“The lack of spending cuts in the Senate bill was a universal concern amongst members in today’s meeting. Conversations with members will continue throughout the afternoon on the path forward.” ~Brendan Buck, spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) got it right when he said, “Something has gone terribly wrong, when the [...]

 “I was really gratified to hear the Republicans have taken their demand for Social Security benefit cuts off the table.  The truth is they should never have been on the table to begin with.” ~Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)  As we prepare to go over the ‘fiscal cliff’ – one of the demands that [...]

“They say that their biggest priority is making sure that we deal with the deficit in a serious way, but the way they’re behaving is that their only priority is making sure that tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans are protected.  That seems to be their only overriding, unifying theme.” ~President Obama  President Obama went [...]

Our current government is imperfect and we should always work to make it better, but eliminating protections for people i.e. the social safety net would have a long term debilitating effect.  Class consciousness has been brought to the fore today more than at any time since the Great Depression.  The vast majority of Americans are [...]

Republicans and the conservative media complex are uselessly trying to blame President Obama for Congress failing to do their job.  No matter how hard the Sean Hannity’s of the world try – a plurality of Americans blame Republicans for failure to avoid the fiscal cliff (source).  Krauthammer says that Obama just didn’t want a deal [...]

For a larger version of this chart – click HERE.  I put this chart above together to highlight productivity by Congressional session (every 2 years) and color coded by the majorities in the House and Senate as well as the Executive branch.  The bar graph on the right is coded to represent control: blue = [...]

“I still want to get this done.  It’s the right thing to do for our families, for our businesses and for our entire economy. But the hour for immediate action is here. It is now.  The American people are not going to have any patience for a politically self-inflicted wound to our economy, not right [...]

Matt Damon has long past lost any hope for the American political system and the Obama presidency.  He has spoken out forcefully about his disenchantment with President Obama over the past year HERE and HERE and HERE which is all the more confusing when he goes out to campaign for Obama HERE; let’s just say it’s complicated. [...]

Overdue. Not only in Italy. Not only regarding the Catholic Church. Living in a nation with a constitution requiring separation of church and state, it is truly absurd that we still don’t collect property taxes, business taxes on the money-making, profit-generating properties owned by religious institutions. Italy’s Catholic Church will be forced to pay taxes [...]

The current Republican party has lost the public debate; in the 2012 election – Democrats won more votes in the House, Senate and Presidency (source).  The only reason that Republicans still control the House of Representatives is because they were able to gerrymander their congressional districts during the wave election of 2010 and now Congress [...]