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