5 Enemies of a Decent Middle Class Existence in the US | Alternet

5 Enemies of a Decent Middle Class Existence in the US | Alternet
"Conservatives and the wealthy have taught too many Americans to hate their own govt, and not the parasite industries destroying the middle class."

Key Republican Admits Tax Cuts For Middle Class Would Pass In The House

Key Republican Admits Tax Cuts For Middle Class Would Pass In The House: Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), the first Republican to publicly call on House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) to allow a separate vote on a bill extending the Bush tax cuts for 98 percent of Americans, predicted on Sunday that such a measure could pass in the GOP-controlled House of Representatives. Cole’s admission come as Republicans are [...]/p

When Postmasters Attack

When Postmasters Attack
"Congress manufactured the current financial crisis with an accounting sleight-of-hand. USPS would be in the black if not for an extreme 2006 law that requires the agency to pre-fund retiree health benefits 75 years in advance, before some of these future retirees are even born. This means it owes a $5.5 billion payment to the Treasury every summer. This year it had to default.

The resulting USPS budget deficit has created an opportunity for privatization advocates to hack away."

Coburn: Medicare and Social Security 'Are Things We Don't Absolutely Need'

Coburn: Medicare and Social Security 'Are Things We Don't Absolutely Need'
"Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) is encouraging Democrats to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits because the programs are "things we don't absolutely need"."

Lawrence O’Donnell Confronts Gingrich: Asks Him To Apologize For Predicting Clinton Tax Increases Would Lead To Downturn

Lawrence O’Donnell Confronts Gingrich: Asks Him To Apologize For Predicting Clinton Tax Increases Would Lead To Downturn: Indeed, in 1993 when President Bill Clinton raised taxes on the top income earners, Gingrich and the Republicans argued that the hikes would result in economic decline and result in huge deficits. They were proven wrong. The country experienced the “longest period of economic growth in U.S. history, increased business investment, 23 million jobs added, and, of course, budget surpluses.” The same boom did not materialize after President George W. Bush enacted his tax cuts; the country experienced large deficits and the weakest job and income growth in the post-war era.

Republican Senator: GOP Should Hold Debt Ceiling Hostage As Leverage For Medicare Cuts

Republican Senator: GOP Should Hold Debt Ceiling Hostage As Leverage For Medicare Cuts: On Sunday, Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) conceded that Democrats have won the debate on raising taxes on the richest Americans and said that he would likely vote to increase rates on the top 2 percent of Americans in order to shift the debate to cutting entitlement programs and improve the GOP’s leverage in the debate [...]/p

GOP Congressman Won’t Extend Middle Class Tax Cuts To Avoid Giving ‘Control’ To Democrats

GOP Congressman Won’t Extend Middle Class Tax Cuts To Avoid Giving ‘Control’ To Democrats: Earlier this week, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) sought to overcome the GOP’s resistance to voting on a Senate-passed measure that would extend Bush-era tax cuts to middle class Americans by introducing a discharge petition that, if signed by 218 members, could force the House to take-up the measure. Some Republicans, weary of the [...]/p

Five Job-Destroying CEOs Trying to “Fix” the Debt by Slashing Corporate Taxes and Cutting Social Security Benefits | Alternet

Five Job-Destroying CEOs Trying to “Fix” the Debt by Slashing Corporate Taxes and Cutting Social Security Benefits | Alternet
"nd it might be a good line — if not for some pesky real-world facts. You see the same corporations peddling this line have already been paying next to nothing in taxes. And instead of creating jobs, they’ve been destroying them. Here are five examples of job-cutting, tax-dodging CEOs who are leading Fix the Debt."

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder Has Presented Himself As The Reasonable, Moderate Type. Signing A Right-to-Work Law Brings That To An End. | The New Republic

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder Has Presented Himself As The Reasonable, Moderate Type. Signing A Right-to-Work Law Brings That To An End. | The New Republic
"With a referendum foreclosed, the only way for Michigan to leave its new right-to-work brethren like Mississippi, Alabama and South Carolina will be for voters to toss out Snyder and the legislature’s Republican majorities in 2014 and elect Democrats who’ll repeal the law. But that will require Democratic voters to make a better showing than their anemic 2010 one**. It’s well and good for Barack Obama to have once again carried Mitt Romney’s home state this fall, but it did nothing to keep this step, a legacy of the 2010 wipe-out, from moving forward. Michigan, birthplace of the UAW and home of the greatest piece of pro-worker art in the country, is about to become right-to-work. Midterms matter."

