The Latest Report On Medicare Shows The Program Is Getting Stronger

The Latest Report On Medicare Shows The Program Is Getting Stronger: The Medicare Trustees had great news for American seniors on Friday: the program’s solvency has been extended for two full years past what the trustees predicted in 2012. In their annual report, the trustees wrote that Medicare’s hospital insurance trust fund will be fully solvent through 2026. That’s over a decade longer than what the [...]/p

Suffering Under Austerity, Northern Ireland Puts Up Fake Storefronts For G8 Summit

Suffering Under Austerity, Northern Ireland Puts Up Fake Storefronts For G8 Summit: When leaders of the world’s eight largest economies convene in Northern Ireland next month for a summit of the G8, they’ll be surrounded by fictitious prosperity. As the Irish Times’ Dan Keenan explained to Public Radio International on Wednesday, the town of Enniskillen is erecting facades over vacant storefronts to simulate active businesses in a [...]/p

New Yorkers Rally For Campaign Finance Reform

New Yorkers Rally For Campaign Finance Reform: Hundreds of New Yorkers rallied in Albany on Wednesday to urge the New York Senate to enact campaign finance reform legislation, including public financing for state candidates. But while the State Assembly has already passed a reform bill, the Senate’s governing coalition has yet to bring forward a bill with less than a month left [...]/p

Homeowner Bill of Rights Passes in Minnesota

'Masters of Austerity' Targeted as Blockupy Activists Shut Down European Central Bank | Common Dreams

'Masters of Austerity' Targeted as Blockupy Activists Shut Down European Central Bank | Common Dreams
"More than 3,000 anti-austerity protesters surrounded the European Central Bank in Frankfurt on Friday, saying that "normal operations" of the powerful bank would not be allowed and that the ECB should be held responsible for the pain and suffering its policies have caused across Europe in recent years."

Connecticut Lawmakers Consider Bill That Could Undermine Paid Sick Leave

Connecticut Lawmakers Consider Bill That Could Undermine Paid Sick Leave: Connecticut made history two years ago when it became the first state in the country to guarantee its workers paid sick days. The bill requires service workers to earn an hour of sick leave for every forty hours worked. But now the state’s lawmakers are considering a bill that could undermine the initial legislation. S.B. [...]/p

Bankruptcy Ruling Leads To Cutting Pensions For Thousands

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Coal Workers Lose Pensions As Execs At Bankrupt Company Get Bonuses

Coal Workers Lose Pensions As Execs At Bankrupt Company Get Bonuses: On Wednesday, a bankruptcy judge in St. Louis freed a bankrupt coal company from its contractual obligations to retired miners. Judge Kathy Suratt-States explained that Patriot Coal could not be held to its $1.3 billion in pension obligations because the laborers who incurred those obligations shared in the responsibility for the company’s failure: “There is [...]/p

Obama To Call On Congress To Avoid Doubling Student Loan Interest Rates

Obama To Call On Congress To Avoid Doubling Student Loan Interest Rates: President Obama will today launch a campaign aimed at preventing interest rates on federal student loans from doubling at the start of July, gathering college students at the White House in an effort to challenge Congress to prevent the rate increase. The White House has already re-upped its “don’t double my rate” campaign, which helped [...]/p

Congress' Farm Bill Readies to Kick Poor Off Food Assistance | Common Dreams

Congress' Farm Bill Readies to Kick Poor Off Food Assistance | Common Dreams
"If the House GOP gets its way, the new Farm Bill passing through Congress will prove the perfect opportunity to make some of the nation's most poor and vulnerable even less secure."

How to Protest Corporate Power | Alternet

How to Protest Corporate Power | Alternet
"The broad movement for peace and social, economic and environmental justice is here and you should be part of it."

Walker's Dismal Jobs Performance Gets a Gold Star in ALEC's "Rich States, Poor States" Report

Walker's Dismal Jobs Performance Gets a Gold Star in ALEC's "Rich States, Poor States" Report
"The ALEC report ranks the states by “economic outlook,” based on factors including the existence of “right to work” anti-union laws, and the rates at which personal and corporate taxes are levied by the state. Wisconsin gains points in the ALEC assessment for having no inheritance tax, the lowest possible minimum wage, and for having a lower than average number of public employees. But ALEC also docks points because, despite Walkers’ infamous attack on the right of public-sector workers to organize in Wisconsin, the state has not passed a private-sector “right to work” law.

The report effectively grades states in line with the very policy positions that ALEC promotes through its “model” legislation, including the privatization of public services, the elimination of regulations, and attacks on workers rights."

'Pushed to the Edge,' Seattle's Low Wage Workers Join Sweeping Movement | Common Dreams

'Pushed to the Edge,' Seattle's Low Wage Workers Join Sweeping Movement | Common Dreams
"In the seventh action in just eight weeks across the United States, fast food workers in Seattle are walking off the job Thursday joining a sweeping movement of low-wage workers who have been "pushed to the edge and are now taking a stand"."

PERRspectives: CBO Study Shows Tax Breaks Favor the Rich

PERRspectives: CBO Study Shows Tax Breaks Favor the Rich
"Every year, tax expenditures--Uncle Sam's myriad credits, exclusion, loopholes and breaks--cost the U.S. Treasury over $1 trillion a year. To put that in perspective, that figure is greater than the cost of Medicare, Social Security and national defense. Much larger than this year's projected budget deficit of $642 billion, tax expenditures equal roughly 30 percent of federal spending. It's no wonder why Republicans are so fond of calling for closing loopholes while lowering rates to produce "revenue-neutral" tax reform.

