minute hissy fit exposed the weakness of its argument against a public option. America’s Health Insurance Plans, the main insurance lobby...
by Bill Scher | Oct 13, 2009 | Uncategorized
The daily Progressive Breakfast serves up what progressive movement members need to know to start their day. Insurance Lobby Misfires Before Finance Vote Sen. Baucus tells USA Today he has a majority for today's health care cmte vote, but it is still unknown if Sen....
by Sam Pizzigati | Oct 11, 2009 | Blog
In closely knit communities, people care about each other and help each other, too. But healthy “social fabrics,” as the expression goes, can tear. Inequality can tear them. The wider the income gaps between us, the less we share in common, the less we...
by Bill Scher | Oct 11, 2009 | Blog
Last week, I struck a hopeful note after GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham expressed interest in a climate bill compromise that included a carbon cap in exchange for support for some nuclear power and coastal drilling. But my expectations it would really happen remained low....
by Dave Johnson | Oct 11, 2009 | Blog
I'm reading a a review of"Capitalism: A Love Story" at naked capitalism, and came across this, "I grew up in small towns dominated by manufacturing plants, and I remember that they were prosperous, optimistic, and stable. People who had good jobs at the local mill...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 9, 2009 | Blog, Economy, Making it in America
Short-term gains for a few. Long-term harm to the rest of us. Again and again we have seen American industries exported, the plants closed, the jobs lost, and government officials just letting it happen. The workers in the other countries are almost always paid less...
by Robert Borosage | Oct 9, 2009 | Blog
Don't miss the Bill Moyers show tonight. He's got Simon Johnson, the former IMF economist and Rep. Marcy Kaptur looking at how Wall Street dominates Washington -- from the White House to Congress. Eyeopening stuff: Arianna Huffington published an excerpt from the...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Oct 9, 2009 | Uncategorized
There's more pessimism on the economic front that should bolster the case for more sustained action in Washington to pump-prime the economy. A panel of Wall Street Journal economists points to a prospect of sustained high unemployment for at least the next three to...
by Terrance Heath | Oct 9, 2009 | Blog
Wow. Break out the spatulas, and get ready to scrape the exploded brains of right-wingers off the ceiling, walls, etc. Apparently, President Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize. US President Barack Obama has been awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel Committee...
by Bill Scher | Oct 8, 2009 | Blog
After all year repeatedly citing Congressional Budget Office
by Dave Johnson | Oct 8, 2009 | Blog
The Wall Street Journal's Real Time Economics blog wrote this yesterday: Princeton University economist, author and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman won the Nobel Prize in economics last year for his work on international trade — so the guy knows what he’s...
by Leo Gerard | Oct 8, 2009 | Blog, Making it in America
In the title tune to the 1934 musical Anything Goes,"Cole Porter says "times have changed," since the stock market crashed in 1929, but the super rich, like John D. Rockefeller Jr., "still can hoard enough money to let Max Gordon produce his shows." The lyrics also...
by Bill Scher | Oct 8, 2009 | Uncategorized
The daily Progressive Breakfast serves up what progressive movement members need to know to start their day. GOP Still Rejects Health Care Reform After Proof It Can Cut Deficit CBO predicts Senate Finance health care bill will cut deficit $81B over 10 years, yet no...
by Robert Borosage | Oct 8, 2009 | Blog
Glenn Beck has captured national attention with his caustic poison. The aging right-wing troubadours -- Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly—still rouse the wingnuts and enforce discipline among Republican legislators. They've peddled the fantasies about ACORN and the...
by Brian Dockstader | Oct 7, 2009 | Blog
A few weeks ago I wrote about the brazen hypocrisy with which conservatives in Congress met the revelation that a handful of ACORN employees gave stupid advice to two conservative operatives attempting to provoke them into saying just such stupid things. While...
by Bill Scher | Oct 7, 2009 | Blog
In July I speculated that Sen. Lamar Alexander might lead some Republicans to back a climate protection bill if Democratic leaders made some concessions regarding nuclear power. The prospect was tantalizing, as I noted then: "The Democratic caucus is not solid enough...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Oct 7, 2009 | Uncategorized
The jockeying continues among members of the Senate Finance Committee to get enough votes to pass a health care reform bill. The Hill reports that committee chairman Sen. Max Baucus is optimistic that an assessment of the cost of the bill by the Congressional Budget...
by Bill Scher | Oct 6, 2009 | Blog
At today's White House briefing, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs cited new support from prominent Republicans outside of Washington, and said of those inside Washington, "They are wildly out of step with their co
by Bill Scher | Oct 6, 2009 | Uncategorized
The daily Progressive Breakfast serves up what progressive movement members need to know to start their day. Renewed Push To Save Jobs Bloomberg reports WH wants more investment in jobs: "President Barack Obama is considering a mix of spending programs and tax cuts to...
