Greed and Debt: The True Story of Mitt Romney and Bain Capital | Politics News | Rolling Stone

And this is where we get to the hypocrisy at the heart of Mitt Romney. Everyone knows that he is fantastically rich, having scored great success, the legend goes, as a "turnaround specialist," a shrewd financial operator who revived moribund companies as a high-priced consultant for a storied Wall Street private equity firm. But what most voters don't know is the way Mitt Romney actually made his fortune: by borrowing vast sums of money that other people were forced to pay back. This is the plain, stark reality that has somehow eluded America's top political journalists for two consecutive presidential campaigns: Mitt Romney is one of the greatest and most irresponsible debt creators of all time. In the past few decades, in fact, Romney has piled more debt onto more unsuspecting companies, written more gigantic checks that other people have to cover, than perhaps all but a handful of people on planet Earth.


Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/greed-and-debt-the-true-story-of-mitt-romney-and-bain-capital-20120829#ixzz253O5I100

Greed and Debt: The True Story of Mitt Romney and Bain Capital | Politics News | Rolling Stone

Matt Miller: The real Medicare villain - The Washington Post

Republicans cry that President Obama is raiding Medicare to fund a socialist health-care nightmare. Democrats blast the GOP for sticking grandma with vouchers to wreck a program they’ve secretly loathed for decades. Far be it from me to put the kibosh on all this drama, but when it comes to the policy stakes, such breathless charges are beside the point.
The real Medicare villain is not Barack Obama, and it’s not even “evil” Paul Ryan. The real villain is America’s medical-industrial complex — and once you grasp this, everything changes.

Matt Miller: The real Medicare villain - The Washington Post

Fear of a Black President - The Atlantic

As a candidate, Barack Obama said we needed to reckon with race and with America’s original sin, slavery. But as our first black president, he has avoided mention of race almost entirely. In having to be “twice as good” and “half as black,” Obama reveals the false promise and double standard of integration.


Fear of a Black President - The Atlantic

Goodbye to All That: Reflections of a GOP Operative Who Left the Cult

It should have been evident to clear-eyed observers that the Republican Party is becoming less and less like a traditional political party in a representative democracy and becoming more like an apocalyptic cult, or one of the intensely ideological authoritarian parties of 20th century Europe. This trend has several implications, none of them pleasant.

Goodbye to All That: Reflections of a GOP Operative Who Left the Cult

Paul Ryan's budget: 4 ways it proves he's not a fiscal mastermind - The Week

Mitt Romney's running mate has a reputation as a serious policy intellectual, but critics say his budget is just fuzzy math and magical thinking

posted on August 20, 2012

Paul Ryan's budget: 4 ways it proves he's not a fiscal mastermind - The Week

PoliGraph: GOP claim on Obama Medicare cuts misleads | Capitol View | Minnesota Public Radio

The law doesn't cut Medicare benefits.
Rather, the law slows the future growth of the program by reducing payments to Medicare Advantage, a private insurance alternative to the traditional Medicare program, and ties reimbursement to performance. Additionally, the law slows future growth in payments to hospitals and other providers, according to a joint reporting project by the Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation's Kaiser Health News.
The savings are used to help pay for other parts of the health law.
Up until recently, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimated the law would save about $500 billion over 10 years. But in July, the CBO increased its savings estimate to more than $700 billion over 10 years.
Finally, there's an important twist buried in all the rhetoric: Ryan's budget overturns Obama's health care law, but it preserves the Medicare savings.


PoliGraph: GOP claim on Obama Medicare cuts misleads | Capitol View | Minnesota Public Radio

Jonathan Cohn: If Somebody Is Raiding Medicare, It’s Not Obama. It’s Romney And Ryan. | The New Republic

Medicare Fix-Compare it to what Ryan and Romney have in mind. Ryan, again, has the same cuts in his budget. But he would rescind both the prescription drug assistance and the free preventative care. In other words, unlike Obama, Ryan would take benefits away from current retirees. And where would the money go? Ryan would it to offset other priorities in his budget, priorities that happen to include a very large tax cut for the rich.

