The Daily Change

Decades after the fall of the Soviet Union, it appears that conservatives are ready to embrace Communism.

What else could explain the spree of leading conservatives — reacting to historic strikes by fed up workers — pledging to shop at Wal-Mart?

The company gets a large share of the goods it sells to consumers from the Chinese. In fact, one estimate finds that Wal-Mart alone is responsible for 11 percent of the U.S. trade deficit with China.

Here’s some of the leading conservatives who are making this de facto pledge to support Communist China:

Saul Anuzis, the former chairman of the Michigan Republican Party who is ironically serving as the “national chairman for the Save American Jobs Project on the American Solutions team”:

Dan Gainor, theAi??VP of Business and Culture for the Media Research Center and a frequent Fox News.com contributor. (We’re not sure why believing in God is supposed to make progressives angry.):

A Tea Party group in San Diego is urging its members to perform a “buycott” of Wal-Mart and to support the store because unions are “trying to take over” the chain. Posters at the far-right discussion board Free Republic are also pledging solidarity. One writes, “As much as I dislike shopping on any day, if these thugs strike my local walmart I will be forced to shop there on Black Friday in solidarity with freedom loving people.”

One has to wonder how supporting a corporation that gets much of its goods from a country where people are oppressed by a totalitarian government is in any way supporting freedom.

The …

On Black Friday, there are expected to be up to a thousand strikes and protests at Wal-Mart stores — a result of poor wages and benefits and union-busting at the company.

On the Today Show this morning, Wal-Mart Chief Merchandising and Marking Officer Duncan Mac Naughton appeared to discuss the strike. At one point, host Savannah Guthrie asked him if he could guarantee that there would be no retaliation against workers who protested. He dodged the question, and when she followed up, he said they would deal with each case individually:

GUTHRIE: If someone does picket who’s an employee of your store, will they face retaliation, will they be fired, will they see their hours cut down.

DUNCAN MAC NAUGHTON: Savannah, we have a really open culture, it’s all about listening to our associates. It’s based in integrity, with respect to the individual. Our operators and our store managers always want to listen to the concerns of our associates, and we do that all the time, we’ll treat each case —

GUTHRIE: So there’s no ramification if somebody protests?

DUNCAN MAC NAUGHTON: We’ll treat each case individually, Savannah.

Watch it:

Wal-Mart has already been caught telling workers in private meetings that there may be ramifications if any of them go on strike or attend protests.

Click here to find an upcoming Wal-Mart strike or protest near you.

Yesterday, right-wing House Republican Allen West finally conceded in his race against Democrat Patrick Murphy. West had made himself notorious for his anti-Muslim attitude. He argued that Islam is “not a faith” but a “totalitarian theocratic political ideology,” and that terrorism is inherent to Islam. He even said that Muslim congressman Keith Ellison (D) of “represent(ing) the antithesis of the principles upon which this country was established.”

But in an America that grows increasingly progressive and tolerant, bigotry can be a major electoral liability. Murphy’s margin of victory is roughly 1,900 votes. I talked to Imran Siddiqui, who is a Board Member for the organization Empowering Motivating Educating Resourceful Grassroots Entities, which registers Muslim voters in the area. He mentioned that his organization had 2,500 Muslim voters in their database in the district and that they witnessed 80 percent turnout. That means roughly 2,000 Muslim-American votes — a little bit higher than Murphy’s margin of victory.

West’s loss should be a lesson to all those in Congress who would try to use bigotry to their political advantage. Sometimes the targets of your ire get out and vote, and when they do, you lose.

Join PCCC’s Take Back Democracy campaign.

The Republican Party has completely embraced money in politics. Its leaders refuse to even support campaign finance disclosure laws that they once supported.

In an interview with radio network WUIS, incoming Illinois Republican Congressman-elect Rodney Davis indicated that he would be in favor of disclosure of donors to outside electoral groups and even support spending limits:

Rodney Davis is the only Republican among the six men and women who will soon be Illinoisai??i?? newest Congressmen. He also won with the narrowest margin of victory. Even so, Davis says he has something in common with his fellow legislative freshmen.

