It's really not the debt

For several years I followed the writings of a conservative economist, but recently I've had to give up reading his articles. He is so stridently in favor of cutting spending and government oversight of business that he no longer gives even a modicum of lip service to the inequity in the incomes of Americans.

Listen, I'll buy into the fact that the nation's debt is a problem, but I won't buy into the fact that income inequality is not a big factor in that problem. If you're going to deal with any of it, you've got to deal with all of it.

Source: The Washington Post

In a rational world, a new study that came out today on income equality would constitute a major blow to the GOP argument on the sequester.

The new study was performed by Thomas Hungerford of the non-partisan Congressional Research Service. Though the study is not a CRS product, Hungerford's data is widely cited on both sides; he's an impeccably objective analyst.

Here's what Hungerford found: The single greatest driver of income inequality over a recent 15 year period was runaway income from capital gains and dividends.

[emphasis mine]