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By E.J. Dionne
$24.00
By Benny Morris (Author), Roger Owen (Editor), Edmund Burke (Editor), Michael C. Hudson (Editor), Walid Kazziha (Editor), Rashid Khalidi (Editor), Serif Mardin (Editor)
$18
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Glyn Lowe Photoworks (CC BY-ND 2.0)
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By Mattea Kramer, TomDispatch —
If we had a government capable of honoring the collective desire for more jobs, smaller deficits, more education funding, reduced reliance on fossil fuels and Medicare and Social Security benefits preserved, our future could be guaranteed at tax time in no time.
Posted on Apr 11, 2013
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Flickr/401(K) 2013
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By Robert Reich — Part of the president’s State of the Union message and a portion of his second term agenda apparently will focus on public investments in education, infrastructure and basic R&D. That’s good news. But how do we fund these investments when discretionary spending is being cut to the bone in order to reduce the budget deficit?
Posted on Feb 12, 2013
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Jeff Parker, Cagle Cartoons, Florida Today and the Fort Myers News-Press —
Posted on Jan 13, 2013
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Flickr/401(K) 2012
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By Theodoric Meyer, ProPublica —
President Obama met with congressional leaders Friday in another attempt to avert the fiscal cliff—the automatic tax increases and spending cuts set to take effect Jan. 1 unless Congress can strike a deal. The cuts and tax hikes are so large and so sudden that many economists fear they would plunge the country back into recession.
Posted on Dec 30, 2012
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Screenshot
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It appears the controversial decision by some retailers to start Black Friday sales on Thanksgiving has paid off.
Posted on Nov 26, 2012
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InAweofGod'sCreation (CC BY 2.0)
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The marginally growing U.S. economy reduced speed in the second quarter of the year after months of lackluster job creation, threatening the financial well-being of ordinary Americans and deepening the challenge for President Obama’s re-election campaign.
Posted on Jul 28, 2012
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Pete Souza/The White House
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Despite what Republicans and the tea party would like to have Americans believe, taxes, spending and the deficit are all lower than when President Obama took office.
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davelawrence8 (CC-BY)
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Frugality? Check. Family values? Check. Sound reasoning? Nope. Mitt Romney’s campaign managed to stay true to the concerns of his base while totally botching the logic behind an infographic claiming that President Obama’s management of the U.S. economy is akin to that of a family accountant gone mad.
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DonkeyHotey (CC-BY)
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Talks between congressional leaders charged with coming up with a plan by Wednesday to cut the national deficit by $1.2 trillion have descended into squabbling and finger-pointing, suggesting that automatic cuts to domestic programs, Medicare and defense spending—rather than a mix of cuts and tax increases—are inevitable. (more)
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Flickr / cliff1066™ (CC-BY)
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Senate leaders struck a compromise late Monday on the issue of disaster relief funding that is likely to avert a federal government shutdown, the third such threat this year. (more)
Posted on Sep 27, 2011
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Flickr / U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Northeast Region (CC-BY)
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Members of the House passed a disaster aid spending bill early Friday morning, then went home for a weeklong recess. Hours later, the Senate rejected the bill, making the possibility of a government shutdown Oct. 1 a real possibility.
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AP / J. Scott Applewhite
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The House of Representatives narrowly rejected a short-term government funding bill Wednesday evening that would require cuts to government programs to pay for assistance in the wake of Hurricane Irene and other disasters this year. (more)
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Monte Wolverton, Cagle Cartoons, —
Posted on Jul 3, 2011
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AP / Susan Walsh
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This is not really the kind of headline we want to read about the Federal Reserve right now, but top banana Ben Bernanke acknowledged at a news conference Wednesday that the Fed was “caught off guard by recent signs of deterioration in the economy.”
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AP / Alex Brandon
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The good news: It doesn’t seem as though disputes between congressional Republicans and their Democratic colleagues on Capitol Hill and in the White House over spending cuts will bring the government to a standstill. The bad news ...
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mn.gov
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Like most states, Minnesota has a big budget problem. But unlike most states, it’s looking to the well-heeled to help fill the gap. Gov. Mark Dayton plans to attack the state’s $6.2 billion deficit by raising taxes on the rich.
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AP / Pablo Martinez Monsivais
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The Republican-controlled House, taking aim at everything from health care to the environment, has voted to cut more than $60 billion from the federal budget.
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By Amy Goodman — President Barack Obama unleashed his proposed 2012 budget this week, pronouncing, proudly: “I’ve called for a freeze on annual domestic spending over the next five years.”
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flickr/specialkrb
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Is it good news that U.S. consumer spending revved up to a three-year high in 2010? It could make for some improvement, especially if employment picks up to bolster Americans’ consumption habits in coming months, according to the BBC.
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Wikimedia Commons
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Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has taken the ax yet again to California’s social programs, vetoing almost $1 billion in spending on welfare, special education, child care and other programs before signing a budget bill into law.
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By Joe Conason — We could easily slip into another Great Depression if our leaders continue to heed the chattering class on the deficit. But cutting spending is not just bad economics; it’s bad politics, too.
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Flickr / langalex
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President Obama announced the award of nearly $2 billion in economic stimulus funds for new solar plants, saying it will create thousands of jobs and boost the use of renewable energy. The announcement came just a day after a gloomy June employment report.
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Flickr / ICAEW Newsroom
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Budget worries are sparking a new debate in Britain, with spending cuts taking aim at police services in what some see as a threat to the country’s anti-terror efforts.
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Flickr / Center for American Progress
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Strapped-for-cash states may be up the creek on this one: A jobs bill has stalled in the Senate, jeopardizing billions in federal aid to struggling states. Local and state officials are warning of layoffs in the hundreds of thousands and drastic spending cuts if the bill is not resuscitated.
