Matt Taibbi thinks that the Paul Ryan budget proposal is just another attempt to get poor people to sacrifice and probably pay more taxes so there can be more tax cuts and other benefits for the rich. I think just about everything the Republican party does these days is about that…and the Democrats seem to think it's a victory if they don't give the G.O.P. quite as much of that as Republicans would like.
Also of interest is this Taibbi piece which is about what's happened to Jefferson County, Alabama — a community that seems to have been royally screwed by powerful financial interests. We all are, one way or the other, but this seems a bit more blatant than some of the other Wall Street shenanigans.