So just to review: Obama takes money away from the health care industry and uses it to help people pay their medical bills. Some of those people include seniors already getting help with their drug bills and free preventative care. Ryan and, by implication, Romney takes the same money from the health care industry. But they also take away those new benefits for seniors, even as they find room in their tight budgets to cut taxes for the wealthy. ~ Jonathan Cohn




Jonathan Cohn: If Somebody Is Raiding Medicare, It’s Not Obama. It’s Romney And Ryan. | The New Republic

Kevin Hassett, world’s worst economist, works for Romney - Salon.com

Kevin Hassett, world’s worst economist, works for Romney - Salon.com

Hassett in the spin room is a familiar sight. He was an economic adviser to John McCain in 2000, George W. Bush in 2004, and then McCain again in 2008. One could well argue that his purpose in life is to manipulate reporters on the merits of the economic plans of Republican presidential candidates. After they are elected (or fail to be elected), he returns to his cushy think tank sinecure. He hasn’t actually been involved in making economic policy since the Clinton administration, when he served as a “policy consultant” to the Treasury Department.

MSNBC's Morning Joe: Tax Plans and Loopholes

July 17, 2012

In light of the current debate on President Obama’s plan to raise taxes on the rich and Romney’s proposed low tax rate, Steven Rattner presented these charts on today’s Morning Joe to highlight the major differences in their respective tax plans, their revenue impact on the budget, and major tax loopholes in the current tax code

MSNBC's Morning Joe: Tax Plans and Loopholes

The GOP vs. the Fed | Swampland | TIME.com

In one of the most important and under-appreciated developments in American politics, then, a longstanding consensus about the role of the Fed has been broken. There was a time when it was almost solely the fringy likes of Paul and his acoltyes who believed the Fed was one of America’s most dangerous institutions. But thanks to the rise of Paul–and of the libertarian, anti-institutional Tea Party he helped to create, today it’s simply mainstream Republican dogma.


Read more: http://swampland.time.com/2011/06/22/the-gop-vs-the-fed/#ixzz1z1KuxeQN


The GOP vs. the Fed | Swampland | TIME.com

No, the Fed Does NOT ‘Print Money’: Just Explain It | Daily Ticker - Yahoo! Finance

The Federal Reserve does not print money--the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing along with the U.S. Mint are responsible for that. The Federal Reserve, however, is responsible for putting these notes into circulation. This can be accomplished through open-market operations, which is basically the Fed buying and selling government bonds to the public. When it buys bonds, it puts more currency into the economy, thereby increasing the money supply. When it sells bonds, it takes currency away from circulation, and, consequently, decreases money supply.

Money supply manipulation is an important mission of the Federal Reserve, which acts as a central bank for the United States. You're right in indirectly pointing out that an increase in money supply leads to an increase in price levels (inflation), a decrease in the value of money, and a decrease in the interest rates (interest rates must fall to induce people to hold the additional money). When people have more money to spend, in the short run, they can use it to purchase more goods, thereby increasing the aggregate demand and helping avert a recession. 


No, the Fed Does NOT ‘Print Money’: Just Explain It | Daily Ticker - Yahoo! Finance

Strengthen Social Security

Bob Herbert on "Maddow Show": Gun Control Debate Is Held Hostage

Distinguished Senior Fellow Bob Herbert appeared on MSNBC's "Rachel Maddow Show" to discuss the conservative partisan uproar over Attorney General Holder's "Fast and Furious" program. Herbert explained that discussing gun issues in America is a frustrating, absurd process dominated by conspiracy theorists and gun proponents.


Bob Herbert on "Maddow Show": Gun Control Debate Is Held Hostage

welfare for the wealthy

When conservatives rail against redistribution, it’s important to understand what they mean by the term. It’s not that they are opposed to removing resources from one sector of the economy and moving them to another, but that they’re opposed to taxing funds from rich people, and directing them toward the poor. If you go from the other direction, taxing money from ordinary Americans and giving it to the rich, then there isn’t a problem.
To wit, the budget of GOP wunderkind Paul Ryan—which calls for big tax cuts, small deductions, and severe spending cuts—would raise middle-class taxes, and give a huge break to the wealthiest Americans. The Washington Post reports:

http://prospect.org/article/welfare-wealthy

Corporations are People, My Friend--Election 2012

FactCheck.org : Obama’s Spending: ‘Inferno’ or Not?

FactCheck.org : Obama’s Spending: ‘Inferno’ or Not?

Is President Obama’s spending an “inferno,” as Mitt Romney claims, or a binge that “never happened” as an analysis touted by the White House concluded? We judge that both of those claims are wrong on the facts.

