A decade’s worth of cuts in federal aid combined with states moving to copy Bush administration tax cuts have led to states filling revenue shortfalls with regressive tax policies that disproportionately affect the poorest Americans. According to “Who Pays?” a report issued in November by the Institute on Taxation & More…
While the national unemployment rate of 10.2 percent is a sobering reminder of the depth of this recession and the protracted timeline a recovery will take, the challenges posed by long-term unemployment are far greater.
“We are breaking every record post-Great Depression on long-term unemployment,” said Heidi Shierholz, an More…
In signing the Defense Authorization Act, which, among other things, amends the laws governing military commissions, President Obama confirmed Wednesday that he plans to keep the controversial military commissions alive. The effect is to deny at least some suspected terrorists — now called “unprivileged enemy More…
After months of leaks and speculation about its content, the Department of Justice yesterday produced a declassified version of the 2004 CIA inspector general report that provides details of the CIA’s investigations of certain detainees in the Bush administration’s “war on terror.” At almost the same More…
It’s been exactly one year since then-Attorney General Michael Mukasey proposed in a speech at the American Enterprise Institute that Congress pass legislation declaring a new, expanded war with al-Qaeda and the Taliban — thereby granting the president the authority to detain indefinitely members of those groups anywhere in More…
Amid the posturing by senators on both sides of the aisle, the outlines of a long-running debate over the role of judges in the American legal system emerged on the first day of the confirmation hearing of Judge Sonia Sotomayor.
Whether judges are neutral, “objective” arbiters of the law or More…
With a growing number of college grads finding themselves crushed under the weight of their student loan debt, the Obama administration is considering action that could derail the entire student loan industry. Groups who monitor campaign contributions, though, worry that the strength of the industry could block any shot at More…
In a keynote speech at the opening of the West Point Military Academy’s Center for the Rule of Law last night, Attorney General Eric Holder made a point of breaking with the Bush administration by affirming the United States’ commitment to international law and acknowledging that the United States More…
Americans are more conscious of debt than ever. Feeling burned by bank overdraft fees of $30 or more, or by credit-card interest rates that can top 25 percent, a growing number of consumers are turning to prepaid, reloadable “cash cards.” These cards have confidence-boosting names like “READYdebit” and “More…
It seemed like a good idea at the time. Last October, the Bush administration unveiled a plan aimed at helping homeowners facing foreclosure called Hope For Homeowners. Earlier this month, there was consternation and disbelief across the political and economic spectrum when it was revealed that the program More…
rss