Portside

Charity boss 'worried' by effect of austerity measures on Continent's poor.

Reader Comments on Matt Taibbi: Everything Is Rigged; Chiefs Declare Keystone XL Invalid; Rape in the Military; Islamophobia; Real IRS Scandal; Kissinger; Viet Nam War; Cambodia; Marx Banned in Hungary; Announcements: Black Talkies On Parade Film Series - Los Angeles - May 25; The Future of the Left - A Conversation on Socialist Unity - New York - June 5 - event moved to larger location

Disaster personnel and volunteers have to rely critical federal funding that's been slashed.

The "deficit problem" is man-made. The deficit is now down 60 percent as a percent of gross domestic product. It is down more than the deficit hawks Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles asked for. This rapid reduction is seriously hurting the economy and jobs, but demands for cuts continue. It is time for Congress and the President to "pivot" to focusing on our real problems: the jobs gap, the wage gap and the trade gap.

The young are idled; their hopes crushed. Americans are paying a terrible price for Washington’s folly.

Austerity and corruption – and disgust at the style of the presidency – have created profound disillusionment on the left