Working Life

   Much of the debate about the deal cut between the White House and Republicans is focused on what could or could not get done, and the notion that the president got the best deal he could get given the circumstances. I think there is still a legitimate point to be made that even given […]

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   Trying to advance the theme a bit here–since there are enough people correctly taking the White House to task for capitulating to the Republicans on the tax cuts for the very rich–I’d like to raise our eyes up a bit eyer to two years out.    The president just said, at a news conference, […]

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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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    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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   The first act of surrender will be the opening up of the Treasury to the rich: President Barack Obama is open to considering the extension of all Bush-era tax cuts for a year or two, the White House confirmed Thursday, putting to a likely end any debate over whether to extend the breaks for […]

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The secret money flowing into organizations trying to buy the November election for the Republican Party is motivated by a simple idea: greed. Sure, there is some rhetoric about "smaller government" and ranting about the evils of national health care. But, at the end of the day, it’s about extremely rich people never having enough. […]

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  We are still not being serious about asking people to pay their fair share: Taxes on high-income earners would rise by nearly $1 trillion over the next 10 years, under the budget plan put forward by President Barack Obama on Monday. The bulk of that increase comes as tax cuts enacted under President George […]

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   I’m going to be on CNBC today at 1 p.m. to discuss this article in today’s NYTimes: The rich, as a group, are no longer getting richer. Over the last two years, they have become poorer. And many may not return to their old levels of wealth and income anytime soon. For every investment […]

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   Regular readers here know that I have been pressing the case to significantly raise the dues paid by the people who have reaped hundreds of billions of dollars in the past decade–an entirely disproportionate haul pocketed by the top one percent of the population. Well, a bit of that idea is starting to creep […]

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   I can’t help but laugh at the transparent crap passed around by the protectors of the financial kingdom. In a column in today’s Wall Street Journal, Roger Altman writes under the headline, "We’ll Need To Raise Taxes Soon". Altman’s tagline for his bio reads: "founder and chairman of Evercore Partners, was deputy secretary of […]

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