In his State of the Union address, President Obama insisted on the need to protect Social Security and ensure that future generations can depend on it, and he urged bipartisanship in strengthening Social Security, “without slashing benefits” or privatization.

Here’s some news that gets buried in the normal the-sky-is-falling Social Security coverage. Although the weak economy is having a short-term impact on Social Security’s finances, Social Security is still projected to run an $868 billion surplus over the next decade, according to a new report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

Today, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue issued a rare joint statement supporting “Obama’s call to create jobs and grow the U.S. economy through investment in our nation’s infrastructure.” Trumka and Donohue said:

Whether it is building roads, bridges, high-speed broadband, energy systems and schools, these projects not only create jobs and demand for businesses, they are an investment in building the modern infrastructure our country needs to compete in a global economy.

In a new video, National Nurses United (NNU) brings nurses and citizens across the country together to say, “Stand Up, President Obama! We’re looking for the president we voted for.” They’re urging him to stand up to corporate power and monied interests.

If new House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) gets everything on his budget-cutting wish list, it would be, says a new analysis from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI):

a massive transfer of wealth from the middle class to wealthy Americans and corporations and a wholesale dismantling of the social programs that all Americans rely on, including Medicare and Social Security.

Tomorrow, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka will detail the choices elected leaders across the country are facing and outline working people’s vision for the future of the American economy when he delivers a major speech at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

Children working in factories, picking crops and hauling lumber on construction sites is a vision Mike Lee, the Republican senator from Utah, apparently wants to make a reality again in the United States. In a lecture on his YouTube channel, Lee explains in great detail why he believes U.S. child labor laws are unconstitutional.

Our friends at the Transport Workers (TWU) have taken a light-hearted video look at rather serious subject: how Republicans might use their new found congressional strength and powers.