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Robert Kuttner

Robert Kuttner is co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect, and professor at Brandeis University's Heller School. His latest book is Can Democracy Survive Global Capitalism? In addition to writing for the Prospect, he writes for The Huffington Post, The Boston Globe, and the New York Review of Books. 

Follow Bob at his site, robertkuttner.com, and on Twitter. 

Recent Articles

Trump Is Giving Democrats Everything They Need for the Midterms

2018 is very likely to be a blue-wave election—so long as Democrats respond strategically to the administration’s actions.

Robert KuttnerJul 10, 2018
(Oliver Contreras/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images)
(Oliver Contreras/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images) This column originally appeared at The Huffington Post . P resident Donald Trump and the Republican Congress either had a great Fourth of July week or a terrible one, depending on how you interpret the suite of recent events and how Democrats respond. Take the resignation of Justice Anthony Kennedy and the chance for Trump to lock in a solidly right-wing Supreme Court for a generation. On its face, this is a huge gain for the right. The chances are slim that Democrats plus two renegade Republican senators will block a far-right nominee who would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade and do a lot of other mischief. The always unreliable Senator Susan Collins of Maine has indicated she might vote no, but Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska is even cagier, and there is always the leverage of patronage. If the future of the republic hinges on these two mostly bogus Republican moderates, God save America. Riskier still is the likelihood that Democratic...

It's Still the Economy, Stupid

Robert KuttnerJul 03, 2018
AP Photo/Richard Drew The logo for Wells Fargo appears above a trading post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange B y focusing attention on issues such as immigration and Korea, Trump has managed to deflect attention from the economic resentments that helped get him elected—namely, outrage that the rules are rigged on behalf of the wealthy and the powerful. Will he keep getting away with this, as Republican policies make the rich even richer and regular people more economically precarious? That depends on how astutely blue wave candidates keep pocketbook issues at the forefront. Exhibits A and B of the Republican doubling down on corrupt plutocracy are the 2017 Tax Act and the coddling of the biggest banks. The Tax Act costs $1.9 trillion in revenue over a decade. Almost all of the breaks went to rich individuals and corporations, but it was supposed to produce trickle-down benefits in the form of more jobs and better pay for workers. Now the verdict is on pay increases. Worker...

Principles for Tax Reform

The 2017 Tax Act not only harmed most Americans, but upstaged true, overdue reforms. Here are some key elements, as themes for both politics and policy. 

Robert KuttnerJun 28, 2018
Albin Lohr-Jones/Sipa via AP Images A demonstrator holds a sign at a rally in opposition to the Republican tax bill held in Lower Manhattan in New York tax_fraud.jpg This article appears in the Summer 2018 issue of The American Prospect magazine. Subscribe here . Tax Fairness: Corporations and the Wealthy Should Pay Their Fair Share REPEAL ALL CORPORATE PROVISIONS OF THE TAX ACT . The idea that corporate rates were too high was always phony. Even at the old rates, the United States had one of the lower net rates of corporate taxation among OECD nations. RESTORE THE TOP MARGINAL RATES ON INDIVIDUALS , and add a new surtax rate of 50 percent for incomes over $1 million. During the boom years after World War II, the top rate was never below 70% and the economy flourished. REPEAL PROVISIONS OF THE LAW INTENDED TO PUNISH CITIZENS in states with decent public services, such as the cap on deductibility of state and local taxes. At the same time, cap the mortgage interest deduction and use...

Trump’s Trade Fight with Canada Highlights Two Approaches to Capitalism

Robert KuttnerJun 26, 2018
Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, right, greets President Donald Trump during the official welcoming ceremony at the G7 Leaders Summit in La Malbaie, Quebec. This article originally appeared at The Huffington Post . Subscribe here . President Donald Trump ’s savaging of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has gotten a good deal of attention for its sheer weirdness—why scapegoat one of America’s most loyal allies and benign trading partners? But it’s worth looking below the surface at the actual trade relationship and the differences between the two countries. For now, Trump may have done Trudeau a favor. After the U.S. president’s trade tantrum and imposition of tariffs on steel and aluminum, polls showed that 72 percent of Canadians supported Trudeau’s handling of the dust-up. But polls also showed Trudeau’s Liberal party slightly behind the rival Conservatives, with both losing ground to the more left-wing New Democrats. Trade...

The Emblem of This Era

Robert KuttnerJun 20, 2018
AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
AP Photo/Andrew Harnik President Donald Trump is silhouetted in a car on his arrival at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi, Vietnam. This article appears in the Summer 2018 issue of The American Prospect magazine. Subscribe here . T his is the first time in nearly 30 years of publication that The American Prospect has devoted an entire issue of the magazine to a single topic. We are doing so because the 2017 Tax Act so perfectly displays so much of what is rotten and false about this period of Republican rule, and sets up an epic debate about what the two parties stand for. Tax cuts are invariably political winners, or so the Republicans thought. But this one is so grotesque that it is already backfiring. Whether it truly blows up on the right, and becomes a major political liability this fall, depends in large part on how skilled Democrats and commentators are at narrating all that is wrong with it. The law makes clear that the deep corruption in this era emanates not just from Trump...

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