by Linda Beale Perry’s Flat Tax and other “bold reform” ideas in context of the richer 1% The hard right candidates of the GOP are competing to set forth plans that demonstrate their utter and complete loyalty to the right’s  “make the rich richer and make businesses less accountable” economic program. This program involves the tired […]

by Linda Beal Perry’s Flat Tax Proposal The Atlantic has a good summary article contrasting Perry’s Flat Tax proposal (an alternative choice to the income tax, that is modeled after Steve Forbe’s flat tax, which will result in much lower taxes for the wealthy because of the deductions it retains along with the zero taxation […]

by Mike Kimel A very interesting video from Think Progress juxtaposes a speech by Barack Obama with a speech by Reagan. In it, Reagan says: We’re going to close the unproductive tax loopholes that allow some of the truly wealthy to avoid paying their fair share. In theory, some of those loopholes were understandable, but […]

If your question—correctly—is “why Axelrod and Plouffe were satisfied,” then you have to think like people whose vote support came, in some significant numbers, from people who were just entering the workforce in 2008 (and who did not show up in 2010 because, having entered, they found they were unwelcome). Which means, if you’re any […]

By Linda Beale Disaster Aid Disaster Averted, barely. Once again, Republicans intent on obstructing the normal operation of the federal government unless they can extract cuts to programs they don’t like (in the name of deficit reduction) applied the combination of House recalcitrance and Senate anti-majoritarian filibuster to threaten a government shutdown and siderail needed […]

Think Progress carries quotes from the Presidential contenders and election slogans The release of this plan immediately spurred the natural Republican tax apoplexy, with the GOP presidential candidates decrying tax increases as a surefire way to destroy jobs: MITT ROMNEY: President Obama’s plan to raise taxes will have a crushing impact on economic growth. Higher […]

by Linda Beale Jobs as the Measure of Economic Success, and Rick Perry’s Texas We have had a warped sense of how to measure economic success in this country at least since George W. Bush started talking about the “ownership” society.  Of course, we should have guessed that moniker was problematic from the start, since […]

Angry Bear PGL wrote this post in 2007 reflecting the shape of politics and media soundbites of this current and constant election campaigning over the current two years to 2012 elections: In case Mr. Romney hasn’t seen my question. let me restate it. How will you address the long-run fiscal problem, that is, will you […]

by Mike Kimel Some thoughts on the next presidential election. 1. It seems to be a political truism that only Nixon could go to China. 2. Once a precedent is set, even taboo activities become OK. Clinton could go to China because Nixon had already gone. 3. Obama seems willing to, er, “fix” a number […]

Fitch won’t downgrade the U.S., but they have downgraded Chirstiedom, officially because he didn’t pillage the state’s severely-underfunded Pension Funds enough. Of course, those Pension Funds wouldn’t be so underfunded if they had been funded instead of f*ck*d by the Whitman Administration’s Coke-Induced Budgeting Practices. (The “miracle of compound interest” includes that it doesn’t compound […]