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Why the Republican Crackup Hurts America

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

readersupportednews.org - By Robert Reich - Dec. 22 (Opinion) - America has had a long history of white Southern radicals who will stop at nothing to get their way - seceding from the Union in 1861, refusing to obey Civil Rights legislation in the 1960s, shutting the government in 1995, and risking the full faith and credit of the United States in 2010. Newt Gingrich's recent assertion that public officials aren't bound to follow the decisions of federal courts derives from the same tradition. This stop-at-nothing radicalism is dangerous for the GOP because most Americans recoil from it. Gingrich himself became an object of ridicule in the late 1990s, and many Republicans today worry that if he heads the ticket the Party will suffer large losses. It's also dangerous for America. We need two political parties solidly grounded in the realities of governing. Our democracy can't work any other way.

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The Remarkable Political Stupidity of the 'Street' - you know, Wall Street

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

readersupportednews.org - By Robert Reich: - Dec. 10 (News Analysis) - 'Wall Street has blanketed America in a miasma of cynicism. Most Americans assume the reason the Street got its taxpayer-funded bailout without strings in the first place was because of its political clout. That must be why the banks didn't have to renegotiate the mortgages of Americans - many of whom, because of the economic collapse brought on by the Street's excesses, are still under water. Some are drowning.' Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog

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The Most Important Speech of His Presidency

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Robert Reich's Blog - By Robert Reich - Dec. 07 (Opinion) - The President’s speech today in Osawatomie, Kansas — where Teddy Roosevelt gave his “New Nationalism” speech in 1910 — is the most important economic speech of his presidency in terms of connecting the dots, laying out the reasons behind our economic and political crises, and asserting a willingness to take on the powerful and the privileged that have gamed the system to their advantage.

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Tonight’s Republican Debate: The 19th Century or the Stone Age?

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Robert Reich's Blog - By Robert Reich - Sep. 07 (Opinion) - listen tonight (if you can bear it) for anything other than standard Republican boilerplate since the 1920s — a wistful desire to return to the era of President William McKinley, when the federal government was small, the Fed and the IRS had yet to be invented, state laws determined worker safety and hours, evolution was still considered contentious, immigrants were almost all European, big corporations and robber barons ran the government, the poor were desperate, and the rich were lived like old-world aristocrats.

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Stock Tip: Be Worried. Workers Are Consumers.

Sat, 20 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Robert Reich's Blog - By Robert Reich - Aug. 20 (Opinion) - Every CEO of every company that continues to squeeze payrolls (Verizon, are you listening? Ford?) needs to understand they're shooting themselves in the feet. Where do they expect demand for their products and services to come from?' Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog

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Medicare Is the Solution, Not the Problem

Sun, 24 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Robert Reich's Blog - By Robert Reich - Jul. 24 (Opinion) - 'Not only is Social Security on the chopping block in order to respond to Republican extortion. So is Medicare. But Medicare isn't the nation's budgetary problems. It's the solution. The real problem is the soaring costs of health care that lie beneath Medicare. They're costs all of us are bearing in the form of soaring premiums, co-payments, and deductibles. Medicare offers a means of reducing these costs - if Washington would let it.' Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog

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The Swamp of Washington

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Robert Reich - Jun. 13 (Opinion) - Not a shred of urgency. This morning I was on ABC's "This Week," debating jobs and the economy with Republican Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama. Shelby restated the standard Republican playbook of spending cuts and tax cuts (except for one instant when he inadvertently conceded America emerged from the Great Depression only when government spent big time mobilizing the nation for World War II). But what struck me most was the similarity between Shelby's overall attitude and that of the Democrats I talked with - a kind of shrug of the shoulders, a sense that it's really not all that bad out there, and that nothing can be done anyway.

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How to Get Washington's Attention

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Robert Reich - Jun. 02 (Opinion) - We're coming full circle: The stock market is dropping because corporate earnings are slowing. Corporate earnings are slowing because consumers are pulling back. Consumers are pulling back because they don't have enough jobs or adequate wages.

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The Truth About the American Economy

Tue, 31 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Robert Reich - May. 31 (News Analysis) - 'As we should have learned from the Great Prosperity - the 30 years after World War II when America grew because most Americans shared in the nation's prosperity - we cannot have a growing and vibrant economy without a growing and vibrant middle class.' Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog

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Paul Ryan Still Doesn't Get It

Wed, 25 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Robert Reich - May. 25 (Opinion) - 'Ryan calls it 'demagoguery,' accusing Hochul and her fellow Democrats of trying to 'scare seniors into thinking that their current benefits are being affected.

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Blackwater Shouldn't Lobby With Our Dime

Sat, 21 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Robert Reich - May. 21 (Opinion) - It's one of the most insidious conflicts of interest in American politics.

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The People's Budget

Wed, 18 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Robert Reich - May. 18 (Opinion) - The message from the 'People's Party' should be unconditional: No cuts in Medicare and Medicaid or Social Security. More spending on education and infrastructure. Pay for it and reduce the long-term budget deficit by cutting military spending and raising taxes on the rich. The People's Budget is the template.' Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog

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The Big Economic Story, and Why Obama Isn’t Telling It

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Robert Reich's Blog - Dec. 02 (Opinion) - by Robert ReichQuiz: What’s responsible for the lousy economy most Americans continue to wallow in? A. Big government, bureaucrats, and the cultural and intellectual elites who back them. B. Big business, Wall Street, and the powerful and privileged who represent them. These are the two competing stories Americans are telling one another.read more

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Why Aren't Business Leaders Standing Up to the Tea Party?

