Progress Michigan blog posts.
Double-digit unemployment. Dramatically increasing income inequality. Politicians owned by millionaires and lobbyists. As sure as the sun rises, every day brings news that the richest few are getting even richer, and big banks and corporations get away with abusing the rules because the politicians they fund let them write the rules. Right now, the average…
Yesterday, US House Majority Leader Eric Cantor visited the University of Michigan and was met by a protest decrying the “death of the middle class” and Rep. Cantor’s active support for the top 1 percent. The protest was attended by members of Progress Michigan, the Washtenaw Community Action Team, the University of Michigan Planners Network,…
Protests. Rallies. Arrests. People are restless. People are anxious. Occupy Wall Street camps are popping up all over—and for good reason. Big banks and financial institutions got bailed out -and are now making record profits while the rest of us struggle to make ends meet. Politicians care more about CEOs and corporations than our communities.…
Last week, Rep. Eric Cantor scheduled a visit to the Wharton School of Business in Pennsylvania where he planned to speak on income inequality and “how we make sure the people at the top stay there.” He cancelled the speech after he found out that it was open to the public and the 99% would…
Republicans’ 2012 election strategy? If you can’t win the vote fairly, keep people from voting. This year, a wave of legislation tightening voting restrictions has suddenly swept across the nation. All but two of the new laws were signed by Republican governors and generated by Republican legislatures. According to a study published by the Brennan…
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC): don’t worry if you’ve never heard of them, most Americans haven’t. That’s because they conduct most of their operations in secret, many involving pushing “model” legislation with state lawmakers that directly benefits corporate bottom lines, usually at the expense of the rest of us. Now they’ve brought their show to…
Michigan’s Republican lawmakers have been using the down economy as an excuse for destroying the role of the public sector in the state, and one of their favorite magic bullets is privatization. They are determined to convince people that corporations have your best interests in mind, and have goals other than attempting to maximize profits…
This is a breaking news bulletin. U.S. Representatives Dave Camp and Fred Upton, appointed to the supercommittee two months ago, have not been seen engaging their constituents for months. Rep. Fred Upton was at a public forum on August 15 facing a boisterous crowd upset over his positions on tax policy and Medicare during a…
Want to know what the Occupy Wall Street protests are all about? Look no further than the shocking statistic below. The 400 wealthiest people in America are worth more than the bottom 150 million people combined. I must have seen this statistic a hundred times, but each time I read it, it continues to stun…
Americans are frustrated, and it’s showing. Over the last few weeks, the country has been closely following the Occupy Wall Street protesters and their message of “We Are The 99 Percent.” Even though many on the far-right have denounced them as a mob of anti-capitalists, an NBC poll found that Americans support the protests by…