Remember the state fiscal crisis, when state treasuries were running out of money because revenues (aka taxes) were down and cuts to education, health care, public safety and roads were the flavor of the day?

One of the little known factors behind this loss of revenue to state treasuries—and this is hard to believe—is that in 19 states, with Pennsylvania on the verge of becoming number 20, corporations are pocketing workers’ state income taxes instead of sending the weekly withholding to the state where it could be used to help pay for education, health care, public safety and roads.   

Mitt Romney’s bid for the presidency is built on the idea that his success in the leveraged buyout industry and the fabulous wealth he’s accumulated is evidence that he knows how to create jobs and foster economic growth. He argued in Tuesday night’s debate that we should just trust him when he says he can cut the deficit and cut taxes by 20% across the board because of his credentials as a leveraged buyout titan.

The problem with Romney’s argument is that the leveraged buyout business does not create jobs. The tax breaks that the industry relies on, like the discounted tax rate for capital gains and offshore tax shelters, add tens of billions of dollars each year to the deficit.

Today, The Nation is reporting on yet another example of how Romney and the shadowy private investment industry really makes its money—offshoring jobs, taxpayer subsidies and bailouts and cutting workers’ pensions.

A total of 84,350 pension plans have vanished since 1985. This figure shocked Pulitzer Prize-winning authors Donald L. Barlett and James W. Steele, who just released their latest book, "The Betrayal of the American Dream." Their chapter on retirement chronicles the heist of the American dream's secure retirement by the financial elite and is a very important section of the book, says Steele, who spoke with the AFL-CIO about the retirement crisis. Steele says there's another number we should pay attention to: $17,686. That's the median value of 401(k) accounts in 2011. For most working people, the amount in their 401(k) account would pay them less than $80 a month for life.

In an era when the rich and powerful line their own pockets at the expense of workers, homeowners and investors, New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is striking a blow for accountability and equal justice, says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. 

Schneiderman just filed a lawsuit against Bear Stearns alleging that the former investment bank created fraudulent mortgage-backed securities.

David Groves of The Stand, a project of the Washington State Labor Council (WSLC) and its affiliated unions, sends us "‘Small’ NFIB Gets GOP Funders’ Big Bucks."

The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) promotes itself as a “non-profit, non-partisan organization” that is “the leading small business association representing small and independent business.”

For a business group so focused on “small” it says it twice, the NFIB reportedly gets a lot of its funding from the biggest names in Republican politics, including Karl Rove and the Koch brothers. As for the “independent” part, the NFIB’s political and legislative agendas at both the national and Washington state levels align closely with the Republican Party and big—not small—corporate interests.

We’ve traced the fingerprints of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) to the growing voter suppression efforts in more than a dozen states under Republican control in recent election season blog posts. But don’t forget that the extremist, corporate-backed ALEC is attacking working families on many fronts. A new report from In the Public Interest tracks ALEC’s footprints down the path of privatization.

After Mallory Factor appeared on "Morning Joe" this morning, Jeff Hauser sends us this report.

What type of person comments on a generation of declining union membership and increasing inequality and blames unions?

What type of person looks back at America’s economy—after decades of deregulation followed by economic bubbles and misery for the 99% of people who work hard for a living—and blames unions?

It takes someone who combines an ear for dishonest public relations spin with a large wallet linked to the continued enrichment of Wall Street tycoons.

Mallory Factor is someone who understands that the banking industry’s bad reputation for destroying the world’s economy requires a diversion, a scapegoat. That he would write a book focusing on blaming unions, rather than his Wall Street peers, is entirely

Lately we’ve been talking about the vast amounts of money that the super-wealthy have been pouring into politics with the hope of buying elections for pro-corporations, anti-worker candidates who will further tip the scales of power against working people’s interests.

One of the key front groups for the 1 percent is Crossroads. “Crossroads” is actually multiple groups formed by former GOP operatives Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie, with the shared goal of electing anti-worker candidates. The most important entities within the Crossroads family are American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS. 

Although Mitt Romney continues to try and distance himself from his record of offshoring U.S. jobs overseas during his tenure at Bain Capital, a new report by the Financial Times’ Robin Harding shows there were even more anti-worker tactics occurring under Romney’s watch at the company. Now we might understand more about why he boasted earlier this year that he’s “taken on union bosses before.”

According to U.S. District Court and federal documents, Key Airlines, controlled by Bain Capital at the time, ran an unlawful campaign to stop the organization of a union in the 1980s. Mitt Romney was a director of the airline, according to regulatory filings, and a shareholder in the company. The Financial Times put together this report with documents from the National Mediation Board in 1986 and a 1992 judgment in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada.

We’ve seen this movie before. A company goes before a local or state government and promises jobs and an economic boost, but they need just one little thing first—tax breaks! But after pocketing taxpayers’ money, guess what? No jobs, just broken promises. (See T-Mobile.)

This week in Fort Wayne, Ind., the Northeast Indiana Central Labor Council had enough.