Cliffs Notes: On the Edge and Over a Barrel | Common Dreams

Cliffs Notes: On the Edge and Over a Barrel | Common Dreams
"Even worse, in all likelihood the fiscal cliff is merely a pretext for further eroding the already-tenuous social safety net in America; it’s a veritable Trojan horse for a good old-fashioned dose of austerity-oriented shock therapy intended to remind us all to keep our place lest we get busted down a notch further on the socioeconomic ladder. It’s a potentially ruinous precipice, we’re told, so you’d better pay close attention if you want your trickle of water to continue coming down the cliff face…

Or at least pay close enough attention so that you won’t ask too many hard questions about the genuine cliffs you should be worried about. You know, minor stuff like the erosion of free will and the continued existence of the species. Here’s but a small sample of the non-trivial cliffs dead ahead:"

Fox News Celebrates Michigan Union Busting as 'Victory for Capitalism!'

Fox News Celebrates Michigan Union Busting as 'Victory for Capitalism!'
"Hundreds of protesters turned out on Thursday, briefly shutting down the Michigan state Capitol Building and causing State Police to use pepper spray and arrest several demonstrators. But lawmakers jammed through the legislation and Gov. Rick Snyder has promised to sign the bill after final passage, which is expected before the Republican majority is reduced from a 64-46 margin to a 59-51 margin in January."

How Out-of-Control Finance Led to the Housing Crisis (and What to do About It) Bottom Line Series: Housing

One Party Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest

What are the consequences for America when one of its political parties has gone totally insane?

GOP, Koch Brothers Sneak Attack Guts Labor Rights in Michigan | Common Dreams

GOP, Koch Brothers Sneak Attack Guts Labor Rights in Michigan | Common Dreams
"In the state where workers sat down in Flint General Motors plants seventy-five years ago and emboldened the industrial labor movement that would give birth to the American middle class, Republican legislators on Thursday voted to gut basic labor rights."

What You Need To Know About The Michigan GOP’s ‘Right-To-Work’ Assault On Workers

What You Need To Know About The Michigan GOP’s ‘Right-To-Work’ Assault On Workers: On Thursday, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) backtracked on his commitment to avoid so-called “right-to-work” legislation and by the end of the day, both the Michigan House of Representatives and the Michigan state Senate had introduced and passed separate bills aimed at the state’s union workforce. Michigan Republicans claim the state needs the measure to [...]/p

Paul Ryan Responds To Election Defeat By Swinging Even Further To The Right

Paul Ryan Responds To Election Defeat By Swinging Even Further To The Right: Rather than moderating his positions after November’s election, he has returned to an earlier, hard-line version of his controversial fiscal plan, including turning the guaranteed benefits of programs like Medicare and Medicaid into limited government checks, and even revisiting big changes to Social Security.

Four Corporate Power-Grabs That Got the Thumbs Up from Federal Courts | Alternet

Four Corporate Power-Grabs That Got the Thumbs Up from Federal Courts | Alternet
"Court-awarded corporate power is growing beyond the world of campaigns and elections, often at the expense of individual rights and Americans' ability to bring businesses to court."

Groundswell Of Opposition To Wisconsin Gov. Walker’s Voter Suppression Proposal Grows

Groundswell Of Opposition To Wisconsin Gov. Walker’s Voter Suppression Proposal Grows: Since Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) announced last month that eliminating the ability of residents to register on Election Day would be a top priority for his administration next year, opposition to the plan has sprung up across the state. Immediately after Walker made public his desire to scrap Election Day Registration, which has been [...]/p

Report: Spending Cuts Will Hurt Economic Growth, Revenue Increases Won’t

Report: Spending Cuts Will Hurt Economic Growth, Revenue Increases Won’t: As Congress brings the United States closer to the brink of the so-called “fiscal cliff,” the package of automatic spending cuts and tax increases that will take effect at the end of the year, yet another report has found that the spending cuts pose a major threat to economic growth, while small revenue increases won’t. [...]/p

Koch-Funded ALEC and Americans For Prosperity Launch Assault on Michigan Unions | Alternet

Koch-Funded ALEC and Americans For Prosperity Launch Assault on Michigan Unions | Alternet
"At a time when working families are struggling, the Michigan GOP decided it was a fine time to push for a race to the bottom in wages and working conditions, while at the same time kneecapping their chief opponents in the political arena -- organized workers."