But a new study of the top 10 tax expenditures also show why GOP leaders including Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp refuse to name a single loophole they would close to achieve it. As the new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis shows, half the value of those $900 billion in tax breaks goes to the top quintile of American income earners."

Nearly Zero Percent Savings Interest Rates Are Forcing Seniors to Ration for Survival, While Wall Street Investors Are Making Record Profits

Nearly Zero Percent Savings Interest Rates Are Forcing Seniors to Ration for Survival, While Wall Street Investors Are Making Record Profits
"The continual cries of "austerity" by the wealthy integrally relate to this tale of two economies, because there is no austerity being imposed on the wealthy: it's like the 1920's all over again for them.

However, seniors and the working class are being squeezed by cuts in benefits, pay, and the inability to earn interest of any meaningful size on money that they saved for retirement.For most Americans, they have been living in austerity for years now.

It's time to see some austerity imposed upon the 1 percent.

Far too many of the rest of us are already "austeritied" to rationing for survival."

REPORT: Corporate Profits Soar And Wages Fall Thanks To Declining Unionization

REPORT: Corporate Profits Soar And Wages Fall Thanks To Declining Unionization: Corporate profits have soared in recent decades, while wages for the average worker have not fared nearly as well. A new study sheds some light on why that is happening: declining unionization. While some economists have posited that this trend is thanks to a rise in computerization, which boosted productivity and reduced the need for [...]/p

Rick Perry Vetoes “Buy American” Bill Approved 145-0 by Texas House

www.forwardprogressives.com/rick-perry-vetoes-buy-american-bill/
"Passing the Senate by a vote of 23-7 and the House 145-0, the Texas legislature overwhelmingly passed a bill meant to give preference to American-made goods for purchase by the State of Texas when they are of equal cost and quality to foreign-made products.

In other words, if an American-made product and foreign-made product are of equal quality and cost, when the state is purchasing a good or service, the state would always give preference to the American-made product or service.

96% of Texas legislators supported the “Buy American” bill…

And Rick Perry vetoed it."

Economic policy is largely being driven by obstructionism, not economic advisers | Economic Policy Institute

Economic policy is largely being driven by obstructionism, not economic advisers | Economic Policy Institute
"the GOP has routinely and frequently obstructed economic recovery since 2009—much of which should inform any debate this summer regarding much needed reform of the Senate’s filibuster rules, as well as the inevitable political fight over the debt ceiling. Conservatives, particularly the Tea Party caucus, are to blame for exploiting every piece of leverage available (including thenation’s credit worthiness) to extract premature spending cuts, filibustering just about anything that would boost aggregate demand, watering down the Recovery Act, hamstringing monetary policy and demanding counterproductive legislative ‘pay fors’—stipulated to never, ever include revenue increases. The frequently espoused pox-on-both houses punditry is not just off-base, but is also somewhat complicit in this sad state of affairs."

Britain's Largest Privatization in Over a Decade Underway | Common Dreams

Britain's Largest Privatization in Over a Decade Underway | Common Dreams
"On Wednesday the government announced that banking giants Goldman Sachs and UBS would be leading the efforts."

Wall Street Insiders Desperate To Destroy Financial Reform

Senate Republicans Want to Destroy the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Elizabeth Warren Created

Senate Republicans Want to Destroy the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Elizabeth Warren Created
"Count the ways that the GOP in Congress is still trying to destroy the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). There are so many that you would need a calculator."

Defined by Debt: How the Strike Debt Movement Redefined Occupy

Defined by Debt: How the Strike Debt Movement Redefined Occupy
"With roughly 75 percent of Americans mired in some kind of debt, much of it medical or educational, Meaney said, the blame cannot rest on the debtors. When basic necessities like health care and schooling are partially or entirely debt-financed, consuming less is not the answer."

How The American Tax Code Helps The Rich The Most

How The American Tax Code Helps The Rich The Most: The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which is tasked with analyzing the economic and budgetary effects of government policy, just issued a new report on the various tax expenditures in the United States’s tax code. These are provisions that allow taxpayers to shield some income from taxation or pay lower rates, and they come in various [...]/p

What about the big bankster launderers in big banks?

"They're not rational": 80-Year-Old Educator Speaks About Her Arrest in “Moral Monday Protests” Against Extreme Right-Wing Agenda in North Carolina | Alternet

"They're not rational": 80-Year-Old Educator Speaks About Her Arrest in “Moral Monday Protests” Against Extreme Right-Wing Agenda in North Carolina | Alternet
"A senior citizen endures an ordeal to protect equality and quality in the public school system."

Chicago Closes 50 Public Schools, Spends $100 Million in Taxpayer Funds on Private College Stadium

Workers Strike In Seventh City As Congressional Progressives Launch Campaign To Boost Wages

Workers Strike In Seventh City As Congressional Progressives Launch Campaign To Boost Wages: Fast food workers in Seattle walked off the job Wednesday night, making it the seventh city home to striking workers in the last eight weeks. Workers were expected to strike at fast food chains McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell, and others during the one-day strike, just as workers in other cities have since the original [...]/p

Want the American Dream? Get Rich Parents or Move to Canada | Alternet

Want the American Dream? Get Rich Parents or Move to Canada | Alternet
"The culprit is the growing role of inherited advantage, as affluent families make investments that give their children a leg up. Combined with the 2008 economic meltdown and budget cuts in public investments that foster opportunity, we are witnessing accelerating advantages for the wealthy and compounding disadvantages for everyone else."

