If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
We hear a lot about how Medicare spending is out of control and will bankrupt the federal government if left unchecked. Against that backdrop, a report issued by the Department of Health and Human Services today includes findings that might surprise some people.
Right-wing think tanks will continue to decry people who receive benefits as "takers" and disparage safety net programs for "breeding a culture of dependency." But a solid majority of Americans, have had different life experiences and reject this view.
It is ridiculous to measure benefit cuts against a baseline that assumes an extremely unlikely possibility will occur. What is more, Spandan's policy priorities were straight out of the austerity playbook. In effect, he said: "To avoid cutting benefits later, cut benefits now." How about just avoiding cuts altogether?
Despite such terminology as "fiscal cliff" and "debt ceiling," the great debate taking place in Washington now has relatively little to do with financial issues. It is all about ideology. It is all about economic winners and losers in American society.
This list has the names of people who are much more acceptable to Wall Street, who, by the way, have been wrong on almost everything important about the economy in the last decade. As a result, we should be very, very afraid.
Getting your finances into shape can appear daunting. Breaking it down into categories can help simplify the process. There are five main categories that everyone should tackle.
We put our trust in you for four more years, now is the time to show that the trust wasn't misplaced. Mr. President, you hold in your hands the key to a brighter future for America.
A friend of mine recently asked if I would be literary executor of his estate. He's 81, in great health and a fine poet with a couple of books published. I know it's not common to talk about death over coffee, but I was glad we got over the weirdness and could talk about everything.
While Newt Gingrich represents much that has been wrong with the Republican party for the last 20 years -- and is as responsible as anyone for the extreme partisanship in Washington today -- he has clearly learned some lessons from the past.
Instead of making us give up the pensions and health care that we paid for, why not hold rich companies to the same standards as everyone else when it comes to paying taxes?
Republicans can get their way only if Democrats fail to realize they have the American people on their side. And once Republicans are clear about their proposals, Americans turn against them.
Taming future deficits requires three steps having nothing to do with entitlements: Limiting the growth of overall healthcare costs, cutting our bloated military, and ending corporate welfare.
This country desperately needs a progressive tidal wave in November 2014, and you don't get tidal waves without first creating the headwind that drives them. It is time for that driving to begin.
Members of the 113th Congress have now taken their oaths of office but their day of congratulatory celebrations and receptions will soon be a distant memory as a series of self-induced fiscal "crises" will demand this new Congress' full attention.
President Obama knows he can't afford to blink, and progressives should back him 100 percent: no negotiation whatsoever on the debt ceiling.
Why not Paul Krugman? He has a Nobel prize in Economics. He's proven his ability to communicate economic knowledge to the multitude. And he's a fierce opponent of cuts to Social Security and Medicare benefits, and the austerity dogma more generally.
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