News & Comment
Blogs and Opinion
Republican Transportation Cuts Are Job Killers by Edward C. Wytkind, blog.aflcio.org | January 25, 2011
It is ironic that the Republican Study Committee’s (RSC’s) proposal to slash vital transportation investments was unveiled on the very day that we learned that Americans spend as many as 70 hours — or nearly three solid days — a year stuck in traffic, and that congestion wastes 3.9 billion gallons of fuel and costs $115 billion nationwide on an annual basis. If passed, the RSC’s proposals will add to the woes of commuters and travelers and destroy good jobs. Their proposal to slash investment and eliminate jobs was also offered on the day that a national poll reminded us that the public’s clear priorities are the economy and jobs. Despite the fact that this new Congress that was sent to Washington to fix the economy and create jobs, this opening salvo would only make these problems worse. read more »The State of the Union and the Federal Budget: Investing in America’s Future by Robert B. Reich, robertreich.org | January 25, 2011
Word has it that the President will be emphasizing “improving American competitiveness” in his State of the Union Address Tuesday night. As I’ve noted, the term is meaningless — but it’s politically useful. CEOs and many conservatives think it means improving the profitability of American companies. Liberals and labor unions think it means increasing export jobs. Neither touches at the heart of the matter. Hopefully, the President will. Over the long term, the only way to improve the living standards of most Americans is to invest in our people – especially their educations, skills, and the communications and transportation systems linking them together and with the rest of the world. In a word, infrastructure. read more »Can We Break the China Habit? by Froma Harrop, truth-out.org | December 22, 2010
It's been tough watching fellow shoppers fill their carts with Chinese imports as the People's Republic stomps on American interests and values. At WalMart, Bed Bath & Beyond and other big chains, it's hard to find goods NOT-made-in-China. Lamps, popcorn makers, kitty scratch boards. Cuisinart toasters and Emeril cookware. Made in China. The creepy thing: China is not our friend, but it's become our keeper. read more »An Investment Agenda for America by Terrance Heath, OurFuture.org | December 20, 2010
Last week, when the president's tax cut deal with Republicans was all but done, I wrote that the Democrats and progressives risk moral failure if we do not meet the moral obligation the tax cut deal would create. read more »Job Creators Don’t Need Money to Create Jobs, They Need Customers by OurFuture.org Staff, OurFuture.org | December 2, 2010
A job creator is basically a businessman with an idea. If it’s a good idea, a business based around his idea will attract customers. And if it attracts customers, he’ll hire employees to serve those customers’ needs. This is where growth comes from. But a businessman with a good idea who needs capital doesn’t need a tax cut to get that capital, he needs a loan or an equity investment. This is what we have a financial system for. The thing of it is, though, that your idea really only works if you have some customers. read more »The WMDs of Job Creation by Paul Rosenberg, openleft.com | December 2, 2010
Is the conservative approach to job creation as deluded as attacking Iraq in response to 9/11? Or is it even more deluded? Either way, it's conceptually similar, in that rationale offered is an excuse, not a reason. Well, we've now had several decades of supply-side, trickle-down Voodoo economics, and every single budget year has seen an increase in debt-to-GDP ratio. Every single one! It. Just. Doesn't. Work. But Saddam had WMDs. read more »Cutting Exceptional Poverty Should Be Nation's Top Priority by Rev. Jesse Jackson, Huffington Post | December 2, 2010
Conservatives, we're told, want to reassert America's "exceptionalism." But virtually everyone agrees that America is a special country. They could do a service if they looked at both the bad and the good. For America, to our shame, houses exceptional poverty. Among the industrial nations, only Turkey and Mexico have higher rates of poverty. And poverty is getting worse in the wake of the brutal recession. Yet we're told everyone has to tighten their belt and sacrifice. Taxpayers bailed out the banks that blew up the economy. Shouldn't the banks and their executives be asked to lead in rebuilding the country and lifting the poor? The silence must end in Washington. This nation cannot exist, to paraphrase Lincoln, as two nations, separate and unequal, divided between the 1 percent who capture half of all the gains of growth, and the many whose lives grow ever more insecure, with more and more descending into poverty. read more »National Clean Energy Summit Calls For Government Action To Create Green Jobs by Dave Johnson, OurFuture.org | September 7, 2010