DAVIS: ai???We all had to withstand a barrage of false and misleading ads.ai???

Thatai??i??s in part because of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling (PDF) that allowed unlimited amounts of money, often from secret sources, to flood the airwaves with attack ads. The case was called Citizens United.

DAVIS: ai???I think all us that have been impacted by Citizens United ai??i?? and impacted during this election cycle, by spending that we canai??i??t control ai??i?? weai??i??re all going to have a say in what happens in the future, and I think something needs to be done.ai???

Davis, who is from Taylorville, says he thinks the identity of donors should be public. And he says heai??i??d consider supporting limits on the amount of money outside groups can raise or spend. But thatai??i??s just the kind of law the Supreme Court overturned in the Citizens United case.

The question is, will Davis stick to his stated statements to reform the campaign finance system, or will he defer to House Speaker John Boehner, who totally opposes all reforms?

It’s time to reclaim our democracy from Big Money donors. Click here to join our …

A screenshot of the Fix the Debt campaign’s logo.

The so-called “Fix The Debt” campaign is trying to enact the Bowles-Simpson plan to cut Social Security benefits while lowering the corporate tax rate. Even though Social Security doesn’t add anything to the deficit, these austerity hawks say they support this plan in order to battle U.S. debt.

But if this group is just so passionately concerned with the debt, why did it hire public relations and lobbying firms that work for corporations who bilk U.S. taxpayers out of billions? Here’s a rundown of some of the firms the group has hired:

DCI Group: This D.C.-based lobbying shop has had clients that include Microsoft — which has dodged billions in taxes by shifting assets overseas — and Exxon Mobil, which benefits from $600 million in annual special tax breaks.
Glover Park Group: Glover Park offers its services to JP Morgan Chase, which received $94.7 billion as part of the federal government’s bank bailouts. Glover Park also works for the American Bankers Association, which represents bailed-out banks, and defense contractor giant Lockheed Martin. UnitedHealthCare — which fights for its unnecessary share of federal dollars spent on health care — Ai??is another Glover client.
Dewey Square Group: Dewey Square Group has worked for the bailed-out bank Bank of America and various biotech firms that net government contracts.
Burson-Marsteller (B-M):Ai??The force behind Fix The Debt’s “Got Debt” ad campaign, B-M does not publicly disclose its public relations clients, but various trade industry media has reported that its clients include the war profiteer Blackwater USA and numerous other corporations that get rich off of taxpayers.

Keep in mind that this is a small summary of some of the clients …

A series of unprecedented strikes and walk-outs by Wal-Mart workers is expected to culminate in up to a thousand labor actions this week during Black Friday sales.

Although the majority of strikes have yet to occur, these historic protests are already making an impact on the way the company responds to public pressure.

If you go to the corporation’s main public relations Twitter account, @WalmartNewsroom, you’ll find a flurry of tweets from yesterday defending the company against labor criticism:

Here’s what makes this even more interesting. I used the Twitter search services Snap Bird and Socialsearching.info to search for the word “union” among the Wal-Mart account’s 1,361 tweets. The word only appeared once — yesterday, in the series of tweets seen above. Walk-outs by brave Wal-Mart workers have for the first time forced the company to publicly acknowledge unions on Twitter.

This is a small victory, but likely a sign of victories to come. Click here to find an upcoming Wal-Mart strike or protest near you. The more people who attend these events this week, the greater the chance we have of forcing Wal-Mart to treat its workers better.

You’d think that Goldman Sachs — the mega-bank that took $10 billion of taxpayer money — would show a little bit of humility in the wake of the financial crisis. You’d be wrong.

In an interview with CBS News, Lloyd Blankfein, the Goldman CEO who famously said he was doing “God’s work,” said that Social Security benefits must be cut by raising the retirement age and Medicare and Medicaid must be “contained” as well:

PELLEY: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid?

