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GOP Came To Power Seeking Government Shutdown

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GOP Abandons Democracy Over Obamacare

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In Their Own Words: Federal Workers Reveal How The Shutdown Will Impact Their Lives

In Their Own Words: Federal Workers Reveal How The Shutdown Will Impact Their Lives:
"Come midnight on Tuesday, if Congress doesn’t pass a continuing resolution that would fund the government, it will shut down until one can be passed. For federal workers, this means either facing a furlough or being forced to go to work without pay until the government is funded again. Close to a million federal workers who are deemed to be nonessential could be furloughed, and while they were paid back wages the last time the government shut down and reopened, there is no guarantee."

Billionaire Republican Funder Loses Bogus Defamation Suit, Ordered To Pay Court Fees

Billionaire Republican Funder Loses Bogus Defamation Suit, Ordered To Pay Court Fees:
"Adelson and his wife spent a reported $150 million to help elect Republican candidates in 2012. Last month, he reportedly agreed to pay $47.4 million in fines to settle a federal money laundering investigation, but is still facing separate inquiries into alleged foreign corrupt practices."

Thank the GOP for the Shutdown and Holding the Economy Hostage | Common Dreams

Thank the GOP for the Shutdown and Holding the Economy Hostage | Common Dreams
"So we know the sequester will give us deteriorating government services, higher unemployment, and slower economic growth. That's the track record which prompts the Wall Street Journal's boasts – and the GOP's misguided actions – in favor of even more austerity."

CNN Host Asks GOP Representatives Whether They’d Give Up Their Salary During A Shutdown, Hilarity Ensues

CNN Host Asks GOP Representatives Whether They’d Give Up Their Salary During A Shutdown, Hilarity Ensues:
"On Monday, CNN host Ashleigh Banfield confronted two Republican representatives — Reps. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) — to see whether they themselves would be willing to forgo a paycheck in the event of a government shutdown, something nearly every other federal employee would be forced to do."

Poking Holes In CNBC and JP Morgan's Cozy Little Bubble

Poking Holes In CNBC and JP Morgan's Cozy Little Bubble
"If you want to understand Wall Street, this little clip will explain it quite well. Alex Pareene somehow landed on a CNBC segment with Maria Bartiromo and Duff McDonald. The ensuing hilarity is, on some level, not hilarious but instead pathetic.

What's instructive about this segment is the disconnect between the Wall Streeters and the rest of us. Pareene laid it out quite well at the beginning of the segment where he said Jamie Dimon should be fired from JP Morgan simply on the basis of the fines and regulatory levies against the bank. McDonald and Bartiromo were shocked -- SHOCKED -- because...profits."

21 Things Republicans Have Demanded In Exchange For Not Shutting Down The Government Or Tanking The Global Economy

21 Things Republicans Have Demanded In Exchange For Not Shutting Down The Government Or Tanking The Global Economy:
"Since the Republicans took over the House of Representatives in 2011, they have repeatedly attempted to use the prospect of a government shutdown or a debt default as leverage. A shutdown would furlough close to a million federal workers and cut off essential services for millions more Americans, while a default on U.S. debt, even according to Speaker John Boehner, could devastate the global economy. While the recent debate has focused on Obamacare, that is just the latest in a series of demands made by Republicans. The following is a list of things that have been, at various times, demanded by Republicans under threat of a government shutdown or default"

Republicans Lose Business Allies As They Push U.S. Toward Shutdown

Republicans Lose Business Allies As They Push U.S. Toward Shutdown: Typical GOP allies such as the Chamber of Commerce and major executives are warning against the party's push toward a shutdown.

PERRspectives: Better Dead and Red: How the GOP Blocked Health Care for Red State Americans

PERRspectives: Better Dead and Red: How the GOP Blocked Health Care for Red State Americans
"Study after study has long shown that health care is worst in precisely those states where Republicans poll best. But in their zeal to discredit a president they loathe, GOP leaders across the nation passed up an historic opportunity to bring health insurance, greater financial security and higher standards of living to millions of their own constituents. When they didn't outright deny coverage to red state residents, Republicans did their damnedest to prevent their voters from even learning about their options under the ACA. And what "information" about Obamacare the GOP's best and brightest regurgitated simply wasn't true."

Dear Congress – Stop This Manufactured Crisis | Common Dreams

Dear Congress – Stop This Manufactured Crisis | Common Dreams
"Forty-one organizations, representing millions of Americans, have signed this letter to Congress, asking them to stand against those who would “hold our economy hostage in order to dictate the terms of the debate"."

