Hey, step right up. Come and get it. The biggest agri-business subsidy program in history? You got it. Tariffs that block imported steel? No problem. Giveaway of public lands to timber companies? Fine. More energy subsidies? Sure. A bailout to the airline industry? Why not? The Congress that’s adjourning this week has joined with the […]
Robert Reich
Robert B. Reich, a co-founder of The American Prospect, is a professor of public policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He is the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few, one of the books featured in the Prospect’s High School Essay Contest.
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Whose Tax Cuts?
I’m welcoming myself back to the Prospect by declaring a holiday on the payroll tax. Starting as soon as possible, you’ll be relieved of payroll taxes on the first $20,000 of your annual income. The tax holiday will last two years. Ballpark cost to the government: $700 billion. We’ll pay for it by repealing Bush’s […]
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Cut the Payroll Tax
November 13, 2002 Face it. The economy stinks. Exhibit Number One: The Fed’s decision last week tocut the target rate down to 1.25 percent, the lowest since John F. Kennedy wasin the White House. Alan Greenspan and company are worried. This economy needs some juice or it’sgoing to fall back into a recession, or — […]
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Bush Isn’t Happy This Morning
Broadcast November 6, 2002 George W. Bush must be worried this morning. Why? Because he didn’t want Republicans to control both houses of Congress. Like all first-term presidents, his biggest political goal is to be re-elected. A one-term presidency is considered a flop. Two terms and you get a chapter in the history books named […]
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The States in the Hole
Broadcast October 30, 2002 Now is probably the worst time in living memory to be a state governor (which gives me some small comfort now that I’ve lost my bid to become Governor of Massachusetts). Most states are broke. Altogether they’re in the hole $58 billion this fiscal year. And because most state constitutions don’t […]
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Quick Tax Relief for an Ailing Economy
The New York Times, October 15, 2002 Three weeks before Election Day, most American households are still mired in recession. The American economy lost 43,000 jobs in September, the biggest drop since last February. Many people who were looking for jobs last year have given up. The ratio of jobs to potential workers continues to […]
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Why The Economy Isn’t Being Talked About, Although It’s On Everyone’s Mind
Broadcast October 9, 2002 So how about spending 10 months of your life running for elective office and then losing in a primary? That’s what I did. Sound like fun? It’s good to be back. A political campaign is like a free-floating focus group. You talk with thousands and thousands of people who tell you […]
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Wall Street Can’t Afford to Backtrack on Reform
Broadcast October 23, 2002 There are only two kinds of forecasters when it comes to the stock market — those who don’t know where the market’s going, and those who don’t know they don’t know. I’m in the former category. But I can tell you this. Investors are scared stiff. And it’s not just the […]
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American Vacations
Broadcast July 20, 2001 Summertime, and the living is easy. At least, it is in the song. But for most Americans, there s nothing particularly easy about summer. We re busy working. Forget about a lot of vacation time. The average American worker gets two weeks paid vacation each year. That s it. Two weeks, […]
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What Happened to Marriage
In Washington, a “gaffe” occurs when a high-level official accidentally says what he means. The Bush administration has been remarkably gaffe-free so far, with almost everyone sticking to the same bland script. All except Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, that is, whose gaffes offer a glimpse into the real philosophy of the Bush corporation that now […]
