Samuel Bell
Elizabeth Warren slams pension cuts, hedge fund investments
In a recent interview on New England Cable News, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) was asked about Illinois’s pension cuts, which were much milder than Rhode Island’s more draconian version.* (The key bit starts at 11:35.) She did not mince her words. Calling pensions “a promise,” Senator Warren made it clear how she felt about breaking that [...]
Whitehouse, Reed vote no on food stamp cuts in farm bill
Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Jack Reed were two of the nine Democrats who voted no on the latest version of the farm bill, which slashes food stamps by $8 billion over the next 10 years. When the original Senate farm bill (which would have cut nutrition programs by $4 billion) passed, our Senators were the [...]
WATCH: David Cicilline Gives an Awesome Speech
America faces a hunger crisis. Every day, more and more Americans go to bed hungry. Yet Democrats in Congress have reached a deal with the Republicans to cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP or food stamps, by $8 billion over the next decade. Fortunately, Rhode Island has a Congressman who fights [...]
Department of Revenue website links to corporate lobby group
Here’s a revealing nugget about how conservatives win the policy debates in our state: If you spend a lot of time trying to understand the Dickensian world of city and town budgets, like I do, you’re going to wind up spending a lot of time on the Department of Revenue’s municipal finance website. They provide [...]
The Murphy Effect: Why I was wrong About Carcieri
When I was younger and more naive, I wrote a post on these humble pages blaming Don Carcieri for our state’s sudden turn to right-wing politics, austerity, and high unemployment. I called it “The Carcieri Effect.” I got quite a bit of flack for writing that. As critics pointed out, the governor does not have [...]
Breaking News: NRA settles with Board of Elections for $63,000
The Board of Elections has settled with the NRA for the sum of $63,000. In September, I filed a campaign finance complaint against the NRA on behalf of the Rhode Island Progressive Democrats, alleging that the NRA’s Rhode Island PAC was illegally funded by the national NRA PAC. In the consent order laying out the terms [...]
Bill Murphy representing former state senator accused of embezzlement
Bill Murphy, the right-wing former House Speaker, the lobbyist for the gun people and the payday lenders, and the man at the center of Rhode Island’s conservative movement, is standing up for one of his own. He’s defending Patrick McDonald. McDonald, the former South County state senator who was defeated by Jim Sheehan in 2002, [...]
Huge Win: Gordon Fox Reverses on Voter ID!
Gordon Fox, the conservative Speaker of the Rhode Island House of Representatives, sent shock waves through the Democratic Party when he got a voter ID law passed. Ignoring a plea from the Chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, Fox created a publicity nightmare for the Democrats and a beloved talking point for the right. That [...]
Exeter could still lose on the gun issue that sparked failed recall
On Saturday, the people of Exeter spoke decisively. Rejecting the gun lobby’s attempt to overturn the results of the 2012 election, they overwhelmingly voted against the recall of the four Democrats on the five-member town council. But will this matter for the issue this whole election was fought over—fixing the small town’s “shall issue” concealed [...]
Was this David Cicilline’s best vote yet?
Last Thursday, David Cicilline cast one of his best votes in Congress, voting against the latest budgetary assault on economy. It is not easy to defend the austerity “deal” struck between Paul Ryan and Patty Murray. On its face, it looks bad. In exchange for $85 billion in austerity, this deal would pare back $65 [...]
Exeter confirms polling: RI supports gun reform
Whenever I try to convince state legislators that they should support basic, common-sense gun safety reforms, I frequently run into a puzzling obstacle. Members of the General Assembly irrationally believe they would pay a political price for opposing gun safety legislation. The people of Exeter just destroyed that argument. This belief has always borne little [...]
Math error in Taveras’s pre-K plan
I believe I have discovered a math error in Angel Taveras’s pre-kindergarten plan. Instead of $24.6 million, the total annual cost should actually be $55.2 million. The “Ready Rhode Island” plan is only designed to provide one year of preschool, right before kindergarten, and the math error centers around confusing the figures for all preschoolers with [...]
Come support the Progressive Democrats this Friday!
This Friday, December 6, at 6:30 pm at Waterplace Restaurant (1 Finance Way, Providence), the Progressive Democrats are going to be holding our Progressive Hero Award fundraiser. We’re going to be honoring Congressman David Cicilline and Representative Larry Valencia. A past recipient of the Progressive Hero Award, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse will be on hand to [...]
Come Support Maria Cimini Tonight (Thursday)!
Maria Cimini is one of my favorite politicians in the state of Rhode Island. Far too few state representatives understand the plight of working people like she does. When conservatives attack economic growth and the 99%, she is there on the floor of the House making passionate and moving speeches defending those who are too [...]
Cicilline, Langevin support expanding Social Security
Elizabeth Warren recently made news when she endorsed the effort to expand Social Security. Organized by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, this campaign has been one of the top priorities for progressives in Washington. That is why it matters that both of Rhode Island’s Congressmen, David Cicilline and Jim Langevin, have signed onto this effort. Conservative voices [...]
Taveras’s record on unemployment
On a December 2012 episode of Newsmakers, Providence Mayor Angel Taveras had this to say in defense of Providence’s high unemployment rate: “Our rate is 12%, and when I started, it was 13.7%.” Given the economic devastation that has befallen our capital city under Taveras’s leadership, these numbers are likely to play a major role [...]
Thank you Ken Block!
I don’t agree with Ken Block on very much. But I am here to thank him–for running for governor as a Republican. What has always bothered me about Block is that he used his “Moderate Party” label to portray his Republican views as somehow moderate. But then he became the leader of the conservative group [...]
GOP Rep: House Majority Leader Mattiello is ‘on our side’
One of the most clarifying moments in Rhode Island politics is when the small handful of conservative Republicans in our state admit just how conservative the Democratic leadership of the General Assembly is. This nugget showed up in a post by Tea Party Republican Michael Chippendale on the RI Gun Blog: After this past session’s [...]
Debunking the Business Tax Climate Index
I once had the following conversation with a state senator: She proudly told me that she favored letting the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy expire. So I asked her, “what about Rhode Island’s tax cuts for the wealthy?” “Well,” she told me, “we have to worry about our business climate.” It is a disturbingly [...]
Gina could hurt Democrats in general election
Brown’s recent gubernatorial poll has received a lot of attention. The dubious primary results, which show Raimondo beating Taveras in a Democratic primary where most voters aren’t Democrats, have been widely mocked. (For comparison, a Taveras internal by a reputable pollster put Taveras up 19 points.) The general election portion, however, is significantly more plausible, [...]
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