Roger Hickey

The deal on the table, whose failure is much lamented by beltway pundits, would have seriously harmed the economy, without significantly reducing deficits. In fact, it might have made it worse.

It's being reported that President Obama will offer Republican negotiators major cuts to Social Security and Medicare when they meet today. Supporters of these essential programs are outraged -- and rightly so.

AARP, the group that promotes itself as the most powerful defender of seniors in America, should get their citizen's lobby in gear, and make sure Social Security doesn't become the sacrificial lamb of this season of budget-cutting blood on the floor.

Here we go again. Democrats start to unite around a winning economic issue, but major leaders of their party warn them not to go there.

An unholy alliance of pundits, politicians and even reporters is insisting on the need to slash Federal spending over the next few months. But one voice is missing from this discussion: that of the American Majority.

I never thought I'd have the opportunity to thank Senator Kent Conrad, whose finest hour before retirement could be to help rally his party to fight Paul Ryan.

The first thing Daley and Sperling need to do is rally the Obama administration to defend Social Security and Medicare. If they can't, the Democratic Party will fracture.

President Obama should take the high road dealing with the budget and ignore the advice of false friends like Michael Gerson and Robert Samuelson. If he refuses to capitulate to conservative blackmail, the nation will rally behind him.

Republican hostage-takers got Obama to go along with their tax cuts for the wealthy by threatening to raise taxes on the middle class and blocking modest stimulus funds for our economy. Now they've identified their next hostage.

Alan Simpson has been blunt about the plan to steal money from the Social Security trust fund, but he's really not unique. He resembles most others on the commission.

Looking towards the new economy that we must build out of the ruins of the old, the president has it right. We can't go back to the old bubble-bust economy built on debt and speculation.

This weekend CNN is giving four hours of free airtime to the leading propagandist fanning the flames of deficit hysteria, Pete Peterson. And the oth...

Progressives, read this presidential speech and get to work fighting for this vision of a federal budget that works.

It is not surprising that public and Congressional support for the public option has surged again, just as the insurance industry has tried to manipulate key decision-makers in the Senate.

If Obama and the Democratic party play their cards right, they will present this legislation not as the only legislation we will need, but rather as the first step in a series of reforms that will eventually achieve what the American people want.

Suddenly, all Democratic politicians, even the most conservative, are realizing that their voters will blame them, not the health insurance companies, if the policies the voters are required to buy are too expensive.

Hedge fund mogul Peter Peterson and his Commission on Budget Reform are selling an undemocratic new budget process that would take the responsibility for budget-making away from the president and the committees of Congress.

Obama has done the easy part: agreeing to a windfall for the insurance companies. How does he make sure people are happy with the quality and cost of the insurance they're going to be forced to buy?

Some are urging that the best tribute we could construct to the great man's memory is to pass a watered-down health bill that could win the support of a large number of conservative Republicans.

Instead of working to guarantee health care for those without insurance, conservatives want to tax the health benefits of the 160 million people who get insurance on the job.

This weekend, come watch the new documentary about health care by Robert Greenwald at Brave New Films called Diagnosis: NOW! Here's the trailer: Th...