Welcome to the Monkey House

I've been avoiding getting too political here. My last foray into that realm was back in 2008. Sure enough, both my readers were turned off.

But there's just too much crap being thrown around.

One nice place to read about is Wonkblog, Ezra Klein's recurring articles in the Washington Post. Unlike so many blogs he actually cites where he gets his facts and figures.

I like Klein's work. So let's look at them.

Paul Ryan's inequality plan increases inequality: This should not be a surprise to anyone above the intellectual level of a starfish since the Republicans appear to have a vested interest in such inequality. But, like Captain Renault in Casablanca, some people are shocked-- shocked!-- that it could occur.

Bush tax cuts are tripping up the supercommittee: ...and the Republicans are lying about it. What a surprise. What's interesting is his graph. If you look closely it and notice the debt without the tax cuts and the wars, the debt actually begins to decrease or stay the same, depending on how you look at it. But like a giant orange slug, the tax cuts crawl over everything.

Rick Santorum is right about Europe: In which we discover that in this country there's a tightly coupled relationship between father's earnings and son's earnings. This translates into the US have less upward mobility than, say, Finland or Canada. So much for the American Dream.

The corporate income tax in two charts: Corporate taxes range at close to the lowest point ever.

Land of Missed Opportunity: Little points along the way that we could have salvaged something. Anything.

The benefits of doing nothing: If congress does nothing, the deficit drops by $7.1 trillion over ten years. Deadlock now has my vote.

Go enjoy.