When Paul Ryan first introduced his first “Path to Prosperity” budget proposal, he framed it as an attempt to build upon the “successful” welfare reform of the late 1990s. At the time, I wrote that “welfare reform” was a “catastrophic success,” because of its devastating impact on the people reform advocates claimed reform would help. [...]

Thomas Carlyle called economics “the dismal science.” Journalist A. J. Liebling called boxing “the sweet science.” To read the Internet lately you’d think they got the two professions mixed up. Economics is becoming a battle royale, a free-for-all. It’s a melee where everybody with a fist, glove or folding chair can jump out of the [...]

A critique of the impact on African Americans of using the chained CPI to limit the cost-of-living adjustment on Social Security benefits and my criticism of President Obama’s jobs proposals were among the highlights of a one-hour discussion Sunday led by Maya Rockeymoore, the host of We Act Radio’s “Pivot Point” and a leading progressive [...]

With Brendan Fischer In a victory for working families, New York is poised to become the largest U.S. city to require businesses offer paid days to workers. Community activists and labor leaders struck a deal with City Council Speaker Christine Quinn to allow a vote on a paid sick leave ordinance that would cover almost [...]

Jared Bernstein has posted some very important information that one can only hope both the White House and the Democrats are aware of and prepared to change direction because of. It shows that our runaway medical costs are actually slowing down and he posits that there’s good reason to believe that it’s permanent rather than transitory.

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 [...]

It’s finally here. After a long week of teasing and hint-dropping that kept much of Washington wondering, Paul Ryan has released a new budget. Now, that we can finally see what’s in Ryan’s budget, it’s a bit of a let down. Ryan trots out most of the same old ideas, some of which have actually [...]

-In his extraordinarily well-documented expose on the medical-industrial complex for Time magazine, “Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us,” Steven Brill explains thoroughly and repeatedly what serious pundits, policy experts and policymakers have failed to see or have feared to say: There is no free market in health care. Though Brill doesn’t say it, [...]

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.

It’s possible to feel sorry for Mitt Romney, as one human being to another. Apparently he really didn’t believe he could possibly lose and now he’s “shell-shocked.” Guess he didn’t listen to all the experts who said he was going to lose. Forget Nate Silver: Bob Dylan said Obama would win in a landslide. But [...]