Republicans still refusing to countenance modestly higher tax rates for the wealthiest Americans are facing a moral dilemma. If tax cuts for the gilded-class do not in fact drive economic growth and job creation, then the GOP has been draining the United States Treasury for the sole purpose of needlessly padding the bank accounts of […]

In 2008 and 2012, Barack Obama campaigned on ending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and won resounding victories both times. That policy enjoys strong public support now, just as it has since before Obama dispatched John McCain four years ago. And just last week, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office forecast that Obama's […]

For the second time in as many weeks, an analysis by a nonpartisan agency of Congress has demolished the GOP myth of upper-income taxes and so-called "job creators." Just days before voters headed to the polls, the Congressional Research Service documented that for decades tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans were not correlated to economic […]

As Bill Clinton prepares to take center stage at the 2012 Democratic National Convention on Wednesday night, Republicans have mounted a blistering attack on the President's economic plan. His proposal, the GOP warned, was "class warfare" and a "job killer" which will "kill the current recovery and put us back in a recession" and still […]

The experience of the past three decades shows that for the GOP, there are only two certainties in life: debt and tax cuts. But you'd never know that watching the Republican National Convention, where a massive ticking debt clock and obvious falsehoods like "President Obama has doubled the national debt" nevertheless dominate the proceedings. Of […]

There's an old saying that politicians campaign in poetry and govern in prose. But when it comes to Paul Ryan and his radical GOP budget, Republicans would prefer to campaign in silence and then govern with an axe. While the Grand Old Party would love to enact Ryan's massive tax cut windfall for the wealthy, […]

Cut taxes. Raise defense spending. Balance the budget. That, in a nutshell, is the promise of Mitt Romney's 162-page, 59 point economic plan. But if that refrain sounds hauntingly familiar, it should. After all, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and the leading lights of the Republican Party have been repackaging that same formula for over […]

Introducing his new running mate on Saturday, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney boasted, "We offer solutions that are bold, specific, and achievable." Number Two dutifully followed Number One, as Paul Ryan then promised voters, "We won't duck the tough issues...we will lead." Just not, it turns out, when it comes to the central premise of […]

When it comes to touting bogus presidential endorsements by foreign leaders, candidate George W. Bush is in a class by himself. But while Governor Bush was (easily) duped by a Canadian comedy show into proudly accepting the backing of mythical Prime Minister Jean Poutine, Mitt Romney's misrepresentation of his private conversation with actual Australian foreign […]

With the year-end expiration of the Bush tax cuts and the looming "sequestration" of $1.2 trillion they agreed to during their debt ceiling hostage-taking last summer, the message from Republican leaders is the same as it ever was. Taxes (especially for the rich) must not go up, defense spending must not go down, and the […]