Media

Last month, the White House introduced a program that would effectively overhaul the tax code and, as Robert Kuttner put it, "locked [Obama] in as a defender of social insurance and working Americans." The five-pronged tax plan would cut rates and inefficient and unfair tax breaks, increase investment and growth in the United States, reduce the deficit by $1.5 trillion over 10 years and -- most contentiously -- institute the "Buffett rule."

Pop quiz: What’s so bad about the financialization of the U.S. economy over recent decades?

If you’re like most people who are uneasy with the outsized power of finance, chances are you can’t boil down your concerns to a pithy sound bite. So why is there such ridicule of the protesters “occupying” Wall Street for lacking a coherent message?

Mississippi Solar LLC and Electrical Contracting Enterprises LLC install solar panels on poultry houses

The New York Times ran a front page article this morning titled "As Scorn for Vote Grows, Protests Surge around Globe." Nicholas Kulish writes that across the globe, from Spain and Greece to Israel and India, political protests are being motivated not just by rising economic inequality but by a growing feelin

One of the more frustrating, and fundamentally incorrect, arguments continually repeated during the attacks on Solydnra and clean energy investment is that government should not be in the business of “picking winners and losers,” meaning that the government shouldn’t provide incentives or subsidies to any specific industry or business. This argument is wrong both on a factual level and on a policy level. 

With polls showing strong public support for tax hikes on the rich, Republicans should hardly relish a fight with President Obama over “class warfare.” And yet, for weeks, GOP leaders have been bashing the White House for a tax plan that affects just 2 percent of U.S. households and lets the rest of us off the hook.

How is this smart politics?

Two weeks ago, the Census Bureau reported that poverty in America had grown to 15.1 percent, capturing 46.2 million Americans, including over 16 million (22 percent of) children. Further analysis revealed that there was growth in "deep poverty" -- 6.7 perecent of Americans, the most ever, are living at 50 percent of the poverty line. For a two parent, two child household, that's just $11,000.

Were Republicans listening?

There are a great many ways in which the "Buffett rule" is a very clever proposal. It highlights an appalling loophole in the tax code, aligns Obama with America's most successful investor, and has focused attention on how Obama wants to raise taxes on the truly well off, as opposed to all those upper-middle class households making just over $250,000.

If you've heard anything about Mayor Michael Bloomberg and taxes in the past 24 hours, it is surely that Bloomberg slapped down the "Buffett rule". Or as CBS News trumpeted, "Mayor Bloomberg Speaks Out Against President Obama's 'Buffett Rule.'"