by Sara Robinson | Mar 25, 2009 | Blog
Terrance Heath kicked off our conversation by invoking Alexis de Tocqueville's observation that change comes about as a "revolution of expectations." Since how people greet and adapt to transformative change is a subject I'm rather passionate about, I'd like to riff...
by Robert Borosage | Mar 25, 2009 | Blog
I discuss with American News Project's Harry Hanbury and Nick Penniman what's next for the populist uprising spurred by today's economic crisis. This video traces how progressives helped shaped the New Deal and the post-World War II recovery, and I talk about the...
by Bill Scher | Mar 25, 2009 | Uncategorized
President Makes Case For Bold Budget At prime-time presser, President Obama responds to whether he'd accept budget without cap on carbon pollution and middle-class tax cut: JAKE TAPPER (ABC): ... Senate Democrats are writing a budget ... they're not including the...
by Sam Pizzigati | Mar 24, 2009 | Blog
Of all the people in the United States, 99.99 percent have never perused the pages of the Statistics of Income Bulletin, a research journal the IRS publishes four times a year. For the power suits on Wall Street, that’s a good thing. If more Americans ever really...
by Terrance Heath | Mar 24, 2009 | Blog
Last week, when the fury over AIG bonuses was just peaking, I read something that jolted me out of own anger and into a realization: After a transformational election and at the beginning of a transformational presidency, progressives need to remember: the real...
by Alan Jenkins | Mar 24, 2009 | Blog
Earlier this year, I visited my father, who lives in the Bay Area. As we drove from the Oakland airport, the conversation quickly turned to the Obama presidency. Born in 1923, my dad survived the Great Depression, fought in World War II, endured vicious Jim Crow...
by Bill Scher | Mar 24, 2009 | Uncategorized
Targeting The Obstructionists Hotline On Call previews next stage in Campaign for America's Future effort to pressure obstructionists to support Obama budget: "Campaign for America's Future co-director Robert Borosage and USAction president William McNary will join...
by Bill Scher | Mar 23, 2009 | Uncategorized
Toxic Assets Plan Announced Bloomberg provides the overview: "Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who will unveil the Public Private Investment Program today, has crafted an approach using up to $100 billion of bailout money to spur investment funds to purchase --...
by Leo Gerard | Mar 20, 2009 | Blog
AIG Chairman Edward M. Liddy gets the Creep of the Week award for his stunning, overwhelming, dumbfounding display of cluelessness. Liddy not only awarded $165 million in bonuses to the very AIG employees whose risky speculation in credit default swaps bankrupted the...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Mar 20, 2009 | Blog
(Updated 3 p.m. with Congressional Budget office figures and House Republican leadership response.) This weekend's news will be dominated by a Congressional Budget Office report that the federal deficit—already projected to exceed $1 trillion just a few months ago—is...
by Sam Pizzigati | Mar 20, 2009 | Blog
How much has the uproar over the bonuses at AIG impacted America’s political discourse? This much: We now have elected leaders on Capitol Hill, for the first time since World War II, openly talking about slapping a 100 percent top tax rate on the income...
by Terrance Heath | Mar 20, 2009 | Blog
I've seen more than one op-ed or blog post about why the idea of taxing bonuses handed out by banks that accept bailout funds — as the House just voted to do — is a bad idea.What I haven't heard is a better one. Plans to tax bonuses at financial institutions that have...
by Bill Scher | Mar 20, 2009 | Uncategorized
Blue Dogs Struggle To Avoid Obstructionist Rep Bloomberg captures the Blue Dog spin to appear constructive: "'I want the president to succeed but at the same time I don’t want our country to continue down the same road it has been going for the last eight years,' said...
by Terrance Heath | Mar 19, 2009 | Blog
This is one of those times when I really hate to say, "Told ya so." But... Well, I did. It was bloggers, by the way, who broke the news that the CEO salary restrictions in the TARP bill were toothless. It was bloggers who infiltrated today's equivalent of a smokey...
by Bill Scher | Mar 19, 2009 | Uncategorized
Obama Challenges Obstructionists On The Budget, as "Bayh Bloc" Forms President Obama confronts obstructionists over bold budget, at Costa Mesa town hall: THE PRESIDENT:: ...Now, there are those who say these plans are too ambitious; we should be trying to do less, not...
by Bill Scher | Mar 18, 2009 | Blog
Yesterday, the Washington Post front page blared "Anger Over [AIG] Depletes Obama's Political Capital." And today, we see more vocal criticism from
by Bill Scher | Mar 18, 2009 | Uncategorized
Obama & America vs. Blue Dogs on Budget President Obama slaps obstructionists in budget remarks. "there are those who say the plans in this budget are too ambitious to enact; to say that -- they say that in the face of challenges that we face, we should be trying to...
by Robert Borosage | Mar 18, 2009 | Blog
Who stands in the way of the reforms vital to get us out of the deep hole we are in? Republicans, of course, have decided to be the party of "no," staking their future on President Obama's failure. But that isn't a surprise. The entrenched interests whose oxen get...
by Terrance Heath | Mar 17, 2009 | Blog
It's almost enough to make you feel sorry for Republicans. Trounced in November's election, faced a popular president, and a voting public that seems to have rejected their conservative politics, now they're stuck with Rush Limbaugh as the de facto head of their...
by Bill Scher | Mar 17, 2009 | Uncategorized
Backlash Forces Bonus Reconsideration TPMDC reports on proposal to retract bonuses via tax: "Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), the chairwoman of the Joint Economic Committee, has a novel solution to the AIG bonuses flap: levy a 100% tax on the company's senior executives...
