ALEC Offshoot Tries to Hijack Local Governments
After forty years of pushing corporate-friendly policy in state legislatures, this week the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is launching...
Category: Politics
House Republicans Pass Bill to Lower Taxes on the Rich and Raise Taxes on the Poor
So what are Republicans in the House of Representatives up to these days? According to Danny Vinik, they just passed...
Paul Ryan’s New Poverty Proposal Would Have Government Micromanage Poor People’s Lives
On Thursday, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) released his much-anticipated proposal for reforming the way the federal government tries to alleviate...
Koch Political Universe Vaster Than Previously Known
Newly-obtained documents show that the billionaire Koch brothers’ political giving is much more expansive than has previously been known. In...
Rand Paul Flubs the Facts on the Minimum Wage
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) says the minimum wage, like Trix, is for kids. Speaking in San Francisco over the weekend,...
California Voters to Weigh-In on “Corporate Personhood”
California’s Democratic Governor Jerry Brown has permitted SB 1272, an advisory measure entitled the Overturn Citizens United Act, to appear...
States That Raised Minimum Wage Saw Faster Job Growth So Far In 2014
States with higher minimum wages saw faster job growth in the first six months of 2014 than states that have...
Paul Ryan’s Faux Populism Isn’t Going to End Poverty or Reduce Inequality
Paul Ryan’s fellow Republicans are quick to dismiss Elizabeth Warren as too radical, too progressive, too populist. But Ryan is...
Koch-Funded Texas Gubernatorial Candidate Limits Public Chemical Disclosure After Deadly Explosion
Shortly after the anniversary of the 2013 fertilizer plant explosion that killed 15 people, wounded 226, and upended a large...
Meet the Banking Caucus, Wall Street’s secret weapon in Washington
Every business sector has its friends in Washington. Financial companies — from the biggest megabanks to small payday lenders —...
Senate Democrats Dare GOPers to Block Their Dark-Money Disclosure Bill
The 2014 elections are awash in dark money—and it’s only getting worse. The Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity alone plans to...
State and Local Efforts to Rein in CEO Pay
Fed up with the do-nothing Congress, people around the country are no longer waiting for Washington to lead on some...
Alan Grayson To Force Republicans On The Record On Minimum Wage
Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) proposed an amendment to a House spending bill Tuesday that would raise the minimum wage for...
Dick Cheney: Give More Money to the Pentagon, Not to Infrastructure
WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Dick Cheney said Monday that President Barack Obama is “devastating” the U.S. military and needs...
Corporate Tax Cheats Still Get Billions In Government Business
Despite supposed bans on companies that move offshore to avoid paying U.S. taxes getting federal contracts, more than a dozen...
Who Are The Protectors of Privilege? – A Congressional Report Card
Do you wonder which members of Congress routinely side with the richest 1 percent and Wall Street? Which lawmakers consistently...
Ronald Reagan stuck it to millennials: A college debt history lesson no one tells
During my first semester of college, John Lennon was assassinated 40 blocks south of my freshman dorm, and Ronald Reagan,...
The South is America’s poverty belt, and Republicans want to make all of America more like the South
The South has never been America’s bright spot when it comes to things like poverty and health outcomes, but recent...
Exclusive: Inside the Koch Brothers’ Secret Billionaire Summit
This is what happens when Marco Rubio, Mitch McConnell, Tom Cotton, Cory Gardner and a gang of the world’s richest...
Gov. Paul LePage on Social Security: “It is welfare, pure and simple”
Responding to a Bureau of Economic Analysis study that found the state’s personal-income growth during the first three months of...
Serial School Privatizer “Chainsaw Paul” Vallas Gets Ready For His Next Job
After savaging public education in Chicago, Philly, New Orleans and Bridgeport, Vallas has been summoned home to Illinois by the...
Rep. Issa: Shielding $300 Billion in Tax Evasion
Many Americans dislike the IRS and will paint you a vivid picture of the tax man knocking down your door...
Iraq and Detroit: Both Plundered by the Same Bandits
The ugly face of empire and disaster capitalism is visible all over the world. Detroit, Michigan, was once a thriving...
