Archive
The State of Our Union’s Inequality
There's no doubt that President Barack Obama will make inequality a major theme of his State of the Union address, just as Franklin Delano Roosevelt did in 1935. "We have not weeded out the overprivileged and we have not effectively lifted up the underprivileged," FDR...
First Things First
In the four years since the Supreme Court's infamous Citizens United v. FEC ruling, two things have become abundantly clear. First, we have a major democracy problem. Citizens United paved the way for unlimited corporate spending to distort our elections. Staggering...
Fast-Tracking Misery
When it comes to trade policy, President Barack Obama is mimicking the same policies he criticized when he served in the Senate. As a presidential candidate, Obama promised to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), recognizing the enormous loss...
From Canada, a New Gold Standard
The 32,400 employees at Goldman Sachs averaged $383,374 each last year, the Wall Street banking giant has just disclosed. Typical employees at Goldman, of course, didn't take home anything near that $383,374. Bank clerks nationally only average $24,100 a year. In...
The Perils of Watered-Down Regulations
"There's a folksy saying my grandma taught me: 'If it smells like licorice and tastes like licorice, it must be licorice.' Now it has a corollary: 'Or it could also be a 4-methylcyclohexane methanol spill into your water supply, so grab the children and run for your...
Lawmakers Are Free Not to Become Narcissistic Jerks
Mark Twain spoke for me when he said: "I'm opposed to millionaires, but it would be dangerous to offer me the position." One danger that such wealth brings is that many who have it become blinded to those who don't. Thus, the news that more than half of our Congress...
Obama’s Taxing Problem
Does getting tipsy make it easier for you to bear President Barack Obama 's State of the Union addresses? Try taking a sip of beer, wine, or a mixed drink every time he says the words "tax" or "taxpayer" this time around. It's not as extreme as doing it when Obama...
Congress Discovers Inequality in America
The Moral Monday Moment
Rosa Parks became a powerful symbol of courage and defiance in the Civil Rights Movement by simply refusing to give up her seat to a white man and move to the back of the bus, as the racist culture of that time dictated she was supposed to do. Only, there was nothing...
Omnibushed
At 8 p.m. on Monday January 13, there was no $1.1 trillion spending bill for fiscal year 2014. At least not one that the public or the vast majority of lawmakers had seen. Less than 70 hours later, large majorities in the House and Senate (332 to 94, and 72 to 26,...
