Paul Ryan on Social Security MediCare and Pell Grants

Paul Ryan was chosen by Mitt Romney as his Vice Presidential pick. Here’s 6 things to know about Paul Ryan, as researched by MoveOn: 1. His economic plan would cost America 1 million jobs in the first year. Ryan’s proposed budget would cripple the economy. He’d slash spending deeply, which would not only slow job […]

What your Social Security contribution should be worth

The government is now referring to our Social Security checks as a “Federal Benefit Payment.” –This isn’t a benefit – its earned income! Not only did we all contribute to Social Security but our employers did too. It totaled 15% of our income before taxes. If you averaged $30K per year over your working life, […]

America writing off Social Security for the elderly

When neoconservatives, politicians, and high ranking military officers speak of a 30-year war against terrorism, there is no discussion about its affordability or whether the one significant attack (September 11, 2001) that is attributed, perhaps incorrectly, to Muslim terrorists justifies an open-ended war against a dozen countries. There is no discussion of the burden on […]

Ron Paul on spending, taxes and Social Security

If you know anything about Ron Paul’s economic views, it’s probably that he’s not a big fan of the Federal Reserve system, or that he loves the gold standard. But those are hardly the only noteworthy planks in his platform. Spending: Paul proposes cutting $1 trillion from the federal budget during his first year in […]

The Super Committee failure reflects our own super failure

Leaders of the congressional supercommittee charged with trimming the federal budget deficit by at least $1.2 trillion have announced that the panel could not reach an agreement. As a result, across-the-board spending cuts—largely in Medicare and defense—are slated to go into effect in 2013. So the “super committee” failed. Can you honestly say you were […]

Seven Big Economic Lies

These seven economic whoppers are just plain wrong. 1. Tax cuts for the rich trickle down to everyone else. Baloney. Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush both sliced taxes on the rich and what happened? Most Americans’ wages (measured by the real median wage) began flattening under Reagan and have dropped since George W. Bush. […]

A National Debt of $211 Trillion!

Economics professor Laurence J. Kotlikoff, who served as a senior economist on President Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers, says the national debt, which the U.S. Treasury has accounted at about $14 trillion, is just the tip of the iceberg. “We have all these unofficial debts that are massive compared to the official debt,” Kotlikoff tells […]

Theory on why rating agencies are downgrading US debt

Some are of the opinion that the rating agencies are working with some of the predatory bankers and the hedge funds who are trading in these naked credit default swaps, and are targeting these economies and countries for failure, because they make more money on these insurances than they lose on their bond holdings. We […]

Half of every dollar we pay in Federal taxes goes into the military account

Seymour Melman, a professor emeritus at Columbia University, once said, “We have gone mad,” citing presidents and Pentagon chiefs starting new wars even before they finish fighting the old ones! Who can recall a time in our history when the U.S. initiated aggressive wars against five nations (Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Libya, Yemen)? Between 1947 and […]

Quality of Life under the Obama Republican debt deal

Polluted water, smoggy skies, crumbling bridges, less education funding, more unhealthy Americans: the impact of the debt deal’s massive cuts. The Obama-GOP plan cuts $917 billion in government spending over the next decade. Nearly $570 billion of that would come from what’s called “non-defense discretionary spending.” That’s budget-speak for education and job training, air traffic […]