Revealed: Wall Street Journal More Interested in Caviar and Foie Gras Than Employee-owned Firms | Alternet

Revealed: Wall Street Journal More Interested in Caviar and Foie Gras Than Employee-owned Firms | Alternet
"A vast democratized "new economy" is slowly emerging throughout the United States. The general public, however, knows almost nothing about it because the American press simply does not cover the developing institutions and strategies."

Michigan Takes Up War On Unions

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PERRspectives: 10 Things Republicans Don't Want You to Know About the Fiscal Cliff

PERRspectives: 10 Things Republicans Don't Want You to Know About the Fiscal Cliff
"Boehner's counter-offer isn't merely devoid of specifics when it comes to his proposed spending cuts and revenue-raising loophole closing. Like Mitt Romney before him, Speaker Boehner's mathdoesn't--and cannot--work. More pathetic still, it is the GOP which is trying to dupe the American people by continuing to peddle its long-debunked myths about taxes and the debt."

Middle-class taxes for Christmas! Love, the GOP

An Economy That Works for the Middle Class Won’t Happen on Its Own | Common Dreams

An Economy That Works for the Middle Class Won’t Happen on Its Own | Common Dreams
"A vital goal of economic policy should be to raise the living standards of the millions of American households who have seen their wages and living standards stagnate or decline over the last few decades. Fundamental to this is an economy that produces good, well-paying jobs. The biggest obstacle to this, currently, is the jobs crisis driven by a shortfall in aggregate demand. Additional factors though, written into our current policies, mean that even when the economy does recover, there is no reason to believe that the jobs it produces will actually be well-paying jobs."

How The Financial Sector Sucks $635 Billion Every Year From The Real Economy

How The Financial Sector Sucks $635 Billion Every Year From The Real Economy: Before the Great Recession, the financial sector had consistently been eating up a greater and greater share of the economy. In 2007, it accounted for a whopping 40 percent of corporate profits. Before 1950, the financial sector made up less than 3 percent of GDP; now it makes up more than 8 percent. According to [...]/p

How Amazon Used Foreign Tax Havens To Avoid $700 Million In American Taxes

How Amazon Used Foreign Tax Havens To Avoid $700 Million In American Taxes: Online retailer Amazon has been a recent target of lawmakers who want to force it and other retailers to stop taking advantage of a tax loophole that exempts them from the collection of state sales taxes in states where they do not have headquarters or distribution facilities. While Amazon has fought those efforts, the online [...]/p

Bayou Frack-Out: The Massive Oil and Gas Disaster You've Never Heard Of

Bayou Frack-Out: The Massive Oil and Gas Disaster You've Never Heard Of
"For residents in Assumption Parish, the boiling, gas-belching bayou, with its expanding toxic sinkhole and quaking earth is no longer a mystery; but there is little comfort in knowing the source of the little-known event that has forced them out of their homes."

Michigan Gov. Calls For Passage Of Anti-Union ‘Right-To-Work’ Law He Claimed Wasn’t On His Agenda

Michigan Gov. Calls For Passage Of Anti-Union ‘Right-To-Work’ Law He Claimed Wasn’t On His Agenda: After insisting all last year that an anti-labor “right-to-work” law was not on his agenda, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) has changed his mind. This morning, he called on the state legislature to introduce and pass so-called “right-to-work” legislation and promised to sign it should it reach his desk. Snyder was among the Midwestern Republican [...]/p

How To Make Money Off the U.S. Debt (If Your Name Is Simpson or Bowles) - In These Times

How To Make Money Off the U.S. Debt (If Your Name Is Simpson or Bowles) - In These Times
"For $40,000, the failed commission leaders will tell you we should funnel middle-class retirement funds to rich CEOs"

Senator Bernie Sanders Speaks Out For The Elderly And Working Americans

National Press Club

GOP Congressman Prescribes 'More Pain for More Individuals'

GOP Congressman Prescribes 'More Pain for More Individuals'
"My goodness, Republicans sure do have a fixation on inflicting pain -- on everyone except the wealthy, that is. That's why they're fighting so hard to protect the one percent, without any regard as to how their policies will harm the rest of us. They don't even care if it helps the economy; they just want to be the hand cracking that whip:"

