Progressive News Feeds

Fox News glossed over an important aspect in its reporting on lower than expected GDP growth — the government contribution to GDP has been negative in the majority of recent reports.

Tags: articles, breaking news, budget, economy, elections, foreign policy, health, jobs, media, taxes

As communities across the nation struggle with the consequences of sequestration cuts to pre-school programs, school aide, unemployment benefits, and jobs, some Republicans in Congress are trumpeting the automatic reductions as sound fiscal policy.

Tags: budget, consumer, economy, facebook, poverty, taxes, war

Media outlets including NPR and Fox News are targeting federal disability benefits programs through a campaign deceptively portraying these programs as wasteful and unsustainable. In reality, these programs have low fraud rates and help the rising number of Americans with severe disabilities survive when they are   unable to work. Is the recent increase in the number of people receiving disability benefits surprising?

Tags: budget, child, children, feeds, huffington-post, nature, planned parenthood, progressive news, sponsor, the nation

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

Fox News’ Steve Doocy suggested that Obama look to Texas as a model for economic growth, ignoring the fact that the state’s high job growth doesn’t translate to economic success for many Texans. Texas’ economic problems include a median wage below the national average, one of the largest minimum wage workforces in the country, and the highest rate of adults without health insurance. Fox Suggests Nation Could “Learn From The Lone Star State” On Growth Fox’s Steve Doocy: Texas Has “Certainly” Hit On The Recipe For Success In Economic Recovery

Tags: budget, california, education, elections, environment, health, jobs, marriage equality, progressive news, security, united-states

Following a pipeline rupture in Arkansas, Exxon Mobil is reportedly cleaning up thousands of barrels of oil in a residential neighborhood. As efforts to contain and clean the spill were ongoing, Fox News contributor Monica Crowley advocated Exxon Mobil becoming a sponsor of Yellowstone National Park, adding: the “free market solves everything.” On the March 1 edition of Fox News’  Your World with Neil Cavuto , Monica Crowley suggested Exxon Mobil, one of the world’s largest oil companies, would be an “appropriate” sponsor for one of America’s largest national parks. Arguing for smaller government, she went on to compare the proposed partnership to private companies owning sports stadiums and the privatization of the US Postal Service, arguing that “profit motive” would ensure efficiency: As Crowley made her endorsement, cleanup efforts continue in Mayflower, Arkansas after an unspecified amount of oil leaked from an Exxon Mobil pipeline.  Reuters reports  that the Pegasus line “can transport more than 90,000 barrels per day” and that Exxon Mobil “had no information on when the pipeline last underwent maintenance.” From the same article: The Pegasus pipeline, which ruptured in a housing development near the town of Mayflower on Friday, spewing oil across lawns and down residential streets, remained shut and a company spokesman declined to speculate about when it would be fixed and restarted.

Tags: america, budget, desktop, discrimination, education, foreign-policy, pegasus, science, war, world

The Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times failed to connect the American Legislative Exchange Council model legislation to the current efforts to change the pension plans of Floridians. Ashley Lopez of the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting highlighted a piece in The Palm Beach Post that had a lengthy description of ALEC’s role in the process to overhaul the state’s pension system: Critics trace the campaign back two years — to New Orleans, where dozens of Florida lawmakers gathered for a conference hosted by a controversial advocacy group that helps corporations and conservative interest groups write bills for legislatures across the country. Jonathan Williams, a policy director for the American Legislative Exchange Council, told The Palm Beach Post that the organization’s three days of meetings in August 2011 helped affirm the need among many legislators to take a hard look at public employee benefits

Tags: beach, budget, elections, feeds, financial, health, jobs, media, media matters, newspapers, science, video

Conservative media are again using a European financial crisis to stoke fears about the U.S. economy. According to many right-wing media figures, the Cypriot government’s plan to tax private bank accounts to avert a fiscal disaster provides a dire warning for the U.S

Tags: budget, desktop, donald trump, economics, friends, health, marriage equality, science

Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV) and three other House Democrats introduced legislation last week that would expand school lunch programs for low-income children to weekends and holidays. Titus plans to roll out the legislation at a Thursday event with area business leaders in her Las Vegas district

Tags: auto, budget, budget-cuts, children, debt-ceiling, democratic, taxes, thinkprogress, yahoo

Lou Dobbs promoted the GOP attack that the Senate Democrats’ proposed federal budget raises taxes by $1.5 trillion, a claim based on  ”a willful misreading” of the budget. In the “chalk talk” segment of his Fox Business show, Dobbs claimed the Senate Democrats’ budget demonstrated that “they want us to be a debtor nation in perpetuity.” Dobbs argued that in addition to the $975 billion of revenue Democrats include in their budget, they would need to add $500 billion in additional revenue to pay for the cost of the sequestration.” Dobbs added the two to claim that the Democrats’ budget actually calls for $1.5 trillion in new taxes: But, as Talking Points Memo noted, the claim — which has been touted by Senate Republicans — is based on an “attempt to turn sequestration’s spending cuts into a permanently lower spending baseline, and thus a willful misreading of the Democratic budget itself.” TPM’s Brian Beutler explained that a portion of the $975 billion in revenue is already earmarked to cover sequestration, meaning the additional $500 billion of alleged new taxes that Dobbs and Senate Republicans are adding to the revenue estimates doesn’t exist: Republicans have decided to torture the numbers. First, they assume a baseline Democrats aren’t actually using — one where sequestration-level spending is permanent

Tags: budget, desktop, economy, environment, government, health, media, progressive news, taxes, video