BLANKFEIN: You can look at history of these things, and Social Security wasn’t devised to be a system that supported you for a 30-year retirement after a 25-year career. … So there will be things that, you know, the retirement age has to be changed, maybe some of the benefits have to be affected, maybe some of the inflation adjustments have to be revised. But in general, entitlements have to be slowed down and contained.

PELLEY: Because we can’t afford them going forward?

BLANKFEIN: Because we can’t afford them.

Let’s get something clear. Blankfein made these comments in the context of what should happen in budget negotiations related to the debt. Social Security does not add one penny to the deficit. And it’s fully solvent until 2033 — it would be fully solvent well into the 22nd century if we simply lifted the payroll tax cap.

Watch it:

Instead of letting banking tycoons guide our public policy,we should look instead to Senator-elect Elizabeth Warren (who Goldman Sachs spent big to try to defeat in the recent election).

Warren has an alternative, truly balanced approach to tackling the deficit. During a campaign debate last month, she laid out a popular, credible vision for dealing with the deficit: cut back on wasteful military and agriculture subsidy spending, and make …

(Photo credit: Blog For Choice)

New Jersey’s Republican Governor Chris Christie has certainly acted gracefully in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, cooperating with President Obama to take care of his own people and drawing the ire of much of the far-right elements of his own party in the process.

But it’s important for Americans to remember that Christie — who is widely believed to have presidential aspirations in 2016 — is not a moderate Republican. During his time in office, he has pursued a staunchly right-wing agenda that has taken aim at workers, the environment, education, and other areas of American life.

Here’s five reasons Christie is not a moderate:

He Has Moved To Crush Unions: If one thing marks Christie’s tenure, it is his hostility to organized labor. In 2011, Christie “signed landmark legislation that increases pension and health contributions paid by a half-million teachers, police and other public workers and removes the issue from collective bargaining for four years” — undermining labor rights. During his speech at the Republican National Convention, he derided teachers unions: “[Democrats] believe in pitting unions against teachers, educators against parents, and lobbyists against children. They believe in teachers’ unions. We believe in teachers.”
He Killed Marriage Equality: Remember that Christie vetoed a bill that would’ve given gays and lesbians full marriage rights.
He Has Rapidly Advanced Education Privatization In The State: In 2010, Chris Christie (R) slashed $820 million in school spending, a cut so extreme that a judge ruled it unconstitutional. At the same time, he has pushed for hundreds of millions of dollars in school vouchers which would transfer taxpayer dollars to private schools.
He Ended New Jersey’s Involvement In Battling Global Warming: Despite his strong leadership in the wake of Sandy, Christie undermined …

A recent anti-austerity protest in London. (Photo credit: Flickr user Duncan Harris)

Deficit fever has gripped Washington, and a number of special interest groups and right-wing lawmakers are demanding that Congress dramatically cut government investment in the economy, even if it harms job growth.

350 economists have signed an open letter saying that we should invest in our economy and grow our way out of the deficit — not enact austerity programs that would cost us jobs:

The government should invest in areas vital to our economy ai??i?? to repair crumbling infrastructure, to build 21st-century smart-grid, public transportation and renewable energy systems, and to create public and private sector jobs. We should also help states prevent layoffs of teachers and other public servants, make early care and higher education more affordable, and create public service jobs throughout the nation. It can do so by borrowing at record low interest rates. We can also stimulate recovery without increasing deficits by increasing taxes on the wealthy and pumping the proceeds directly into the economy. […]Ai??We need jobs first. With recovery, deficit reduction will come of its own accord thanks to increased revenues in an improving economy. That was the case in the three decades after World War II ai??i?? when the debt to GDP ratio declined from over 120 percent of GDP in 1945 to under 30 percent by 1978.

For the full letter and the list of economists who signed it, click here.

We don’t have to guess what austerity would do to our economy — we have real-world experiment. Austerity in Europe has led to skyrocketing unemployment, and workers across the continent are on strike to reverse these policies.

We shouldn’t face the same fate.

Right-wing politicians and their corporate lobbyist backers want to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits as part of an upcoming “Grand Bargain.” Their goal is to cut social spending and investments in middle class America to pay for corporate tax cuts and more tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.

