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A century ago, workers were a lot more “flexible” than they are now. Veritable Gumbies in the mills and mines and factories they were, distorting their lives to slog 10 or 12 hours a day, six – even seven – days a week.

Then came the 40-hour week. And weekends. And eventually sick days. And paid vacation days. Now, bosses at mills and mines and factories regard these rules as coddling and consider the workers accustomed to them as unyielding to corporate demands.

The GOP has an app for that. It’s called the Working Families Flexibility Act. This legislation that the Republican majority in the U.S. House is expected to pass this week would force some old-time flexibility into 21^st century workers. The forced flexibility act would award bosses the power to “offer” compensatory time off instead of overtime pay. Bosses, not workers, would determine when the comp time could be taken. The proposal puts control in corporate hands, obliging wage earners to bend over backward for bosses exactly like their Gumby ancestors were compelled to.

Trade unionists and labor rights activists died to achieve the goal of eight-hour days and 40-hour weeks. They were shot and beaten in the streets during demonstrations organized by the eight-hour movement. Their slogan was: “Eight hours for work; eight hours for rest; eight hours for what we will.”

Finally, in 1938, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) as part of the New Deal, which gave workers and families rights and security that previously had been exclusive to the wealthy.

FLSA enforces the 40-hour week with a simple measure. It requires employers to pay time and a half to wage earners for each hour worked beyond 40 in a week. That creates a financial disincentive for bosses to order work beyond 40 hours. That also creates a financial incentive for companies to avoid overtime pay by hiring more workers. That was a significant bonus during the Great Depression. (more…)

Sanjay Sanghoee
Author,"The Merger"

I won’t waste space in this blog discussing the harmful effects of the sequester. If the recent FAA debacle doesn’t give you an idea of how bad this is, or how bad it will get, nothing will.

Instead, I want to highlight just how crazy the Republican position is on this issue.

For the past four years, the party has made it its mission to obstruct President Obama’s agenda, and to whittle away at the power of the federal government so that the country can safely be run by special interests without the pesky intervention of the law. On the economy, the GOP has tried everything they can to drain the public sector of much-needed tax revenues and to channel even more money into the hands of their wealthy donors. After all, who needs public roads, subways, housing, hospitals, schools, and the police department when the rich can buy all those services privately?

But even knowing the Republican mindset, the party’s stance on the sequester has left me scratching my head. Granted, the Democrats are as much to blame for the sequester as their opponents, and the political calculation behind it has clearly backfired since our Congress is so dysfunctional that it cannot reach a deal even when confronted with a crisis. But whether you look backwards or forwards, it is the Republican obsession with austerity that led to this, and which is continuing to make it impossible to find a solution.

While the Republicans say they would cooperate with Democrats to repeal the sequester, what they want in return makes the whole exercise pointless. More precisely, they are willing to stop the spending cuts triggered by the sequester only if the Democrats agree to even bigger spending cuts and for even more public services! (more…)

By Jim Hightower
Author, Commentator, America’s Number One Populist

What fun! The latest political game sweeping the nation is called “Pee on the Poor.” Republican lawmakers in some 30 states – including Florida, Georgia, Indiana, and (of course) Texas – are competing to be national champions of this X-treme right-wing sport.

Being poor used to be considered its own punishment, but in a rush to pander to their fringiest anti-government constituencies, GOP governors and legislators are trying to add state harassment and humiliation to the burden of people in poverty. Bellowing such bellicose words as “moochers” and “takers” at their targets, these politicians want to force welfare recipients to submit to drug tests before getting any financial aid.

Curiously, corporations – which enjoy millions more in welfare payments than the poor – are not included in any of the Republican pee-in-the-cup proposals. Curious-er yet, the Republican pushers of this overbearing state intrusion piously pose as “small government” conservatives.

It turns out, though, that they’re not very skilled gamers. Florida took an early lead in the right-wing competition, but its drug-test mandate cost taxpayers more than it saved, because so few welfare recipients tested positive. A federal appeals court recently suspended the Sunshine State’s dark law, pointedly noting that there’s no evidence that “simply because an applicant for [welfare] benefits is having financial problems, he is also drug-addicted.” (more…)

By Robert Creamer
Political organizer, strategist and author

The big lie in American politics today is that “America is broke” or “in this time of austerity we have to tighten our belts.” America is not broke. We are not in a time of “scarcity” and when we buy into this fallacy, we contribute to political decisions that actually will do damage to our standard of living and that of our children.
This lie is used relentlessly to argue that “America just can’t afford” investments in education, or infrastructure, or jobs programs. It is used as the justification for the need to cut Social Security benefits, shift the cost of Medicare to senior citizens, increase the costs families bear to send children to college, or cut back on food for low-income children.

