Wall Street Tames Washington - The forces of big business needed only to lay out some campaign cash -- and quicker than you can say, "Business as usual," the budding [tea party] lawmakers snatched up the money and immediately began carrying the lobbyists' corporate agenda.
Is Obama a Republican? - Barack Obama is, historically speaking, a moderate Republican. On three big issues Obama has championed approaches that Republicans themselves supported only a couple of decades ago.
The government the polluters paid for - How are you celebrating Chernobyl Day? The folks in Texas City, Texas are celebrating by staying indoors and sealing their windows and door with duct tape. It's called "shelter in place" and it"s not really a Chernobyl Day commemoration, it"s the citizens only defense against noxious fumes emanating from three refineries and a vinyl acetate facility that have experienced a power loss.
Backdoor Bailouts: Banks Play Shell Game with Taxpayer Dollars - The Federal Reserve propped up banks with big infusions of cash during the depths of the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009. Banks that took billions of dollars from the Fed then turned around and loaned money back to the federal government. It was a sweet deal for the bankers.
Where are the cameras at this year's town meetings? - Two years ago, Tea Party members [were] out to congressional town hall meetings to shout down any resasonable discusson on health reform. The media were all over it. This year, Progressives are coming out in force to confront Republican members of Congress about budget cuts, Medicare "reform" and the attempts to repeal, defund or otherwise cripple reform. Where's the media?
The Corporate State Wins Again - When did our democracy die? When did it irrevocably transform itself into a lifeless farce and absurd political theater? When did the press, labor, universities and the Democratic Party wither and atrophy?
The Right-Wing Network Behind the War on Unions - Inspired by Ronald Reagan and funded by the right's richest donors, a web of free-market think tanks has fueled the nationwide attack on workers' rights.
The Republican Truth Deficit on the Debt Ceiling - 235 House Republicans voted for Paul Ryan's 2012 budget which would add $6 trillion in new debt over the next decade. All of which means the U.S. will repeatedly have to increase the debt ceiling for years to come.
Republican Economic Terrorism - The current GOP campaign of budgetary hostage-taking over the U.S. debt ceiling is tantamount to economic terrorism. After all, Republicans are threatening financial ruin for the United States and the global economy if their demands for draconian budget cuts are not met.
Talking Revolution: The New Elderly Generation can Provide the Spark for an American Rising - I've arrived. I'm a "senior." And now I'm paying a lot more attention to what the Right and its paymaster, the corporate lobby, are trying to do, not just to my retirement plan (which is Social Security. period), but also to Medicare, the program upon which my medical care will depend once my wife decides to retire from her university job.
Despite Myths, New Jersey's 'Millionaire's Tax' Didn't Force Mass Migration Of The Rich - Conservatives [argued] that such a tax would stymie job growth and force millionaires to flee to other states with friendlier tax policies. But a new study instituted in 2004 had a negligible effect on its millionaire population. In fact, New Jersey's millionaire population actually grew.
Central Florida Unions To Pull Funds From Banks Supporting Anti-Worker Agenda - Unions representing Central Florida teachers, firefighters, police and other government workers are pulling an estimated $10 million from five banks affiliated with the Florida Chamber of Commerce, blaming them for an attack on public employees.
Killer Combo of High Gas, Food Prices at Key Tipping Point - Rising gasoline prices, coupled with the steepest increase in food prices in a generation, is threatening to push the US economy into a recession, according to findings from a research firm.
Rep. Issa's Friend And Funder Is Invited Back To Testify - One of the witnesses invited to testify was none other than Issa funder Tom Nassif, the CEO of the Western Growers Association. Nassif, who has donated over $20,000 to Issa's campaigns and is an admitted "personal friend" of Issa's, has now had his voice heard before Congress for the second time in a little over two months.
Gas price culpability - Saudi Arabia announced it is cutting back production because the market is "oversupplied". But wait, what? According to the Republicans in Congress, the only way we can lower gas prices is to increase supply.
On Debt Ceiling, GOP Causing Economic Uncertainty It Once Decried - Do you remember economic uncertainty? The GOP spent most of the 2010 campaign season issuing dark warnings about the terrible consequences of economic uncertainty. Uncertainty was the great peril stalking the U.S. economy, and the Republicans would not stand for it. That was then; this is now.
David Barton Refuses To Debate His Bogus History - One of the things that has allowed David Barton to so successfully peddle his pseudo-history for so long is that he tends only to appear in friendly venues where the hosts and audience eat up his bunk and never challenge him on his claims.
GOPer Behind Ohio's Botched 2004 Election Eyes Senate Run - Remember Ken Blackwell? He was Ohio's secretary of state in 2004 who was accused of throwing the presidential vote in that crucial swing state in favor of George W. Bush and overseeing "massive and unprecedented voter irregularities and anomalies" that disenfranchised tens of thousands of voters.
