"Words that make actions speak louder."
Beware of conservatives bearing gifts. Today in the Washington Post, former Bush policy advisor, Michael Gerson echoes a growing chorus of conservatiuve pundits offering up “Social Security reform” as “the answer to Obama’s problems.” The advice is illogical on its face, pernicious in its consequence, and poisoned from its source. Gerson argues that Obama faces […]
I’ve just read the “preport” issued by the Republican gang of four minority on the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC). The preport was a publicity stunt designed to embarrass the Commission, and discredit its report before it is issued. The effort became laughable when it was revealed that all four Republicans had voted in favor […]
Speaker Nancy Pelosi will relinquish the gavel to the perpetually tanned, lachrymose Republican leader John Boehner when the new Congress convenes next January. It will be four years after that January 4, 2007 day when she “broke the marble ceiling” and became the first woman Speaker in the two-century history of the House. At the […]
From naked capitalism.com: “Given its degree of inequality, if New York City were a nation, it would rank 15th worst among 134 countries with respect to income concentration, in between Chile and Honduras. Wall Street, with its stratospheric profits and bonuses, sits within 15 miles of the Bronx—the nation’s poorest county.” The top 1% is […]
The president kicked up his “corporate charm offensive,” meeting for hours with 20 CEOs yesterday. Characteristically, he started with an apology for not “finding the right balance” in addressing business. “We want to be boosters,” he said, because “when you do well, America does well.” The president and the business leaders talked about free trade, […]
The Washington Post publishes a poll showing most Americans support the tax deal. No surprise: selling a tax cut doesn’t require a profile in courage. http://is.gd/iJ0n2 The poll provides two clear cautions to the leaders of both parties. Remarkably, Americans oppose cutting Social Security payroll taxes by two percentage points for all workers – 57% […]
The White House is peddling its tax-cut deal as a needed stimulus plan, a boost to the economy that will create jobs and generate growth. This new-found concern for jobs is laudable, if startling from a White House that has been hawking deficit reduction for months – with a three-year freeze on domestic discretionary spending […]
David Leonhardt in the NYT does a good service by laying out simply what $60 billion a year in tax cuts — the amount that will go to those earning over $250,000 if the Republicans get their way (adding to their income an average of $25,000 per household — with most of that going in […]
Politics is not rocket science. Karl Rove and the political witch doctors like to pretend they can concoct mysterious potions to steal elections, but that’s just con man puffery. Politics really is mostly common sense. Democrats just got “shellacked” in an election. The reason was simple. We had the worst economic downturn since the Great […]
So now we have the deal. In a society of extreme inequality, the rich – well represented by a unified Republican claque – will make out like bandits: An average tax cut of $25,000 a year for the top two percent (with much of it in six figure numbers for the wealthiest of the wealthy). […]