The fact is that for ordinary people times are tough. Median per-person income for ordinary Americans hasn’t increased for 20 years. And the federal, state and local governments are short of revenue.

But America is not broke — far from it. Ask the gang on Wall Street. Ask the bankers whose recklessness caused a massive financial collapse, yet continued to get multi-million dollar bonuses, if America is broke.

The reality is our economy is producing a higher gross domestic product per capita — the best measure of the sum of goods and services produced by our economy per person — than at any other time in American history. Gross domestic product per capita slumped after the Great Recession that was caused by the recklessness of the big Wall Street banks. Then it once again began to increase and has now reached record levels.

Overall, America is still the wealthiest nation in the world — and wealthier today than it has ever been.

In fact per capita gross domestic product increased over eight times between 1900 and 2008. That means the standard of living of the average American today is over eight times higher than it was in 1900. Average Americans today consume eight times more goods and services than they did at the beginning of the last century. We are eight times wealthier today than we were then.

And note that GDP per capita has increased six fold since Social Security was passed in 1935 and 2.3 fold since Medicare was passed in 1965. Demographic trends, like the number of seniors in society, have been massively outstripped by increases in our per capita gross domestic product — or standard of living. Those who claim that while we might have been able to afford Social Security and Medicare when they were passed, we just can’t afford them anymore, are just plain wrong. (more…)

Robert Borosage
Co-Director Campaign for America's Future

Washington has been fascinated by Republican self-laceration since the 2012 election. Karl Rove triggered a circular firing squad by vowing to take out unwashed challengers in GOP primaries. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal begged Republicans to stop being the “stupid party.” Strategists say the party can’t survive as stale, pale and male. Tea Party legislators knee-cap GOP congressional “leaders” and well-funded political PACs strafe any who dare deviate from the party’s unpopular gospel. Republicans are even talking about changing “Grand Old Party” to something more fashionable.

Representative Paul Ryan’s newest budget will put every Republican on record voting to turn Medicare into a voucher, gut Medicaid, repeal Obamacare, savage investment in education and leave some 50 million Americans without health insurance. Not surprisingly, polls suggest Congress is less popular than colonoscopies, and Republicans poll at the lowest levels on record.

The reengaged president is pressing reforms on immigration, gun violence, gay marriage and climate change. These issues help consolidate his majority – the “rising American electorate” of young voters, minorities and single women.

All this has Democrats thinking wistfully about taking back the House of Representatives, holding the Senate, ending gridlock and driving a new surge of progressive reform.

Well, sober up.

The 2014 midterm election is more likely to be a debacle for Democrats than Republicans. It will take a true political miracle for Democrats to take back the House. Republicans need to win a net of six Senate seats to take the Senate – with six Democratic seats up in red states, and seven in swing states. Four sitting Democratic senators are retiring compared to only two Republicans, both from safe red states.

The Bi-election Blues

The party of a sitting president generally loses seats in a sixth-year bi-election in normal times – from voter fatigue if nothing else. Democrats face an additional obstacle because their base – that rising American electorate – tends to stay home in large numbers in non-presidential years.

As 2010 demonstrated, the 2014 electorate may be older, whiter and more male than the 2012 voters who re-elected President Barack Obama. House Republicans have exacted every edge possible in reapportionment, leaving only about 74 competitive seats in play in 2014. It would take a wave election to unseat their majority.

Worse, these are not normal times. For all the offensive extremism of the Tea Party-dominated GOP, there will be one overriding issue in 2014, just as in 2010: the economy. There the Democrats are likely to be in big trouble.

Voters tend to blame the party in power – the president’s party – for the economy. And the 2014 economy is likely to be lousy. Americans are struggling with falling wages and growing insecurity. More than 20 million people are still in need of full-time work. Most of the jobs now being created have lower pay and benefits than those that were lost.

The economy slowed at the end of 2012 even before Americans were hit with the end of the payroll tax holiday, which will cut an estimated $1,000 out of the typical family’s annual paycheck, and the sequester cuts that are likely to be more disruptive than expected. Growth is expected to slow to 1.5 percent this year, according to the Congressional Budget Office. (CBO predicts a rebound in 2014 – but CBO always assumes the economy will rebound in the out years).  The richest 1 percent captured a stunning 121 percent of the income growth in 2009 and 2010, while 99 percent actually lost ground. That is only likely to get worse, not better, as growth slows.

The Democratic base is likely to be demoralized and disenchanted. Obama’s emerging coalition – the rising American electorate – is sinking together.

Blacks, Latinos, the young and the single and divorced have all lost ground over the last decade, compared to the country as a whole. Young people carry more debt. Blacks have double the unemployment rate as whites. Women have 36 percent of the wealth of men. African-American women have lost more jobs since the recovery began than they lost in the recovery. Meanwhile, Republican governors across the country continue their relentless assault on labor.

