Dismal jobs production in March – only 88,000 net jobs created, not sufficient even to cover people coming into the workforce – is a wake-up call to Washington. The weak recovery is now floundering in face of harsh headwinds – the payroll tax hike, the beginnings of the sequester cuts, continued wage stagnation, deepening recession [...]
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The “rising American electorate” is the name given to the core of the Obama electoral majority of the young, single women, and minorities. Democratic pundits suggest that this coalition essentially dooms Republican presidential prospects for the foreseeable future. Demography, they argue, is destiny. This ignores one depressing reality: The rising American electorate is sinking together [...]
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The International Federation of Health Plans has depicted our ridiculous health care system in 21 graphs. We don’t get more health care; we just pay more — much more. And this entirely accounts for the scary long-term deficit projections. If we paid what every other advanced industrial country pays, we would project surpluses as far [...]
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Washington has been fascinated by Republican self-laceration since the 2012 election. Karl Rove triggered a circular firing squad by vowing to take out unwashed challengers in GOP primaries. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal begged Republicans to stop being the “stupid party.” Strategists say the party can’t survive as stale, pale and male. Tea Party legislators knee-cap [...]
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As early as today, the members of the House of Representatives will choose. At a time of mass unemployment and slow growth, they will vote for more austerity or for more jobs. At a time of Gilded Age inequality, they will decide whether the rich bear too large a burden or too little, whether working [...]
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Budgets are pure EGO – eyes glaze over. But this week revealed two budgets – Rep. Paul Ryan’s Republican “Path to Prosperity” 2014 budget and the Congressional Progressive Caucus “Back to Work Budget” – that in stark terms lay out two visions and two futures for America. Next week the Congress will vote on each [...]
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On Tuesday, March 12, the Senate Banking Committee will begin review of the nomination of Mary Jo White to be chair of the Securities and Exchange Committee. The Committee should probe deeply on whether she will be a watchdog or a lap dog for Wall Street. One clear test is her position on the rules [...]
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Today’s employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics – an additional 236,000 jobs in February with unemployment edging down to 7.7 percent – reveals an economy that keeps chugging along against rising headwinds. Most of the growth was in services, with manufacturing adding only a disappointing 14,000 jobs. Government continued to shed jobs, with [...]
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For years, the Obama Administration has been pummeled for failing to bring criminal charges against a single major Wall Street bank or a single leading Wall Street banker for what the FBI termed an “epidemic of fraud” that blew up the entire economy. Investigations revealed the banks committed routine fraud in peddling mortgage securities they [...]
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Today, Senator Tom Harkin and Representative George Miller offer a ray of light amid the austerity blight in Washington. They are announcing introduction of a bill – the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013 – to raise the minimum wage gradually to $10.10 and index it so it adjusts annually with inflation. Their legislation would [...]
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