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One of the most frustrating aspects of national politics over the past two years is that deficit reduction has become Washington’s top priority — even as economists tell us that austerity only makes economic downturns worse and pollsters tell us that Americans are more worried about job creation than budget shortfalls. President Obama shares the […]

Mitt Romney finally offered up some details yesterday about tax reform, spefically how he would limit tax deductions and broaden the tax base in order to afford the lower tax rates he is proposing. Romney said in Denver: As an option, you could say everybody’s going to get up to a $17,000 deduction. And you […]

We hear so much about polarization these days, that it can be easy to forget that Americans are actually quite unified around certain core values — most notably, the importance of work, community, and individual responsibility. That’s one finding from interesting new research on the American Dream released this week by Public Agenda and the […]

It’s the people who complain loudest about rising debt who most obstruct the solution.

One of the few thin­gs that President Obama and Mitt Romney are likely to agree on when they debate next week is the need for tax reform. Both candidates have backed streamlining America’s crazy-quilt tax code, and both have said that reforms could boost economic growth. Meanwhile, two key congressional committees held a rare bipartisan […]

One article of faith in contemporary political life is that conservatives side with business and progressives are far less friendly to the private sector. In many ways, this is true — judging by the battle lines in Washington, where groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Businesses nearly always […]

What’s wrong credit card companies? Here is an industry that has been repeatedly chastised and penalized for all sorts of bad behavior — an industry that abused its customers so badly for so long, with hidden fees and usurious interest rates, that one of the first things Democrats did when they took control of the […]

Mitt Romney’s release of his 2011 tax rates — which showed that he paid a 14 percent tax rate — has again spotlighted the preferential ways that the tax code treats invested wealth. While a multimillion dollar income earned by an employee — say, a baseball player or a news anchor — would be taxed […]

Conservatives are trumpeting a new video in which a younger Obama embraces the dreaded socialist sin of redistribution. His earlier words will no doubt hurt Obama among some segment of the electorate — even though most voters in both parties, whether they realize it or not, actually favor a host of redistributive policies. Polls have […]

Presidential elections are seldom pretty to watch, but earlier this year there was wide agreement that Americans were in for a serious contest of ideas — with a historic debate over goverment’s role front and center. That seemed all the more likely when Mitt Romney chose super wonk Paul Ryan as his running mate. Now, […]