December 19, 2011 – 1:14 pm
Students graduating college last year owed a record amount in loans. Compared to five years ago, borrowing has increased 20% to an average bill of $25,250. The rise in borrowing is unsurprising considering that, while American wages have generally stagnated, tuition has swelled. For instance, under the most optimistic projection, the University of California system [...]
Republicans put their heads together and decided the biggest problem facing America is …
… Drumroll please …
Rich people don’t have enough money!:
The [the House Republican budget] plan would condemn millions to the ranks of the uninsured, raise health costs for seniors and renege on the obligation to keep poor children fed. It envisions lower [...]
From Robert Reich:
The American economy is more than twice as large now as it was thirty years ago. So where did the money go? To the top. The richest 1 percent’s share of national has doubled – from around 9 percent in 1977 to over 20 percent now. The richest one-tenth of 1 percent’s share [...]
February 21, 2011 – 9:19 am
The Washington Post (via John Cole):
The 401(k) generation is beginning to retire, and it isn’t a pretty sight.
The retirement savings plans that many baby boomers thought would see them through old age are falling short in many cases.
The median household headed by a person aged 60 to 62 with a 401(k) account has less than [...]
February 14, 2011 – 4:10 pm
Obama's new budget is meh. It stupidly cuts some programs that help the neediest among us in yet another boneheaded attempt to please conservatives. But at least it doesn’t touch the biggies like Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security, which would be fine if we weren’t dedicated to giving millionaires gigantic tax cuts.
In any case, if [...]
January 27, 2011 – 11:14 am
It’s tough to have fair laws:
‘It makes no sense and it has to change,’ Mr. Obama said in his State of the Union address. ‘Get rid of the loopholes. Level the playing field. And use the savings to lower the corporate tax rate for the first time in 25 years — without adding to our [...]
November 29, 2010 – 10:58 am
Obama will freeze federal worker pay for two years as a “a symbolic gesture toward public anger over unemployment, the anemic economic recovery and rising national debt.” Too bad taking more money out of the economy will hurt the recovery, depress the job market and stunt the kind of growth that would solve our debt [...]
November 15, 2010 – 10:12 am
Last week the war to cripple Social Security began in earnest. The initial attacks are working in concert. First up, billionaire Wall Street banker and Nixon appointee Pete Peterson riles up fear over government debt with a gigantic new ad campaign:
Then, miraculously, the White House has a solution for your fears! Behold the recommendations of Obama’s [...]
October 12, 2010 – 10:56 am
Democrats are in a tight spot. The mid-term elections next month could cost them control of the House of Representatives. Why? The economy is in shambles and the electorate is ready to kick the bums out, even if it’s not the bums’ fault the mortgage bubble burst. Someone has to pay, right?
But it didn’t have to [...]
September 3, 2010 – 9:11 am
… is the Democrat’s electoral fortunes rushing down the drain:
Over all, the nation lost 54,000 jobs in August, the agency said, as state and local governments, many of them grappling with severe budget deficits, cut 1o,000 jobs last month. Another 114,000 temporary Census positions also came to an end. In all, governments cut 121,000 jobs [...]