Blog Archive: March, 2011

• MORNING MESSAGE: End Washington's March Madness
• House Keeps Govt Open For Two Weeks, Shutdown Threat Still Looms
• Walker Doubles Down
• Conservative Governors Want "Flexibility" To Drop Health Coverage
• FL Gov. Sued Over High-Speed Rail
• Major Utility CEO Backs Clean Energy Investment

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March Madness has descended on Washington – and I’m not talking college basketball. With 25 million people in need of full-time work, in Washington and state capitals across the country the fixation is on how much spending to cut.

This attention deficit disorder confounds economists, offends public opinion and weakens the country. The American Dream will become an ever more distant fantasy for most Americans if citizens don’t mobilize an intervention to shake up Washington once more.

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Florida State Sen. Thad Altman describes himself as a "conservative Republican" and a "strict constitutionalist." more »

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As Abraham Lincoln famously said, "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time." When you put enough dots in front of people sooner or later they will connect the dots. And Americans are connecting the dots. more »

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The stream of economic experts who are denouncing the budget slashing that the House of Representatives did last month has just turned into a flood. more »

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Less than two months ago, the Republican Governors Association lectured President Obama on state flexibility for pursuing health reform: "The one-size-fits-all approach to healthcare adopted last year does not work in the states and imposes unnecessary financial burdens on already strapped state budgets." more »

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• MORNING MESSAGE: The GOP's Budget Body Count: 700,000
• Shutdown Threat Still Looms
• America Sides With Unions Over Conservatives
• President Backs Increased State Flexibility For Health Reform
• GOP Backs More Trade, Fewer Workers
• FL Gov. May Face Biaprtisan Lawsuit Over High-Speed Rail

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Call it a "general strike" ... from above. Republicans in Congress are trying to paralyze the government with their new budget bill, using a "disrupt and defeat" strategy to prevent it from delivering services promised to the the nation's citizens and required under current law. It's fiscal sabotage, plain and simple. Will people fight back?

The GOP'S first attack is on Social Security, slashing its budget in order to deprive people of vitally needed services. While the "austerity economics" crowd talks disingenously about future Social Security cuts in the coming decades, they're actually trying to cripple its activities starting right now.

House Republicans passed a budget which cuts $1.7 billion from the operating budget for the Social Security Administration (SSA) for the rest of 2011. That would damage its ability to deliver the benefits that were paid for by the working men and women of America. And remember: These same Republicans just held the government hostage in order to win a tax break for the wealthiest of Americans -- a deal that will cost the public treasury hundreds of billions of dollars. Now they're turning on the elderly, the disabled, and people who have lost a loved one. more »

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