Dave Johnson Posts

The corporate media is blasting out the story that the IRS “targeted conservative groups.” This story that is being repeated and treated as “true” is just not what happened at all. It is one more right-wing victimization fable, repeated endlessly until the public has no choice except to believe it.

Washington remains focused on a “deficit problem” when there is no deficit problem. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) the 2013 budget deficit will be down 60 percent as a share of gross domestic product from President Bush’s fiscal year 2009 deficit (from 10 percent to 4 percent of GDP).

President Obama set a goal of 1 million new manufacturing jobs in his second term. Last month we added zero. Not one. Nada. Zip. We did add low-wage jobs, though. Maybe we can talk about a national manufacturing strategy now?

A trade deficit hurts the economy and jobs. Not only does it mean money is draining from the economy, but it also means our working people are pitted against low-wage workers. A trade deficit enables companies to cut wages. It is the primary reason everyone’s pay has been stagnant or falling since the end of the 1970s — when the balance of trade turned from surplus to deficit.

The hiring by American companies is not happening in the U.S. At the same time these companies are holding $1.7 trillion of profits outside of the country, away from their own shareholders and our economy to avoid their taxes, while pushing to dramatically lower the taxes they pay us.

Why do policymakers focus so intently on the deficit issue? Because the small minority of wealthy individuals that see the deficit as the nation’s priority have more clout than the majority that didn’t.

The Speaker of the House last week said that taxing people to pay for government is theft. Let’s look at just where actual theft is occurring.

There is no deficit problem. The deficit is down 50 percent as a share of gross domestic product just since President Bush’s fiscal year 2009 deficit and is falling at the fastest rate since the end of World War II. Yet the Washington debate is about how and where to cut us back into recession. Why?

Wages used to go up as productivity went up, but in the 1970s they decoupled. Productivity kept going up but wages stagnated.

The average American’s living standard would be much, much higher today if wages had not decoupled from productivity gains – with the gains all going to the 1 percent instead of being shared by workers. If wages had kept pace we wouldn’t feel the terrible squeeze that everyone in the middle class is feeling.

The average American’s living standard would be much, much higher today if wages had not decoupled from productivity gains – with the gains all going to the 1 percent instead of being shared by workers. If wages had kept pace we wouldn’t feel the terrible squeeze that everyone in the middle class is feeling.

While politicians in Washington squabble, they ignore report after report that show how one-sided trade deals with China and others are killing off our jobs , factories, industries, and economy.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi wants members of Congress to sign what is known as a "discharge petition" to force a vote on keeping taxes at current levels for people making under $250,000.

House Speaker Boehner and Senate Minority leader each claimed this week that higher taxes on the wealthy will cause the "job creators" to cut jobs and "hurt growth." The Heritage Foundation makes specific claims about how this will happen. Let's take a look.

Remember how the Bush administration made cronies rich? Here is how Romney will run things. Mitt Romney spends big on firms tied to aides,

Mitt Romney's campaign has directed $134.2 million to political firms with business ties to his senior staff, spotlighting the tightknit nature of his second presidential bid and the staggering sums being spent in this election.

Nine firms that are run by, o...

The last Romney on economy: Obama 'made the problem worse'

In the last month of the Bush Presidency the country lost 815,000 jobs. Do I really have to describe what else was going on in the economy when Obama took office?

Jasiri X

Directed by Emmai Alaquiva, "Don't Forget About The Hood" illustrates how the issues of the poor and urban communities have been all but forgotten in this current election season, and wonders what happened to all of the energy and organizing that took place in the wake of the tragic murder of Trayvon Martin.

"Don't Forget About the Hood" was produced in collaboration with http://hoodievote.org with Da Ricanstrukta providing the powerful soundtrack

LYRICS
See cause we broke they...

Right now a company named Sensata is moving equipment out of a factory in Freeport, Ill. and shipping it to a factory in China. Sensata will be laying off all of the American workers, but first they are making the workers train their Chinese replacements. The workers' last day is the day before our election. Here's the thing: this company is owned by Bain Capital, and Mitt Romney -- who says he is against shipping jobs to China -- will make a fortune from the move to China.

The Sensata employees have set up a camp outside the factory that they call

See for yourself:

I understand that approx. 3,650,000 reach age 65 each year. So doesn't raising the retirement age by one year add 3,650,000 people to unemployment roles, because the jobs don't open up?