Bob Lord

Bob has mostly wound down his 39-year career as a tax and business lawyer (with a 1-year interruption to run for Congress in 2008 (CD3), when he tried to unseat John Shadegg. Bob now serves as the senior advisor on tax policy for the Patriotic Millionaires, a group of wealthy Americans who believe the light taxation of America's rich is destabilizing our democracy, and as an associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. Bob has been writing for Blog For Arizona since late 2011, concentrating mostly on federal issues, with an occasional foray into Arizona state politics.

Throwback Thursday

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  Hard to believe it’s been almost two years since Thucky was with us. He’s actually back, using the pseudonym “John Huppenthal,” but it’s not the same. I still get a chuckle out of this cartoon by Arnie Bermudez, so thought I’d share. Note the name tag on the teacher’s desk. 🙂 Thanks again, Arnie.

Inequality Will Get Worse Until There’s a Revolution

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America’s wealth concentration has increased tenfold since Bill Clinton first ran for president.

By Bob Lord

[via OtherWords.org]

Imagine, after a deep sleep, you suffered the fate of Rip Van Winkle and woke in the spring of 2040. What might you find?

Among other things, maybe a presidential candidate railing against America’s concentration of wealth. Except this time, it’s not the 1 percent that owns as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent — it’s the top hundredth of a percent.

Could it get that bad? Yes, quite easily. In fact, that nightmare is already on the way.

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Hillary’s 47% Moment

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Anyone paying attention knows those Goldman Sachs speeches Hillary won’t fill us in on contain something she really, really doesn’t want us plebeians to know she said.

Her 47% moment, if you will.

So far, she’s been a bit more fortunate than Mitt was in his 47% moment. In Mitt’s case, you may recall, a member of the food and beverage crew made a recording that just might have cost Mitt the election. By all appearances, nobody made a record of Hillary’s riff on ordinary Americans. Except, of course, Hillary herself.

What could it be that she so badly doesn’t want us to hear? To quote Willy Wonka, “The suspense is terrible; I hope it will last.”

Pure speculation on my part here, but I know what my guess would be.

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Is Mass Incarceration Simply Racist Subjugation in the Age of Surplus Humanity?

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Before mass incarceration there was Jim Crow. Before Jim Crow there was slavery.

What distinguishes mass incarceration from the American subjugation schemes it replaced? The distinction, I submit, is obvious and identifies the real obstacle in the path of addressing what has become a clear moral imperative. No sane American supports current levels of incarceration. No sane American seeks to dispute the racism so obviously embedded in America’s system of mass incarceration. Why, then, has there been virtually no progress on this front? 

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No, Hillary, It’s Not Only About Opportunity

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If Hillary had her way, voters would fall for her conflation of economic inequality and inequality of opportunity.

And enough of them might.

In an eye-opening piece, Hillary is this out of touch: The Democratic frontrunner doesn’t understand economic struggle — and never will, Les Leopold exposes how out of touch Hillary is when it comes to the struggle of every day Americans.  Sometimes, Leopold explains, she cracks under pressure and inadvertently reveals her true self:

More importantly, that’s how Hillary can show how practical and realistic she is compared to pie-in-sky Sanders. It’s a smooth and satisfying pivot for a skilled politician until…until she says something so revealing, and so out of touch, it could cost her the New York primary and beyond. In an unguarded moment, she showed us how out of touch she is with income inequality: “I went to work for the Children’s Defense Fund, making about $14,000 a year, so I couldn’t afford some big [student loan] payment every month.”

I’m hoping at least a few readers are saying to themselves, “But wasn’t $14,000 per year a nice income at the time?”

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