So here's your first article. Yes, it's a Krugman. I won't go overboard with him, but I think this piece is a good place to start.
The biggest political issue right now is the jobs bill Obama announced two weeks ago. Not much to it really, just some tax cuts and spending on things like infrastructure and hiring teachers. At first, the Republican leadership acted open to some of the ideas, but their tone has reverted from ever ever ever so slightly cooperative back to confrontational in the past couple weeks.
There are a couple reasons for the Republicans to obstruct rather than work with the President (the fact that he's unpopular and that passing anything will give the Republican Party some ownership of the economy are two big ones). But a major a cause of Republican obstinacy has to come from the way the President plans on paying for the bill: raising the tax level on wealthy Americans. It's a supremely reasonable proposal, but it has been met with a good share of political drama.
I like Krugman's take on it all. There are a couple things I would like you to note. First, he cites the Congressional Budget Office. Any time a statistic or projection is mentioned check out who's making it. If it's a think tank, be skeptical until wikipediaing the group (if it's Heritage Foundation just disregard it entirely). CBO is good though. Second, he debunks the "rich pay way more in taxes" argument. That's the first argument you'll hear from anyone who opposes tax increases on the wealthy and it's useful to know why the claim is so deceptive.
Take a read and let me know what you think.
The Social Contract - Paul Krugman
My first thoughts after reading this article were "how can you argue with that" but that is really the saddest part of this whole thing I suppose. No matter how clear the point s made are and no matter how much factual backing they may have and even no matter how much these point may transcend party politics republicans are not going to back down. They have effectively created a principle of greed. This is especially apparent when you think of what Warren said about giving back to the society you climbed up through.It is as if they are more willing to see society crumble rather than give up a portion of the wealth they made from that society. What really baffles me though, and perhaps it is something you can clear up, is that a large majority of the republican party falls outside of this demographic of the top 1% and even those just over the 1 million a year income so how is it that the entire party can go on agreeing with them. How can so many people be satiated with the idea that the wealth will "trickle down" or that this will support job creation when it so obviously has not. Can't they realize they are being dragged down with the rest of the country while those that create these ideas get barely a scratch on them?
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