From the Congressional Research Service: “The past few years have seen important changes in the nature of manufacturing work. A steadily smaller proportion of manufacturing workers is involved in physical production processes, while larger shares are engaged in managerial and professional work. These changes are reflected in increasing skill requirements for manufacturing workers and severely diminished opportunities for workers without education beyond high school. Even if increased manufacturing output leads to additional employment in the manufacturing sector, it is likely to generate little of the routine production work historically performed by workers with lower education levels.” More …
Month: June 2017
Leaked Regulation: Trump Plans to Roll Back Obamacare Birth Control Mandate
“The Trump administration is apparently preparing to overhaul Obamacare’s birth control mandate, purportedly allowing any employer to seek a moral or religious exemption from the requirement, according to a draft regulation obtained by Vox.” More …
Trump’s Tweets ‘a Gold Mine’ for Mueller Probe
“The president’s running public commentary gives investigators real-time insight into the intent behind his actions – and could create problems for him or his aides.” More …
Top-Secret NSA Report Details Russian Hacking Effort Days Before 2016 Election
“Russian Military Intelligence executed a cyberattack on at least one U.S. voting software supplier and sent spear-phishing emails to more than 100 local election officials just days before last November’s presidential election, according to a highly classified intelligence report obtained by The Intercept.” More …
In the Withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, the Koch Brothers’ Campaign Becomes Overt
” … Voters and big business were arrayed against leaving the climate agreement. Yet despite the majority’s sentiment, a tiny—and until recently, almost faceless—minority somehow prevailed. How this happened is no longer a secret. The answer, as the New York Times reported, on Sunday, is ‘a story of big political money’. It is, perhaps, the most astounding example of influence-buying in modern American political history.” More …
Trump Pulls Out of Climate Deal, Western Rift Deepens
“German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other G-7 leaders did all they could to convince Trump to remain part of the Paris Agreement. But he didn’t listen. Instead, he evoked deep-seated nationalism and plunged the West into a conflict deeper than any since World War II.” More …
CEOs Praised for Backing the Paris Accord Also Funded Lobbyists Pushing Trump to Withdraw
“The Chief Executives of Dow Chemical and Corning Inc., among other business leaders, were portrayed in the media as environmental champions for opposing President Donald Trump’s move to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement… Yet both companies back one of the few business groups to openly lobby the Trump administration in support of withdrawing from the plan.” More …
Federal Reserve’s Kaplan: Immigration Crackdown Hurting Economy
“President Trump’s immigration crackdown is already crimping economic growth as undocumented workers fearful of deportation stay home and reduce their spending, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas said.” More …
Why Trump Campaigned Like a Populist and Governs Like a Sellout
” … Trump’s working class supporters have gotten little economic help from his policies, and are unlikely to receive it in the future. Trump’s health care bill, far from protecting everyone (as he promised), will cause 23 million Americans to become uninsured. It will raise premiums for the oldest and sickest Americans, which include many of his most fervent working-class supporters. Although Trump promised during the campaign that he would not touch Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid, his proposed budget cuts both Social Security and Medicaid. Although he promised to help people who are out of work find jobs, his proposed budget slashes job training programs, and so on and so on.” More …
Trump’s White House Orders Agencies to Ignore Democrats’ Oversight Requests
“The White House is telling federal agencies to blow off Democratic lawmakers’ oversight requests, as Republicans fear the information could be weaponized against President Donald Trump. At meetings with top officials for various government departments this spring, Uttam Dhillon, a White House lawyer, told agencies not to cooperate with such requests from Democrats, according to Republican sources inside and outside the administration.” More …