Wall Street Bank Cuts 11,000 Jobs After Paying Ousted Executives $14 Million

Wall Street Bank Cuts 11,000 Jobs After Paying Ousted Executives $14 Million: Citigroup announced on Wednesday that it will cut 11,000 jobs, or 4 percent of its workforce, in an effort to trim expenses. The moves comes one month after Citigroup paid out nearly $14 million to two former executives, CEO Vikram Pandit and Chief Operating Officer John Havens, who were ousted for poor management. The Citigroup [...]/p

Wow...The middle class isn't going down without a fight

Have you noticed the large number of CEOs going on TV to give their opinions on how to fix the debt? We've heard from Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein who suggested raising the retirement age for Social Security and Medicare. We also heard from AETNA CEO Mark Bertolini who also argued for raising the retirement age and means-testing Social Security and Medicare benefits. In fact 71 CEOs have joined together as part of a "Fix the Debt" coalition to call for cuts to social safety net programs, instead of higher taxes on rich people like themselves. And, as the Institute for Policy Studies discovered, there's good reason why these CEOs want to target social safety nets like Social Security...it's because they don't need them. They're all sitting on massive retirement assets, averaging over $9 million each. Lloyd Blankfein himself has nearly $12 million in retirement assets. It's easy to call for cuts to Social Security when you know you won't need it. Well, in Washington, DC this morning - this "Fix the Debt" coalition invited Republican Senator Rob Portman for a panel discussion on how the debt can be fixed on the backs of the working class without rich CEOs sacrificing a single penny. Unfortunately for all those CEOs - today's panel didn't go according to plan - just watch the middle class fight back!

Moms Urge Congress Not to Throw Families Over the Fiscal Cliff | Alternet

Moms Urge Congress Not to Throw Families Over the Fiscal Cliff | Alternet
"Today, as members of Congress negotiate a budget to address the so-called fiscal cliff, families are taking a stand. Women, mothers, and their families are descending on Capitol Hill to deliver teddy bears, petition signatures and personal stories to lawmakers to send the message that moms and kids can’t “bear” more than their fair share.

Wealthy CEOs have joined together in the much-maligned "Campaign to Fix the Debt." to argue for lower taxes on the rich and cuts to the social safety net, but they are being met by a counter-force of ordinary women trying to work and raise families."

Being Spectacularly Wrong About the Election Won't Be Enough to Pop the Republican Bubble | Alternet

Being Spectacularly Wrong About the Election Won't Be Enough to Pop the Republican Bubble | Alternet
'Rather than one all-encompassing "bubble" that hermetically seals the Republicans inside their media universe there's no shortage of other equally important "bubbles" that serve corporate power. These bubbles often overlap in influence and personnel and still possess the awe-inspiring ability to persuade public opinion on the problems of greatest magnitude facing the United States today."

GOP Offers to Throw Middle Class, Elderly Over the “Fiscal Cliff” | Common Dreams

GOP Offers to Throw Middle Class, Elderly Over the “Fiscal Cliff” | Common Dreams
"The Republican Party has a message for the American people: Meet the new deal, same as the old deal. The GOP “counter-offer” to the President’s fiscal-cliff proposal isn’t really an offer at all: It’s a rehash of the tired and extremist right-wing economic warfare which the American people soundly rejected last month."

How An Obamacare Provision Has Saved Americans $1.5 Billion On Their Health Benefits

How An Obamacare Provision Has Saved Americans $1.5 Billion On Their Health Benefits: A new report from the Commonwealth Foundation finds that Obamacare’s “medical loss ratio” provision — the so-called “80/20 rule” requiring insurers to spend at least 80 percent of every Americans’ premium costs on patient care, rather than on their own profits or overhead — has resulted in a total of $1.5 billion overhead savings and [...]/p

The Recession's Toll: How Middle Class Wealth Collapsed to a 40-Year Low - The Atlantic

The Recession's Toll: How Middle Class Wealth Collapsed to a 40-Year Low - The Atlantic
"I'm about to share a statistic that you should remember every time you think about the Great Recession, and why the recovery has been so painstaking. It's going to illustrate precisely how devastating the downturn was for your typical American family, and the size of the hole we've been trying to dig ourselves out of.

Ready? Here goes: Between 2007 and 2010, the median net worth of U.S. households fell by 47 percent, reaching its lowest level in more than forty years, adjusted for inflation. In other words, middle class wealth virtually evaporated in this country. A good chunk of the population got sucked through a financial wormhole back to the sixties."