But it’s impossible to talk about the budget deficit without talking about the military budget. It has the largest share of discretionary spending, and we spend more on our military than almost the rest of the world combined.

Even Senator Tom Coburn — a hard-right Republican from Oklahoma — knows that much of this Pentagon spending is wasteful and completely unrelated to our modern security needs. He released a report a few days ago that laid out some of this wasteful spending. Here are a few highlights, from the Washington Times:

ai??? $300,000 spent by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research to fund Brown University’s research into archaeopteryx, the 150-million-year-old early bird, in which the researchers determined the creature likely had black feathers.

ai??? An Office of Naval Research research project that helped spawn Caffeine Zone 2, an iPhone application that tells people how to schedule their coffee breaks.

ai??? $1.5 million to develop a special new roll-up beef jerky, which Mr. Coburn said was funded by taking money out of a weapons program.

ai??? $100,000 for a 2011 workshop on interstellar space travel that included a session entitled “Did Jesus die for Klingons too?” The session probed how Christian theology would apply in the event of the discovery of aliens.

We can’t talk about the budget deficit without looking at the wasteful Pentagon budget.

In one week, Wal-Mart workers in as many as a thousand stores plan to hold protests walk-outs and other actions to disrupt the company’s busiest shopping day: Black Friday. These workers are fed up of low wages and the high level of intimidation that the company has been using against those who dare to organize.

Late yesterday, Wal-Mart filed an “unfair labor practice charge” against the main union helping organize workers to take labor actions:

Wal-Mart late on Thursday filed an unfair labor practice charge against the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, or UFCW, asking the National Labor Relations Board to halt what the retailer says are unlawful attempts to disrupt its business.

“Walmart is grasping at straws,” replied UFCW Communications Director Jill Cashen. “There’s nothing in the law that gives an employer the right to silence workers and citizens.”

Needless to say, it is the height of irony for Wal-Mart to allege unfair labor practices. This is the company, after all, that shut down entire stores because workers unionized.

We’ll continue to keep you up to date on the upcoming Wal-Mart labor actions. Here’s a full list of Wal-Mart stores where protests and walk-outs are planned next week.

Bold progressive Alan Grayson will be returning to Congress in January.

Last night, Grayson appeared on The Young Turks and pushed back on demands from corporate-backed groups like the Campaign To Fix The Debt that Congress cut Social Security or Medicare benefits as part of a “Grand Bargain.”

ai???The Democratic Party should be united,ai??? said Grayson. ai???We are the party that created Social Security. We are the party that created Medicare. We should stand behind it, and we should protect it. Itai??i??s amazingly popular among the voters. Why should we shoot ourselves in the head by saying weai??i??re going to end these programs, or even cut back these programs, when we created them, and the voters love them?ai???

Watch it:

Remember that it was thanks to the efforts of Progressive Change Campaign Committee members — we made 216,577 calls for him and raised $56,684 from 5,429 donations — that Grayson will be returning to Congress.

(Photo credit: Flickr user Monochrome)

Wal-Mart, America’s largest private employer and one of the worst union-busters in the country, is facing a worker rebellion at its stores and suppliers nationwide.

Earlier this week, workers at Los Angeles Wal-Mart warehouses and Seattle stores walked off the job. The Nation’s Josh Eidelson reports today that workers in Dallas joined these strikers:

This morning, at 10 AM local time, Dallas Walmart store workers are headed back to the picket line. Theirs is the latest in aAi??string of strikesAi??that hit a California warehouse Wednesday and Seattle stores on Thursday. Thereai??i??s more where that came from: On a Thursday call with reporters, union-backed Walmart worker groups said to expect a thousand strikes or demonstrations spread over nine days, culminating in an unprecedented array of ai???Black Fridayai??? disruptions. That news follows a major legal settlement by a Walmart contractor that organizers credited to a 2011 sit-in at Hersheyai??i??s Chocolate.

