"Words that make actions speak louder."
Peace activists and progressives are the only people that I’ve heard connect war spending in Afghanistan and Pakistan with our financial security at home – until now, that is. Yesterday House Minority Leader made the connection explicit, telling reporters and editors for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that we need to cut Social Security benefits to pay […]
The real deficit is jobs. That is one more of those things that everyone can see in front of their faces, but we’re told it isn’t what it is. There aren’t enough jobs, and we’re being told this is our fault because we wanted pensions and good wages and vacations and respect and dignity and […]
Republican House leader John Boehner laid out the Republcan world view in an interview with a friendly reporter at the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. Boehner defended the big banks from reform, arguing that the finanical reform bill was like “killing an ant with a nuclear weapon.” His comments came as Republican Senators Scott Brown and Susan […]
Brad Johnson at The Wonk Room calls out the “Climate Peacocks” in Congress who are ostentatiously shaking their tailfeathers in mock outrage over the very idea that the Environmental Protection Agency might actually act as agents of environmental protection: Earlier this month, 47 senators — every Republican and six Democrats — voted for Sen. Lisa […]
After much hype and buildup, the AmericaSpeaks “national town meeting” on cutting the deficit was held on Saturday. I watched the proceedings via webcast for much of the morning, knowing that Digby was liveblogging it and David Dayen was on the scene here in Southern California, so that I could take part in a radio […]
10 years ago, Sen. Robert Byrd blocked a move to end the use of coal at the Capitol Hill Power Plant. Just this month, he voted in support of the EPA”s authority to regulate greenhouse gases. The evolution in his environmental views is another example of Sen. Byrd’s “courage to change over time.” It was […]
I was on Hannah-Beth Jackson’s radio show this Saturday discussing two topics: Social Security and the “AmericaSpeaks” events, and the financial reform bill. Here’s Part I of the discussion, on Social Security. I’ll get the financial reform piece up as soon as I have time to clean up the audio. Download Hannah Beth 0626 SS […]
I’m a big Dylan Ratigan fan, and I’m glad we have his voice on the airwaves. That’s why it was unexpected to find myself presented as the voice of accommodation in contrast to his angrier tone, when The Huffington Post placed his post on the financial reform bill back to back with mine on Friday. […]
On Saturday, the group known as America Speaks (funded by Wall Street mogul Peter G. Peterson and two other foundations) brought together several thousand people in meetings in 60 cities. They gave participants misleading background information about the Federal deficit and economic options to achieve fiscal “balance” and future prosperity. But Peterson cannot be pleased […]
Progressives in the U.S. Senate have introduced a potent package of estate tax reforms that would, if enacted, start seriously trimming America’s most super-sized hoards of private wealth. Back a hundred summers ago in 1910, former President Theodore Roosevelt — a Republican — called for “a graduated inheritance tax on big fortunes,” a new tax […]