A plain blog about politics

Earlier this week, Stan Collender wrote a longish piece about the prospects for tax reform . His bottom line? Don't expect anything unti...

Since I think I'm writing about this soon: holding spending the same, which do you prefer: higher taxes (written, let's say, by libe...

I'm not gong to get full-on cranky at Robert Reich's column today ...only somewhat cranky. Reich's complaint is that politici...

Two more quick notes on the Ryan budget's tax numbers: 1. I said yesterday that what's real about the budget as a whole is that it...

I really like Jonathan Chait on Paul Ryan's new go-to excuse on why Republicans can't close tax "loopholes" to raise reve...

I'm late to this post, so I'm just going to do it scattershot-style... First, I'll give you some links. Of course you're g...

I'm inclined to agree with Ezra Klein's post today that liberals are failing to recognize that this week's fiscal cliff deal was...

Matt Yglesias has a good item this morning about the possibility of pushing back the fiscal cliff deadline . Good topic, and I'm surpris...

The basic, underlying fact of the fiscal cliff negotiations is, well, what you learn in high school civics: the eventual solution will need ...

How about I'll just say that the early-week negotiations over a fiscal cliff deal mattered a lot more than the late-week Plan B fiasco, ...

Happy Birthday to Samuel L. Jackson , 64. Right to the good stuff: 1. Chris Frates in National Journal gets it right on Plan B and the r...

Speaker John Boehner is getting pretty bad reviews pretty much everywhere for his gambit of submitting a Plan B for a House vote, with Plan ...

Happy Birthday to Kristy Swanson , 43. Sure, she's not the real Slayer, and not even the real Mannequin. But so what? The good stuff: ...

To Brad DeLong, for debunking some bad budget history : Why 1970--when nothing happens to derange either the pattern of deficits as a sha...

I completely endorse Kevin Drum's smart post today about liberal complaints about the name "fiscal cliff" for the convergence...

Happy Birthday to Dave Righetti , 54. That's the pitching coach of the World Series Champion (and two-time champion) San Francisco Giant...

Happy Birthday to Joe Biden, 70. The Practically Perfect Veep . Some good stuff: 1. Lessons from 2012 from The Gamble, the campaign boo...

Okay, same question: what would you consider a good solution to the issues involved in the fiscal cliff?

What, in your view, would be a good solution to the issues surrounding the fiscal cliff?

Happy Birthday to Marcia Wallace , 70. Quickly to some good stuff: 1. Dylan Mathews and Ezra Klein bring us a revenue calculator: make M...