Wall Street, Coming to Your Town! (and Destroying It) | Alternet

Wall Street, Coming to Your Town! (and Destroying It) | Alternet
"Yet a closer look reveals that the future is already here. American austerity has largely taken the form of municipal budget crises precipitated by predatory Wall Street lending practices. The debt financing of U.S. cities and towns, a neoliberal economic model that long precedes the current recession, has inflicted deep and growing suffering on communities across the country."

Blue State Taxpayers Will Pick Up the Tab to Avert Fiscal Cliff

Blue State Taxpayers Will Pick Up the Tab to Avert Fiscal Cliff
"Of course, this dynamic of "red state socialism" by which federal tax dollars generally flow from wealthier Democratic states to less well-off Republican ones is nothing new. Red state spending on education, unemployment insurance and (more than ever) health care has been and will continue to be underwritten by blue state taxpayers."

Fox And Friends: Pensioners Are 'Takers' Sending States Into 'Death Spiral'

Fox And Friends: Pensioners Are 'Takers' Sending States Into 'Death Spiral'
"But rather than even mention improvements to raising revenues, the Fox News has been depicting retirees and public-sector workers as chateaubriand-craving and thankless moochers. Old-age welfare queens, if you will, sucking at the teat of the public trough. I guess police, firefighters, teachers, librarians and road crews should just work until they drop – and thank the “makers” for making it all possible."

What The Economy Needs Right Now Is Stimulus

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Obamacare Has Saved Seniors $5 Billion On Prescription Drugs

Obamacare Has Saved Seniors $5 Billion On Prescription Drugs: Despite the fact that the cost of brand name drugs has skyrocketed over the past few years, one Obamacare provision is helping seniors on Medicare save billions on their prescription drug costs. Over the summer, data from the Centers for Medicare And Medicaid Services (CMS) showed that the Affordable Care Act had already saved 5.2 [...]/p

Employees at Billion Dollar Companies Fight for a Living Wage

Employees at Billion Dollar Companies Fight for a Living Wage
"One in four workers in the United States is employed in a low-wage job. That includes many people in the food service industry, retail employees, janitors, hotel workers, agricultural laborers, and many others who make the U.S. economy tick; notably, many of these workers are also women and people of color, and the workers’ educational level tends to be lower than that of the general population. While this underclass labors, large companies like their employers profit, often immensely so. Growth is up for firms like Walmart, despite economic problems, indicating that their business strategy is effective."

New Republican State Senate Leader Wants To Politicize Wisconsin’s Elections

New Republican State Senate Leader Wants To Politicize Wisconsin’s Elections: Though Wisconsin’s non-partisan Government Accountability Board has been called “a model for nonpartisan election administration,” a key Wisconsin Republican legislator wants to scrap it and allow partisan political appointees to oversee the state’s elections. Sen. Scott Fitzgerald (R), who will soon regain his former position as majority leader of the Wisconsin Senate (as his party [...]/p

How the Saudis Secretly Funded the GOP Election

It's bad enough that American big oil companies have so much influence on our political system - but now - foreign oil is invading our democracy too. Who's really bankrolling America's largest oil lobbying group and how are they able to do it?

House Democrats file discharge petition on middle class tax cuts

House Democrats file discharge petition on middle class tax cuts
"She said she was going to do it and now it's done. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi threatened to file a discharge petition to bring the middle class tax cuts bill the Senate passed back in July to the House floor, and today Rep. Tim Walz filed the petition on behalf of House Democrats."

Ohio Senator Confronted By Constituents Over Support For Medicare And Social Security Cuts

Ohio Senator Confronted By Constituents Over Support For Medicare And Social Security Cuts: Ohio Senator Rob Portman (R) was one of a handful of Washington, D.C lawmakers and policy experts invited to participate in a panel discussion on the fiscal cliff on Tuesday morning, but his prepared remarks were temporarily derailed by about a dozen protestors who stood up, one at a time, to confront Portman over his [...]/p

These Four Republicans Want You To Believe Boehner’s Fiscal Showdown Proposal Is A Compromise

These Four Republicans Want You To Believe Boehner’s Fiscal Showdown Proposal Is A Compromise: Rep. John Boehner’s (R-OH) proposal to avert the so-called ‘fiscal cliff’ is far from moderate: He refuses to consider taxing millionaires, he wants to raise the payroll tax, and his plan to raise revenue is similar to the detail-free ideas of former presidential candidate Mitt Romney. On top of all that, the namesake of his [...]/p

