Free Republic

Robert Reich wants Americans to be vigilant this July 4 against “exclusive patriotism” that “asserts a unique and superior ‘Americanism.’” (Daily Caller) – Former Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration and current University of California Berkeley professor Robert Reich wants Americans to be vigilant this July 4 against “exclusive patriotism” that “asserts a unique and superior ‘Americanism.’” “We hear a lot about patriotism, especially around the Fourth of July. But in 2016, we’re hearing about two very different types of patriotism. One is an inclusive patriotism that binds us together. The other is an exclusive patriotism that keeps others...

Inequality has risen. Jobs are going overseas. The more the stock market rises, the more the working class feels crushed by globalization. And all of this has occurred exactly as Democrats have engineered it. Stuff happens, they say. The truth hurts. Take it from Larry Summers, once one of President Obama's leading economic advisers: "One of the challenges in our society is that the truth is kind of an equalizer," Summers reportedly said in a candid moment in 2009. "One of the reasons that inequality has probably gone up in our society is that people are being treated closer to...

Robert Reich, who worked in the Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter administrations and was Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton, endorsed Bernie Sanders on Twitter Friday evening.

Robert Reich unintentionally makes the conservative case for Cruz The video below was released last night on Facebook by former Clinton Secretary of Labor and noted liberal Robert Reich. Reich's argument is that Cruz actually believes his conservatism. Reich is right on a big picture basis, even if he exaggerates or distorts a couple of Cruz's positions. Trump, by contrast, is someone Reich feels will make deals and has no ideological foundation so while he's a bully, there's actually less to fear. Basically, Reich is telling liberals to be afraid, very afraid of Ted Cruz.

Socialism is a failed ideology. It was the avant-garde approach to how to do government in the Twentieth Century. The Soviet Union was the flagship petri dish that conquered, infiltrated or ingratiated themselves with many other nations to establish them as additional petri dishes (Hello, Cuba). We certainly now have a large enough, long enough sample set - and the results are in. The system is contaminated - Socialism does not work. Socialists feebly cry “But they weren’t Socialist - they were Communist,” which is a distinction with very little difference. Communism is Socialism - with a boot in the neck....

Reich argues that the major problem with the market of today is not that the government has intruded too much, as Republicans generally contend, but that the laws and regulations necessary for a market are tilted in the favor of wealthy individuals and corporations who can buy influence in the political world, rather than average people, i.e “the many,” who cannot. In other words, the free market vs. government debate is largely a pointless distraction from what should be the real debate: Does the market and the rules that establish it work for everyone, or just the few at top...

Obama administration allies lobbying in favor of a recently signed nuclear deal with Iran are smearing Jewish lawmakers and opponents of the accord with allegations of dual loyalty to Israel, rhetoric many view as anti-Semitic, according to allegations leveled by these individuals and groups.Organizations close to the White House, including the pro-Tehran lobbying shop National Iranian American Council (NIAC), the liberal fringe group J Street, and the anti-war organization MoveOn, have come out to question the motivation of Jewish individuals who oppose the nuclear deal, which will provide Iran with billions of dollars in sanctions relief and lift longstanding restrictions...

Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich has blamed a Jewish “axis” of power for “polarizing” the debate around the Iran deal. In a Facebook post on Sunday, Reich said that the “Nentanyahu-AIPAC-Adelson-Republican axis” posed “a serious danger to America, Israel, and American Jews.” He slammed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for “interfering in American politics as no foreign leader has ever done before,” and blamed him for turning Democrats against Israel. He did not mention Obama’s charge that Republicans are making “common cause” with Iranian hard-liners. Reich also claimed: “Polls suggest a solid majority of American Jews support Obama and...

It’s now possible to sell a new product to hundreds of millions of people without needing many, if any, workers to produce or distribute it. At its prime in 1988, Eastman Kodak, the iconic American photography company, had more than 145,000 employees. In 2012, Kodak filed for bankruptcy. The same year Kodak went under, Instagram, the world’s newest photo company, had 13 employees serving 30 million customers.

1. The “job creators” are CEOs, corporations, and the rich, whose taxes must be low in order to induce them to create more jobs. Rubbish. The real job creators are the vast middle class and the poor, whose spending induces businesses to create jobs. Which is why raising the minimum wage, extending overtime protection, enlarging the Earned Income Tax Credit, and reducing middle-class taxes are all necessary. 2. The critical choice is between the “free market” or “government.” Baloney. The free market doesn’t exist in nature. It’s created and enforced by government. And all the ongoing decisions about how it’s...

