Tag: middle class
Inequality isn’t something that just ‘happens’
A think piece by Walter Frick at Harvard Business Review draws a line in the inequality debate.
Mobility, meritocracy and other myths
Meritocracy is a legitimizing myth created to distract people from the question of whether the system of power those meritocratic functionaries serve is just.
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice, and freedom, everywhere
At the surface, the tensions over the failure of grand juries in Missouri and New York to indict cops who killed unarmed suspects in a pair of recent petty-crime cases have been directed at police.

Angry white men on the right
I have been thinking about the anger of many white men, and why they’ve lent the force of that anger to the political right.
Walk in their shoes
I’m a CEO with a GED, and I have walked in the shoes of a minimum wage worker. I know from experience that it’s a tougher road today.

September 10
Glenn Beck, God love ‘im, liked to remind us how unified we were as a country on September 12, 2001. (Whatever happened to the Beckster, anyway?)

Many liberals don’t like the idea of battle, but the alternative in America today is much worse
In America right now there’s a battle that needs to be fought and won in our political arena.

President Obama: Let’s go out there and work
President Obama at a private event in Los Angeles: “I’ve got two years left in this presidency. I want to get a whole bunch of stuff done. I need your help. So let’s go out there and work.”
AFSCME adds more than 90,000 members
AFSCME President Lee Saunders today announced that AFSCME nearly doubled the goal set in early January 2014 when the union launched its “50,000 Stronger” organizing campaign.

President Obama in Austin, Texas, speaking on economy
President Obama speaks at an event in Austin, Texas, on the economy, jobs and the political culture in Washington, D.C.

President Obama on the state of the U.S. economy
We know from our history our economy doesn’t grow from the top down; it grows from the middle out. We do better when you’ve got some construction workers on the job. They then go to a restaurant and they buy a new car. That means the workers there start doing better.

President Obama comments on economy, jobs
For the last 51 months, we have created jobs here in the United States — 9.4 million jobs in all. But we’re going to have to create more. And one of the best ways to do it is to boost American manufacturing and American exports.

Dave Brat: Thank you
What more can I say than thank you to the men and women who share my beliefs in our Constitution and the greatness of this country. The same people who founded our country shared these beliefs as well – that America can and will be great.

Stunner! Eric Cantor loses Republican primary, ousted from Congress
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., lost his battle with Randolph-Macon economics professor Dave Brat for re-nomination to the ballot in the Seventh Congressional District in Virginia Tuesday, a political stunner that sent shock waves down both sides of the aisle.

Dave Brat blasts Eric Cantor for humanitarian crisis
The crisis at the border is growing every minute, every hour, every day. No House Congressman has done more to encourage illegal immigration than Eric Cantor, who claims amnesty is required by the “the great founding principles of our nation.”
Bob Goodlatte: An unaffordable mandate
It speaks volumes when one of the most vocal supporters of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, says it will “destroy the foundation of the 40 hour work week that is the backbone of the American middle class” if not fixed. But that is what James Hoffa, president of the Teamsters union, made clear last year in a letter to Democratic leadership in Congress.
Gina Schaefer: Can’t build a strong economy on weak minimum wage
Our starting pay for sales associates is $10. We know that gradually raising the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 an hour makes good business sense.

Tim Kaine helps introduce bipartisan career, technical education resolution in Senate
U.S. Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) introduced a bipartisan resolution to encourage educators to promote career and technical education (CTE) as an option for students.

Sam Rasoul wins election in 11th House District in Roanoke
Democrat Sam Rasoul easily won the special election in the 11th House District representing Roanoke held on Tuesday, gaining more than 70 percent of the vote to defeat Republican Octavia Johnson.
Maria Fornella: Tax fairness would allow us to invest again In our nation
Despite complaints that corporate taxes are too high, corporations on average pay only a third of the official federal income tax rate, according to a recent study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

Ken Cuccinelli goes Obamacare on Terry McAuliffe
Down big in the polls, Ken Cuccinelli is playing his last card, Obamacare.
Holly Sklar: Minimum wage back to 1950 level on 75th anniversary
The minimum wage has put a floor under workers’ wages since taking effect 75 years ago on October 24, 1938. But at $7.25 an hour, today’s federal minimum wage is the same as it was in 1950, after adjusting for inflation.
McAuliffe counters Cuccinelli push on tax, budget costs
Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe’s campaign today released a new report, “Cuccinelli’s $8 Billion Tax Plan,” describing how Ken Cuccinelli’s budget gimmicks and support for eliminating the corporate income tax could cost the Commonwealth at least $8 billion over four years and deplete necessary funding streams from localities for education, transportation, and other critical investments that will keep Virginia competitive in the 21st century.