Hostess CEO Cuts Worker Pay, But Leaves Own Salary Untouched

Hostess CEO Cuts Worker Pay, But Leaves Own Salary Untouched: After failed Twinkies-maker Hostess filed for bankruptcy in November, acting chief executive Gregory Rayburn imposed an 8 percent across-the-board pay cut on the company’s workers. Despite those cuts, Rayburn, who took the company over after its second bankruptcy filing in March, will not be subject to the pay cut because he is not technically a [...]/p

Top GOP Rep Wants ‘More Pain’ For Middle Class, While Preserving Tax Cuts For The Rich

Top GOP Rep Wants ‘More Pain’ For Middle Class, While Preserving Tax Cuts For The Rich: Throughout the fiscal cliff negotiations Republicans have insisted on preserving tax cuts for the richest 2 percent of Americans, but have dogmatically opposed maintaing a payroll tax holiday that disproportionately benefits the middle class. Payroll taxes fall harder on those lower down the income ladder and economists believe that allowing 2011′s 2-percent decrease to expire [...]/p

After Promising To Preserve Medicare For Current Retirees, GOP Demands Immediate Cuts In Fiscal Cliff Talks

After Promising To Preserve Medicare For Current Retirees, GOP Demands Immediate Cuts In Fiscal Cliff Talks: Throughout the election, Republicans tried to sell Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) Medicare reforms by arguing that the party’s proposed changes would not affect current seniors. “Our point is we need to preserve their benefits, because government made promises to them that they’ve organized their retirements around,” Ryan argued in his first interview after being named [...]/p

Paid sick leave a wise investment | Economic Policy Institute

Paid sick leave a wise investment | Economic Policy Institute
"The ability to earn paid sick days allows workers to avoid the choice of going to work sick or going without pay — and maybe even losing a job.

Employers, workers, and the public would all benefit from such a standard. The many employers that already provide paid sick leave would have a level playing field with their competitors, and all would more easily maintain a healthy workplace."

Watch: Teacher Infiltrates ALEC Education Meeting, Confronts Members | Alternet

Watch: Teacher Infiltrates ALEC Education Meeting, Confronts Members | Alternet
"Education activist Sabrina Joy Stevens, a former teacher in the Denver school system, tells right-wing, would-be policymakers how their agenda is destructive to education."

GOP: Obama is overplaying his hand by demanding middle-class tax cuts

GOP: Obama is overplaying his hand by demanding middle-class tax cuts
"The president's message is that those tax cuts need to get passed immediately—whether or not there are other issues left to resolve. Republicans are responding to that message by holding the tax cuts hostage. They may think that they are flexing their muscles and showing their leverage, but what they are really doing is making sure that if taxes go up at the start of the new year, they are the ones who will get blamed. They'll be the party holding tax cuts for everybody (including the wealthy) hostage—and they'll be doing it to get tax cuts that only go to the wealthy. That would be a political disaster for the GOP. The only question is whether they realize it before or after it happens."

Meet Gubernatorial Candidate Ken Cuccinelli, Virginia’s Todd Akin

Meet Gubernatorial Candidate Ken Cuccinelli, Virginia’s Todd Akin: Virginia’s Republican Party appears poised to nominate state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to be its candidate for governor in 2013 — embracing a man whose extreme political views bear striking resemblance to those of unsuccessful 2012 Senate candidate Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO). With his fervent anti-science, anti-choice, and anti-LGBT, anti-federal government activism, Akin’s extreme positions [...]/p

Five Facts About America's Pathological Wealth Distribution | Common Dreams

Five Facts About America's Pathological Wealth Distribution | Common Dreams
"Most people associate inequality with the income gap. As distorted as the distribution of income may be, our wealth distribution is even more extreme. Americans are beginning to realize that years of preferential tax treatment for the rich, under the guise of "supply-side job creation" nonsense, have bloated the fortunes of the super-rich to a level that would make Rockefeller and Carnegie envious."

Corporate Profits Hit Record High While Worker Wages Hit Record Low

Corporate Profits Hit Record High While Worker Wages Hit Record Low: A constant conservative charge against President Obama is that he is inherently anti-business. However, businesses keep defying the storyline by making larger and larger profits, rebounding nicely out of the Great Recession. In the third quarter of this year, “corporate earnings were $1.75 trillion, up 18.6% from a year ago.” Corporations are currently making more [...]/p

PERRspectives: GOP Obstructionism Becomes Treason on Debt Ceiling

PERRspectives: GOP Obstructionism Becomes Treason on Debt Ceiling
"But when the Republican Party threatens--for the second time in a year-- to sabotage the U.S. economy if its debt ceiling demands are not met, the media instead calls that treason a "debate"."