The truth is that the nearly 18 percent spike in spending in fiscal 2009 — for which the president is sometimes blamed entirely — was mostly due to appropriations and policies that were already in place when Obama took office.
That includes spending for the bank bailout legislation approved by President Bush. Annual increases in amounts actually spent since fiscal 2009 have been relatively modest. In fact, spending for the first seven months of the current fiscal year is running slightly below the same period last year, and below projections.

Bruce Bartlett: The Fiscal Legacy of George W. Bush - NYTimes.com

Republicans assert that Barack Obama assumed sole responsibility for the budget on Jan. 20, 2009. From that date, all increases in the debt or deficit are his responsibility and no one else’s, they say.

This is, of course, nonsense – and the American people know it. As I documented in a previous post, even today 43 percent of them hold George W. Bush responsible for the current budget deficit versus only 14 percent who blame Mr. Obama.

The American people are right; Mr. Bush is more responsible, as a new report from the Congressional Budget Office documents



Bruce Bartlett: The Fiscal Legacy of George W. Bush - NYTimes.com

Eric Boehlert: Why Ignoring Limbaugh and Fox News Isn't An Option

Eric Boehlert: Why Ignoring Limbaugh and Fox News Isn't An Option

The truth is, the far-right media in this country is waging a war. It's a war they're fighting while connected at the hip with the Republican Party, and with deep-pocketed support inside the conservative movement. And it's a media industry that often pushes Republican politicians around on important public policy issues.
Faced with that daunting revolution, the answer for the political left is to ignore Fox News while it recruits candidates, allows them to fundraise on-air, and turns over hundreds of hours of free airtime to GOP politicians? The answer is to ignore Fox News, which is now in the business of producing and airing four-minute anti-Obama attack ads
If liberals are going to pay no attention Fox News, they may as well ignore the entire Republican Party because there's no functional daylight between the two.
Fact: Today's conservative movement in America is first and foremost a media one. Therefore, ignoring the media isn't an option.

Obamacare Regulations Will Lead To More Comprehensive Insurance For Students

Obamacare Regulations Will Lead To More Comprehensive Insurance For Students: pThe Affordable Care Act expands health coverage to millions of uninsured Americans and creates minimum requirements of what insurance plans must cover. And enforcing the basic standards is causing the end of limited-benefit plans that capped benefits and don’t meet ACA guidelines, leaving consumers with better health care options. But according to the Wall Street [...]/p

Five Tax Fallacies Invented by the 1% | Common Dreams

Five Tax Fallacies Invented by the 1% | Common Dreams

The Misinformed Tea Party Movement - Forbes.com

According to the JCT, last year's $787 billion stimulus bill, enacted with no Republican support, reduced federal taxes by almost $100 billion in 2009 and another $222 billion this year. The Tax Policy Center, a private research group, estimates that close to 90% of all taxpayers got a tax cut last year and almost 100% of those in the $50,000 income range. For those making between $40,000 and $50,000, the average tax cut was $472; for those making between $50,000 and $75,000, the tax cut averaged $522. No taxpayer anywhere in the country had his or her taxes increased as a consequence of Obama's policies.



The Misinformed Tea Party Movement - Forbes.com

Forbes: Tea partiers confused, taxes ‘lower by every measure’ under Obama | The Colorado Independent

Bruce Bartlett, a fiscal conservative and columnist for Forbes who worked in the George W Bush and Reagan administrations is shocked by what he sees happening on the right these days. He became a conservative, he says, because he saw liberalism as driven by lofty unachievable or unreal motives whereas conservativism he believed was pegged primarily to concern with consequences and so based on cold hard reality. He reports that the Tea Parties have turned the world around. Tea Partiers yelling about taxes are delusional, he writes. They know nothing about taxes.  



