by Sam Pizzigati | Feb 15, 2009 | Blog
Huge rewards for 'talented' people are supposed to leave all our lives much better than before. But they don't — not in sports or any of the rest of life either. Everything you really need to know about life, a fun best-seller posited a few years back, you learn...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Feb 13, 2009 | Blog
When Sen. Judd Gregg finally decided this week that he should stay in the fold of conservative Republican obstructionists in the Senate rather than on the side of moving the country forward, it was apparent he could not bring himself to embrace the progressive vision...
by Bill Scher | Feb 13, 2009 | Uncategorized
After the Economic Recovery Bill, What's Next? NYT editorial board offers a game plan for after the economic recovery bill: They need not, and should not, wait to start a foreclosure-prevention effort, but it’s not clear whether Mr. Obama’s team understands the scale...
by Sara Robinson | Feb 12, 2009 | Blog
by Bill Scher | Feb 12, 2009 | Uncategorized
Pass The Deal for 3.5M Jobs! Contact Congress Today! $790B Economic Recovery Deal Reached, Should Be Law By Monday Associated Press, Reuters and Grist offer dollar figures. Major items: infrastructure, clean energy, education, health care, aid to unemployed and poor,...
by Bill Scher | Feb 11, 2009 | Blog
The House and Senate have a crafted a final deal for an economic recovery bill. Like with any compromise, there are things to like and not like. And no matter what the final result, everyone -- including the President -- understands this bill cannot be our final act....
by Terrance Heath | Feb 11, 2009 | Blog
Pop quiz. Three questions, and the first two don't count. Quick. Name the last time working Americans and their families had a friend in a presidential administration. Now, name ten good things conservatives — or conservatism — ever did for American workers. (And, no,...
by Robert Borosage | Feb 11, 2009 | Blog
The Obama administration has made its first serious misstep. No, it wasn't the wooing of ingrate Republicans, or the dining with clueless reactionary pundits. It is much more significant. Faced with the failure of Paulson—Bernanke banking bailout, the Obama...
by Bill Scher | Feb 11, 2009 | Uncategorized
Thinking Big Conference TODAY, 9-5, featuring Paul Krugman and many others. Live streaming available at ThinkingBigConference.org. ABC's The Note reports: "Wednesday's 800-person gathering, which is taking place at the Capital Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C., is...
by Alan Jenkins | Feb 10, 2009 | Blog, Economy
This week President Obama promoted his much-needed economic recovery package in a prime-time news conference and a trip to economically depressed Elkhart, Indiana, where the unemployment rate has topped 15%. Cities and towns like Elkhart are bellwethers for where the...
by Sara Robinson | Feb 10, 2009 | Blog
Progressives around the country can breathe a little easier today: James Adkisson has been sentenced to life behind bars for the deaths of Greg McKendry and Linda Kraeger, the Unitarian Universalist martyrs who died during his assault on their church in Knoxville,...
by Bill Scher | Feb 10, 2009 | Uncategorized
TODAY: After filibuster squelched in Senate, final econ recovery vote NOON ET, House-Senate conf follows. Treasury announcement on financial bailout 11 AM ET. Presidential town hall in Florida NOON ET. TOMORROW: Thinking Big Conference featuring Paul Krugman, more...
by Bill Scher | Feb 10, 2009 | Blog
Yesterday, President Barack Obama made clear he is not accepting the Senate "Gang of Moderates" compromise as is, while the Senate moderates failed to mount a logical defense of their cuts. In short, The Senate compromise on economic recovery means to prevent $70...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Feb 9, 2009 | Blog
There are times when moderation is no virtue, and this economic recovery is one of those times. So let's be blunt about it: Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., has been a leading obstructionist on the road to economic recovery. He, along with an infinitesimal group of Republican...
by Bill Scher | Feb 9, 2009 | Blog
Last week, Campaign for America's Future sounded the alarm that phone calls were running 100 to 1 against an economic recovery bill, giving Congress a false impression of what the American majority want
by Sam Pizzigati | Feb 9, 2009 | Blog
Our new White House has begun a counterattack against America's grand divide between the rich and everyone else. But we face, new stats from the IRS make dramatically plain, a steeply uphill battle. Last Thursday, the day after President Obama announced a $500,000 cap...
by Bill Scher | Feb 9, 2009 | Uncategorized
ACTIVISM UPDATE: Senate expected to pass econ recovery Tuesday. House-Senate conference to iron out differences immediately follows. Phone calls to Congress for a "big and bold" bill will be critically important all week. Presidential Campaign for Economic Recovery In...
by Bill Scher | Feb 6, 2009 | Blog
Gangs are groups of hoodlums that commit crimes and terrorize neighborhoods. In the Senate, we have a Gang of Moderates, and they're a gang alright. A gang that is trying to commit crimes of humanity to the economic recovery bill. The Plum Line has the latest draft of...
by Leo Gerard | Feb 6, 2009 | Blog
A decade or so ago, some states gave welfare recipients food stamp debit cards. Welfare mothers could use them to buy groceries with plastic, just like virtually everybody else in the check out line. Plastic made accounting easier for clerks because the debit cards...
by Bill Scher | Feb 6, 2009 | Uncategorized
Nearly 600,000 Jobs Lost in January ALERT: AM Labor Dept. reports massive job loss: "Nonfarm payroll employment fell sharply in January (-598,000 [jobs]) and the unemployment rate rose from 7.2 to 7.6 percent..." Robert Reich: "Senate Republicans and the Stimulus:...