The Complete Guide To The GOP’s Three-Year Campaign To Shut Down The Government

The Complete Guide To The GOP’s Three-Year Campaign To Shut Down The Government
Republicans hold the nation hostage AUG 5 2011: Standard & Poor’s issues the first downgrade of the nation’s credit rating, saying the “political brinkmanship of recent months” had shown evidence of “America’s governance and policymaking becoming less stable, less effective, and less predictable.” This costs the country a million jobs and $19 billion.

Idiots Rule as House Republicans Vote to Shut Down the Government Over Obamacare

www.politicususa.com/2013/09/29/idiots-rule-house-republicans-vote-shut-government-obamacare.html
"Whether House Republicans want to admit it or not, there is a sizable contingent among their ranks who have been chasing after this moment since the day that they arrived in Washington. The idiot ideologues completed their takeover of the House Republicans tonight. They are firmly in charge now. John Boehner, Eric Cantor, and the rest of the House leadership were nowhere to be found as their party went down in flames.
It was as if the Republican leadership thought that if they stay away, they will avoid the blame for this entire situation. Out of sight, out of mind won’t work on this one. Boehner’s caving to the extremists is what caused this series of events to play out the way that they have."

PERRspectives: 10 Things John Boehner Doesn't Want You to Know about the Debt

PERRspectives: 10 Things John Boehner Doesn't Want You to Know about the Debt
"So it's come down to this. Once again kowtowing to the most extreme members of his Republican Party, House Speaker John Boehner is willing to shut down the federal government and trigger a global economic meltdown, all in the GOP's quixotic quest to defund, delay or otherwise damage Obamacare."

Debunking the Propaganda Campaign to Kill Obamacare | Alternet

Debunking the Propaganda Campaign to Kill Obamacare | Alternet
"You can bet the figure that will stay in recipients’ minds is the prospect of $2,672 in savings, compared to current costs. Most people will ignore the anti-Obamacare noise and see just what they can get for $222 less a month."

Sanders' Epic Senate Rant Shames 'Right-Wing Extremists' for Shutdown Threat

Sanders' Epic Senate Rant Shames 'Right-Wing Extremists' for Shutdown Threat
"Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on Friday tore into what he called "extreme right-wing Republicans" for threatening to shut down the government and default on the nation's debts if President Barack Obama's health care reform law was not defunded."

Krugman: Plutocrats Have Become Sociopaths with Their Persecution Complexes | Alternet

Krugman: Plutocrats Have Become Sociopaths with Their Persecution Complexes | Alternet
"Insurance giant AIG's CEO is latest to compare criticism of his bonuses to 'lynchings.' Is he nuts?"

Republican Debt-Ceiling Demand: Nullify Democracy | Common Dreams

Republican Debt-Ceiling Demand: Nullify Democracy | Common Dreams
"So with the shutdown fight underway, Republicans are planning out what they will demand in exchange for not destroying the country by defaulting on the debt. It looks like they are going to demand a wish list of plutocratic crap."

Ted Cruz Is a Big Phony and A Giant Narcissist | Alternet

Ted Cruz Is a Big Phony and A Giant Narcissist | Alternet
"Ted Cruz, the Tea Party darling, fake-filibustered his way into headlines recently with a 21-hour anti-Obamacare verbal rampage that simultaneously made his party look stupid and accomplished nothing. It did, however, spread images of his smarmy mug across televisions and newspapers around the country, which is the outcome Cruz most ardently hoped for.

Cruz wants to come across as a populist who is fighting for regular Americans. But there’s only one thing this guy is interested in: Ted Cruz."

Nearly Four In Ten American Workers Are Living Paycheck To Paycheck Each Week

Nearly Four In Ten American Workers Are Living Paycheck To Paycheck Each Week: A huge proportion of the working population is under constant, acute, and psychologically damaging financial stress.

California Governor Signs Law Raising Minimum Wage To $10 Per Hour

California Governor Signs Law Raising Minimum Wage To $10 Per Hour:
"California’s minimum hourly wage will rise to $9 by next July and $10 by the beginning of 2016 after Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed the wage hike into law Wednesday."

The Radicalism of Today’s Austerity in One Chart | Economic Policy Institute

The Radicalism of Today’s Austerity in One Chart | Economic Policy Institute
"So there have been radicals in fiscal policy debates in U.S. politics over the past 5 years, and they’ve won. And the country is much worse off for it."

