Progressive News Feeds

As the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) prepares to release its annual report on the cost of regulations, the media should be aware of the organization’s documented and vested interest in attacking government regulations, as well as the report’s flawed methodology and biased analysis.

Tags: congress, economy, education, foreign policy, global-warming, government, huffington-post, politics

Fox News devoted significantly more airtime to the Heritage Foundation’s claims that providing legal status to undocumented immigrants will have negative fiscal impact, but mostly ignored pro-immigration rallies during the same period. Fox News Spent More Than 25 Minutes Promoting Heritage’s Flawed Immigration Claims Fox News Covered The Heritage Immigration Claims For 25 Minutes, Only Covered Pro-Immigration Rallies For One Minute And A Half.  Fox News covered the Heritage Foundation’s immigration claims for 25 minutes and six seconds which included coverage of their flawed study, but only covered two immigration rallies for one minute and 30 seconds in the period between April 1 and May 6, 2013.

Tags: america, articles, economic policy, economy, feeds, fox-news, health, hillary-clinton, jobs, media, science, the nation

The right-wing media is promoting a study by the conservative policy group Heritage Foundation which claims immigration reform will cost $6.3 trillion dollars and damage the economy. This claim has been repeatedly debunked, even by conservatives, and is a revision of a 2007 study that utilized “fatally flawed” methodology. Heritage Foundation Releases Report Claiming Immigration Reform Will Cost Trillions Heritage Foundation: Immigration Would “Generate A Fiscal Deficit” Of $6.3 Trillion.  On May 6, conservative policy group The Heritage Foundation released a report claiming immigration reform would cost $6.3 trillion by enacting “amnesty” for undocumented immigrants: Over a lifetime, the former unlawful immigrants together would receive $9.4 trillion in government benefits and services and pay $3.1 trillion in taxes

Tags: america, economy, elections, media matters, president, science, security, taxes, war

Daily Beast contributor Niall Ferguson has offered an “unqualified apology” for suggesting that John Maynard Keynes, the British economist whose theories are the basis of macroeconomics and the foundation of progressive economic policy, was unconcerned with future generations because he was gay and childless.

Tags: breaking news, discrimination, economy, education, environment, feeds, health, jobs, lgbt, progressive news, video

The Wall Street Journal  ignored the role of government employment in economic recovery, writing that “government needed austerity” and that hiring “is unsustainable given current debt and tax burdens.” The decline in total government employment, which is historically unusual following a recession, is harming the recovery and slowing economic growth. In a May 3 editorial, the  WSJ  claimed the decline in government employment was a response to President Obama’s stimulus package, advocated further austerity for federal hiring, and ignored the public sector’s role in boosting economic growth.

Tags: articles, environment, feeds, foreign policy, public, public-sector, science, video, war

Ohio lawmakers failed to advance an amendment to the state budget that would have prohibited sex ed classes from including any instruction of “ gateway sexual activity ” under penalty of a potential $5,000 fine. News of the provision sparked outrage earlier this week, particularly since banning any health materials that might “condone” sexual contact doesn’t have much to do with the state’s economic policy.

Tags: #abortion, abstinence, author, black, color-stop0-05, family, gateway-sexual, health, house, lgbt, media, sex education

Since the 2012 election, Republicans have consistently blamed President Obama for ignoring the recommendations of the Simpson-Bowles deficit commission he created shortly after taking office in 2009. Republican leaders have said they’d be “ willing to say yes to ” a Simpson-Bowles-style plan, which balanced revenue with spending cuts and changes to entitlements.

Tags: black, climate, deficit, europe, facebook, jobs, media, taxes, travis-waldron

The Washington Post  quoted the research director of the anti-immigrant Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) arguing that immigrants are a drain on public services without noting that the center’s analysis on the issue has been criticized as flawed. A study by the libertarian Cato Institute found that immigrants are actually less likely to rely on public benefits than native-born Americans. In an  article  examining the effect immigrants have on Social Security, the  Post  noted that many undocumented immigrants file tax returns and thus pay into the Social Security trust fund, even though they may never be able to access it themselves because they are legally unable to do so. As a counterpoint, the article then included the views of CIS’ Steven Camarota: But Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, which supports limits on immigration, said that America’s immigrants are not young or fecund enough to shore up the system.

Tags: america, congress, desktop, director, economy, environment, health, media, network, progressive news, video

Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren pushed the right-wing talking point that regulation is “strangling” small businesses on Sunday, ignoring reports that have repeatedly debunked her theory. On ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos , Van Susteren got into a debate with Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman over the effect that government regulation has on small businesses and the American job market. Though Krugman pointed out that Van Susteren’s assertion is not backed up by the data, Van Susteren refused to give his explanation credence.

Tags: articles, budget, education, environment, foreign-policy, media matters, science, war

One of the most persistent myths amongst Republicans and conservatives is the notion that lower income tax rates, especially on the wealthy, are the key to restoring the economy.

Tags: auto, climate, david gregory, feeds, health, media, progressive news, security