Category: Budget

Manchin proposes raising FICA income cap: According to the Social Security Administration, each U.S. worker and their employer contributes 6.2% of their wages to the program, rising to $160,200 by 2023, while the self-employed pay a larger 12.4% of their wages (since no employer co-pays). However, if you’re a millionaire,…

and no, I haven’t vetted this. The one thing I’ve taken away from the MAGA crowd is, facts ain’t worth shit. And it confirms my world view, so it must be fact! [sarcasm]

I didn’t pay as much attention to the individual state assembly and state senate races at the mid-terms as I had in the past. I concentrated on my local races and the statewide races. But I don’t remember the Flat Tax being a mid-term election issue with anyone other than…

I have been a rather vocal proponent of single payer universal health care for all Americans. And I think that Senator Bernie Sanders has been detrimental in using the term Medicare For All when Medicare isn’t the best answer to America’s continued health care crisis. Americans need and deserve a…

The great tsunami of conservative policy early this century included the demand for state balanced budget amendments. And of course former Governor Scott Walker and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos just had to have one…so of course Wisconsin does. The conceit is you have to live within your budget and so…

I am not going to dig too deep into this topic today, but after my recent experience it becomes more and more apparent that we need a universal single payer system and that pricing for health care services is completely out of control. Early in October, I had my second…

They should have been meeting to finally hammer out the next COVID-19 financial stimulus package. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have been working on this for months. They both should pretty much know where each party stands and be ready to meet somewhere in…

It has been somewhere between 180 and 200 days since the Wisconsin Legislature has met and taken any kind of action…and we are knee deep in a pandemic and sinking. So it is abundantly clear that Wisconsin doesn’t need a full time legislature. And since the institution of the biennial…

As local newspapers shrink and eventually die under the onslaught of the internet and internet advertising venues, their often grand and centrally located headquarter offices outlive their usefulness. This is exactly what has happened with the offices of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and they are moving from the beautiful art…