NewsTrust - Deficit - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Independent)

Blame Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan for the Sequester

Sun, 03 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0800

readersupportednews.org - By Josh Marks - Mar. 03 (Opinion) - Boehner tried for a "Grand Bargain" with President Obama in 2011, only to be reined in by Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan, according to a recent interview Cantor conducted with The New Yorker's Washington correspondent, Ryan Lizza. Cantor admitted that there was a final meeting with Boehner, Ryan and himself where Boehner wanted to accept the president's $1.2 trillion offer, but was talked out of it by Cantor and Ryan.

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Bernanke joins the ranks of economic ‘hippies’

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0800

seattletimes.com - By Paul Krugman - Mar. 02 (Opinion) - Now, as then, this consensus has seemed impenetrable to counterarguments, no matter how well grounded in evidence. And now, as then, leaders of the consensus continue to be regarded as credible even though they’ve been wrong about everything (why do people keep treating Alan Simpson as a wise man?) while critics of the consensus are regarded as foolish hippies even though all their predictions — about interest rates, about inflation, about the dire effects of austerity — have come true.

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The Hoax of Entitlement Reform

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

readersupportednews.org - By Robert Reich - Jan. 08 (Opinion) - "Entitlement reform" sounds like a noble endeavor. But it has little or nothing to do with reducing future budget deficits. Taming future deficits requires three steps having nothing to do with entitlements: Limiting the growth of overall healthcare costs, cutting our bloated military, and ending corporate welfare (tax breaks and subsidies targeted to particular firms and industries). Obsessing about "entitlement reform" only serves to distract us from these more important endeavors.

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Four Biggest Government Spending Myths Debunked

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Mattea Kramer - Jul. 17 (Opinion) - We're at the edge of the cliff of deficit disaster! National security spending is being, or will soon be, slashed to the bone! Obamacare will sink the ship of state! Each of these claims has grabbed national attention in a big way, sucking up years' worth of precious airtime. That's a serious bummer, since each of them is a spending myth of the first order. Let's pop them, one by one, and move on to the truly urgent business of a nation that is indeed on the edge. Continue Reading ...

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Fox News Has Tricked People Into Thinking Obama Is A Big Spender

Sat, 30 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0700

businessinsider.com - Jun. 30 (Opinion) - Read it and weep conservitards.

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OpEdNews - Article: End [Their Federal Reserve System = An Exclusive Banking Cartel]

Fri, 08 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Op Ed News - Jun. 08 (Opinion) -

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Austerity Is So Wrong!

Sun, 06 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

The Daily Beast - By Paul Krugman - May. 06 (Opinion) - In a new book, End This Depression Now!, Nobel Prize–winning economist Paul Krugman says the current economic problems can be fixed both more easily and more quickly than anyone imagines. But politicians’ desire to slash spending is deeply destructive, and he details why austerity is so appealing even to Very Serious People—and why it’s such a bad idea.

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Punk Economics: Lesson 3

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

YouTube - By David McWilliams - Apr. 01 (Opinion) - Irish Economist David McWilliams discusses the dangers of playing games with liquidity, in Lesson 3.

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Paul Krugman: 50 Percent Chance Global Economy Will Enter Recession

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Harry Bradford - Sep. 09 (Interview) - Even though Obama's jobs plan is "bolder and better" than Paul Krugman expected, the Nobel-Prize winning economist still told Bloomberg Television on Friday that it might not be enough to stave off global recession. The risk of global recession is "quite high, maybe 50 percent," Krugman told Bloomberg. He added: "The risk of something that feels like a recession is much higher than that. My central belief is that we're likely to have higher unemployment a year from now than we do today." Krugman said that while Obama's plan "could make a noticeable difference to the economy," Republican opposition to the President's proposal, on top of the euro zone crisis, still makes recession a substantial possibility.

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Jon Stewart Takes On Fox News' 'Class Warfare' Claims

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Jon Stewart - Aug. 19 (Comedy News) - On Thursday night's "Daily Show" Jon Stewart took a break from speculating about the GOP presidential race and did a lengthy segment on conservative pundits'...

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The Economy Is Doomed Says Charles R. Morris

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 09:01:10 -0700

The Daily Beast - By Charles R. Morris - Aug. 11 (Opinion) - Over the last few days, global markets have been surging and collapsing like a teeny-bopper’s hormones. The Monday swoon was precipitated by the downgrading of the U.S. credit rating by one of the major credit agencies, while the Tuesday resurrection was in reaction to Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke’s promise to keep interest rates near zero in perpetuity if necessary. Neither of those was a real event. Treasury risk premiums fell after the credit action, and American banks and corporations are already sitting on some $3 trillion in cash that they can’t spend. More free money won’t change anything. Gloom descended again on Wednesday, this time because of credit worries in Europe, which is at least a real problem. A deeper reason for the high market anxiety, however, is the sad state of financial governance in both Europe and the United States. The paralyzing standoff between the two major American parties was dramatized by the idiocies of the debt-ceiling debate. President Obama’s Monday speech only added to the nervousness by underscoring how far apart the parties were.

