I want to point to John Cassidy’s notion in the New Yorker that Twitter could serve as an adequate platform for electioneering candidates… …What if, rather than presenting a long and tedious speech that would constantly be interrupted by senators and congressmen mugging for the cameras, the President sat in the Oval Office, or anywhere, […]

by Linda Beale Obama’s State of the Union vs Romney’s Tax Returns Obama took the high ground in his state of the union address, where he pointedly noted the importance of applying fair tax rules to ensure that millionaires pay taxes at rates more similar to those paid by secretaries and firefighters. He wants a […]

by Linda Beale Gingrich’s 2010 Tax Return: what it does (and doesn’t) tell us In last Thursday’s debate, Newt Gingrich released his 2010 Gingrich Foundation tax return and the Gingrich Joint Tax return. See Kim Dixon & Marcus Stern, Gingrich tax return out, but much remains unseen, Reuters (Jan. 20, 2012); Paul West, Gingrich tax […]

by Linda Beale Romney to release tax returns Tuesday (finally) Romney’s bitter loss to Newt Gingrich in the Republican primary in South Carolina demonstrated that playing the patrician elite above the fray has its limits as a campaign strategy. Romney’s strategists had apparently thought that they could get away with not releasing tax returns–at least […]

 I sent a link to Beverly to this article which stated Citizen United was not so much about corporate personhood. Here is her response, and in addition in a later e-mail Beverly makes this key point (intro amended for readability): …that no constitutional amendment is necessary in order to nullify Citizens United, because Citizens United actually was […]

op-ed by Beverly Mann Political Opportunity (Not)   The link at the end of Steve Roth’s post yesterday, “American Exceptionalism #238: Opportunity (Not),” is to a post on Sunday by Paul Krugman on his NYT blog, in which he discusses Alan Krueger’s speech last week.  Krugman’s blog entry says:   “Alan Krueger, the chairman of the […]

by Linda Beale Romney Reveals His Tax Rate Is ‘Probably Closer to 15 Percent Source for this article:  Emily Friedman, Romney Reveals His Tax Rate Is ‘Probably Closer to 15 Percent’”, ABC News, Jan. 17, 2012. At a press conference following the GOP debate last night, GOP presumed favored candidate Mitt Romney acknowledged for the first […]

by Linda Beale Romney’s Tax Plan Helps the 1%, Hurts the Bottom 40% In spite of having to suffer some closer view of his Bain Capital time–during which the self-proclaimed “job creator” businessman did a lot of job cutting and destruction of going concerns so that his investors could make more money, Romney continues on […]

Romney’s Tax Proposal The Tax Policy Center provides its review of which taxpayers will pay more and which ones will pay less under the tax proposal introduced by Mitt Romney. A really short summary goes as follows: (a) The well to do will pay less in taxes; (b) The working poor will pay more in […]

Sort of lifted from Robert’s Stochastic Thoughts: Rick Santorum has no use for the Ivy League, or the economists produced therein. (He also expressed doubts about the Republican reliance on economists from the “Australian school.”(Johannas von Quiggin take note) Likely he meant the “Austrian school”. Read more here . Uh. … this isn’t one of […]