Historical events, it is said, occur twice: first as tragedy, then as farce. Sometimes, though, as with the latest Republican call for a balanced budget amendment, the farce is double. Even as they call for a budget busting $700 billion tax cut windfall for the wealthiest two percent of Americans, GOP leaders including John Boehner, […]

At a time of record income inequality and massive budget deficits, how do you justify a $700 billion plus tax cut for the wealthiest Americans? By claiming that the fate of the economic recovery depends on the rich - and the rich alone. And with the very top income earners facing a return of their […]

The two weeks have not been kind to the ersatz deficit hawks of the Republican Party. First, the preposterous claims of John Boehner, Mitch McConnell and the legion of new Republican alchemists that tax cuts pay for themselves were thoroughly debunked. Making matters worse, Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) and the 116 members of the House Republican […]

On the day Christina Romer had the unenviable task of announcing another grim jobs report, Americans learned the chairwoman of the Council of Economic Advisers is leaving the Obama administration. Coming just weeks after the departure of popular Obama budget chief Peter Orszag, Romer's exit will leave the White House without two of the key […]

On Sunday, the fact-checking web site Politifact deemed Sarah Palin a "Pants on Fire" liar for her claim that "Democrats are poised now to cause this largest tax increase in U.S. history." (As it turns out, that's just one of the 10 Republican lies about the Bush tax cuts.) Now, the half-term Alaska Governor is […]

The deaths this year of billionaires George Steinbrenner, Dan Duncan and other members of the gilded class have drawn attention to the temporary lapse of the estate tax. After all, even as Republican obstructionism produced a multi-billion dollar windfall for the heirs of some of America's iconic rich, the one-year expiration of the estate tax […]

So it's come down to this. On Saturday, David Stockman, the legendary Reagan budget chief who presided over the Gipper's supply-side tax cuts, announced that the "debt explosion has resulted not from big spending by the Democrats, but instead the Republican Party's embrace, about three decades ago, of the insidious doctrine that deficits don't matter […]

Friday's news that U.S. second quarter economic growth slipped to 2.4% produced shared concern across the political spectrum about the sluggish pace of the recovery. But among economists if not politicians, there is also an overwhelming consensus that without the Obama stimulus program, things would have been much, much worse. Now, a new analysis from […]

Despite his turtle-like appearance and seeming Ambien-induced demeanor, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell can tell a gripping tale. And yesterday on the Senate floor, he told some tall ones. Republicans, it turns out, supported unemployment benefits for the victims of the Bush recession all along. And just days after he joined the Republican Tax Cut […]

Vice President Joe Biden, backed by the overwhelming consensus of economists, is right that the $787 billion Obama stimulus package has succeeded as designed. But as many warned - and the sluggish recovery now sadly seems to confirm - the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) should have been larger. But in blaming the Republicans […]