Republicans Will Raise The Debt Ceiling For One Year Only If Obama Becomes A Republican

Republicans Will Raise The Debt Ceiling For One Year Only If Obama Becomes A Republican: Republicans are threatening to push the nation into default unless President Obama and the Democrats in the Senate agree to enact a wish list of Republican priorities.

Exposed: Enron billionaire’s diabolical plot to loot worker pensions

Exposed: Enron billionaire’s diabolical plot to loot worker pensions
"The goals of the plot against pensions are both straightforward and deceptive. On the surface, the primary objective is to convert traditional defined-benefit pension funds that guarantee retirement income into riskier, costlier schemes that reduce benefits and income guarantees, and subject taxpayers and millions of workers’ retirement funds to Enron’s casino-style economics.
At the same time, waging a high-profile fight for such an objective also simultaneously helps achieve the conservative movement’s larger goal of protecting profligate corporate subsidies."

Poll: 80% Say Government Shutdown Threats 'Unacceptable'

Poll: 80% Say Government Shutdown Threats 'Unacceptable'
"Americans are united across party lines in thinking that threatening a government shutdown as a negotiating ploy is unacceptable. In a new CBS News/New York Times poll, 80 percent of people said no, it's not okay to do that."

Senator Sanders Continues Relentless Flogging Of Extremist GOP

Senator Sanders Continues Relentless Flogging Of Extremist GOP
"Congressional Republicans are threatening to shut down the federal government next Tuesday unless the Affordable Care Act is defunded. The truth is that they’re just warming up and some of their other ideas are even further “off the deep end,” Sen. Bernie Sanders told radio host Bill Press on Tuesday. Then in a Senate floor speech, Sanders detailed a Republican to-do list that ranges from abolishing Social Security, privatizing VA health care, getting rid of the EPA, junking the minimum wage and more."

Hey, white guys: No, you’re not the victim of a “lynch mob”

Hey, white guys: No, you’re not the victim of a “lynch mob”
"To compare being the target of protest or criticism to the shameful, horrific, common practice of lynching — or to think you can append some idiotic modifier like “digital” and use the phrase to mean whatever you want — isn’t just ignorant. It cheapens the phrase, strips it of meaning, and dilutes the awfulness, and the appalling recentness, of a great generational crime against black Americans."

AIG CEO Says Executives Were Lynched ‘Like In The Deep South’

AIG CEO Says Executives Were Lynched ‘Like In The Deep South’:
"In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, AIG CEO Bob Benmosche came out with the worst analogy for the 2009 financial crisis. Benmosche compared public outrage over AIG’s bonuses to the Deep South lynching African-Americans."

It's the Austerity, Stupid: How We Were Sold an Economy-Killing Lie

www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/09/austerity-reinhart-rogoff-stimulus-debt-ceiling
"Austerity is working out fine for the 1 percent: Their jobs are safe, their investments are growing, and their taxes are low. But the rest of us are paying a high price in the form of slow growth, high unemployment, and stagnant wages for years to come. All things considered, we've been remarkably tolerant of our fate. The folks who run the world might do well to ponder how long that's going to last."

Congress Plans To Spend Less And Less On Children Over The Next Decade

Congress Plans To Spend Less And Less On Children Over The Next Decade: 2012 saw the biggest one-year drop in spending on kids since the 1980s, and it's just the beginning.

20 White Males from the Power Elite Who Belong in the American Hall of Shame | Alternet

20 White Males from the Power Elite Who Belong in the American Hall of Shame | Alternet
"Out of 300 million Americans, a few thousand wield disproportionate economic and political influence because of their positions at the pinnacle of America's corporate and media establishments or their roles as political allies (or puppets) of the corporate ruling class."

How Labor Policies Affect Workers' Happiness

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CMD Launches OutsourcingAmericaExposed.org to "Expose the Private Companies Behind the Corporate Takeover of Public Services"

CMD Launches OutsourcingAmericaExposed.org to "Expose the Private Companies Behind the Corporate Takeover of Public Services"
"Across the country, for-profit companies are engaged in a hostile takeover of our schools, roads, prisons, drinking water, and even local government itself"

Decreased Profits For Darden Owned Restaurants Will Really Hit The Wait Staff

Decreased Profits For Darden Owned Restaurants Will Really Hit The Wait Staff
"The entire tip-sharing system is a scam. It's nothing more than a way for business owners to pay less, while putting some of the financial liability on those that don't deserve it - the $3.85/hr waiter. In a common-sense world, it would be illegal.

