Working Life

   It is a tough reality that the chances are fairly slim that single-payer, "Medicare For All" will pass into law in the next few months–it is just not part of the debate on health care, despite being the best economic and moral option. It is obviously possible that the whole legislative process comes to […]

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   I wanted to make sure folks saw this: Gunmen ambushed a peasant union leader and his family in northern Mexico, killing him and 14 others in an attack that bore the hallmarks of a hit by drug cartels but one that his organization said might have been related to his union work. The victims, […]

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   For those of you in New York, I’m going to be speaking Saturday night at about 8:10 in between the screenings of Labor Day–it’s a new flick about political mobilization during the 2008 election. Check it out.

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Put on a bunch of fake blood, carry a cane or crutches, draw on what look like home-made stiches. You’re… the opt out to the public option.   Put a pillow under shirt and carry a bunch of baby dolls. You’re… Abstinence Only. Wear a suit and glasses. Get a wolf stuffed animal and apply […]

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   I believe that we can fix the economy–but it will take a focused and entirely different approach. For a long time, I’ve maintained that the government statistics on economic growth often don’t match the reality regular people face. Today, we learn: Spending by Americans took a big tumble in September, as they lost a […]

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   So, we went from hoping that we would have the only health care plan that makes sense morally and economically–"Medicare For All", or single-payer–to hoping for a strong public option to…well, something not "robust" (however you define that). And the horse-trading is not over–it seems likely that the public option now being discussed (the […]

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   If you read this blog regularly, you know that I have been a skeptic about the talk about the "green shoots" in the economy–the signs that somehow the economy is getting "better". I based most of my skeptical argument about the "green shoots" on a simple fact: until working people see that they have […]

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   So, now, there is a public option in the Senate health care bill that is apparently taking shape–of course, states can opt out of the provision which makes it, in my view, weak if we are trying to establish a national standard. I suppose that the opting-out could also mean states could enact a […]

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   A moment to pause to consider this, from Inside U.S. Trade: Business Flags Problem With Strong Support For Michaud Bill U.S. business representatives late last week expressed alarm to outgoing Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Congressional Affairs Daniel Sepulveda about the large number of Democrats that are cosponsoring trade legislation calling for a radical […]

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I want to try to make a subtle distinction here: between something that I’m glad is happening, on the one hand, and changes that fundamentally reshape economic power in the country, on the other hand. The first does not necessarily bring about the second. And it’s important, I would argue, for us to keep our […]

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