As we prepare for today’s speech from Barack Obama on his response to the draconian cuts to social services proposed by Paul Ryan in his deficit reduction plan, it is very informative to watch Jon Stewart’s perfect dismantling of that plan from last night’s Daily Show. Stewart is right to poke fun at the “creepy music” to which Ryan presents his plan that the Washington villagers laud as so bold and decisive, but the real value of Stewart’s piece comes in his demonstration that the exact same amount of deficit reduction can be achieved by ending the Bush tax cuts. There were hints yesterday that Obama might actually suggest ending at least some tax cuts, but it remains to be seen just what kinds of revenue improvements Obama will suggest and, more importantly, how hard Obama will fight for them when it comes time to put his plan through Congress.

On November 17, my mother died. She was the last surviving grandparent of my children, so her death was in a very real sense the death of a generation in our family. However, as I look back on the lives of my parents, I see that their generation represented a unique bridge in the American cultural landscape. Both of my parents were born in 1932, at the height of the Great Depression, and yet their early adult lives saw the very best of economic times for a huge middle class. Sadly, at their passing, that middle class now also is dying, as the distribution of wealth returns to its concentration into only a few hands, just as it was in the 1920′s prior to the Depression.