Blog Profile / The Blue Voice
| URL : | http://thebluevoice.blogspot.com/ | |
|---|---|---|
| Filed Under: | US Politics / Liberal | |
| Posts on Regator: | 1140 | |
| Posts / Week: | 8.7 | |
| Archived Since: | November 19, 2010 | |
Blog Post Archive
Obama's "fiscal cliff" road-show: Friday 11/30
President Obama spoke in Hatfield PA Friday, Remarks by the President in Visit to Rodon Group Manufacturing Facility 11/30/2012. He's promoting his current plan to avoid the fake "fiscal cliff".The first thing to note is that this speech...Show More Summary
Greece and the politics of austerity
Georgios Papandreou was the social-democratic Prime Minister of Greece for the PASOK party from 2009-2011. By caving in to German Prime Minister Angela "Frau Fritz" Merkel's demands for destructive austerity policies in response to the Greek debt crisis, Papandreou put his party on the fast track to non-existence. Show More Summary
The "fiscal cliff" negotiating dance
As President Obama undertakes his national tour to promote his passionate conviction that we should be "asking the wealthiest Americans to pay a little more," there is a confusing flow of leaks and trial balloons and so forth on who's...Show More Summary
The Grand Bargain to cut benefits on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid is alive and prospering, according to Politico
Medicare opponent and Senate Democratic Chair of the Budget Committee Kent Conrad, who is not standing for re-election and therefore has substantial financial incentive to make himself attractive to One Percenter lobbies, appeared today on MSNBC talking up the "fiscal cliff" deal. Show More Summary
The "fiscal cliff": there's reality and then there's Beltway Village fantasy
When I was going to the National Memo to read Gene Lyons weekly column, I wound up at the National Journal instead. Which led to discovering and interesting set of contrasts.Gene's piece is Pity The Poor Plutocrats 11/28/2012, in which...Show More Summary
Social Security opponent David Plouffe wants to take a meat-axe to benefits on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid
This Grand Bargain fight is going to be ugly. It already is. The banksters want to tap into the Mississippi River of all cash flows, Social Security, and health insurers don't want Medicare and Medicaid depriving them of market access to every penny they may be able to squeeze out of the public. Show More Summary
That payroll tax holiday
I've always been bothered by the idea that we had a payroll tax (FICA) break for the last couple of years at the same time Obama and the Republicans are trying to tell us that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid cost too much. FICA...Show More Summary
Jamie Galbraith on the "fiscal cliff" scam as an excuse to cut benefits on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid
Stripped to essentials, the fiscal cliff is a device constructed to force a rollback of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, as the price of avoiding tax increases and disruptive cuts in federal civilian programs and in the military. Show More Summary
The tax side of the "Grand Bargain" to cut benefits on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid
Carolyn Lochhead of the San Francisco Chronicle is a very reliable purveyor of the conventional press wisdom. Her articles are like a master script for the CW on whatever subject she's writing. In High tech's course hinges on tax talks: 'Fiscal cliff' decision could help return jobs to U.S. Show More Summary
Some lessons so far from the latest Gaza mini-war
The last I looked at the news, there was a cease-fire in the latest Gaza war. Who knows whether it will last? It's another violent and depressing chapter in the long transition from the now-seemingly-dead possibility of a two-state solution...Show More Summary
Serious frenemies: Obama and the Democratic base
David Dayen provides this video in his post, Union Coalition Promotes “Jobs Not Cuts,” Directly Targets Democratic Senators FDL News 11/20/2012. David explains the background of the ad:The coalition, which is spending upwards of six figures on the ads, is made up of AFSCME, the National Education Association, and SEIU. Show More Summary
A reminder of how President Obama negotiated with the Republicans in the 2011 debt-ceiling fight
The current "fiscal cliff" fight is a direct repeat of the debt-limit battle in 2011, resulting from the compromise that essentially postponed the next round until now.What Elizabeth Drew wrote about the 2011 deal in What Were They Thinking?...Show More Summary
Israel's new Gaza offensive and risks to the US
Robert Fisk offers his unsentimental view of the new Gaza war in Hamas and Israel have opened the 'gates of hell' in Gaza yet again. And the number of journalistic cliches in hell is growing by the day The Independent 11/18/2012.WhyShow More Summary
The bad ideas in Wall Street's campaign to cut benefits on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid
Rose Ann DeMoro, Executive Director of National Nurses United last month published a defense of Social Security and a rallying call to defend it from both Republicans and Democrats, including President Obama, who might attempt to cut...Show More Summary
The Grand Bargain to cut benefits on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid keeps rolling alone
Suzy Khimm reports on Blue Dog Democratic Sen. Kent Conrad jumping on the bandwagon for the Grand Bargain in Sen. Conrad: “No way to get the revenue necessary without significant changes on capital gains and dividends” Washington Post Wonkblog 11/15/2012:Obama has already suggested raising the retirement age for Medicare. Show More Summary
Benghazi attack feeding frenzy
Our Constitutional system was predicated, certainly in James Madison's mind, on a belief that competing ambitions among the various levels (local, state, federal) and branches (executive, legislative, judicial) would act as practical...Show More Summary
Obama's Wednesday press conference and the Grand Bargain to cut benefits on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid
President (and Social Security opponent?) Obama opened his press conference today saying "our top priority has to be jobs and growth."But the austerity program he's been discussing as his alternative to the so-called fiscal cliff - or "austerity bomb" - isn't giving top priority of jobs and growth. Show More Summary
White House listens to "both sides" in the debate over cutting benefits on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid
The AFL-CIO has done a pro-Social Security video to oppose efforts by President Obama and the Republicans to enact the Grand Bargain to cut benefits on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, Tell Congress: No Benefit Cuts to SocialShow More Summary
The press stumbles around trying to report on the phony fiscal cliff and the real danger of a Grand Bargain to cut benefits on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid
Dean Baker (Washington Post Invents Flexibility for Stubborn Republicans Beat the Press 11/09/2012) and Digby (Does anyone think it's time we talked about what they are going to cut yet? Hullabaloo 11/11/2012) both spank the mainstream...Show More Summary
The phony "fiscal cliff" and the fight to save Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid
Paul Krugman writes of Obama's sad record in caving to Republican demands, which he looks willing to do once again the same week he received a strong mandate to fight against the Republicans (Let's Not Make a Deal New York Times 11/08/2012):... Show More Summary