A picture of history

from Peter Radford

There is no serious effort in Washington to deal with our so-called debt crisis. I would like to think this is because people realize we don’t have one, but a more realistic interpretation on non-events is that the Republicans are stuck in a rut of obstruction. They have no policy other than to contradict whatever Obama says. Even if this means contradicting what they themselves said in the past. At the moment this obstruction produces gridlock on any constructive efforts to get the economy moving at a more rapid pace. It also means avoiding negotiating on the budget, even though both the Senate and the House now have working budget proposals. The problem seems to be that were the Republicans to engage in negotiations they wouldn’t be able to engineer a crisis atmosphere within which they could extort excessively. They want, apparently, to wait until we nudge back up against the debt ceiling at which point they can reload their hostage taking weaponry and cause the nation greater mayhem.

Taxes, growth, and inequality in the USA

from David Ruccio

Mankiw and the moochers

from David Ruccio

Greg Mankiw found the latest numbers from the Congressional Budget Office both “illuminating” and “surprising” because they showed that “the effective tax rate is negative for the middle quintile.” The implication was that the middle-class had joined the ranks of those getting more than they contribute, that is, the tax-and-transfer moochers.

Actually, all the CBO numbers demonstrate is that the federal tax and transfer system is mildly progressive. As readers can see in the chart below (which is based on numbers from the same table—supplemental table 7— whence Mankiw obtained his numbers), while the average incomes after taxes and transfers for the first three quintiles is higher than their market incomes, the incomes after taxes and transfers for the top two quintiles are slightly lower.*

Expiration of Bush tax cuts for the 1 percent are a step forward, but not enough

from Mark Weisbrot

President Obama is currently confronting mostly Republican opponents over whether to extend the Bush tax cuts to the richest 1 percent of taxpayers. Between 1979 and 2007, the richest 1 percent received three-fifths of all the income gains in the country. Most of this went to the richest 10th of that 1 percent, people with an average income of $5.6 million (including capital gains).

So this is a no-brainer in terms of fairness: Allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire for the richest 1 percent of Americans would reverse some of the vast upward redistribution of income that has taken place since the late 1970s. However a couple of caveats are in order.

Where has all the surplus gone?

from David Ruccio

Where has all the surplus gone? 

Republican tax plans to date in one convenient graphic

from David Ruccio

Kevin Drum has collected charts showing all the Republican tax plans to date in one convenient graphic.

It’s really pretty spectacular seeing them all together like this. It’s not just the amount of pandering to the super-rich that’s so breathtaking, it’s the lockstep unanimity. At all costs, every single Republican candidate knows that he has to promise the ultra-wealthy a huge tax break as the price of staying in the race. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the modern Republican Party in a nutshell.