(UPDATE: Adding news items about Florida prison privatization, wage theft, organizing low-wage workers, port strike)
Hoyer: Entitlement benefit cuts on the table in talks with GOP on 'fiscal cliff' The Hill ...A number of Democratic leaders ... said they would support some spending reductions in Medicare, but that cuts to direct benefits should not be a part of the negotiations. Along with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), they also maintain that Social Security reform has no place at all in the "fiscal cliff" talks. But Hoyer, the Democratic whip, warned that taking entitlement benefits off the table is a bad place to start the negotiations. Such entrenched positions are little different, he said, than the Republicans' refusal to consider hikes in tax rates — a central element of President Obama's deficit-reduction proposal...
Nearly Half Of Republicans Believe Defunct Organization Stole The Election For Obama ThinkProgress ...Forty nine percent of Republicans believe that President Obama won reelection thanks to the allegedly illegal work of a group that no longer exists, according to a Public Policy Polling survey...
47% Of People Think The Deficit Would INCREASE If We Go Over The Fiscal Cliff Business Insider ...for all the hype about the issue, very few people really understand what The Fiscal Cliff actually is...
Unionizing the Bottom of the Pay Scale New York Times ... either we build an economy in which most workers can earn enough to adequately support their families or we build a government with the wherewithal to subsidize the existence of a lower class that can’t survive on its own. We are doing neither...
The New iMac: Designed By Apple In California, Assembled In USA TechCrunch ...Your next Mac could be assembled in America. Apple is assembling at least some of the new, ultra-thin iMacs in the U.S...
Snyder puts right to work on agenda Detroit News ...Facing mounting pressure from conservative activists and business groups, Gov. Rick Snyder said Tuesday "right to work is on the agenda" but didn't say whether the Republican-controlled Legislature would pursue the controversial legislation this year...
Department vows to appeal ruling blocking privatization of prison health care Tallahassee Democrat ... Deputy Corrections Secretary Mike Crews said the state “disagrees with, and intends to appeal” today’s ruling blocking the privatization of health care services in North and Central Florida...
Palm Beach County scraps wage-theft law Sun Sentinel ...Palm Beach County commissioners sided with business interests Tuesday in opting for watered-down wage-theft help for local workers...
Deal brings end to L.A., Long Beach ports strike Los Angeles Times ...Clerical workers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach will return to work Wednesday, ending a strike that crippled America's busiest shipping hub for more than a week...
Walker, Wis. GOP, Consolidate Power with ALEC’s Help The Progressive ...Every committee chair has the dubious distinction of having scored 96% or 100% on the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce legislative scorecard ... Most are members of the American Legislative Exchange Council, an organization funded by corporations, which writes model legislation to promote their interests...
