The drumbeat about the long-term debt is continuing. But, we are not having a serious debate about the origins of the debt or its solutions. If you want to address the long-term debt, the only solution is a "Medicare For All" system that kills the private health insurance industry.

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I'm reading the reports of the awful job reports that came out today. I've been arguing for some time that the search of "green shoots" in the economy is a mirage and an experiment that covers up how bad the economy is for real people. But, this made me stop...

Our problem in the country is not the lack of money or the lack of resources. It is how we set our priorities, whether we choose, for example, to value our communities over corporate special interests (the health care fight is one clear example of that struggle). Today, we see...

A tried-and-true political tactic in this country to scuttle progressive progress is to explicitly or implicitly tar one's opponent as "un-American." One can either do it in the darkest of ways -- cue Sen. Joe McCarthy. Or, one can do it in a more subtle way by accusing one's opponents...

One of the ugliest fights for worker justice has taken place in Tar Heel, North Carolina, which is about 80 miles south of Raleigh. For 17 years, thousands of workers, who labor under some pretty brutal conditions in the largest pork processing plant, have sought a modicum of justice and...

Thank you, Rush Limbaugh -- it's an honor to be attacked by you. When Rush attacks people who are trying to spread some honest truth -- in this case, that our financial system has been ransacked by corporate CEOs, banks, insurance companies, and hedge fund gamblers, in other words, many...

I've never liked the nonsense about the importance of the political "center.". As I see it, that has basically been a cop-out--a fear of confronting the people who want to continue to rip-off the workers of the country by promoting the notion that the "center" requires that taxes be...

In 2008, the Democratic Party went through a vigorous primary contest that ended up with the nomination of Barack Obama. Arguably, Barack Obama would not be president today if the party machinery had "cleared the field" and pressured candidates to back down from a primary contest. The lively, sometimes...

I am announcing today that I am running for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate against Kirsten Gillibrand in 2010. I want to say a few words about why I decided to run.

You can see an announcement video here:

One day, as a society, we will look back at the absurdity of discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals as something as abhorrent as racial discrimination. But, that day is not here yet -- and it's likely the California State Supreme Court today will make the road just...

Yesterday, I was on CNBC's Closing Bell to debate the absurd notion that public employees are the people to blame for state government budget problems. But, what was most interesting about the debate with CNBC's anchor Maria Bartiromo is how she became speechless -- and that ain't no easy feat...

Enough. Now that she has thrown another obstacle in the path of the Employee Free Choice Act, Blanche Lincoln must face a well-funded primary opponent in 2010. And it's got to be the labor movement that recruits and funds that candidate -- or the rhetoric about how important the...

If you believe that a society cannot be truly democratic without a strong labor movement, and if you believe that the only way to build a fair economy is by making sure people can belong to unions, then, this is where a line must be drawn: Democratic Senators who...

Yes, that is the underlying message delivered today by one of the world's leading financial publications. For many of us, this is no surprise: you had to be truly ignorant to pretend like the economic system was a success just based on the growing divide between rich and poor...

Henry Ford used to say that he wanted his workers to have enough money to buy his cars. Our current business leaders seem to have forgotten that simple economic idea. That is why, for their own self-interest, business, and their Republican allies in Congress, should embrace broad unionization.

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When many people voted for "change", they embraced the idea that the parameters and language of our policy debate had to be altered. Nowhere is that more evident than on the topic of trade. Now, there is legitimate concern that the president may not live up to his rhetoric...

To the question "have they no shame?" we already know the answer. And as we dig deeper and scrape the bottom of the barrel where the bottom-feeders have been lurking, we learn more about the immoral behavior of the incompetent, greedy elites. Today, the the tally is $121 million...

I'm all for a little rhetoric and bashing CEOs who, as a class, have lined their pockets while pillaging the country. But, if the point is to stop the legal looting of corporate treasuries and leave some money in the till for regular workers, when you get right down to...

I would have put a "BREAKING" on this title but, in some ways, this is not a new story--just another twist to the same-old political as usual. I'm all for the cap on executive compensation announced by the president. But, the culture of Washington is not changing--and it's...

Perhaps only the prospect of hanging at dawn focuses the mind more than money. And now that we have the attention of all those banks and other folks who salivate at getting our (taxpayer) money through the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), why not get something real out of...