My suggestion is to ask next time you go to a restaurant. Ask the host if they do tip-sharing/tip-pooling. If the answer is yes, then leave. Sure it still hurts the staff, but now it also hurts the company and management. It's time for them to feel the pain they have been pushing off onto their employees."

Washington Healthplanfinder

www.wahealthplanfinder.org/
For Washington residents who currently do not have affordable, quality health insurance the first place to look for insurance is at the Washington Health Benefit Exchange, also called the Washington Healthplanfinder. While the exchange officially opens for business on October 1, you can search their website today at wahealthplanfinder.org or you can call for information or to ask questions at 1-855-WAFINDER (1-855-923-4633) or TTY/TDD 1-855-627-9604.

Some additional online resources include: 

· The federal government has its own marketplace website called the Federal Health Insurance Marketplace at HealthCare.gov

· Medicaid eligibility has been expanded so you might want to look at Medicaid Coverage at medicaid.gov 

· If you need insurance for children DSHS provides through Apple Health for Kids at hca.wa.gov/applehealth/

Add It Up: The Average American Family Pays $6,000 a Year in Subsidies to Big Business | Common Dreams

Add It Up: The Average American Family Pays $6,000 a Year in Subsidies to Big Business | Common Dreams
"Overall, American families are paying an annual $6,000 subsidy to corporations that havedoubled their profits and cut their taxes in half in ten years while cutting 2.9 million jobs in the U.S. and adding almost as many jobs overseas.
This is more than an insult. It's a devastating attack on the livelihoods of tens of millions of American families. And Congress just lets it happen."

The Middle Class Does Better In States With Lots Of Union Members

The Middle Class Does Better In States With Lots Of Union Members: Middle class families bring home significant more money where unions are strongest.

Food Stamps: Rhetoric vs Reality

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GOP Preys On Weak, Hides Behind Religion

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House GOP Didn't Get Pope’s Memo On Poor Before Slashing Food Stamps | Alternet

House GOP Didn't Get Pope’s Memo On Poor Before Slashing Food Stamps | Alternet
"There’s nothing new about the House GOP’s war on America’s poor. They want people to go hungry. They want to deny people healthcare. Those were the bottom lines in votes on Thursday and Friday."

It's Time For Some Straight Talk About the GOP Budget

It's Time For Some Straight Talk About the GOP Budget
"When it comes to the economy, the White House is talking tough to the Republicans ... about the debt ceiling. It's true that the threat to shut down the government by refusing to honor its debt obligations is downright un-American. The Administration's right to call them out for that. But there's a larger question: Who's going to give the American people some straight talk about the GOP's economic ideas?

Forget the debt ceiling for a moment, if you can. Forget the GOP's attempt to shut down the government over the Affordable Care Act. Who is going to explain to the American people how profoundly misguided, and even immoral, the Republicans' entire economic agenda has become?"

House Republicans Heartless Food Stamp Cuts

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Cruz Plays Chicken With Obamacare

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Push For Paid Sick Days Kicks Off In Vermont

Push For Paid Sick Days Kicks Off In Vermont: Advocates are hopeful that the state legislature will pass a paid sick days bill next year.

Lockup Quotas Help For-Profit Prison Companies Keep Profits High and Prisons Full

Lockup Quotas Help For-Profit Prison Companies Keep Profits High and Prisons Full
"For-profit prison companies like Corrections Corporation of American and GEO Group are no strangers to controversy. Their business model rests on incarceration, and their profits soared throughout the 1990s and 2000s as harsh sentencing laws, the War on Drugs, and tough immigration enforcement led to a dramatic rise in detention and incarceration. But with crime rates dropping for more than a decade and a new push for sentencing reform and cost-effective alternatives to incarceration, for-profit prison operators have found a new way to keep beds full and profits high. They call them "bed guarantees"."

The Crazy Party | Common Dreams

The Crazy Party | Common Dreams
"So now we get to witness the hilarious spectacle of Karl Rove in The Wall Street Journal, pleading with Republicans to recognize the reality that Obamacare can’t be defunded. Why hilarious? Because Mr. Rove and his colleagues have spent decades trying to ensure that the Republican base lives in an alternate reality defined by Rush Limbaugh and Fox News."