by Bill Scher | Oct 5, 2009 | Blog
Over at The Wonk Room, Igor Volsky, after recalling how conservatives successfully killed health care reform on the Senate floor in 1994, makes the counter-intuitive argument that the public option stands of better chance of passing if Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 5, 2009 | Blog, Economy
Friday’s jobs report said 263,000 jobs were lost in September. BUT that is after 571,000 people gave up actively looking for work. The number of jobs lost last month was 263,000 plus 571,000 = 834,000. The "stimulus plan" is currently creating (and/or saving) between...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Oct 5, 2009 | Blog
For a stunning look at the heart of the dysfunction of our Wall Street-centric economy, consider today's article in The New York Times on the impending Chapter 11 bankruptcy of the Simmons mattress company. Simmons, as the article explains, is not bankrupt because it...
by Bill Scher | Oct 5, 2009 | Uncategorized
The daily Progressive Breakfast serves up what progressive movement members need to know to start the day. Uncertainty Precedes Senate Finance Cmte Vote Dem holdouts on Senate Finance make final vote uncertain. W. Post: "...Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and John D....
by Sam Pizzigati | Oct 4, 2009 | Blog
An average American family would have to work thousands of years to amass a billion-dollar fortune. America's super rich, the new data on our richest 400 make clear, can lose a billion and barely notice. Tsunamis, we learned this past week, amount to equal-opportunity...
by Terrance Heath | Oct 2, 2009 | Blog
If I were to summarize message Michael Moore's new movie, Capitalism: A Love Story in one sentence, it would be this: Capitalism is not a form of government. That's the answer to the question posed at the beginning of the movie, via 1950s educational/propaganda films....
by Isaiah J. Poole | Oct 2, 2009 | Blog, Economy, Making it in America
Taken out of context, this argument sounds almost like a right-wing or corporatist knock against the climate change bill that's pending in the Senate: The bill that was introduced this week by Sens. John Kerry and Barbara Boxer could put at risk 4 million American...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Oct 2, 2009 | Uncategorized
Despite Sen. Max Baucus's best efforts to pronounce it dead, the public option keeps refusing to die in the Senate. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told constituents late yesterday that "we are going to have a public option before this bill goes to the...
by Terrance Heath | Oct 1, 2009 | Blog
When are we going to get sick of stories like this happening over and over again? Stacie Ritter stood outside health insurer Cigna Corp’s Philadelphia headquarters clutching photocopied pictures of her four-year-old, cancer-stricken daughters as she shouted "shame."...
by Brian Dockstader | Oct 1, 2009 | Blog
We have long known that conservatives in Congress are hopelessly out of touch with both reality and the American people. So while it represented nothing new, House Minority Leader John Boehner's (R-OH) recent comments on health insurance reform made me do a double...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Oct 1, 2009 | Uncategorized
The legislative battle to lower greenhouse gas emissions is finally getting into full gear in the Senate with Wednesday's introduction of a comprehensive climate change bill. McClatchy News Service reports: The landmark legislation -- called the Clean Energy Jobs and...
by Alex Lawson | Sep 30, 2009 | Blog
With only eight months in office, Rep. Alan Grayson is showing Democrats how to respond to the manufactured outrage from the right-wing. Rep. Grayson took to the floor of the House to tell Americans the truth— the Republicans do not have a plan to provide health care....
by Eric Lotke | Sep 30, 2009 | Blog
The forum on American debt and deficit had it right. First, don’t panic. Don’t stop the stimulus spending or raise taxes with the economy still near the bottom. The Center for American Progress and Center on Budget and Policy Priorities convened the forum. Guests...
by Dave Johnson | Sep 30, 2009 | Blog
How do we build a new economy out of the collapse of the old economy? How do we start fresh to begin creating jobs again, while building in economic and environmental sustainability, as well as workplaces that respect human needs and rights? How do we change things so...
by Bill Scher | Sep 30, 2009 | Blog
The new Boxer-Kerry Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act gives progressives a second chance to influence climate legislation, if we learn the right lessons from both the legislative process for the House climate bill and the ongoing health care debate. Many...
by Robert Borosage | Sep 30, 2009 | Blog
"Vandalism" screams the cover of The Economist, depicting President Obama leaving an ice pick in the tire of free trade. (No racial overtones there; after all, as the president explained, he was black before he was elected.) When the president imposed...
by Bill Scher | Sep 30, 2009 | Uncategorized
The daily Progressive Breakfast serves up what progressive movement members need to know to start their day. Public Option Marches On After Senate Finance Vote Sen. Schumer tells Rachel Maddow: "not a single [moderate Democrat] has closed the door" on public option....
by Bill Scher | Sep 29, 2009 | Blog
The Senate Finance Committee, as expected, minutes ago voted to reject two separate version of a public health insurance option. The three Democrats voting to reject both, including the weaker version that did not drive down costs by pegging reimbursements to Medicare...
