Morning Roundup From @ChangeNation October 2

Alesia L

2 Oct 2012

Inequality and Its Perils
From The National Journal

At a salon dinner in Washington recently, the subject was inequality. An economist took the floor. Economic inequality, he said, is not a problem. Poverty is a problem, certainly. Unemployment, yes. Slow growth, yes. But he had never yet seen a good reason to believe that inequality, as such—the widening gap between top and bottom, as distinct from poverty or stagnation—is harmful to the economy.

Perhaps he spoke too soon. Once in a while, a new economic narrative gives renewed strength to an old political ideology. Two generations ago, supply-side economics transformed conservatism’s case against big government from a merely ideological claim to an economic one. After decades in which Keynesians had dismissed conservatism as an economic dead end (“Hooverism”), supply-siders turned the tables. The Right could argue that reducing spending and (especially) tax rates was a matter not merely of political preference but of economic urgency.

Paul Ryan’s budget flimflam
From The Washington Post

PAUL RYAN wants to tell you about the wonders of the 20 percent cut in tax rates that he and running mate Mitt Romney propose. He doesn’t want to tell you how much it will cost. On Sunday, Fox News’s Chris Wallace asked the Republican vice presidential nominee this basic question four times, citing projections of a 10-year cost of $5 trillion. Four times, Mr. Ryan dodged, hiding behind a flimsy scaffolding of pseudo-wonkiness. “Look, I won’t give you a baseline with these because that’s what a lot of this is about,” he said. The $5 trillion figure derives from an estimate by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center that the Romney tax cuts — without base-broadening offsets — would reduce revenue by $456 billion in 2015. Multiply by 10, and account for costs rising each year, and the $5 trillion estimate is probably low.

Obama Ahead With Strong Support from Women
From Quinnipiac

A new Quinnipiac poll finds President Obama leads Mitt Romney nationally among likely voters, 49% to 45%. Key findings: The president leads 56% to 38% among women and 94% to 2% among black voters. Men back Romney 52% to 42% while white voters back him 53% to 42%. Said pollster Peter Brown: "President Obama won only about 43% of the white vote in 2008, so his current standing among whites tracks his earlier winning performance. If the president can match or exceed his 2008 showing among whites it will be difficult to impossible for Romney to win. It is also very difficult to win an election when you are getting shellacked among women, the group that makes up about half the electorate."

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