Democrats risk replaying the 2010 midterm debacle. When the Democrats gained control of the White House and Congress after 2008, they inherited an economy in free-fall. The recovery act, emergency action by the Federal Reserve and heavy lifting to prop up the financial sector staunched the collapse.

Obama, seeking to rise above partisan bickering, chose not to pound on the failure of conservative ideology. Worse, by the fall of 2009, he turned to deficit reduction, espousing what became the Bowles-Simpson Commission and calling for a freeze in government salaries in his 2010 State of the Union Address. His campaign team geared up to sell “recovery summer.” With mass unemployment, falling wages and millions of homeowners underwater, Democrats went into the election of 2010 seeking to tout what recovery we had. They were decimated. (more…)

Bill Maher squared in what he views as a giant hypocrisy in the Republican party on the issue of cutting spending.

By Robert Creamer
Political organizer, strategist and author

There is a real, looming danger for the Republican Party — and it goes well beyond the Party’s failure to use the latest digital or analytic tools.

The dilemma facing the Republican Party today can be traced to the massive social changes that erupted in the 1960′s. The civil rights movement, women’s rights, and ultimately the gay rights struggle all spawned a backlash among many traditional elements of society. Sometimes it was called the “culture war.”

The GOP used the “Southern Strategy” to harness the fears of many white southern voters and to transform the Democratic “solid South” into a sea of red.

The “Moral Majority,” anti-abortion movement and religious right all tapped into that backlash. Anti-immigrant groups were born and some pastors railed against homosexuals. Even groups like the NRA used the sense that traditional values were under attack as a means of mobilizing voters to oppose efforts to curb gun violence. Appeals for “smaller government” often had their real roots in attacks on the Federal Government’s enforcement of civil rights laws, and “welfare” for African Americans.

For a number of decades the GOP establishment successfully used these social issues to attract voters whose economic interests were really aligned with the progressive policies of Democrats. Social issues became “wedge issues” that split apart the potential Democratic base.

Author Tom Frank, in his classic book What’s the Matter with Kansas, explored in detail how that process worked in one Midwestern state.

In fact, back in the 1980′s someone said that the Democratic Party was a coalition of rich people who hated the Moral Majority and poor people who hated Mutual of Omaha, and the Republican Party was a coalition of rich people who hated the AFL-CIO and poor people who hated the ACLU.

Here’s the problem for the Republican Party — from the standpoint of national public opinion the culture war is over — and they lost, particularly among young people.

Now I realize that there are still major active rear guard actions being fought in states across the nation aimed at limiting contraception and abortion rights, restricting the rights of African Americans to vote, forcing immigrants to “self deport”, and restricting gay marriage. But these struggles are, in fact, “rear guard” actions.

According to the Washington Post poll, in 2006 opponents of gay marriage outnumbered supporters almost two to one — 58 percent to 36 percent. Now the numbers are reversed, 58 percent for and 36 percent against. Among voters 18 to 29 years of age support soars to 81 percent. (more…)

By Dave Johnson
Fellow, Campaign for America's Future

They say that Washington, D.C., and the major media are “wired for Republicans.” Steve Benen explains how this works,

… week in and week out, this debate is dominated by voices from only one party.

A couple of years ago, Josh Marshall talked about how the Washington establishment is simply “wired” for Republicans. It’s GOP ideas that get attention; it’s GOP talking points that get internalized; it’s GOP voices that get aired.

Wednesday the Progressive Caucus released their “Back To Work” budget. Rep. Keith Ellison, the Progressive Caucus co-chairman, explains the budget in this interview.

This morning Bill Scher asked, Will The Media Cover The “Back To Work” Budget?

For the past 24 hours, the media has dutifully reported on the budget proposal from Rep. Paul Ryan, even though everyone knows it is extremely unlikely to become law.

That’s fine; it’s not the media’s job to short-circuit debate. It’s the media’s job to report factually on the ideas proposed in Congress, so the public can weigh in before Congress votes.

Today, another budget will be proposed by the Congressional Progressive Caucus, the “Back to Work” budget. It probably won’t become law either. But it deserves every bit of media attention that Ryan’s budget gets.

Ryan/Republican Budget — Intense News Coverage

This week the Republican “Ryan Budget” was released. It just absolutely guts government, guts safety net, privatizes Medicare, guts Medicare — and give HUGE tax cut to the wealthy.

