Archive
Self-Made American Myth #2: Who Makes $250K?
Progressives have suspected for years that working- and middle-class Americans vote for the GOP because they have a deeply unrealistic idea about their real chances of becoming wealthy. We've joked that working stiffs vote for tax cuts and other goodies for the rich...
Simpson & Bowles Show Deficit Commission Is Cover For An Agenda
Watch Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, the co-chairs of the White House deficit commission, on Morning Joe, conflating Social Security and the budget deficit. They have released their own “plan,” separate from what the deficit commission might release, allow the press...
One Week Until Deficit Commission Concludes Time To Speak Out
The White House deficit commission is expected to vote Wednesday, Dec. 1 on a final report of recommendations. And it will likely not be much different than the draft released by its co-chairs Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson. Bowles said last week: "We aren't going to...
Compromise on Social Security and Medicare Why My Center-Left Friends are Wrong
The following was originally published at TPMCafe and CEPR.net In recent days several center-left blogger/columnists have suggested that progressives should be happy to cut a deal now on Social Security and other issues related to the budget. The argument is that the...
The Top Five Priorities Of The New GOP (Hint None Of Them Are Jobs)
Republicans were triumphant in this year's election in part by arguing they would do a better job at creating jobs. But what have they been prioritizing since they won? What are they actually proposing to do now? Here are the biggest actions Republican have taken...
Progressive Breakfast - 11/22/2010
Each morning, Bill Scher and Terrance Heath serve up what progressives need to affect change on the kitchen-table issues families face: jobs, health care, green energy, financial reform, affordable education and retirement security. MORNING MESSAGE: Media Lets Rich...
A Do-It-Yourself Kit for Probing Plutocracy
The rich, many Americans have come to believe, rule. But how? The current hubbub over the federal budget deficit opens a welcome window to understanding just how our rich keep riding so high. How can you tell whether you live in a plutocracy? Easy. Just conduct this...
The Lame Direction of the Lame Duck
Nearly 2 million U.S. workers are facing premature elimination of federally-funded unemployment benefits if Congress doesn't act by November 30. Yet the talk dominating Washington, D.C. these days is about extending George Bush's tax giveaway to the rich. Really? It's...
Why Some Millionaires Say No To The Bush Tax Cuts
Most of the media this week ignored two significant mass defections from the Chamber of Commerce line that the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans must be extended indefinitely, even though doing so will worsen the federal deficit and won't help...
Did The Rich Cause The Deficit
Washington is inundated with deficit commissions. The country has piled up a huge debt because we cut taxes for the wealthy and borrowed to make up the difference. But everyone says we can't fix the problem by raising taxes on the rich in a recession because taxes...
