• MORNING MESSAGE: Don't Lower Taxes For Billionaires. Double Them.
• Romney Shakes Up The Etch-a-Sketch Again
• Schumer Draws Grand Bargain Line

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Forget the "Buffett rule." It's not enough. What's more, "letting the Bush tax cuts expire for the rich" isn't enough either - although it might get us halfway there.

As for that "Simpson Bowles" so-called "deficit reduction" plan: It's a hoax, another ploy to give the ultra-rich yet another huge tax cut - unless you believe that the lobbying fairy will magically grant a wish that's never been granted before: an end to billionaires' loopholes.

If you buy that - which I don't - then the plan's just grossly unfair.

The real moment of truth Washington won't face is this one: It's time to admit that we can't rebuild our economy - or balance the Federal budget - without raising taxes on the very wealthy. That's what Simpson, Bowles, and all their highly-funded friends won't tell you: We need to raise their taxes a lot.

And by "a lot," I mean doubling them.

Left Is Right

Let's be clear: I'm not talking about imposing sharp increases on incomes over $250,000 or even $500,000, at least not until the economy's healthier. At those levels an expiration of the Bush tax cuts would probably be enough. But once you hit income of a million dollars a year and over, we should go back to the higher tax rates that were in place for millionaires during the Nixon years.

That's right: When it comes to taxes, Nixon's the One. And Eisenhower was much stronger on these issues than Nixon.

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As Atrios says, you've got to love the framing of this article:

WASHINGTON — Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, the Senate’s third-ranking Democrat, threw cold water Tuesday on what had been an emerging consensus for a bipartisan deficit- reduction plan — an overhaul of the tax code that lowers top income tax rates but raises more revenue. Mr. Schumer’s position greatly complicates efforts to win bipartisan support for a deal before January, when the “fiscal cliff” of tax increases and automatic spending cuts goes into effect.

That bastard, coming along and ruining everything.

But the meat of the article is interesting, because it shows that Shumer is doing no such thing:

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He botched the debate despite his reputation as a great communicator. He gave long-winded answers that were hard to follow. He got lost in the weeds of economic and fiscal statistics . His speech was halting. He was defensive. He forgot to smile.

I'm talking about Ronald Reagan and the first debate of his 1984 re-election campaign.

Reagan, like every elected incumbent President before and after him (save for Bill Clinton in 1996), had a bad first debate. There are several possible reasons for this. The incumbent's record is on trial and it's always imperfect, inherently putting him on the defensive. There's a reluctance to sacrifice gravitas and "punch down" at the challenger. Presidents have day jobs and can't focus on debate prep.

Furthermore, an incumbent has never lost a lead because of a bad debate performance. Mere theatrics does not throw all past performance on the job, all economic reality, all national security reality, out the window. An incumbent has a record, and after four years people know it.

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Originally posted at Capital Gains and Games.

How ridiculous is the fiscal cliff debate? The answer is that it’s off-the-wall crazy. Consider the following.

The tax increases and spending cuts that will go into effect as part of the fiscal cliff are the absolutely wrong fiscal policy for the start of 2013 unless you think that causing a recession is a good idea.

Although he had to coin the phrase “fiscal cliff” to express himself, a recession is precisely what one of this country’s most important economic policymakers — the chairman of the Federal Reserve — has been talking about with increasing urgency since early this year to anyone who will listen. It’s also what Wall Street economists have now validated with their recent forecasts and what the Congressional Budget Office — Capitol Hill’s numbers-crunching priesthood — has said directly and unambiguously to Congress itself. In other words, why is the fiscal cliff even a possibility?

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"I’m gonna float like a butterfly and sting like a bee;
George can’t hit what his hands can’t see;
Now you see me, now you don’t;
He thinks he will, but I know he won’t." ~ Muhammad Ali

At last week’s presidential debate, Mitt Romney floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee.

He punched and parried, feigning the great Muhammad Ali.

Any likeness between the two is, however, mere illusion. America has seen victory by Muhammad Ali. America worked through disputes with Muhammad Ali. Now America admires Muhammad Ali. And Mitt Romney is no champion. Instead, Romney's a magic man. He employs sleight of hand. He uses smoke and mirrors to confuse and obscure. Unlike President Obama, Mitt doesn't do math. He performs tricks, sorta like Muhammad Ali said in his rhyme – Now you see severely conservative Romney, now you don’t. The GOP nominee asks Americans to engage in magical thinking – to believe his hocus-pocus is not just a stage show but will actually painlessly solve problems.

Last week, Romney promoted his magic show during the debate. He promised his performance as president would be fabulous, stupendous, unprecedented! He bragged:

“My plan is not like anything that’s been tried before.”

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• MORNING MESSAGE: Workers Blocking Bain Trucks Shipping Jobs To China
• Romney's Tries Late Etch-a-Sketch
• Super PACs May Tip House Races
• Debt At 6-Year Low

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Note - See also, Is This Why Romney Won't Talk To Sensata Workers Whose Jobs Are Being Shipped To China?

Sensata is a Bain-owned company that is closing a factory in in Freeport, Il to move the jobs to China. The workers have set up a camp they call "Bainport" and workers and supporters are trying to block the Bain trucks that are moving equipment out to ship to China right now. In breaking news there were arrests made today.

Last week in the post Blocking Bain Trucks To Save Jobs In Freeport -- This Is An IMPORTANT Story I wrote about the Sensata workers in Freeport who have set up a camp they call Bainport, and are asking Mitt Romney to show that he means what he is saying about cracking down on China by coming to Freeport and asking his former company not to send these jobs to China.

The Sensata workers camping at Bainport as asking Mitt Romney to come help them keep their jobs. Romney insists that he has nothing to do with Bain Capital anymore (his tax returns showed that he gets more than $400,000 a week from Bain investments).