How Private Prison Firms Use Quotas To Fill Cells And Coffers

How Private Prison Firms Use Quotas To Fill Cells And Coffers: A record number of lawmakers may be calling for shorter sentences and less people in prison. But in the prison industry, contracts with states and local jurisdictions commit them to filling private prison beds — or pay them to keep those beds empty.

Report: For Millions, Insurance Will Cost Less Than $100/Month

Report: For Millions, Insurance Will Cost Less Than $100/Month
"About 6.4 million Americans eligible to buy insurance through the new health exchanges will pay $100 or less a month in premiums because of tax subsidies, according to a Department of Health and Human Services report released this week."

Sneaky Ways For-Profit Prisons Steal Taxpayer Money

Sneaky Ways For-Profit Prisons Steal Taxpayer Money
"Is there a clearer example of why services which the government should be providing should not be privatized? What happens when charter schools start negotiating with school districts for seat guarantees after they fail to perform up to standards, for example? Taxpayers are paying for substandard services because profits matter more to these corporations than the service they're providing."

Meet Cuccinelli's Top Donor: Corrupt Coal Baron Bob Murray

Meet Cuccinelli's Top Donor: Corrupt Coal Baron Bob Murray
"So that's Cuccinelli's largest individual donor from the last cycle. $30,000 from an extremist billionaire that is funding an Obama impeachment effort, that extorts money from his low wage employees, and fires his workforce wholesale in fits of spite when electoral results disappoint him."

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) discusses the economy and income inequality on the floor of the Senate

Five Major Ways That Republicans Are Trying To Sabotage Obamacare

Five Major Ways That Republicans Are Trying To Sabotage Obamacare: Obamacare opponents have been trying their hardest to sabotage health care reform on both the state and federal levels. These five tactics make up the overall Republican strategy to drag down the law.

The House’s Un-American Activities | Common Dreams

The House’s Un-American Activities | Common Dreams
"What the Republicans are attempting to do is, therefore, both unconstitutional and a violation of their own sworn promise – an oath sworn on the Bible they claim to revere. Their consciences must decide whether their behavior is un-Godly, but the Constitution they swore to uphold makes it pretty plain that it’s un-American."

Senator Bernie Sanders: 'Do You Want to Know Why People Are Angry?'

Senator Bernie Sanders: 'Do You Want to Know Why People Are Angry?'
"A middle-class American family made less last year than in 1989, according to a new Census Bureau report released on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Forbes magazine this week reported that the 400 wealthiest Americans doubled what they were worth a decade ago and “finally gained back all that they lost” in the 2008 economic collapse."

Watch The 1 Percent Gobble Up The Country’s Income

Watch The 1 Percent Gobble Up The Country’s Income:
"Growing income inequality has been fueled by misguided policy. Wall Street deregulation brought big profits, boosting the incomes of the 1 percent who clustered in finance."

Koch-backed conservatives go pro-cervical cancer

Koch-backed conservatives go pro-cervical cancer
"The right's campaign to convince young people to remain uninsured rather than enroll in Obamacare hits a new low"

Breaking: New List of the Dark Money Shell Game Groups Connected to the Kochs

Breaking: New List of the Dark Money Shell Game Groups Connected to the Kochs
"Some of these groups have been directly connected to the Koch fortune by prior research, such as the Heritage Foundation's arms (which are long-time recipients of Koch money), the Center for Shared Service (which helps recruit right-wingers for jobs in the Koch network and which shares an office building with the Charles Koch Foundation) Themis and Libre (which advance Koch corporate agenda of Ayn Rand-style economic policies), and the Tea Party groups (which the Kochs initially claimed to the New Yorker's Jane Mayer that they had little to do with, despite evidence to the contrary).
Other groups were not yet tied to Koch money, like Generation Opportunity (which is aimed at college graduates struggling to find work in this economy and which attempts to blame progressive policies for the economic crisis that was actually spurred by Koch-style deregulation peddled by David Koch's Citizens for a Sound Economy, which pressed for the repeal of Glass-Steagall protections, the predecessor group of Koch's Americans for Prosperity)."

Downturn Despair: Suicides Spike in Age of Austerity | Common Dreams

Downturn Despair: Suicides Spike in Age of Austerity | Common Dreams
"The global economic crisis in 2008 has been linked to a rise in suicides in Europe and the U.S., among other countries, according to a new study."