by Terrance Heath | Mar 16, 2009 | Blog
The New York Times has an article up that takes a look at the Massachusetts health care plan and it's problems dealing with medical costs, and underscores something we'll examine further in a report we're releasing tomorow: a plan like the Massachusetts plan —...
by Bill Scher | Mar 16, 2009 | Uncategorized
AIG Bonuses Spark Outrage, Frustration LA Times reports on conversation between Treasury and AIG chiefs: In his initial call to Liddy, Geithner asked the AIG boss to renegotiate the bonuses, according to an Obama administration official who was not authorized to...
by Sam Pizzigati | Mar 15, 2009 | Blog
Forbes magazine, our globe’s premier scorekeeper for the games rich people play, last week delivered its latest annual tally of the world’s billion-dollar fortunes, the first since the world economy went into meltdown mode. The Forbes verdict: We’re...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Mar 13, 2009 | Blog, Minimum Wage
As President Bush and conservative leaders were still touting the "soundness" of the economy in 2007, trends among the working poor were already beginning to tell a different story. After two years of declines in the number of people characterized as "poor" despite...
by Terrance Heath | Mar 13, 2009 | Blog
I won't bemoan how the failure of media to do its job necessitates his role. I will simply give thanks that, in the absence of reliable media criticism, at least we have Jon Stewart — making us laugh while telling us truths that are far from funny. By now, you've...
by Bill Scher | Mar 13, 2009 | Uncategorized
No Second Stimulus ... For Now W. Post quotes Speaker Pelosi on additional stimulus proposal: "'I don't think you ever close the door to being prepared for whatever eventuality may come,' [Pelosi] said at her weekly news conference but emphasized that a second package...
by Terrance Heath | Mar 12, 2009 | Blog
There is one person in particular I hope got to hear President Obama's recent speech on education. There was a teachable moment in that speech applicable to all of the challenges we're facing and essential for Americans to understand if we're to meet them. I don't...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Mar 12, 2009 | Blog
Since 2003, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford has turned the state into a petri dish for what hard-core conservatism —slashed taxes, shrunken government, cut regulations—would look like. With a Republican-controlled legislature, he's had pretty much free rein to enact...
by Bill Scher | Mar 12, 2009 | Blog
Social Security and Medicare opponent Pete Peterson funds through his foundation a "Fiscal Wake-Up Tour," which characterizes itself as a non-ideological truth-telling presentation bravely warning the nation that Social Security and Medicare need drastic changes to...
by Bill Scher | Mar 12, 2009 | Uncategorized
EFCA Compromise? Politico reports on Dem moderates ducking EFCA, looking for changes: "a number of key moderates who backed the bill in the past have withheld their names this year until negotiators cut a deal that will make the legislation more palatable for other...
by Bill Scher | Mar 11, 2009 | Blog
Budget battles are inherently complex and President Barack Obama's moreso. A budget encompasses everything government does, so multiple fights on disparate issues can be sparked, making it hard to communicate a simple overarching argument for passage. And President...
by Leo Gerard | Mar 11, 2009 | Blog
Leo W. Gerard: The likes of Alabama Sen. Richard C. Shelby and other “Toyota Republicans,” as I call them, contend that GM and its partners in the Big Three American auto makers are antiquated and irrelevant and should be euthanized. You’ve written a book, “Why GM ...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Mar 11, 2009 | Blog
Jon Stewart deserves a medal for finally getting the public talking about the ugly, dangerous truth about the leading outlet for business and economic news coverage, CNBC: It often inflames, but rarely informs. In fact, CNBC has turned inflaming into a business...
by Robert Borosage | Mar 11, 2009 | Blog
Last year we worried about homes below water; now it is the economy itself that is sinking. Warren Buffett says the U.S. economy has "fallen off a cliff." And, as bad as the U.S. is, the rest of the world is worse. Germany's exports have collapsed; Japan is in free...
by Bill Scher | Mar 11, 2009 | Uncategorized
EFCA Introduced The Hill on EFCA's introduction: "[Rep. George] Miller and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) indicated Democrats are likely to start the bill in the Senate, where it faces a tougher path to President Obama’s desk." Politico: "Harkin says he’s hoping for a vote...
by Bill Scher | Mar 10, 2009 | Blog, Rick Perlstein
EFCA Introduced Today Bloomberg reports Sen. Tom Harkin and Rep. George Miller will introduce the Employee Free Choice Act today and that Dem Sens. Bayh, Bingaman, Landrieu, Lincoln, Nelson (Neb.) and Pryor remain uncommitted. Media Matters: "USA Today, Politico...
by Sam Pizzigati | Mar 9, 2009 | Blog
America's most financially fortunate, the cagier critics of President Obama are claiming, can sidestep any hike in the tax rate on high incomes. But history tells a different story. Last fall, in the Presidential campaign, candidate Barack Obama promised to raise...
by Bill Scher | Mar 9, 2009 | Uncategorized
Calls For Additional Stimulus Krugman warns: "...Mr. Obama’s promise that his plan will create or save 3.5 million jobs by the end of 2010 looks underwhelming, to say the least. It’s a credible promise — his economists used solidly mainstream estimates of the impacts...
by Terrance Heath | Mar 9, 2009 | Blog
Oh, boy. It's gonna be a fun eight years if president Obama keeps giving interview answers like these. First, he exasperates and confounds conservatives by doing pretty much what he said he would do when he was just candidate Obama. (Somehow, that, plus his margin of...
by Roger Hickey | Mar 8, 2009 | Blog
Like most participants in President Obama’s Health Care Summit last Thursday, I was thrilled to be invited to the White House for the big public meeting on health care. At the Summit, the President did what the leaders and activists of the 800 organizations in our...
