How we ignored President Eisenhower's parting warning about the military industrial complex, and today we suffer the results -- perhaps too late... 

We are once again being treated to a chorus of voices proclaiming that the corporate tax rate in the U.S. is far too high. They're wrong.

On June 7th, Wal-Mart, one of the world’s most profitable but least reputable corporations will hold its annual stockholder’s meeting in Bentonville, Arkansas. But on June 2nd, another group, including some of the bravest Walmart “associates” arrived in Bentonville via a bus caravan called the “Ride for Respect.” Why does participating in a bus caravan take bravery?

The student loan system stacks the deck against today’s college students. With interest rates on new loans set to double to 6.8% on July 1, Senator Elizabeth Warren has introduced the Bank on Student Loan Fairness Act.

Representative Peter DeFazio (D-OR) and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) have introduced legislation that would remove the Congressionally-created financial crisis in the United States Postal Service (USPS). They need public support to get this important reform passed into law.

Earlier this month, Republicans introduced a bill designed to weaken the 40 hour work week. Deceptively titled The Working Families Flexibility Act, H.R. 1406 would effectively allow employers to stop paying workers time-and-a-half for overtime work. Instead of overtime pay, workers would get a vague promise (with no guarantee) of comp time to be taken at some future date, ultimately controlled by the employer.

It is a shame that the word “entitlement” has become nearly synonymous with freeloading. Perhaps the derogatory use of the term reached its zenith in Mitt Romney’s famous 47% pitch during the last campaign. However, in today’s public policy debates, too often the derogatory meaning is applied to programs such as Social Security.

It is heartening to see liberal activists and organizations mobilizing in the wake of reports that the President’s budget will include proposals to cut Social Security by switching to a “chained” Consumer Price Index to calculate cost-of-living increases.

 The story of Senator Rob Portman’s change of heart on the issue of marriage equality, demonstrates the important role that empathy and compassion can play in politics.

Progressives would do well to heed the lessons learned from Wisconsin. The triumph of big money, and the steady erosion of union membership has essentially left progressives victories resting on shaky foundations.

 The documentary "We Are Wisconsin" tells an incredibly compelling story of the people's fight against Scott Walker's attack on collective bargaining. It made me think of unions in a new way and realize how relevant they remain. 

The February employment report, released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday, was better than most analysts had predicted. About 236,000 jobs were added and unemployment edged down. Perhaps this really was the most optimistic jobs report since the recovery began, but we should be very cautious about celebrating prematurely.

It should come as no surprise that Antonin Scalia, arguably the Supreme Court's most reactionary Justice, would oppose renewal of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. What is surprising, however, is his assertion that the provision in question constitutes a “racial entitlement.”

The sequester, the looming threat of government shutdown, and the series of Republican-imposed budget crises that the nation has endured, are due in part to a consensus among the policy elite that government must shrink—even if it takes absurd political maneuvers to make it happen. That view is flawed.

In 2008, U.S. multinationals reported making 43% of their foreign profits in five small tax havens. Ending the deferral rules that allow corporations to delay paying taxes on these profits would provide much needed revenue to a government struggling to both reduce the deficit and meet its obligations to its citizens.

America is now nearing another completely avoidable austerity crisis. Like other recent budget battles, this crisis has nothing to do with the supposed natural workings of the economy, and everything to do with hostage-taking and intimidation by the conservatives in Congress and their billionaire Tea Party allies.

Liberals know it will be no easy task to renew our nation’s system of shared social commitments. But President Obama's inaugural address should be encouraging nonetheless.

Perhaps the gun rights crowd's most pernicious and dangerous assertion is that concerning the Second Amendment and its alleged sanction of armed insurrection as a means of redress.

There is no technical reason why we could not put the jobless to work, building a better, fairer, more economically secure, and greener future. We only lack the political will to do so.

Our nation has a multitude of problems that need to be addressed by our political “leaders” during President Obama’s second term. Instead, it appears that we will be treated to one cliff-like crisis after another. We limped passed the New Year’s “fiscal cliff,” soon we will face the debt ceiling “fiscal cliff,” and then there will be the budget “fiscal cliff….”