Financial Firms Have Been Hollowing Out America for Decades -- Now We're on the Verge of a Debtpocalypse | Alternet

Financial Firms Have Been Hollowing Out America for Decades -- Now We're on the Verge of a Debtpocalypse | Alternet
"40 years of austerity politics have hollowed out the heartland, as financial wizards of Wall Street gobbled up ever more of the nation's resources."

5 Companies That Treat Their Customers Like Crap | Alternet

5 Companies That Treat Their Customers Like Crap | Alternet
"We should all steer clear of anti-consumer companies like Ticketmaster and Delta Airlines."

The GOP's Big Budget Mumble | Common Dreams

The GOP's Big Budget Mumble | Common Dreams
"In the ongoing battle of the budget, President Obama has done something very cruel. Declaring that this time he won’t negotiate with himself, he has refused to lay out a proposal reflecting what he thinks Republicans want. Instead, he has demanded that Republicans themselves say, explicitly, what they want. And guess what: They can’t or won’t do it."

No, raising the Social Security retirement age is not a good idea

No, raising the Social Security retirement age is not a good idea
"Social Security provides the majority of income for three-fifths of Americans over age 65; what's more, "for the poorest 40 percent of 65-and-older households, Social Security payouts constitute more than four-fifths of total income." The average monthly benefit is $1,230. That's $14,760 a year. If you begin collecting Social Security before your "full retirement age" of 66 or 67, your monthly benefits are reduced. Yet many Americans are faced with the choice of benefits reduced below that average of $1,230 a month or continuing to work in pain or in circumstances that threaten their health.

Many people who work behind desks and think raising the Social Security eligibility age would be a reasonable solution to the crisis they're told exists in the program are just suffering from a lack of imagination. But too many policymakers and wealthy CEOs and pundits know all this and still push an increase in the retirement age as a "sensible, fair" policy solution."

Walmart Relentless as Thousands Set to Lose Out in New Health Care Policy | Common Dreams

Walmart Relentless as Thousands Set to Lose Out in New Health Care Policy | Common Dreams
"Walmart will continue to disappoint workers and labor rights activists in the coming months as it continues to ignore the current widespread workers' strike and protest movement against its labor policies and implements a new health insurance program that will deny healthcare coverage to employees who work fewer than 30 hours a week, according to a copy of the company’s policy obtained by The Huffington Post."

Dominance: The New Democratic Voting Base Is an Electoral Steamroller | Alternet

Dominance: The New Democratic Voting Base Is an Electoral Steamroller | Alternet
"Republicans will have a permanent disadvantage in presidential elections. That’s not unusual in American elections; Democrats right now appear to have a systematic disadvantage in both House and Senate elections due to how voters happen to be spread out – so, in a sense, a real Democratic advantage for the presidency only evens things out a bit.

It would, however, be a real change in how presidential elections have been fought for at least the last several decades. Republicans would be, in effect, starting every cycle two points behind. If it’s true – and I’m sure before long we’ll have reports from political scientists who have investigated each of the possibilities I suggested – then it’s a pretty big deal."

Argument for Ending The Debt Ceiling

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Introducing the 133th 'do less than nothing' Congress

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8 Reasons Wall Street Greed Is the Cause, and the Solution, To Phony Fiscal Cliff Crisis | Alternet

8 Reasons Wall Street Greed Is the Cause, and the Solution, To Phony Fiscal Cliff Crisis | Alternet
"Wall Street, which caused the economic crash that drove up the debt and gave politicians an excuse for this fiscal cliff debacle, is once again getting a free pass. Given Wall Street's greed, this should be a national disgrace. There is no debt crisis. Rather there is a crisis in courage -- no one has the guts to make Wall Street pay for the damage it has done."

How One GOP Plutocrat Helped Make 20,000 Kids Homeless | Alternet

How One GOP Plutocrat Helped Make 20,000 Kids Homeless | Alternet
"There are   20,000 kids  sleeping in homeless shelters in New York City, according to the city's latest estimate, a number that does not include homeless kids who are  not sleeping in shelters because their families have been turned away. Up to 65 percent of families who apply for  shelter don't get in , and their options can be grim."