Archive
The Six Percenters
Only 6% of Americans think Congress should concentrate on reducing the deficit or changing the tax code, according to the latest CBS News poll. Nearly ten times as many people, 56%, want it to focus on creating jobs and fixing the economy. Guess which set of policies...
Peter Orszags Good Cop Bad Cop Social Security Routine
Former White House budget director Peter Orszag is taking a new approach in his quest to cut Social Security. He's playing progressive "good cop" to to the ultra-right bad cops of the White House deficit commission, Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson. Now that Bowles and...
Deficit Commissions Extreme Proposals Spell Disaster
The following was originally published at New Deal 2.0 The draft proposal released as a surprise yesterday by the two chairmen of President Obama's fiscal commission is conceived and written in panic. It is a profoundly ideological set of policy prescriptions. The...
Ten Reasons the Fiscal Commission Social Security Proposal Should be DOA
The co-chairs of the "Deficit Commission" released their recommendations yesterday. Basically they said that to cut the deficit we need to give a huge tax cut to the rich by cutting top tax rates from the current 35% down to 23%. The middle-class' share of the pain...
Deficit Commission If You Won’t Fire Simpson Keep Your Hands Off Social Security
Hundreds of thousands of Americans have now called for Senator Alan Simpson, co-chair of the White House deficit commission, to step down – after he insulted the head of the Older Women’s League, Ashley Carson, by implying that her dedication to protecting retirees...
Deficit Commissions Rumored Deal Would Pit Middle-Class Seniors Against the Poor
If back-channel sources are correct, the White House deficit commission is finalizing a deal that would increase Social Security benefits slightly for low-income recipients while cutting them for everyone else. The Commissioners apparently believe that putting this...
Over 100 Members Of Congress Demand Deficit Commission Keep Hands Off Social Security
Social Security supporters announced today that over 100 members of Congress are signing a letter to President Obama demanding that the Deficit Commission keep its hands off Social Security. They say that if the deficit commission tries to cut the program they say it...
If Its Sunday Its A Bunch Of Republicans With No Ideas About Jobs
On the day before Congress reconvened in Washington, in the middle of a continuing job crisis, Republicans took to the Sunday talk show airwaves and ... had no ideas what to do about creating jobs. This is not terribly shocking. There have been no actual job creation...
Fight Tuesday For 2 Million Unemployed
There are 2 million people who are about to lose their unemployment benefits starting at the end of this month, and yet there is a real possibility that the lame-duck Congress that starts its work today will just let that happen. Some members of Congress will...
Its About Jobs Not Deficits
What is the matter with people in Washington and New York? There is obviously a jobs emergency and they're talking about deficits -- and in the middle of a frenzy of worrying about deficits they are talking about cutting taxes for the rich! ?? And, to make matters...
