Social Security currently is projected to be able to pay full benefits until around 2039, at which point current projections say it will start only paying seniors around 80 percent of what they should be getting. One would think having a program projected to be on a solid footing for the next 30 years would [...]

When you give in to hostage-taking, you set a pattern that just encourages people to take more hostages, and ask for bigger ransoms every time. This is exactly what is happening thanks to President Obama previously declaring that he must give in to Republican hostage taking tactics. From the Hill: House Republicans are considering a [...]

With Washington now terrifyingly obsessed with immediate austerity, despite the UK being a perfect example of how misguided such a move is right now, it is important for millions to realize that our economy is in no way back to stable. Two recent stories are great reminders that while the economy probably seems fine for [...]

There seems to be a broad acknowledgement that the Federal Reserve has made the terrible decision to randomly change their goals by making their new top priority maintaining a one-percent inflation target, instead of the old understanding, two-percent inflation, or trying to achieve full employment, despite 8.8 percent official unemployment. I will let Paul Krugman [...]

As you can see in this helpful chart from the Kaiser Family Foundation, America pays much more for health care than any other first-world country. There are a lot of false ideas or very minor explanations that are overstated to try to justify why we pay so much. Other countries are just evil nations that [...]

Accused Wikileaks whistleblower PFC. Bradley Manning will be removed from solitary confinement and placed in medium security at Fort Leavenworth prison, according to reports from journalists who took a tour of the Kansas facility today.

The first report of Manning’s move came from National Catholic Review reporter Joshua J. McElwee, who said that after the tour of the Leavenworth facility, military officials announced that Manning would be moved to medium security tomorrow morning.

There is a time during the early part of a popular uprising when things can go relatively well. The despot or the military leaders of a quick coup could decide that with people on the street and international pressure, the smart thing to do is take the peaceful “retirement package.” That is where, in exchange [...]

It is nice to see both Paul Krugman and Matt Yglesias openly admitting that the Affordable Care Act is about as right-wing any insurance coverage expansion “reform” could be. From Yglesias’s The Sensible Conservative Alternative To The Affordable Care Act Is The Affordable Care Act: If you simply do what Ponnuru and Levin propose, every [...]

In an op-ed for the New Hampshire Union Leader, Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney attacked President Obama for a “peacetime spending binge,” as pointed out by Greg Sargent. From the Op-ed: Barack Obama is facing a financial emergency on a grander scale. Yet his approach has been to engage in one of the biggest peacetime [...]

It is always nice to see more people come around to my stated belief that health insurance exchanges intended to make people be “smart shoppers” for very complex products is a truly failed idea. Paul Krugman made a very straightforward case against the concept this weekend: That’s the title of a blog post by Nathalie [...]