Topic “Thom's Blog”

When you think European financial crisis, you think Greece, or Spain, or Italy. But economic trouble in the small island nation of Cyprus is causing a serious panic throughout Europe. Because of Cyprus banks' exposure to the financial troubles in neighboring Greece, the island nation's banks need a bailout.

For generations, the American ideal has been that each successive generation becomes more prosperous and successful than the one before it.  But unfortunately, that's no longer the case.  A new study from the Urban Institute indicates that, while American wealth as a whole has doubled over the last 25 years, younger people have fallen behind as a group.

The Obama Administration wants to hand over access to your financial records to the CIA, NSA, and other law enforcement agencies. According to a new report from Reuters, a Treasury Department plan gives spy agencies full access to more raw financial data then ever before, under the guise of national security.

Today Senate Democrats will introduce a plan to replace the sequester, and the propose $100 billion in stimulus spending.  Senate Budget Committee Chairperson Patty Murray will present the plan, which reduces the deficit by $1.85 trillion with a balanced approach of 50-50 spending cuts and new revenues.  

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp is supposed to insure deposits and regulate banks, but the agency has helped the banksters avoid trial for their crimes since the 2008 financial meltdown. The LA Times reports that the very agency responsible for investigating and prosecuting bank procedures that crashed our economy has been quietly settling charges out of court – and out of the view of the American public.

Republicans hate tax increases... unless they're part of Paul Ryan's budget plan. The adoption of $600 billion in new revenue, fought for by President Obama and opposed by Congressional Republicans, is just one of the many surprises in Paul Ryan's new GOP budget.

You need to know this. House Republicans won't give up on their efforts to voucher-ize Medicare – and now Representative Paul Ryan wants even more people approaching retirement, to be forced into his voucher scam.  In a change from Ryan's prior budgets, which set the Medicare cutoff to age 55, the GOP's newest budget proposal will only allow those 56 and older, to stay in the current Medicare system.  

After almost 13 hours of a real-live talking filibuster, at 1am Senator Rand Paul yielded the floor to Senator Dick Durbin. Senator Paul started speaking before noon on Wednesday, blocking the confirmation of John Brennan to CIA Director. The filibuster was a response to Attorney General Eric Holder's statement, that the President is authorized under the Constitution to use drones against Americans within our borders.

In 2010, Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act to regulate the banksters on Wall Street, who crashed our economy in 2008, and many people believe the law doesn't go far enough.  But Republican lawmakers have spent the past two years working to undercut and water-down the legislation, and Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama thinks the banksters shouldn't be burdened with those pesky regulations at all.  

Only 4 days after the March 1st Sequester deadline, people around our nation are already starting to feel the pinch of austerity. Customs and Border Protection reduced overtime for TSA agents over the weekend, and delays at some airports were up 200%.