We’ll keep you up to date as we approach Black Friday, which is expected to be the largest day of strikes in Wal-Mart’s history.

UPDATE: The Corporate Action Network has set up a page for Americans to ai???adopt a Wal-Martai??? to show up and support workers who will be walking out on Black Friday.

The Wall Street Journal CEO Council is an event that brings together elite corporate leaders, journalists, and politicians. It is usually only lightly covered by the media, so the public ends up not seeing much of what goes on.

We’ve obtained a transcript of the event’s dinner meeting that took place earlier this week. At the meeting, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), making conversation with former Senate Minority Leader and current corporate lobbyist Trent Lott, suggests that President Obama should “courageously” cut Medicare by raising the eligibility age in order to combat the deficit:

LIEBERMAN: I’d say that sometime soon– both privately to Speaker Boehner and — and also publicly, he — he should– make clear that he’s prepared– to– to change some of — Medicare status quo. […] But I think the President will have to make clear he’ll either support some– well, for instance, in– beginning to increase the age of eligibility. […] Incidentally, increasing the age of eligibility to be more close (LAUGH) to the actual age at which people are living, as opposed to the age– that they were living in 1965, when Medicare was adopted, the average age It’s now closing in on 80 — saves a lotta money– every year. The president has to show the public, and the Republicans, who he’s asking to support higher revenue, or tax reform, that he’s prepared and Democrats are prepared to deal– courageously with– entitlements.

To be clear — Americans as a whole are not living longer. White-collar workers are, but blue-collar workers have barely seen any increase in life expectancy.

Raising the Medicare age “to 67 would cause an estimated net increase of $5.6 billion in out-of-pocket health insurance costs for beneficiaries who would have been otherwise covered by Medicare.”

What could Lieberman’s …

Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND)

In an interview with the Washington Post’s Suzy Khimm, North Dakota Democratic Senator Kent Conrad said that it would be “fair and balanced” to raise the Medicare age, which would require a huge cut in benefits to American seniors:

KHIMM: Obama has already suggested raising the retirement age for Medicare. Should that be the starting point for thinking about entitlement savings?

I wouldnai??i??t want that to be the starting point, but as part of an overall package, thatai??i??s balanced and fair. Given that we now have exchanges to purchase insurance because of the presidentai??i??s health-care reform law, it makes it much more acceptable, much more reasonable, over a long period of time to gradually increase the age given that people are living so much longer.

As ThinkProgress’s Igor Volsky writes, raising the Medicare age would create an enormous burden on seniors:

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, raising the eligibility age to 67 would cause an estimated net increase of $5.6 billion in out-of-pocket health insurance costs for beneficiaries who would have been otherwise covered by Medicare. Seniors in Medicare Part B would also face a 3 percent premium increase, the study found, since younger and healthier enrollees would be routed out of Medicare and into private insurance. Beneficiaries in health care reformai??i??s exchanges would see a similar spike in premiums with the addition of the older population.

Medicare isn’t the driver of our budget deficits — two wars, tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, and Wall Street’s recession are responsible for most of our debt. It’s simply unfair to ask American seniors to pay for a problem they did not cause.

Senator-elect Elizabeth Warren has an alternative, truly “balanced” approach. During a campaign debate last month, she laid out a popular, credible …

A number of right-wing politicians and corporate CEOs are demanding that Congress and the President agree to cuts to Social Security along with reductions in the corporate tax rate as part of a “Grand Bargain.”

These conservatives who are making this demand should heed the words of their icon, former President Ronald Reagan. In the 1984 presidential debate, Reagan — the most right-wing president in his generation — debunked the lie that Social Security adds to the debt:

REAGAN: Social Security, let’s lay it to rest once in for all…Social Security has nothing to do with the deficit. Social Security is totally funded by the payroll tax levied on employer and employee. If you reduce the outgo of Social Security, that money would not go into the general fund to reduce the deficit. It would go into the Social Security trust fund. So Social Security has nothing to do with balancing the budget or erasing or lowering the deficit.

Watch it:

If only John Boehner, Mitch McConnell and other Social Security foes would heed the words of this Republican they so often praise.

