No compromise

In his blog Paul Krugman makes the point that the stimulus bill before Congress isn’t going to end up with bipartisan support.  The GOP wants tax cuts and the Democrats want spending.  The difference of opinion isn’t so much a debate over the proper course of action, it’s a “collision of fundamentally incompatible world views”.  [...]

Back to the future with Newt

I heard Newt Gingrich on NPR this morning talking about how the GOP can make a comeback.  After saying that small government and tax cuts are the primary feature of the GOP, he went on to say that we shouldn’t get the wrong idea.  The GOP isn’t anti-government.  In fact the smallest government he and [...]

Health care stimulus

One of the strange things about our current economic situation is that, over the long run we need to save MORE, but over the short-term we are saving TOO MUCH.  Over the past ten years or so we have been saving almost nothing and consuming with borrowed money.  And the borrowing was against an illusory [...]

Tax whiplash

Remember a few years ago when the GOP was leading the charge to dimantle save Social Security?  Some of us observed that excess Social Security taxes collected over the past 25 years had intentionally created a $2 trillion trust fund, enough to pay 100% of benefits until 2042 according to the CBO.
No, no, no, said [...]

War on Healthcare

Today’s word: medical underwriting. “the use of medical or health status information in the evaluation of an applicant for coverage”
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As I’ve pointed out before McCain’s healthcare plan relies heavily on state-run high-risk pools; it would essentially eliminate employer-sponsored group insurance by making group premiums non-deductible for employers. Everyone would be given a tax [...]

Social Security “a disgrace”—John McCain

Via TPM, John McCain has apparently taken to calling Social Security an “an absolute disgrace” because
“…we are paying present-day retirees with the taxes paid by young workers in America today. And that’s a disgrace. It’s an absolute disgrace and it’s got to be fixed.”
Josh Marshall asks where’s the disgrace? “That’s how the system was [...]

Medicare Smackdown

As we progressives dream of universal health coverage, one overriding fear clouds the horizon. Who can take on the health insurance lobby? Based on a vote in the House of Representatives last week, one worthy opponent appears to be American Medical Association. The House voted Tuesday on a plan to restrain Medicare [...]

Upside down

Who can point to the exact moment when the conservative movement took hold in the US? Forty-five years ago when Barry Goldwater published his manifesto Conscience of a Conservative is as good a marker as any to my mind. In that book Goldwater called for dismantling most of the activities of the federal [...]

About Face

Social Security is back in the news. Obama wants to change the amount of wages subject to the Social Security tax. Currently only the first $102,000 of earned income is taxable. To shore up SS’s finances Obama wants to subject income above $250,000 to the Social Security tax as well.
My guess is [...]

It’s really very simple

Ross Perot is back–with charts. However, instead of funky flipcharts, he now has a series of cool, web-based, graphics at PerotCharts.com. But the message hasn’t changed: Government Spending is Not Sustainable and we have to DO SOMETHING NOW (subtext: cut entitlement programs).
Jeebus. I used to kind of believe this [...]