Conservative tax tricks: Did tax cuts grow the economy? - In the last few decades we as a country have conducted textbook scientific experiments with taxes. Under Reagan we dramatically cut taxes at the top, under Clinton we raised them a bit, and then under Bush we cut them again. So now we can look at what happened: Did cutting taxes make the economy grow?
All Democrats Opposing Medicare Panel Have Major Industry Ties - A small but growing [group of] Democrats are lining up to oppose a major element of Obama's deficit reduction plan - and all have received major campaign contributions to the health care industry.
Awww, 'top' Republicans embarrassed by their birther base. What a shame - The renewed effort to tamp down birtherism underscores a view held by many establishment Republicans that the conspiracy theorists make up a small subset [50%] of the party base and risk turning off swing voters more interested in jobs and economic concerns.
Conservative tax tricks: Are we 'broke'? - In the last few decades conservatives cut taxes on the rich. And then they cut taxes on the rich. And then they cut taxes on the rich. And then they did it even more. Finally, after cutting, cutting and cutting taxes on the rich they complain that there isn't any money to run our government!
Bullies - Big corporate interests and conservative Republicans are so used to bullying people into easy submission, that when someone stands up to them, they lose it awfully fast.
Wall Street Greed Hits New Lows - Wall Street has continued erecting monuments to its own greed. The British Guardian reported on April 12 that Goldman Sachs' paid its top five directors almost US$70 million in 2010.
Comparing Ryan's Medicare Plan to What Congress Gets - There is a huge difference in one important aspect between the Medicare program in the Ryan budget plan and the Federal Employee Health Benefit Plan for federal employees and for members of Congress.
Republicans Suddenly Worried About Scaring Seniors? - With the Ryan plan effectively destroying senior's safety net, GOP upset that Democrats are actually saying so; yet when they scared seniors two years ago with actual lies it was OK.
Republicans destroy jobs; Democrats ignore jobs - Deja Vu: [Congress and the President] adopted harsh fiscally conservative policies before the economy had fully recovered, and a bad economy in 1937 relapsed to an even worse economy.
100 days of GOP rule. Still no jobs bills - Question to GOP: You've been in control for more than three months now, and you haven't yet passed any sort of bill to create jobs. What are you waiting for? Why aren't you interested in job creation?
One outraged citizen at a time - On Trump: "This is a man who lives like a billionaire using other people's money. He's been broke for years, but his investors keep pumping money in so they won't lose everything."
Ryan's budget proposal gives big payoff to insurers - Representative Paul Ryan's budget proposal to end traditional Medicare for future generations would benefit private insurers, whose employees have given the Wisconsin Republican more money than any other industry.
Paul Ryan's Hidden Middle-Class Tax Hike - Rep. Ryan's budget simply doesn't describe exactly how his tax plan would work, instead resorting to broad bullet points that conveniently skip over important details.
Protecting Big Oil at the Expense of the Future - This budget would lock Americans into paying high, volatile energy prices. It would ensure that millions of clean energy jobs are created oversees-not here in the United States.
Even House GOP Leaders Don't Take House GOP Budget Projections Seriously - By now, you probably know that economists think the unemployment projections in Rep. Paul Ryan's budget are laughably optimistic. Or, as MIT's Jonathan Gruber put it, "insane." What you may not have noticed is that many of Ryan's Republican colleagues apparently agree.
Is the Shadowy World of ALEC and the Koch Brothers Leading the GOP's Charge to Suppress the Youth Vote? - Talk about voter suppression on a large scale: "Nearly forty years after a constitutional amendment conferring voting rights on eighteen year-olds was passed into law, and signed by President Richard Nixon, the American Legislative Exchange Council is doing all it can to make it difficult for young people to vote."
Leader Of Koch Front Group Is Behind Ads Supporting Wisconsin Justice David Prosser - [E]ven though Citizens for a Strong America lists no staff on its website, its website name was purchased by John W. Connors of Milwaukee, who has been a leader of "Americans for Prosperity," a right-wing group chaired by oil billionaire David Koch.
U.S. Consumers Have Big Banks To Blame For High Gasoline Prices - Big banks have decided to take their cheap capital they borrow at basically zero percent and invest into commodities, i.e., agricultural futures like Wheat, Corn, and Soybeans, energy futures like Oil and Gasoline, and industrial and precious metals like Copper, Gold and Silver.
Stock Rally at Risk as Fed Ponders Exit Strategy - Re-read above headline, then ask yourself: Is this really a free market as our Grand Old Party would have us believe? Talk about "Big Government".
Beggar Thy Neighbor, Beggar Thyself - Having won one class war, Republicans are starting a second. To perpetuate record levels of income inequality not seen since before the Great Depression, conservatives are agitating for middle class Americans to wage a civil war on each other.
