Working Life

The government’s deficit and debt are not a big crisis. It’s not even a little crisis. It’s not a crisis at all. What is most disturbing is how many liberals/progressives have thrown in the towel and are basically taking the line "there is a crisis but we have a better way of dealing with it". […]

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This coming week, the drumbeat will get louder with the rhetoric about the phony government debt/deficit "crisis". I’ll be writing more about this in conjunction with my new book, "It’s Not Raining, We’re Getting Peed On: The Scam of the Deficit Crisis". Today, I thought I’d focus on this specific point: debt is not a […]

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   Nice to know that, even though we are suffering through massive unemployment and economic despair, the very people who caused that despair are having a good time: Two years after the onset of the financial crisis, the stock market is recovering and Wall Street’s moneyed elite are breathing easier again. And this means in […]

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I have a new book out today: It’s Not Raining, We’re Getting Peed On: The Scam of the Deficit Crisis. You can get it here at the site or get a really cool version on Kindle or Nook–click the image over there on the right for more details.  {attachment id=162 size=medium}    The upshot can […]

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   Glad this is out, from the Congressional Budget Office: By contrast, policies that would temporarily increase the aftertax income of people with relatively high income, such as an across-the-board reduction in income taxes or an increase in the exemption amount for the AMT, would have smaller effects because such tax cuts would probably not […]

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The swamp has not been drained. Throw them all in jail. The Wall Street Journal today: Federal authorities, capping a three-year investigation, are preparing insider-trading charges that could ensnare consultants, investment bankers, hedge-fund and mutual-fund traders and analysts across the nation, according to people familiar with the matter. The criminal and civil probes, which authorities […]

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   Pollster extraordinare Celinda Lake has these results: Opposition to cutting Social Security benefits in order to reduce the deficit • Overall: 82% oppose cuts, 15% support cuts • By Party: Democrats (83% to 15%), Independents (78% to 17%), Republicans (82% to 15%), Tea Party Supporters (74% to 13%) Opposition to cutting Social Security to […]

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    Frankly, this is good news: WASHINGTON—The bipartisan commission examining how to cut the federal debt ended three days of closed-door meetings Thursday without a firm agreement among its 18 members, with several saying the panel was still at odds over how to contain the ballooning costs of health care.    The Commission should just […]

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I have to confess to being entirely bored by the House leadership drama. The idea that somehow shaking up the leadership would send a message that the party "has heard" the people is good satire but not serious debate–particularly when not a murmur is heard when the DCCC decides to throw a party under the […]

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    Let’s see. Republicans are trying to save us all from the phony deficit "crisis". So, they announce this: Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, drove the point home as soon as the Senate convened by announcing that he would support a proposed ban on Congressional earmarks, reversing his longtime practice of avidly […]

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