Late Night Video — Get Covered!

Bill Maher takes a look at some of the youth-oriented Get Covered posters that didn't make the cut (approx.2:30 mins):

Saturday Open Thread [2/15/14]

Even though Volkswagon had no issues with the formation of a union at their plant in Tennessee, the GOP lied and howled and threatened enough to help narrowly defeat a vote for a union yesterday. The take away, of course, is that every time you hear someone in the GOP talk about the middle class or a better deal for workers, you know that is a lie. Because the only people the GOP were defending here were themselves and their anti-union special interests. Of course, you won't hear one word from the usual "Government should stay out of the way of business" crowd denouncing the GOP's clear interference with Volkswagon here.
Trans-Pacific Partnership:  Corporations Reign Supreme

Trans-Pacific Partnership: Corporations Reign Supreme

You might have read that the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, developed under the auspices of the Obama Administration is currently stymied, bottled up in both the House and the Senate, with lots of opposition. Let's count our blessings while we can on this one. Here's why, in a nutshell.
A Tale of Two Democrats

A Tale of Two Democrats

Or at least two types of Democrats. Yesterday, Senator Bernie Sanders and 15 other Democratic Senators sent a letter to President Obama urging him to not cut Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid in his FY15 budget. It won't be much of a surprise to most of the readers here to find that neither Senator Carper or Coons signed on to this letter. Interestingly, Senator Coons voted to restore the cuts to military pensions and Carper voted against them. So take a look at what a group of Democrats genuinely interested in the well-being of middle class and working class people urged the President:
Today, retirement insecurity is as high as it has ever been. Only one in five workers in the private sector has a defined benefit pension plan; half of Americans have less than $10,000 in savings; and two-thirds of seniors rely on Social Security for a majority of their income. Given this reality, we respectfully urge you not to propose cutting Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid benefits in your Fiscal Year 2015 budget. In good times and bad, Social Security has succeeded in keeping millions of senior citizens, widows, orphans, and persons with disabilities out of extreme poverty. Before Social Security was developed, about half of our seniors lived in poverty; today senior poverty is down to 9.1 percent. Without Social Security, one-third of senior citizens would have virtually no earnings at all. Social Security has not contributed one penny to the deficit. Social Security has a surplus of more than $2.7 trillion and can pay every single benefit owed to every eligible American for the next 19 years.