Over at The Week, I make the argument that presidential scandal politics usually fail to lift the political prospects of the party outside the White House. No party has reaped a political reward from pushing scandal since Nixon, yet both parties have repeatedly tried. However, short of impeachment or electoral gains, opposition parties may be [...]
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It’s official. Minimum wage workers going on strike is no longer a mere trend. It’s a movement. Not that there was ever any doubt, after minimum wage workers in the fast food and retail sectors of major cities like New York City, Chicago, St.Louis, and Detroit walked off the job, demanding better wages and better [...]
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In the latest round of atrocities committed by conservatives, Republicans on the House Agriculture Committee sent to the House floor a farm bill on Wednesday that offers little food for families while dishing out corporate subsides. In protest, organizational leaders and activist met with elected officials on Capitol Hill to demonstrate opposition to cutting the [...]
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Deficit projections have already by $200 billion for this year alone, so why do Republicans keep lunging for ever-more radical spending cuts like they were corn dogs at a barbecue? That’s more in deficit reduction than President Obama’s proposed cut to Social Security would “save” in ten. So why hasn’t he withdrawn the proposal? It [...]
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A continuing seriesRead the full seriesTell your member of Congress Washington remains focused on a “deficit problem” when there is no deficit problem. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) the 2013 budget deficit will be down 60 percent as a share of gross domestic product from President Bush’s fiscal year 2009 deficit (from 10% [...]
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Apparently it never occurred to Attorney General Eric Holder that the Associated Press might be “too big to fail.” If it had,then his Justice Department probably never would have investigated it. The AP isn’t just any news agency. It’s the largest one in the United States and one of the three largest in the world, [...]
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You will be hearing a lot about the upcoming Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement. TPP’s negotiations are being held in secret with details kept secret even from our Congress. But giant corporations are in the loop. TPP is a “trade” agreement between several Pacific-rim countries that is actually about much more than just trade. It will [...]
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President Obama went to Austin, Texas, last week in pursuit of an industrial and employment revival. He wants to launch manufacturing institutes to foster American innovation and job creation. Republicans responded by ridiculing the President, in the same arrogant way that the blooded aristocrats on the British television series “Downton Abbey” scorned a chauffeur who [...]
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Do you think that student loan debt is only a problem for college students and perhaps their parents? Think again. The escalation of student loan debt in the past decade is a millstone around the neck of the entire economy, and you are touched by its effects. Especially if you or someone you know has [...]
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Rep. Henry Waxman should make a promise to his constituents, but he doesn’t want to. So, instead of promising that he’ll protect Social Security from President Obama’s proposed benefit cut, Waxman told one of his constituents the very idea of asking Representatives to make “pledges” is wrong. This notion that “pledges are bad” a new [...]
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