Job And Business Growth Strong Under Seattle’s Paid Sick Days Law

Job And Business Growth Strong Under Seattle’s Paid Sick Days Law: Preliminary data show paid sick days have had no negative impact on businesses or jobs.

Young People's Unhappiness Comes from Our Broken Economic System -- And They Shouldn't Not Shut Up About It | Alternet

Young People's Unhappiness Comes from Our Broken Economic System -- And They Shouldn't Not Shut Up About It | Alternet
"The media love to analyze millennials. It's almost like there's a competition to see who can rip apart Generation Y in the snarkiest fashion. 

But most of this work ends up overly simplistic, ignoring the economic and social forces that shape young people's lives. They almost seem eager to silence millenials’ uneasiness about our world. "

The 99% Two Years After Occupy Wall Street

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Banksters Jack Up Your Gas Prices...

Dr. Richard Wolff on the Bankster's Great Recession

3 Charts That Show The GOP’s Budget Demands Keep Getting More Extreme

3 Charts That Show The GOP’s Budget Demands Keep Getting More Extreme: Republicans keep moving the goalposts and demanding more austerity.

400 Richest Americans Worth More Than GDP of Canada or Mexico

400 Richest Americans Worth More Than GDP of Canada or Mexico
"Anybody feeling any trickle down dollars out there?
It's only raining money and jewels and bonds and dividends on the top 1%.
And they aren't pulling out their umbrellas; they are stashing their money overseas and moving their factories to slave wage workforces in other nations.
Isn't this the kind of arrogance, exploitation and gluttony that kindled the French Revolution?"

Republican Pushes Food Stamp Cuts, Has 0 Problem With Massive Giveaways to Big Food Industry | Alternet

Republican Pushes Food Stamp Cuts, Has 0 Problem With Massive Giveaways to Big Food Industry | Alternet
"By the way, those rich single mothers with children are among those lazy bums those Republicans believe have developed a culture of dependency on food and must be taught a lesson."

Colbert Report: The Guilted Age

Colbert Report: The Guilted Age
"Stephen Colbert took the pundits on Fox whose favorite pastime is to shame and attack the poor during his Word segment this Monday, along with the haters in Portland Oregon who sent out the fliers targeting the disabled last month.

It's nice to see the talking heads over at Faux "news" from their so-called "business block" getting the treatment they deserve once again on Comedy Central."

Government Hands More Than $1 Trillion to Wealthy While Deficit Is $642 Billion

Government Hands More Than $1 Trillion to Wealthy While Deficit Is $642 Billion
"That’s right, the government is cutting services and laying off hundreds upon hundreds of thousands in the name of cutting deficits, while handing more than $1 trillion a year to the wealthiest. The rest of us pay taxes and suffer cuts in jobs and services to make up this lost money.
According to the report, lots of 1%ers will pay no taxes at all this year, while the country cuts jobs and services in the name of cutting the deficit."

Anniversary Present for Wall Street Banks: A Financial Speculation Tax | Common Dreams

Anniversary Present for Wall Street Banks: A Financial Speculation Tax | Common Dreams
"As we mark the fifth anniversary of the Wall Street bailouts, it is clear that little has changed in the way they do business. They are still engaging in the same sorts of market manipulation and tax gaming as they did before the crisis."

The Myth of the “Free Market” and How to Make the Economy Work for Us | Common Dreams

The Myth of the “Free Market” and How to Make the Economy Work for Us | Common Dreams
"One of the most deceptive ideas continuously sounded by the Right (and its fathomless think tanks and media outlets) is that the “free market” is natural and inevitable, existing outside and beyond government. So whatever inequality or insecurity it generates is beyond our control. And whatever ways we might seek to reduce inequality or insecurity — to make the economy work for us — are unwarranted constraints on the market’s freedom, and will inevitably go wrong."

Memo to Washington: The Occupy Movement Lives | Common Dreams

Memo to Washington: The Occupy Movement Lives | Common Dreams
"The Occupy movement wasn’t the foundation for change; it was the reflection of a deeper desire for it. It was the effect, not the cause, and it won’t disappear because of the wishful thinking of a few."

Under Obamacare, Millions Of Americans Will Pay Less Than $100 Per Month For Health Insurance

Under Obamacare, Millions Of Americans Will Pay Less Than $100 Per Month For Health Insurance: According to a new report from the Obama administration, more than half of the Americans who are currently uninsured will be able to access health coverage under Obamacare for less than $100 each month.

