House Speaker John Boehner announced Thursday that he had agreed with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on a two-month extension of a package including a payroll tax cut and an extension of unemployment benefits. Boehner said in statement he and Reid “reached an agreement that will ensure taxes do not increase for working families on January…
Category: Economy
Obama renews call for end to payroll tax impasse [video]
President Obama renewed his call Thursday for the House of Representatives to pass a two-month extension of the cut in Social Security payroll taxes and unemployment insurance benefits which Congress enacted a year ago. The only reason the impasse continues is because “a faction of House Republicans have refused to support this (two-month) compromise,” Obama…
McConnell on Payroll Tax: “We can and should do both.”
Here’s his statement: “The House and Senate have both passed bipartisan bills to require the President to quickly make a decision on whether to support thousands of U.S. manufacturing jobs through the Keystone XL pipeline, and to extend unemployment insurance, the temporary payroll tax cut and seniors’ access to medical care. There is no reason…
Congress Cuts Winter Heating Aid For The Poor While Boosting The Defense Budget
Poverty in America is only getting worse, with data showing rising income inequality and the startling fact that half of all Americans are now either in poverty or considered low-income. Were it not for the government programs that comprise the social safety net, those numbers would be even worse. More than a quarter would live…
The Return Of Debtor’s Prisons: Thousands Of Americans Jailed For Not Paying Their Bills
More than a third of all states now allow borrowers who don’t pay their bills to be jailed, even when debtor’s prisons have been explicitly banned by state constitutions. A report by the American Civil Liberties Union found that people were imprisoned even when the cost of doing so exceeded the amount of debt they…
Raise Taxes on Rich to Reward True Job Creators
I’m a very rich person. As an entrepreneur and venture capitalist, I’ve started or helped get off the ground dozens of companies in industries including manufacturing, retail, medical services, the Internet and software. I founded the Internet media company aQuantive Inc., which was acquired by Microsoft Corp. in 2007 for $6.4 billion. I was also…
VIDEO: Debunking The Right-Wing Meme That The Obama Administration Is Anti-Business
From GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney and Tea Party Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) to Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly, a general consensus has emerged that the Obama administration is “anti-business.” Yet any actual evidence of an effect from this putative bias has failed to materialize. ThinkProgress has compiled a video report. Watch it: via VIDEO:…
Fox Still Doesn’t Know Public Sector Jobs Hit Harder In Recession
Fox again attacked Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) for noting that “it’s very clear that private-sector jobs have been doing just fine. It’s the public-sector jobs where we’ve lost huge numbers.” But Reid is right: Since the Recovery Act took effect, the private sector has gained more than 1.5 million jobs, while…
Stimulus-Hating GOP Rep. Frank Guinta Cuts Ribbon For Stimulus Project
With Recovery Act funding running out, that old TPM favorite — the anti-stimulus Republican who takes credit for stimulus funding in their district — is becoming somewhat of a rarity. But Rep. Frank Guinta (R-NH) kicked it old school on Thursday by cutting the ribbon on a new road that received millions from…
Unemployment Claims Drop; Trade Gap Narrows
The number of people who applied for unemployment benefits last week fell by 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 390,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. That’s the fewest since April. The U.S. trade deficit narrowed to $43.1 billion in September, its lowest point of the year, the Commerce Department said. Foreign sales of American-made autos, airplanes…
Apple Crops In Washington At Risk Because Of Other States Extreme Immigration Laws
Washington apple growers could have had one of the best apple harvests in the state’s history — if not for the lack of workers. Orchard owners say a federal immigration crackdown and extreme anti-immigrant laws in states like Alabama and Arizona have scared off many of their workers. Some farmers have tried to…
U.S. Employers Post Most Job Openings In 3 Years
U.S. employers advertised more jobs in September than at any other point in the past three years. The increase suggests hiring could pick up in the next few months. Competition for jobs is fierce. And many employers aren’t rushing to fill some because they are worried about the strength of the economy. Still, most economists…
The War Against the Poor
Some facts: early in 2011, the US Census Bureau reported that 14.3 percent of the population, or 47 million people—one in six Americans—were living below the official poverty threshold, currently set at $22,400 annually for a family of four. Some 19 million people are living in what is called extreme poverty, which means that their…
Week in Review | Video Summary | Nov. 2011 Week 1 | TRP
A year out from the presidential election of 2012, here is a sampling of the video stories in the news the past week. We’ve got PBS on the generational impacts on the election, Chris Matthews on the election and his new book, some polling data and a few words from our President, corporate tax rates,…
‘Miners’ risk lives for gold in landfill ravine
A torrent of gray, toxic water spews from a drainage tunnel and surges along the ravine, tumbling along garbage that has fallen from the Guatemalan capital’s main landfill 1,000 feet above. Despite the foul odors, the danger of unstable piles of garbage collapsing and the chance for heavy rain to suddenly raise the…
The White House Wants Your Advice
We know that some of the best ideas will come from outside Washington, and that’s why we want to hear from you. If you have an idea for something President Obama can do or know of a program in your community that needs to go nationwide, use this form to let us know. Over the…
30 Major Corporations Paid No Income Taxes In The Last Three Years, While Making $160 Billion
One of the driving forces behind the ongoing Occupy Wall Street protests is the fact that corporations have not been paying their fair share in taxes. A new report from Citizens for Tax Justice will no nothing to alleviate the protesters’ frustration. CTJ looked at 280 companies, all of them members of the…
Thirty Years of Unleashed Greed and the Beginnings of Class Warfare
Between 1979 and 2007, as the Congressional Budget Office reported this week, the average real income of the top 1 percent grew by an astounding 275 percent. And that is after payment of the taxes that the superrich and their Republican apologists find so onerous. Those three decades of rampant upper-crust greed unleashed by the…
Boehner rejects Democrats’ $3 trillion deficit reduction proposal to ‘supercommittee’
Democrats said Thursday they had put forward a good-faith offer that included legitimate savings against the swelling federal debt and included a package of more than $300 billion in stimulus for the sagging economy. “We’ve always said there are two important things—get the economy moving and have jobs and to have a balanced approach,” said…
68 Percent Of Millionaires Support Raising Taxes On Millionaires
According to a new survey by the Spectrem Group, “68% of millionaires (those with investments of $1 million or more) support raising taxes on those with $1 million or more in income. Fully 61% of those with net worths of $5 million or more support the tax on million-plus earners.” Spectrem’s George Walper told the…