North Carolina GOP Seeks Even More Regressive State Tax Burden Than Current Law

North Carolina GOP Seeks Even More Regressive State Tax Burden Than Current Law: North Carolina lawmakers are seeking to shift much of the state’s tax burden off its wealthiest citizens and most profitable businesses and onto its low- and middle-income residents. After initially proposing to eliminate the state’s income tax outright, Republicans are instead introducing a flat income tax rate across all earning levels. The proposal unveiled Thursday [...]/p

Budget Cuts Reduce Economic Growth In First Quarter Of 2013

Budget Cuts Reduce Economic Growth In First Quarter Of 2013: Economic growth slowed slightly in the first three months of the year thanks in large part to the government’s spending cuts, according to first quarter GDP numbers. As Reuters reports, “The U.S. economy expanded at a 2.4 percent annual rate during the period, down a tenth of a point from an initial estimate, according to [...]/p

School Bus Driver Fired For Facebook Rant over 'Free' Lunches

School Bus Driver Fired For Facebook Rant over 'Free' Lunches
" it does seem shameful that his constitutional right to free speech was abridged in this manner. The moral: stay the hell off Facebook and other social media if you want to keep your job.

Parents at Haralson County don't want to see someone who is actually speaking up for their kids to go, so there's a Change.org petition to reinstate Cook."

War on Democracy in Wisconsin: Bill Would Enact Voter ID, End Disclosure, Limit Early Voting, Expand Lobbyist Influence

War on Democracy in Wisconsin: Bill Would Enact Voter ID, End Disclosure, Limit Early Voting, Expand Lobbyist Influence
"A Wisconsin legislator has managed to bundle nearly all of the excesses associated with dirty elections into a single bill that good government advocates are describing as a "sweeping assault on democracy:" the legislation would try reinstating restrictive voter ID requirements, make it easier for donors to secretly influence elections, expand lobbyist influence, restrict early voting, and make it harder to register, among other measures."

50 Million Americans Are Going Hungry As Congress Considers Gutting Food Stamps

50 Million Americans Are Going Hungry As Congress Considers Gutting Food Stamps: As Congress debates exactly how many billions of dollars to cut from the government’s main food assistance program for low-income Americans, a new report finds that the existing safety net has failed millions of people who must constantly worry about how to feed themselves and their families. According to the International Human Rights Clinic of [...]/p

Europe Loosens Austerity Rules As Recession Deepens

Europe Loosens Austerity Rules As Recession Deepens: Europe’s recession is already the longest in its modern history, and now it’s going to get deeper. On Wednesday, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) revised its eurozone growth forecast for the year from a slight contraction of 0.1 percent to a 0.6 percent slide. The OECD’s advice to the Eurozone? Avoid “reform [...]/p

Beware of Economic Nonsense Trotted Out by Profit-Seeking Corporations and Their Stooges | Alternet

Beware of Economic Nonsense Trotted Out by Profit-Seeking Corporations and Their Stooges | Alternet
"Forbes Magazine deployed its small army of corporate defenders and apologists in the multi-billion dollar fight to keep effective tax rates low for global corporations."

Switzerland Reportedly Ready To Help U.S. Crack Down On Tax Cheats

Switzerland Reportedly Ready To Help U.S. Crack Down On Tax Cheats: Switzerland is close to striking a deal with the United States to resolve ongoing investigations into its banks regarding their role in tax evasion by wealthy Americans, but reports conflict on the details. According to the New York Times’ Dealbook blog, the agreement would include disclosure of the names of the tax evading bank clients [...]/p

Radical Kleptocrats Anxious to Stop Disclosure of Corporate Money in Elections | Common Dreams

Radical Kleptocrats Anxious to Stop Disclosure of Corporate Money in Elections | Common Dreams
"These kleptocrats are the real radicals. It's time to stop them, not only by disclosing their thievery, but ultimately by outlawing it — and retuning elections to the people. To join the effort, contact Public Citizen: www.citizen.org."

Engineering Empire: An Introduction to the Intellectuals and Institutions of American Imperialism

Engineering Empire: An Introduction to the Intellectuals and Institutions of American Imperialism
"Educating yourself about empire can be a challenging endeavor, especially since so much of the educational system is dedicated to avoiding the topic or justifying the actions of imperialism in the modern era."

Shell Admits Real Reason Coast Guard Had To Rescue Its Arctic Drilling Rig: Failed Tax Avoidance Scheme

Shell Admits Real Reason Coast Guard Had To Rescue Its Arctic Drilling Rig: Failed Tax Avoidance Scheme: The main reason an offshore oil rig ran aground off the coast of Alaska late last year was because oil company Royal Dutch Shell was trying to depart state waters to avoid paying millions in taxes. Sean Churchfield, operations manager for Royal Dutch Shell in Alaska, testified to the Coast Guard over the weekend that [...]/p

Shell Admits Tax Avoidance Played Role In Rig Accident

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The Bank Bailout Cost US Taxpayers Nothing? Think Again | Common Dreams

The Bank Bailout Cost US Taxpayers Nothing? Think Again | Common Dreams
"The bailout cost us plenty, and continues to do so. Sadly, it is the gift that keeps on giving to the very banks that drove our economy over a cliff – and took trillions in housing wealth, retirement funds and millions of jobs with it."

The World's Richest 8% Earn Half of All Planetary Income | Alternet

The World's Richest 8% Earn Half of All Planetary Income | Alternet
"The lead research economist at the World Bank, Branko Milanovic, will be reporting soon, in the journal Global Policy, the first calculation of global income-inequality, and he has found that the top 8% of global earners are drawing 50% of all of this planet's income."

