“If you strip out the stimulus, discretionary spending over the last few years has been quite modest and is scheduled to go to levels we haven’t experienced in modern times.” ~Robert Reischauer, a former director of the CBO Trying to explain the federal deficit to conservatives is a challenge; very few people actually understand the [...]

As much as Republicans would like to decry President Obama as the 2nd coming of Liberal Satan whose sole mission is to wreck the U.S. economy via some sort of socialist Jihad, the reality is that on some issues President Obama is actually more inline with that of a moderate Republican.  Granted moderate Republicans rarely [...]

The Dow Jones average is as good an indicator of the economy as any; it’s made up of 30 of the largest corporations covering a diverse array of industries (source).  It’s always interesting to watch the conservative argument that somehow President Obama has created an environment that is anti-business and hurt economic growth; it seems [...]

“We’re not on a good trajectory.  The overall number of low-income working families is increasing despite the recovery.” ~Brandon Roberts,Working Poor Families Project The argument of the “takers” vs. the “makers” is a fallacy.  It’s a false dichotomy created by conservatives to divide the working class; prior to the discussion of “takers” vs. “makers” the [...]

“Scientific evidence for warming of the climate system is unequivocal.” ~Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change  In case you didn’t get it. un·e·quiv·o·cal /ˌəniˈkwivəkəl/ Adjective Leaving no doubt; unambiguous: “an unequivocal answer”. Synonyms unambiguous – definite – clear – distinct – explicit Some things are just fact; water is wet, fire is hot and climate change [...]

Most people really don’t understand the federal government’s budgets nor do they really understand government spending.  There has been poll after poll on this (like this one HERE); the problem is everyone thinks they know what they’re talking about because they read some headline or they heard it from someone who works for Fox News [...]

Conservatives like to talk about the debt as if it were about to crush the American economy into oblivion; after all – the U.S. has accumulated more than $16 TRILLION with a T in debt.  That’s pretty scary and conservatives will talk about America’s impending Greece moment.  But forgetting all the Keynesian arguments for why [...]

“<Not raising the debt ceiling> would be a financial disaster, not only for us, but for the worldwide economy.  I don’t think it’s a question that’s even on the table.” ~House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) – January 30, 2011 (source) Republicans are lying to the American people about the debt ceiling and it is interesting to [...]

Right now – all you’re probably hearing about regarding the fiscal cliff is about taxes going up on the middle class; thus far – Republicans have been blocking a permanent extension of tax cuts for the middle class because it doesn’t include tax cuts for the rich.  But beyond just increasing the marginal rates on [...]

For a larger version of this chart – click HERE.  I put this chart above together to highlight productivity by Congressional session (every 2 years) and color coded by the majorities in the House and Senate as well as the Executive branch.  The bar graph on the right is coded to represent control: blue = [...]