NewsTrust - U.S. Budget - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Independent)

Why Do We Pay Energy Giants to Wreck Earth? |

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Bill McKibben - Apr. 06 (Opinion) - 1. Don’t subsidize those who already have plenty of cash on hand. 2. Don’t subsidize people forever 3. Sometimes you’ll subsidize something for a sensible reason and it won’t work out. 4. Don’t subsidize something you want less of. 5. Don’t give subsidies to people who have given you cash.

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As Romney Releases Tax Returns, Fmr Senate Investigator Says: We've Got To Start Taxing Corporations

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Jan. 24 (Interview) - tax evasion could seriously cripple the already struggling economy. Blum appears in "We’re Not Broke," a documentary that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. The film examines widespread corporate tax evasion in the United States and the increasing role of offshore tax havens. "Has [Romney] cheated? No," Blum says. "What he’s done is take full advantage of a system that has been structured the way it is because of political influence and a tremendous amount of lobbying money on Capitol Hill...

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Report: Military Blew $1 Trillion on Weapons Since 9/11

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Adam Weinstein - Nov. 02 (Opinion) - A new study suggests that defense hawks are crying crocodile tears over planned cuts to Pentagon spending. Capitol Hill conservatives and Pentagon brass fighting cuts to defense spending have argued that the military is limping off the battlefield

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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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Richard Wolff: Debt Showdown is "Political Theater" Burdening Society's Most Vulnerable

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Jul. 28 (Interview) - Republicans have agreed to a vote today on a budget plan they say will cut the deficit $917 billion over 10 years. The move sets the stage for showdown against unified Democratic opposition in the Senate and threats of a White House veto. To discuss the debt talks and economic austerity worldwide, we're joined by Richard Wolff, Emeritus Professor of Economics at University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and author of several books including, "Capitalism Hits the Fan: The Global Economic Meltdown and What to Do About It." "Politics in the U.S. have become as dysfunctional as our economic situation," Wolff says. "It seems almost like the Obama administration is seeking this [August 2] deadline to start moving in the more centrist direction economically that it has wanted ... but has been absent the type of crisis that would be able to convince the American public it needs to do [it]."

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Smash the Ceiling

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By James Surowiecki - Jul. 26 (Opinion) - 'The truth is that the United States doesn't need, and shouldn't have, a debt ceiling. Every other democratic country, with the exception of Denmark, does fine without one. There's no debt limit in the Constitution. And, if Congress really wants to hold down government debt, it already has a way to do so that doesn't risk economic chaos - namely, the annual budgeting process.' James Surowiecki, The New Yorker

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The public wants and expects new revenue

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

Washington Monthly - By Steve Benen - Jul. 19 (Opinion) - The new CBS News poll includes two interesting results, one more encouraging than the other. The first is the top-line question of whether the public wants to see the debt ceiling increased or not. Unfortunately, public confusion is proving to be a tough

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Jon Stewart Rips Republicans Over Debt Ceiling Fight (VIDEO)

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Jon Stewart - Jul. 13 (Comedy News) - As you've probably heard, the government is headed for a crisis if raising the debt ceiling isn't raised by August 2. On Tuesday night's "Daily Show," Jon Stewart summed up our potential default and mocked House republicans for "playing politics with our credit rating."

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Budget Blowhards: Why the Budget Debate Is Destined to Become Ever More Painful

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Dean Baker - Jul. 12 (Opinion) - The Washington press corps is living some bizarre delusion about the balanced budgets at the end of the Clinton years. They didn't come about from politicians making tough choices. They came about from much stronger than expected economic growth.

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Growing Economic Inequality the Root Cause of Economic Stagnation

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Robert Creamer - Jul. 11 (Editorial) - The bottom line is that most of the considerable economic growth of the last several decades has gone into the pockets of a tiny percent of the population. As a result, wages and consumer buying power have stagnated, and consumers don't have the money to buy the new products and services upon which economic growth depends.

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Buffett: GOP Threatening To 'Blow Your Brains Out' Over Debt Ceiling

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Waren Buffett - Jul. 07 (Interview) - the Republican-controlled Congress is "trying to use the incentive now that we're going to blow your brains out, America, in terms of your debt worthiness over time." If Congress fails to raise the borrowing limit of the federal government by ...Buffett urges Congress to hike debt ceilingUSA TodayWarren Buffett Wants Congress to Raise Debt CeilingZimbioBuffett Tells Congress To Act On Debt Ceiling…Now (GE, JNJ, KO, UPS, WFC ...tickerspy NewswireNewser -CNBC.com -San Diego Source (subscription)all 252 news articles »

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Jon Stewart Takes On Obama's Debt Speech, Resulting Flak From GOP & Dems (VIDEO)

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - Jun. 29 (Comedy News) - President Obama gave a press briefing Wednesday, the focus of which was the United States' trillions of dollars of debt. On Wednesday night's "Daily Show" Jon Stewart took aim at the President's speech but also criticized Republicans and Democrats in Congress for their less-than-amazing negotiating skills.

