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*Offer limited to cruise ship owners, shopping mall developers, ceiling fan importers, natural gas distributors, and other corporations with suitable K Street connections. —By Michael Scherer | March/April 2005 Issue 4 Orla /Shutterstock Editor's Note:  For perspective on the debate over tax cuts and deficit fixes, a classic case study of how the tax code became a slush fund for corporate America. IN A SEASON OF campaign rallies and million-dollar ad buys, President Bush opted for one decidedly understated ceremony. On October 22, just 11 days before the election, he boarded Air Force One to sign $137 billion in new tax breaks for corporate America, one of the largest industry giveaways in two decades. This was his fifth major tax cut, but this time there was no glad-handing, no photo op—just a one-sentence press release. The president had nothing to brag about. His signature expanded exactly the sort of tax avoidance he had railed against a...

   Email This   Print This   in Share Share this video: Email Video A promise we must keep. In 1935, a landmark federal program called Social Security was established to help families face the uncertainties brought on by retirement. The new program was a promise made to all working people...from all walks of lif...and for all future generations of America. Social Security is for our parents, our children, our grandchildren...and their children. That promise has stood as a fundamental legacy for hard-working Americans—from those of retirement age to young workers just entering the workplace. And over all these years, Social Security hasn't added a single penny to our nation's debt. Yet some on Capitol Hill are ready to discard this important pledge. Standing together to save Social Security on the principles of honor and promises kept. When you thin...

"People Earning 250 Thousand Aren't Rich But Those Earning 60 Thousand Are" As we've all realized by now, the core value of the Republican party is simple: They want cheap, disposable labor with no legal protections. Everything they do is geared toward that end. So they're especially infuriated when the Unwashed Unworthies like us actually manage to pull down a living wage. It disturbs them in a visceral way: Conservatives these days walk a tricky line when it comes to wages. On the one hand, they strive to defend the just earnings of capitalist lords of enterprise. On the other, they try hard to foster resentment of any working people who might actually enjoy living wages and decent benefits. In a nutshell: while Wall Street bankers deserve every penny they get, public school teachers—to take just one example—are overpaid mooches who are leeching off society. The latest hubbub illustrating this strange double standard came after the New York Times reporte...

Two stories once again highlight how the supposedly data-driven corporate-style education reform is actually driven by ideology, with no data too shoddy and suspect to be held up against teachers or as a victory for "reform," and no amount of questionable data enough to sink a champion of "reform" like Michelle Rhee. The New York Times' Michael Winerip asks why, with the Office of the Inspector General in the Department of Education "investigating whether Washington school officials cheated to raise test scores during Ms. Rhee’s tenure," Secretary of Education Arne Duncan would think it appropriate to join a panel also featuring Rhee to discuss, of all things, "the use of education data." Mr. Duncan doesn’t think [there's a problem], according to his spokesman, Justin Hamilton. “It’s irresponsible for a New York Times columnist to presume guilt before we have all the facts,” Mr. Hamilton wrote in an e-mail. “Our inspector general is i...

Free Trade opens up markets by eliminating all taxes and tariffs on products being imported and exported, creating one large economy in which everyone competes. Free trade is part of the neoliberal model that encourages countries to produce for export rather than for their own consumption. Under this model, poor countries like Nicaragua are supposed to use their “comparative advantage” to compete against large economies like Mexico and the United States. Nicaragua’s “comparative advantage” is a cheap, abundant labor force and cash crops. Following in the footsteps of NAFTA (North America Free Trade Agreement), CAFTA (Central America Free Trade Agreement) involves five Central American nations (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica and Nicaragua), and the Dominican Republic. Expanding NAFTA further south through the regional free trade agreement CAFTA is a strategic step towards the hemisphere-wide FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas).CAFTA BackgroundCAFTA passed in the US Cong...

Please respect FT.com's ts&cs and copyright policy which allow you to: share links; copy content for personal use; & redistribute limited extracts. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights or use this link to reference the article - http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/79ec4d9c-87d7-11e0-a6de-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz1NWMld5ft The US Hispanic population grew of 43 per cent in 10 years, which is four times faster than the total US population, according to 2010 census data released on Thursday . The Hispanic population increased by more than 15.2m people, which is more than half of the total US population increase of 27.3m. In terms of total population, people that reported being of Hispanic origin was 50.5m people, or 16.3 per cent of the total population of 308m. EDITOR’S CHOICE Supreme Court backs Arizona workers’ law - May-26 Clive Crook: America’s immigration mess - May-15 Obama in fresh push on immigration - May-10 Editorial: US immigration - May-11 Migrant work...