Sat, 30 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Robert Reich's Blog - By Robert Reich - Oct. 30 (Opinion) - Business leaders should be standing up to the tea party. And they should be actively supporting policies to relieve the economic stresses that fuel it. Their silence in both regards is not only bad for business; it threatens the stability of our economic and political system.

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The Dow vs. the economy

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Robert Reich's Blog - By Robert Reich - Sep. 03 (Opinion) - What passes for business reporting in the United States is too often a series of breathless reports about the stock market. When the Dow rises precipitously, as it did today (Wednesday), the business press predicts an end to the Great Recession. When the stock market plummets, as it did last week, the Great Recession is said to be worsening.

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Why we should let the Bush tax cuts expire

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Robert Reich's Blog - By Robert Reich - Aug. 02 (Opinion) - Although Wall Street’s excesses were the proximate cause of the Great Recession, its fundamental cause lay in the nation’s widening inequality. Extending the Bush tax cuts for the richest Americans would widen that gap further.

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Why Obama Should Put BP Under Temporary Receivership

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Robert Reich's Blog - By Robert Reich - Jun. 01 (Opinion) - It’s time for the federal government to put BP under temporary receivership, which gives the government authority to take over BP’s operations in the Gulf of Mexico until the gusher is stopped. This is the only way the public know what’s going on, be confident enough resources are being put to stopping the gusher, ensure BP’s strategy is correct, know the government has enough clout to force BP to use a different one if necessary, and be sure the President is ultimately in charge.

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White House Should Stop Pandering to Wall Street

Sat, 08 May 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Robert Reich's Blog - By Robert Reich - May. 08 (Opinion) - he White House opposes three important financial reforms that have drawn bi-partisan support in the Senate. It should reverse course.

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Why the Economy Is So Out of Whack

Mon, 05 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Robert Reich's Blog - By Robert Reich - Apr. 05 (Opinion) - Alan Greenspan is now being interviewed. He says he bore no responsibility for the housing bubble that catapulted the nation into a financial crisis in 2008 because no one could have known about the bubble when he chaired the Fed in the years before it burst. Larry Summers was interviewed just before Greenspan. He said the economy is expanding, that the Administration is doing everything it can to bring jobs back, and that the regulatory reform bills moving on the Hill will prevent another financial crisis. What?

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The Enthusiasm Gap

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Robert Reich's Blog - By Robert Reich - Mar. 01 (Opinion) - The Dem base is lethargic because congressional Democrats continue to compromise on everything the Dem base cares about. For a year now it’s been nothing but compromises, watered-down ideas, weakened provisions, wider loopholes, softened regulations.

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The National Health Care Anthem

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Robert Reich's Blog - By Robert Reich - Feb. 10 (Opinion) - Now, Anthem Blue Cross is going a step further. It's raising rates for individual policyholders by as much as 39 percent. That's fifteen times faster than inflation. So far, my group policy hasn't been affected but I'm expecting the worst.

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Slouching Toward Health Care Reform

Sat, 19 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Robert Reich's Blog - By Robert Reich - Dec. 19 (Opinion) - "Don't make the perfect the enemy of the better," says the President and congressional insiders when confronted with the sorry spectacle of a health-care bill whose scope and ambition continue to shrink, and whose long-term costs to typical Americans continue to grow. They're right, of course. But by the same logic, neither the White House nor congressional Democrats will be able to celebrate the emerging legislation as a "major overhaul" or "fundamental reform." At best, it's likely to be a small overhaul containing incremental reforms.

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How a Few Private Health Insurers Are on the Way to Controlling Health Care

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Robert Reich's Blog - By Robert Reich - Dec. 10 (Opinion) - we still end up with a system that's based on private insurers that have no incentive whatsoever to control their costs or the costs of pharmaceutical companies and medical providers. If you think the federal employee benefit plan is an answer to this, think again. Its premiums increased nearly 9 percent this year. And if you think an expanded Medicare is the answer, you're smoking medical marijuana. The Senate bill allows an independent commission to hold back Medicare costs only if Medicare spending is rising faster than total health spending. So if health spending is soaring because private insurers have no incentive to control it, we're all out of luck. Medicare explodes as well.

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Harry Reid, and What Happened to the Public Option

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Robert Reich's Blog - By Robert Reich - Nov. 19 (Opinion) - Our private, for-profit health insurance system, designed to fatten the profits of private health insurers and Big Pharma, is about to be turned over to ... our private, for-profit health care system. Except that now private health insurers and Big Pharma will be getting some 30 million additional customers, paid for by the rest of us.

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An Open Letter to Harry Reid on Controlling Health Care Costs

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

TruthOut - By Robert Reich - Nov. 13 (Comment) - But Harry, you really need to take on future health-care costs. The House bill fails to do this. The public option in the House bill is open only to people without employer-provided health insurance.

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