...billionaire investor Warren Buffett has acknowledged the truth: “There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”

        


U.S. Jobless Claims Fall Sharply

January 20, 2012 by siteadmin · Comment
Topic(s): Economy 

The number of people seeking unemployment benefits for the first time plummeted last week to 352,000, the fewest since April 2008, the Labor Department said Thursday. The decline added to evidence that the job market is strengthening.

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American privilege rots an empire from within Well-paid professionals are contributing to U.S. economy’s demise

December 13, 2011 by Tom · Comment
Topic(s): Class Warfare 

A rising empire rewards people who contribute to its growth and invest in its future. The empire’s decline begins when certain members of society are over-rewarded by means of privileges, and the empire’s money is wasted on outdated endeavors.

Against this backdrop, the United States is experiencing a full-blown economic crisis. The nation’s real unemployment rate, which includes idled workers who’ve given up looking for jobs, is 18%. One-tenth of the nation’s properties have been foreclosed since 2007, and another tenth have negative equity. The poverty rate is more than 15%, and another 20% of the population is struggling on incomes near the poverty line. Looming over these grim statistics is the federal government’s budget deficit, which is equal to about 10% of the nation’s GDP.

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The 1% nearly triple their income, CBO says

October 27, 2011 by siteadmin · Comment
Topic(s): Class Warfare 

October 25, 2011, 4:09 PM, MarketWatch.com

More fuel for the Occupy Wall Street protests: “The distribution of after-tax household income in the United States was substantially more unequal in 2007 than in 1979,” the Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday in a special report. Read the CBO’s analysis of income inequality.

The top 1% of households more than doubled their share of national income in the years between 1979 and 2007, as their real (inflation-adjusted) incomes increased by an astonishing 275%, the CBO reported.

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The study that shows why Occupy Wall Street struck a nerve

October 27, 2011 by siteadmin · Comment
Topic(s): Class Warfare 

By Eugene Robinson, Thursday, October 27, 6:53 PM

The hard-right conservatives who dominate the Republican Party claim to despise the redistribution of wealth, but secretly they love it — as long as the process involves depriving the poor and middle class to benefit the rich, not the other way around.

That is precisely what has been happening, as a jaw-dropping new report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office demonstrates. Three decades of trickle-down economic theory, see-no-evil deregulation and tax-cutting fervor have led to massive redistribution. Another word for what’s been happening might be theft.

The gist of the CBO study, titled “Trends in the Distribution of Household Income Between 1979 and 2007,” is that while we’ve become wealthier overall, these new riches have largely bypassed many Americans and instead flowed mostly to the affluent. Perhaps my memory is faulty, but I don’t remember voting to turn the United States into a nation starkly divided between haves and have-nots. Yet that’s where we’ve been led.

Overall, in inflation-adjusted dollars, average after-tax household income grew by 62 percent during the period under study, according to the CBO. This sounds great — but only until you look a little closer.

For those at the bottom — the one-fifth of households with the lowest incomes — the increase was just 18 percent. For the middle three-fifths, the average increase was 40 percent. Spread over nearly 30 years, these gains are modest, not meteoric.

By contrast, look at the top 1 percent of earners. Their after-tax household income increased by an astonishing 275 percent. For those keeping track, this means it nearly quadrupled. Nice work, if you can get it.

This is not what Republicans want you to think of when you hear the word redistribution. You’re supposed to imagine the evil masterminds as Bolsheviks, not bankers. You’re supposed to envision the lazy free-riders who benefit from redistribution as the “poor,” and the industrious job-creators who get robbed as the “wealthy” — not the other way around.

If Americans were to realize they’ve been the victims of Republican-style redistribution — stealing from the poor to give to the rich — the whole political atmosphere might change. I believe that’s one reason why the Occupy Wall Street protests have struck such a nerve. The far-right and its media mouthpieces have worked themselves into a frenzy trying to disregard, dismiss or discredit the demonstrations. Thus far, fortunately, all this effort has been to no avail.

