Portside

REWIND - A Week of Quotes and Cartoons

SUNDAY

Quote of the Day
July 28, 2013

'Jack Lew to Detroit: Drop Dead.  The city of Detroit
"must work with creditors" said Treasury Secretary
Jack Lew this morning to George Stephanopoulos.
Of course.  And when it was $800 billion in taxpayer
money to bail out bankers? Fine.  When it's $2
billion to save an American city? Who cares.  But
there's $1.5 billion in tax money going to Egypt
every year - but there's not even low level talk
about a federal bailout to save Detroit.

'It was Jack Lew who more than likely advised
President Obama what a great idea it was to extend
the Bush tax cuts in 2010 and then make them
permanent on January 1, 2013 - adding $3.9
trillion to the debt.  Had the President simply done
nothing and let the tax cuts expire there would be
$3.9 trillion in tax money that in part could be used
to save Detroit.

'Included in that deal: Making the estate tax
permanent.  And nothing in the deal to fix the
sequester.  Apparently President Obama and Lew are
OK with handing huge take breaks for Warren
Buffett and Donald Trump and the top %1 while
sending $1.5 billion in tax money to Egypt.  But the
idea of bailing out Detroit? No way.'

Lauren Victoria Burke
Crew of 42
July 28, 2013

Toon of the Day

Flyover
The Strip | By Brian McFadden
 

MONDAY

Quote of the Day

'Throughout the world, our country proclaims its
commitment to equal rights and broad democratic
participation. We seem to be abandoning those
ideals at home. You have to wonder what this will
do to our witness on behalf of democracy.'

E.J. Dionne, Jr.
opinion writer
on conservative legislators' determination
to pass laws to make it harder to vote
Washington Post
July 29, 2013
 

Toon of the Day

Voting Rights
Signe Wilkinson
 

TUESDAY

Quote of the Day

'You know, housing is basic. Having a warm, safe
home with a roof over your head is just basic to life,
and it's very disappointing when Congress can't see
that, and these very vulnerable families get caught
up in politics.'

Mark Adelson, executive director of
the Portland Maine Housing Authority
on the effect of the sequester on
Section 8 Housing assistance

Maine public Broadcasting Network
July 24, 2013

Toon of the Day

The Right to Bear Bags
Jan Sorensen

WEDNESDAY

Quote of the Day

'Between 2000 and 2010, there were: 649 million
votes cast in general elections 47,000 UFO
sightings; 441 Americans killed by lightning; 13
credible cases of in-person voter impersonation.'

Mother Jones
August 1, 2012
 

Toon of the Day

Obamacare
Tom Toles - Washington Post

THURSDAY

Quote of the Day

'And despite the president's fiscal stimulus law,
which lifted government spending in 2009 and
2010, the United States ranks among the bottom
third of nations in the O.E.C.D. in terms of outlays
on social programs - unemployment insurance, day
care and the like - to help families deal with
economic stress.

'You would think Americans must be tiring of their
lack of progress. The disposable income of families
in the middle of the income distribution shrank by 4
percent between 2000 and 2010, according to data
compiled by the O.E.C.D. In Australia, by contrast, it
increased 40 percent. Middle-income Germans,
Dutch, French, Danes, Norwegians and even
Mexicans gained more ground.

'And indeed Americans are tiring of it. Over half -
52 percent - say that the government should
redistribute wealth by taxing the rich more,
according to a Gallup poll in April, the highest share
since Gallup first asked the question in 1998.

'So there is reason to believe that a more forceful
campaign against inequality than Mr. Obama has
articulated so far would resonate. The United States
is a rich country. Perhaps someday soon it will start
behaving like one.'

'Inequality in America: The Data Is Sobering'
Economics Writer - Eduardo Porter
New York Times
July 31, 2013
 

Toon of the Day

Settlement
Matt Wuerker
 

FRIDAY

Quote of the Day

'The labor market begins the second half of 2013
with a fizzle, with the Employment Situation Report
released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showing
the addition of just 162,000 jobs in July and a
downward revision to earlier months' data that
brings the average growth rate of the last three
months to 176,000. As we have said before  , this
rate of growth is painfully slow. At this rate, it would
take six years to fill our 8.3 million jobs gap and get
back to health in the labor market.

'The unemployment rate dropped from 7.6 percent
to 7.4 percent, in part due to workers dropping out
of the labor force. The labor force participation rate
dropped to 63.4 percent, near its lowest point of the
downturn (which was 63.3 percent in April). The
share of the working-age population with a job did
not budge, holding steady at 58.7 percent.'

Economist Heidi Shierholz
Economic Policy Institute
August 2, 2013
 

Toon of the Day

Peace Table
Mike Luckovich
 

SATURDAY

Quote of the Day

'The disjunction between textbook economics and
the choices being made in Washington is larger than
any I've seen in my lifetime. At a time of mass
unemployment, it's clear, the economics textbooks
tell us, that this is not the right time for fiscal
retrenchment.

'... To watch it be ignored like this is exasperating,
horrifying, disheartening.'

Justin Wolfers, an economics professor
at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public
Policy at the University of Michigan

New York Times
August 3, 2013
 

Toon of the Day

Teach
Signe Wilkinson