Want to help fight for a progressive approach to the deficit that doesn’t involve cutting Social Security?

Senator-elect Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has an alternative, truly “balanced approach” to tackling the deficit. During a campaign debate last month, she laid out a popular vision for dealing with the deficit: cut back on wasteful military and agriculture subsidy spending, and make the rich pay their fair share with higher tax rates. Watch Warren explain:

Show your support for Warrenai??i??s “balanced approach” by clicking here to add your name as a citizen supporter of her vision.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL)

Earlier today, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) — who serves as the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee — appeared on MNSBC to discuss upcoming budget negotiations. After being probed by the television anchor about cuts to Medicare and Social Security benefits, Wasserman Schultz said that “what we don’t need to do, I canAi??tell you, is cut benefits”:

TAMRON HALL: How muchAi??leeway will the left give theAi??president regarding entitlementAi??reform?Ai?? He met with union leadersAi??yesterday.Ai??they have the president’s backAi??at this point but where does theAi??balance come from?

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Well, it is going to beAi??difficult and challenging, butAi??anything worth doing is worthAi??doing well and together. You know, we have shownAi??repeatedly that when the twoAi??parties come together like Tip O’Neill and Ronald Reagan on Social Security reform we canAi??add years of solvency and toAi??medicare and do it and increaseAi??benefits like with Obamacare and we need both sides to beAi??willing.Ai?? I know the Democrats areAi??willing. President Obama’s willing to sitAi??down at the table. What we don’t need to do, I canAi??tell you, is cut benefits. That’s something that I don’tAi??think is the first thing thatAi??should be put forward. We have a lot of opportunity toAi??continue to make reforms inAi??medicare, make sure we build inAi??more efficiencies to the programAi??so we can add the years ofAi??solvency.

TAMRON HALL: What about eligibility ageAi??change?

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Well, eligibility age changeAi??would fall in the realm ofAi??benefit cuts. We need to focus like I saidAi??first on making sure we build inAi??more efficiencies to theAi??program.Ai??we have been able to from ObamaAi??care make sure that with thatAi??$716 billion in savings plowedAi??in to waste, fraud and abuse –Ai??fighting waste, fraud and abuseAi??we have collected more than $10Ai??billion in fraudulent medicareAi??payments and we can make moreAi??progress in that area, as well.

Watch it:

Wasserman Schultz’s opposition to benefits cuts …

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)

As part of an event with the Wall Street Journal and corporate leaders, Rep. Chris Van Hollen (MD) — a leading Democrat and ranking member of the House Budget Committee — indicated that he thinks cuts to Social Security and Medicare benefits should be part of the upcoming deficit negotiations:

On Capitol Hill, it isn’t clear how strenuously Democrats will resist cutting entitlements. Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D., Md.) said he and others were open to changes as long as they were done in a measured way and were part of deal that included tax increases. Mr. Van Hollen also said changing Social Security and increasing the Medicare eligibility age above 65 should be part of negotiations.

“I’m willing to consider all of these ideas as part of an overall plan,” Mr. Van Hollen said Tuesday at the Journal’s CEO Council.

American voters were very clear during last week’s election: they do not want any cuts to Social Security and Medicare benefits (and keep in mind Social Security adds nothing to the deficit, anyway).

Click here to call Van Hollen’s office and tell him to reject cuts to Medicare and Social Security benefits.

Congress will soon begin deliberating on a debt deal, and many on the right and their corporate backers are exploiting the situation to argue for a “Grand Bargain” that would cut both Social Security and the corporate tax rate.

In an interview with a local television station, Wisconsin Senator-elect Tammy Baldwin (D) argued against including Social Security in these discussions, saying that it “shouldn’t even be on the table”:

BALDWIN: With regard to Social Security, Social Security is in no way contributing to our deficit and debt, and shouldn’t even be on the table for the discussion about where we move forward from here.