As I write this Google News yields more than 72,000 stories. (Search term: “Ryan budget” in quotes so you don’t get results for anything with the two words in it.) Washington Post, NY Times, CBS News, NPR, Politico, etc… (more…)

Jackie Tortora
AFL-CIO Blog/Social Media Manager

It’s back. The Ryan–GOP budget that gives seniors “coupons” to pay for health care and guts Medicaid and public investment to enrich millionaires and billionaires was once again proposed by the House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.).

Less than six months ago, voters rejected the Ryan–Romney agenda of more prosperity for the super wealthy at the expense of the rest of America’s working families, yet Ryan can’t seem to resist this austerity plan. And this time, the Ryan–GOP budget is “on steroids.”

Ryan and the Republican leadership are demanding outrageously lower tax rates for Wall Street and the wealthiest 2%—and they want to pay for them by voucherizing Medicare (giving seniors essentially “coupons”), cutting Medicaid benefits, increasing Medicare premiums for middle-income beneficiaries (means testing) and essential services that working people depend on.

The Ryan–GOP budget would cut spending by $5.7 trillion—devastating programs like child nutrition, cancer research and transportation and shrinking government to the size it was in the 1950s.

The Ryan GOP Budget would increase tax subsidies for corporations that send jobs overseas, lower taxes for the wealthiest people and lower the corporate income tax rate.The cuts in the GOP budget would slow down our economic growth and kill hundreds of thousands of jobs just as our economy is trying to turn the corner. This same kind of austerity is what led to Europe’s slow growth and shrinking economy. Instead of calling for the sensible repeal of the sequester, Ryan would double down on harmful cuts to lifelines that build up the middle class.  (more…)

Jeff Bryant
Editor, Education Opportunity Network

It’s a popular analogy among fans of the political game to call Republicans the “Daddy Party” and assign “Mommy Party” to Democratic folk.

The source of this analogy is generally understood to be George Lakoff, a professor of linguistics who wrote the book “Moral Politics” in 1996. This book postulated that Americans tend to comprehend governance through the metaphor of the family, with conservatives preferring a “Strict Father morality” – which values discipline, hard work, and self-reliance – and liberals having a “Nurturant Parent morality” in which people are better off by helping each other.

Aside from the fact that interpreting “nurturant” as “Mommy” seems more than a bit sexist, the analogy has endured, with Republicans especially loving the hunky manliness of being seen as “Daddy.”

But what if Daddy is a deadbeat?

That’s certainly a reasonable conclusion to draw in light of Republican’s refusal to negotiate a halt to massive budget cuts – called “the sequester” – that began on Friday.

It’s been widely reported that some of the hardest hit by the budget cuts will be children:

• Prenatal children will feel the brunt of $353 million in cuts to nutrition, care, and education for their pregnant moms.
• An estimated 30,000 children in low-income families will lose access to child care assistance due to $121.5 million in cuts.
• 70,000 fewer children will have access to early childhood education due to $424 million in cuts to Head Start.
• Children in K-12 schools who happen to be poor or who have learning disabilities will be especially hurt by $725 million in cuts to Title I and $600 million to special education.

Deadbeat dads are famous for withholding financial support from children. So Republicans seem to fit the mold here.

Of course, Republicans are going to deny this. Conservatives are going to claim the cuts aren’t that big of a deal – or are even actually a good thing. But Democrats need to call them out for their negligence and stop playing the role of the “ineffectual mom” who fails to confront the harm being done to children.

Deadbeat Dad – Who, Me?

A cornerstone of being a deadbeat dad is to deny you’re one.

That was all too apparent during the sequester negotiations as Republicans stretched credibility to amazing limits in their denials of deadbeatism.

Republicans continued to withhold financial support for the nation’s children by claiming, bizarrely, that any government spending on children now – when they actually need services for their proper development – somehow robs them of their future.

Anyone with at least a casual knowledge of the research on the benefits of early childhood education knows that denying children access to that opportunity will likely have more detrimental impact on their future than any increase in the federal debt that might result from providing those services.

In one amazing feat of deflection, Republican Rep. Martha Roby of Alabama (tip to deadbeat dads: always get a female to speak for you) blamed Obama for the cuts while making the case that the sequester should still go through with different, “more responsible” cuts.

Blaming cuts to kids on “Mommy” Obama is more than a stretch. The origins of sequestration, as Mother Jones’ Kevin Drum explained, can be traced to Ronald Reagan, who ironically, may have also coined the term “deadbeat dad.”

And while it’s true that the Obama administration put sequestration on the table during the legendary Grand Bargain negotiations, Republican leaders in the House, notably Reps. Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan, made sequestration the default by refusing any other reasonable option.

So Republican denials of any responsibility for the sequester’s impact on children are acutely hollow. As my colleague Richard Eskow observed, “Congress did this.” And with Republicans controlling the House, where appropriations in Congress start, they own it. (more…)