The Senate votes later today on whether to continue giving $2 billion in taxpayer handouts  to oil companies that do not need them. This evening's vote on whether to end some of the subsidies for the five biggest oil companies comes one week after CEOs failed to explain why the corporations raking in record profits should continue receiving $4 billion in tax breaks. The measure before the Senate would affect only half the subsidies for the big five firms. Still, this limp compromise is considered unlikely to attract enough votes to even proceed to a debate on the bill. Sen. Bernie Sanders last year called for the repeal of $35 billion in oil and gas industry tax breaks. His proposal would have devoted $25 billion and put $10 billion over 10 years into an Energy Efficiency Conservation Block Grant Program.  The vote last June 15 on Sanders' amendment was 35 to 61. At that time, 22 Democrats bucked the wishes of the White Ho...

1:59 p.m. | Updated President Obama hailed the late-night budget deal that averted a government shutdown on Friday as “good news for the American people,” but members of his own party seemed less convinced. Hours after the spending crisis was averted with a series of handshakes just before midnight, some Democrats began complaining that their legislative leaders and Mr. Obama had given away too much in the bargain. Robert Reich , the former labor secretary under President Bill Clinton, wrote on Twitter: “The right held the U.S. govt hostage, and O paid most of the ransom — inviting more hostage-taking. Next is raising debt ceiling.” David Plouffe, a senior adviser to the president, dismissed the criticism. “I would ask Robert Reich and others to actually consume the details of this,” Mr. Plouffe said in an interview on Saturday. “There are some in our country who simply believe spending cuts are not required to help the economy. The president has made it very clear that we cannot...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Thousands of California teachers rallied in cities throughout the state Friday to demonstrate against the threat of deep education cuts and to appeal to Republican lawmakers to raise tax revenue for public schools. Major demonstrations were taking place at the state Capitol, where more than two dozen teachers were arrested Thursday night, and in San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego. "Education can't take these cuts anymore," said Joyce Medeiros, 48, one of at least 1,000 teachers, students and supporters who filled Civic Center Plaza in San Francisco. The sixth-grade teacher at San Juan School in San Juan Bautista, where K-3 classes now have 32 students, used to be a PE teacher before the district cut physical education, art and music programs. "We've taken our cuts. It's time to look for other solutions," she said. Friday evening's demonstrations marked an end to a weeklong series of protests organized by the California...

Republicans in California are on life support. Will they pull the plug themselves? Last year, they lost all eight statewide offices for the second time in the last three general elections. While the GOP was cleaning up elsewhere in the country, they also lost a Republican Assembly seat, and failed to take out any Democrats in Congress or the state Senate. U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, always a top GOP target, beat her well-financed Republican adversary by 10 points -- the eighth straight loss for the Republicans in California U.S. Senate races. How much lower can they go? Based on the 2010 census data , California Republicans probably have not hit bottom yet -- and if they're not careful, could go the way of the Whigs. And Democrats are not their biggest enemy. Demographics are. California Is Changing The Political Landscape

ThinkProgress » Fox News Sees ‘Violent’ ‘Union Thugs’ Attacking State Senator, But Senator Saw ‘A Lot Of Courteous People’ "Fox has been breathlessly hyping a video from Madison, WI supposedly showing “union thugs” attacking GOP state Sen. Glenn Grothman outside the Statehouse. In the video, protesters yell “shame” at Grothman as he enters the building, aided by Democratic State Rep. Brett Hulsey, who escorts Grothman through the crowd and reminds the protesters to be respectful of political opponents. The video is dramatic, but to Fox News, it’s downright terrifying. Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade saw a “violent” “angry mob,” while fellow Fox & Friends host Steve Doocy found the footage “absolutely scary.” Fox host Sean Hannity said while watching the “frightening” video that he was “concerned for this guy’s safety.” And contributor Michelle Malkin agreed, viewing the video as proof that “the rule of law has been supplanted by the rule of the mob.” But one key player ...

ThinkProgress » ExxonMobil paid no federal income tax in 2009. (Updated) "Last week, Forbes magazine published what the top U.S. corporations paid in taxes last year. “Most egregious,” Forbes notes, is General Electric, which “generated $10.3 billion in pretax income, but ended up owing nothing to Uncle Sam. In fact, it recorded a tax benefit of $1.1 billion.” Big Oil giant Exxon Mobil, which last year reported a record $45.2 billion profit, paid the most taxes of any corporation, but none of it went to the IRS: - Sent using Google Toolbar"

ThinkProgress » Will The Sunday Shows Ignore Labor For The Second Week In A Row? "For the last two weeks, working people have joined with students and sympathetic lawmakers as part of a Main Street Movement to protest efforts in multiple states to strip workers of their collective bargaining rights. While the protests against Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) have garnered the most attention, protests have also taken place in Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee, Washington, Montana, and Idaho. The protests have caused Republican governors in multiple states to back down from their anti-worker stances. - Sent using Google Toolbar"

ThinkProgress » Priorities? GOP Governors Shift Burden To Poor, Middle Class To Pay For Tax Breaks For Rich, Corporations "State budgets across the country are in disarray as a weak economy, the end of tens of billions in Recovery Act funds, and a GOP-led House that is pushing for deep cuts to many programs that benefit state and local governments set the stage for massive in shortfalls over the next two years. Instead of making the tough choices necessary to help their states weather the current crisis with some semblance of the social safety net and basic government services intact, Republican governors are instead using it as an opportunity to advance several longtime GOP projects: union busting, draconian cuts to social programs, and massive corporate tax breaks. These misplaced priorities mean that the poor and middle class will shoulder the burden of fiscal austerity, even as the rich and corporations are asked to contribute even less. Here’s a detailed look at how the GOP’...

Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin is not an honest broker; what happened to the 200 million dollar surplus that he inherited when he took the job as Governor. He immediatel ­y gave tax breaks to his RICH FRIENDS who helped get elected of nearly 400 million in tax breaks. This is about union busting, to strip workers of political power, and to have a one party system. The Republican ­s want to be in charge of the political process. They want to re-write history, to change all the laws, and to call all the shots. They want to create elite rule system giving the Super Rich all the political might. They want to privatize government services and give the money to Wall Street. Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

ThinkProgress » Wisconsin Gov. Walker Reiterates That The ‘National Guard’ Will Be Used Against A Worker ‘Walk-Off "ThinkProgress has been following both Gov. Scott Walker’s (R-WI) recent “budget repair bill,” which would effectively eliminate state workers’ right to collectively bargain, and his coinciding threat to deploy the National Guard to stop a walkout. Yesterday, the Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers criticized Walker, saying that collective bargaining is “fundamental” to the middle class. Approximately 13,000 peaceful protesters flooded the state Capitol yesterday, including nearly 800 Madison East High School students who left school to protest Walker’s bill. Democratic lawmakers listened to testimonies from citizens for more than 20 hours, stretching into the early morning. Many people who hadn’t yet gotten to speak pulled out sleeping bags. Responding to his inappropriate threat to use the National Guard against resisting workers, Walker said last night on Greta V...

The Human Cost of Failed Revolutions | Solidarity "appened Ernest Mandel In November/December 1918 and in March 1920, a Germany governed by workers councils was on the agenda. The defeat of both the workers uprising of 1918-19 and of the beginning revolution in 1920, however, was brought about by two factors: 1) the collaboration of the Social Democracy (which represented a majority political party within the working class) with the military and bourgeois elites, and 2) the immature and weak leadership of the revolution itself. The German working class paid a high price for this missed opportunity, as did a large portion of the world’s population. One cannot, of course, substitute an imaginary “What would have happened if” for the real historical process which did occur. But it is possible to empirically demonstrate that alternative outcomes were objectively possible. Revolutionary and counterrevolutionary classes, along with significant layers of these classes and their represen...

Union Protest: Wisconsin Teachers Calling in Sick en Masse - Teachers Union - Fox Nation "The protests against Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's (R) proposals to roll back public employee unions rights are continuing Wednesday, with schools in the state capital Madison closing as the result of teachers calling in sick en masse. Under Walker's plan, as TPM has previously posted, most state workers would no longer be able to negotiate for better pensions or health benefits or anything other than higher salaries, which couldn't rise at a quicker pace than the Consumer Price Index. Walker and state Republican leaders have said the plan is necessary to deal with the state's budget shortfall. - Sent using Google Toolbar"

Union Leader: Governor's Budget is "An Attack on Labor" - WBAY-TV Green Bay-Fox Cities-Northeast Wisconsin News "Local unions representing public employees are speaking out against Governor Scott Walker's budget repair proposal, saying it undermines all the rights of a union. The bill would strip unions of all collective bargaining power except wages, ending more than 50 years of municipal employee bargaining rights. 'Employees will not have justice. They will not have a say in the workplace. That's anti-American,' Danny McGowan, business representative of Teamsters Local 662, said. Local union leaders are up in arms over the proposal. 'It's nothing more than an attack on labor,' McGowan said. 'We can't fix the states budget woes off the backs of public employees. It's not fair, because it's not their fault.' The president of Local 662, which represents about 9,500 public employees, says he believes the move is about co...

Middle East unrest: Middle Eastern nations scramble to contain unrest - latimes.com "Reporting from Amman, Jordan — To track the growing political movements gaining strength from the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia across North Africa and the Middle East, one would be well advised to get a planner. There were Saturday's clashes between demonstrators and police in Algeria, now referred to as #feb12 on Twitter, much as Egypt's uprising shall forever be known as #jan25. New popular protests are scheduled Monday in Bahrain (#feb14) and Iran (#25Bahman). Libya comes next on #feb17, followed by Algeria again on #feb19, Morocco #feb20, Cameroon #feb23 and Kuwait #mar8. - Sent using Google Toolbar"