Probe Of Bank Misconduct On Credit Card Debt Expands Beyond JPMorgan

Probe Of Bank Misconduct On Credit Card Debt Expands Beyond JPMorgan: An investigation into allegations that major financial institutions tried to collect credit card debts using some of the same potentially fraudulent and abusive paperwork practices that drove millions of wrongful foreclosures is expanding, according to the Washington Post. The investigation had previously focused on JPMorgan Chase, which had fired a woman named Linda Almonte from [...]/p

The U.S. Ranks Ninth-To-Last In Work-Life Balance

The U.S. Ranks Ninth-To-Last In Work-Life Balance: The United States ranks toward the bottom among developed countries when it comes to work-life balance, according to the updated Better Life Index from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). While the country tops the charts for income and housing, other important economic indicators, its worst ranking is in work-life balance. It clocks [...]/p

March Against Monsanto Over 2M Strong. Blackwater Ops Watching?

March Against Monsanto Over 2M Strong. Blackwater Ops Watching?
"Most corn, soybean and cotton crops grown in the United States today have been genetically modified. But critics say genetically modified organisms can lead to serious health conditions and harm the environment."

Local Charities Speak Out On GOP’s Effort To Slash Food Stamps

Local Charities Speak Out On GOP’s Effort To Slash Food Stamps: One of New Jersey’s largest food banks is eyeing congressional efforts to cut two million Americans from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps) with concern. While proponents of the cuts often argue that food banks and other charitable food distribution operations will step into the breach as government shrinks its [...]/p

PERRspectives: Red States Rejecting Obamacare Medicaid Expansion Need It Most

PERRspectives: Red States Rejecting Obamacare Medicaid Expansion Need It Most
"the defining irony of the never-ending debate over Obamacare is this: health care is worst in those states where Republicans poll best. The map of the states with the worst health care systems largely mirrors GOP strongholds in the Electoral College. Red state residents are generally the unhealthiest and more likely than their blue state cousins to be uninsured."

The New Farm Bill is an Economic Disaster | Common Dreams

The New Farm Bill is an Economic Disaster | Common Dreams
"The US Congress, its approval rating still near all-time lows, is reinforcing its own record of stupefyingly short-sighted lawmaking with what may be the most harmful piece of economic legislation in America in years: the $1tn 2013 farm bill."

How Many Rotting Apples Do Our Hedges Hide?

How Many Rotting Apples Do Our Hedges Hide?
"High-profile prosecutions only hint at the crime and ethical misbehavior rampant in America’s most rewarding high-finance suites."

The Real Numbers: Half of America in Poverty -- and It's Creeping toward 75% | Alternet

The Real Numbers: Half of America in Poverty -- and It's Creeping toward 75% | Alternet
"The Census Bureau has reported that one out of six Americans lives in poverty. A shocking figure. But it's actually much, much worse."

How Did Major Hedge Fund Earn 30% Returns for 20 Years Straight? Lots of Cheating | Alternet

How Did Major Hedge Fund Earn 30% Returns for 20 Years Straight? Lots of Cheating | Alternet
"There are 8,000 hedge funds, and they are up to their eyeballs in unethical behavior."

Internal Wall Street pitchbook shows that you, the clients, are suckers

www.dailykos.com/story/2013/05/22/1211018/-Internal-Wall-Street-pitchbook-shows-that-you-the-clients-are-suckers
"Nothing about Wall Street exists to help the little guy. Nothing. It's all just a mechanism for extracting money from the less wealthy, from cities and states, and from entire industries to put into the hands of the very rich."

American Society Of Civil Engineers Infrastructure Report Card 2013

http://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/a/#p/home
"Every 4 years, the American Society of Civil Engineers releases a Report Card for America’s Infrastructure that depicts the condition and performance of the nation’s infrastructure in the familiar form of a school report card by assigning letter grades to each type of infrastructure."

10 Crazy Things the Right Did This Week | Alternet

10 Crazy Things the Right Did This Week | Alternet
"It's been another week of the insane, inane, and outright offensive."

77 Percent of Los Angeles Voters Call For Overturning Citizens United

77 Percent of Los Angeles Voters Call For Overturning Citizens United: Three-plus years after the U.S. Supreme Court’s corporate money in politics decision in Citizens United v. FEC, the movement to overturn some of its central holdings has not abated. On Tuesday, Los Angeles passed a ballot measure to endorse state and federal amendments overturning the decision, with an overwhelming 76.6 percent in favor of the [...]/p

Man Who Paid His Mortgage Early Facing Foreclosure

Man Who Paid His Mortgage Early Facing Foreclosure: Etienne Syldor, an Orlando resident who works as a bus driver at Walt Disney World, says that Wells Fargo has started foreclosing on his house. This is despite the fact that he not only made his payments on time, but even overpaid on them. As local station WFTV reported, “Last year, Wells Fargo offered him [...]/p

How California Is Debunking The GOP’s Obamacare Talking Points

How California Is Debunking The GOP’s Obamacare Talking Points: On Thursday, California officials revealed insurance companies’ opening bids for the state’s Obamacare marketplace in 2014. The numbers are great for consumers — and terrible for right-wing fear mongering over the health law. Covered California, the agency tasked with constructing and maintaining the Golden State’s insurance marketplace, announced in a press release that rates submitted [...]/p

See How Citigroup Wrote a Bill So It Could Get a Bailout

www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/05/citigroup-hr-992-wall-street-swaps-regulatory-improvement-act
"On Friday, the New York Times reported on the front page that Citigroup drafted most of a House bill that would allow banks to engage in risky trades backed by a potential taxpayer-funded bailout."

