How to Safely Scale Down the Fiscal Cliff

How to Safely Scale Down the Fiscal Cliff

Pundits pounced earlier this year when Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned that the country will face a “massive fiscal cliff” at the beginning of 2013. It seemed we had to extend the Bush tax cuts — or else. Lost in these arguments is what...
Fix the Minimum Wage

Fix the Minimum Wage

In most states, working full-time in a minimum-wage job pays $7.25 per hour. That’s just $15,000 a year for full-time work. It’s not enough to live on. In fact, a breadwinner for a family of four earning the minimum wage would be a full $7,000 below the...
Avoiding a 21st-Century Dust Bowl

Avoiding a 21st-Century Dust Bowl

Mother Nature found a cruel way to demonstrate the difference between political rhetoric and reality when this summer’s record-breaking drought coincided with the writing of a new U.S. Farm Bill. The House Agriculture Committee’s draft 2012 Farm Bill will...
How Romney Could Blow Iowa

How Romney Could Blow Iowa

Should Congress renew the wind-energy production tax credit that’s scheduled to expire at the end of 2012? It depends on whom you ask — a Democrat, a Republican, or another Republican. On August 1, Mitt Romney declared his strong opposition to this tax...
Steering Clear of the Iceberg Ahead

Steering Clear of the Iceberg Ahead

“Doomsday!” “Taxmageddon!” “Catastrophe!” Next year will begin with both a bang and a whimper unless Congress can escape its apparently hopeless deadlock. Unless our lawmakers get their act together, there will be the equivalent of...