A new study from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) shows states that cut tax rates do worse in terms of economic growth than other states.  Numerous Republican governors have pushed for tax cuts under the premise that lower tax rates lead to greater economic growth, but the CBPP study concludes that this premise is wrong. 

Update: The House voted 257 to 167 to approve the Senate agreement. 

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka responds to the Senate agreement on the "fiscal cliff":

The agreement passed by the Senate last night is a breakthrough in beginning to restore tax fairness and achieves some key goals of working families.  It does not cut Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid benefits. It raises more than $700 billion over 10 years, including interest savings, by ending the Bush income tax cuts for families making more than $450,000 a year. And in recognition of the continuing jobs crisis, it extends unemployment benefits for a year.  A strong message from voters and a relentless echo from grassroots activists over the last six weeks helped get us this far.

Did watching Mitt Romney in last night’s presidential debate seem familiar? Haven’t we heard it all somewhere before? Yes. Mitt Romney wants to repeat the policies that caused the economic crisis that we are now recovering from because of President Obama's leadership. 

What is it we’ve heard before? Tax cuts for the wealthy. Deregulate Wall Street. Dismantle Medicare. Turn health care over to private insurance companies. Privatize education.

Watch this video for more.  

We did hear one thing new last night. Romney wants to fire Big Bird.

Last week, we discussed that the Republican Party platform is a road map to dismantle workers’ rights. Steven Greenhouse of The New York Times says the Republican platform “calls for numerous steps that could significantly weaken America’s labor unions” and, for the first time in years, doesn’t even acknowledge the right to form unions.

The New York Times reports, when doing a side-by-side comparison of the platforms, the two visions are “poles apart in their view of the nation.”

Let’s take a look at some of the major differences:

In refusing to turn over more than two years of his tax returns, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney brags that he paid all his taxes but "not a penny more." Meaning no matter what he paid, he coughed up a pretty minimal amount, however you slice it. Not only can Romney get away with legally paying very little in taxes, but his low tax rate is within an already low national tax rate (click to enlarge chart).

Some say young voters are apathetic this election year and not likely to go to the polls.

Popular YouTube personality Soul Khan tackles this challenge head on—with messages that resonate about what’s at stake for young voters if they don’t get out and vote to re-elect President Obama.

With an entertaining rap, Khan gets in the face of young people with messages like:

The phrase “trickle-down” economics has always been ripe for derision. Not only because it doesn’t work—the idea that if we ply the rich with more money from taxpayers’ pockets some eventually will “trickle down” in the form of jobs and prosperity is a myth. But also because, let’s face it, “trickle down” conjures up a variety of images we won’t mention here.

Now, cartoonist Mark Fiore has created an animated video, “Once Upon a Trickle Down,” that puts the entire corporate/Republican-backed theory and its effects into an easy-to-understand children’s rhyme. Here’s a taste:

"Republicans are holding the middle class hostage to their demands on behalf of the richest 2 percent of Americans,” said the AFL-CIO Executive Council in a statement from its August meeting in Washington, D.C., this week. And, the council emphasized:

There can be no excuse for giving in to their demands to extend tax cuts for the 2 percent; cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits; tax workers’ health benefits; or sacrifice middle-class jobs.

In a reverse of last week’s Senate action, the U.S. House of Representatives today approved (256-171) a bill (H.R. 8) to extend the Bush tax cuts for the nation’s wealthiest 2%— about $160,000 a year for the average millionaire. The House defeated (257-170) a Democratic alternative amendment to maintain the cuts for the middle class but end the tax breaks for the rich.

The U.S. Senate today voted 51-48 to end the Bush tax cuts for the nation’s richest 2% and maintain the cuts for middle-class families. Also, by a 45-54 margin, lawmakers defeated a Republican bill that continued the tax breaks for the wealthy. However, today’s action was largely symbolic as the Republican-controlled House will not take up the Senate bill that ends the Bush tax breaks for the wealthy. But it's certainly further evidence about whose side congressional Republicans are on.