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AP / Gregorio Borgia
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Italy’s largest union has launched a nationwide strike, upending public transport and government services in protest over the government’s recent austerity measures.
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Flickr.com / mindfrieze
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As budget hawks continue their attack on spending cuts around the country, it might be useful to look at the Pentagon after a report released Thursday claimed that at least $7 billion in taxpayer funds is being wasted on purchases of spare parts that the military ends up not needing.
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Flickr / U.S. Treasury Department
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In the face of the stereotypical image of Americans as free-spending consumers, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has told his international finance colleagues that G20 countries should not rely on American buyers for their products as they travel the road to economy recovery.
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Flickr / Partido Socialist
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As the euro continues to tank and European countries scramble to deal with shrinking economic forecasts, Spain has proposed slashing its spending plans by nearly 8 percent next year as it struggles to deal with financial turbulence.
Posted on May 28, 2010
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Wikimedia Commons
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California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is again attempting to eliminate the state’s welfare-to-work program as his Republican administration tries to cut spending while not raising taxes, a move intended to save $1.6 billion at the expense of 1.3 million poor people.
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Flickr / LakelandChamber
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A national small-business lobbying group has tossed in with 20 states in their legal challenge to the Obama administration’s health care reform law. The mostly Republican push claims the health care overhaul violates states’ rights guaranteed in the Constitution.
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By David Sirota — For 30 years, Republicans and conservative Democrats have precluded factual debates about spending priorities for fear of antagonizing defense contractors, seniors and the wealthy.
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White House / Pete Souza
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As part of his State of the Union address Wednesday, the president is expected to call for a three-year freeze on non-military, non-entitlement discretionary spending that amounts to a small fraction of the budget. It’s a stunt, for the most part, aimed at soothing budget-conscious independents. (continued)
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9-508.com
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The chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Adm. Mike Mullen, expects the Pentagon to request emergency financing for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a Bush-era tactic that uses “supplemental funding” to flesh out the already massive Pentagon budget to pay for the conflicts.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — The most significant moment of Obama’s news conference concerned taxes: his defense of proposed limits on the benefits that the well-off get for their charitable contributions and mortgage payments.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — Obama speaks disdainfully of “ideology,” but there comes a time when first principles need to be articulated. Conservatives have entered this fight with guns blazing while progressives have hidden behind a Maginot Line armed only with the word pragmatism.
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flickr/specialkrb
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As the national economy continues to wreak havoc on many Americans’ lives, even those who remain relatively unscathed by the recession are feeling the need, whether for appearances’ sake or otherwise, to reconsider their spending habits—but will it last?
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — The well-off will pay more in taxes. And before the howling on the right gets too loud, consider that we have just gone through a long era involving a far less frank form of redistribution—upward.
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Jeff Madrick’s new book insists that the anti-government ethos that is a treasured American prejudice is not grounded in the new economic reality. But is he fighting the last war?
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Flickr / jphilipg
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ProPublica did some digging into the infrastructure spending bundled into the stimulus package—the $100 billion that promises have the biggest impact in terms of job creation—and found that Wyoming is getting more than $20,100 per unemployed worker while Michigan, a state on the verge of a labor apocalypse, is expected to have to make do with just $2,434.37.
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osmoothie.com
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California has the biggest economy in the union, but the state is in a real hole. With major shortfalls and a $40 billion budget in legislative gridlock, Sacramento has laid off some workers, furloughed others and slashed wages. Now the governor is threatening to, er, terminate 20,000 more employees.
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By Joe Conason — Having allowed his Republican opponents to dominate the economic debate, Obama used his first news conference to rebut them—coolly and civilly, yet without leaving any doubt that he can strike back harder if necessary.
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Wikimedia Commons
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The Senate passed its own version of the stimulus package Tuesday, slashing funding in areas that would most effectively stimulate the economy, such as aid to low-income Americans and states, while expanding tax cuts. The House and Senate bills must now be reconciled with one another.
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White House / Pete Souza
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By Eugene Robinson — Bipartisanship is a cute idea, but with 600,000 Americans losing their jobs in one month, there simply isn’t time to be nice.
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radaronline.com
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A survey of stimulus coverage by Media Matters has found that watching TV news may actually shrink your brain. Well, that’s not fair, but it certainly won’t teach you much about stimulating the economy. That’s because the personalities that populate the airwaves—and not just Fox News—are given license to repeat untruths over and over again.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — Republicans have been winning the media wars over Obama’s central initiative. They have done so largely by defining the proposal by its least significant parts.
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By David Sirota — Intragovernmental squabbling probably makes the conflict-averse Obama uncomfortable. But the “make him do it” dynamic could finally bring the center of Washington’s political debate closer to the progressive center of American public opinion.
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By Eugene Robinson — Unbeknown to the House Republicans who voted unanimously against President Obama’s stimulus package, we are in the midst of a rare fundamental shift in American politics.
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nation.co.ke
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Without skipping a beat, once-troubled financial entities are continuing to spend big to lobby Congress as they pocket billions in TARP bailout money. The lobbying is defended by the bail-outted firms as a “transparent and effective way” to be heard on policy issues.
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Flickr / jphilipg
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There will be negotiation, revision and capitulation, but the basic guts of the Democrats’ $825 billion stimulus package are out in the open. There’s billions for infrastructure, billions for schools and billions for you and me. House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) responded by saying “Oh. My. God,” which we’ll take to mean, “Praise Jesus! The Democrats have done it again.”
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Truthdigger of the Week: Sen. Angus King
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