How “bracket creep” (the good kind) could make the long-term fiscal outlook better than everyone thinks.
taxes
Posted inGovernment, July/August 2011, Magazine
Playing Chicken with History
If America really is threatened by a growing mountain of debt, shouldn’t the wealthy help out by paying higher taxes? Most voters think so, according to polls, and for good reason. The rich have enjoyed staggering run-ups in their incomes and net worth in recent years, while average Americans have barely treaded water. Yet the […]
Posted inGovernment, July/August 2011, Magazine
20,000 Leagues Under the State
Beneath the surface of American government lurks a system of social programs for the wealthy that is consuming the federal budget. It’s time for progressives to do battle with tax expenditures.
Posted inGovernment, Magazine, March/April 2011
Clean Up As You Cook
Every generation, official Washington suddenly notices that the tax code has become unfathomably complex and loophole ridden and therefore needs to be simplified for the sake of fairness and economic efficiency. Major tax reform legislation passed in 1954, 1969, and 1986, and we’re due for another round. Indeed, there seems to be enough genuine interest […]
Posted inJuly 1997, Magazine
The Real Class War
When it comes to taxes, it’s the rich against the rest of us.
Posted inMagazine
Middle Class Hero
Letting his ego out for a trot, Kevin Phillips begins Boiling Point by observing that during last year’s presidential campaign, Bill Clinton, Ross Perot, Pat Buchanan, Tom Harkin, Mario Cuomo, Jerry Brown, Lloyd Bentsen, Douglas Wilder, and Dick Gephardt all demonstrated that they had either read his last book, The Politics of Rich and Poor, “or drawn […]
Posted inMagazine
Tilting at Windmills
There are four reasons why I strongly suspect that Reagan will not recover from Irangate. The press now smells blood and will aggressively pursue any hint of scandal. Many stones they overturn will have nothing under them, but they will find enough dirt to keep the administration’s reputation thoroughly soiled. In addition, because there are […]
Posted inMagazine
Neoliberalism Without A Heart
Politicians almost never allow us a glimpse into what’s really going on in their minds. So when Dick Lamm, Colorado’s “Governor Gloom,” does, it’s hard to resist the urge to perform armchair psychoanalysis. This book is about the major problems facing the United States today, but it is elaborately set up as a work of […]
