What kind of society abandons its own young? What kind of society allows the generations in power to favor themselves over those who follow them, and then lets them claim they’re doing it out of selflessness? Look around you. This weekend we reviewed nine ways an extreme-right right social agenda has harmed the millennial generation. [...]
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A new CNN/ORC International poll released today reveals that Democrats may be in trouble during the 2014 midterm elections. Amid political controversies, an anemic economy and high unemployment, President Obama’s approval rating dropped eight percentage points in a single month. Standing now at only 45 percent, this is the president’s lowest approval rating in more [...]
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Texas Governor Rick Perry is on a “job-poaching” trip to New York. Let’s say he “attracts” some businesses to move to his low-wage, low-tax state. That means good-paying jobs in one part of our country become low-paying jobs in another and business taxes that supported good schools in one part of our country don’t support [...]
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You would think that this poll showing "Americans' confidence in Congress is not only at its lowest point on record, but also is the worst Gallup has ever found for any institution it has measured since 1973" would be so embarrassing to those on Capital Hill that they would take immediate steps to change the situation.
You would be especially justified in thinking that it would change congressional behavior on the federal budget. Although the poll doesn't say it, there's no doubt in my mind that the constant and highly publicized "I'm-gonna-hold-my-breath-till-I'm-blue-in-the-face" fights over the deficit, debt ceiling, and annual budget resolution haves been the biggest factors in this totally failing grade for the House and Senate.
But it won't. Particularly when it comes to the budget it's not likely to change congressional behavior at all.
There are two reasons.
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Let's place private corporations with government contracts under surveillance — to make sure no one is getting rich off our tax dollars.
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To Whom It May Concern at the White House: I have three little words for you: Pay Your Interns. It is unconscionable for the White House — as for so many other “public” sector organizations — to engage in a practice that structurally reinforces privilege, closing off access to careers along the corridors of power [...]
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Conservatives keep claiming liberals want a “cradle-to-grave nanny state.” That rhetoric has distracted us from the real social re-engineering taking place all around us. The right, along with its “centrist” collaborators, is transforming our nation into a bloodless and soulless Randian State. Their decades-long assault on our core social values is on the verge of [...]
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Congress Turns Its Back on Rural America (via Moyers & Company) For fifteen years in Neodesha, Kansas (population 2,486) there were only two options for early childhood education services in town: a program for at-risk 4-year-olds operated by the school district, and a Head Start Center for children ages 0 through 5 run by the [...]
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