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Slouching Toward a Double-Dip, for No Good Reason

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Robert Reich - Aug. 08 (Opinion) - Imagine your house is burning. You call the fire department but your call isn't answered because every fire fighter in town is debating whether there will be enough water to fight fires over the next ten years, even though water is plentiful right now. (Yes, there's a long-term problem.) One faction won't even allow the fire trucks out of the garage unless everyone agrees to cut water use. An agency that rates fire departments has just issued a downgrade, causing everyone to hoard water. While all this squabbling continues, your house burns to the ground and the fire has now spread to your neighbors' homes. But because everyone is preoccupied with the wrong question (the long-term water supply) and the wrong solution (saving water now), there's no response. In the end, the town comes up with a plan for the water supply over the next decade, but it's irrelevant because the whole town has been turned to ashes.

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Austerity Measures Will Only Worsen Current Recession

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Eileen Appelbaum - Jun. 08 (Opinion) - There is no sign the private sector, which added a mere 83,000 jobs in May, is about to take up the slack. Companies are sitting on trillions in profits, but they won’t use this money to create jobs if they don’t see increasing demand for their products and services. With the economy slowing and the political class focused on deficit reduction, it’s hard to fault these big corporations -- not to mention still struggling small businesses -- for not taking on more workers. A "contractionary expansion" -- fancy economist talk for cutting government spending and unleashing the private sector to expand hiring and production -- is nowhere in sight.

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PolitiFact, “ending” Medicare and the limits of fact-checking

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

John McQuaid Blog - By John McQuaid - Apr. 27 (Opinion) - Last week, the estimable PolitiFact.com gave its harshest verdict – “Pants on Fire” – to a DCCC ad attacking the Republican plans to privatize Medicare. There are a bunch of exaggerations and questionable assertions in the ad (as in many political ads) but the nub of the issue was the assertion that “Republicans voted to end Medicare.” PolitiFact objected on these grounds: Yes, the Republican plan would be a huge change to the current program, and seniors would have to pay more for their health plans if it becomes law. Democrats, including President Barack Obama, have said they are strongly opposed to the plan. But to say the Republicans voted to end Medicare, as the ad does, is a major exaggeration. All seniors would continue to be offered coverage under the proposal, and the program’s budget would increase every year. Medicare defenders have objected on the grounds that the GOP changes to the program would render it so radically different in form from the old, and the benefits would fall so far short in various ways, that it effectively means the end of Medicare “as we know it.” PolitiFact alludes to that, saying calling it a “critical qualifier” the ad should have included. Here’s my problem. This is a semantic thicket, and adjudicating this is a hopelessly slippery distraction. PolitiFact has fallen into a trap that exposes some of the limits of political fact-checking as currently practiced.

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FDR Said it All in 1936 -- Who Will Follow in His Steps Today?

Fri, 22 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By David O. Russell - Apr. 22 (Speech) - FDR said it all in 1936 and I wish someone would be as fearlessly blunt today on behalf of everyone in America facing a truly scandalous financial situation which is only being allowed to repeat itself.

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Obama vs. Ryan: Who's Winning the Deficit Debate?

Wed, 20 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Nation - By Ari Berman - Apr. 20 (Opinion) - Democratic strategists believe that House Republicans committed political suicide by voting to approve Representative Paul Ryan’s budget plan last week. “When we win back the majority, people will look back at this vote as a defining one that secured the majority for Democrats,” Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Israel told Washington Post blogger Greg Sargent.

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The Right Bailing The Left Out On Spending

Wed, 20 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Think Progress - By Matthew Yglesias - Apr. 20 (Opinion) - You have a government set to steadily increase spending on autopilot as a result of demographic change and rising health care costs. And you have a Democratic President urging congress to enact spending cuts. But you have conservative politicians refusing to make a serious effort to reach an agreement out of some blend of taxophobia and fear of giving the President a win. The result, again, whether the right realizes it or not, is a gift to the wing of the Democratic Party that disagrees with Obama about the desirability of enacting spending cuts.

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There was a time when Paul Ryan thought the Federal Debt was too small

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Crooks and Liars - By John Amato - Apr. 19 (Opinion) - Ryan has refashioned his image from "supply-sider" to "serious budget hawk," but there's not much evidence his worldview has changed. He still favors enormous tax cuts for the rich far beyond those passed into law by George W. Bush, only this time he promises to pay for them via closing unspecified deductions.

