Tag: Fiscal Responsibility

Posted inEconomic Security, Policy Topics

Governor Chris Gregoire calls special session to deal with latest revenue shortfall

by Andrew Villeneuve

Gov­er­nor Chris Gre­goire will call a spe­cial ses­sion of the Leg­is­la­ture begin­ning the Mon­day after Thanks­giv­ing to deal with Wash­ing­ton’s lat­est rev­enue short­fall, her office con­firmed this morn­ing. The ses­sion could go for as long as thir­ty days. “Con­gres­sion­al grid­lock, the Euro­pean debt cri­sis and high unem­ploy­ment con­tin­ue to take their toll on con­sumer con­fi­dence and […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Education, Policy Topics

Seattle Times, Eyman donors launch P.R. campaign to urge that universities be funded

by Andrew Villeneuve

As if we need­ed more proof that the Seat­tle Times Com­pa­ny is run by a guy with a Jekyll-and-Hyde esque per­son­al­i­ty, pub­lish­er Frank Blethen announced yes­ter­day that the com­pa­ny his fam­i­ly con­trols will be orches­trat­ing a year­long pub­lic rela­tions blitz called the Greater good Cam­paign. The pur­pose of this pub­lic rela­tions blitz — and no, […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Policy Topics

Warren Buffett scolds the D.C. establishment: “Stop coddling the super-rich”

by Andrew Villeneuve

War­ren Buf­fett, one of the wealth­i­est men in the world and one of the U.S.‘s most suc­cess­ful investors, has a must-read guest col­umn in the New York Times this morn­ing which takes Amer­i­ca’s polit­i­cal lead­er­ship to task for not ask­ing the nation’s wealth­i­est fam­i­lies to pay their fair share in mem­ber­ship dues to our country. […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Elections, Policy Topics, Public Planning

OFM: Tim Eyman’s I‑1125 would imperil key transportation projects, raise borrowing costs

by Andrew Villeneuve

A few months ago, when we took an ini­tial look at the details of the scheme Tim Eyman said he was going to attempt to force a vote on in 2011, we con­clud­ed that it would inter­fere with vital trans­porta­tion projects around Wash­ing­ton, includ­ing many under or near­ing con­struc­tion, and many more on the draw­ing board. […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Policy Topics

It’s time for the United States of America to downgrade Standard & Poor’s credibility

by Andrew Villeneuve

Almost imme­di­ate­ly after Stan­dard & Poor’s revealed on Fri­day that it was down­grad­ing the Unit­ed States’ cred­it rat­ing to AA+ from AAA, the deci­sion became fod­der for crit­ics of the Oba­ma admin­is­tra­tion. Among the loud­est crit­ics are the bevy of 2012 Repub­li­can pres­i­den­tial can­di­dates, who have tried to blame Amer­i­ca’s eco­nom­ic woes on the Democratic […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Policy Topics

U.S. Senate approves debt ceiling “deal”

by Andrew Villeneuve

By a vote of of sev­en­­ty-four to twen­­ty-six, the U.S. Sen­ate has put its stamp of approval on the Barack Obama/John Boehn­er debt ceil­ing “deal”. The roll call from the Pacif­ic North­west was as fol­lows: Vot­ing Aye: Mur­ray, Cantwell, Wyden, Begich, Bau­cus, Tester, Risch, Crapo, Murkows­ki Vot­ing Nay: Merkley As not­ed above, Jeff Merkley was […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Policy Topics

Right wing economic liberty myths simply don’t square with reality

by Ken

Part of our work here at the North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute is to pro­vide you, our read­ers, and fel­low pro­gres­sive activists with infor­ma­tion that can be used to counter the talk­ing points lies, half-truths, and decep­tion par­rot­ed by con­ser­v­a­tive talk radio hosts, talk­ing heads and polit­i­cal oper­a­tives. Here are two cas­es where the truth is entirely […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Policy Topics

Raw “deal”

by Ken

As we’ve not­ed with the pas­sage of the debt ceil­ing “deal” ear­li­er today in the House, there is plen­ty not to like. From the capit­u­la­tion of the oth­er Wash­ing­ton’s Democ­rats on core beliefs to a lack of rev­enue, no longer can Pres­i­dent Oba­ma and his sup­port­ers in Con­gress claim the man­tle of change. And now […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Policy Topics

U.S. House approves debt ceiling “deal”

by Andrew Villeneuve

A pho­ny cri­sis has been avert­ed at a great cost. The U.S. House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives vot­ed this evening to approve the debt ceil­ing “deal” endorsed by Barack Oba­ma, John Boehn­er, Mitch McConnell, Har­ry Reid, and Nan­cy Pelosi. The Sen­ate is expect­ed to fol­low suit tomor­row. There were two hun­dred and six­­ty-nine ayes; the nays num­bered one […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Policy Topics

Debt ceiling “deal” is a victory for the Grand Old Party of Extortion

by Andrew Villeneuve

Last night, Pres­i­dent Oba­ma took to the James S. Brady Press Brief­ing Room to announce that he and Repub­li­can con­gres­sion­al lead­ers had reached an under­stand­ing on  leg­is­la­tion that would raise the debt ceil­ing in exchange for deep cuts to essen­tial pub­lic ser­vices pro­vid­ed by the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment. The White House is try­ing to frame the […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Policy Topics

Statehouse goes into lockdown; Gregoire trying to shut out protestors?

by Andrew Villeneuve

Fel­low activists who are at the Capi­tol in Olympia are telling NPI that Gen­er­al Admin­is­tra­tion has just put the state­house — the peo­ple’s house — under lock­down, pre­vent­ing any­one with­out a gov­­ern­­ment-issued iden­ti­fi­ca­tion card from enter­ing. The lock­down has evi­dent­ly been insti­gat­ed so that Gov­er­nor Gre­goire and law­mak­ers can go about dis­man­tling the peo­ple’s government […]