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More Work Needed For Progressive Tax Code

Corporations should pay higher taxes, argues James Livingston in NYT oped: "For most of the 1950s, corporate income at large companies was taxed at 52 percent ... by slashing corporate income taxes and forcing a new reliance on payroll taxes to finance government spending, we have redistributed income to the already wealthy ... since when have tax cuts on corporate profits led to increased investment, faster job creation and higher per capita consumption out of rising real wages?"

The current tax system isn't fair, says Joseph Stiglitz in NYT oped: "... as the top 1 percent has grown extremely rich, the effective tax rates they pay have markedly decreased. Our tax system is much less progressive than it was for much of the 20th century. ... We could have a tax system that encourages good things like hard work and thrift and discourages bad things, like rent-seeking, gambling, financial speculation and pollution. Such a tax system could raise far more money than the current one — we wouldn’t have to go through all the wrangling we’ve been going through with sequestration, fiscal cliffs and threats to end Medicare and Social Security as we know it."

Immigration Reform Roadblocks Ahead

Business groups gear up lobbying efforts to alter, or sink, bipartisan deal. Politico: "Several tech lobbyists said they think the Senate Gang of Eight’s plan won’t increase the number of H-1B [foreign worker] visas by nearly enough ... The Senate package is expected to contain a provision that will not allow companies to displace an American worker in the same region and occupation unless the entire number of American workers in that occupation has remained the same or increased. That provision could have a big impact on large companies like IBM, Deloitte and Accenture."

House may not fast-track Senate immigration and gun bills to floor, threatening final passage. Bloomberg: "For all the momentum that the Senate is showing on guns and immigration this week, [GOP strategist Ron] Bonjean notes that Boehner is going to allow 'the legislative process to work its will in the House, meaning that these bills would go through the committees. That would likely slow down the momentum.'"

Dems Divided On Social Security Strategy

Dems split on whether Obama saving Social Security or killing it. Politico: "Many liberals believe that this stance represents a surrender, in politics and substance alike, in what is their side’s most potent class-conflict weapon. But to Obama loyalists, Democrats must act now to preserve their hallowed New Deal and Great Society accomplishments so they’re not emasculated later under a Republican president ... Other Democrats fret that Republicans outfoxed Obama on entitlements. 'He wants to look like a centrist and all he did was let them make him own it,' said Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), co-chairman of the House Progressive Caucus. 'It’s terrible politics.'"

Robert Kuttner argues Obama's premises have been "proven wrong": "The Republicans haven't given an inch, the $270 billion in cuts undertaken so far this year under the January budget deal and the March sequester have cut the growth rate in half, and he is alienating core Democratic constituencies."

Breakfast Sides

"GOP Fights to Rebrand the Party of No" reports Time: "Republican leaders left a party confab in Los Angeles last week in agreement that they can no longer be 'the party of no.' But they were less clear on what to say 'yes' to ... While GOP officials at the party’s spring meeting in Hollywood had plenty of ideas for changing their public rhetoric, however, positive new policy ideas were in shorter supply."

New investigation into suspect bank rate. Bloomberg: "ISDAfix rates at the center of a U.S. price-manipulation probe, while often relegated to the fine print of regulatory filings, help determine everything from borrowing costs on bonds that finance skyscrapers to interest on annuities ... 'Let’s treat this as seriously as we treated the Libor scandal,' said Robert Emerson, head of interest-rate derivatives at SuperDerivatives Inc...."

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