Former US labor secretary Robert Reich offered sharp criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday, saying that the premiere’s intention address Congress on Tuesday, against the wishes of the White House, was driving many US Jews to speak out against Israel when in the past they may have remained silent, and that the speech was “poisoning the relationship” between Israel and the US In a post to his Facebook page, Reich, who was secretary during the Clinton administration from 1993 to 1997, appealed not to Netanyahu, but rather to the people of Israel, and warned them that the prime...

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich is not running for president, but he thinks any Democrat who is – including his “old friend” Hillary Clinton – should worry about Republicans outflanking them on populism. Reich, now a professor at the University of California Berkeley, first met Hillary Clinton when she was a freshman at Wellesley and they marched in civil rights demonstrations together. He met Bill Clinton around the same time at Oxford, when they were both Rhodes Scholars. He went on to work on both of Bill Clinton’s presidential campaigns, and joined the administration. In the Clinton cabinet, he was...

Former Secretary of Labor Bob Reich, on behalf of MoveOn, warns Democrats what will happen if Republicans take control of the Senate: they may use a “tricky, little-known maneuver” to “ram through” their “right-wing policies” with only 51 votes, instead of the 60 votes “usually required” in the Senate. Here he is:Reconciliation

DETROIT – In a recent Detroit Free Press op-ed, University of California-Berkeley Professor Robert Reich places the blame for the city of Detroit’s bankruptcy on the “mostly white” residents of Oakland County. Detroit-in-ruins-15“But Detroit is really a model for how wealthier and whiter Americans escape the costs of public goods they would otherwise share with poorer and darker Americans,” Reich wrote. “ … But one thing is for certain: A very large and prosperous group close by won’t sacrifice a cent — the mostly white citizens of neighboring Oakland County.” The reaction of one Oakland County official was that Reich,...

This week, millions of young people head to college and universities, aiming for a four-year liberal arts degree. They assume that degree is the only gateway to the American middle class. It shouldn’t be. For one thing, a four-year liberal arts degree is hugely expensive. Too many young people graduate laden with debts that take years if not decades to pay off. And too many of them can’t find good jobs when they graduate, in any event. So they have to settle for jobs that don’t require four years of college. They end up overqualified for the work they do,...

<p>The moral crisis of our age has nothing to do with gay marriage or abortion; it’s insider trading, obscene CEO pay, wage theft from ordinary workers, Wall Street’s continued gambling addiction, corporate payoffs to friendly politicians, and the billionaire takeover of our democracy," Reich wrote in a separate FacebookBut a professor who earns a one-percenter's income for a relatively easy workload has a tough time complaining about how unfair the economy is, according to some critics.</p>

Speaking in New York City last week, Wall Street billionaire Tom Steyer laid clear his vision for penalizing people whose actions may contribute to climate change.“We need to reward people whose behavior reduces climate risk and penalize people who add to it,” said Steyer “If we can get this right, I think there’s no doubt that our economy is going to continue to do very well.”He was joined by several wealthy businessmen — such as Michael Bloomberg and former bankers and government officials Hank Paulson and Robert Reich— to unveil a report from Risky Business, an economic analysis of the...

Former Clinton Labor secretary Robert Reich, now a prominent author and commentator, blasted Bundy on his Facebook page on Monday. “In what world is Cliven Bundy, the 68-year-old rancher who refuses to pay his tab for grazing cattle on federal lands, a patriot?” Reich wrote. “He drapes himself in the American flag but says ‘I don’t recognize the United States government as even existing,’ while attracting a collection of thugs with assault rifles in the Nevada desert to force the Bureau of Land Management to back down from a court-ordered confiscation of his cattle.” The comment from Reich, who now...

Robert Reich, former Labor Secretary in the Clinton administration, spoke candidly about health care at UC Berkeley on October 26, 2007. In this video he reveals what an honest politician would say, but doesn't for fear of not winning an election. In part: "... [W]hat I'm going to do is I am going to try to reorganize [the American health care system] to be more amenable to treating sick people. But that means you -- particularly you young people, particularly you young healthy people -- you're going to have to pay more. And by the way, we are going to...

Not a single Republican voted for the Democrats’ Affordable Care Act, but one liberal Democrat is nevertheless blaming Republicans for the system that’s debuted to so much criticism. “While Republicans plot new ways to sabotage the Affordable Care Act, it’s easy to forget that for years they’ve been arguing that any comprehensive health insurance system be designed exactly like the one that officially began October 1st, glitches and all,” said Robert Reich, who served as President Bill Clinton’s Labor Secretary. Reich says Democrats should have insisted on a single-payer system because it would have been “cheaper, simpler, and more popular.”...