Fast Food Workers Speak Out About Wage Theft

Fast Food Workers Speak Out About Wage Theft: Workers in the service industry have taken action against their large employers, conducting walk out strikes in six cities, the latest on Tuesday in Washington, DC. Fast food workers are now also speaking out about the abuses they say they have experienced on the job. A new Tumblr that started on May 14 called “fast [...]/p

Over a Million Signatures in Support for Sen. Warren's Student Loan Bill | Common Dreams

Over a Million Signatures in Support for Sen. Warren's Student Loan Bill | Common Dreams
"Senator Elizabeth Warren's (D-Mass.) call to lower student loan interest rates to the same "discounted rates" given to big banks has received an "outpouring of support" as organizations and institutions of higher education are lining up to endorse the measure."

Meet The People Who Are Subverting Wall Street Reform

Meet The People Who Are Subverting Wall Street Reform: Three years after Congress passed sweeping reforms of Wall Street, the industry has successfully widened a variety of cracks in the Dodd-Frank law. But credit for the industry’s success at watering down the landmark legislation doesn’t just go to well-heeled lobbyists – regulators and lawmakers are helping. The New York Times’s Dealbook blog reports this [...]/p

Wells Fargo Forecloses on Homeowner For Paying Too Much

Wells Fargo Forecloses on Homeowner For Paying Too Much
"So he made those payments and he made them on time, along with extra payments on the principal. What did he get for his trouble? Foreclosure. Wells Fargo's excuse? Not much of one."

5 Most Horrifying Things About Monsanto -- Why You Should Join the Global Movement and Protest on Saturday | Alternet

5 Most Horrifying Things About Monsanto -- Why You Should Join the Global Movement and Protest on Saturday | Alternet
"What started as one mother’s call to action on a Facebook page has become a movement with more than 400 demonstrations scheduled in 50 countries and 250 cities around the globe. The events are organized online via an  open Google Document, where people can find the protest nearest them. The March Against Monsanto Facebook page has received more than 105,000 “likes.” It has reached more than 10,000,000 people in the last week according to its website, which averages over 40,000 visitors per day."

Rubio Misleads On Debt Ceiling In Floor Speech Blocking Budget Process

Rubio Misleads On Debt Ceiling In Floor Speech Blocking Budget Process: In a floor speech Wednesday, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) falsely claimed that the debt ceiling is critical to saving future generations from inheriting a crippling national debt. Rubio, who is widely expected to seek his party’s presidential nomination in 2016, insisted that the Senate forbid its budget conferees from including an increase to the debt [...]/p

House Republicans Destroy the GOP by Voting to Raise Student Loan Interest Rates

www.politicususa.com/republicans-court-young-voters-passing-bill-raises-student-loan-interest-rates.html
"By a vote of 221-198, House Republicans continued to destroy their party by passing a bill that would raise student loan rates."

Austerity’s Vicious Cycle Spurs Record Cash Hoarding By U.S. Companies

Austerity’s Vicious Cycle Spurs Record Cash Hoarding By U.S. Companies: Big corporations have been stockpiling cash rather than investing in expansions to their operations for years, but a report Thursday indicates that recovery-bridling behavior is worsening in 2013. Cash hoarding sped up in the first quarter of the year, and American companies are now holding a record $1.73 trillion on the sidelines. According to Bloomberg, [...]/p

Average CEO Salary Reached A New Record High Of $9.7 Million In 2012

Average CEO Salary Reached A New Record High Of $9.7 Million In 2012: The average CEO salary broke records in 2011 at $9.6 million — and now, that record high has been topped by 2012 salaries, which averaged out to $9.7 million. Health care and media CEOs enjoyed the highest pay, while utility CEOs had the lowest at $7.5 million. Sixty percent of CEOs got a raise last [...]/p

Wall Street Ripping Off Municipalities

Elizabeth Warren Interrogates Jack Lew On The Growing Size Of Too Big To Fail Banks

Elizabeth Warren Interrogates Jack Lew On The Growing Size Of Too Big To Fail Banks: The biggest banks were already huge before the financial crisis, and concentration in the banking industry was in fact one of the causes of the crash. Yet they have gotten even bigger since then. Just 12 banks, 0.2 percent, control nearly 70 percent of total bank assets, and the 20 biggest hold assets equal to [...]/p

New Study: More Poor People Now Live In the Suburbs

New Study: More Poor People Now Live In the Suburbs
"Bucking longstanding patterns in the United States, more poor people now live in the nation's suburbs than in urban areas, according to a new analysis."

Hoping To Raise Money From Tech Industry, Rand Paul Defends Apple’s Tax Dodging

Hoping To Raise Money From Tech Industry, Rand Paul Defends Apple’s Tax Dodging: Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) vociferously defended Apple during a Senate hearing on Tuesday, as the tech giant fought against accusations that it used foreign subsidiares to dodge billions of dollars in taxes. The Tea Party favorite, who is openly considering a 2016 presidential bid, accused the government of “bullying” Apple and issued a personal apology [...]/p

How America Became a Third World Country | Alternet

How America Became a Third World Country | Alternet
"Robust public investment had been a key to U.S. prosperity in the previous century. It was then considered a basic part of the social contract as well as of Economics 101. As just about everyone knew in those days, citizens paid taxes to fund worthy initiatives that the private sector wouldn’t adequately or efficiently supply. Roadways and scientific research were examples. In the post-World War II years, the country invested great sums of money in its interstate highways and what were widely considered the  best education systems in the world, while research in well-funded government labs led to inventions like the Internet. The resulting world-class infrastructure, educated workforce, and technological revolution fed a robust private sector."

