Reject Government Contractors Who Draw the Blinds on Sunshine

Once a year, Sunshine Week rolls around and presents us with an opportunity to assess how open and transparent our government is. But with more and more public services being contracted out to private companies, sunlight’s “disinfectant” effects are being lost, according to a new report by In the Public Interest – Closing the Books: How Government Contractors Hide Public Records. The report shows how government contractors are hiding the data needed to evaluate whether contracting out to private companies is a better deal for taxpayers than leaving services in the hands of public employees.

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Progressives Present Alternative Budget: A Raise for America

Investing in our nation’s future requires funding. This week, the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) revealed its vision of a public investment agenda that will get Americans working and give more people the opportunity to succeed. It pays for these investments through a series of progressive tax proposals, in which wealthy Americans and prosperous corporations would pay a fair share toward building the nation’s economic strength. 

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It's Baa-aack: What to Expect from the Budget Season this Year

The budget season starts in the U.S. Congress this week. The Republican majority in the House will go first – releasing its budget late this afternoon. The Senate Republican majority will unveil its budget on Wednesday. Each chamber’s budget committee will review and approve their respective budgets in a mark-up session the day after each is released.

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General Electric Lets a Little Democracy into its Boardroom

In a surprising move last month, General Electric (GE) announced that it would give large shareholders a role in nominating an alternative slate of directors for board elections. GE is not the first large company to adopt such measures, but it is the most prominent. Even more remarkable is the fact that the company put forth this measure voluntarily.

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Walmart Workers to Earn $10 an Hour; Walmart Heirs “Earn” $445,776 an Hour

Thanks to three years of organizing, 500,000 Walmart workers will soon get a raise.

Over the last three years, strikes and pickets by Walmart’s low-wage employees have steadily expanded. Last Black Friday, protests were staged at more than 1,000 Walmart stores across the U.S. Dozens of employees were arrested.

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What We Lose with a Privatized Postal Service

Did you know that when you ship a package through Federal Express, the U.S. Postal Service often carries it the last mile? Last year, the Postal Service delivered 1.4 billion packages for FedEx and UPS. In fact, it delivers the last mile for almost a third of FedEx packages. The 618,000 Postal Service workers also delivered nearly 66 billion pieces of first-class mail — that’s more than 100,000 pieces per carrier.

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Think Corporate Tax Cuts Create Jobs? Think Again.

Nine million unemployed Americans want to work, but they can’t find a job. Nearly seven million more are working part-time but want full-time work. We still have a job shortage in this country. Many in Congress think the solution is more corporate tax cuts.

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