President Obama has waded into the controversy over bank-card fees, suggesting that Bank of America is mistreating its customers with a plan to start charging a $5 monthly fee for the use of its debit card. In an interview Monday with ABC, the president seemed to suggest the fee could become a target…
Category: News & Opinion
CEO pay in one graphic
So, did CEOs become five times better between 1980 and 2000? Not really. They just got better at working the system. via CEO pay in one graphic – The Washington Post.
Sen. Rand Paul Blocks $36 Million For Disabled And Elderly Refugees, Including Those Who Aided American Troops
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), the bill’s sponsor, pointed out the life-threatening consequences of Paul’s actions. “The bill ensures that refugees will not lose critical life-sustaining benefits that are their only safety net protecting them from homelessness, illness and other effects of extreme poverty,” he said, noting that “some of the disabled refugees this bill helps…
AP: Democrat Earl Ray Tomblin Wins WV-GOV Special Election
Democrats have held on in the Republican-trending rural state of West Virginia, with Democratic Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin winning Tuesday’s special election. With 81% of precincts reporting, Tomblin leads Republican businessman Bill Maloney at 49%-47%, and Tomblin has been projected as the winner by the Associated Press. via AP: Democrat Earl Ray Tomblin Wins…
Obama Jobs Bill: President Challenges Republicans On $447 Billion Plan
On the Texas leg of his “pass this bill” tour, Obama chided Eric Cantor, Republican leader in the House of Representatives, for saying he would not allow a vote on the measure. The White House said the plan could save or create about 400,000 education jobs, including 39,500 in Texas. “I’d like Mr….
“The top is not paying the price of civilization”
American economist Dr. Jeffry Sachs, author of the new book “The Price of Civilization,” on “Morning Joe” talking about the economic state of the United States; education, stagnating wages, the wealth gap, and all the charts you could want. Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer Will Seek Health Care Law Waiver To Establish Single Payer In His State
Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin (D) made history earlier this year when he signed into law legislation that would make his state the first state to lay the groundwork for a single payer health care system. In order to enact this system, the state needs a waiver from the federal health care law, which…
Only Half Of Republicans Know The Meaning Of GOP
According to a 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll, just half of Republicans (51 percent) and 45 percent of Americans overall correctly identify the meaning of “G.O.P.” in a multiple-choice question as Grand Old Party. The second most popular choice, with 35 percent of the overall vote, was “Government of the People.” “Grumpy Old People” received 7…
Restrictions Could Keep Five Million Traditionally Democratic Voters From The Polls In 2012
Restrictive voting laws in states across the country could affect up to five million voters from traditionally Democratic demographics in 2012, according to a new report by the Brennan Center. That’s a number larger than the margin of victory in two of the last three presidential elections. The new restrictions, the study found, “fall most…
Business Owners, Investors Say Tax Changes Make ‘Zero Difference’ In Hiring: ‘I’m Not Sure What The Connection Is’
But a surprising group of people find that to be entirely untrue: the “job creators” themselves. As the billionaire behind the Buffett Rule, Warren Buffett, explained, “I have worked with investors for 60 years and I have yet to see anyone — not even when capital gains rates were 39.9 percent in 1976-77…
Organized Climate Change Denial “Played a Crucial Role in Blocking Domestic Legislation,” Top Scholars Conclude
Some try to downplay the central role of the denial machine in U.S. politics, but the fact is that what the deniers have accomplished in this country is unique in the world, going far beyond the spread of disinformation. They have allowed fossil fuel interests to “capture” almost an entire political party —…
ESPN Pulls Hank Williams Jr. Song From ‘MNF’ Over Hitler Remark
ESPN says it won’t use Hank Williams Jr. in tonight’s Monday Night Football program, after the singer compared President Obama to Adolf Hitler. Williams made the remark Monday on Fox News while talking about Obama playing golf with House Speaker John Boehner. Appearing on Fox & Friends, Williams brought up the round of golf after…
Mitt Romney’s ‘Buffett Rule’ Problem: His Tax Rate Is 14 Percent
When President Obama released his plan to implement the “Buffett rule” — which would ensure that millionaires can’t pay a lower tax rate than middle-class families — 2012 GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney derided it as “class warfare,” saying it is “simply the wrong way to go.” But as Time’s Michael Scherer pointed…
Majority Leader Cantor Says Obama Jobs Plan Won’t Receive A Vote On The House Floor
Several news outlets are reporting that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) said that the GOP will not bring President Obama’s $447 billion jobs plan to a vote on the House floor. The administration has been asking for a vote on the bill this month. Last week, economists surveyed by Bloomberg News said that the…
Eric Cantor’s America
The first thing he did was commission a national poll to show fellow Republican congressmen that while Obama was personally popular, his policies were not. Then he assembled what he called the House Republican Economic Recovery Working Group to come up with an alternative stimulus package. The group’s plan was larded with tax cuts that…
Debt Committees Fail-Safe Might Already Be Undone
Kyl now sits on the supercommittee, and his fellow Arizona Republican, Sen. John McCain, plans to block any automatic defense cuts resulting from a failure to agree on a plan.”Its all hypothetical, but if a trigger were in effect, you would see an immediate action on the floor of both houses by those…
Regulations aren’t to blame for the ‘uncovery’
The Republican narrative on the economic recovery — or, as some are calling it, the “uncovery — is simple: It’s not Europe, or deleveraging, or lack of consumer demand. It’s government. Businesses, Speaker John Boehner has said, have been “slammed by uncertainty from the constant threat of new taxes, out-of-control spending and unnecessary regulation.” It…
Earl Ofari Hutchinson: Cain and the GOP Can’t De-Brainwash Blacks
But they can do that and know that they’ll get a listen from Obama and the Democrats. Blacks know that the same can’t be said of the GOP. The GOP’s long, blatant, and infuriating history of racial exclusion, neglect and race baiting, and polarization has insured that the door remains tightly slammed to any kind…
NASA: It Rained So Hard the Oceans Fell
Sea levels have been rising steadily for over a century as the ever warmer ocean water expands and the world’s remaining glaciers and ice sheets melt. In fact sea levels are rising twice as fast now as they were a few decades ago. As the NASA chart above shows there have been some…
Koch Brothers Flout Law Getting Richer With Secret Iran Sales
By September of that year, the researchers had found evidence of improper payments to secure contracts in six countries dating back to 2002, authorized by the business director of the company’s Koch-Glitsch affiliate in France. “Those activities constitute violations of criminal law,” Koch Industries wrote in a Dec. 8, 2008, letter giving details of its…