From CommonDreams.org: Have you noticed all the cuts being made to your city budget? To schools and libraries, fire fighters and social services, and other public spending? Think you could do a better job managing the budget? Soon, you may have that chance. Through a process called “participatory budgeting”, residents of over 1,000 cities around …
Category: Economy
Oct 11
Budget Cuts Rapid Response Team
From Anne Martens: We are putting together a media rapid response team to focus on state budget cuts and revenue options. We will create a new email list and will ask people who opt-in to help us respond to news articles and blog posts by writing comments online and writing letters to the editor.
Oct 07
It Isn’t Written by Jim Flynn
Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) described a process of reading text called deconstruction. Part of the procedure maintains, what the wording doesn’t say reveals more about its meaning than what is written. Jacques’ critics maintain that his philosophy weakens the division between truth and falsehood. When modern journalism is taken into consideration, that distinction between truth and
Oct 03
Paradigm Shift Needed in WA State Tax Structure by Jim Flynn
Republicans and Democrats agree on one thing, we need a paradigm shift in our state tax structure to avoid the revenue shortfall and budget cuts to education and the social safety net funding disaster we experienced this year. Still, the electorate is in the dark about sources of revenue for Washington.
Sep 08
Obama Jobs Speech
Sep 01
Three Charts to Email to Your Right-Wing Brother-In-Law
Problem: Your right-wing brother-in-law is plugged into the FOX-Limbaugh lie machine, and keeps sending you emails about “Obama spending” and “Obama deficits” and how the “Stimulus” just made things worse. Solution: Here are three “reality-based” charts to send to him. These charts show what actually happened. Spending More here: Truth-Out
Sep 01
Where pay for chief executives tops the company tax burden
At least 25 top United States companies paid more to their chief executives in 2010 than they did to the federal government in taxes, according to a study released on Wednesday. The chief executives of those companies were paid an average of more than $16 million a year, the study found, a figure substantially higher …
Jul 21
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
From the Obama Campaign: This morning, a group of public servants showed up to work at a brand-new agency created to protect everyday Americans from the abuses of Wall Street. They’re the folks of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and they’ll be the cops on the beat protecting consumers from predatory credit card and mortgage …
Jul 20
Statement on the Gang of Six Plan by Center for Economic and Policy Research
Please write to your senators and congresspeople! http://www.cepr.net/index.php/press-releases/press-releases/statement-on-the-gang-of-six-plan?utm_source=CEPR+feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+cepr+%28CEPR%29&utm_content=Twitter Statement on the Gang of Six Plan aby Center for Economic and Policy Research Tax cuts for the wealthy, and Social Security cuts for ordinary workers
Jul 13
Teabaggers like Bachmann are dangerous for our country
From Horse’s Ass: Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) tells the Republicans to stop acting like children because otherwise real people are going to get hurt: “The possibility that seniors could be denied Social Security benefits is frightening,” Murray said. “Rather than accuse the President of scare tactics, my Republican colleagues should tell the extreme voices in their own …
Jul 07
Debt Ceiling Debate
Thanks to Zack Hudgins for sharing this article. The Republicans have turned their back on what Reagan said in 1983 during another debt ceiling debate: Here’s how President Reagan reacted to crazy talk about not raising the national debt limit in 1983: “The full consequences of a default — or even the serious prospect of …
Jun 09
McKenna Blames Washington’s Budget Woes on State Workers
From the Slog: Conveniently ignoring the past two biennial budgets filled with pay cuts, givebacks, layoffs and unpaid furloughs, McKenna caused his audience to literally gasp and groan with horror via his tales of state workers getting five percent annual pay increases year-after-year as the rest of us suffered. It’ll take me some time to fact …
May 25
US National Debt
May 16
10 Republican Lies About the Bush Tax Cuts
From Crooks & Liars: So it’s come down to this. On Saturday, David Stockman, the legendary Reagan budget chief who presided over the Gipper’s supply-side tax cuts, announced that the “debt explosion has resulted not from big spending by the Democrats, but instead the Republican Party’s embrace, about three decades ago, of the insidious doctrine that …
Apr 29
Studies: Rich don’t flee high tax states
Every time there’s a discussion to increase taxes on the rich, people always claim that the rich would flee the state if that happened. I recall hearing this over and over again, including in Washington state. NPR did a story on this that disputes that argument. Maybe we can have an intelligent discussion on a …
