News & Comment
Blogs and Opinion
How Will Immigration Reform Affect Black America? by Marlon Hill, thegrio.com | January 29, 2013
Let’s make no mistake about it: as the years pass, America is becoming a “browner” nation. With the present discourse over immigration reform, we have an extraordinary opportunity to mix our understanding and appreciation for race, culture and language with public policy. We, the people of America, have been wrestling with our self identity, and will continue to do so in the near future. With Black History Month imminently upon us, we can not only celebrate our history, heritage and culture, but we can also insert ourselves in a critical national debate on how to fix our broken immigration system. Likewise, this immigration debate provides the black community an opportunity to learn more about the stories and challenges of black immigrants who increasingly populate our states as asylees, refugees, legal immigrants, and undocumented persons. read more »A Striking New Consensus on Immigration Reform—Thus Far by Seth Freed Wessler, colorlines.com | January 29, 2013
Yesterday the U.S. Senate set down the path toward the most significant shift in U.S. immigration policy in two generations. It has been more than a quarter century since the last significant immigration legalization passed. So when a bi-partisan group of senators appeared yesterday on a Capitol Hill stage to declare 2013 the year of immigration reform, they restored a vision of a way forward for many. The senators released a document of guiding principles that provides a path to legal residency for many of the country’s estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants. It also creates avenues for new immigration, while bolstering immigration enforcement at the border and in workplaces. If these principles lead to a bill, as expected, it could transform the social and political fabric of the country. Yet even as senators yesterday offered a genuine reform outline, with striking new areas of consensus, some worry they also wove into the agreement enough loose strings to cause its unraveling. read more »The Decline of Unions Is Your Problem Too by Eric Liu, ideas.time.com | January 29, 2013
Last week came news that the share of America’s workforce that’s unionized hit a 97-year low. Most Americans yawned at this news. On one level that’s understandable. After all, most Americans aren’t in a union. It’s a vicious cycle: as unions decline, fewer people see their fates as bound up with unions, which just accelerates the decline. But on another level, America’s non-reaction is striking. We remain in the wake of the Great Recession. Inequality and wealth concentration are at levels not seen since just before the Great Depression. This would seem as ripe a time in modern memory for a revival of organized labor. Instead, a basic assumption now shapes most Americans’ mindset about labor: the belief that the death of unions isn’t my problem because I’m not in a union. That assumption is wrong in two critical ways. read more »An Oft-Ignored Lesson Of 2012: The Case For Appeasing The Base by Steve Singiser, dailykos.com | January 28, 2013
How did Obama turn what was a seven-point deficit for the Democrats in 2010 into a four-point win in 2012, in spite of roughly similar numbers among the three ideological subgroups? The answer was that the ideological makeup of the electorate fundamentally shifted between 2010 and 2012. In 2010, 42 percent of the electorate self-identified as conservatives, while only 20 percent of the electorate self-identified as liberals. In 2012, the gap narrowed to a historic low. Only 35 percent of the Obama-Romney electorate called themselves conservative. Meanwhile, a full quarter of the electorate (25 percent), the high water mark for the modern era), self-identified as liberal. Therein lies a big part of the victory. It wasn't Obama's marginally better performance among conservatives that saved the day, it was the simple fact that conservatives comprised a substantially smaller share of the electorate than they had in 2010. read more »Return of ‘Three-Fifths’ of a Person by Robert Parry, consortiumnews.com | January 28, 2013
Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Old Confederacy, is a fitting place for the neo-Confederates who now control the Republican Party to reinstate a version of the slave-era provision counting African-Americans as “Three-Fifths” of a person for the purpose of representation. This revival of the infamous “Three-Fifths” clause of the U.S. Constitution is part of a Republican scheme to give lesser value to the votes of African-Americans and other minorities who tend to cluster in cities than to the votes of whites in rural, more GOP-friendly areas. The goal is to give future Republican presidential candidates a thumb-on-the-scale advantage in seeking the White House, as well as to assure continued Republican control of the House of Representatives. The scheme is a direct Republican response to the emergence of Barack Obama’s coalition, which pulled together the votes of African-Americans, Hispanics, Asian-Americans and young urban whites (who are more comfortable with a multi-cultural future for the United States). read more »For Obama, Social Equality Will Come Easier Than Economic Equality by Ronald Brownstein, nationaljournal.com | January 28, 2013
Equality was the North Star in President Obama’s confident and ambitious Inaugural Address this week. But the speech defined the idea around two distinct poles, and his path to progress is much clearer on one than the other. In his first words, Obama reached back to the Declaration of Independence to anoint as America’s founding and most foundational conviction the belief “that all men are created equal.” The heart of what followed was his argument that this timeless principle contains both an economic and a social dimension—and that collective action through government is essential to realizing both. In essence, Obama argued that fidelity to America’s founding beliefs requires a widening circle of economic opportunity and social tolerance. When Obama defined equality as widening social tolerance, he had the wind of history at his back. The president’s prospects are much murkier on the other dimension of the challenge that he identified, expanding economic opportunity and reversing inequality. read more »Dems ‘Have A Dance Partner’ on Immigration, But Is It Two-Step or Jazz? by Seth Fred Wessler, colorlines.com | January 23, 2013
