by Terrance Heath | Aug 24, 2009 | Blog
As the parent of a small child — who is apparently entering the "terrible twos" a few months early — I tend to put things in that context sometimes. What we're seeing from the health care town halls, what we've seen from the "birthers" and what we saw during...
by Bill Scher | Aug 24, 2009 | Uncategorized
The daily Progressive Breakfast serves up what progressive movement members need to know to start their day. Senate Rules Not An Obstacle To Simple Majority Vote on Health Care Who needs conservatives to pass public option? NYT: "Senate Democrats said Sunday that they...
by Sam Pizzigati | Aug 23, 2009 | Blog, Minimum Wage
Across the pond, in the UK, the idea of capping income is suddenly starting to make a respectable splash. The Great Depression gave us the minimum wage. Might we now see a “maximum wage,” thanks to the Great Recession? That prospect now seems to have...
by Bill Scher | Aug 22, 2009 | Blog
In the latest edition of The Week In Blog at Bloggingheads.tv, Matt Lewis and myself discussed blog reaction to the ongoing health care, both divisions within the Left, and -- which I had not been aware of -- the Right
by Bill Scher | Aug 21, 2009 | Blog
The oil lobby's latest Astroturf concoction is "Energy Citizens." Its website practically looks like it's a group pushing clean green jobs, with it's green-tinted USA map and call to "support American jobs and affordable energy." Its attempt as a grassroots rally...
by Brian Dockstader | Aug 21, 2009 | Blog
While reading through the latest news this morning I happened upon a startling, yet much-welcomed story about GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann. It comes as just the latest sign that in the 21st Century we are moving toward an overwhelming pro-choice consensus in this...
by Leo Gerard | Aug 21, 2009 | Blog
During a webcast meeting with Organizing for America on Thursday, President Barack Obama outed the covert Republican plot to strangle Medicare to financial death. He explained to the group that if Congress does nothing, if health care reform fails, "Medicare will run...
by Robert Borosage | Aug 21, 2009 | Blog
When Bloomberg reported the Obama Administration was about to name Ron Bloom, now head of the auto task force, as a de facto “manufacturing czar” in the National Economic Council, the chattering heads on the right had the expected knee jerk reaction. Investor's...
by Bill Scher | Aug 21, 2009 | Uncategorized
The daily Progressive Breakfast serves up what progressive movement members need to know to start their day. Choice of Public Option Still Popular Speaker Pelosi says only public option will pass House. Bloomberg quotes: "There’s no way I can pass a bill in the House...
by Bill Scher | Aug 20, 2009 | Blog
This week, the NBC/WSJ poll was knocked for dropping the word "choice" from its monthly question about the public health insurance plan option, which led to a drop in support for the idea. Today, Huffington Post reports SurveyUSA has a new poll out showing a whopping...
by Bill Scher | Aug 20, 2009 | Blog
Today, the Institute for America's Future released a new report by policy architect of the public health insurance option Jacob Hacker, sizing up the existing House and Senate bills, and the expected compromise out of the bipartisan Senate Finance Committee talks. The...
by Bill Scher | Aug 20, 2009 | Uncategorized
The daily Progressive Breakfast serves up what progressive movement members need to know to start their day. WH Re-Engages Grassroots On Health Care Today LA Times previews today's presidential outreach: "Obama will hold a strategy session today with many of his...
by Steven Capozzola | Aug 20, 2009 | Blog
Bloomberg News reports that the Obama administration may elevate Ron Bloom, head of the government’s auto task force, to a job that would set U.S. manufacturing policy more broadly. The U.S. desperately needs a national industrial policy, including strong enforcement...
by Steven Capozzola | Aug 19, 2009 | Blog
The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) has done it again. In contrast to their stated interest in supporting American manufacturers, they’ve criticized someone who wants to strengthen U.S. manufacturing. In a recent item, NAM praises Dan Ikenson’s criticism...
by Dave Johnson | Aug 19, 2009 | Blog, Making it in America
Last week Harold Meyerson wrote a great column in the Washington Post, Just One Word: Factories, promoting American manufacturing. Meyerson wrote, “Since 1987, manufacturing as a share of our gross domestic product has declined 30 percent. Once the world's leading net...
by Brian Dockstader | Aug 19, 2009 | Blog
Almost as telling as the fact that a whopping 62% of Republicans think the federal government should stay out of Medicare is the following vignette. First, let's make sure everyone is up to speed on the so-called "PhRMA Deal", which was essentially a detente agreement...
by Brian Dockstader | Aug 19, 2009 | Blog
Wow. I just saw new national survey from Public Policy Polling (h/t TPM) that seriously has me floored (and by "floored" I mean on the floor laughing). It highlights, in a very stark manner, how unbelievably ignorant conservatives are when it comes to health care. Are...
by Bill Scher | Aug 19, 2009 | Blog
The new NBC/WSJ poll is being interpreted by some as evidence that opposition is growing against the President's health care plan, but reading the whole poll tells a different story. And unlike other news outlets in recent weeks, kudos to NBC for actually telling the...
by Robert Borosage | Aug 19, 2009 | Blog
The editors of the Wall Street Journal say that the public option in health care reform has been "sent to the death panel." Obama "concedes" the public option, reports the Financial Times. Even liberals seem to agree. The public option is "all but gone," writes Bob...