The right maintains that inequality is the wrong measure. To argue about how the income pie should be sliced is “class warfare,” and what we should do instead is give the private sector the right incentives to make the pie bigger. This way, according to conservative doctrine, everyone’s slice gets bigger — even if some slices grow faster than others.

Indeed, the CBO report says that even the poorest households saw at least a little income growth. Why is it any of their business that the high-earners in the top 1 percent saw astronomical income growth? Isn’t this just sour grapes?

No, for two reasons. First, the system is rigged. Wealthy individuals and corporations have disproportionate influence over public policy because of the often decisive role that money plays in elections. If the rich and powerful act in their self-interest, as conservative ideologues believe we all should do, then the rich and powerful’s share of income will continue to soar.

Second, and more broadly, the real issue is what kind of nation we want to be. Thomas Jefferson’s “All men are created equal” is properly understood as calling for equality of opportunity, not equality of outcomes. But the more we become a nation of rich and poor, the less we can pretend to be offering the same opportunities to every American. As polarization increases, mobility declines. The whole point of the American Dream is that it is available to everyone, not just those who awaken from their slumbers on down-filled pillows and 800-thread-count sheets.

So it does matter that as the pie grows, the various slices do not grow in proportion. We’re not characters in one of those lumbering, interminable, nonsensical Ayn Rand novels. We believe in individual initiative and the free market, but we also believe that nationhood necessarily involves a commitment to our fellow citizens, an acknowledgment that we’re engaged in a common enterprise. We believe that opportunity should be more than just an empty word.

eugenerobinson@washpost.com

Anti-Wall St. movement grows to dozens of cities

October 16, 2011 by siteadmin · Comment
Topic(s): OccupyTogether Revolution 

Demonstrators in NY City

Demonstrators in NY City

Over the course of what was billed as “a global day of protest” Saturday, demonstrators gathered in cities throughout the world to rally against what they see as corporate greed and Wall Street’s role in the financial crisis. In Rome, rioters hijacked what had been a peaceful gathering and smashed windows, tore up sidewalks and torched vehicles. Repair costs were estimated at $1.4 million, the mayor said Sunday.

But most of the marches remained largely nonconfrontational, though dozens were arrested in New York and elsewhere in the U.S. when police moved to contain overflowing crowds or keep them off private property.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/10/16/national/a072207D51.DTL#ixzz1axM0zYU0

What class warfare really looks like

July 12, 2011 by siteadmin · Comment
Topic(s): Class Warfare 

By: Dee Dee Myers, Politico.com
July 11, 2011 10:22 PM EDT

Here we go again. Democrats single out glaring examples of tax preferences or spending priorities that favor the wealthy and Republicans cry “class warfare!”

The latest round came in the wake of President Barack Obama’s calls to eliminate tax breaks for corporate jet owners. Ending special deductions for the depreciation of corporate aircraft would save roughly $3 billion over the next decade. Republicans argue — correctly — that amounts to less than half of 1 percent of the current national debt. So it was striking how quickly, and passionately, conservative pols and commentators rose to defend the subsidy.

“Dangerous!” “Full-fledged demagoguery!” cried Rush Limbaugh. The president’s “aim is for one group of Americans to hate and despise another!”

“Unprecedented class warfare!” claimed Glenn Beck. The president again showed “his sheer, unadulterated disgust for the wealthy, the successful and anyone who’s ever tried to do anything with their life here in America.”

Really? Closing a single loophole worth less than one-half of 1 percent of the national debt is all that?

The knee-jerk conservative response confirms two things. First, they know the president landed a punch. Second, they’re utterly unwilling to acknowledge how much the playing field in American life has now tilted in favor of the haves.

We know the president’s proposal was largely symbolic. He doesn’t believe that eliminating a $3 billion tax break is really going to break the back of a $14 trillion problem.

