Charts: Shocking Stats on College Costs

http://www.motherjones.com/contributor/2011/09/student-debt-charts

The Political Imbalance Facing Unions in America

http://jaredbernsteinblog.com/the-political-imbalance-facing-unions-in-america/

From the site:

But allow me to add this, learned from my many years as a DC wonk in that rarified space where economics, politics, and power intersect.  The problem unions face in Washington can be summarized thusly: the Republicans dislike them a lot more than the Democrats like them.

Politics in Black and White

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/24/opinion/24krugman.html?_r=0

Very prescient Paul Krugman op-ed from 2007 – predicts the 2012 election results.

From the site:

But to get the Republican nomination, a candidate must appeal to the base — and the base consists, in large part, of Southern whites who carry over to immigrants the same racial attitudes that brought them into the Republican fold to begin with. As a result, you have the spectacle of Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney, pragmatists on immigration issues when they actually had to govern in diverse states, trying to reinvent themselves as defenders of Fortress America.

And both Hispanics and Asians, another growing force in the electorate, are getting the message. Last year they voted overwhelmingly Democratic, by 69 percent and 62 percent respectively.

In other words, it looks as if the Republican Party is about to start paying a price for its history of exploiting racial antagonism. If that happens, it will be deeply ironic. But it will also be poetic justice.

Author Of Heritage Immigration Study Resigns Amid Racism Scandal

http://thinkprogress.org/immigration/2013/05/10/1997231/richwine-resigns-heritage/

From the site:

Jason Richwine, a coauthor of the Heritage Foundation’s report on the cost of the current immigration bill, has resigned after it emerged that his graduate dissertation on immigration was premised on the idea that Latinos were less intelligent than whites.

A familiar economic foe

http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/05/09/18149430-a-familiar-economic-foe?lite

From the site:

There's no shortage of issues Americans would like to see elected policymakers address, but Gallup this week found that job creation and economic growth remain the public's top priority -- by a sizable margin.

With that in mind, President Obama will appear in Austin in just a couple of hours, placing renewed emphasis on his economic agenda and hoping to pressure Congress to focus on the issue that's been largely forgotten among many lawmakers: the fragile economic recovery.

World Happiness Report

http://www.earth.columbia.edu/sitefiles/file/Sachs%20Writing/2012/World%20Happiness%20Report.pdf

The Facts on SNAP, Part 3: SNAP Is Efficient

http://www.offthechartsblog.org/the-facts-on-snap-part-3-snap-is-efficient/

From the site:

• SNAP has one of the most rigorous quality control systems of any public benefit program. Each year, states pull a representative sample of cases (totaling about 50,000 nationally) and review their decisions on which applicants received benefits and how much.  Federal officials then double-check a subsample of the cases.  States face federal financial sanctions if they don’t lower high error rates.

The Facts on SNAP, Part 2: SNAP Supports Work

http://www.offthechartsblog.org/the-facts-on-snap-part-2-snap-supports-work/

From the site:

About two-thirds of SNAP recipients aren’t expected to work, mostly because they are children, elderly, or disabled.  But, among SNAP households with at least one working-age, non-disabled adult, 58 percent work while receiving SNAP — and 82 percent work in the year before or after receiving SNAP.

Rios Montt found guilty of genocide

lafronteratimes: "I know that President Rios Montt is a man of great personal integrity and commitment" R Reagan, 1983. Rios Montt found guilty of genocide

Original Tweet: http://twitter.com/lafronteratimes/status/332997746267136000

Sent via TweetDeck (www.tweetdeck.com)

Niall Ferguson's Bad Track Record on Economics

http://www.businessinsider.com/niall-ferguson-bad-track-record-on-economics-keynes-comments-2013-5

JAMA Forum: ACA Implementation Starts to Get Real | news@JAMA

http://newsatjama.jama.com/2013/05/08/jama-forum-aca-implementation-starts-to-get-real/

The Facts on SNAP

With the Senate and House Agriculture Committees considering changes next week to SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly food stamps), we are beginning a series of posts today that will lay out basic facts about the nation's most important anti-hunger program.  This first one starts with the people it serves.

http://www.offthechartsblog.org/the-facts-on-snap-part-1-snap-provides-modest-benefits-to-vulnerable-people/