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If Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker loses the election to recall him from office Tuesday, the political press will declare the arrival of Big Labor's comeback. If Walker wins, it will be seen as yet another sign of labor's demise. The election to recall the Republican governor, sparked by Walker's successful 2011 effort to end collective bargaining for public employees, has drawn participation from many different groups, including the tea party. But unions, which have long been fighting stories of their demise, have much of what's left of their reputation as powerful political organizers riding on the race. Union membership in 2011 fell to a record low for the second straight year, according to the Department of Labor, but that's not the only avenue in which unions have been struggling. Bill Schneider, a a senior fellow and resident scholar at centrist think tank Third Way, told Yahoo News that labor has lately experienced "tougher times winning" electoral race...

What should be done about the economy? Republicans claim to have the answer: slash spending and cut taxes. What they hope voters won’t notice is that that’s precisely the policy we’ve been following the past couple of years. Never mind the Democrat in the White House; for all practical purposes, this is already the economic policy of Republican dreams. Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times Paul Krugman Go to Columnist Page » Blog: The Conscience of a Liberal Related in Opinion Paul Krugman Blog: 1937 (June 3, 2012) More on the Economy » Connect With Us on Twitter For Op-Ed, follow @nytopinion and to hear from the editorial page editor, Andrew Rosenthal, follow @andyrNYT . Readers’ Comments Readers shared their thoughts on this article. Read All Comments (925) » So the Republican electoral strategy is, in effect, a gigantic con game: it depends on convincing voters that the bad economy is the result of big-spending policies that President Obama hasn’t...

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

And if all others accepted the lie which the party imposed – if all records told the same tale – then the lie passed into history and became the truth. – George Orwell, 1984 (published in 1949) House Majority Leader Eric Cantor was in town yesterday (specifically, at Stanford’s Hoover Institute where he could surround himself with sympathetic Republicans) to tell this whopper: “Cutting the federal deficit will create jobs.” It’s not true. Cutting the deficit will create fewer jobs. Less government spending reduces overall demand. This is particularly worrisome when, as now, consumers and businesses are still holding back. Fewer government workers have paychecks to buy stuff from other Americans, some of whom in turn will lose their jobs without enough customers. Republicans lie about everything

PERMALINK Republican governors back Walker By: CNN's Gabriella Schwarz (CNN) - The Republican Governors Association is showing its support for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker with a new website amid extensive protests in the state. The website, StandWithScott.com that launched Tuesday provides a forum for individuals to watch the governor's televised chat Tuesday and offer their support through links to his Facebook page and twitter account. In a statement, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, the association's vice chairman, thanked Walker for his leadership. "Governor Scott Walker is taking the tough, but necessary, steps to balance the books in Wisconsin and get the state's fiscal house in order, and I applaud him for it," McDonnell said. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, the group's policy chairman, said "It's good to know Governor Walker is watching out for the whole state, especially the people stuc...

chigan's new Republican governor is earning enemies and friends with his sweeping budget proposal, a plan that would slash corporate tax bills by applying a limited flat tax while making up the difference with new taxes on seniors and other groups.  AARP Michigan has been one of the most vocal critics of Gov. Rick Snyder's plan, calling it "the biggest tax increase in the history of our state." The group held a rally last week under the banner, "It's Not Fair."  Unions and Democratic officials have also come out against it, while business types claim the plan will spur growth.  Snyder's budget gambit, which came after a bill that would give him the power to intervene in local government affairs during a fiscal emergency and cancel union obligations, is setting up another Midwestern battle in the same vein as the showdown in Wisconsin over union rights. It's unclear whether he'll have the momentum to push the tax plan through, with...