Ted Vaill: Mitt Romney, the Republicans’ default choice for President no one really likes, deserves to be asked the hard questions such as those directed by Jeff Daniels to the panel of GOP candidates in Adam Sorkin’s “Newsroom”,
Obama’s Big Green Building Blocks
By
Tom Hayden: Perhaps a deeper problem is the chronic culture of Washington and elite think-tanks, which has fostered a preference for neo-liberalism, and against New Deal state intervention, across partisan lines, from staffers up to decision-makers.
What European Elections Should Teach Obama
By
Randy Shaw: Europe’s lesson is that Obama should far more aggressively promote public investment, job creation, and other economically populist – and popular – measures.
The Year Washington Became “Business Friendly”
By
Robert Reich: America’s big businesses are less and less American. They’re going abroad for sales and employees. That’s one reason they’ve showed record-breaking profits in 2010 while creating almost no American jobs.
Blame Obama for Democrats’ Problems
By
Randy Shaw: President Obama spent nearly his entire first year playing “bipartisanship” with those out to destroy him. As much as many of us cheered Obama’s election and still admire many of his skills, the sad reality is that his failure to aggressively push for change in 2009 is the chief cause of the celebrated enthusiasm gap.
The Real Lesson of Labor Day
By
Robert Reich: Face it: The national economy isn’t escaping the gravitational pull of the Great Recession. None of the standard booster rockets are working.
Origins of the Enthusiasm Gap
By
Robert Reich: Whatever the outcome of the upcoming midterm elections, the activist phase of the Obama administration has likely come to a close. The President may have a fight on his hands even to hold on to what he’s already achieved because his legislative successes have been large enough to fuel strong opposition but not big enough to strengthen his support. The result could be disastrous for him and congressional Democrats.
What Teabaggers Owe Liberals
By
Sherwood Ross: Get it straight: the best remedy for what ails America is to pay working people fairly. It is the toil and dollars of the American people that made America great.
On The Use of “Teabagger”
By
Natalie Davis: Whether the GOP and its militant wing like it or not, they are Teabaggers. Theirs is the Teabag Movement. And this country is in deep trouble if they win. The Teabag Party/GOP oppose equality for women and gays — more than a few have said to me that despite their admiration for gun-totin’ TV star Sarah “Pitbull with Lipstick” Palin, they believe all other women should “get back in the kitchen.”
Democratic “Accomplishments” Not Nearly Enough
By
Joseph Palermo: Unless the Congress moves some progressive legislation quickly there’s going to be trouble this fall because any political party that is stupid enough to allow a couple of shmucks like Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson, or the outcome of a special election in New England, to unravel its governing coalition doesn’t deserve to be in power.
The U.S. Can No Longer Afford Its Empire
By
Ivan Eland: The Cold War is long over, and the concomitant rationale (dubious even then) for using an interventionist U.S. foreign policy to attempt to run the world is now obsolete and even dangerous in an era of blowback terrorism. Many empires throughout history have collapsed or withered away because their aspirations were too big for their wallets; the U.S. is in that perilous position now. Therefore, the United States should dramatically retract its defense perimeter, thus cutting the U.S. security budget by half and saving more than $500 billion a year.
What Obama Must Do, and Cannot
By
Tom Hayden: Obama may succeed in withdrawing 100,000 American troops from Iraq this year, and the rest by 2012. But even this goal faces opposition from the Green Zone to the Beltway, and any peace dividend will be swallowed by Afghanistan and the Long War.
What the “I’m Mad-As-Hell” Party Could Do
By
Robert Reich: Mad-as-hellers don’t trust big government. But they don’t trust big business and Wall Street, either. They especially hate it when big government gets together with big business and Wall Street – while at the same time Main Street is in shambles and millions of people are losing their jobs and homes.
Winograd Calls for a Green New Deal – Jobs, Jobs, Jobs!