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Ryan’s Leap

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

National Review - By Charles Krauthammer - Apr. 08 (Opinion) - In 1983, the British Labour Party under the hard-left Michael Foot issued a 700-page manifesto so radical that one colleague called it “the longest suicide note in history.” House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan has just released a recklessly bold, 73-page, ten-year budget plan. At 37 footnotes, it might be the most annotated suicide note in history. That depends on whether (a) President Obama counters with a deficit-reduction plan of equal seriousness, rather than just demagoguing the Ryan plan till next Election Day, (b) there are any Republicans beyond the measured, super-wonky Ryan who can explain and defend a plan of such daunting scope and complexity, and (c) Americans are serious people. My guesses: No. Not really. And I hope so (we will find out definitively in November 2012). In 1983, the British Labour Party under the hard-left Michael Foot issued a 700-page manifesto so radical that one colleague called it “the longest suicid

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Is FactCheck.org What You've Been Led To Believe It Is?

Sat, 26 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

thomhartmann.com - By Vitocaputo - Mar. 26 (Opinion) - During the Brunch With Bernie segment of the March 25 broadcast... Bernie said something like "Social Security does not contribute one cent to the deficit.." Most every member of the progressive media... both radio and Internet... have expressed the same belief. My understanding of the structure of Social Security is consistent with this progressive perspective on the relationship between Social Security and the deficit. Specifically... they are disjoint.

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The Real News on Jobs

Sat, 05 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Robert Reich - Mar. 05 (Opinion) - Are we making progress on the jobs front? The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports 192,000 new jobs in February (220,000 new jobs in the private sector and a drop in government employment), and a drop in the overall unemployment rate from 9 to 8.9 percent. We're heading in the right direction but far too slowly to make a real dent in unemployment. To get the unemployment rate down to 6 percent by 2014 we'd need over 300,000 new jobs a month, every month, between now and then. Overall, the number of unemployed Americans -- 13.7 million -- is about the same as it was last month. The number working part time who'd rather be working full time -- 8.3 million -- is also about the same. But to get to the most important trend you have to dig under the job numbers and look at what kind of new jobs are being created. That's where the big problem lies.

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FactCheck Gets It Wrong on Social Security and the Deficit

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

cepr.net - By Dean Baker - Feb. 28 (Opinion) - FactCheck.org, a project of the Annenburg Public Policy Center, wrongly attacked a number of prominent Democrats for correctly pointing out that Social Security does not contribute to the deficit. The people attacked, included New York Senator Charles Schumer, Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin, and President Obama’s Budget Director Jacob Lew, who had all correctly pointed out that Social Security does not contribute to the budget deficit.

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Plutocracy Now: What Wisconsin Is Really About

Sat, 26 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Mother Jones - By Kevin Drum - Feb. 26 (Opinion) - In 2008, a liberal Democrat was elected president. Landslide votes gave Democrats huge congressional majorities. Eight years of war and scandal and George W. Bush had stigmatized the Republican Party almost beyond redemption. A global financial crisis had discredited the disciples of free-market fundamentalism, and Americans were ready for serious change. Or so it seemed. But two years later, Wall Street is back to earning record profits, and conservatives are triumphant. To understand why this happened, it's not enough to examine polls and tea parties and the makeup of Barack Obama's economic team. You have to understand how we fell so short, and what we rightfully should have expected from Obama's election. And you have to understand two crucial things about American politics.

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TRMS correspondence with Politifact

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

The Rachel Maddow Show - By Rachel Maddow - Feb. 25 (Comment) - Subject: Correction requested re: The Rachel Maddow Show Dear Mr. Umhoefer and Mr. Borowski: I'm writing to request that you make a correction to your Truth-O-Meter post of Thursday, February 17th, 2011. http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2011/feb/18/rachel-maddow/rachel-maddow-says-wisconsin-track-have-budget-sur/ In your effort to challenge a Capital Times editorial you have mistakenly ascribed the argument therein to Rachel Maddow. In so doing, you have half-quoted her in one instance, misquoted her in another, and misrepresented her overall.

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Factcheck got it really wrong about Social Security

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Daily Kos - By Dolly Madison - Feb. 25 (Opinion) - Too many people don't understand how Social Security is funded and don't bother to try to figure it out. Others understand, and then prey upon those who don't in order to fearmonger. Still others try to get it right, but get confused with all the info and then proceed to misinform others! I don't know what Factcheck.org's excuse is, but they posted a piece today that's extremely, undeniably false and misleading with respect to Social Security. They apparently failed to know or learn that there are 3 milestones with respect to the funding of Social Security

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