For conservatives in general and Tea Partiers in particular, South Carolina is often looked to as a model and a harbinger. 150 years later, the birthplace of secession was hailed as a forerunner of the Tea Party movement. Governor Nikki Haley, Rep. Joe Wilson and Senator Jim Demint (who hosted a GOP presidential forum on […]

Unveiling his $3 trillion debt reduction package Monday, President Obama declared, "This is not class warfare. It's math." But for Republican born-again deficit hawks committed to perpetuating the lowest tax burden in 60 years and the highest income inequality in 80, the accusation is that Obama is threatening to restart a class war their side […]

On Thursday, House Speaker John Boehner peppered his address to the Economic Club of Washington with a dozen mentions of America's so-called "job creators." But in claiming that high taxes and unnecessary regulations have "pummeled" his supposed job producers, Boehner willingly misrepresented the source of and solutions to the nation's economic problems. After all, recent […]

With U.S. income inequality at its highest level in 80 years and the total federal tax burden at its lowest in 60, the last thing America needs to do is further reduce the capital gains tax. As a decade of data shows, the Treasury-draining Bush capital gains and dividend tax windfall for the wealthy not […]

When is a tax cut not a tax cut? According to Republicans, when those receiving it are working Americans and the President proposing it is a Democrat. Because after they spent 2010 ensuring the extension of the Bush tax cut windfall for the wealthy by insisting "you should never have to offset the cost of […]

To mark Labor Day 2011, conservative flame-thrower Michelle Malkin offered American workers a look back at the "top 10 union thug moments of the year." As it turns out, Malkin's union-bashing hyperbole differs little from the leading lights of the Republican Party. While Sarah Palin has decried "union thugs," Mitt Romney promised to take on […]

On Friday, Republicans deployed two talking points - one new, one old - in response to the grim news that the U.S. economy added no new jobs in August. The same GOP leaders who in January gave credit to the "newly elected House Republican Majority" for the economy's strong performance in the fourth quarter of […]

Judging from the furious reaction of some of the gilded-class crowd and their Republican protectors, billionaire Warren Buffett struck a nerve with his plea to Congress to "stop coddling the super-rich." Former American Express CEO Harvey Golub and Tea Party sugar daddy Charles Koch were quick to protest respectively "the unfair way taxes are collected" […]

For Republicans hoping to preserve the Bush-era tax cut windfall for the wealthy, the past week was not a happy one. While billionaire Warren Buffett asked Congress to "stop coddling the super-rich," GOP representatives found themselves under attack from constituents who polls show overwhelmingly support debt-reducing tax increases. So, it should come as no surprise […]

With his approval rating at a new low over concerns about the still-ailing economy, President Obama hit the road this week to launch what the AP deemed a "counteroffensive." The only question, to continue the stale military analogy, is whether Obama intends to shore up his center or bolster his flank. Because while the Los […]