Forbes: Tea partiers confused, taxes ‘lower by every measure’ under Obama | The Colorado Independent

The Importance of Eurobonds | FDL News Desk

The way the Eurozone crisis has gone is that a peripheral country will announce a growing budget deficit and debt. The markets, concerned about the risk of default and the lack of economic growth given the foolish solution of austerity imposed on those countries, then gradually raise borrowing costs. This makes it impossible for those countries to afford to borrow, and they seek bailouts from their Eurozone partners.
If there were a way to smooth out these borrowing costs, it would remove the negative shocks to the system. One excellent suggestion is to pool the risk, to create a bond to pay off debt in the Eurozone guaranteed by all the member countries. This “Eurobond” would make it so Greece or Spain or Italy wasn’t fighting the bond markets all by themselves. It would allow those countries to benefit from Germany’s stronger economy and low borrowing costs, and reduce the spikes in weaker economies that have caused so much trouble. To analogize from our experience, it’s obviously cheaper for the federal government to borrow than it is for, say, Mississippi. It’s a question of leverage.
Perhaps because a big stimulus package isn’t in the offing, France’s new President Francois Hollande has honed in on Eurobonds as one of the key solutions to the crisis.


The Importance of Eurobonds | FDL News Desk

Volcker Rule Tightening Just the Beginning of a Financial Reform Strategy | FDL News Desk

The Fail Whale trades showed that massive, as-yet unregulated risk still exists in our financial system, with the potential to bring down the economy once again and trigger massive taxpayer bailouts. Since the Administration already passed a law that was supposed to deal with that, they’re scrambling to restore what little of value existed in those laws.


Volcker Rule Tightening Just the Beginning of a Financial Reform Strategy | FDL News Desk

Justice Watch: A Turning Point at the White House

The deep sense of urgency conveyed by the participants is motivated by the fact that the Senate has confirmed far fewer nominees at this point in President Obama’s first term than it had for his two predecessors, and that current vacancies on the federal bench have actually risen by 43% since he took office. Participants relayed the frustration growing in communities around the nation as understaffed courts face enormous backlogs and justice is frequently delayed for individuals and businesses whose lives and livelihoods often hang in the balance.


Justice Watch: A Turning Point at the White House: Community leaders met with key White House staff, including Attorney General Eric Holder May 7 marked an important milestone in the figh...

The Fox Effect by David Brock, Ari Rabin-Havt, and Media Matters for America - Random House

The Fox Effect by David Brock, Ari Rabin-Havt, and Media Matters for America - Random House

Obama’s winning strategy on foreign policy - The Washington Post

For the first time since the early 1960s, the Republican Party enters a presidential campaign at a decided disadvantage on foreign policy. Republicans find it hard to get accustomed to the fact that when they pull their favorite political levers — accusations that Democrats are “weak” or Romney’s persistent and false claims that Obama “apologizes” for America — nothing happens.


Obama’s winning strategy on foreign policy - The Washington Post

Bin Laden documents at a glance - The Washington Post

ON THE U.S. MEDIA: Like any public figures, bin Laden and his advisers were mindful of the media. Adam Gadahn, one of bin Laden’s spokesmen, provided a summary of his view of U.S. TV cable news.
“From the professional point of view, they are all on one level except (Fox News) channel which falls into the abyss as you know, and lacks neutrality too,” he wrote.
CNN seemed to be closely collaborating with the U.S. government, but its Arabic version was better, Gadahn wrote.
“I used to think that MSNBC channel may be good and neutral a bit, but it has lately fired two of the most famous journalists — Keith Olbermann and Octavia Nasser the Lebanese — because they released some statements that were open for argument,” wrote Gadahn, an American citizen.



Bin Laden documents at a glance - The Washington Post

A Very Pricey Pineapple - NYTimes.com School Testing for Profit

The Obama administration has been trying to tackle the astronomical costs of 50 different sets of standardized tests by funding efforts by states to develop shared models — a process you will be stunned to hear is being denounced by conservatives like Gov. Rick Perry of Texas as “a federal takeover of public schools.”

Education Secretary Arne Duncan has also begun giving out waivers from the requirement that children in failing public schools be given after-school tutoring. Idea sounded great. Hardly helped the kids at all. But no for-profit tutoring company was left behind.       

 A Very Pricey Pineapple - NYTimes.com

Mission Accomplished—At Last? - Michael Hirsh - NationalJournal.com

As the president himself acknowledged, the conflict may never be completely over. The new agreement with Karzai makes clear that U.S. funds and U.S. trainers and counter-terrorism forces will be deployed in Afghanistan for at least another decade to come. And many experts on the ground say the readiness of Afghan forces has been overestimated, just as the corruption of Karzai’s government and its lack of support inside the country tend to be underestimated.
But Obama’s closing peroration may still be one of his best campaign lines in 2012: “My fellow Americans, we have traveled through more than a decade under the dark cloud of war. Yet here, in the pre-dawn darkness of Afghanistan, we can see the light of a new day on the horizon.”
It’s not “Mission Accomplished,” not yet. But it’s not bad. And it may help him to get re-elected.

