by Linda Beale Economic Terrorism: the Tea Party/GOP’s Hostage Taking Plan (Tom Tomorrow’s “Giant Killer Robots”) As the New York Times reported on Saturday:  Stohlberg, A Federal Budget Crisis Months in the Planning, New York Times (Oct. 5, 2013), the current fiscal and political crisis was planned as a manuver to get their way  by […]

And from Naked Capitalism: Debt Ceiling Chicken and Trench Warfare – Yves Smith  – In the US, despite all the media frenzy over the Federal shutdown, the attention of the insiders has already moved to the real cliffhanger: the debt ceiling impasse, which starts to bind on October 17. Treasury is already fulminating how putting […]

Lifted from Robert’s Thoughts Obviously the main chance is that Boehner is bluffing and that he will bring a clean debt ceiling increase bill to the floor of the House and it will pass mostly with the votes of Democrats.  He would then probably lose the gavel to some new Speaker which will make us […]

From Policymic on the incremental re-instating government services: http://www.policymic.com   Why You Shouldn’t Expect a Compromise On the Government Shutdown Anytime SoonDon’t get your hopes up about a compromise on the government shutdown anytime soon. The Pentagon has decided to bring 350,000 employees back to work and the House has votedunanimously (no, I’m not kidding) […]

From the Los Angelos Times comes this article on Social Security Disability and reporting: Is it possible for a major news organization to produce a story about the Social Security disability program without interviewing a single disabled person or disability advocate? That’s the experiment “60 Minutes” conducted Sunday. The result was predictably ghastly. The news […]

Earlier in 2013, CBO’s Douglas Elmendorf’s forecasted return on Student Loan’s resulting in a positive return for the Government. Later Elmendorf reversed the forecast claiming student loans would cost the government and the taxpayers by generating a negative return. Using one cost model (FCRA) to estimate the return, the government will make $184 billion on […]

The Myth of the “Free Market” and How to Make the Economy Work for Us MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2013 by Robert Reich One of the most deceptive ideas continuously sounded by the Right (and its fathomless think tanks and media outlets) is that the “free market” is natural and inevitable, existing outside and beyond government. […]

Dennis Hastert just said that there is not and never has been a Hastert rule.  He insists that he never had a rule that only bills supported by a majority of House Republicans would be brought to a vote.  Hastert is very hard on Boehner.  He also noted that he never brought a bill to […]

by Linda Beale Will Boehner Prevent Extremists from Causing US Debt Default? As the shutdown continues, Republican Speaker Boehner still refuses to bring a clean budget resolution to a vote.  It is most likely that a clean resolution would pass, ending the charade of the extremist Tea Party faction in the House willing to cause […]

I couldn’t resist following up on yesterday’s post with another polling outfit. Quinnipiac just came out with fresh numbers. Here’s net approval over the last five months: Currently: Negative 57% for the Pubs, compared to the Dems’ (still less than impressive) -28. Here’s the breakout: Highlight number: As of October 1, 74% of Americans disapprove of […]