I wish to thank Angrybear reader CL for pointing out this bogus argument for repealing the estate tax: Most obviously, a farm or other small business that’s operating at a small profit would, presumably, not be profitable if it maintained the same revenue stream and expenses plus having to essentially buy back half the business […]

Via Andrew Samwick comes the latest from FactDistort.org who attack Senator Reid’s Social Security Calculator with this: In fact, the calculator is rigged. We find it is based on a number of false assumptions and deceptive comparisons. For one thing, it assumes that stocks will yield average returns of only 3 percent per year above […]

Under Kash’s post on the repeal of the estate tax, reader Rupert posted a Wall Street Journal op-ed with the title Hiltonomics. Yes, the Wall Street Journal is defending shifting the tax burden away from deprived Paris Hilton onto the rest of us. Their thesis is that now that she does not have to worry […]

Okay, so much for the bad side of US health care: high costs and mediocre-to-poor average results. But what about the benefits that the “market-driven” US system provides? Sure, the argument goes, the US health care system has some shortcomings – but at least it doesn’t involve long waiting lists for elective procedures, as is […]

As has been well covered in blogland (for just two examples, see Kevin Drum and Josh Marshall) and traditional media, today the House voted to permanently repeal the estate tax. I have nothing substantive to add – my incredulity has long since been shattered by the Republicans’ apparently endless ability to reduce taxes on the […]

I wish to start by thanking the law enforcement officials in various red states for tracking down Eric Rudolph and getting this domestic terrorist to plead guilty. I was not going to say anything about this person given how angry I was over his various attacks on humanity, but the comments of his sister-in-law just […]

POST-AUTHORING NOTE: I see that while I was drafting this Kash wrote a great follow-up post with substantively similar content to this one. But perhaps my take on the issue or, failing that, my graphs, will still be interesting. ************** Given that about one in seven dollars in the U.S. are spent on healthcare (and […]

I’ve been looking for an opportunity to publicly apologize to Maya MacGuineas and this NRO oped makes it easy on me. Maya and Kevin ask “How would Clinton have saved Social Security?” While this may be one of the best NRO opeds not written by Bruce Bartlett, might I take the liberty of adding one […]

Via Mark Thoma comes the latest argument for Bush’s Social Security Deform put forward by the folks at the Heritage Foundation: Yes, because of a bigger crisis that has nothing to do with the program’s solvency. It’s a personal crisis affecting millions of American working families: The program designed for the 1930s is shortchanging them […]

That President Bush weaseled out on his promise to cut farm pork does not surprise me in the least. But it does show that this White House was never serious about giving you your money back or protecting your Social Security benefits. Update: Brad Plumer notes that it might indeed be the time to be […]