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So what about Herman Cain's 999 tax plan? Turns out it has some very good aspects -- and some others, not so good. I'd give it two rousing cheers and one bronx cheer. ...But here we come to a problem. Cain doesn't get rid of the income tax. Instead, he reforms it. And then he adds a new levy -- a national retail sales tax -- on top of it.

The Obama campaign, in an email to supporters today, goes there: The U.S. Senate is supposed to vote on the American Jobs Act as early as tonight. It’s a bill that will put people to work immediately, and it contains proposals that members of both parties have said in the past that they’d support. But Senate Republicans want to block it. Not because they have a plan that creates jobs right now — not one Republican, in Congress or in the presidential race, does. They only have a political plan. Their strategy is to suffocate the economy for the sake...

I actually have hopes for the Occupy Wall Street movement. Now, before you dismiss me, let me explain. I hope that one of the things we’re seeing down at Zuccotti Park is the first rustlings of what will eventually (though maybe not in our lifetime, comrades) become a full fledged revolution — not against capitalism but against what Rush Limbaugh likes to call Big Education and Michael Medved calls the Educational-Industrial Complex. This is really what most of these kids are angry about, isn’t it? Most of them — except for the usual complement of old lefties and sundry off-their-meds...

WASHINGTON -- Herman Cain's bid for the Republican presidential nomination is fueled in part by his proposed tax code overhaul that tax policy veterans say doesn't add up. Cain's proposal is gaining attention after a Washington Post-ABC News poll released Tuesday found his campaign is tied for second place with Texas Gov. Rick Perry among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents. In campaign stops, Cain touts his 9-9-9 plan as a concept that will lead to a fairer tax system. The proposal would tax sales transactions and gross income for individuals and businesses at 9 percent while eliminating levies on capital gains....

Occupy Wall Street: The scene on the groundBy Brian Montopoli October 5, 2011 2:55 PM **SNIP** Meanwhile, groggy demonstrators found their way to the makeshift kitchen in the middle of the park, where food donated by sympathizers - much of it vegan - was being given out. After nearly three weeks of the "occupation" -- which began as a relatively small protest in response to a call from anti-consumerist magazine Adbusters -- a semi-functioning society has sprung up. Barred by police from using megaphones, protesters created a structure whereby whoever is speaking says his piece, and then the rest of...

Under the bill’s authority, states are not immune from federal prosecution if they “violate” the act. In the event this bill passes, it will override a state’s sovereign authority as defined and protected under the 11th amendment.... Any state that receives Federal assistance under the direction of bill automatically forfeits its sovereign immunity....

The GOP calls it 'class warfare,' but the president’s proposal to raise taxes on millionaires is actually a move toward fairness and fiscal sanity. The biggest problem in our politics for the last 30 years has been . . . what? Fill in the blank. Too much spending? Debt to future generations? Cultural politics? None of those. Plain and simple: taxes. The anti-tax revolt that started in 1978 in California (Proposition 13) has destroyed this country. Our taxophobia has made the rich vastly richer and reduced the amount of money for the public benefits the rest of us depend on,...

No sooner had we issued our editorial “Jimmy Hoffa’s War” than a wire came in from one of Sarah Palin’s most assiduous supporters, Benyamin Korn, with a copy of her Labor Day posting on Facebook. Our editorial had wondered where the original Jimmy Hoffa would have been today. It remarked on the phenomenon of the Reagan Democrats, who comprehended that the true interests of working men and women in America lay with the idea of economic growth. And it remarked on the need for someone who makes this point today. Well, Mrs. Palin's riposte is a humdinger. It turns out...

Seeking to boost a slumping economy along with his hopes for re-election, President Obama unveiled his $450 billion jobs plan Thursday night in a highly-anticipated speech to a joint session of Congress. The American Jobs Act contains a blend of infrastructure spending, tax relief, unemployment assistance and other aid. All the proposals are paid for with spending cuts although the president isn’t expected to detail them until next week. “There should be nothing controversial about this piece of legislation,” Obama said in excerpts released by the White House ahead of his speech. “Everything in here is the kind of proposal...

President Obama sent a warning shot across the bow of congressional Republicans in his Labor Day speech in Detroit this afternoon, pledging to hold them accountable publicly if they fail to support the job-creation plan he puts forth later this week. The proposal he’ll outline in his address to Congress on Thursday is filled with “bipartisan ideas,” Obama said, and Republicans can either get on board or explain their refusal to the American people. “I’m going to propose ways to put people to work [that] both parties can agree to,” Obama said. “We’re going to see if congressional Republicans will...