JP Morgan To Admit Misconduct In $800 Million ‘London Whale’ Settlement

JP Morgan To Admit Misconduct In $800 Million ‘London Whale’ Settlement: The scope of any admission of guilt remains to be seen.

Summers Bows Out Of Fed Chair

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This Federal Reserve Chair Race Really Has People Talking

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Occupy's 2nd Anniversary: Let's Never Forget That We're the Majority, 99 to 1 | Alternet

Occupy's 2nd Anniversary: Let's Never Forget That We're the Majority, 99 to 1 | Alternet
"The famed 99% meme that the movement blazed into mainstream consciousness still lives on in the mass mind, like a festering infected thorn in the side of Goliath."

What You Need To Know Before This Week’s House Vote On Food Stamps

What You Need To Know Before This Week’s House Vote On Food Stamps: Republicans are proposing big cuts. Here's what that would mean.

Made In America: Wal-Mart's Gluttony, or How the Waltons Get To Keep Their Grubby Paws On Most of Their Billions | Common Dreams

Made In America: Wal-Mart's Gluttony, or How the Waltons Get To Keep Their Grubby Paws On Most of Their Billions | Common Dreams
"Greed, thy name is Walton. In the wake of Wal-Mart's successful bullying of D.C. into rejecting a living wage that would have cost them pennies relative to their $100 billion - or more wealth than the entire bottom 40% of the country that helped them make it -Bloomberg details how America's richest family stays that way through a complex network of technically legal but morally sketchy loopholes allowing them to hoard their money and avoid taxes meant to prevent such plutocratic dynasties, set up on the backs of underpaid workers, from existing in the first place."

The Origins of Our Police State | Common Dreams

The Origins of Our Police State | Common Dreams
"The tyranny of law enforcement in poor communities is a window into our emerging police state. These thuggish tactics are now being used against activists and dissidents. And as the nation unravels, as social unrest spreads, the naked face of police repression will become commonplace."

Six Reasons Another Financial Crisis Is Inevitable | Common Dreams

Six Reasons Another Financial Crisis Is Inevitable | Common Dreams
"Five years after the fall of Lehman Brothers and the worst financial crisis since 1929, one thing seems certain: another meltdown of the financial system seems inevitable. Why? Because we still haven't fixed many of the problems that led to the last crisis."

We've Got a Billionaire Bailout Society—And the 99% May Never Recover From It In Our Lifetimes | Alternet

We've Got a Billionaire Bailout Society—And the 99% May Never Recover From It In Our Lifetimes | Alternet
"The odds are that we in the bottom 99 percent may never see a recovery in our lifetimes. That's because our nation has evolved into something entirely new: a billionaire bailout society."

A Market in Desperate Need of Transparency

A Market in Desperate Need of Transparency
"If we're going to avoid another financial crisis, we need to ensure markets in need of transparency are actually getting sunlight. The EPA should release the names of the speculators to the public -- before they speculate our money away yet again."

Barney Frank Leaves Wall Street Defenders Speechless: Why Are Bankers ‘Paying Themselves So Much Money?’

Barney Frank Leaves Wall Street Defenders Speechless: Why Are Bankers ‘Paying Themselves So Much Money?’: It was a simple question, but the host of Meet the Press changed the subject quickly.

Fiscal Challenge Too Big For Weak GOP Leaders

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How the 1 Percent Suckered the Tea Party Crowd into Doing Their Bidding | Alternet

How the 1 Percent Suckered the Tea Party Crowd into Doing Their Bidding | Alternet
"Rich people’s movements have a permanent place in the American political bestiary. As long as one of our great political parties is programmatically allied with the radical rich, it is safe to predict that rich people’s movements will continue to influence public policy in ways that preserve—and perhaps even increase—the extremes of inequality in America."

Schultz: Reaganomics Failed - It's Time For Liberal Politics

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The Ripples Of Detroit's Bankruptcy

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Little Love for Wall Street Five Years Post-Crash | Common Dreams

Little Love for Wall Street Five Years Post-Crash | Common Dreams
"Five years since the financial crisis began, Americans' animosity toward Wall Street rages on."

Wisconsin Attorney General Seeks to Vitiate Open Records Law to Protect ALEC’s National Treasurer

Wisconsin Attorney General Seeks to Vitiate Open Records Law to Protect ALEC’s National Treasurer
"Van Hollen’s department asserted in court filings that Wisconsin Senator -- and American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) national treasurer -- Leah Vukmir cannot be served with a court order demanding that she comply with her legal responsibilities under the open records law.
This novel legal argument reverses the policy and practice of prior Attorneys General and would make any state legislator immune from enforcement of the state open records law and any other civil matter."

