President Obama’s decision to include cuts to Social Security benefits in his budget is wrong policy and dumb politics. His chained CPI plan is wrong because it hurts Americans who have worked hard their entire lives and who need the support that Social Security gives them. It is wrong because Social Security is financed separately [...]
Read Post
Every American who cares about jobs and a healthy U.S. economy should pick up the phone right now, call your Congressperson’s office, and tell whoever answers, “I want my representative to vote this week for the Back to Work Budget introduced by the Congressional Progressive Caucus.” [Note: The Congressional switchboard is 202 224-3121.] Also click here [...]
Read Post
Our month-long campaign to “disarm the austerity bomb” and repeal the sequester is gaining traction in Washington. On Monday, leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus joined our call, saying if Republicans refuse to compromise, then we should simply “eliminate the sequester.” No replacements with job-killing austerity measures. No concessions to the Social Security/Medicare haters. Just [...]
Read Post
How many economists does it take to make the Congress, President Obama and the media pay attention? Nobel laureate Paul Krugman has been warning of the dangers of austerity in his New York Times column and on TV for a long time. But the media treats him as an outlier, letting him say his piece [...]
Read Post
With tonight’s State of the Union address, President Obama attempted to refocus his new second term with a focus on jobs and supporting the middle class. He clearly wants to stop talking about deficits and debt and start talking about reviving the economy for people. His best line was a clear attempt to pivot in [...]
Read Post
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.
Read Post
Here we go again. Republicans are very clear about their latest extortion threat to the American people: Unless you cut Social Security and Medicare benefits, within the next two months we will throw the US economy back into recession - by refusing to allow the US raise the debt ceiling and pay our bills - or by pushing the economy over another fiscal cliff of deep spending cuts and tax increases - or by shutting down the government by refusing to pass a continuing budget resolution.
Read Post
For years now, various gangs of Senators - the Gang of 8, or 6, or 14 - have declared dire deficit emergencies and called for austerity: Cut public spending and cut Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security benefits, they tell us. And, bizarrely, most of these gangs also call for reduced tax cuts for the rich.
Read Post
Election Day was a smashing victory for progressives and middle-class populism. But the deficit hysterics, budget slashers and Social Security haters refuse to heed our voices. Within hours of the election, the austerity posse was fear-mongering around the so-called “fiscal cliff” and pressuring Washington to accept a “grand bargain” before the end of the year [...]
Read Post
In addressing the deficit today, President Obama opened his remarks with the crucial truth: “at a time when our economy’s still recovering from the great recession, our top priority has to be jobs and growth. That’s the focus of the plan that I talked about during the campaign.” And he declared: “we can’t just cut [...]
Read Post