A city sewer worker made more last year than the police commissioner, the schools chancellor and the mayor - combined. Senior engineer Gerald Mistretta's pay was $771,841 - and six of his co-workers raked in nearly as much - thanks to a wage settlement with the city. His bottom line for the fiscal year that ended in June included a base salary of $109,850 a year, $173,000 in overtime - and nearly half a million dollars in back pay. The Brooklyn father of three said the one-shot windfall - which made him the top earner among city employees last year...

WGN Postal service may shut down for winter WGN News 3:03 PM CDT, September 5, 2011 Without emergency funding the postal service may have to shut down for the winter. The U.S Postal Service faces a $9 billion dollar deficit. The New York Times reports the agency doesn't have enough money to pay its bills and a $5.5 billion dollar payment is due this month. Possible cost cutting measures include eliminating Saturday delivery, closing up to 3700 post offices and laying off 120,000 workers. A congressional hearing on the matter is set for Tuesday.

Former Governor Sarah Palin gave the keynote speech at a Tea Party rally in Indianola, Iowa on Saturday afternoon. "We sent a new class of leaders to DC, but immediately the permanent political class, they tried to co-opt them. Because the reality is we are governed by a permanent political class, until we change that," Palin said about career politicians. The speech, roughly 40 minutes, ranged from politics to policy. Palin made sure to address reforming taxes and entitlements. Palin called for eliminating all federal corporate income taxes and called entitlement reform "our duty." As predicted, Palin took a swipe...

In what could be a way of lowering expectations for next Thursday's big economic speech, aides to President Obama are privately spreading word that he will not present his entire jobs plan in his address to a Joint Session of Congress. Aides say Thursday's speech will be part of a bigger plan the White House will roll out throughout the fall with the president hitting the road for speeches and town hall appearances. Aides have already confirmed that Obama will be traveling to California, Colorado, and Washington state for one three-day swing later this month that will include economic events...

Q:Usually when people talk about college binge drinking they use terms like, "epidemic" or "plague." But you don't write about it in such a negative way. Why? A:The history of alcohol research is the history of pathology. There's a lot of focus on addiction, and the ways in which alcohol destroys lives and destroys families, and in [the] college drinking world in particular, there are these long lists and inventories of all its harms. That's important because some bad things do happen, but what past researchers have missed is why it's fun. I asked that question of my informants, and...

It's conventional wisdom in Washington to blame the federal government's dire financial outlook on runaway entitlement spending. Unless we rein in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, the conventional wisdom goes, the federal government is headed for disaster. That's true in the long run. But what is causing massive deficits now? Is it the same entitlements that threaten the future? Yes, say some conservatives who favor making entitlement reform a key issue in the 2012 campaign. "We're $1.5 trillion in debt," Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kristol said Sunday, referring to this year's projected deficit. "Where's the debt coming from? It's coming...

House Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson (Conn.) is expected this week to introduce legislation that would create a Joint Select Committee on Job Creation, patterned after the supercommittee tasked with finding $1.5 trillion in spending cuts. In an Aug. 8 “Dear Colleague” letter, Larson said the jobs supercommittee would work under the “exact same terms” as the spending supercommittee. The latter panel has 12 members, six from the House and six from the Senate, and must reach spending-cut recommendations by Nov. 23.

More than a dozen trade unions are planning to sit out the 2012 Democratic convention because they are angry it will be held in a right-to-work state. The unions say they are disappointed that labor wasn't consulted before Democrats settled on North Carolina, a state that is considered one of the least union-friendly in the nation. They are also frustrated that job creation hasn't been a higher priority for Democratic lawmakers. The unions include the Laborers, Painters and Electrical Workers. The move would deprive the party of millions of dollars spent on sky boxes and other sponsorships that usually help...

In recent months we've become well aware of how U.S. House Republicans are trying to decimate services of vital importance to women. Don't take your eyes off your local statehouse, though: There, legislators have pushed the war on women equally far, cracking down on reproductive rights and cutting funding for education and health programs that largely benefit women and children. ( ... ) Conservative state legislators have also introduced more than 1,000 pieces of anti-choice legislation since January, according to the Guttmacher Institute. In Florida, the state Legislature brought up 18 bills that attempted to tighten abortion laws, and several...