You know that gigantic, $1.5 billion dollar tax cut Republicans gave Michigan businesses this year? I’ve been ranting and raving all year about how it was paid for in part by cutting a cool billion out of education. But there’s still half a billion that came from other places. One of the big cuts was to eliminate the tax exemption […]

Last night the Senate voted for cloture on the tax cut deal the Obama administration negotiated with the Republicans. The vote was 83-15. When was the last time the Senate voted as nearly a single voice on anything?! Somehow this will get spun as a horrendous failure for the president I’m sure. I’m guessing the several million people whose unemployment […]

Gee, what surprise. Turns out most Democrats think Congress should pass the tax cut deal hammered out by president Obama. So says a report by the Pew Research Center and another by ABC News/Washington Post. Republicans like it about the same or even a bit more. Pew Research says 63% support it. ABC/WasPo says 68%. Most of the major self-described […]

On my way to work I pass by a town called Hell, Michigan. This morning it was frosty, frozen and snow-covered. Now I know why. Charles Krauthammer points out what so many on both sides of the political divide seem to have missed: the tax cut/unemployment extension deal negotiated by the Obama administration achieves more progressive goals than it does […]

Like so many other progressives, I’ve been pretty politically-existentially angsty about the recent tax cut deal President Obama struck with the hostage takers Republicans. However, after listening to his press conference yesterday and learning more about it, I’ve come to realize that, not only did he really have no choice but to cut a deal, the deal he got is […]

Remember that dreaded device that Republicans hated so much: Reconciliation? That was the one they said perverted the Constitution when Democrats were looking to use it during health insurance reform. Well, back in the day when George W. Bush was president, Republicans didn’t think it was so danged bad. In fact, they loved them some reck and silly ayshun just […]