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As the nation commemorates Christopher Columbus, let's not forget his 21st Century descendants: the multinational corporations who span the globe in search of wealth.

Columbus is honored as an adventurer In the European-created nations of the New World. He's seen a little differently by those whose ancestors were enslaved by Europeans, or who arrived in chain. To them, and to the nations that didn't have our landed gentry to unshackle them from colonization, he's more likely to be remembered as a pirate and mercenary.

But then, Christopher Columbus didn't have someone like Tom Friedman to sing his praises and rationalize his deeds. Or did he?

The Children of Columbus

The Children of Columbus aren't polishing sextants or unfolding maps. They're negotiating deals and influencing politicians with their wealth. They're manufacturing airplane parts, or running banks, or designing computers. They're bending the world to their will.

Like his 21st Century descendants, Columbus had some technical savvy - they say he knew the trade winds better than anyone - and like those descendants, he made some foolish mistakes. He was also very, very wrong about where he was headed.

But Columbus had the backing of a powerful crown. As every Wall Street CEO knows, you can get away with a lot of mistakes if you've got the Throne behind you.

Columbus, Incorporated

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Federal regulators have actually been cracking down somewhat lately on financial industry fraud. But the power-suited executives responsible for that fraud are still paying no personal price.

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The Bureau of Labor Statistics was created in 1884 by Chester Alan Arthur -- and now Jack Welch wants to see its birth certificate. President Arthur was a rock-ribbed Republican, a product of New York's Conkling political machine, but he was clearly a shifty liberal.You can tell by the eyes.

Welch thinks somebody's "cooking the numbers" on unemployment -- and if anyone should know about "cooking the numbers" it's Jack Welch. Manipulating information to influence an election? He should know about that too. There were well documented stories that he pressured staffers in NBC's newsroom -- who were also his employees -- to declare his friend George W. Bush the winner of on the night of the disputed 2000 election.

These crazy new charges making the right-wing rounds cry out for a new definition of the word "conservative": Someone who thinks the unemployment situation is even worse than anyone else does -- but wants to do less about it. And Welch's absurd, cackling, over-the-top comments may finally have stripped the veneer off the most carefully polished media image in corporate America.

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Today, the Campaign for America's Future unveiled TheMiddleClass.org Voter Guide which allows you to see how often your representatives in Congress vote for the middle class. A whopping 181 scored a big fat zero.

But we didn't want this data to just collect dust on the Internet shelf. We want to get this info to the people that need to know it. And you can help.

We're launching an online ad campaign targeting 10 of the worst opponents of the middle class, whom political analysts have determined are in danger of losing re-election and who are facing strong middle champions on Election Day.

When people go online to search for information about their representative, what they'll see is his or her pathetic score from TheMiddleClass.org Voter Guide, and ability to click and find out the disturbing details.

And you can help fund this campaign, to help make sure as many voters as possible in these key districts get the information they need to make an informed vote.

The target list is:

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The September jobs report is more of the same. We witness slow growth, with job creation barely at levels needed to keep up with workforce growth. And the economy is headed into ever more severe headwinds – Europe’s recession is already reflected in manufacturing job stagnation; the congressionally invented "fiscal cliff" at end of year will soon slow hiring by government contractors.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is right: the time for action is now. But with Congress adjourned for elections, any action will wait until the lame duck Congress convenes. Its focus will be on avoiding the crippling hit the economy would take with the deep cuts required by the sequester and the expiration of a range of tax cuts.

What is needed is a plan to get the economy moving and put people to work, one that provides for growth, redresses extreme inequality and protects basic security for Americans. This is not a time for inflicting austerity on a weak economy. Putting people to work is the first and necessary step to any sensible effort to get our economy in order.

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MORNING MESSAGE: Who Stands With The Middle Class?

OurFuture.org's Robert Borosage: "...who in the Congress stands with the middle class? To answer this question, the Campaign for America’s Future and TheMiddleClass.org are publishing its Middle Class Voting Guide. It grades every Senate and House member on the basis of 10 votes over the last session of Congress that we consider central to middle-class concerns. It is presented in a user-friendly web page -- themiddelcass.org/voterguide -- that allows voters to locate their legislators by zip code, see their total grades, and probe their votes on each of the 10 issues. Voters can also click on their state, and see how the state delegation ranks on these issues. We also offer a handy guide to the worst and the best of the legislators."

BREAKING: Unemployment Drops Below 8%

Unemployment rate drops to 7.8%. Bureau of Labor Statistics: "The unemployment rate decreased to 7.8 percent in September, and total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 114,000 ... The employment-population ratio increased by 0.4 percentage point ... there were 802,000 discouraged workers in September, a decline of 235,000 from a year earlier ..."

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The broad American middle class is in trouble. Working families have been struggling with stagnant wages and rising insecurity for over three decades. From 2002-2007, Americans witnessed the first “recovery” in which the typical household suffered declining income. Then came the collapse of the housing bubble and the Great Recession. Middle-class Americans suffered losses of wealth and savings, as the value of their homes plummeted. Incomes continued to decline. Coming out of the recession, the top 1% captured a staggering 93% of the nation’s income growth, while the middle class continued to struggle.

So who in the Congress stands with the middle class? To answer this question, the Campaign for America’s Future and TheMiddleClass.org are publishing its Middle Class Voting Guide. It grades every Senate and House member on the basis of 10 votes over the last session of Congress that we consider central to middle-class concerns. It is presented in a user-friendly web page -- themiddelcass.org/voterguide -- that allows voters to locate their legislators by zip code, see their total grades, and probe their votes on each of the 10 issues. Voters can also click on their state, and see how the state delegation ranks on these issues. We also offer a handy guide to the worst and the best of the legislators.

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