Chase's Dimon Wins Despite (Or Thanks To?) Lengthy Rap Sheet | Common Dreams

Chase's Dimon Wins Despite (Or Thanks To?) Lengthy Rap Sheet | Common Dreams
"Shareholders of JPMorgan Chase have reportedly declined to strip Jamie Dimon of his title as mega-fat-cat Chairman/CEO of the ultimate too-big-to-fail-or-God-forbid-jail Chase, despite an unending stream of reports of illegal activities, an upcoming Senate hearing on one $8 billion scandal, and an astonishing new 45-page report, “JPM – Out of Control,” documenting case after case of fraud and abuse, from foreclosure fraud and Bank Secrecy Act violations to money laundering for drug cartels and obstruction of justice, resulting in a company that's essentially "a criminal racket just days away from imploding, were it not propped up by implicit bailout guarantees and light-touch regulators." Yeah, sure, let's keepthe guy who ran it."

No State Earns A Top Grade For Promoting Economic Security For Working Families

No State Earns A Top Grade For Promoting Economic Security For Working Families: The federal poverty line, $23,550 for a family of four, is considered the minimum amount a family needs to get by. Yet many families need much more to cover all the costs they face and truly feel economically secure. Most Americans say a family of four needs nearly $60,000 to “get by.” State policies play [...]/p

Corporations Are Stealing Billions in Tax Breaks, While the Confused, Screwed Citizenry Turn On Each Other | Alternet

Corporations Are Stealing Billions in Tax Breaks, While the Confused, Screwed Citizenry Turn On Each Other | Alternet
"The fact is, global corporations have no allegiance to any country; their only objective is to make as much money as possible — and play off one country against another to keep their taxes down and subsidies up, thereby shifting more of the tax burden to ordinary people whose wages are already shrinking because companies are playing workers off against each other."

Foreclosed Homeowners 'Move In' to the Dept. of Justice | Common Dreams

Foreclosed Homeowners 'Move In' to the Dept. of Justice | Common Dreams
"Underwater homeowners and hundreds of allies barricaded the front door of the Department of Justice building Monday afternoon to protest the "too big to jail banks" who have shirked punishment despite having destroyed "homes, savings and livelihoods"."

The Government Bans Doctors Who Can’t Repay Their Student Loans From Treating Medicare Patients

The Government Bans Doctors Who Can’t Repay Their Student Loans From Treating Medicare Patients: Over ten percent of all doctors and nurses on the government’s Medicare and Medicaid blacklist end up on it because they defaulted on government-backed student loans. Medical workers on the blacklist are barred from treating Medicare and Medicaid patients or receiving federal reimbursements for a predesignated time period. According to a Modern Healthcare analysis of [...]/p

Senator Undertakes $3-Per-Day Food Stamp Challenge As Congress Readies Cuts

Senator Undertakes $3-Per-Day Food Stamp Challenge As Congress Readies Cuts: As the farm bill approved by the Agriculture Committee last week reaches the Senate floor Monday afternoon, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) will be a few hours into an experiment: eating for a week on the meager food budget afford by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Murphy announced on Twitter that he would take the [...]/p

Chris Christie's Conservative Agenda

Multinational Corporations Have No Allegiance to Any Nation or Citizens, Only to Profit

Multinational Corporations Have No Allegiance to Any Nation or Citizens, Only to Profit
"The damage caused by the relentless corporate drive for profits has become more clear in recent years. In the most important areas of American life, devastating changes have occurred"

What PBS’s Treatment of Two Movies About The Kochs Says About Which Money Counts In Public Television

What PBS’s Treatment of Two Movies About The Kochs Says About Which Money Counts In Public Television: In this week’s New Yorker, Jane Mayer, who has covered the industrialists Charles and David Koch extensively, chronicles the fate of two documentaries produced for PBS, Alex Gibney’s Park Avenue, which explored the lives of both wealthy residents of a single building on one end of the street and poorer New Yorkers at the other, [...]/p

The Courage to Put Yourself on the Line

The Courage to Put Yourself on the Line
"Demonstrators today are using their bodies to send a message to Eric Holder that it is time to stop shielding the big Wall Street banks from prosecution."

GOPer Who Got Millions in Farm Subsidies Thinks the Poor Should Starve Rather Than Get Food Stamps | Alternet

GOPer Who Got Millions in Farm Subsidies Thinks the Poor Should Starve Rather Than Get Food Stamps | Alternet
"The reason this is even more egregious than the usual Republican class warfare is that Fincher himself is a poster boy for government dependency. It's not just that he's benefited here and there from some government help. That sort of low-level hypocrisy is almost to be expected from these types. But Fincher has received millions -  $3.2 million as of June 2010 - in federal crop subsidies. The people who refer to themselves as  Tea Partiers threatened to derail his candidacy over this, but then they realized that they have no principles, and supported him anyway. He's now a member of the "Tea Party Caucus," which, amazingly, is something that actually exists. Fincher's brother and father also snatched another $6.7 million in subsidies as Stephen geared up to run for Congress on a platform of eliminating "wasteful government spending." The "wasteful spending" that he had in mind, of course, was that which serves policy aims with which he disagrees, such as keeping poor people alive."

