Those poor, misunderstood big corporations. No one seems to know or care what a burden taxes are on those cash-stuffed companies—like General Electric, which paid no federal income taxes in 2010. To make sure we all know, the Business Roundtable just launched a lobbying and ad blitz to push for even bigger tax breaks than corporations now receive.

In the global economic race, the United States is coming in second—and one of the major reasons is that we have stopped making things in this country. A recent poll shows the public thinks it’s going to be that way for awhile. Only one in five Americans say the U.S. economy is the world’s strongest. Nearly half (47 percent) say China’s economy is stronger and only one in three expects the United States to regain the top spot in the next 20 years. Nearly three-fifths of those surveyed say that increasing competition from lower-paid workers around the world will keep living standards for average Americans from growing as fast as they did in the past.