President Obama raised eyebrows during his inaugural address last month when he put the fight against long election-day lines in the context of the nation’s movement toward “tolerance and opportunity, human dignity and justice.” Now the New YorkTimes says Congress is preparing for a showdown on the issue.
Alfred Carpenter, 52, was working for a high-end shoe store in 2007, when the recession put the company out of business. A long-time salesman, Carpenter wasn't worried about getting another job, but then broke an ankle a few months later and ended up in the hospital. With no insurance and a $50,000 emergency room bill, he filed for bankruptcy protection.
Then his troubles got worse. One employer after another rescinded job offers after checking his credit report, he says. He finally found work, but at a fraction of his usual pay.
The Department of Justice has brought a civil suit against Standard & Poor’s, the credit rating agency, that centers on the decisions that S&P made concerning models it used to evaluate default risk for mortgage-backed securities prior to the financial crisis. Default risk was central to the credit ratings assigned to the bond issues. The models calculated statistical probability of various outcomes based on historic data and many assumptions.
For some Americans, tax refunds are a yearly treat, an opportunity to build savings, or even splurge on a vacation. For others, living paycheck to paycheck amid lingering recession, the refunds become a lifeline, leaving them vulnerable to tax preparation firms who prey on their desperation, promising quick refunds in exchange for large fees and high interest rates.
A new report from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office adds to the mounting evidence that spending cuts have held back America’s economic recovery. According to the CBO’s budget and economic projections for the next decade, released on Tuesday, middling GDP growth over the past year is partially attributable to “scheduled automatic reductions in federal spending.”
Perla Saenz went back sore and exhausted just four weeks after giving birth—and two weeks after the incision from her C-section reopened. She had heard her older child cough in the night and instinctively tried to pick him up, forgetting for a moment her doctor’s warning against lifting anything heavier than ten pounds. Weak and sometimes feverish, she often found herself clutching the counter for support.
Perla Saenz went back sore and exhausted just four weeks after giving birth—and two weeks after the incision from her C-section reopened. (She had heard her older child cough in the night and instinctively tried to pick him up, forgetting for a moment her doctor’s warning against lifting anything heavier than ten pounds.) Weak and sometimes feverish, she often found herself clutching the counter for support.
Owners of small businesses want Wall Street and the large American banks to be held accountable for the lingering financial crisis. They believe that stronger regulations governing these institutions should be enacted and enforced.
Perla Saenz went back sore and exhausted just four weeks after giving birth—and two weeks after the incision from her C-section reopened. (She had heard her older child cough in the night and instinctively tried to pick him up, forgetting for a moment her doctor’s warning against lifting anything heavier than ten pounds.) Weak and sometimes feverish, she often found herself clutching the counter for support.
Compared to the rest of the advanced world, the United States offers famously weak protections to workers. For instance, employees in every other developed country are guaranteed vacation by law, often a few weeks. Americans workers don't even get a single day under Federal labor rules. New mothers most everywhere get paid time off as a matter of course. Here less than half the work force is guaranteed unpaid time.
We should be done by now with the idea that a corporation is a single thing. Corporations contain a multitude of conflicting interests and are much more like miniature governments with their own governance structures and election systems than is commonly recognized. While these structures are far more hierarchical and undemocratic than we require of our public institutions, Americans should not be resigned that this is the best or the only way the private sector can be structured.
Paul Krugman noted on ABC's This Week yesterday that the GOP's problem is that their "base is old white people."
This is largely true. Exit polls show that Mitt Romney won all voters 65 and older by 12 percentage points, and white older voters by 22 points. Barack Obama won all voters under thirty by 23 points, and nonwhite young voters by 36 points.
Encouraged by the increased diversity of the U.S. electorate, Democratic strategists have mounted a new push to make Texas a swing state. The "Battleground Texas" campaign seeks to increase voter participation in the Lone Star State and builds on the groundbreaking "50 State Strategy" that Howard Dean launched at the DNC during the Bush years.
While the IRS aims to increase EITC participation through last week's EITC Awareness Day, the agency has another, equally challenging goal: increase EITC participation without increasing fraud, which, according to a report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, costs the IRS billions of dollars in post-refund examinations and recovering lost funds.
Democratic lawmakers say allowing voters to register and cast ballots on the same day would increase election participation, but some county officials worry that it would further complicate the voting process.
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States with same-day registration have turnout rates nearly 6 percent higher than states that don’t offer it, according to Demos, a progressive public policy research group.
New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo has proposed to raise the New York State minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.75 per hour, drawing cheers from progressive groups who have lobbied for such a hike for years. But many business advocacy groups worry that this move would raise the cost of hiring entry level employees, and hinder New York's already slow economic recovery.
Which is better for a country’s well-being: $10 million spent constructing a jail, or $10 million spent producing a line of smartphones? How about clear- cutting rain forests to produce $10 million in lumber? Or a storm that requires $10 million in repairs?
