The world’s wealthy gathered in the Alps again last week to discuss how to ‘solve’ the world’s problems. The world’s biggest problem, suggests one top global anti-poverty outfit, may be their fortunes. Apologists for inequality have a standard retort to anyone who calls for a more equal distribution of the world’s treasure. If you took [...]
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A penal of three Republican judges today knocked down the President’s three recess appointments last year to the National Labor Relations Board. The President appointed the three NLRB members following Republican filibusters of his nominees, intended to keep the agency from operating to protect the rights of working people to organize. This decision, if upheld, [...]
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The fight for filibuster reform does not stop with what MSNBC talk show host Ed Schultz on Thursday dubbed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s “fail-ibuster.” Communications Workers of America President Larry Cohen told Schultz that “we have to continue that fight.” Cohen said there are real consequences to the decision by Reid to agree to [...]
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To get House conservatives to capitulate on temporarily suspending the debt limit without securing any spending cuts, Boehner made a stunning pledge: the upcoming House budget would eliminate the deficit in 10 years. As a talking point, that sounds great. As a budget, it is literally double the crazy of the last House Republican budget, [...]
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MORNING MESSAGE: Progressives Fire Warning Shot Against Social Security Cuts OurFuture.org’s Richard Eskow: “…The Hill reported Wednesday that Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., was considering using a special parliamentary maneuver to push a budget deal [including] the ‘chained-CPI’ cut to Social Security benefits … After initial calls to Schumer’s office went unreturned, Roger Hickey of the [...]
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Here’s a “Washington insider” story that could affect every family in the country. Congressional newspaper The Hill reported Wednesday that Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., was considering using a special parliamentary maneuver to push a budget deal. But this wasn’t just another “inside baseball” story, the kind that fascinates policy wonks and bores all other living beings. This [...]
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A report in The Hill newspaper last night suggested that Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) may be floating a proposal that includes cuts to Social Security and Medicare. If Sen. Schumer's proposal was accurately reported, the senator could not be more wrong.
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Better than nothing, but still not much. The story of our time. I have always been skeptical of the idea that the Senate would truly reform the filibuster simply because the majority always knows their hold on the majority is tenuous and they might want to block something someday. (I can certainly imagine things I would want a Democratic minority to block.) Still, if the GOP filibuster abuse of the last decade isn't enough to force a change, I don't know what would. And it did, albeit a fairly small one. Baby steps.
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When Republicans get going on with their crazy, Democrats are learning to just say, "Please proceed." The public takes care of the rest.
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MORNING MESSAGE: Did Obama Pivot On Education? OurFuture.org’s Jeff Bryant: “It was hard for a progressive not to get a chocolate high from President Obama’s inauguration speech … But hardly anyone in the education community had anything notable to say about it …advocates for education and public schools have heard Obama say sweet things about [...]
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