Warren: SCOTUS is becoming a “Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Big Business”

Warren: SCOTUS is becoming a “Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Big Business”
"The Massachusetts Senator calls out the court's five conservatives"

How a Koch Brothers 'Business League' Spent $236 Million to Frame the Debate | Common Dreams

How a Koch Brothers 'Business League' Spent $236 Million to Frame the Debate | Common Dreams
"This week, it has been revealed that Charles and David Koch and their wealthy partners funded an, until now, “secret bank” that made “grants” of $236 million during the 2012 election cycle to maintain the right-wing political infrastructure that advances their economic interests. And by all accounts, they’re just getting started."

How Some CEOs Cheat Their Way To Higher Pay

How Some CEOs Cheat Their Way To Higher Pay:
"The push to get CEOs their millions no matter what may help to explain why so many failures and fraudsters keep ending up on annual lists of the best-paid executives."

Mayor's Converge On Birmingham To Talk National Changes

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Deficit Falls To Lowest Level Since 2008, Discrediting Argument For More Cuts

Deficit Falls To Lowest Level Since 2008, Discrediting Argument For More Cuts:
"The falling deficits and lowered debt-to-GDP projections give the country room to enact targeted spending measures that would kick the economy into the sort of higher gear it needs to bring unemployment back down to pre-recession levels."

Secret Koch Fund Decries ‘Corporate Welfare’ And Stimulus But Funds Their Top Defender

Secret Koch Fund Decries ‘Corporate Welfare’ And Stimulus But Funds Their Top Defender: A tax-exempt group claims to fight runaway stimulus spending and "corporate welfare" but gave millions to the Chamber of Commerce, perhaps the top backer of those programs.

Five Years Since The Economic Collapse

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California Set to Increase Minimum Wage to $10 an Hour | Common Dreams

California Set to Increase Minimum Wage to $10 an Hour | Common Dreams
"California's lawmakers approved a bill on Thursday to raise the state minimum wage to $10 an hour over three years."

DC Mayor Runs to Fox 'News' After Vetoing 'Living Wage' Bill

DC Mayor Runs to Fox 'News' After Vetoing 'Living Wage' Bill
"Surprise, surprise. After vetoing a bill that would have required the largest retailers in his city to raise their minimum wage, DC Mayor Vincent Gray went running to the loving arms of the union-bashing Neil Cavuto on Fox."

Secret Quarter-Billion-Dollar Koch Brothers Political Operation Revealed | Alternet

Secret Quarter-Billion-Dollar Koch Brothers Political Operation Revealed | Alternet
"The top 1 percent has an investment in destroying middle-class America."

Why Are We Just Finding Out About The Koch Bank?

Why Are We Just Finding Out About The Koch Bank?
"The lesson from this is that if we have to put up with this kind of money flowing into our elections, thesources of that money should be disclosed in real time without the benefit of bogus nonprofit shields."

11 Questions You Should Ask Libertarians to See if They're Hypocrites | Alternet

11 Questions You Should Ask Libertarians to See if They're Hypocrites | Alternet
"the libertarian movement has seen a strong resurgence in recent years, and there’s a simple reason for that: money, and the personal interests of some people who have a lot of it. Once relegated to drug-fueled college-dorm bull sessions, political libertarianism suddenly had pretensions of legitimacy. This revival is Koch-fueled, not coke-fueled, and exists only because in political debate, as in so many other walks of life, cash is king.

The Koch brothers are principal funders of the Reason Foundation and Reason magazine."

How Big Money Bought North Carolina for Extremists | Right Wing Watch

How Big Money Bought North Carolina for Extremists | Right Wing Watch
"In the years since Citizens United, North Carolina has provided a clear example of what happens when a small number of corporate interests, allied with a far-right base, are allowed unbridled influence over elections. Since 2010, one North Carolina multimillionaire has marshaled the funds for a Republican takeover of the statehouse and governor’s mansion, leading to a slew of far-right legislation cutting benefits for working people, lowering teacher salaries, denying Medicaid coverage to half a million low-income people, defunding public education, eliminating protections against racial discrimination in the criminal justice system, gutting gun violence prevention efforts, attacking religious freedom and threatening women’s reproductive rights – all while cutting taxes for corporations and the wealthy."