Among the more comic moments of last week's right-wing tea-bagging extravaganza was the plea from former Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer to save the rich. But even as Fleischer wrongly fretted that "their burden keeps getting heavier," new data from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) revealed the income gap between rich and poor tripled between […]

The truth may set you free, but not if you're a Republican and the subject is taxes. After all, 95% of American families as promised received a tax cut from the Obama stimulus package. And while three-quarters of Americans support President Obama's proposal to roll back the Bush tax cuts for those earning over $250,000 […]

Back in 2004, President Bush rejected John Kerry's plans to roll back the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, arguing, "The really rich people figure out how to dodge taxes anyway." Now five years later, supply side snake oil salesman Arthur Laffer has resurrected the Bush claim. Barack Obama will raise taxes on lower and […]

If nothing else, the conservative movement is an irony producing machine. Aided and abetted by their echo chamber at Fox News, on Tax Day next week members of the raging right will gather at so-called Tea Parties around the country. There, the protesters, at least 95% of whom received a tax cut courtesy of President […]

Despite the predictable cries of "socialism" and "class warfare" from the raging right, support for President Obama's plan to return upper income tax rates to Clinton-era levels continues to enjoy overwhelming public support. That is one of the headlines from the latest CBS/New York Times poll which showed 74% back a tax increase for households […]

In 2001, President Bush waged a largely successful campaign to curb the estate tax. But eight years after denouncing that scourge of the ultra-rich, Republicans have resurrected their "death tax" talking point, complete with its repeatedly debunked claims about the impact of estate levies on small businesses and family farms. Even as they decry the […]

It may be April Fool's Day 2009, but the Republican Party is playing the same joke on the American people. After brushing off last week's calamitous Republican "road to recovery" blueprint as a "marketing document," Rep. Paul Ryan unveiled the GOP's alternative budget in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. In it, Ryan offers the same […]

"Reagan," Dick Cheney once famously declared, "proved that deficits don't matter." Not, that is, when a Republican is sitting in the Oval Office, as the tripling of the U.S. national debt under Ronald Reagan and doubling under George W. Bush confirmed. Now with the mystery budget unveiled to great fanfare - and even greater laughter […]

Even as President Obama prepared to meet with the CEO's of the nation's largest banks and financial institutions, his detractors' hysteria about his plans to rescue the economy reached a fever pitch. In Washington, GOP leaders decried Obama's "banana republic" budget, only to unveil warmed-over tax cuts certain enrich the wealthiest Americans while accelerating the […]

During President Obama's press conference Tuesday, NBC White House correspondent Chuck Todd demonstrated once again why he ought to return to his previous role as a political analyst. Even as Americans are losing their jobs, homes and retirement savings, Todd asked the President "why haven't you asked for something specific that the public should be […]