Massachusetts Passes The Highest State Minimum Wage In The Country
The Massachusetts House passed a bill that will raise the state’s minimum wage to $11 an hour by 2017. The...
Koch-Funded Group Won’t Back Kansas Republicans Who Support Clean Energy
A Republican state legislator in Kansas is being targeted by a new Koch-funded effort to oust those who want to...
Koch Brothers Plan $300 Million Spending Spree In 2014
The billionaire Koch brothers and their political network are planning to spend almost $300 million during the 2014 election cycle,...
Arizona GOPer Compares Poor To ‘Lazy Pigs’
A Republican official in Arizona on Wednesday confirmed something that’s long been suspected. State schools superintendent John Huppenthal has been...
Robert Reich: The Three Biggest Right-Wing Lies About Poverty
Rather than confront poverty by extending jobless benefits to the long-term unemployed, endorsing a higher minimum wage, or supporting jobs...
Someone Just Spent $1.5 Million on a GOP Senate Candidate. Who Was It?
Arkansas is witnessing what may be the most expensive political ad campaign in state history: $1.5 million worth of glowing...
Down with healthy school lunches, says House GOP
Having already moved to gut USDA programs promoting agricultural conservation and renewable energy and strip the USDA of its authority...
The 37 Senators Who Voted for Millionaires Over Students
On Wednesday, June 11, Senate Republicans sided with 22,000 millionaires over 40 million Americans with student debt by blocking the...
The Right’s Despicable Class War on the Poor
The old adage about sticks and stones may finally apply more soundly to the rich than the poor. According to...
GOP Will Do Anything to Keep the Poor Uninsured
When it comes to healthcare, Southwest Virginia is a desperate place. Many of the state’s poorest and sickest live in...
New Report Documents How Privatization Steals Wages, Harms Communities
All across the country, public services are increasingly outsourced to private contractors in the name of efficiency and cost savings....
House GOP Votes Down Measure Aimed At Curbing Wage Theft
WASHINGTON — Early Friday morning, House Republicans voted down a measure that would have discouraged the government from giving contracts...
Is David Koch Getting a Tax Writeoff for Dropping $900K on the Walker Race?
The “charitable” wing of David Koch’s Americans for Prosperity has dropped nearly $900,000 on ads to boost Wisconsin Governor Scott...
Judge who ended probe of Koch activities in WI regularly attends Koch-funded junkets
A federal judge who stopped Wisconsin’s criminal investigation of spending during the 2011 and 2012 recall elections regularly attends all-expense...
Can a New Populist Movement Fight Off American Oligarchy?
At the ‘New Populism Conference’ hosted by the Campaign for America’s Future on Thursday, a number of progressive thinkers and...
U.S. Democrats to target companies moving overseas to dodge taxes
Corporate tax-dodging deals known as inversions, in which a U.S. multinational shifts its tax domicile to a lower-tax country, would...
“It’s total moral surrender”: Matt Taibbi unloads on Wall Street, inequality and our broken justice system
His relentless coverage of Wall Street malfeasance turned him into one of the most influential journalists of his generation, but...
GOP’s fake poverty push gets a new charlatan: Rob Portman’s latest ploy
Mitt Romney’s 47 percent video has had two important, lasting contributions to American politics. The first is that it kept...
Democrats Urge Curb on Offshore Tax Moves Amid Pfizer Bid
Senator Carl Levin said he is writing legislation to block U.S. companies from shifting their legal addresses overseas to lower...
Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity plans $125 million election spending spree
The Koch brothers’ main political arm intends to spend more than $125 million this year on an aggressive ground, air...
The Striking Rise of the American Oligarchs
A new study that will appear in the fall 2014 issue of Perspectives on Politics concludes that the United States...
Corporate Power, Wal-Mart and the Undermining of the Democratic Process
Studies have shown a significant correlation between monies spent and the outcome of elections. While there are still instances where...
GOP Lawmakers Fought To Keep People Uninsured
WASHINGTON — Eight million Americans are insured through the Affordable Care Act’s exchanges, President Barack Obama announced Thursday. Wendy TwarDokus...
