Economy

In stark contrast to Ronald Reagan, here in Virginia, Bob McDonnell and his fellow Republican'ts -- puppets of Grover Norquist's absolutist pledge against any taxes, anytime -- have refused to raise transportation revenues, despite the fact that Virginia needs $700 million/year more "just to fix its crumbling roads and bridges." And, of course, we need billions more if we want to go beyond just maintaining what we've already got.

There's always a lot of controversy around what it really means to have a living wage and what it means to be in poverty.  And we know that the way poverty is defined now is arbitrary and outdated.

Over the past several days, Gov. Christie took decisive action to weaken New Jersey's economy by vetoing three important legislative initiatives to revive our troubled housing market.

Every year, the last few days of June in Trenton are dominated with talk about the budget – and rightly so. This year, when you factor in consideration of the rushed higher education merger plan, it is easy for news on other pieces of legislation to be drowned out by the big-ticket items.

Catholic nuns have taken to the street on a Midwest bus tour protesting the new Republican budget by Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan. They are highlighting the cuts to the social safety net by visiting hospitals, schools, healthcare facilities, homeless shelters, food pantries and other institutions where they can reach those most likely affected.

Consumer Watchdog today called on state and local governments to quit spending taxpayer millions on Scott toilet paper, Kleenex tissues and other products from Kimberly-Clark Corporation. The global company is part of a corporate coalition battling to keep a tax loophole that benefits only out-of-state corporations---to the detriment of California schools, local governments and state services.

Christie's budget proposal assumes aggressive growth, would leave tax cut in place even if growth unrealized.

 Whatever does not pass the legislature in about two week will probably not see the light of day for three or many more months later.