Center for American Progress Medicare and Medicaid’s Budget Challenges SOURCE: AP/Tony Ding Senior citizens participate in a yoga class in Ann Arbor, Michigan. By Lester Feder, Ellen-Marie Whelan | February 20, 2009 Download this brief (pdf) Read also: Medicare Matters: There’s No Easy Medicare-Only Fix for Health Costs In This Issue What are Medicare and [...]
Archive for February, 2009
24 Feb
Goldilocks and the Recovery Act
Center for American Progress SOURCE: AP/Marcio Jose Sanchez People wait in line at an Employment Development Department office in San Jose, CA last month. The final version of the Recovery Act isn’t as good as it might have been, but it will still create or save 3 million to 3.5 million jobs over the next [...]
24 Feb
Economic Analysis: Heather Boushey
BUSINESS By Heather Boushey Special to The Denver Post POSTED: 02/22/2009 12:30:00 AM MST The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is a well-targeted infusion of cash to get our economy moving again after 14 months of recession and no end to escalating job losses in sight. The president’s swift response to the deep economic mess he [...]
23 Feb
Political Posturing For Personal Gain
thinkprogress.org | ECONOMY Tomorrow night, President Obama will deliver an address to Congress discussing the economic challenges that lay ahead. Senior Obama adviser David Axelrod told the the New York Times that Obama plans to “present a road map for ‘how we get to a better day.’” “The country is looking for a clear sense [...]
23 Feb
Daily Roundup of Issues
Progressive Breakfast: Budget Week By Bill Scher February 23rd, 2009 Budget Week Christian Science Monitor reports on the President’s budget strategy: “On Monday, Obama is expected to announce that he plans to cut the budget deficit in half by the end of his term. The White House projects that the inherited deficit of $1.3 trillion [...]
23 Feb
ELDERLY EMERGE AS A NEW CLASS OF WORKERS — AND THE JOBLESS
By CLARE ANSBERRY FEBRUARY 23, 2009 Wall St. Journal AKRON, Ohio — Mary Appleby, 76 years old, lost her job in January as a cashier at a courthouse cafeteria here. She is now looking for minimum-wage work. Mary Bennett, 80, began filling out applications for fast-food restaurants and convenience stores after she was laid off [...]
23 Feb
GOP Governors and Federal Funds
Monday, February 23, 2009 Now that the so-called stimulus plan is law, we’re left with one question: Will this package help us or hurt us? Unfortunately, I believe it is the latter, for a few reasons. First, this package will ultimately mean less, not more, economic activity. The Congressional Budget Office has found that this [...]
23 Feb
Obama’s Stunted Stimulus
By Robert J. Samuelson Monday, February 23, 2009 Judged by his own standards, President Obama’s $787 billion economic stimulus program is deeply disappointing. For weeks, Obama has described the economy in grim terms. “This is not your ordinary run-of-the-mill recession,” he said at his Feb. 9 news conference. It’s “the worst economic crisis since the [...]
23 Feb
Obama’s FDR Moment
By E. J. Dionne Jr. Monday, February 23, 2009 AKRON, Ohio — When President Obama addresses the nation tomorrow, he should not be distracted by Washington’s obsessions over partisanship and ideology. He needs, above all, to speak to the country’s raw fear. In our battered industrial heartland, there is also a strong sentiment that the [...]
22 Feb
A note to the White House
Comments I submitted the the WH concerning The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. I am happy to see a bill such as this one pass. There are elements that I support as well as elements that I do not support — I accept the fact that no one will be fully satisfied with [...]
20 Feb
No Taxes for Seniors Earning Under $50M
Senior Citizen Politics Obama White House Posts Agenda for Senior Citizen Programs; Strongly opposed to privatizing Social Security, will ask those making over $250,000 to contribute a bit more to Social Security to keep it sound Feb. 16, 2009 – The White House has posted an “Agenda” on WhiteHouse.gov that includes a heading for “Seniors [...]
20 Feb
AFGHANISTAN
thinkprogress.org No Longer A Forgotten War For far too long, the war in Afghanistan has been dubbed “the forgotten war.” After U.S. forces ousted the Taliban in 2001, the Bush administration quickly shifted critical resources to the less critical war in Iraq. The Pentagon repeatedly begged President Bush for additional troops for Afghanistan, which never [...]