Mission Accomplished—At Last? - Michael Hirsh - NationalJournal.com

Why I Identify as a Skeptic | Daylight Atheism | Big Think

Being a skeptic is not a hard and fast definition-- no one is ever 100% skeptical all the time. I know lots of people who identify as skeptics who don't behave in a skeptical manner most of the time. And I know lots of people who don't identify as skeptics who question and critically think about things. It isn't like the term 'atheist,' which is something you either are or are not. You can't be both a theist and an atheist at the same time-- but you can act skeptically in one situation and not in another.


Why I Identify as a Skeptic | Daylight Atheism | Big Think

Boyet Jr. High principal offers apology for 'anger, outrage' caused by Obama images | NOLA.com

He said he sought guidance outside the school system, including that of a former professor who opened his eyes to the fact that "when it comes to the school system, we have a very detailed plan on bullying, we have a very detailed plan when it comes to things like sexual harassment. But she said these issues of race, nobody ever talks about it."

Boyet Jr. High principal offers apology for 'anger, outrage' caused by Obama images | NOLA.com

How Congress Helps Republicans, But Not Democrats, Weather Bad Economies (Charts) | TPMDC

How Congress Helps Republicans, But Not Democrats, Weather Bad Economies (Charts) | TPMDC

Full Show: Big Money, Big Media, Big Trouble | Moyers & Company | BillMoyers.com

Big money and big media have coupled to create a ‘Disney World’ of democracy in which TV shows, televised debates, even news coverage is being dumbed down, resulting in a public less informed than it should be, says Marty Kaplan, director of USC’s Norman Lear Center and an entertainment industry veteran. Bill Moyers talks with Kaplan about how taking news out of the journalism box and placing it in the entertainment box is hurting democracy and allowing special interest groups to manipulate the system.
Later on the show, Bill talks about Florida Rep. Allen West and shocking modern-day McCarthyism. Wasn’t this lesson already learned?


Full Show: Big Money, Big Media, Big Trouble | Moyers & Company | BillMoyers.com

Full Show: Big Money, Big Media, Big Trouble | BillMoyers.com

We start stupid. The brain is wired to be entertained. We don't pay attention to the words. We pay attention to the pictures and the drama and the story. If it's pretty, if it's exciting, if it's violent, if it's fast, that's where we are. So the fact that these mini dramas are being used to get us to vote for one person or another is just like what we all learned propaganda was used for and thought we learned our lessons from in World War II. They are propaganda. And propaganda is irresistible. If it were resistible, people wouldn't do it.


Full Show: Big Money, Big Media, Big Trouble | BillMoyers.com

The Ghost of Joe McCarthy Slithers Again

We’ve talked at times about George Orwell’s classic novel 1984, and the amnesia that sets in when we flush events down the memory hole, leaving us at the mercy of only what we know today. Sometimes, though, the past comes back to haunt, like a ghost. It happened recently when we saw Congressman Allen West of Florida on the news.

A Republican and Tea Party favorite, he was asked at a local gathering how many of his fellow members of Congress are "card-carrying Marxists or International Socialists."

He replied, "I believe there’s about 78 to 81 members of the Democrat Party who are members of the Communist Party. It’s called the Congressional Progressive Caucus."

So beware, Congressman West, beware: In the flammable pool of toxic paranoia that passes these days as patriotism in America, a single careless match can light an inferno. You would serve your country well to withdraw your remarks and apologize for them. But if not, perhaps there are members of your own party, as possessed of conscience and as courageous as that handful of Republicans who took on Joseph McCarthy, who will now abandon fear and throw cold water on your incendiary remarks.

The Ghost of Joe McCarthy Slithers Again

Ready for the Fight: Rolling Stone Interview with Barack Obama | Politics News | Rolling Stone

Ready for the Fight: Rolling Stone Interview with Barack Obama | Politics News | Rolling Stone

Social Security and Medicare: Behind the Numbers and the Spin | Crooks and Liars

The simplest, and by far the most popular, solution to Social Security's future revenue gap is to lift the payroll tax cap. Such a move would end any future doubts about its ability to pay benefits, would be politically popular, and would harmonize with the wealth inequity that is the source of that future shortfall.
Yet this solution goes unmentioned until the end of the article, and then only as the position taken by "advocates": "Kingson and other advocates say Social Security could be shored up by simply increasing the amount of wages subject to Social Security taxes—an idea that most Republicans in Congress flatly oppose."
That makes it sound as if this were a matter of opinion, rather than one of fact, but it's not. Experts ranging from Ronald Reagan's Chief Actuary to economists with expertise in this area have confirmed that this would fully solve Social Security's long-term shortfall.