A Word from Our Sponsor: Public Television’s Attempts to Placate David Koch | Common Dreams

A Word from Our Sponsor: Public Television’s Attempts to Placate David Koch | Common Dreams
"Among the wealthiest residents of 740 Park is David Koch, the billionaire industrialist, who, with his brother Charles, owns Koch Industries, a huge energy-and-chemical conglomerate. The Koch brothers are known for their strongly conservative politics and for their efforts to finance a network of advocacy groups whose goal is to move the country to the right."

Dissent or Terror: How Arizona's Counter Terrorism Apparatus, in Partnership with Corporate Interests, Turned on Occupy Phoenix

Dissent or Terror: How Arizona's Counter Terrorism Apparatus, in Partnership with Corporate Interests, Turned on Occupy Phoenix
"Records obtained by DBA/CMD indicate that, in some instances, these "counter terrorism" agencies worked in partnership with corporate interests to gather and disseminate intelligence relating to the activities of citizens engaged in the Occupy Wall Street movement. Ironically, records indicate that corporate entities engaged in such public-private intelligence sharing partnerships were often the very same corporate entities criticized, and protested against, by the Occupy Wall Street movement as having undue influence in the functions of public government."

Investigation Into Oil Industry Price Rigging Mirrors LIBOR Scandal

Investigation Into Oil Industry Price Rigging Mirrors LIBOR Scandal: The European Union is investigating price-rigging in the global oil market, a widely-known yet unaddressed problem. That investigation hit a peak with last Tuesday’s raids of British Petroleum, Royal Dutch Shell, and Statoil offices. By the end of the week, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) asked the U.S. Justice Department to undertake its own investigation into the [...]/p

Republican accidentally debunks GOP narrative at IRS hearing

www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/18/republican-accidentally-debunks-gop-narrative-at-irs-hearing/
The facts are that the IRS was not only “targeting” conservatives. In fact, conservatives were only 1/3 of the groups “targeted”. Read the definition of a 501C 3 or 4 and ask yourself where any of these astroturf Tea Party groups fall into it. It's called doing your job. Oh, and the only group denied this status was a LIBERAL one. The Tea Party and the extremists “Patriot” groups are full-on, 100%, dipped in cement political organizations. Period! They laughingly use the term “issues” to somehow represent proof of their non-profit status. "Of the 298 groups subjected to additional review, 72 were “tea party” groups, 11 were “9/12″ groups and 13 were “patriots” groups"."

Republicans Are Using Faux IRS Outrage to Protect Citizens United

www.politicususa.com/conservatives.html
"Republicans will hold investigations and hearings and focus on neutering the IRS to shield organizations like Crossroads GPS and Americans for Prosperity, because with unlimited donations from anonymous donors, Rove and the Kochs will eventually insert their proxies in the highest office(s) in government and Citizens United will have allowed the Koch brothers’ to buy the government which has been their intent since they bought the Supreme Court in 2010."

House GOP: No Free Lunch for 200,000 Poor Kids | Common Dreams

House GOP: No Free Lunch for 200,000 Poor Kids | Common Dreams
"On Wednesday, the House Ag Committee voted to cut $21 billion out of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

The cuts would yank food stamps away from 2 million people, and get this: 200,000 poor and hungry kids would no longer able to get free school lunches."

Why Repealing Obamacare Is A Horrible Idea

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Republicans Practice The Politics Of Distraction

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Don't Tax The Rich, Take Money From The Poor

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6 Key Takeaways From the Stupidity and Reality of IRS 'Scandal' | Alternet

6 Key Takeaways From the Stupidity and Reality of IRS 'Scandal' | Alternet
"Media coverage of this scandal has had the wrong starting line. It wasn’t the IRS that deluged its staff with thousands of applications from political groups pretending to be charities. It was groups following the advice or example of campaign consultants such as Karl Rove. He was the first to use this ruse on a large scale in order to run a shadow presidential campaign where he could hide his donors’ identities.

The way this works is simple. After the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling deregulated campaign finances, political operators looked for ambiguities to exploit and turned to non-profit tax law—knowing the agency's primary focus has nothing to do with electioneering. One of the legal ambiguities is the fiction that "public education" and "lobbying" activities by non-profits groups are not political (and thus subject to election law) if they comprise more than 50 percent of that group’s activities. So that’s what Karl Rove ginned up with his non-profit Crossroads GPS, which spent $123 million for the 2012 federal elections, according to the Sunlight Foundation, with 70 percent raised from secret donors."

Elizabeth Warren Slams ‘Dangerous’ Legislation That Would Weaken Wall Street Reform

Elizabeth Warren Slams ‘Dangerous’ Legislation That Would Weaken Wall Street Reform: A week after a bipartisan group of lawmakers on the House Financial Services Committee overwhelmingly approved a rollback of certain financial reforms contained in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act, one of the Senate’s biggest consumer advocates is pushing back. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D) came out swinging against the repeal of new rules meant [...]/p

Sen. Warren Requests Records On Bank Settlement Tradeoffs

Sen. Warren Requests Records On Bank Settlement Tradeoffs
"It's so nice to hear a high-profile senator asking the same question that's been on the minds of voters for some time now. Fortunately, Sen. Warren is popular enough that the bankers are a tad afraid of her"

PERRspectives: Republicans May Abort Debt Ceiling Hike, U.S. Economic Recovery

PERRspectives: Republicans May Abort Debt Ceiling Hike, U.S. Economic Recovery
"You read that right. Just days after the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office slashed its 2013 deficit forecast by $200 billion and projected the deficit as a percentage of GDP would fall to 2.1 percent by 2015 (below the Simpson-Bowles target of 2.5 percent), Republicans are adding new items to their ransom note."

