Politics and Government Links

US Taxes: Enough Already, Or Not?

In the year 2000 combined Federal, State, and local taxes were 14.4 percent of personal income. In 2009, the total combined taxes were down to 9.4 percent of personal income. So that’s a 5% difference, or a decline of 34.7% !

Pakistan Is Increasing Its Nukes Arsenal At An Astonishing Rate

American Boots Hit the Ground in Somalia After Drone Attacks

Chart: The Rise of Food Stamps

A Brand New Richard Koo Lecture On Why The Government's New Economic Policy Is Insane

Case for a Balanced Budget Amendment; Charts of the Day: Transfer Payments (Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps, etc.) vs. Total Government Receipts

Nearly every dime of federal government receipts goes to personal transfer payments.
Between 1960 and 1970, personal transfer payments were 30-35% of federal government receipts.
From 1980-2000 the percentage fluctuated between 50% and 65%.
If (when) the economy slips back into recession personal transfer payments will exceed 100% of federal government receipts.

Boeing Overcharged Army Up to 177,000 Percent on Helicopter Spare Parts

The Army's $2.7 Billion Computer Designed To Help Troops In Iraq And Afghanistan Doesn't Work

The Eight Outrageous Costs Of The War On Terror

The Supreme Court’s continuing defense of the powerful

Nonetheless, pay heed to how this conservative court majority bristles at nearly every effort to give the less wealthy and less powerful an opportunity to prevail, whether at the ballot box or in the courtroom. Not since the Gilded Age has a Supreme Court been so determined to strengthen the hand of corporations and the wealthy. Thus the importance of the Wal-Mart and AT&T cases, the latter described by the New York Times as “a devastating blow to consumer rights.” Will the court now feel so full of its power that it takes on the executive and legislative branches over the health-care law?
In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt warned that the courts had “grown to occupy a position unknown in any other country, a position of superiority over both the legislature and the executive.” Worse, “privilege has entrenched itself in many courts just as it formerly entrenched itself in many legislative bodies and in many executive offices.”
What happens to a democracy when its highest court dedicates itself to defending privilege? That’s the unfortunate experiment on which we are now embarked.