As the latest reports indicate that the U.S. economy is slowing down and the intellectual foundation for austerity economics has been discredited, Congressional Democrats are pushing back against President Obama’s austerity budget. Democrats in the Senate and even more in the House no longer see the logic in austerity cuts to social programs such as [...]

The Very Serious People are at it again. In the never ending quest to find some explanation, any explanation, for political action that does not reference the reality of class in America the Very Serious People have a new narrative on why the Obama Administration is attacking seniors, the permanently disabled, and orphans. Despite the [...]

The revolt has begun. Yesterday a petition with 2.3 million signatures opposing the Obama Budget’s cuts to social insurance programs was dropped off at the White House. A rally was also held representing a coalition of interest groups committed to opposing the cuts as a Democratic President pressed on with his plans to attack the [...]

Senator Lindsey Graham appears to be excited by President Obama’s recent proposal to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits. As social insurance advocates mobilize in opposition to Obama’s austerity budget there are signs that Republicans are aroused by the thought of screwing the poor, veterans, and seniors with cover from a Democratic President. Groups are [...]

President Obama’s proposal to cut Social Security and Medicare has fueled a civil war within the Democratic Party. The social insurance programs are considered by many Democrats to be the party’s greatest achievements in the New Deal and Great Society, respectively. Obama’s alignment with Bush style Neoliberalism has provoked the progressive wing of the party to [...]

While Washington debates cutting Social Security and Medicare the facts are in on the “recovery” – it’s a bust. Not only has unemployment remained historically high – 7.7% officially, 23% by the old metrics – but poverty has spiked to historic highs. The U.S. Census Bureau puts the number of Americans in poverty at levels [...]

Washington has a spending problem – it keeps spending money on the F-35. A weapon that not only doesn’t work but isn’t needed. In a time of austerity for social programs with President Obama offering cuts to Social Security and Medicare the government continues to shovel money into this black hole of a weapons project. [...]

The bill for one of America’s dumbest wars has come due and it’s a dousy. A report by the “Costs of War” project at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies claims the U.S spent over $2.2 trillion on the Iraq War with at least 1340,000 Iraqi civilians being killed. Among the group’s main findings: [...]

President Barack Obama’s approval numbers have dropped down to 50% over all with a serious loss of support among independents according to a new Washington Post/ABC News poll. The Washington Post also claims the poll details the disillusionment voters feel toward both sides. The afterglow of President Obama’s reelection and inauguration appears to have vanished [...]

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan wrote an Op-Ed for the Wall Street Journal extolling the virtues of austerity while claiming anyone who disagreed with his plan to destroy Medicare was, ironically, going to destroy Medicare. While blaming Senate Democrats for the Sequester because they did not pass a budget Rep. Ryan offered a Greece [...]

You may have noticed an interesting frame the plutocrats and their spokespeople are using in the debate over reducing social security and medicare benefits – pitting the young against the old.  The campaign is relentless, smearing the elderly as parasitic and stealing from the young. For example take National Review Editor Jonah Goldberg’s recent USA [...]