IPS Blog

In this week's OtherWords editorial package, Donald Kaul's column and four op-eds — including one by Matias Ramos regarding the taxation of immigrants without representation — focus on Tax Day. There's also a related cartoon by Khalil Bendib debunking the "job creator" label on the richest Americans. Get all this and more in your inbox by subscribing to our weekly newsletter. If you haven't signed up yet, please do.

1. Taxation without Representation / Matias Ramos
   Undocumented immigrants consistently contribute to the government's coffers through payroll, sales, property, and income taxes.
2. Rich Freeloaders / Betsy Malcolm
   It's time for wealthy people like me to become more responsible and pay our fair share of taxes.
3. Invoking Fake Job Creators to Cut Taxes on the Rich / Robert L. Borosage
   We're squandering an extraordinary opportunity to rebuild America.
4. How the Rich Welsh on Retirement Taxes / Gerald Scorse
   Withdrawal rules provide big tax breaks to the retirees who need them the least.
5. Chairman of the Con Man Committee / Donald Kaul
   It's hard to take Rep. Paul Ryan's proposal seriously.
6. Keystone XL's Dirty Little Secret / Jim Hightower
   The people and companies pushing the tar-sands pipeline don't want you to know that most of this oil won't be made into gasoline for our vehicles.
7. Where We Dwell Is Changing Fast / William A. Collins
   The American homeownership rate has declined.
8. Taxing Job Creators / Khalil Bendib

In this week's OtherWords editorial package, Chuck Collins explains what's behind the "99 percent spring" and Bill Wenzel discusses a proposal that would boost the farmers and ranchers who supply the local food system. Get all this and more in your inbox by subscribing to our weekly newsletter. If you haven't signed up yet, please do.

1. The 99 Percent Spring / Chuck Collins
   The people aren't powerless in the face of extreme inequality.
2. Our Failed Cuba Policy Fixation / Jess Hunter-Bowman
   In an election year, presidential candidates spend a great deal of time bowing before the altar of the creaky Cuban embargo.
3. Catching up to the Local Food Revolution / Bill Wenzel
   Government policies and spending primarily support industrialized agriculture and the giant farms and corporations that profit from it.
4. Congress: Listen to Lt. Col. Daniel Davis / Dana Liebelson
   The 17-year Army veteran risked his career by speaking out about the Afghanistan War.
5. Riding on the Wrong Track / Donald Kaul
   Stop the world; I want to get off.
6. Congress Opts to Keep Poisoning Children / Jim Hightower
   Lead poisoning is entirely preventable.
7. Energy: Too Important to Leave to Corporations / William A. Collins
   In the United States, profits rule while the environment takes a back seat.
8. Off Our Backs / Khalil Bendib

In this week's OtherWords editorial package, Salvatore Babones debunks Rep. Paul Ryan's Medicare concerns and Fran Hunt makes the case against drilling for oil in the Arctic. Get all this and more in your inbox by subscribing to our weekly newsletter. If you haven't signed up yet, please do.

1. Ryan's Medicare Hot Air / Salvatore Babones
   It's simply not time to hit the panic button.
2. Greening the Pentagon / Mike Prokosch
   If we want to build up a green manufacturing economy, we should directly invest in it, not plow more money into military spending.
3. Washington's Strange Nuclear Bedfellows / Michael McCarthy
   The United States, as the world's undisputed nuclear weapons superpower, should finally ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
4. Avoiding the Next Arctic Oil Disaster / Fran Hunt
   Exxon's Valdez disaster had ruinous and enduring impacts.
5. Grand Old Pedagogy / Donald Kaul
   We're a diverse nation of many religions and each has the same rights as any other group, including the right to be left alone.
6. Down and Out on Wall Street / Jim Hightower
   We should all be as broke as they are.
7. Better Public Schools Require a Stronger Safety Net / William A. Collins
   School segregation by class is the norm in the United States.
8. Nuclear Alert / Khalil Bendib

In this week's OtherWords editorial package, Sanjeev Bery addresses the situation in Syria and Jim Hightower lauds the residents of Keene, New Hampshire who don't want their town to get its own tank. Get all this and more in your inbox by subscribing to our weekly newsletter. If you haven't signed up yet, please do.

1. The Humanity of Poetry / Sarah Browning
   The 500 poets participating in Split This Rock festival come from all walks of life and all levels of education and training.
2. Consumers Need to Know about Those Newfangled Ingredients / Andrew Korfhage
   Between 70 and 80 percent of the processed foods Americans eat contain genetically modified ingredients.
3. Syria's Systematic Torture / Sanjeev Bery
   Concerted action by the international community appears to be the only recourse
4. What's Good for the CEO May Be Bad for Business / Kenneth Peres
   Today's corporate elites should stop pushing for austerity for the many and prosperity for the few and embrace Henry Ford's strategy of shared prosperity.
5. I Don't Like Ike's Memorial / Donald Kaul
   If you're going to do something that big, don't put it on the National Mall.
6. Standing Up For Common Sense / Jim Hightower
   Keene, New Hampshire has no crime that would warrant rolling out a tank.
7. Our Health Care Racket / William A. Collins
   The purpose of America's health care industry is to provide cozy income to the few at the top while abusing the poorly paid health aides at the bottom and consigning vast swaths of the population to inadequate care.
8. Syria's Butcher / Khalil Bendib

In this week's OtherWords editorial package, Martha Burk weighs in on Rush Limbaugh's ill-timed attack on Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke and its aftermath and William A. Collins discusses the death-with-dignity movement. Get all this and more in your inbox by subscribing to our weekly newsletter. If you haven't signed up yet, please do.

1. Rush Limbaugh and the Live Volcano / Martha Burk
   American women are fed up.
2. Hate Groups Spread Lies and Kill Cops / Mark Potok
   Law enforcement officials say the number of violent encounters with anti-government "sovereign citizens" is rising.
3. Inching Toward Progress on the North Korean Nuke Problem / Duyeon Kim
   The road to a negotiated settlement will be long and bumpy.
4. Job-Killing Tax Breaks / Rachael Solem
   If the government is going to give anyone tax breaks, they should give them to people like me before I became an entrepreneur.
5. Pumping Gas Prices for All They're Worth / Donald Kaul
   Can our nation survive $5-a-gallon gas?
6. Attack of the Billionaires / Jim Hightower
   Some 300 uber-rich corporate plutocrats and their political hirelings have pledged at least $100 million to bombard the Obama campaign with viciously negative ads.
7. The Freedom to Die with Dignity / William A. Collins
   Catholic hospitals follow an edict that requires them to override do-not-resuscitate orders.
8. Five Bucks a Gallon / Khalil Bendib