After the Laughter, Grim GOP Numbers

While reporters hooted at the comically simplistic charts and lack of details in the House Republican leadership’s budget plan, the green eyeshade types at Citizen’s for Tax Justice crunched the numbers (PDF). They conclude that a quarter of all households, most of them poor, would pay more More…

Obama Meets the $66 Million Gang

The 15 banking CEOs who met with President Obama today in Washington head financial institutions that spent at least $45 million on lobbying in 2008, and gave $21.2 million in political contributions in 2007-2008, according to OpenSecrets.org, the Center for Responsive Politics’ Website that tracks money in politics.

Behind the Reconciliation Debate, a Key Health Care Demand

When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told Bloomberg today that “it’s absolutely essential that we come out of this year with a substantial health-care reform,” and “the best prospect for that to happen is to do it under reconciliation” — the process by which legislation More…

To the Barricades Against Cap-and-Trade!

While major corporations and utility companies have accommodated themselves to the reality of climate change and the necessity of doing something about it, the irrepressible Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) wants to pick up a gun. Her target: President Obama’s proposal to create a cap-and-trade system to curb carbon emissions, More…

What the Exxon Valdez Does and Doesn’t Mean

Today is the 20th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill which left 11 million gallons of black petroleum deposited on a pristine Alaska coastline. The Daily Green looks at the sorry aftermath, including how Exxon, thanks to the Supreme Court, paid a penalty that was less than one More…

Wall Street Threatens a Sit-Down Strike

While Wall Street likes the Obama administration’s financial rescue plan and liberal economists Brad DeLong (pro) and Paul Krugman (anti) go head to head over its merits, The Wall Street Journal’s lead story today tells how the populist impulses of a Democratic White House have been More…

The Latest Positive Sign for Health Care (Or Is It?)

Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) told The Associated Press Friday that health care reform, possibly including near universal coverage, will happen this year.

“It will not be a perfect bill, it will not be a complete answer,” said the stalwart Wyoming conservative. “But it will get a lot done. It More…

Health Care Choices Get Clearer

Two bills introduced in Congress recently stake out rival positions on a key issue related to health care reform. Which approach ultimately prevails will help determine whether the pharmaceutical industry maintains the support that Pfizer CEO Jeffrey Kindler voiced Wednesday for President Obama’s plan’s to overhaul the More…

Two More Signs the Coal Industry Is Caving to Reality

While the coal industry lobby in Washington seeks to rebrand its product as “clean,” and the fate of climate change legislation in Congress remains hostage to partisan maneuvering, two recent decisions by local power companies show a lower carbon future slowly taking shape.

Hardball Politics Yields Bipartisanship on Climate Change

In what The Huffington Post’s Ryan Grim calls a “big boost for climate change,”  Sens. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) and John McCain (D-Ariz.) today endorsed the idea of  ”cap-and-trade” system to reduced carbon emissions. When President Obama offered his proposal for a cap and trade system last month, even Republicans More…