Tag Archives: progressives

Bernie Sanders: Self-shackled Champion of the People

Posted on October 31, 2013 by Joe Firestone | 42 comments

I gotta love Bernie Sanders, because he seems so much like people I grew up with and like myself too, and he also seems to have that passion for equality and democracy that is so important for the future of America. Sometimes I think Bernie is one of the few champions of the people left in Congress. But I also think that along with other progressives he has constructed chains for himself that prevent him from being as effective a champion of the people as he otherwise might be. Continue reading →

42 Comments

Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged Austerians, austerity, bernie sanders, budget plans, budget projections, CBO projections, debt and deficits, Medicare Solvency, MMT, modern money theory, platinum coin seigniorage, progressives, Social Security Solvency, Social Security Works, tax justice

Dick Durbin Insults Everyone Else’s Intelligence About Social Security

Posted on October 21, 2013 by Joe Firestone | 20 comments

By Joe Firestone

Yesterday on Fox, Senator Dick Durbin said:

WALLACE: I’m going to talk about ObamaCare on a second, but you’re not answering my question. Why does taxes — why do taxes have to be on the table? Why can’t you just make a deal, short-term spending for long-term entitlement reform — which, Senator, you support and President Obama support. You have supported the idea of some entitlement reform.

DURBIN: That’s right. I do, and I’ll tell you why — because Social Security is going to run out of money in 20 years. I want to fix it now, before we reach that cliff.

Medicare may run out of money in 10 years, let’s fix it now. And that means addressing the skyrocketing cost of health care. That’s what ObamaCare is focused on, and yet, the Republicans want nothing to do with it.

If we don’t focus on the health care and dealing with the entitlements, the baby boom generation is going to blow away our future. We don’t want to see that happen. We want to make sure that Social Security and Medicare are solid.

The “. . . may run out of money. . . . ” and “. . . dealing with entitlements. . . “ memes, in reply to Chris Wallace’s question together suggest that a deal trading increased revenues for Social Security and other entitlement cuts is acceptable to him. So, Durbin’s argument is that because Social Security Trustee and CBO projections, based on very pessimistic economic growth projections for the whole period, show a shortfall in the Social Security “Trust Fund” in 20 years, it is acceptable to make entitlement cuts now if the Democrats can get increased revenue from higher taxes, as if entitlement “reform” were the only way to meet the perceived Social Security solvency problem. But who would it be acceptable to?

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20 Comments

Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged Austerians, austerity, austerity is dead, budget plans, budget projections, Campaign for the American Future, CBO projections, Chris Wallace, debt and deficits, Lake Research Partners, Medicare Solvency, MMT, modern money theory, platinum coin seigniorage, President Obama, progressives, Senator Dick Durbin, Social Security Solvency, Social Security Works

New Sense—Common Sense

Posted on September 7, 2012 by Devin Smith | 54 comments

By J.D. ALT

The principal dilemma of the progressive cause is that it has allowed a bedrock conservative premise to go so long unchallenged; indeed the progressives themselves have either overtly or implicitly agreed with the premise, making it virtually impossible for them to effectively advocate their goals:

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54 Comments

Posted in J. D. Alt

Tagged budget, conservatives, deficit, progressives

Men on a Wall

Posted on August 20, 2012 by Devin Smith | 19 comments

By J.D. Alt

I recently saw a newspaper photo of ten or twelve men sitting on a crumbling stone wall beside a dirt road. It was somewhere in Africa, but the location doesn’t matter. What matters is that the men, as the caption made clear, were sitting on the wall because they had nothing else to do: they had no land to farm, there was no local job or employment available to them, they had no savings or credit with which to start some venture. Continue reading →

19 Comments

Posted in J. D. Alt

Tagged balanced budget, conservatives, progressives, unemployment

Why Progressive Austerians do the Greatest Damage

Posted on May 23, 2012 by Mitch Green | 8 comments

By William K. Black

To many people, it seems paradoxical that conservatives target not the worst social programs, but the best. There is no paradox. Bad government programs are desirable from the right’s perspective – they discredit government intervention. Good government programs pose an existential challenge to conservative memes, so they are the prime target for attack.

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8 Comments

Posted in William K. Black

Tagged Austerians, austerity, Austerity Doctrine, progressives, TINA

The Debt Ceiling and America’s Stockholm Syndrome

Posted on July 29, 2011 by Pavlina Tcherneva | 17 comments

By Pavlina R. Tcherneva

Keynes once said that “Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist” (Keynes 1964, 383). Two among those modern economists must surely be Reinhart and Rogoff, as no other book in recent history has contributed so much to the mass phobia and delusion about the debt and the deficit as theirs. This is a book that reinforces some of the worst ideas in the economics profession, a profession that refuses to acknowledge that we are no longer on a gold standard and that a government which has a monopoly over its own currency can both supply it without facing default and regulate its value.

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17 Comments

Posted in Pavlina R. Tcherneva

Tagged #trilliondollarcoin, debt ceiling, defunct economist, MMT, Modern Monetary Theory, progressives

We Can Still Do Big Things

Posted on July 14, 2011 by admin | 13 comments

By Mitch Green

President Obama is fond of reminding us that, as Americans, we can still do “big things.” Indeed we can do big things, but will we? At a passing glance, in a moment’s earshot, the President’s sentiment seems encouraging. That is, until you appreciate the extent to which he has committed himself to applying that rhetorical device to the task of large-scale deficit reduction. To those left sane after watching the debt ceiling theatrics, or those lucky few immune to the mind numbing aspects of it all are scratching their heads wondering why on earth the President has chosen this task as his “big thing,” rest assured you are not alone. Perhaps the President has read Fight Club too many times and believes that pushing the US economy to the brink of self-destruction is a good thing. While it’s a good book, and far from Palahniuk’s best work, I’d remind the president that it wasn’t supposed to be taken literally. Whatever his reasons, I think there are better “big things” out there that we might set out to achieve. Other things that actually improve the conditions of our lives, not roll them back.

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