Brian Miller's blog

United for a Fair Economy seeks a full-time development director to join our staff team. This position encompasses responsibilities in four areas: Development Team coordination, planning and oversight, major donor relations and grant work.

If you’re looking for a great book to deepen your thinking about the causes and consequences of inequality, here are three of my favorite reads of the last few months.

In Friday's Wall Street Journal, columnist Stephen Moore does his best to marginalize and discredit the the growing chorus of high-wealth individuals, including members of UFE's Responsible Wealth project, who support raising taxes on wealthy people like themselves. But his best is little more than a collection of weak arguments and name-calling.

Senator Orin Hatch (R-UT) just doesn’t get it – taxes are not charity. His idea that rich people who recognize that their taxes must go up should "write a check to the IRS” is just plain nonsense… nonsense that we’ve heard before.

If you read Sunday's Associated Press (AP) story, "Super rich see federal taxes drop dramatically," you may be left with the false impression that United for a Fair Economy (UFE) is a network of wealthy individuals who support higher taxes on themselves. Well, that's close, but not exactly right. UFE is a cross-class organization with supporters of all financial means...

Mike Lillis writes in The Hill about the challenge President Obama faces as he attempts to play to the center while appeasing ever-rowdier and more extremist Republicans. As he gets ready to unveil his deficit reduction proposal, he risks alienating his base, who if uninspired, may not contribute to his re-election campaign and instead stay home in November 2012.

While early reports indicate that Obama may include some good things in his proposal, such as ending some of the tax breaks for the wealthy and reducing military spending as part of his deficit reduction plan, other questions still remain. How strong will those proposals be? And will he include deep Medicare and Medicaid cuts?

Our current tax system rewards wealth over work by taxing capital gains and dividend income at a much lower rate than salaries and wages. UFE is calling for the restoration of the tax rates on capital gains and dividends to the same rate applied to income earned from work. Various proposals have been put forth to move in that direction.