Word to conservatives: Don't bother trying to peddle your divisive politics to African-Americans; it won't work anymore. A post-election poll conducted by The Economist suggests that social issues may no longer be an effective means for Republicans to get Black voters on board. (Further evidence suggests that the same goes for Latinos.)
A co-worker handed me a page from the survey a couple of days ago, and pointed out some interesting data showing wide gap between black and white voters on one question: "Do you think openly gay people should be allowed to hold each of the following jobs?"
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Pressure for a deal to avoid the so-called "fiscal cliff" at the end of the year is building. Even minor tremors in the stock market are treated as auguries of the panic that will attend a failure to act. A multi-million dollar campaign funded by Wall Street billionaire Pete Peterson and Corporate CEOs demands action to "fix the debt."
The president has put forth a comprehensive $4 trillion-dollar plan, including ending the Bush tax breaks for the top 2 percent, $400 billion in savings from Medicare and Medicaid over 10 years, as well as extension of the payroll tax cut, and creation of an infrastructure bank to help sustain the economy. House Speaker John Boehner scorns this, arguing that the price of defusing the austerity bomb is a deal that combines far more significant cuts in "entitlements" -- that is Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid -- with smaller amounts of revenue coming from lowering top rates and closing loopholes. As the end of the year approaches, the hysteria will build.
Easily lost in the tumult is simple common sense. No deal is a far better alternative than a bad deal -- and the grand bargain now being discussed is a very bad deal. Here are the reasons citizens should be skeptical about the rush to agree.
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MORNING MESSAGE: What Progressives Can Learn From Public Education’s “Fiscal Cliff” OurFuture.org’s Jeff Bryant: “Public education’s fiscal cliff already happened … new austerity budgets passed by state legislatures [have resulted] in drastic cuts in direct education services to school children nationwide. The effects of the cuts were immediately devastating to schools, especially in critical needs [...]
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Public education’s fiscal cliff already happened. The “austerity bomb” Paul Krugman warns us of in the New York Times was already dropped on public schools at least two years ago. And what impact the sequestration has on education is, in comparison, a ground assault. This is not to make light of the 8 percent cut [...]
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Upon rumors of purported “grand bargain” including $400 billion in cuts to Medicare, Social Secuirty and Medicaid, Rep. Keith Ellision. the leader of the House Progressive Caucus, just said NO: WASHINGTON- Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), Co-Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, released the following statement after Politico reported on the potential outlines of a deal, including $1.2 [...]
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Not that anyone cares, but it seems that a vast majority of the American public think raising the Medicare eligibility age is stupid.
Greg Sargent talks about this issue in depth in this post. He says that the Republicans are refusing to name their demands on "entitlement" cuts, instead saying that the Democrats must first say what they are willing to give. That's very cute, but it doesn't really work that way and they know it. If the Democrats are dumb enough to do that then we are all screwed.
But don't be surprised if they do. Greg reports that Democrats are not entertaining doing this at all but I'm sorry to say that's just not true. On raising the medicare eligibility age, there have been some powerful Dems out there endorsing it.
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In a surprise move, fast food workers in New York City walked out to strike for better pay. Like Walmart workers a week ago, they are joining the fight to change our economy. Fast-food workers are exploited. The low-wage, burger-flipping service sector is the symbol of the new economy that is stripping the country of [...]
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Originally posted at Capital Gains and Games.
I first posted about the budget dilemma Hurricane Sandy presented to congressional Republicans in general and House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) on October 31. At that time I said there were three questions.
The questions are now starting to be answered.
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An extremist website called World Net Daily says that the Campaign For America’s Future, where I am a Senior Fellow, is “radical.” They’re worked up about our Wage Class War website, which documents 2012′s successful class-based political campaigns and promotes this winning strategy in future elections. In the hallucinogenic haze that is today’s far right, [...]
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MORNING MESSAGE: You Can Pay Taxes And Create Jobs OurFuture.org’s Dave Johnson: “House Speaker Boehner and Senate Minority leader each claimed this week that higher taxes on the wealthy will cause the ‘job creators’ to cut jobs and ‘hurt growth.’ The Heritage Foundation makes specific claims about how this will happen … that a businessperson [...]
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