Robert Reich: Sexual Assaults and Nuclear Missiles: What's the Matter With the Military? -
After years of repeated reports of sexual assaults — and years of promises to prevent them, and then years of studies and commissions to find the best way of doing so — a Defense Department study released Tuesday estimates that some 26,000 people in the military were sexually assaulted in the…
Prominent Democrats — including the President and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi — are openly suggesting that Medicare be means-tested and Social Security payments be reduced by applying a lower adjustment for inflation.
This is even before they’ve started budget negotiations with…
Robert Reich: Today, an Anniversary of America's First Progressive Revolution -
Exactly a century ago, on February 3, 1913, the 16th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, authorizing a federal income tax. Congress turned it into a graduated tax, based on “capacity to pay.”
It was among the signal victories of the progressive movement — the first constitutional…
Robert Reich: The Real Debate Over American Citizenship -
Sometimes we have a national conversation without realizing it. We talk about different aspects of the same larger issue without connecting the dots.
That’s what’s happening now with regard to the meaning of American citizenship and the basic rights that come with it.
On one side are those who…
Robert Reich: The Economic Challenge Ahead: More Jobs and Growth, Not Deficit Reduction -
Can we just keep things in perspective? On Tuesday, the President asked Republicans to join him in finding more spending cuts and revenues before the next fiscal cliff whacks the economy at the end of the month.
Yet that same day, the Congressional Budget Office projected that the federal…
Robert Reich: The GOP Crackup: How Obama is Unraveling Reagan Republicanism -
Soon after President Obama’s second inaugural address, John Boehner said the White House would try “to annihilate the Republican Party” and “shove us into the dustbin of history.”
Actually, the GOP is doing a pretty good job annihilating itself. As Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal put…
Robert Reich: The Non Zero-Sum Society -
As President Obama said in his inaugural address last week, America “cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it.”
Yet that continues to be the direction we’re heading in.
A newly-released analysis by the Economic Policy Institute shows…
Robert Reich: The Neocons vs. Chuck Hagel -
If the neocons in the GOP who brought us the Iraqi war and conjured up “weapons of mass destruction” to justify it are against Chuck Hagel for Defense Secretary, Hagel gets bonus points in my book.
They’re the hawkish, bellicose bunch in the Republican Party — William Kristol, Richard Perle,…
Robert Reich: Why Obama's Gamble on the Debt Ceiling Depends on the GOP Being More Sane Than It Is -
A week before his inaugural, President Obama says he won’t negotiate with Republicans over raising the debt limit.
At an unexpected news conference Tuesday he said he won’t trade cuts in government spending in exchange for raising the borrowing limit.
“If the goal is to make sure that we are…
Robert Reich: Lousy Deal on the Edge of the Cliff -
The deal emerging from the Senate is a lousy one. Let me count the ways:
1. Republicans haven’t conceded anything on the debt ceiling, so over the next two months – as the Treasury runs out of tricks to avoid a default – Republicans are likely to do exactly what they did before, which is to…