By: Jake Blumgart, Donald Cohen, and Peter Dreier. Posted in the Huffington Post. December 1, 2010.
Will raising income taxes on the rich hurt or help the economy? That's the key question that Congress will be debating as they consider whether to extend the tax cuts enacted by President George W. Bush in 2001 and 2003, which are set to expire at the end of the year.
By Peter Dreier and Donald Cohen. Published in the Los Angeles Times. August 14, 2010.
Alf Landon, the Kansas governor running as the Republican Party's 1936 presidential candidate, called it a "fraud on the working man" and "a cruel hoax." The New York Times, in an editorial, said it was "ill-considered" and "very questionable." Harper Sibley, the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, warned that it would result in "more unemployment in the future, killing the goose that lays the golden eggs."
By Peter Dreier and Elizabeth Shermer. Posted in the Huffington Post. July 20, 2010.
Perhaps as early as today (Tuesday), the Senate will pass legislation extending jobless benefits for 2.5 million Americans whose unemployment insurance has expired. The House already passed the extension, but Senate Republicans have blocked several attempts this year to do the same. Today, Carte Goodwin (appointed by West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin to replace Sen. Robert C Byrd, who died last month) will be sworn in and the Senate Democrats will have enough votes to stop a Republican filibuster.
By Peter Dreier and Jake Blumgart. Published in the Huffington Post. April 20, 2010.
This is the year of the soda tax.
Last year, the Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo, and the American Beverage Association (ABA) spent an unprecedented $37.5 million lobbying Capitol Hill to quash a proposal in Congress to tax soft drinks as part of a plan to pay for health care reform.
By Peter Dreier and Donald Cohen. Posted on Huffington Post. May 11, 2009.
In its first 100 days, the Obama administration did more to address global warming and the environmental crisis than the Bush administration did in eight years.
By Peter Dreier and Donald Cohen. Posted on Talking Points Memo. April 29, 2009.
Universal health care and the reform of outdated labor laws are shaping up to be the two great policy battles of the year, if not the century. Business interests are dusting off decades of campaign rhetoric warning about the doomsday scenarios if Congress enacts "socialized" health care and the Employee Free Choice Act to give workers a decent shot a organizing unions. They're wrong about both issues, but will politicians and pundits believe them anyway?