by Bill Scher | Aug 19, 2009 | Uncategorized
The daily Progressive Breakfast serves up what progressive movement members need to know to start their day. Democrats May Go It Alone The futile quest for bipartisanship may be dead. NYT: "...Democrats now say they see little chance of the minority’s cooperation in...
by Bill Scher | Aug 18, 2009 | Blog
Let's recap the day's health care developments. The #2 Republican in the Senate called the attempted co-op compromise a "Trojan Horse" and "a step towards government-run health care in this country." The head of the House Republican Study Committee called co-ops...
by Dave Johnson | Aug 18, 2009 | Blog
Trade is not complicated. Trade is just an exchange of goods. You trade something for something. I buy something from you, and in exchange you buy something from me. It is simple. It is a win-win bargain because we both end up with something we needed. The wealth of...
by Brian Dockstader | Aug 18, 2009 | Blog
We all remember the lovable "Joe" the "Plumber", just your typical Joe Sixpack, average American, undecided about whether he was going to vote for the evil socialist tyrant or Grandpappy McCain (amazingly this swingiest of swing voters chose McCain in the end--you...
by Bill Scher | Aug 18, 2009 | Blog
NYTimes.com today highlights a clip from my regular "The Week In Blog" feature at Bloggingheads.tv where Politics Daily's Matt Lewis and I discussed the desire of the conservative protesters to kill any attempt to reform health care. If you haven't watched our...
by Bill Scher | Aug 18, 2009 | Uncategorized
The daily Progressive Breakfast serves up what progressive movement members need to know to start their day. No One Can Say How Co-Ops Would Actually Work NYT explores the difficulties co-ops would have, including current insurer monopolies BECOMING co-ops: "The...
by Terrance Heath | Aug 17, 2009 | Blog
Sarah Palin, and the Sarah Palins of American politics, have won a significant victory. If you want to know who has the last word on policy, look no further than her and what she represents Unless some significant shift occurs, the Senate Finance Committee's decision...
by Bill Scher | Aug 17, 2009 | Blog
The NY Times lede today said the White House "willing to compromise and would consider a proposal for a nonprofit health cooperative being developed in the Senate." Compromise with who? What Republicans have said he or she will vote for health care reform if it...
by Dave Johnson | Aug 17, 2009 | Blog
The health care debate is bringing America's division out into the open: Is America going to work for the benefit of its people or for the few who benefit from concentrated ownership of large corporations? Who is our economy FOR, anyway? The argument over health care...
by Bill Scher | Aug 17, 2009 | Blog
As noted in today's Progressive Breakfast, the White House's stance on a public health insurance option is not new. The President and his staff have always made a strong argument for a public option, but have always refrained from refusing to sign legislation that...
by Bill Scher | Aug 17, 2009 | Uncategorized
Progressives Fight Back Hard To Protect Public Option WH again tries to calm progressives after hinting at dropping public option. The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder: "An administration official said tonight that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius...
by Bill Scher | Aug 16, 2009 | Blog
The progressive netroots send a strong message on health care reform in the annual Netroots Nation straw poll, placing the issue as the top strategic priority, and settling for nothing less than directing the federal government to provide the option of a public health...
by Sam Pizzigati | Aug 16, 2009 | Blog
In 2007, the year before the Great Recession began, America's awesomely affluent partied — as never before. The evidence? We look at the year's freshly crunched income numbers. Emmanuel Saez, the Berkeley economist who many now consider the world’s top...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Aug 15, 2009 | Blog
When Valerie Jarrett, President Obama's senior adviser, addressed sometimes tough questions from bloggers and activists at the Netroots Nation conference in Pittsburgh, there was a consistent theme: If progressives are going to have much sway in the Obama...
by Tula Connell | Aug 14, 2009 | Blog, Making it in America
So I took a tour of a steel plant today. There was a lot of hot, molten steel, but also high-tech computerized systems running the show, making sure just enough steel is poured into a mold at just the right temperature and speed, among many other functions. The...
by Dave Johnson | Aug 14, 2009 | Blog, Making it in America
I had the opportunity to tour a steel plant outside of Pittsburgh yesterday. (I am here for the Netroots Nation convention.) The word that keeps coming into my mind is "intense." I experienced intense heat, intense colors in the molten steel, and intense faces on the...
by Sara Robinson | Aug 14, 2009 | Blog
Sara Robinson liveblogs Howard Dean's talk at Netroots Nation, starting at 9am ET Friday morning. Come on by and join the chat! 8:55 There are a lot of people here, considering we were all up drinking past 1 am at vodka reception given at the nearby Andy Warhol museum...
by Bill Scher | Aug 14, 2009 | Uncategorized
Today's Breakfast will be a short one, as I am currently at the Netroots Nation conference Obama does Montana town hall today, then Colorado tomorrow. NY Times lays definitive smackdown on "death panel" smear: "...the rumor — which has come up at Congressional...
by Sam Pizzigati | Aug 13, 2009 | Blog
By every measure that matters, relatively equal nations far outperform nations where income and wealth concentrate at the top. A powerful new analysis from the UK explores these contrasts — and explains them. Huge numbers of people in the United States hold...
by Leo Gerard | Aug 13, 2009 | Blog
They came first for the Communists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then...
by Terrance Heath | Aug 13, 2009 | Blog
Recently, Mike Lux posed a question to GOP leadership: What will it take you condemn the hatefulness? Glenn Beck has said Barack Obama hates white people, and jokes about assassinating the Speaker of the House. Rush Limbaugh makes repeated and extended comparisons...
