It should be, as the President once called it, a "no-brainer": Overhaul our broken system for distributing federal student loans. Stop giving banks undeserved profits for administering these loans (an estimated $80 billion over ten years), since they take no risk and have managed the program poorly. Make sure our money goes directly to the young people that need them the most. Who could be against that? In fact, the student loan reform bill has already passed the House.

Yet, in an ugly replay of the lobbyist feeding frenzy that accompanied health reform, this initiative is being undermined in the Senate by highly paid K Street bank operatives. This is a test case: If Washington can't overcome lobbyist influence enough to do the right thing for our country's young people, it will be a public spectacle. Any politician who fails to fight for this program will be hurting themselves politically and punishing college students financially, leaving those students in the hands of rapacious and corrupt lenders.

It's a simple, multiple-choice test for Washington politicians: Do you choose a) fight for the banks, or b), fight for students and their families? Your answer will be graded on Election Day.

More »»

In the State of the Union speech President Obama set a goal of doubling American exports by 2015. To begin the effort to meet this goal the Commerce Department is launching a National Export Initiative (NEI) to work on getting this done.

The National Export Initiative is focused on three key areas:

1. A more robust effort by this administration to expand its trade advocacy in all its forms, especially for small- and medium-sized enterprises. This effort includes educating U.S. companies about opportunities overseas, directly connecting them with new customers and advocating more forcefully for their interests.

2. Improving access to credit with a focus on small- and medium-sized businesses that want to export.

3. Continuing the rigorous enforcement of international trade laws to help remove barriers that prevent U.S. companies from getting free and fair access to foreign markets.

A key part of the Initiative is the Export Promotion Cabinet. This group includes the Commerce, State and Treasury Departments, the U.S. Trade Representative, the Small Business Administration, the Export Import Bank and the U.S. Department of Agriculture and reports to the president. Each must come up with a detailed plan for increasing exports and submit it within 180 days. The plans will then be integrated into the NEI.

More »»

While Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was on the talk shows reassuring America that the economy is healing, developments in Europe threatened to cut the legs out from under a U.S. recovery.

The short story is that Greece and a number of other European Union (EU) countries are in debt, deep in debt. EU rules say member countries cannot have budget deficits that exceed three percent of GDP. Greece’s debt is closer to 12 percent.

They have been hiding it for years, in part relying on major U.S. banks and so-called “cross-currency swaps,” complex financial instruments that allow governments to hide their debts and push their liabilities into the future. The German magazine Der Spiegel broke the story that Greece did a billion-dollar swap with Goldman Sachs in 2002 that did not show up on the nation’s books as debt.

Now the bill is coming due. Greece is in trouble and EU leaders are failing to take decisive action, roiling the markets. The Euro is trading near an eight-month low against the dollar and some are predicting another major shock to the global financial system.

More »»

Sarah Palin's keynote speech was quite a hit at this weekend's Tea Party convention. She even took a shot at pinning responsibility for the deficit on the Obama administration.

It's too bad Palin didn't have proper notes on hand, as she did for the Q & A after her speech. Then again, the message that it was actually the Bush administration that left us more in debt and less secure, wouldn't go over well with her audience.

More »»

Right now, we taxpayers give big banks billions to subsidize their student loans. Giving big banks money is decidedly unpopular after the TARP bailout, among liberals and conservatives. So you'd think there would be consensus to end the subsidies.

Apparently not.

After the House passed President Obama's proposal to end the subsidies, offer students direct government loans and save taxpayers $80 billion, the Senate has the bill in limbo while bank lobbyists swarm the Capitol.

And now, Sarah Palin and the Tea Party is taking all their anti-bank populist rhetoric, and using it to support ... the banks.

At last weekend's Tea Party conference, Palin deliberately conflated ending the bank subsidies with the bank bailout:

The list of companies and industries that the government is crowding out and bailing out and taking over, it continues to grow. First, it was the banks, mortgage companies, financial institutions, then automakers. Soon, if they had their way, health care, student loans.

More »»

Help us spread the word about these important stories...

Email to a friend

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on OurFuture.org.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Your Email: *

Your Name: *

Send To: *

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas. You can only email up to 10 recipients

You are going to email the following: Tell The Senate: Stand With Students. Not Sarah Palin's Big Bank Buddies.

Message Subject: (Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from OurFuture.org

Message Body: (Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the OurFuture.org web site.

Your Personal Message: *

Bookmark/Search this post with:

• Delicious
• Digg
• StumbleUpon
• Propeller
• Reddit
• Magnoliacom
• Newsvine
• Furl
• Facebook
• Google
• Yahoo
• Technorati

On Friday, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its report that another 20,000 Americans had lost their jobs in January, the right-wing spin machine immediately unleashed one of their tried-and-true talking points: that the reason the economy is not creating new jobs is "uncertainty" created by Democratic policymakers in Washington. But ask businesses themselves why they're not hiring, and they say their top uncertainty is whether they will have enough customers to stay in business, much less expand.

On Friday, House Minority Leader John Boehner released a statement that said, in part,

“Hiring grows from investment, and businesses and investors need clarity. Instead, the President, Speaker Pelosi, and Leader Reid perpetuate an environment of uncertainty with the threat of even more mandates and red tape, skyrocketing deficits, and tax increases that prevent job creation. Democrat controlled Washington’s ideological pursuits – like cap and trade, tax increases, the push for government health care, and card check – have created such great uncertainty that hiring is simply not a reality for businesses and entrepreneurs."

