by Isaiah J. Poole | Jan 28, 2009 | Blog
The American Society of Civil Engineers' preliminary release today of its 2009 Report Card on Infrastructure lays bare the toll conservative ideology has taken on our transportation system, public facilities, water network and power grid. The ASCE gives the nation a...
by Robert Borosage | Jan 28, 2009 | Blog
We are headed into the most ambitious era of progressive economic reform since the New Deal. The crisis leaves little alternative, as job losses mount across the country and the world. The Obama administration has hit the ground running, pushing to pass an $800...
by Bill Scher | Jan 28, 2009 | Uncategorized
House Vote Today AP: President Barack Obama's expansive and expensive plan to jump-start the economy is all but certain to clear its first hurdle when the Democratic-controlled House votes on a $825 billion version that melds new spending and tax cuts. Republican...
by Bill Scher | Jan 27, 2009 | Blog
Last month, Institute for America's Future unveiled the $900 billion, two-year Main Street Recovery Program, backed by 2,000 economists, labor leaders, progressive organization and citizens. Since then, Congress is working on it's economic recovery plan, currently at...
by Bill Scher | Jan 27, 2009 | Uncategorized
Jobs Rapidly Vanishing, Action Needed Now W. Post assessment of the economy is stark: "The nation's employers, including some of its largest and most sturdy, announced plans yesterday to slash more than 55,000 jobs, a staggering one-day toll that highlighted how...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jan 26, 2009 | Blog
The Campaign for America's Future is joining with our allies at Americans United for Change in asking you to flood congressional offices today and Tuesday with calls for immediate action on the economic recovery package scheduled for a House vote this week. The number...
by Sam Pizzigati | Jan 26, 2009 | Blog
We all know about the greed and grasping at Wall Street's failed giants. But the greed at 'successful' companies elsewhere in America is getting a free pass. President Barack Obama, in the opening moments of his eagerly awaited administration, last week reminded an...
by Bill Scher | Jan 26, 2009 | Uncategorized
Dems Stand Firm On Econ Recovery, GOP Opposition Hardens On NBC's Meet The Press, Obama econ advisor Larry Summers addresses criticism that too little will be spent quickly, noting most will be spent quickly, but long-term investments are crucial too: The president...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jan 24, 2009 | Blog
It turns out reports that the Congressional Budget Office had found that much of the stimulus package to be voted on in the House in a few days would not be spent until after 2011 were incorrect. Ryan Grim at The Huffington Post reported late Friday: The nonpartisan...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jan 23, 2009 | Blog
While conservatives offer tax cuts as an all-purpose elixir, whether they make sense or not, the truth is that our tax code is out of whack and we should be thinking about progressive reforms. Laura Kalick, a veteran tax attorney based in Washington, has been thinking...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jan 23, 2009 | Blog
The missive that House conservatives issued early Friday may be called an "economic recovery plan," but it is as threadbare as the big discount goods store that went belly-up in my neighborhood a few weeks ago and is now in the final days of bankruptcy liquidation....
by Bill Scher | Jan 23, 2009 | Uncategorized
Republicans Increasingly Critical Of Economic Recovery Plan W. Post lists Republican complaints about the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan: "Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), who gave Vice President Biden a 17-page list of spending requests, said he opposes the...
by Bill Scher | Jan 22, 2009 | Uncategorized
Does Econ Recovery Need More Short-Term Punch? Time reports some Senators want to pack more short-term punch: "Not helping matters is a report from the Congressional Budget Office which came out Tuesday showing that only 38% of the $350 billion in appropriated funds...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jan 22, 2009 | Blog
Conservative leaders are using news of a Congressional Budget Office report released this week to argue that much of what is in President Obama's economic recovery plan is a waste of money because most of the money can't be spent before at least 2011, and thus won't...
by Leo Gerard | Jan 22, 2009 | Blog
Symbols of the 16th president of the United States surround the 44th. And they did so from the beginning. Barack Obama, formerly a Senator from Illinois, announced his plan to run for president on Abraham Lincoln’s birthday from the steps of the Old State Capitol in...
by Robert Borosage | Jan 22, 2009 | Blog
"A man whose father less than 60 years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath." It was not the words, but this transcendent reality that evoked the tears at Barack Obama's inauguration Tuesday. The...
by Terrance Heath | Jan 21, 2009 | Blog
"Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountain top. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned...
by Bill Scher | Jan 21, 2009 | Uncategorized
What Now?
by Bill Scher | Jan 21, 2009 | Blog
In his first Inaugural, President Barack Hussein Obama delivered one of the most eloquent descriptions of liberalism in history. Many will focus on the calls for unity, to depict the speech as non-ideological. but make no mistake. President Obama is calling for unity...
by Alan Jenkins | Jan 19, 2009 | Blog
In the days just before and after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 80th birthday, I had the opportunity to visit two places that are integral to his modern day legacy: Washington, DC and the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans. As I witnessed the inauguration of Barack Obama...
by Sara Robinson | Jan 19, 2009 | Blog
Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose: It may perhaps be asked what need there is of reasoning or proof to illustrate a position which is not either controverted or doubted, to which the understandings and feelings of all classes of men assent, and which in...
