Seven Economic Policy Goals For Progressives In 2012

[ProSense]

Seven Economic Policy Goals For Progressives In 2012

By Travis Waldron

At best, 2011 can be described as a middling year for progressives when it comes to the economy. Though the economy continued its modest recovery, and despite recent positive signs of improvement, many progressive goals went unfulfilled.

Thanks to GOP obstruction, no widespread jobs package passed, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is still without a director, and important areas of investment faced unnecessary budget cuts on both the state and federal level. Progressives were, however, able to block much of the House GOP’s radical agenda — preventing Republicans from gutting Medicare and thwarting repeated efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act and Wall Street reform laws.

In a perfect world, Congress would make job creation its highest priority when it returns in 2012. But that is unlikely given Republican control of the House, where the GOP continues to push an agenda that would actually kill jobs. With that in mind, ThinkProgress compiled a list of seven goals for progressives that could boost the economic recovery over the next year:

Address the housing crisis: <...>

Keep focusing on income inequality: <...>

Confirm Richard Cordray: <...>

Protect and restore state education budgets: <...>

Raise the minimum wage in more states: <...>

End the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy: <...>

Boost funding for the CFTC: <...>

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/01/01/396028/seven-economic-policy-goals-for-progressives-in-2012/

8) Cut defense spending

[Proud Liberal Dem]

1. Two of those items are probably likely to occur (Cordray & ending Bush Tax Cuts)

Unfortunately, the rest will depend on Congress and/or individual state houses, most of which, sadly, are still going to be controlled in whole or in part by the Republican Tea Party. I know that here in Indiana, it's quite likely that we will get "Right-to-Work" and maybe even pee tests for welfare applicants.

Even if we're not able to get them though, the Dems should still push for them and run on them in November IMHO.

[SixthSense]

2. that looks awfully familiar

looks a lot like the agenda for 2009 and 2010 and 2011

As far as the CFTC goes, the first thing to do is fire its leadership - won't matter how much money it has as long as a Goldman agent is running it.