By Craig Cheslog, on July 21st, 2011%
Here's another example showing that Ronald Reagan would be too liberal for today's Republican Party: he didn't think fooling around with a national debt default was responsible.
On November 16, 1983, President Reagan sent a letter to the Senate (link here to pdf) in which he warned:
The full consequences of a default — or even the serious prospect of default — by the United States are impossible to predict and awesome to contemplate. Denigration of the full faith and credit of the United States would have substantial effects on the domestic financial markets and the value of the dollar in exchange markets. The Nation can ill afford to allow such a result. The risks, the costs, the disruptions, and the incalculable damage lead me to but one . . . → Read More: On Debt Ceiling, Ronald Reagan Too Liberal for Today’s Republicans
By Craig Cheslog, on July 16th, 2011%
Since 1960, the national debt has been permanently increased, temporarily extended, or had its definition revised 49 times under Republican presidents and 29 times under Democratic presidents.
Yes, you read that right.
And, of course, the national debt ceiling was increased under President George W. Bush because of his fiscally irresponsible tax cuts and his wars without any controversy among Congressional Republicans.
Interesting how nothing that happened before January 20, 2009 matters, . . . → Read More: National Debt Ceiling Fact
By Craig Cheslog, on July 15th, 2011%
This should get some politicians' attention: default on the national debt could lead to a loss of 10 percent of GDP in August.
Some Republicans may think the national debt ceiling debate has no real consequences. Alas, . . . → Read More: Debt Default Equals Recession
By Craig Cheslog, on July 14th, 2011%
Economist Jared Bernstein has compiled a useful graph of federal government revenues and spending from 1981-2010. While all of the debate is over the spending side of the ledger, revenues are also far below their historic norm.
If balancing the budget is important, the conversation must include revenues. Otherwise we should assume the real debate is not over balancing . . . → Read More: Misleading Rhetoric on Taxes
By Craig Cheslog, on July 12th, 2011%
Mark Paul, who recently spoke to the Diablo Valley Democratic Club, has a post explaining why those conservatives who threaten to split California in two may want to rethink their position given how the liberal areas of the state subsidize California's redder areas.
Jeff Stone, a Riverside County supervisor, is basking a moment in the media sun by resurrecting that hoariest of notions, that California be split in two. He wants to free his constituents of their bonds to the high-taxing, big-spending, business-regulating, gay-marrying folks of the Bay Area, northern California, and Los Angeles and break off a new state of South California, comprising 13 inland counties from Mariposa and Mono on the north to Imperial and San Diego on the south. His proposal will quickly go . . . → Read More: They Won’t Really Want to Leave Us
By Craig Cheslog, on June 26th, 2011%
Robert Reich has a great column in today's San Francisco Chronicle. As he writes about the Republican Party's battle against public employee unions across the country:
This war on workers' rights is an assault on the middle class, and it is undermining the American economy.
The American economy can't get out of neutral until American workers have more money in their pockets to buy what they produce. And unions are the best way to give them the bargaining power to get better pay.
Worried about income inequality? You should be worried about . . . → Read More: Workers Rights and the Middle Class
By Craig Cheslog, on June 4th, 2011%
Rachel Maddow highlights the problems Republicans are having with the fact that many of their statements are recorded on videotape. And no, posting a video of a public official saying something in context is not something from which we–or they media–should avoid.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about . . . → Read More: The Problem with Videotape
By events, on May 28th, 2011%
The Lamorinda Democratic Club's June 9 meeting will feature a conversation about the War Against Women and How Planned Parenthood Is Just Getting Started! The featured speakers include Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California Board Chair Melody Weintraub and Planned Parenthood Shasta Pacific Chief Executive Officer Mitzi Sales.
Republicans in Washington and around the country have declared war against Planned Parenthood and women's reproductive freedom. In attacking Planned Parenthood, the House Republican leadership has launched an outrageous assault on the millions of American women and men nationwide who rely on Planned Parenthood for health care services.
The meeting will be held at the club's new regular meeting location: the Lafayette Library and Learning Center, 3491 Mt. Diablo Blvd, in Lafayette. The club's social hour will begin at . . . → Read More: Lamorinda Democrats To Discuss the Republican War Against Women and Planned Parenthood on June 9
By Craig Cheslog, on April 20th, 2011%
For how long are we going to continue to ignore this while cutting back the safety net, gutting education, and threatening cuts to Social Security and Medicare? The Associated Press' Stephen Ohlemacher reports:
The Internal Revenue Service tracks the tax returns with the 400 highest adjusted gross incomes each year. The average income on those returns in 2007, the latest year for IRS data, was nearly $345 million. Their average federal income tax rate was 17 percent, down from 26 percent in 1992.
As Robert Reich notes, this is while the tax burden on average workers has grown.
Yet even as their share of the nation's total income has withered, the tax burden on average workers has grown. They're shelling out a far bigger chunk of incomes in payroll . . . → Read More: Super Rich See Federal Taxes Drop Dramatically
By Craig Cheslog, on April 15th, 2011%
California Democratic Party Chairman John Burton issued the following statement about today's House Republican budget vote:
The House GOP budget would cut corporate and personal income taxes for the rich and for the oil companies while slashing health care and education funding.
All 19 of California’s Republican Congressional members today voted for cuts that would end Medicare, cut Social Security, and ultimately hurt the most vulnerable among us: seniors and children.
The Republican members of California’s Congressional Delegation today showed they are but Lemmings to the most extreme members of the GOP, happy to follow the Tea Party as they jump off a cliff.
We would be content to watch the Republicans plunge to their political demise but for the fact their actions threaten to hurt so many others along . . . → Read More: The Rich Get Richer, The Poor Get Poorer and the Middle Class Goes Down the Drain
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