Watch it:

Indeed, Social Security is a self-funded program Ai??that isAi??currently projected to beAi??fully solventAi??until the year 2037. After that, it is expected to be able to pay out 75 percent of benefits until 2084, which basically equals full benefits, once inflation isAi??accounted for. There is no threat of the program running out of money any time soon.Ai??Ai??We could make it solvent far into the future if weAi??simply raised the payroll tax capAi??ai??i?? meaning that income above $106,000 would be taxed just like income below that amount is. It does not add to the deficit nor take funds from the general treasury.

Recall that Progressive Change Campaign Committee members were integral to Baldwin’s election. We made 92,000 calls for her and also raised more than $55,000 for her campaign.

Want to stay up to date on the fight for a balanced approach to the deficit and economy? Sign up for to get e-mail updates using the form above or below.

Show your support for a progressive alternative to the “Grand Bargain” that cuts Social Security and Medicare by clicking here to add your name as a “citizen supporter” of Elizabeth …

Thanks to our efforts, Elizabeth Warren and 31 other state and federal candidates were elected last week.

As Congress moves to enter discussions over the debt and deficit during the lame duck session, many on the right — and their corporate allies — are calling for cuts to Social Security and Medicare benefits while further cutting corporate taxes.

This is not a balanced approach to the issue. Our immediate deficit is caused primarily by the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, two wars, and Wall Street’s economic meltdown — not American seniors and other middle class Americans who rely on these social insurance programs.

Senator-elect Elizabeth Warren explained what a real balanced approach to the deficit would be during a debate with Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) last month:

WARREN: I believe we need to make cuts, we need to make cuts to agriculture subsidies. We need to make cuts in our defense budget, targeted cuts. We need to end the war in Afghanistan, that’s $2 billion a week. We need to cut fraud and abuse out of the system. But we also need to ask others to pay their fair share. I believe that billionaires should pay taxes at least at the same rate that their secretaries do.

Watch it:

Show your support for Warren’s progressive alternative to the “Grand Bargain” that cuts Social Security and Medicare by clicking here to add your name as a “citizen supporter” of her vision.

A screenshot of the Fix the Debt campaign’s logo.

As you read this, powerful corporations are working with groups like the Campaign To Fix The Debt are pushing Congress and President Obama to pass a “Grand Bargain” that would include cuts to corporate tax rates and Social Security and Medicare benefits.

We shouldn’t beat around the bush as to why these corporations are doing this. They want to see this deal enacted so that they can make billions of dollars from reduced taxes while Americans are asked to sacrifice their Social Security and Medicare benefits.

The Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) just released a report looking at some of the corporations that support the Campaign To Fix The Debt — such as Microsoft, General Electric, and Goldman Sachs — and what they would gain if the “Grand Bargain” they seek were to be passed.

The IPS report concludes that if one of the tenets of the corporate plan — a proposed territorial tax system that would exempt foreign earnings from U.S. taxes — were passed, the 63 publicly held companies backing the Fix The Debt campaign would get as much as $134 billion.

It’s time for the media and politicians to stop taking the Campaign To Fix The Debt seriously. It is obvious that the group is being backed by powerful corporations because its recommendations would make them money, not because it has any serious solutions for our debt or the economy.

Think Scott Walker is the most extreme Republican Wisconsin has to offer? Think again. The Wisconsin Journal-Sentinel reports that nine Republicans in the state legislature have told an advocacy group that they support arresting any federal official who tries to implement the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare:

As Gov. Scott Walker contemplates whether to create a state health care exchange under Obamacare, he must contend with nine members of his own party who will serve in the Legislature for the next two years who say they back a bill to arrest any federal officials who try to implement the health care law.

Eight of the nine Republicans also have gone on record saying they also want to write a law that would see Transportation Security Administration agents charged with sexual assault if they conduct pat-downs of passengers going through airport security.

But there’s some good news out of Wisconsin, too. Bold progressive Chris Larson was just elected Democratic leader in the state senate!

(Photo credit: Flickr user Monochrome)

Wal-Mart has been hit with an unprecedented series of strikes and walk-outs in the past few months, the first major labor actions in the company’s history.