Social Security and Medicare: Behind the Numbers and the Spin | Crooks and Liars

Experts: Contrary to Mainstream Myth, 'Social Security is Strong' and Could Be Made Stronger | Common Dreams

“The most effective way to strengthen Social Security for the next 75 years is to eliminate the cap on the payroll tax on income above $250,000. Right now, someone who earns $110,100 pays the same amount of money into Social Security as a billionaire. That makes no sense,” said Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, the chairman of the Defending Social Security Caucus. He also chairs the Senate aging subcommittee.


Experts: Contrary to Mainstream Myth, 'Social Security is Strong' and Could Be Made Stronger | Common Dreams

The Washington Monthly - The Magazine - The Incomplete Greatness of Barack Obama

He’s gotten more done in three years than any president in decades. Too bad the American public still thinks he hasn’t accomplished anything


The Washington Monthly - The Magazine - The Incomplete Greatness of Barack Obama

Sunday Talk Shows Still Skew Right and White, but There's Light at the End of the Week | The Nation

Let's hear it for Sunday talk shows that are as diverse in gender and race as they are in parts of the brain utilized! How Up with Chris Hayes and Melissa Harris-Perry on MSNBC are revolutionizing TV, one weekend at a time:


Sunday Talk Shows Still Skew Right and White, but There's Light at the End of the Week | The Nation

Social Security In US Less Generous Than Similar Countries | Crooks and Liars

When compared to other similar countries, retirement benefits in the United States are relatively modest. A report from CNBC took a closer look at retirement systems in numerous countries and found the U.S. to be performing lower than the average. Retirees in the U.S. generally receive about 47 percent of their pre-retirement income on Social Security. Similar programs in Europe and elsewhere generally pay about 68 percent of pre-retirement income.
In the 2011 Melbourne Mercer Global Pensions Index, the U.S. was given a middling grade of "C," along with France, Singapore, Brazil, Poland and Germany.



Social Security In US Less Generous Than Similar Countries | Crooks and Liars

Welfare gives mothers an economic incentive to have more children

Myth: Welfare gives mothers an economic incentive to have more children.

Fact: Studies have not found a correlation between size of welfare benefits and families.


Welfare gives mothers an economic incentive to have more children

5 myths about Social Security - 1 - retirement savings - MSN Money

5 myths about Social Security - 1 - retirement savings - MSN Money

Social Security and the federal deficit (Part 1) | Economic Policy Institute

But didn’t Congress spend the money in the trust fund?
Yes, but it would have spent it anyway. Congress spent way more than what it borrowed from the trust fund, which holds roughly one-fifth of federal debt outstanding. There’s a global market for U.S. Treasury securities, which are especially popular during times of economic turmoil. So even if Social Security had no money in the trust fund or the trust fund were invested in other securities, this would have had little impact on the federal government’s borrowing costs or access to funds. In any case, Social Security has always invested the trust fund in U.S. Treasuries and is required by law to do so. So to make this seem like news, as Montgomery does (“the government has borrowed every cent”), is strange to say the least.
Does this mean there’s no connection between the federal deficit and Social Security?
Unfortunately, no. While Social Security has had little influence on Washington’s spendthrift ways, the converse isn’t true. Social Security benefits are on the chopping block as Congress suddenly finds deficit-cutting religion. In this sense, the retiree at an Occupy Palm Beach protest who waved a sign saying “my Social Security paid for these yachts” is on to something, though his verb tense may be off. But it’s probably better to avoid saying politicians looted Social Security because this implies there’s nothing in the piggy bank. The trust fund may be full of “IOUs,” but that’s just a pejorative way to describe government bonds. If they’re worthless, the real chumps are the hedge funds, investment banks, rich individuals and sovereign governments around the world that have ploughed money into Treasuries – and increased their demand in recent years.




