We were hoping that the Senate Banking Committee would give Mary Jo White, President Obama’s choice to be chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, a tough grilling at today’s confirmation hearing. What we got most often instead looked more like a friendly backyard grill party. She is “a diehard Yankees fan” who “likes to crack [...]
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One of the consequences of the federal spending sequester now in place is that $4 billion is being cut this year from transportation and infrastructure programs, according to House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee ranking member Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., including $1 billion from programs administered by the Department of Transportation. In a long menu of [...]
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The smackdown that President Obama delivered today to people who assert that he and others are exaggerating the impact of the sequestration for dramatic effect is worth publishing in full: Q: What do you say to the people like Mayor Bloomberg — who is no critic of yours in general; he endorsed you — who [...]
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I have a message for Tyler Cowen, the occasional New York Times columnist and George Mason University professor who was quoted this morning in a Times story on the effects of the upcoming federal spending sequester: We’re done taking our lumps. “It may be time to take some lumps,” Cowen says in his blithe dismissal [...]
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While progressive organizations, Democrats in Congress and the Obama administration correctly focus on the damage the federal spending cuts to be forced by the March 1 sequester will do to the overall economy and to vital government services, USAction is using Wednesday to underscore that there is some federal spending that is overdue to be [...]
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Two polls released in the past 24 hours send decidedly different messages on Social Security. The lesson: Be careful what you ask. One poll released Thursday by Bloomberg seems to show that a significant majority of the public would be willing to see Social Security benefits fall behind increases in the cost of living, which [...]
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President Obama’s infrastructure investment plan, released officially Wednesday afternoon, is an important step in the direction of what America needs: a full-employment plan that puts Americans back to work rebuilding an America of shared prosperity. But it is just a step, and a modest one at that, reflective of the constraints on the political agenda [...]
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The group Fix the Debt has been at it again, releasing another proposal designed to divert the nation’s attention to the so-called “debt crisis,” while the more pressing jobs crisis and poor-and-middle-class-squeeze crisis goes unaddressed. Watch here as opponents to Fix The Debt’s baloney counter with a different message.
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A majority of House Democrats have signed a House Progressive Caucus letter to President Obama opposing benefit cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. “We write to affirm our vigorous opposition to cutting Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid benefits in any final bill to replace sequestration,” the letter, signed by 107 members, says. Sequestration is [...]
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The previews of President Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday promise that job creation will be a major focus – a welcome development in the face of Washington’s debilitating and wrong-headed obsession with deficit-cutting. But what’s really important is that the boldness of the president’s agenda match the severity of the jobs crisis. [...]
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