March 21, 2017
Cartoon: Baby Donald’s Budget Priorities
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December 6, 2014
Economy Grows, But Still Waiting For The Trickle Down
November was another great month for job growth this year, topping out with over 300,000 new jobs created. 2014 is shaping up to be the best year for job creation since the mid-90s boom times.
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September 6, 2014
Paul Krugman: Medicare Spending Is Down Sharply
Since the mainstream media is mum, and even liberal MSNBC is mostly silent, I thought I’d share a little tidbit about health care spending. Over the last few years, overall health care spending has slowed dramatically, and now we find out Medicare is spending $1,000 less per beneficiary than originally projected by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Paul Krugman says this is a really big deal (and it would seem so based on that statistic alone), and he calls it the Medicare Miracle.
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September 14, 2013
Federal Budget Deficit At Five Year Low, But Republicans Still Plan To Take Country Hostage
Republican lawmakers in Washington plan to take the country hostage this fall until their demands are met. Never mind that the federal budget deficit for 2013 is on track to hit a five year low.
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September 13, 2013
America Spends Billions On Police State, Ignores The Real Security Issue
Because of the NSA leaks by Edward Snowden, not only are we fully aware of the violations to our civil liberties, we also know our tax dollars are being used against us, in the name of national security. There’s a lot of money being spent on a shiny new police state, and what is it buying us? — Less freedom. Less liberty. That’s not a very good bargain.
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September 12, 2013
The Public Is Obtuse On Medicare Spending, While Conservative ‘Leaders’ Bank On This Ignorance
There are conservatives who believe government is incapable of doing anything meaningful. They believe the only true purpose of government is national security. And these conservatives believe programs like Medicare are saddled with massive fraud and waste. And there are conservatives who are on Medicare that hold these beliefs while gobbling up more Medicare services than they paid for. But because they are conservatives, that means they abhor welfare, and would never be caught getting a free handout. And they believe this of themselves because they are ignorant to the fact that Medicare pays $3 in benefits for every $1 it takes in.
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September 3, 2013
Lacking Compassion: Conservatives Cannot See Past Their Contempt
I’m actively engaged in what has evolved to become a “mostly” cordial conversation with a conservative via Facebook private message on the Left Call fan page. You’d be surprised that I even bothered to respond to this person given it did not start out cordially. This was his first message:
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July 15, 2013
Department of Homeland Security: It’s Time To Unwind The Anti-Terrorism Apparatus
I’ve contemplated writing an article which asks the question, do we need the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)? It rose to the forefront last week when Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano announced she was resigning. Then today I see Charles Kenny at Businessweek wrote (“The Case for Abolishing the DHS“), which as you might imagine grabbed my attention.
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June 1, 2013
Chart: Medicare Insolvency Projections 1980 to 2013
Every year we find out the long-term insolvency projection from the Medicare Trustees, and every year we hear calls from Republicans for major changes and cuts to Medicare in response. So this week we find out that the insolvency projection has been expanded by 2 years to 2026. That’s 13 years until insolvency. That sounds bad right? Well it’s not. The historic average Medicare insolvency projection since 1980 is over 12 years. It’s been as low as 4 years and as high as 28 years during that span. So with the latest report from the Medicare Trustees, we find out the sky is not falling because the program’s insolvency projection is sitting right at it’s 30-year average.
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May 31, 2013
Student Loan Interest Rates: Show Some Personal Responsibility, Unless You Are A Bank
Three weeks ago Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren introduced a bill that would give students the same interest rate on their loans that banks get from the Federal Reserve.
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