In his inaugural address on Monday, President Obama called on Congress to “welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity.” Though the speech has been widely described as a liberal one, members of both parties have affirmed recently that they share the same goal. “The first steps to get to reform have already taken place,” said Rep. Luis Gutierrez following the speech. Gutierrez is a member of the House Judiciary Committee, where bill will land, and among the leading advocates for immigration reform on Capitol Hill. “The most important thing now is that we get to go to the dance and we have a dance partner…. Now, we have a partner who actually wants to fix something.” But initial moves to join hands does not itself mean the the immigration reform process will move ahead without a hitch. read more »12 Ways Obama Smacked Down the Tea Party and the Right in Inauguration Speech by Adele M. Stan, alternet.org | January 22, 2013
With its elegant rendering of the liberal agenda before the eyes of the American people, President Barack Obama's second inaugural address was music to the ears of many a progressive. But to the ears of Tea Partiers and the Republican right, this inauguration speech, as well as the ceremony that surrounded it, was war -- not just a war of words, but a war of prayer, a war of poetry and even, perhaps, a war of song. Driving the message home were the hands of the Fates, who conspired to see the second inauguration of the nation’s first African American president fall on Martin Luther King Day, the national holiday whose very creation was opposed by so many who still today comprise the Republican Party’s right wing. Here we recount a dozen ways in which the president brought his fight to the right, in no uncertain terms, at his second inauguration. read more »You and I Have the Power to Set this Country’s Course – Setting the Tone for Obama’s Second Term by CHERYL CONTEE, jackandjillpolitics.com | January 22, 2013
Obama’s 2nd Inauguration speech looked back to those who dreamed of an America that lived up to its promise of equal treatment for all – suffragettes, abolitionists, civil rights leaders, gay activists and more. Yet this speech simultaneously pointed the way forward for those of us who must pick up the mantle of history, who must face down the challenges that meet us in our time as one nation under God – indivisible. The President closed saying: “You and I, as citizens, have the power to set this country’s course. You and I, as citizens, have the obligation to shape the debates of our time...” Obama appears in this historic speech on an historic day to ask if Americans will seize the power of this moment in destiny with him to create the future today that we will all live in tomorrow. Will Americans, including Members of Congress and the nation’s governors and mayor, heed the call? Will you? read more »Why We Can't 'Split the Difference': The Case for Citizenship by ANA AVENDAÑO, aflcio.org | January 22, 2013
Peter Skerry, in a recent journal article for National Affairs, encouraged policymakers to “split the difference” on immigration reform by legalizing the undocumented population without offering any chance of eventual citizenship. While something must be done to address the crisis facing more than 11 million people who call this country home, lawmakers need to make a road map to citizenship a priority. However, this does not mean we should “split the difference” with those who practice the divisive politics of exclusion. Legalization without a chance at citizenship would create an underclass of workers, who would not have access to all of the opportunities, responsibilities and rights that come with citizenship. This does not reflect our shared values as Americans and it also does not make economic sense. read more »
The Latest
GOP: No More Help for Jobless, But Rich Must Keep Tax Cuts, mcclatchydc.com | July 15, 2010
Republicans almost unanimously oppose spending $33.9 billion for extended unemployment benefits for some 2.5 million people who've lost them, because they say it would increase federal budget deficits. read more »
Kyl: Unemployment Insurance A 'Necessary Evil' , Huffington Post | July 13, 2010
Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said Monday that tax cuts for the wealthy shouldn't be offset by revenue increases elsewhere because their purpose is to shrink the size of government, fleshing out an argument he made on Sunday. read more »
Just Don't Like the Unemployed, Cont'd, Washington Monthly | July 13, 2010
I've been marveling in recent months at the ways in which Republican lawmakers and candidates seem to actively dislike -- on a personal level -- those who've lost their jobs in the recession. It's kind of odd, given that the unemployed don't seem to have done anything to offend the GOP and earn the party's disdain. read more »
Retire at Age 70? Young People May Have to Under Proposed Plans , truth-out.org | July 12, 2010
Young Americans might not get full Social Security retirement benefits until they reach age 70 if some trial balloons that prominent lawmakers of both parties are floating become law. read more »
Grow Green Jobs, ourfuture.org | July 12, 2010
Why not address both problems with a major public program to directly put people to work saving energy?
Plenty of green-job advocates have offered practical details, including my University of Massachusetts colleague, Robert Pollin. Yet no one in Congress or the White House seems willing to plant this garden. read more »
Putting America Back to Work with Green Jobs, thedailygreen.com | July 12, 2010
The phrase "building a green economy" means different things to different people, but in general it refers to encouraging economic development that prioritizes sustainability--that is, working with nature and not against it in the quest to meet peoples' needs and wants--instead of disregarding environmental concerns in the process of growing the economy. read more »
End of Census, and for Many, End of Job, ourfuture.org | July 12, 2010
It was a finely honed machine, this United States Census team, and it had a good run. But in the coming days and weeks, many of its members will experience the pain of unemployment — once again. read more »
Congress Stalled As 2 Million Lose Jobless Benefits, npr.org | July 12, 2010
When members of Congress return from their Fourth of July break Monday, they'll find a big challenge waiting for them right where they left it. The issue is unemployment — specifically an extension of benefits for people who've lost their jobs. The debate has turned into a high-stakes, election-year stand-off over deficits. read more »
Kentucky Union Members Take Fight for Jobs, Jobless Aid to McConnell’s Doorstep, blog.aflcio.org | July 9, 2010
Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and his Senate cohorts who have flipped off long-term jobless workers by blocking unemployment insurance (UI) extensions and jobs legislation are enjoying a pleasant week off, with pay. Meanwhile, 250,000 workers this week and 1.7 million since June 1 have lost their UI lifeline. read more »
Obama Shifts to Export-Led Jobs Push , The Wall Street Journal | July 8, 2010
The White House is shifting the focus of its job-creation efforts away from appeals for more federal spending and toward expanding exports and persuading business leaders to invest more. read more »