By
President Obama’s second recovery plan must invest in future industries with large pay-offs in terms of career-path learning and earning opportunities in the Green economy. Put laid-off Boeing missile defense workers back on the job building electric buses for the future. Put college professors back to work in Green Energy Departments at universities across the country. Put steelworkers back to work strengthening our bridges in earthquake-prone California. Put everyone with a hard hat back to work building solar panel parts now outsourced to China.
LA Progressive: December 13 to 19, 2009
By
Obama’s Nobel Speech Comes Up Short. Pardon me if I can’t join in the fawning praise for President Obama’s Nobel address. “It was, as ever, a bravura performance,” one newspaper said editorially. That it was, but I can’t agree with those. -Carl Bloice Labor Secretary Solis Slams Down Right-Wing Call for an Immigration Moratorium. Last [...]
Labor Secretary Solis Slams Down Right-Wing Call for an Immigration Moratorium
By
Last week, the Politico featured a piece by right-wing pundit Pat Buchanan suggesting that rather than talking about a second stimulus package, tax credits, or public works projects, lawmakers should be seriously considering an immigration moratorium during these hard economic times. A few days later, former Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA) authored an op-ed calling for [...]
The President’s Job’s Initiative Doesn’t Measure Up
By
No president in modern times walks a tightrope as exquisitely as this one. His balance is a thing of beauty. But when it comes to this economy right now — an economy fundamentally out of balance — we need a federal government that moves boldly and swiftly to counter-balance the huge recessionary forces still at large
Worrisome Thoughts on the Way to the Jobs Summit
By
But the reality that no one wants to talk about is a structural change in the economy that’s been going on for years but which the Great Recession has dramatically accelerated.
One Year Later: Unrest within the Obama Base
By
In fairness, Obama never promised progressive voters a rose garden. Genuine and far-reaching change requires sustained political organizing at the grassroots. It cannot be achieved by virtue of any election.
So Much Happening in Washington and So Little to Show for It, So Far
By
The public doesn’t know what’s going on because the national media would rather report on the sexual escapades of famous people or social trends or high finance (a recent Pew study of economic reporting shows the vast majority of stories about the Great Recession have focused on Wall Street rather than Main Street).
Specifically, What Should Be Done for Jobs?
By
It would be hard to get a new stimulus package through Congress, but no member who’s up for reelection next year when unemployment is likely to be in double digits wants to be accused by rivals of voting against steps to help small businesses, public schools, childrens’ health, and average working people who need a tax cut.
Obama Did Not “Punk” the Common Guy
By
Obama is using every political chit to secure health coverage for 47 million “common “ Americans, strongly endorsing the public option that other Democrats and the Republican Party are seeking to kill.
“Cash for Clunkers” Exposes Media’s Anti-Government Bias
By
If anyone seeks further evidence of the traditional media’s profound anti-government bias, consider its response to the enormously popular “Cash for Clunkers” program.
Does the Obama Plan for Reforming Wall Street Measure Up?
By
In a word: No. The plan doesn’t stop stop bankers from making huge, risky bets with other peoples’ money. It does increase capital requirements and oversight, but it doesn’t require bankers to take their pay in long-term stock options or warrants, and it doesn’t even hint that banks should go back to being partnerships instead [...]
The Great Debt Scare: Why Has It Returned?
By
It’s the kind of thing I expect to hear from deficit hawks and chicken littles — from the self-described “fiscally responsible” right, from the scolds Ross Perot and Pete Peterson, from my former cabinet colleague Bob Rubin. But yesterday I was shown slides developed by the putatively liberal Center for American Progress intended to make [...]
PCL offers monthly Open House Events on the 2nd Saturday at 2pm and 3rd Thursday at 6pm. Click here to learn more.
This Jobs Crisis Is Obama’s Kryptonite
David Love: Obama can solve this whole thing tomorrow if he just calls for a new New Deal program already. But will he have the courage? Time will tell, but the President, like this sad nation, is short on time.