Specifically, in early 2010 austerity economics — the insistence that governments should slash spending even in the face of high unemployment — became all the rage in European capitals. The doctrine asserted that the direct negative effects of spending cuts on employment would be offset by changes in “confidence,” that savage spending cuts would lead…
Weekly Jobless Claims Fall To Four-Year Low
The number of people seeking unemployment benefits fell to the lowest point in almost four years last week, the latest signal that the job market is steadily improving. Weekly applications for unemployment benefits dropped 13,000 to a seasonally adjusted 348,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. It was the fourth drop in five weeks and the…
Senators Take Emergency Oil Reserve Hostage to Force Keystone Approval
The Senate is trying to force a pipeline route through Nebraska that is not yet identified, let alone evaluated to determine whether its impact on air and water quality. Because much of the tar sands oil refined in the U.S. would go overseas, Americans would bear the environmental risks while other nations get the oil….
The best way to judge Obama’s first term — and his second
Of course, the presidency is not a lab experiment. We cannot tweak a few variables and rerun the last few years to test their effect. In that way, reviewing the flaws in a presidency is a hard thing to do well, and an impossible thing to do perfectly. Every political pundit — indeed, every citizen…
The Scandal of Michigan’s Emergency Managers
Under PA 4, EMs have proven to be a divisive solution. Outsourcing services to private companies and abolishing collective bargaining takes a page right out of the right-wing playbook: a 2011 report titled “101 Recommendations to Revitalize Michigan,” published by the conservative Mackinac Center for Public Policy, calls for ending “mandatory collective bargaining for government…
Congress reaches final payroll tax deal
Congressional negotiators resolved all differences on an agreement to extend the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits while avoiding a fee cut for Medicare doctors for the rest of the year, leaving only technical issues to sort out. “It’s good for the country. It’s very good for the country,” Montana’s Max Baucus, the Democratic chairman…
Fox Host Eric Bolling To Rep. Maxine Waters: Step Away From The Crack Pipe
Fox News host Eric Bolling — who is fond of discussing President Obama’s penchant for “chugging 40′s” and inviting “hoodlum[s] in hizzouse” and the “crib” — told Rep. Maxine Waters D-CA this morning that she should “step away from the crack pipe.” While discussing Waters tough rhetoric about bankers, Bolling, without any apparent relevancy aside…
Obama Administration’s Recovers Record $4.1 Billion From Medicare Fraud
Today, the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services (HHS) released an updated annual report showing that, for the second year in a row, anti-fraud efforts have recovered more than $4.1 billion in fraudulent Medicare payments. Compare this to just $2.14 billion recovered in FY 2008. Prosecutions are way up too: the number of individuals charged…
Is it time to kill off the phone book?
Over at Sightline, Clark Williams-Derry is declaring war on the white pages. You remember the white pages, right? Those thick phone books that thud onto everyone’s doormat each year. In the age of Google and unlisted cell phones, phone books are used less and less: One Gallup survey found that, in 2008, just 11 percent…
Mapping the Effects of the ACA’s Health Insurance Reform
The Affordable Care Act includes several provisions that allow many individuals across the U.S. to be eligible for Medicaid or for federal tax credits to subsidize the cost of insurance. The analysis below and zip code tool estimate the share of the population in geographic areas across the U.S. who had family income up to…
Poll: Obama Hits 50% Approval, Leads All GOP Rivals, For Now
The new CBS News/NY Times poll definitely contains the kind of information that could put a little spring in any president’s step. The poll, released Tuesday, found President Obama’s approval rating had bounced back up to 50 percent from 47 percent in January. Not a huge improvement but in presidential politics, getting to at least…
Factories Show Strength In Latest Sign Of Recovery
U.S. factories boosted output last month and December ended up being their best month for growth in five years. Busier factories are helping drive the economy. The Federal Reserve said Wednesday that manufacturing production increased 0.7 percent in January. And output soared 1.5 percent in December, according to an upward revision. That was the biggest…
President Obama announces $8 Billion Community College to Career Fund
Today, President Obama announced the Community College to Career Fund, an $8 billion investment in his Fiscal Year 2013 Budget that would train two million workers with skills that lead directly to good jobs in industries that need workers, including advanced manufacturing, clean energy, and information technology. This program will serve a dual purpose: making sure…
ANALYSIS: The Real World Debunks The GOP’s ‘Austerity Now’ Ideology
In Britain, a large package of budget cuts and austerity measures which rolled out in 2010 has not unleashed the proverbial job creators in the private market. Instead, the country is still shackled with an economic growth trend that’s even worse that what it suffered in the aftermath of the Great Depression. In the Eurozone…
Obama continues push for payroll tax cut extension
President Barack Obama continues his push Tuesday to get Congress to extend a payroll tax cut, a day after House Republican leaders agreed to remove an obstacle in the passage of the tax cut extension. Obama released Tuesday a video about what he called the need to extend the tax cut by the end of…
Rand Paul Blocks Senate Transportation Bill Over Aid To Egypt
It isn’t often that legislation passes through the Senate free of controversy, but a bipartisan transportation bill was on a course to do just that — until yesterday. The bill, co-sponsored by Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer (CA) and Republican Sen. James Inhofe (OK), easily passed a procedural vote last week and, with President Obama’s support…
Video: President Obama On New Contraception Rules
The president was joined by HHS Secretary Sebelius as he announced a revision of the rule requiring that insurance plans offer free contraception, so that religious-affiliated groups don’t have to take responsibility for the coverage. Here is a full transcript of President Barack Obama’s remarks, as provided by the White House. He took no questions…
Long Time Coming: Obama’s Approval Rating Goes Positive
It was a long road back, but President Obama is now back in positive territory in our TPM Poll Average. The shift comes on the heels of a completed Iraq withdrawal, a legislative win on the payroll tax cut before Christmas, and perhaps most importantly, good economic numbers in January and early February. The President’s…
President’s Weekly Address: Extending the Payroll Tax Cut for the Middle Class
WEEKLY ADDRESS: Extending the Payroll Tax Cut for the Middle Class In this week’s address, President Obama urged Congress to quickly pass the payroll tax cut extension to prevent a tax hike on 160 million hardworking Americans who are still recovering from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. This is not the time…
The President’s Global Development Council
FACT SHEET: The President’s Global Development Council “Our U.S. Global Development Policy – the first of its kind by an American administration – is rooted in America’s enduring commitment to the dignity and potential of every human being. It outlines our new approach and the new thinking that will guide our overall development efforts. Put…