“We are the 99% . . . You are the 99%.” “Banks got bailed out / We got sold out!” “Whose street? Our street!” * This Is Not the Fringe. This Is the Middle Class. Yesterday into last night we gathered near New York’s City Hall and marched with what looked and felt...
Kumbaya for Billionaires
2001 Bush Tax Cuts: Where the Deficit Began
Those intrepid researchers at Think Progress have dug up a headline from Aug. 1, 2001—almost exactly 10 years ago—that shows the long-bleeding fiscal damage done by the Bush tax cuts. Only six months into his first term, after George W. Bush inherited a budget surplus...
How Deep Is Our Disgust with Obama and PussyDems
Obama and Democrats Must Defend Social Security, Medicare—and the Middle Class—Before They’re Gone In “Our Cowardly Congress,” New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof points out that last week’s Shutdown standoff happened only because the cowardly Democrats—the...
Taxing the Rich: Still a Good and Fair Idea
Budget cutting is all the rage; a recent attempt to let the Bush-era tax cuts expire was defeated by Obama’s deal with the Republican congressional leadership. (See our reaction to that regrettable deal here and here.) In this time of (unnecessary) revenue shortfalls...
A Letter from Senator Mary Landrieu
* Landrieu on Her Reluctant Vote for the Republican Obama Tax Deal In December during the fight against renewal of the Bush tax cuts (now the Republican Obama tax cuts) for millionaires and billionaires, we posted a tribute to Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu’s strong...
Yes We Can Pass Good Legislation
Our last post was illustrated with a big YES and this can do no less. Congratulations to the 111th Congress—especially Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (with emphasis on “Leader”) and the suddenly productive Senate in the last days of this so-called lame duck...
Sanctimonious Purists Unite
“People will have the satisfaction of having a purist position, and no victories for the American people. And we will be able to feel good about ourselves, and sanctimonious about how pure our intensions are and how tough we are.” —President Obama, in reply to a...
No “Kumbaya” for Billionaires
$ [ cross-posted at Daily Kos ] Today when the New York Times reports “Tax Cut Timing Is Proving Problematic for Democrats,” we faxed and mailed the following letter to President Obama and sent similar messages to his economic team (Goolsbee, Bernstein, Elizabeth...