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Governing on Empty
December 21st, 2011
The Senate, having struck its compromise, has gone home. The House, controlled by delusional Republicans, has gone home. Payroll taxes are slated to rise, and unemployment insurance is set to expire before they return in January. The compromise wasn’t just between the two parties in the Senate, apparently. According to Wednesday’s Washington Post, House Speaker John Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor met with Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell on Friday and told him they’d get the votes to pass the two-month extension deal he’d worked out with Harry Reid. But Boehner, who is turning out to be the weakest speaker since the House was first gaveled to order in 1789, couldn’t hold his troops, whose caucus meetings, by numerous accounts, increasingly resemble the pep rallies of cults that have lost all feel for how other humans think.
Featured Issues
Battling Messages: Democrats Need to Enter the Fray
By Digby
March 23rd, 2011
New polling with the same results:
more »China Currency, U.S. Jobs
The decision by China to keep the value of its currency artificially low has a direct impact on jobs in the United States. But that's just one of a host of issues the Obama administration and Congress must address to rebuild America's job base and reestablish its global competitiveness. We're calling on the administration and Congress to call out China on its currency manipulation—and to forge an industrial policy that strengthens our economy.
» Find articles and resources on our China Currency Showdown page
... more »
Why We Need To Revive American Manufacturing
For more than three decades, we have been shedding factories and manufacturing jobs—as well as the suppliers, contractors, shippers, trainers, managers and other jobs that go along with them. Here are some basic facts you should know about the state of American manufacturing, as well as the outlines of a progressive approach that will create new jobs for a 21st-century economy.
ALSO Read Scott Paul on the urgent need to revitalize American manufacturing.... more »
The News
Roger Hickey on MSNBC, The Dylan Ratigan Show
March 9th, 2011
TARP expected to cost U.S. only $25 billion, CBO says
November 30th, 2010
The Case
Sam Brownback's Anti-Poor Agenda
The GOP presidential primary has offered some odd debates on who cares about the "very poor" and whether there should be a "safety net" or a "trampoline" to help people get out of poverty. Meanwhile, in Kansas, it seems Governor Sam Brownback is hoping to dig a bigger hole for the poor fall into. Between his tax plans and his approaches to school funding, Brownback's agenda overtly boosts the wealthy and makes things harder for the poor. While many liberals speculate this to be a secret goal, Brownback is hardly making a secret of his agenda.more »
Wisconsin Stars at CPAC
This week, conservatives will be gathering in Washington, D.C., to attend the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). Dubbed “Mardi Gras for the Right” by one rightwing reporter, the three-day festival “celebrates everything conservatives hold dear, including free-market capitalism.” Conservatives hold Wisconsin dear, as two Republican Badgers are giving keynote speeches. Representative Paul Ryan from Janesville takes the stage Thursday night, while Governor Scott Walker addresses the crowd on Friday night.more »
Latest from our Bloggers
feb
9
2012
1:40 am
1:40 am
In my previous post, I wrote that I'm likely to hear an old favorite conservative talking point repeated over and over again while I'm at CPAC: Married cures poverty, economic inequality, and just about any other economic complaint you can name — especially for black folks. The 9th circuit court's ruling that California's Proposition 8 — which prohibited same-sex marriage in the state — is unconstitutional guarantees I'll hear a lot about same-sex marriage while I'm at CPAC.
What I won't hear at CPAC, besides any specific plans for job creation, is how declining marriage rates are not to blame for economic decline, but economic decline is really to blame for declining marriage rates. I won't hear that the best way to increase marriage rates is improve Americans' economic prospects by growing the economy and putting people back to work. I probably also won't hear that marriage would actually improve the economic standings of one group of Americans: gay couples.
feb
8
2012
11:42 pm
11:42 pm
"You gotta have a J-O-B, if you wanna be with me."
- Gwen Guthrie, "Ain't Nothin' Goin' On But The Rent"
I'm off to cover CPAC tomorrow, where — in light of a federal court ruling California's Proposition 8 unconstitutional — I'm likely to hear a favorite conservative talking point repeated: Marriage cures poverty, unemployment, and another economic problem. Ask any conservative, and they'll tell you as much — even though that particular talking point has no basis in reality.
feb
8
2012
9:52 pm
9:52 pm
PBS NewsHour took a look at why Germany's economy is doing so well, while much of the rest of Europe is not doing so well.
Here are a few notable excerpts from the transcript:
With just a quarter of America's population and a quarter of its GDP, Germany exports more than the United States in total, notes Norbert Walter, the former chief economist of Deutsche Bank.
feb
7
2012
3:26 pm
3:26 pm
Economist Christina Romer had an op-ed in the NY Times this weekend, Do Manufacturers Need Special Treatment? The question that keep coming back to me is why did she feel the need to write an op-ed to diss manufacturing? Is it just an economist thing? more »
feb
2
2012
2:21 pm
2:21 pm
This week three new reports described even more continuing damage to our economy caused by China's trade cheating -- and our own lack of response. Even as the auto industry recovers and auto-assembly jobs are returning, the auto-parts industry and jobs are not. more »
jan
31
2012
8:44 am
8:44 am
On the menu this morning:
- MORNING MESSAGE: China Cheats—Push May Come To Shove
- Trade Battles with China
- Florida Vote: From SuperPACs to Super Crash
- More Mortgage Fraud Settlement Fears
- Freddie Mac's Bets against Homeowners
- Unemployment Compensation Fight
- Breakfast Sides
jan
31
2012
7:55 am
7:55 am
China cheats – it openly flouts trade laws – and routinely denies it. It restricts access to its markets, forces companies that want to sell in China to transfer technology and manufacture there, and then often steals the technology. It purposefully underprices its currency to keep the down the price of its exports. more »