Likewise, the Heritage Foundation's daily Morning Bell email on Friday included this screed:

More »»

• Republicans Put Conditions On Attending Health Care Summit
• Spotlight Turned On Half-Baked Conservative Health Care Ideas
• Jobs Bill Talks Slog Through Second DC Snowstorm
• Sen. Ben Nelson Backs Becker Filibuster, As WH Amps Up Filibuster Attack
• Will Republicans Back Tax Increase To Fund Transportation?
• Elizabeth Warren Takes On Wall Street In Wall Street Journal
• Is Obama Failing or Succeeding?
• Rep. John Murtha Remembered

More »»

Much of the public believes that tax cuts "create jobs." A recent Rasmussen poll found that 59% of voters believe cutting taxes is better than increasing government spending as a job-creation tool. This proves that repeating a slogan over and over can effect what people believe.

But here is some news: Corporate taxes are on profits. So a tax cut means that the more profitable companies -- the Wal-Marts, Exxons, and other giants -- benefit. They pay back less to the government for their use of the roads, schools, courts, police, fire & military protection and all the other services that helped them get so big and powerful. So the giant monopolistic corporations that are chewing up small businesses, destroying local and regional retailers, take those tax cuts and use them to turn themselves into even better small-business-destroying machines.

More »»

This is something people should know about. Every effort to reform financial regulations is blocked by Senate filibusters. Maybe now we know why.

From last week: Republicans Chase Wall Street Donors

Last week, House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio made a pitch to Democratic contributor James Dimon, the chairman and chief executive of J.P. Morgan, over drinks at a Capitol Hill restaurant, according to people familiar with the matter.

Mr. Boehner told Mr. Dimon congressional Republicans had stood up to Mr. Obama's efforts to curb pay and impose new regulations.

Isaiah Poole wrote this morning,.

The bipartisan courtship rituals between big politics and big money in Washington are bad enough, but Republican leaders in Congress are in the process of taking the process to a new low by openly declaring, "Give us your money and we will do your bidding."

They do so in spite of the grassroots anger against the banking industry and polls that indicate majority support for the financial reforms that the banking industry vigorously opposes.

More »»

Help us spread the word about these important stories...

Email to a friend

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on OurFuture.org.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Your Email: *

Your Name: *

Send To: *

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas. You can only email up to 10 recipients

You are going to email the following: Quid Pro Quo: Collecting Wall Street Money For Blocking Financial Reform

Message Subject: (Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from OurFuture.org

Message Body: (Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the OurFuture.org web site.

Your Personal Message: *

Bookmark/Search this post with:

• Delicious
• Digg
• StumbleUpon
• Propeller
• Reddit
• Magnoliacom
• Newsvine
• Furl
• Facebook
• Google
• Yahoo
• Technorati

The White House is trying to show it can still invest in its top priorities while also instituting a freeze on the overall level of non-defense discretionary spending. For example, the Energy Department budget for the next fiscal year is still getting a seven percent increase to help ramp up the clean energy economy.

But are such budget increases sufficient for us to real bring about such a dramatic transformation in how we power our economy?

In other words, is it even possible to move to a clean energy economy with a spending freeze in effect, no matter how flexible?

Consider that the Apollo Alliance previously concluded we need to invest $50 billion a year for 10 years in clean energy and energy-efficiency to be able to achieve sustainable energy independence.

The two-year Recovery Act investments were in the ballpark of that goal: $34 billion for energy efficiency, $8 billion for renewable energy, $11 billion for a smart electric grid, $8 billion for high-speed rail, $4.5 billion for clean energy research and development and $1 for green job training.

More »»

I don't like to use the term "whore" lightly. But what else, in our current economic environment, would you call this?

Republicans are rushing to capitalize on what they call Wall Street’s “buyer’s remorse” with the Democrats. And industry executives and lobbyists are warning Democrats that if Mr. Obama keeps attacking Wall Street “fat cats,” they may fight back by withholding their cash.

... Senator John Cornyn of Texas, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said he visited New York about twice a month to try to tap into Wall Street’s “buyers’ remorse.”

“I just don’t know how long you can expect people to contribute money to a political party whose main plank of their platform is to punish you,” Mr. Cornyn said.

Or this?

In discussions with Wall Street executives, Republicans are striving to make the case that they are banks' best hope of preventing President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats from cracking down on Wall Street.

More »»

Help us spread the word about these important stories...

Email to a friend

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on OurFuture.org.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Your Email: *

Your Name: *

Send To: *

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas. You can only email up to 10 recipients

You are going to email the following: Wall Street Whores

Message Subject: (Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from OurFuture.org

Message Body: (Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the OurFuture.org web site.

Your Personal Message: *

Bookmark/Search this post with:

• Delicious
• Digg
• StumbleUpon
• Propeller
• Reddit
• Magnoliacom
• Newsvine
• Furl
• Facebook
• Google
• Yahoo
• Technorati

President Obama’s new federal budget plan won’t end plutocracy in America. But this second Obama budget, if adopted, might actually inconvenience it.

More »»

• New Rules Needed So Senate Can Govern
• Bipartisan Health Care Meet. Calling Their Bluff?
• Snowstorm Buys Dems Time On Jobs Bill
• Wall Street Shifting Money To Republicans
• President Walking Fine Line On Trade
• Social Security Hysteria Redux
• Climate Roundup
• Palin Cheats To Pass Tea Party Test

More »»

Dave Johnson wrote earlier about the Republican origins of our current deficits, but the next wave of deficits will probably come from the next wave of option ARM mortgage defaults. (via Atrios) That'll mean decreased local government revenues, more job losses, more unemployment expenditures.

More families will have a harder time paying for college, so fewer young people will get to go. More construction jobs will be lost, so those people who didn't get to go to college will have fewer living wage jobs to apply for.

The affected families will have less money to spend on goods and services, whether through increased debt or reduced income. They'll have fewer options and, because they're poorer, their economic activity will support fewer job opportunities for other Americans.

More »»

More »»