But he does believe that highlighting small, but galling, inequities can stimulate a broader conversation about fairness. In our collective effort to deal with our very real fiscal challenges, how do we share the burden? The president’s argument resonated with ordinary Americans precisely because it’s a stand-in for their growing sense that things are out of whack.

This is the conversation conservatives don’t want to have.

It’s indisputable that the gap between the rich and everyone else in this country has grown dramatically. The top 1 percent of Americans now take home nearly a quarter of all income and control more than 40 percent of the country’s wealth — roughly the same amount as the bottom 90 percent.

It’s also indisputable that that gap has gotten far bigger in the past 25 years. In the past decade alone, the wealthiest percentile has seen its income grow by a robust 17 percent, while the middle class has seen its real income fall.

What could possibly account for such gross distortions? Are the superwealthy really that much smarter and productive than the rest of us? Are the organic veggies and hormone-free meat that affluent parents feed their children paying off?

Or could it be something else?

How about the tax structure? The 400 Americans with the highest adjusted gross income saw their effective tax rates plummet from 30 percent in 1995 to 17 percent in 2007.

That’s not according to some left-wing think tank. It comes from a recent cover story in Bloomberg BusinessWeek. General Electric paid no corporate taxes in 2010. ExxonMobil, one of the most profitable companies in the world, still benefits from hundreds of millions of dollars in government subsidies — and it still couldn’t explain, let alone prevent, a devastating oil spill in the Yellowstone River.

Even tax breaks that are supposed to help the middle class too often skew toward the wealthy. Consider the mortgage interest deduction. While political leaders in both parties have long considered it untouchable, it actually helps those at the top of the income scale far more than those at the bottom.

First, low- and middle-income earners are less likely to itemize deductions, so most aren’t even eligible for the benefit. If the mortgage interest deduction were eliminated, according to the Tax Policy Center, the bottom 40 percent of earners would be virtually unaffected.

Those in the middle brackets would see a small increase in their taxes. While those in the top brackets — the same folks who have seen their incomes and wealth skyrocket in recent decades — would take the biggest hit.

Second, it provides the biggest benefit to people who buy the most expensive homes. The deduction on a million-dollar loan at an elevated jumbo rate is worth a heck of a lot more than one for a $250,000 conforming loan.

Third, because people in lower brackets pay lower rates, if a person making $50,000 a year and person making $150,000 a year bought the same house, the higher earner would get a bigger tax break.

Reducing the amount of eligible debt from $1 million to, say, $250,000 is now under discussion. That would help. But it would still provide a bigger benefit to people with bigger incomes.

So the dirty little secret is that the pool man, who’s making $30,000 a year, is subsidizing the million-dollar mortgage for the family whose pool he cleans. No wonder people want to get rid of tax breaks for corporate jets.

And no wonder the American people overwhelmingly support raising taxes on the rich — as well as cutting spending — to reduce the deficit and improve income equality. They don’t believe it’s class warfare.

For generations, Americans who aren’t rich have been generous and admiring of their wealthy compatriots — they want a country where people who work hard can succeed, where the same rules apply to everyone. They expect to have their own shot at getting rich. But increasingly, they are seeing that the game is rigged.

So as Republican congressional leaders stand their ground in the battle over raising the debt ceiling and lowering the debt — no net revenue increase! — Obama must stand his. He must ensure that any deal he may be able to strike moves us back toward a society where the burdens are shared equally — by all our people.

The U.S. now lags behind every country in Donald Rumsfeld’s “Old Europe” in terms of income equality.

“The more divided a society becomes in terms of wealth,” the Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz wrote recently in Vanity Fair, “the more reluctant the wealthy become to spend on the common needs. The rich don’t need to rely on government for parks or education or medical care or personal security — they can buy these things for themselves. In the process, they become more distant from ordinary people, losing whatever empathy they may once have had.”

That, my friends, is what class warfare really looks like.

Dee Dee Myers, a contributing editor for Vanity Fair, served as White House press secretary in the first two years of the Clinton administration.

