RiseUpEconomics.org

Rise Up Economics is a progressive plan to ensure economic security for all through a $10,000-15,000 annual refundable tax credit for working people, paid for by requiring the wealthy and big corporations to pay their fair share in taxes.

Rise Up Economics will stimulate the economy, eliminate poverty, protect the middle class, and help change work as we know it.

How Obama and the Dems are missing the boat on taxes

Our job is to push the Democratic Party to the left. Why is it that the strongest tax proposal we have out there is to simply let the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy expire? The wealthy must pay their fair share!

The Right had the guts to propose and implement an economic policy that on the face of it was absurd: give more money to the rich, and it will eventually work its way back down to all of us. Why can't we on the left propose the opposite: give money to people at the bottom and the middle, and it will lift all boats, eventually supporting the wealthy by ensuring a strong economy?

The Right has imposed trickle down, supply side economics on us for years. Sen. Obama and the Democratic leadership should wholeheartedly, without shame, promote demand side, Rise Up Economics. Refundable tax credits for the poor and middle class, paid for by fair taxes on the wealthy, corporations, and carbon pollution.

Read more at the Rise Up Blog.

How the Democrats Can Win the Tax Issue

The Republicans own the tax issue. It is the source of their power and their popularity with voters, especially the independents and "Reagan Democrats" who usually give them their margin of victory on the national level. Ask any American which party is most likely to cut their taxes, and there will be no hesitation: the Republican Party.

Ask any American what the Democratic Party has done for them lately, and it may take some time for them to answer. It's been decades since Social Security and Medicare were created. Decades since the Civil Rights Bill.

In the absence of a compelling economic program from Democrats that would make a difference in the average American's checking account, many will simply vote their pocketbooks and vote for the party that will cut their taxes.

But it's not too late. The Democrats can take this issue back from the Republicans and win on taxes, by promoting an aggressive policy of Rise Up Economics.

We Need an MLK Memorial Stimulus Package

As the 40th anniversary of the assasination of Martin Luther King grows near, it's ironic that our nation's leaders have moved forward with a stimulus package that puts money directly in the hands of everyday Americans.

Forty years ago, MLK was calling for just that--but not a one-time influx of cash to jumpstart an economy on the brink of recession. He championed regular, monthly payments to help the non-wealthy make ends meet and address the savage economic inequality in America.

These days it has fallen out of fashion to suggest taxing the rich and giving to the rest of us. But as the gap between the rich and poor grows dramatically and the middle class continues to shrink, it may be time to give King's idea another look.