by Sam Pizzigati | Jan 19, 2009 | Blog
A high-ranking British Labor Party leader has just opened a bold new campaign for legislation that would obligate government, at all levels, to close the "class divide." The British Labor Party came to power a dozen years ago with a commitment to attack...
by Bill Scher | Jan 17, 2009 | Blog
My friend and fellow Huffington Post contributor Logan Nakyanzi Pollard recently expressed her concern that I was too forgiving of internal dissent in my recent post criticizing overblown assessments
by Sara Robinson | Jan 16, 2009 | Blog
They keep using those words. It turns out that they don't mean what we think they mean. On Thursday night, for the first time since 9/11, I actually sat down and watched George Bush speak. (At this late date, I figured there was absolutely nothing the man could say...
by Bill Scher | Jan 16, 2009 | Uncategorized
House Dems Edge Up Size of Econ Recovery Plan W. Post reports on the draft House bill: House Democrats yesterday presented an $825 billion stimulus package that includes more government spending and less tax relief than President-elect Barack Obama had proposed,...
by Bill Scher | Jan 15, 2009 | Blog
Apparently, a million or so progressive Americans will be coming to Washington, DC next week to Get Their History On. But in many ways, the huge turnout will be more than just a big party. It will be a manifestation of the pent-up demand in America's grassroots for...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jan 15, 2009 | Blog
Conservative leaders in the House have promised "innovative solutions" to help the Obama administration revive the economy, but what they actually offered on Thursday on Capitol Hill was the intellectual equivalent of well-used stuff put up for bid on eBay in a...
by Bill Scher | Jan 15, 2009 | Uncategorized
New Poll: Strong Support for Public Investment The latest NBC/WSJ poll finds big support for public investment to get the economy back on track, mixed with an undercurrent of concern about spending too much. (Tell Congress: Pass Econ Recovery NOW!) 63% say "government...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jan 14, 2009 | Blog
A new compelling argument for why the Obama administration, and progressives, should argue for a bold recovery program, and should not fear large deficits in the near term, was released this week in a paper by Center for American Progress senior fellow Scott Lilly....
by Bill Scher | Jan 14, 2009 | Uncategorized
Obama Rolls Out the TARP Time reports Congress will support Obama on releasing another $350B: "So what did Obama say to charm his former colleagues into blocking the resolution? He promised to write down, in a detailed manner, how his administration will dole out the...
by Bill Scher | Jan 13, 2009 | Uncategorized
The World According To TARP NYT sees Congress acquiescing to Bush and Obama and permitting the next $350B to go to the TARP fund: "Republican and Democratic Senate leaders signaled on Monday that they would support the release of the second half of the Treasury’s $700...
by Sam Pizzigati | Jan 12, 2009 | Blog
Beware of CEOs who feel your pain. These days, that's not easy. They seem to be just about everywhere. With the economy in free-fall, CEOs all across the United States have begun waging a veritable empathy offensive. From Wall Street to America’s ultimate Main Street...
by Bill Scher | Jan 12, 2009 | Uncategorized
Obama Responds to Senate Energy, Tax Cut Concerns Politico reports Obama moves toward Senate Dems during Sunday talks: The Obama team told about 35 Senate Democrats gathered at Sunday’s meeting that it would grow the size of an energy-tax incentive package and modify...
by Bill Scher | Jan 9, 2009 | Blog
Crossfire from his own party! Key Democrats blast Obama stimulus plan! Political wrangling bogs down economic stimulus plan! At odds! Doubts arise! Such is the traditional media interpretation of the policy deliberations going on between the incoming Obama...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jan 9, 2009 | Blog
Let history be clear on one point when it comes to Bush's mismanagement of the economy: Since January 2001, the month George W. Bush took office, the number of unemployed people has increased more than 84 percent. That statistic is based on seasonally-adjusted data...
by Bill Scher | Jan 9, 2009 | Uncategorized
ALERT: Horrific Job Losses In December New job numbers released this AM by Bureau of Labor Statistics are horrifying. 524,000 jobs lost in December. 2.6M jobs lost in 2008, majority in past four months. Manufacturing losses near 800,000 since Dec. 2007. Unemployment...
by Bill Scher | Jan 8, 2009 | Blog
In President-elect Barack Obama's major economic address today, he laid out one dozen key planks of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, including initiatives to: 1. "double the production of alternative energy in the next three years" 2. "modernize more than...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jan 8, 2009 | Blog
Today, President-elect Barack Obama laid out the framework for his economic recovery plan and made the case for why Congress must "move as quickly as possible on behalf of the American people" to get a recovery plan passed, "working weekends if necessary," he added,...
by Eric Lotke | Jan 8, 2009 | Blog
There were no theatrics. No single women came in to protest life’s travails, no displaced workers told of the factory shut down. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s Democratic Steering and Policy Committee Forum was government as it should be. Serious people hard at...
by Bill Scher | Jan 8, 2009 | Uncategorized
Progressive Breakfast is the morning roundup of what progressive movement members need to know to start the day. Econ Plan May Get Bigger and Bolder In CNBC interview by John Harwood, Obama indicates economic recovery could grow larger than $775B, in advance of major...
