Another week! What’s in the news?:
- The Health Care ruling is coming sometime this week. Michael Tomasky outlines a progressive strategy for responding if the Court issues an unfavorable ruling.
- Mother Jones has a depressing review of the plight of the American worker — working harder for less while corporate profits surge.
- This is some high quality political comedy. Merrill Matthews (a man who does not have an economics degree) accuses the economists behind the Obama administration of not understanding the field they’ve dedicated their lives to studying. Matthews argues that there is no income inequality crisis in America because of divorce and employee benefits — seriously. Then, while all but conceding that this is a ridiculous argument, transitions into arguing that income inequality will grow because of the Affordable Care Act since it has the gall to mandate that everyone actually buy insurance. This is laughable since that will eat into the income of those without insurance, but the resulting gains for everyone by a reduction in overall insurance costs more than overcomes this effect. I mean…look at Massachusetts if you want actual, empirical proof that this works.