No, this isn't a Bernie Sanders infographicPaul Ryan's spokesperson has already chirped in that the bold tax plan President Obama is including in his State of the Union Tuesday is "not a serious plan.
The CRomnibus was pretty horrible because of all the garbage transactional conservatives-- Republicans and a few legislators from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party-- attached to it. All the House Members we respect voted against it, including, of course, Alan Grayson. I don't think it was easy for Grayson to vote NO.
Our coverage of the tax extenders bill the lame duck session is dealing with-- basically more tax breaks for the wealthy-- have all been about the Senate and how the Democratic majority there can still maneuver. Wednesday, though, it was the Republican-controlled House that went first. H.R.
The very very richby Gaius Publius I wrote recently about the lame-duck battle-- behind the scenes and in the press-- being waged over end-of-year "tax extenders." I offered a progressive strategy (repeated below) for maximizing the number of "good" tax credits that would be extended ("renewed"), like credits for renewable energy and expiring-in 2017 expansions of the Earned Income Tax Credit
Trouble for AmericaJohn Nichols post-election piece for The Nation, Democrats: The Party of Pablum, is pretty harsh... but completely on track, a track the geriatric, sclerotic Democratic congressional leadership is now utterly incapable of dealing with.
The debate above on the topic: The Rich Are Taxed Enough-- Robert Reich and Mark Zandi vs Glenn Hubbard and Arthur Laffer-- took place in 2012. At its core, the question came down to whether or not the richest are paying their fair share in taxes.
"When People Cheat, You Cannot As A Regulator Continue Business As Usual"You probably know by now that a great deal of Elizabeth Warren's new book, A Fighting Chance, deals with creating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. "I had no doubt-- zero-- that the banks should be held accountable for breaking the law," she wrote.
Tuesday we were looking at the nexus of democracy-destroying avarice and the outsourcing of public services to private companies. I saw a report from our friends from Americans for Tax Fairness that reveals how WalMart was able to get around $104 million in taxes by handing out lavish "performance-based bonuses to top executives. How's that for a sound use of tax payer money?
The wave of super-charged economic inequality-- spurred by uncontrolled greed and avarice and abetted by sold out politicians-- isn't just drowning the American middle class. This week, the British are being told to get ready for a grim future, with no chance for the vast population to "claw their way out of a hand-to-mouth existence."