How Monsanto Is Using Cronies in Congress to Take Away States' Rights to Label Genetically Modified Foods | Alternet

How Monsanto Is Using Cronies in Congress to Take Away States' Rights to Label Genetically Modified Foods | Alternet
"Sources report that Monsanto has begun secretly lobbying its Congressional allies to attach amendments to the Farm Bill that would preempt or prohibit states from requiring labels on GE foods."

Americans Who Battle Cancer Are Twice As Likely To Go Bankrupt, Even If They Have Health Insurance

Americans Who Battle Cancer Are Twice As Likely To Go Bankrupt, Even If They Have Health Insurance: Cancer patients are much more likely to go bankrupt than Americans who aren’t faced with a cancer diagnosis, a new study finds. Even the Americans who have access to health insurance aren’t necessarily safe from bankruptcy, since the high cost of treating cancer can still put an untenable strain their finances. A team of researchers [...]/p

LA Times Readers Resist Purchase by 'Right-Wing Radical Extremists' | Common Dreams

LA Times Readers Resist Purchase by 'Right-Wing Radical Extremists' | Common Dreams
"Protesters in Los Angeles joined the vocal movement aiming to prevent the possible purchase of the Tribune newspaper empire by the billionaire Koch brothers on Tuesday, holding a demonstration outside the offices of the Los Angeles Times which could be part of the deal."

Fox News Gives Karl Rove’s Crossroads Groups Millions In Free Airtime

Fox News Gives Karl Rove’s Crossroads Groups Millions In Free Airtime: Though Karl Rove receives a salary from Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp for his work as a Fox News Channel “political contributor,” his compensation doesn’t end there. The network frequently airs ads by his American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS political committees, as “news,” free of charge. A ThinkProgress review of Fox News Channel broadcasts over the [...]/p

Warnings For U.S. As Eurozone Austerity Produces Longest-Ever Recession

Warnings For U.S. As Eurozone Austerity Produces Longest-Ever Recession: Two weeks after announcing a record high unemployment rate, Europe’s official economic analysts today revealed another first for the currency union: The Eurozone’s ongoing recession is now the longest in the 14-year history of the euro. The Guardian notes the European economy has now shrunk a full percentage point over the past year: The eurozone [...]/p

New App Helps Consumers Avoid Koch Industries and Monsanto Products and Trace Corporate Ownership of Everything in Their Shopping Cart | Alternet

New App Helps Consumers Avoid Koch Industries and Monsanto Products and Trace Corporate Ownership of Everything in Their Shopping Cart | Alternet
"A new free app will help conscious consumers know whose pockets they are lining, and help them avoid supporting right-wing causes and truth-obscuring corporate conglomerates like Koch Industries and Monsanto."

The Biggest, Most Corrupt Bank Scheme That's Not Being Stopped

PERRspectives: CBO Slashes 2013 Deficit Forecast to $624 Billion

PERRspectives: CBO Slashes 2013 Deficit Forecast to $624 Billion
"On January 7, 200--two weeks before Barack Obama took the oath of office--the Congressional Budget Office forecast the federal budget deficit for fiscal year 2009 at $1.2 trillion. Now, theCBO is projecting the deficit will be only $624 billion for FY 2013, $200 billion less than the nonpartisan budget scorekeeper estimated as recently as February.

For policymakers in Washington, the implications couldn't be clearer. For starters, the counterproductive Beltway fixation on immediate debt reduction, which economists have warned is slowing U.S. economic growth and costing millions of jobs, should be jettisoned ASAP. And to be sure, the Republicans' next round of debt ceiling hostage-taking should be condemned as the economic sabotage it is."

Sen. Elizabeth Warren Questions Regulators’ Willingness To Prosecute Wall Street Banks

Sen. Elizabeth Warren Questions Regulators’ Willingness To Prosecute Wall Street Banks: Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D) isn’t letting regulators off the hook for their lack of prosecutions of Wall Street banks in the wake of the financial crisis. After using her initial Senate Banking Committee hearing to press regulators about whether big banks are “too big to trial,” Warren is doing so again — this time [...]/p

Sen. Warren Continues Campaign Against 'Too Big To Jail' Banks | Common Dreams

Sen. Warren Continues Campaign Against 'Too Big To Jail' Banks | Common Dreams
"Following up on a series of questions first posed during a Senate Banking Committee Hearing earlier this year that left her concerned that the nation's largest banks weren't only "too big to fail" but "too big to jail," Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) on Tuesday sent a strongly worded letter to the heads of the SEC, the Justice Dept, and Federal Reserve demanding a better explanation about how these large financial institutions continue to avoid criminal trials or more aggressive prosecution by government regulators."

3 Ways Sequestration is Taking a Toll on Struggling Americans

Senate Committee Approves $4B In Food Aid Cuts As House Preps Even Worse Measure

Senate Committee Approves $4B In Food Aid Cuts As House Preps Even Worse Measure: The average value of federal food aid will fall to $1.40 per person per meal in November, as a Recovery Act provision expires, but Republicans are already working to impose a further $21 billion in cuts to the program. That’s the upshot of two recent Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reports on the future [...]/p

How The GOP Is Putting America’s Safety Net Hospitals At Risk Of Bankruptcy

How The GOP Is Putting America’s Safety Net Hospitals At Risk Of Bankruptcy: In light of Republican-led states’ entrenched opposition to Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion, safety net hospitals around the country have expressed fears that they could go bankrupt as their government funding gets cut. On Monday, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that it would help these embattled hospitals by paring back planned cuts to [...]/p