At the risk of sounding like a broken record (kids: a long time ago people listened to music on things called records and sometimes they got scratched and skipped and played the same little section of a song over and over and over and…oh never mind) Republicans just don’t get it.
The kerfuffle over Barack Obama’s “Tonight Show” appearance is so incredibly telling — and sad if you were hoping for a reasonably adept opposition to push back on Barack occasionally. The usual suspects and brothers in arms — The New …

When the stimulus plan was being debated earlier this year it was all about money and speed as in: How much money can Washington spend how fast? Now we know the answer. Not much not very.
The Wall Street Journal reports this morning that at least some of those “shovel-ready” projects we heard so much about aren’t so ready for a shovel after all. The problems run the gamut from local opposition to specific projects to lengthy bidding and contracting processes required by law.
That should be no surprise to anyone who …

So let’s just put this up front: Nobody really knows what the f*ck is going on with the economy. But still, there are some “experts” that really shouldn’t even be allowed to speak or write or exist.
Remember the heady days almost precisely a decade ago of the dot com boom? Thanks to new technology and supersmart economists the world’s advanced economies had little to worry about in the way of recessions or downturns. Sure there might be a hiccup here or there but the bad old days of economic cycles …

Forget the performance critiques of Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal’s Republican response to Barack Obama’s State-of-the-Union-in-name-only speech Tuesday night. Plenty of Democrats sucked in the same role following the far less gifted orator George W Bush (remember Tim Kaine in 2006 or Harry Reid in 2005? Lordy they were bad!). Jindal’s problem wasn’t performance, it was substance and it reaffirms our diagnosis that the Republican Party is in critical condition.
Many Republicans leaders, egged on by right-wing radio hosts like Rush and Hannity, have charted a course of total opposition to the …

Last week the media formed a now-normal closed loop regurgitating the “news” that Americans were “deeply split” (NY Post) on Obama and his housing plan.
The cable nets went full-tilt especially after a CNBC reporter checked his credibility at the door of the Chicago Board of Trade and went on a stream-of-consciousness rant about how Obama’s housing plan reminded him of nothing more than Cuba under Castro.
By Sunday when the nets rolled out their gabfests it was no longer a question. The debates were over how bad Americans hated the housing …

Do we need a “millionaire’s tax” to solve New York’s budget crisis? Advocates of the tax say we do because New York doesn’t make the rich pay their fair share.
Opponents say that is not true and counter that hiking taxes on the very wealthy will only cause them to move out of state, depriving Albany of hundreds of millions, if not billions in tax revenue.

So who’s right? Get Real cuts through the crap and tells the truth:

New York State taxes are too regressive meaning the rich don’t pay their fair …

For the better part of a year people on all sides of the political and economic theory spectrum have been saying the economic meltdown cannot be fixed until the mortgage mess is cleared up. Now Barack Obama is taking action to do just that. But is it enough?
That’s been the question asked of every action the previous and current administrations have taken trying to respond to the recession and it’s entirely appropriate this time. Obama’s plan could cost $275 billion over time and will help a maximum of around nine …

New York’s budget hole is huge and growing as Governor Patterson reminded us all on Wednesday but if you want to see how bad things can get, go west.
As the LA Times lays out in painful detail, California’s budget woes are much worse than ours. New York faces a $14 billion gap this coming budget year while California’s deficit is $42 billion over the next 15 months.
Paterson has repeatedly warned that if Albany’s legislative leaders don’t agree to structural spending changes New York “might end up like California.” Here’s what …

Ummm. Haven’t we heard this before? The Treasury needs a ginormous wad of cash to bail out the financial system and it will explain just what it will do with all that money…later.
Yeah it’s deja vu in DC with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner doing his best Hank Paulson imitation while announcing the Obama Administration’s $2.5 trillion plan to save the banks.
Come again? Two-point-five-what? Trillion? As in 1,000,000,000,000? Yes, $2.5 trillion.
The plan is to use the unspent half of the original $700 billion “Bush bailout” and then commit as much as …

Barack is back, baby!
That’s what liberal bloggers are writing about the President’s first prime-time newser where he seemed to get some of his campaign mojo back. With the stimulus bill on it’s way to passing the Senate and then facing a potentially messy time in the sausage factory known as “conference committee” where the House and Senate versions must be meshed, Obama came out firing.
It began during his first road show Monday afternoon in Indiana and continued at the White House: “I’m happy to get good ideas from across the …