Deficit // Current TV

Support the "Buffett Rule" for Deficit Reduction

Rich Americans get the majority of their income from capital gains, dividends, and... more

dunlevyd
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1 year ago
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Bipartisansh#*! (VIDEO)

Meet Little Fixer, the guy who apparently helps politics get done! He helped out with... more

StewSteve
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1 year ago
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Postal Service Is Nearing Default as Losses Mount

Once again a crisis is looming for the government. One that is being presented a a problem with labor at its heart. Note how many times the articles states that the union has a no lay-off clause, that too much money was paid into pension funds, and that postal workers have better health care than anyone else.

The real problem is the law that Congress enacted that reorganized the postal service in 1970 making it a self supporting agency, rather than one supported by taxes. This would be a good move, yet the law also forbids the postal service from making a profit, just break even. This means that upgrades to the system were slowed down waiting on Congressional approval, making the postal service less efficient than UPS or FedEX.

Now as a way to keep the USPS solvent, the Postmaster General is looking at laying off 120,000 workers, in violation of its contract. Further, Rep Issa (R) is pushing for an emergency oversight board that could order huge cost-cutting and void the postal service’s contracts.

It's all the workers fault. It's always the workers fault, never the fault of congress or management when businesses fail. This is what happens when workers are constantly made out to be the bad guys, rather than taking the union (workers actually) and making them part of the solution. Unions should be on the boards of directors, they should get to look at the books, they should be part of the solution to making the business more efficient and profitable, while maintaining wages, benefits and jobs. Maybe if a corporation just asked the right questions of the workers, rather than creating an adversarial relationship, the economy would be in better shape, more people would be employed and less jobs would have been shipped overseas.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/05/business/in-internet-age-postal-service-struggles-to-stay-solvent-and-relevant.html?_r=1

The United States Postal Service has long lived on the financial edge, but it has never been as close to the precipice as it is today: the agency is so low on cash that it will not be able to make a $5.5 billion payment due this month and may have to shut down entirely this winter unless Congress takes emergency action to stabilize its finances. In recent weeks, Mr. Donahoe has been pushing a series of painful cost-cutting measures to erase the agency’s deficit, which will reach $9.2 billion this fiscal year. They include eliminating Saturday mail delivery, closing up to 3,700 postal locations and laying off 120,000 workers — nearly one-fifth of the agency’s work force — despite a no-layoffs clause in the unions’ contracts. The post office’s problems stem from one hard reality: it is being squeezed on both revenue and costs.

At the same time, decades of contractual promises made to unionized workers, including no-layoff clauses, are increasing the post office’s costs. Labor represents 80 percent of the agency’s expenses, compared with 53 percent at United Parcel Service and 32 percent at FedEx, its two biggest private competitors. Postal workers also receive more generous health benefits than most other federal employees.Once again a crisis is looming for the government. One that is being presented a a... more

kvb1
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1 year ago
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Three Charts To Email To Your Right-Wing Brother-In-Law

NationofChange Dave Johnson Campaign for America's Future / Guide Published:... more

Buckeye_Bill
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1 year ago
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63 comments

Government gone wild

If we don't do something we're toast. http://www.youtube.com/embed/VtVbUmcQSuk

DDJohnAdams
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1 year ago
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President Obama = Trojan Horse?

This has been my sentiment all along. Obama is really helping conservatives destroy... more

nardo1224
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1 year ago
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52 comments

George Bush owns this deficit

Useless news alert: Tax cuts and war contribute more to our burgeoning debt than... more

Vierotchka
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1 year ago
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2 comments

What Do the Debt Ceiling and Climate Crisis Have in Common?

One of the problems that the Congress is encountering as it tries to raise the debt ceiling is that a significant number of Republican and Tea Party Members of Congress apparently hold the view that there actually would not be consequences for global markets or the US economy if we defaulted. This view is, of course, absurd -- but it illustrates a larger problem. Dramatic changes in the way we communicate with one another about issues affecting the common good have diminished the role of reason and fact-based analysis, encouraging ideological extremists to construct their own alternative version of reality and defend it against fact-based reasoning.

