"Words that make actions speak louder."
The President could be on the brink of making a serious mistake, one with grave implications for his political future and even graver implications for aging Americans. If he responds to this election by adopting the Deficit Commission’s recommendation to cut Social Security, President Obama will be snatching catastrophe from the jaws of defeat. He’ll […]
Nancy Pelosi has just announced that she’s running for the position of House Minority Leader. As a San Franciscan, maybe she understood that turning her leadership role over to the Blue Dogs would have been like giving the Giants franchise to Oakland. She’s been the most effective Speaker in a generation and she’ll be equally […]
“The left,” writes former White House Budget Director Peter Orszag, “is stridently opposed to any serious discussion of Social Security reform.” What’s more, says Orszag, the same nebulous “left” is “adamantly opposed to restoring actuarial balance to Social Security now.” Here’s a suggestion, inspired perhaps by this weekend’s rally: Can’t we stop characterizing one another […]
Last night’s real winner wasn’t a party or an ideology. The real winner was Wall Street. Once again the wealthy and powerful have applied the Shock Doctrine to US politics, using a financial crisis to increase their power. The Democratic Party tried to accommodate the Wall Street crowd for two years and failed. Now Democrats […]
Yesterday the Deficit Commission used the New York Times as a messenger service to tell politicians – and you – exactly what they intend to do if the election goes as expected. It’s all laid out in black and white: They’ll cut benefits, increase the financial burden on the middle class, and make sure that […]
Perspective’s hard to come by in the heat of the moment, but it’s already clear that this week’s election is profoundly important. The forces of small-“d” democracy are up against a cabal of ultra-powerful financiers who, in an unending quest for greater wealth and power, have drawn upon the ugliest impulses and most corrupt political […]
The current debate over foreclosure fraud has been a revelation, even for those of us who have become familiar with the power of moneyed interests to influence the national dialog. Despite overwhelming evidence of widespread lawbreaking and deception, there’s still a popular point of view that says that fraudulent foreclosures are “just a technicality” and […]
Make no mistake: They’re not just trying to roll back Social Security. They’re trying to dismantle the entire New Deal, piece by piece. There are at least “310,000,000 Reasons to Vote,” one for each and every American citizen. But there’s also a 310,000,001th reason: To piss off Alan Simpson. That may not be the most […]
This morning’s interview with Sonali Kolhatkar for KPFK’s morning program, “Uprising,” was worthwhile for me because Sonali was asking exactly the right questions: Where exactly did the “fraud” take place – during the foreclosure process, as these mortgages were being bundled and sold, or when the loans were initially issued? The right answer in many […]
I get it. Believe me, I get it. Every day I talk to people – especially progressives – who are deeply disappointed with the leaders they worked so hard to elect. The litany of letdowns seems endless: Guantanamo. The public option. Don’t ask, don’t tell. Too big to fail. And, looming over all of it, […]