Howard Dean to Obama: Get Out of Afghanistan!

April 19, 2011 by siteadmin · Comment
Topic(s): Afghanistan 

The former Democratic boss says the Afghanistan war is not winnable, the Kabul government is corrupt, and Karzai is almost as bad on women’s rights as the Taliban. In an interview with The Daily Beast’s McKay Coppins, the emboldened pol also blasts Tea Party radicals on the budget. FULL ARTICLE HERE

In 30 minutes, 18 state Senators undid 50 years of civil rights in Wisconsin. Their disrespect for the people of Wisconsin and their rights is an outrage that will never be forgotten

March 9, 2011 by siteadmin · Comment
Topic(s): Latest News 

Wis. GOP bypasses Dems, cuts collective bargaining

By SCOTT BAUER, Associated Press Scott Bauer, Associated Press – 5 mins ago

FULL ARTICLE HERE…

MADISON, Wis. – The Wisconsin Senate voted Wednesday night to strip nearly all collective bargaining rights from public workers, approving an explosive proposal that had rocked the state and unions nationwide after Republicans discovered a way to bypass the chamber’s missing Democrats.

Republicans Apologize to BP

June 18, 2010 by siteadmin · Comment
Topic(s): Oil 

I believe the GOP really doesn’t want the American people to have health care.

March 14, 2010 by siteadmin · Comment
Topic(s): Healthcare 

Opinion
GOP has an unhealthy idea about health care

Sunday, March 14, 2010

To the Times:

I believe the GOP really doesn’t want the American people to have health care.

The reason: Eight years of Reagan, 12 years of Bushes and 20 years of not one health care bill.

How many Americans died in those 20 years? In 2009, 47,000 Americans died and in the next three years, 141,300 Americans will die because of lack of health care. The GOP says health care will cost too much — the Iraq War will cost about $3 trillion when it ends.

U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said these famous words: “If we’re able to stop Obama, this will be his Waterloo, it will break him.” Mr. DeMint took $1,194,520 from health care professionals. The American people who will die, this year will be their “Waterloo.” He took his 30 pieces of silver.

Mr. DeMint and the Republican Party want to break the commander in chief of the armed forces of the U.S. in war time. I served in Germany many years ago — his words are an act of treason, he should resign, he is a coward. The Republican Party should be proud of its Benedict Arnold.

Almost 7,000 Marines died and 19,217 were wounded on Iwo Jima. In 2009, 2,300 vets died and in the next three years, 6,600 vets will die due to lack of health care in America. I repeat, in America. In 2008, 4 million vets don’t have health care (non related war injuries). HOW SAD!

A plea to U.S. Sen. John McCain: They were willing to die on the battle field but were not willing to die because of one vote short.

The Vietnam War is called the poor man’s war because the rich kids didn’t go. Reagan wanted to cut mental-health care from the Vietnam vets, tens of thousands committed suicide. Bush and Congress cut $85 billion from vet benefits in 2003 so he could make his second tax cut possible — support our troops — another reason why vets don’t have health care.

Mitt Romney, a future presidential candidate, said his kids served our country by running his campaign. As a vet, this really ticks me off.

Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld sent our sons and daughters into Iraq without the proper troop levels, proper equipment. The troops had to go into junk yards to find pieces of steel to weld onto their humvees. So many died, so many were injured. This makes me sick when I think about it.”

U.S. Sens. Lieberman, Snow, Brown, Collins: Congratulations if you kill the health care bill. You will also kill Americans. Your loyalty to your party is more important than your loyalty to your country.

If you care for the American people and the 4 million vets who don’t have health care, call Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell at 202-224-2541 and tell him to get this bill passed now. Someone once said: “Worrying does not empty tomorrow of its troubles — it empties today of its strength.”

MIKE WALSH

Former 3rd Infantry Division,

U.S. Army

The Delaware County Daily Times (delcotimes.com), Serving Delaware County, PA

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(March 20, 2012)

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