The same problem is found in the debate over the climate crisis. Notwithstanding the unanimous opinion of every National Academy of Science in every major country in the world, every professional scientific society in fields related to the study of the climate crisis and 97 percent of climate scientists in the world, many ideologues cling to the view that these facts are wrong, that scientists are perpetrating a hoax, that they are either greedy for more research dollars or secretly promoting the expansion of government, and that authorities such as Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck are more reliable than the global scientific community in analyzing the impact of global warming pollution.

Two months ago, I wrote an article in Rolling Stone, linked here, that dealt with this issue. http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/climate-of-denial-20110622?page=1

In the same way, because the banks had their way with Congress when it came to gambling on unregulated derivatives and recklessly endangering credit markets with subprime mortgages, we still have almost double-digit unemployment, historic deficits, Greece and possibly other European countries teetering on the edge of default, and the threat of a double-dip recession. Even the potential default of the United States of America is now being treated by many politicians and too many in the media as yet another phony wrestling match, a political game. Are the potential economic consequences of a U.S. default "real"? Of course they are! Have we gone completely nuts?

We haven't gone nuts -- but the "conversation of democracy" has become so deeply dysfunctional that our ability to make intelligent collective decisions has been seriously impaired. Throughout American history, we relied on the vibrancy of our public square -- and the quality of our democratic discourse -- to make better decisions than most nations in the history of the world. But we are now routinely making really bad decisions that completely ignore the best available evidence of what is true and what is false. When the distinction between truth and falsehood is systematically attacked without shame or consequence -- when a great nation makes crucially important decisions on the basis of completely false information that is no longer adequately filtered through the fact-checking function of a healthy and honest public discussion -- the public interest is severely damaged.

"That is exactly what is happening with U.S. decisions regarding the climate crisis. The best available evidence demonstrates beyond any reasonable doubt that the reckless spewing of global-warming pollution in obscene quantities into the atmospheric commons is having exactly the consequences long predicted by scientists who have analyzed the known facts according to the laws of physics."

Cross-posted from Al's Journal http://blog.algore.com/One of the problems that the Congress is encountering as it tries to raise the debt... more

MikeMaddigan
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1 year ago
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3 comments

Destruction of America

Cutting spending without increasing revenues will only solve half of the problem.... more

kvb1
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1 year ago
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2 comments

Congressional Progressive Caucus

Kristrina Vanden Heuvel is spot on in calling out the MSN, the President, and Congress... more

kvb1
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1 year ago
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The GOP Created the Deficit

Peter Beinart at The Daily Beast tells it like it is: "If the debt-ceiling... more

COMMONSENSEFORCOMMONGOOD_COM
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1 year ago
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138 comments

A Looming Betrayal

Exactly what the hell is going on around here? On Thursday, headlines on both the... more

joeeddy
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1 year ago
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Is the US in denial over its $14tn debt?

Is America in denial about the extent of its financial problems, and therefore... more

littlwarrior
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1 year ago
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18 comments

Stop the Granny Bashing: Despite What You May Think, Our Seniors Are in Trouble

We must fight the deficit hysterics' relentless granny-bashing. Most people... more

wanderingmissy
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1 year ago
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El peso mexicano pisa fuerte apoyado en la inversión en cartera

El buen desempeño de la balanza de pagos de México apoya la... more

sdieditor
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1 year ago
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¿Se acabaron las balas de plata?

Podría desde componer una canción a coreografriar un baile sobre los... more

sdieditor
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1 year ago
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America's Fiscal Crisis: What States Can Do with Their Own Banks

“Ford to New York: Drop Dead,” said a famous headline in 1975. President... more

Schnookums
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1 year ago
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2 comments

El peso mexicano atraviesa un bache temporal

Según explican los analistas a Sala de Inversión América, la... more

sdieditor
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1 year ago
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The Solution - Split the USA in half

This is a teaser for an article I wrote on examiner.com. "For of you who... more

DMashak
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2 years ago
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3 comments

Weekly Audit: Hostage-Taking Over the Debt Ceiling

By Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium blogger The latest contrived showdown... more

MediaConsortium
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2 years ago
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