Labor journalist Josh Eidelson has the scoop on how a group of workers in the company’s Los Angeles warehouses will be hitting the picket lines on Thursday:

Thursday, Walmart warehouse workers are headed back to the picket line. At 8 AM Pacific, twenty-some workers in Mira Loma, California plan to launch a one-day walk-out which could spread to more workers, including retail employees in Walmart stores. Thursdayai??i??s strike will be the latest in an unprecedented wave of work stoppages throughout the retail giantai??i??s US supply chain. It follows strikes by seafood workers in June, by warehouse workers in September, and by 160 retail workers in 12 states last month. It comes a week before Black Friday, the post-Thanksgiving shopping extravaganza that workers have pledgedai??i??barring concessions from the companyai??i??will bring their biggest disruptions yet.

ai???Hopefully it will make a dent in their productionai??i??ai??? said Raymond Castillo, ai???and it gets their attention, that weai??i??re not playing around.ai??? Castillo and other Mira Loma workers struck in September, and voted Sunday to do it again on Thursday. According to Castillo, workers started organizing because of unsafe and unsanitary conditions: crooked ramps caused serious injuries; workersai??i?? drinking water came from a hose. The organizing brought retaliation, which inspired a strike, which drew more punishment. ai???Since weai??i??ve all been retaliated against,ai??? said Castillo, ai???it was a pretty easy decision for all of us to go back on strike.ai???

Recall that Wal-Mart’s operations in Los Angeles were the center of controversy earlier this year when they were caught hiring a public relations and lobbying firm that spied on organizing workers. That level …

Bank of America actually paid nothing in federal income taxes in 2010.

The so-called Campaign To Fix The Debt and other organizations backed by Wall Street and powerful corporations are pushing for a debt deal during the lame-duck session that would cut Social Security while lowering corporate taxes.

These corporate proponents claim that lowering the corporate tax rate would spur enormous economic growth that would create revenue that would lower the debt.

But there’s just one problem with that — corporate taxes are already incredibly low. Here’s an article from the Wall Street Journal, no left-wing rag, about how corporate tax receipts as a share of profits have actually hit a 40-year low this year:

U.S. companies are booking higher profits than ever. But the number crunchers in Washington are puzzling over a phenomenon that has just come into view: Corporate tax receipts as a share of profits are at their lowest level in at least 40 years. Total corporate federal taxes paid fell to 12.1% of profits earned from activities within the U.S. in fiscal 2011, which ended Sept. 30, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That’s the lowest level since at least 1972.

With corporate taxes already hitting record lows, it’s simply unrealistic to claim that lowering the rates even further would spur economic growth and reduce the debt. Rather, it seems like these corporate CEOs are backing a reduction in rates in the debt deal for a simple reason — it would make them money, even if it would rip off taxpayers.

We’ll keep you updated on the fight to protect Social Security and Medicare over the next few months. Sign up for our e-mail list above or below to get updates.

A painting portraying the first Thanksgiving

Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is traditionally the most popular shopping day of the year. Last year, Americans spent a record $52.4 billion on that day.

But a number of major retailers are deciding to open instead on Thanksgiving Day itself, forcing many of their employees to choose between their jobs and their families.

Here’s a short list of some of the retailers who are making this anti-worker move:

– Wal-Mart: This retail behemoth — which is also facing walkouts on Black Friday — will be opening on 8 P.M. Thanksgiving Day.

– Toys R’ Us: This retailer will be matching Wal-Mart’s ultra-early opening time.

– Sears: Sears is matching Wal-Mart and Toys R’Us by having Thursday “door busters.”

– Target: Target will be opening at 9 P.M. on Thanksgiving.

– K-Mart: K-Mart has transformed its Black Friday into a Thanksgiving sale that lasts from Thanksgiving through Saturday.

This move by retailers to start their sales on Thanksgiving Day will needlessly be pulling workers away from their families on a day Americans have come to know as a well-deserved day off. But consumers can vote with their dollars and choose to shop only at locations where workers are not being made to work on this holiday.