by Roger Hickey | Feb 5, 2009 | Blog
At a press conference today by Wall Street mogul Peter Peterson, he and his invited speakers informed Americans who are losing their jobs and homes in record numbers that our nation’s biggest problem is the national deficit—and that the solution is to cut Social...
by Bill Scher | Feb 5, 2009 | Uncategorized
ALERT 1: Final vote on American Recovery and Reinvestment Act could be today. Call your Senators at 1-866-544-7573 and demand immediate passage of a big and bold economic recovery bill. ALERT 2: New jobless claims jump more than expected to 626K The Majority Fights...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Feb 4, 2009 | Blog
Three economists have laid out in stark terms what the stakes are for the economy in the economic recovery debate now going on in the Senate—and brought home just how dangerous conservative obstructionist rhetoric really is. "This cannot be allowed to fail," Alan...
by Bill Scher | Feb 4, 2009 | Blog
Something tells me President Barack Obama has had it with the free ride that fact-challenged conservative obstructionists have been getting lately. In remarks earlier today, the President reminded the conservative minority that the the election was a public rejection...
by Robert Borosage | Feb 4, 2009 | Blog
What will the Obama administration do with the banks that are now on life support? Pump in more taxpayers' money to keep the zombies alive? Radical surgery? Pull the plug? The decision - with new announcements rumored for next week — is critical to any recovery plan....
by Bill Scher | Feb 4, 2009 | Uncategorized
Focus Quickly Returns To Economic Recovery W. Post claims resistance in the Senate to a larger bill (after, per NYT, Senate votes for a larger bill): Senate Democratic leaders conceded yesterday that they do not have the votes to pass the stimulus bill as currently...
by Sara Robinson | Feb 4, 2009 | Blog
"Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men's blood and probably will not themselves be realized." -- Daniel Burnham, American architect Most progressives understand by now that the battle over the stimulus is, at heart, a philosophical debate over whether...
by Bill Scher | Feb 3, 2009 | Blog, Rick Perlstein
Before the election, my colleague Rick Perlstein counseled the next president to embrace a big and bold liberal agenda immediately after entering office, in the mold of Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson, or else the opportunity for real change would be...
by Charles McMillion | Feb 3, 2009 | Blog
The current recession will soon become the longest since the Great Depression. The U.S. is losing over 500,000 jobs each month, and a new president, elected overwhelmingly, is pleading for unity and urgent action on a scale not seen since the New Deal. At such a...
by Bill Scher | Feb 3, 2009 | Uncategorized
Light Up The Phones! Call your Senators toll-free at 1-866-544-7573 and demand immediate passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. OurFuture.org's Bernie Horn, "Stand Up and Fight!": "Here in Washington, D.C., the word on the street is that the Right is...
by Bill Scher | Feb 2, 2009 | Blog
With Congress expected to address comprehensive health care reform this year, and with momentum squarely behind securing coverage for all through a public plan option that competes with private plans, the insur
by Sam Pizzigati | Feb 2, 2009 | Blog
High in the Swiss Alps last week, the world's rich and powerful took a crack at problem solving. But they came up short. The main reason: They are the problem. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin delivered the opening keynote address last week at the annual World...
by Bill Scher | Feb 2, 2009 | Uncategorized
Senate Debate on Econ Recovery Starts Today. More Infrastructure On Tap? Call your Senators toll-free at 1-866-544-7573 and demand immediate passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. NYT: "Senators of both parties also said on Sunday that they expected a...
by Leo Gerard | Jan 30, 2009 | Blog
For a brief moment, when Congress authorized that $700 billion bailout for the Wall Street wise guys whose recklessness caused the financial crisis that we’re all suffering, federal officials actually considered giving part of the money to foreign banks. Really. They...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jan 30, 2009 | Blog
Consider how far we've come since January 20. On Thursday, the Senate followed the House in passing a reauthorization of a child health insurance bill that will mean 4 million more children will have access to health insurance. When the Congress passed similar...
by Bill Scher | Jan 30, 2009 | Uncategorized
ALERT: GDP PLUMMETS in 4Q Reuters reports: "The economy shrank at its fastest pace in nearly 27 years in the fourth quarter, government data showed, sinking deeper into recession as consumers and business cut spending. The Commerce Department on Friday said gross...
by Bill Scher | Jan 29, 2009 | Blog
Apparently, House Republicans are so proud of themselves, they are trying to raise campaign dollars off their votes opposing economic help for everybody else. I just received an email from GOP Rep. Pete Sessions, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional...
by Terrance Heath | Jan 29, 2009 | Blog
Every morning, my neighbor and her six-year-old daughter share a bus stop with a terrorist — or a member of a terrorist organization, at least. That's distressing enough, because my son rides the same school bus. But I recently discovered that the terrorist at my...
by Bill Scher | Jan 29, 2009 | Uncategorized
House Backs Econ Recovery Plan WSJ: “The House bill expands access to health care for the unemployed, represents perhaps the largest expansion of the federal government's role in education financing ever and begins what Mr. Obama has promised will be a push toward...
by Bill Scher | Jan 28, 2009 | Blog
The House is debating the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on the floor as I write this. And the conservative minority is employing the same tactics that have led them into the minority: failed ideas wrapped in fresh lies. The big lie/talking point being...
