TED is a conference community that disseminates "ideas worth spreading". There’s one idea, though, that TED’s organizers recently decided was too controversial to spread: the notion that widening income inequality is a bad thing for America, and that as a result, the rich should pay more in taxes.

Taxation without representation and the idea of less than 2% of working class in congress.Out of control GOP,trying to limit poor and minority votes.No representation.How to fix this problem.Why we fought the revolution in the first place.

In this time, too many Rhode Islanders are feeling squeezed. To make matters worse, they're hearing about people making over $1 million a year who are actually paying a lower total federal tax rate than they are. Americans deserve a straight deal, but when it comes to taxes, they're not getting one.

The so-called “Buffett Rule” to raise taxes on the wealthy should consider exempting small businesses, Sen. Chris Coons, who backs the proposal, said on Wednesday.

Paul Krugman calls Paul Ryan's budget plan fraudulent for slashing taxes for corporations and the rich, drastically cutting food and medical aid to the needy, and not providing any details on how he would make up a trillion dollar deficit.

Gov. Tom Corbett is expected to sign a sweeping bill that could force Pennsylvania's booming natural gas industry to help pay for a wide range of state and local government programs, toughen safety standards and limit the ability of local officials to keep drilling out of their towns.

Santorum first came to Congress from western Pennsylvania in 1990 after waging a grass-roots campaign against an opponent he labeled a Washington insider for buying a house in a fancy suburb of the capital.

Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney receives millions of dollars a year in a retirement agreement with Bain Capital, nearly 13 years after he left the private equity firm he helped start, the New York Times said.

In a proposal he will likely unveil Friday, Governor Jerry Brown will ask voters in November to approve a temporary increase in sales and income taxes, the latter for individuals making more than $250,000 a year, sources who have been in conversations with the governor told this newspaper.

David Frum, former speech writer for George W. Bush discusses the direction his party has taken to the right calling the extremism "dastardly wrong" in abandoning principles that at one time defined their party.

Debunking the myth that Obama is enforcing a 15 cent tax on Christmas trees.

Tim Dickinson writing for the Rolling Stone magazine reveals "the inside story of how the Republicans abandoned the poor and the middle class to pursue their relentless agenda of tax cuts for the wealthiest one percent."

The Nation writes, "Grover Norquist is once again playing kingmaker, determining not just the direction of the Republican Party but of the entire US economy. His anti-tax zealotry has made it virtually impossible for Republicans to cut a sensible deal to raise the debt ceiling."

Robert Parry's excellent article leads off with the sub-heading: "America’s corporate chieftains are living like kings while the middle class stagnates and shrivels." And then he analyzes why...ignorance and adherence to the GOP line on taxes.

Tax journalist David Cay Johnston explains what's so rotten about our taxation system and the distribution of wealth in this country. One quote: "Its not true that high taxes destroy jobs. Low taxes destroy jobs by encouraging owners of businesses to withdraw money from the business."

Paul Ryan's plan to cut taxes for corporations won't create more investment or more jobs. Firms don't necessarily relocate or expand to an area just because it has lower taxes, and they aren't suffering from a lack of investment funds but rather a lack of profitable investment opportunities.

The earthquake forced the shutdown of several oil refineries and some nuclear power plants in Japan. If they can't reopen soon, the country probably will want to import more gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.

Paul Buchheit of AlterNet focuses on the effects of inequality. Based on Internal Revenue Service figures, if middle- and upper-middle-class families had maintained the same share of American productivity that they held in 1980, they would be making an average of $12,500 more per year. The massive redistribution of income from the middle classes to the rich over the last 30 years is like a malignant tumor that doesn't appear on the surface but eventually destroys the whole body.

Koch Industries is planning a meeting of a secretive network of Republican donors in Palm Springs in January to “develop strategies to counter the most severe threats facing our free society and outline a vision of how we can foster a renewal of American free enterprise and prosperity.” The Kochs insist on strict confidentiality surrounding the California meetings, which are entitled “Understanding and Addressing Threats to American Free Enterprise and Prosperity.”

Dave Johnson argues that since the start of the Reagan revolution, the social contract with Americans has been broken. Instead of providing good wages and benefits and paying taxes to provide for the general welfare and reinvestment in infrastructure and public structures, the bounty of our democracy is being diverted to a wealthy few. Tax cuts for the rich, anti-government policies, and its deregulation of the big corporations have resulted in the defunding of our democracy... crumbling infrastructure, failing schools, dis...