Social Security and the federal deficit (Part 1) | Economic Policy Institute

House Republicans Oppose Bill That Would Help Low-Income Moms Stay Home Like Ann Romney

House Republicans emphatically agree with Mitt Romney that stay-at-home moms work just as hard as anybody in the workforce. But when it comes to applying that standard to mothers on welfare, they draw the line.



House Republicans Oppose Bill That Would Help Low-Income Moms Stay Home Like Ann Romney

Social Security and the federal deficit (Part 1) | Economic Policy Institute

To help the genuinely perplexed, here’s a primer on Social Security and the federal deficit (for a more in-depth discussion, go here). A follow-up blog post will look at the impact of the recession and explain the meaning of Social Security’s primary (or “cash-flow”) deficit.


Social Security and the federal deficit (Part 1) | Economic Policy Institute

Among GOP, anti-tax orthodoxy runs deep - The Washington Post

The rise of the anti-tax tea party movement in 2008 further hardened the party’s stance against taxes. How is the pledge enforced? Typically, Republican candidates sign the pledge to avoid attack in the primary. Once in office, violators might find that Norquist has contacted Republican voters in their state or district to inform them that their senator or representative is having “impure thoughts,” as he put it.


Among GOP, anti-tax orthodoxy runs deep - The Washington Post

The Recovery Act: Evidence of success three years out | Economic Policy Institute

In the second quarter of 2009—the first full quarter after the stimulus was passed—GDP declined at a much slower pace (0.7 percent), and growth resumed in the third quarter;

Job losses slowed dramatically throughout 2009 and the economy started adding jobs in early 2010; and

Private sector layoffs, which had peaked in Feb. 2009, began a rapid decline and returned to pre-recession levels by early Feb. 2010.

Now don’t get me wrong, ARRA wasn’t a cure-all (nor was it designed to be). The $831 billion 10-year cost of ARRA was smaller than the 2009 output gap and nowhere near the $3.0 trillion cumulative output gap since the start of the recession (which would be even bigger without ARRA). Unemployment remains unacceptably high, long after the official end of the recession. The economy needs 11 million more jobs to return to its pre-recession unemployment rate and the job seekers ratio has been higher for the last three years than it was at any point during the downturn of the early 2000s. Still, the stimulus prevented the situation from arguably being much worse than it otherwise would have been. Critics of the stimulus fail to recognize just how big of a hole ARRA was up against. As my colleague Josh Bivens explains in Failure by Design:

“The unemployment rate without the Recovery Act would have reached nearly 12%, not the 9% foreseen by the Obama administration. A good metaphor for this controversy is the temperature in a log cabin on a cold winter’s night. Say that the weather forecast is for the temperature to reach 30 degrees Fahrenheit. To stay warm, you decide to burn three logs in the fireplace. You do the math (and chemistry) and calculate that burning these three logs will generate enough heat to bring the inside of the cabin to 50 degrees, or 20 degrees warmer than the ambient temperature.
But the forecast is wrong—and instead temperatures plummet to 10 degrees outside and burning the logs only results in a cabin temperature of 30 degrees. Has log burning failed as a strategy to generate heat? Of course not. Has your estimate of the effectiveness of log burning been wildly wrong? Nope—it was exactly right—it added 20 degrees to the ambient temperature. The only lesson from this one is a simple one: since the weather turned out worse than expected, you need more logs.” http://www.epi.org/blog/recovery-act-evidence-success-three-year-anniversary/

America's Greatest Presidents All Used Government to Increase Prosperity | Care2 Causes

History teaches us that the true story of America is one of enlightened leadership in the creative use of government to unleash the creative energies of the American people. History also reminds us that the free market, left unchecked, can bring the country to financial ruin. Mr. Romney refuses to acknowledge this. Instead, he claims that President Obama is wrong to focus so much of his attention on finding government-led solutions to our current problems. Meanwhile, he mocks him for even attempting to aspire to the greatness of a Lincoln, Roosevelt, or Johnson — the three of our presidents who, perhaps more than any others, understood that there are times when, as FDR put it, the American citizen, in seeking to rectify economic inequality and injustice, “could only appeal to the organized power of government.”

Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/memo-to-romney-americas-greatest-presidents-all-used-government-to-increase-prosperity.html#ixzz1sVChCRaT

America's Greatest Presidents All Used Government to Increase Prosperity | Care2 Causes