It's widely acknowledged that OWS is asking good, tough questions. But even among supporters, the chief criticism has been the movement's lack of focus. Yes, health insurance is too expensive and unemployment is too high. Sure, it would be nice if the financial-real estate complex hadn't wrecked the economy (with an assist from a captured government). But America was a deeply unequal country even in 2007. What ideas would solve these problems?

One can imagine a list of long-term, long-shot ideas: Guaranteed long-term unemployment benefits (not the kind we have now, which can be held hostage every year or so); universal, low-cost health care; low-cost, public higher education;* more rental housing assistance; and more money for food stamps. It goes without saying that we need to keep Social Security and Medicare in something like their current form, or else things will only get worse when people turn 65.

The problem, though--leaving aside our do-nothing Congress, which I'll come back to--is that these things cost money. Therefore, the first step toward solving the problems raised by the Occupy Wall Street movement should be to let the Bush tax cuts expire.

In 2001 and 2003, President Bush pushed through major tax cuts that reduced rates for everyone, increased exemptions and deductions for the rich, reduced rates on capital gains and dividends (which mainly go to the rich), increased the amount of retirement savings that can be shielded from taxes, and drastically slashed the estate tax (which only affects the rich). To avoid needing sixty votes in the Senate, the tax cuts were scheduled to expire after last year. In December 2010, both parties agreed to extend them through 2012. Republicans now want to make all of them permanent. President Obama agrees with 98 percent of that idea. He wants to make the tax cuts permanent except for the lower rates for families making more than $250,000.

The Bush tax cuts might be the most important inequality-increasing policy of the past twenty years. Sixty-five percent of the tax cuts went to families in the top income quintile; a breathtaking 38 percent of the money went to the top one percent of families. (Richer families also saw their effective tax rates fall by more than poorer families.) Income inequality had already been accelerating for 30 years. The Bush tax cuts turned on the afterburners.

More importantly, the Bush tax cuts are responsible for the current political pressure to dismantle the federal government. So far, they have added almost $3 trillion to the national debt.** Despite all the damage they have already done, letting the tax cuts expire would still eliminate a big chunk of our long-term debt problem. Without the Bush tax cuts, we will have more than $300 billion per year, beginning in 2014, at least some of which could go toward helping ordinary people.*** With them in place, there is no chance of finding the money to patch our threadbare safety net, and one of these years the Republican assault on Medicare will finally succeed. It is a prerequisite for any kind of progressive policy that involves spending money.