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Around the Globe, US Military Bases Generate Resentment, Not Security

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Nation - By Katrina vanden Heuvel - Jun. 14 (Opinion) - “It makes as much sense for the Pentagon to hold onto 227 military bases in Germany as it would for the post office to maintain a fleet of horses and buggies,” writes Gusterson. In a recent Italian documentary Standing Army, the late author and Nation contributor Chalmers Johnson says, “The unit of empire in the classic European empires was the colony. The unit for the American empire is not the colony, it’s the military base.… Things that can’t go on forever, don’t. That’s where we are today.” The bases—isolated from the host communities and, as Gusterson writes, “generating resentment against [their] prostitution, environmental damage, petty crime, and everyday ethnocentrism”—face growing opposition from local citizens.

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Death by Budget Cut: Why Conservatives and Some Dems Have Blood on Their Hands

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Rania Khalek - Jun. 14 (Opinion) - Politicians, the media and the power elite tell us that state and local government budget shortfalls are the result of lavish compensation packages paid to teachers, police officers and firefighters along with "entitlements" such as Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare. The truth is that the economic crisis, sparked by decades of deregulation and greedy financial firms, caused high levels of unemployment that dramatically reduced state and local tax revenues. Add to that years of tax cuts for the wealthy and decades of corporate tax-dodging, and you've got yourself a budget crisis.

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Providing financial assistance to those in need

Fri, 03 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Daily Show - By Jon Stewart - Jun. 03 (Comedy News) - Jon Stewart talks about natural disasters, and how the Republicans want to deal with it.

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Republican Budget Extremist and Cruel

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

readersupportednews.org - By Sen. Bernie Sanders - Jun. 02 (Opinion) - Given the reality of record-breaking corporate profits and the growing gap between the very rich and everyone else, it should be a surprise to no one that every recently published poll suggests that the overwhelming majority of the American people want the deficit to be addressed through shared sacrifice. They do not believe that the deficit should be reduced solely on the backs of working families, the elderly, children, the sick and the poor - many of whom are already suffering as a result of the recession. Unfortunately, that is exactly what the Republicans have proposed.

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How Fraudulent Is the GOP Budget Plan? It Wouldn't Even Make a Dent In the Deficit!

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

AlterNet - By Joshua Holland - Jun. 02 (Opinion) - The Republican budget plan is the purest expression of the Right's longstanding desire to dismantle the social safety net. It's not about the budget deficit—that's simply a premise -- it's the "Shock Doctrine" in action.

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What the media establishment refuses to understand

Mon, 30 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Monthly - By Steve Benen - May. 30 (Opinion) - It was quite a roundtable on “Meet the Press” yesterday. Viewers got to see a Republican strategist, a conservative pundit, a conservative Democrat, and an ostensibly center-left columnist who thinks that Democrats are big meanies when it comes to Medicare.

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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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Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Debt?

Thu, 05 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

populist.com - By Bob Burnett - May. 05 (Opinion) - Last week, I received an angry email accusing me of ignoring the number one political story, “...the USA is broke and has $14 TRILLION DOLLARS worth of debt!” It wasn’t unusual, as many Americans are overwrought about the US public debt. Sure, it’s a problem, but not number one, and here’s why.

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Strengthen Medicare; Barry Rand; Meet People's Health Needs

Sun, 01 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

aarp.org - By Barry Rand - May. 01 (Opinion) - Medicare is more than a line item in the federal budget. It is a program that provides health security for real people — more than 47 million of them. Changing the guaranteed structure of Medicare and replacing it with a system in which individuals would buy coverage from private insurance plans, with only a diminishing portion of the premium covered by Medicare, would put the health of millions of older Americans at risk. This is not cost control. This is simply shifting the vast majority of rising costs to older Americans while reneging on Medicare's promise of secure health coverage.

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Sensen No Sen: Gilded Age v2.0

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

sensen-no-sen.blogspot.com - By Pbi - Apr. 29 (Opinion) - The latest in a string of Supreme Court decisions favoring corporations over individuals is just one more piece of a concerted, sustained effort to return America to the excesses of the Gilded Age.

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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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Rand Paul, a Senate show horse, not a workhorse

Mon, 25 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Lexington Herald-Leader - By Tom Eblen - Apr. 25 (Opinion) - There are two kinds of people in Congress: workhorses and show horses. Few show horses have pranced and preened as much as Rand Paul has during his first months as a United States senator.

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