Tag: Third Way

I know that admitting that Barack Obama is already the candidate of centrists’ dreams would be awkward, would make it hard to adopt the stance that both sides are equally at fault. But that is the truth.

Paul Krugman, commenting on the seemingly eternal font of “what we need is a mystical centrist third party to fix everything” pieces from the MSM.
What we have now is a right wing party, the GOP, and a center-right wing party, The Democrat. Obama ran as and is governing as a center-right technocrat… and still can’t get much done in the face of blanket GOP opposition.
Sadly, admitting to or even obliquely referencing this reality is an unforgivable heresy and likely as not to get you run out of Serious Person circles forever.
Source: The New York Times

Your Federal Tax Receipt

This should be an automatic part of every single tax return. In fact, tax returns should be so simple that they can be entirely collected by employers with no further action on the part of the vast majority of taxpayers and then said receipt arrives in the form of a post card with your information, where the money is going, and basic information on how to proceed if you think the card’s data is wrong.

Naturally, it is in Congress’ interest to keep tax returns complex (the better to use internecine complexities such that they can make what appear to be juicy carve-outs for all parties) and in the GOP’s interest to maximize both the overall sense of taxpayer outrage at the difficulty and ridiculousness of it all, all the better to play their “ya done got robbed of your money, and for what?” broken record.

Your Federal Tax Receipt