"Words that make actions speak louder."
In Oregon, citizens mobilized to pass progressive tax hikes — on corporations and families making over $250,000 — to help avoid cuts in children’s and health care programs. Now in Montana, citizens are mobilizing for an initiative to put a cap on the interests pay day lenders can charge — on simple theory that 400% […]
Now is the winter of Democratic discontent. And the knives are out. Liberalism, the Wall Street Journal tells us, has cracked up once more. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704804204575069520491303964.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read Obama, sobered by trying to govern from the left, is said to be tacking to the center, going bipartisan, convening a commission on the deficit, a bipartisan fest on health […]
Yes, there is a class war, Warren Buffett once said, and my class is winning. The IRS study of taxes paid in 2007 makes his point. The top 1% of taxpayers averaged about $138 million in income, and paid taxes at a rate of 16.6%. As Buffett says, their secretaries pay a higher rate. No […]
Evan Bayh abruptly announced he was quitting the Senate days before the filing deadline for his Senate seat, without notice to his constituents, to his colleagues, to his party’s leaders or to the White House. He deprived the Democratic voters in Indiana who had voted him into office of the opportunity of choosing their own […]
Oregon Democrats: Taking on Lobbyists? Oregon Democratic legislators seem to be spaking the corporate lobbyists that opposed the successful initiatives that produced vital revenue by raising corporate and top end taxes. The business lobby thinks so – and isn’t that a good thing? Could someone call this to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s attention. http://is.gd/8wpx9 […]
The Post’s Robert J. Samuelson has been a purblind corproate trade ideologue, preaching its virtues even as the US sank into debt, corporations sent jobs abroad, and global imbalances helped drive the economy off the cliff. But in today’s Post — http://is.gd/8qu3b — it’s clear even Samuelson has been mugged by reality. China, he writes, […]
China has surpassed Germany as the world’s largest exporter. It is the largest holder of American Treasury bonds, nearly $800 billion. America runs its largest trade deficit by far with China. The low-price flood of goods—the Wal-Mart trade—is pervasive. Now the U.S. even runs a growing deficit in advanced technology products. China flouts the rules […]
Americans are angry — Wall Street has been bailed out, and there’s no sign of job growth on Main Street. We know this is important because Sarah Palin’s poll tested tea party speech featured it. We know its important because that was the clear message of Massachusetts. We know its important because the White House […]
Republican leaders — led by the perpetually tanned John Boehner, House Republican leader, and his whip Eric Cantor — are looking to sell themeselves to big bankers angry about financial reform. Cantor says: a lot of bankers who supported Obama are feeling “buyers’ remorse.” His answer? Buy us. The Wall Street Journal reports that Boehner […]
The president rightly calls it a “no brainer.” Direct lending to college students that saves $90 billion in excess subsidies to big banks and uses it to pay for college grants for poor kids and tax breaks for working families to help pay for tuition. This isn’t complicated. The House passed it overwhelmingly last year. […]