Archive
The Class War is So Over
Between 1979 and 2007, the after-tax household income of America’s most affluent 1 percent ballooned by 275 percent, while the bottom 20 percent’s income inched up just 18 percent. The top 1 percent now owns more than an entire third of the nation’s wealth, which is more than the combined wealth of the bottom 90 percent.
A Missile in Every Pot
For the Corporate 1 Percenters, a 50 Percent Tax Discount
Over a quarter century ago, in 1984, the Washington, D.C.-based Citizens for Tax Justice released its first in-depth report on how much America’s top profitable corporations were actually paying in taxes. America’s top companies, this initial study found, were paying only 14.1 percent of their profits in taxes, less than a third of the corporate tax rate then in effect.
The Lineup: Week of Nov. 7-13, 2011
Scorse proposes a deficit-shrinking end to the gap between the capital gains and income tax that would raise more revenue and make the tax code fairer.
The GOP’s Empty Rhetoric on Obama’s Immigration Record
The Obama administration, which is currently deporting a record 400,000 people each year, took a minor step to protect immigrants. Now many Republicans are accusing him of treason. “Potential illegal immigrants may surge across the border making it difficult for the border patrol,” said Rep. Candice Miller (R-MI) at a recent hearing.
Protect the Public Schools’ Whistleblowers
It seems like new reports of scandalous cheating schemes or other wrongdoing at public schools emerge every week. From New York City to Tulsa, Oklahoma, the problem of school corruption is widespread.
What can be done? There’s no surefire solution. Teachers and administrators alike are under pressure to see that an increasing number of objectives are met. The pressure to achieve results can be unbearable. Waste, fraud, and abuse can happen in any bureaucracy — and public schools aren’t immune to those scourges.
Foreign Influence: Inappropriate for Lawmakers Tasked with Shrinking the Deficit
As the dozen members of Congress in the supercommittee strive to agree on a plan to carve at least $1.2 trillion out of the federal budget, lobbyists representing foreign interests are trying to influence them. Since last summer, all 12 of the panel’s members have been contacted by at least one foreign lobbyist. All but two members — Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) — have received campaign contributions from foreign lobbyists, according to Department of Justice records.
Equal Taxation for Wealth and Work
America’s No. 1 problem is sluggish job growth. No. 2 is the explosive growth in the income gap between the favored few and the broad middle class. Fairly taxing income from wealth could make progress on both fronts.
Ask the Columnist: A Primer on Wealth and Taxes
In response to my now famous “the-class-war-is-over-the-rich-guys-won” column, a gentleman from Kentucky writes a rather snarky letter posing several piercing questions that I will now answer.
Shouldn’t Americans Repair America’s Infrastructure?
Listening at last to his inner FDR, President Barack Obama is going straight at the Know-Nothing/Do-Nothing Republicans in Congress.