I am attending the National Clean Energy Summit 3.0: Investing in American Jobs conference in Last Vegas, hosted by Senator Harry Reid (who is spending the day here hosting this). The Summit is put on by the Center for American Progress Action Fund. This is a quick post, because I'm typing during the lunch break. read more »Obama’s Infrastructure Proposal: A Step Forward by Eric Lotke, OurFuture.org | September 7, 2010
On Labor Day, President Obama rediscovered his roots. He traveled to the LaborFest rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and proposed $50 billion in infrastructure spending to “create jobs” and “make our economy hum over the long haul.” Everything was on target — from the substance to the politics. The only thing off was the size. read more »New Old Unemployment Data: Screaming at Deaf Ears by Eric Lotke, OurFuture.org | September 3, 2010
The August unemployment data are out. The unemployment rate was "about unchanged" at 9.6 percent,” says the BLS press release. Teenagers "showed little change" at 26.3 percent, as did African Americans (16.3 percent) and Hispanics (12.0 percent). You can feel the boredom in the release. No change, no news, nothing to report. read more »
The Latest
Gridlock Sam: The Tea Party’s Bridge to Beyond Nowhere, pbs.org | October 19, 2010
The Tea Party has captured the imagination and spirit of many Americans and may very well turn that into a powerful voting bloc come November. But, that bloc may not have a leg or girder to stand on as our nation’s infrastructure continues to crumble. more »
Obama can help free trade with tariffs, Financial Times | September 11, 2009
U.S. Economy Gets Lift From Stimulus, The Wall Street Journal | September 3, 2009
Government efforts to funnel hundreds of billions of dollars into the U.S. economy appear to be helping the U.S. climb out of the worst recession in decades. Much of the stimulus spending is just beginning to trickle through the economy, with spending expected to peak sometime later this year or in early 2010. more »
US Fares Poorly In Child Welfare Survey, Truthout | September 3, 2009
America has some of the industrial world's worst rates of infant mortality, teenage pregnancy and child poverty, even though it spends more per child than better-performing countries such as Switzerland, Japan and the Netherlands, a new survey indicates. more »
Bleak Outlook For Struggling States in 2010, The Washington Post | August 11, 2009
As states across the country grapple with the worst economy in decades, most have cut services, forced workers to take unpaid days off, shut offices several days a month and scrambled to find new sources of revenue. more »
House Approves $7 Billion Highway Fund, Reuters | July 30, 2009
The U.S. House of Representatives approved $7 billion on to temporarily shore up a nearly empty federal trust that pays for road, bridge and transit projects. Supporters garnered the necessary two-thirds support to push through the stop-gap measure intended to keep the Highway Trust Fund solvent through September 30, the end of the fiscal year. The vote was 363 to 68. more »
Federal Aid Jump-Starts New Battery Plants, The Washington Post | July 27, 2009
The Energy Department is getting ready to hand out about $2 billion in grants to create a domestic industry for electric-car batteries, and 122 companies are scrambling to get pieces. The companies range from small niche firms to giants such as Dow Chemical and Johnson Controls. more »
Cities Lose Out on Road Funds From Federal Stimulus, The New York Times | July 9, 2009
Two-thirds of the country lives in large metropolitan areas, home to the nation’s worst traffic jams and some of its oldest roads and bridges. But cities and their surrounding regions are getting far less than two-thirds of federal transportation stimulus money. more »
D.C. Metro Crash Highlights Underfunded Transit Systems, Christian Science Monitor | June 29, 2009
More than one-third of assets in the nation's seven largest rail transit agencies, including the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), are in marginal or poor condition, according to an April report by the Federal Transit Administration. These include public rail systems in New York, Chicago, Boston, New Jersey, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. more »
Mayors Say Cities Need Direct Economic Help, Reuters | June 15, 2009
Without more direct aid to U.S. local governments, Washington may make matters worse for cities facing falling tax revenues and increased spending needs, the nation's mayors said at their annual meeting this weekend. Mayors said they bear the tough task of cutting services and jobs vital to U.S. cities, even with help from the $787 billion in stimulus funds Congress passed in February.
