CHART: As Services For Main Street Are Gutted, Richest Pay Lowest Taxes In A Generation

Last night President Obama and congressional negotiators cut a deal to keep the government running, cutting “$38.5 billion under current funding levels, per Republican demands,” and $78 billion below what Obama called for in his initial 2011 budget.

Yet as Republicans and Democrats continue to battle over the deficit within a political framing that includes taking aim at Pell Grants for low-income students — which Obama preemptively proposed to cut, calling summer grants “too expensive,” while Republicans want far deeper cuts than that — Head Start funding, and other programs from Main Street Americans, there is one group of Americans that seems to be getting away without having any sacrifices demanded of them: the very richest.
As this chart from from Wealth for the Common Good shows, the top 400 taxpayers — who have more wealth than half of all Americans combined — are paying lower taxes than they have in a generation, as their tax responsibilities have slowly collapsed since the New Deal era as working families have been asked to pay more and more:


There have been a handful of proposals by congressional progressives to once again put requiring more sacrifice from the luckiest among us back on the table. The Congressional Progressive Caucus recently unveiled a “People’s Budget” that would boost taxes on the wealthiest Americans, returning them to levels closer to where they were under Ronald Reagan’s first term — hardly socialism.
Yet these proposals have yet to gain steam, and the budget debate in Washington appears to revolve completely around cutting spending for Main Street Americans who’ve already been asked to pay too much during the recession. That’s why there’s a Main Street Movement demanding fair sacrifice and standing up for the great American middle class. Whether it succeeds may determine the fate of most hard-working Americans for a generation to come.

Survey: Many U.S. Millionaires Do Not Consider Themselves Rich

A new survey of the wealthy class in the United States has found that more than 40 percent of millionaires do not feel rich, despite their seven-figure wealth. Many said they would not feel truly wealthy until their assets hit the $7.5 million mark. The survey was conducted by Fidelity Investments

Congress Sends Tax Package to Obama; Estate Tax Kept at Lower Rate

Congress has sent President Obama a controversial bipartisan tax deal following its approval in the House. Just before midnight, the House voted to 277 to 148 to extend the Bush-era tax cut for the wealthiest Americans and reduce the estate tax in return for a 13-month extension of jobless benefits and a handful of tax credits for low- and moderate-income Americans. At least a quarter of the tax savings under the deal will go to the wealthiest one percent of the population. The only group that will see its taxes increase are the nation’s lowest-paid workers. A group of House Democrats failed in their attempt to block a provision that reduces the estate tax; their proposal to increase the estate tax was defeated in a stand-alone vote of 233 to 194.

Way to go US DEMS--- thanks (ass holes)

House Dems Reject Obama-GOP Tax Deal

The Senate appears headed toward approval of President Obama’s controversial fiscal deal with Republicans amidst an uproar by Democratic members of the House. This week, Obama agreed to extend the Bush-era tax cut for the wealthiest Americans and reduce the estate tax in return for a 13-month extension of jobless benefits and a handful of tax credits for low- and moderate-income Americans. According to the New York Times, at least a quarter of the tax savings under the deal will go to the wealthiest one percent of the population. The only group that will see its taxes increase are the nation’s lowest-paid workers. The Senate has scheduled a test vote on Monday after opening debate on the measure last night. Meanwhile in the House, the Democratic caucus passed a non-binding measure denouncing the tax deal. At the White House, President Obama urged lawmakers to drop their opposition.

President Obama: "The average American family will start 2011 knowing that there will be more money to pay the bills each month, more money to pay for tuition, more money to raise their children. But if this framework fails, the reverse is true. Americans would see it in smaller paychecks that would have the effect of fewer jobs. So as we meet here today to talk about one important facet of our economic strategy for the future, I urge members of Congress to move forward on this essential priority."

Senate GOP Blocks "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" Repeal, DREAM Act, 9/11 Settlement

The U.S. Senate has failed to advance a measure that would repeal the military’s ban on openly gay and lesbian servicemembers known as "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell." On Thursday, the Senate fell three votes short of advancing a military spending bill with a repeal provision attached. The vote raises the prospect that the ban will not be repealed before Republicans take over the House and weaken the Democrats’ Senate majority next month. In another vote, Republicans also blocked a measure to advance the DREAM Act, a provision that would grant undocumented young people a chance at citizenship. Republicans also blocked a measure to provide up to $7.4 billion to workers sickened during the cleanup at the World Trade Center following the 9/11 attacks. The measure passed the House earlier this year.

The Rich Getting Richer The Class War at Home (not the one the rich are paying for)

The rich and their paid false prophets are doing a bang up job deceiving the poor and middle class.  They have convinced many that an evil socialism is alive in the land and it is taking their fair share.  But the deception cannot last – facts say otherwise.

Yes, there is a class war – the war of the rich on the poor and the middle class – and the rich are winning.  That war has been going on for years.  Look at the facts – facts the rich and their false paid prophets do not want people to know.

Let Glen Beck go on about socialists descending on Washington.  Allow Rush Limbaugh to rail about “class warfare for a leftist agenda that will destroy our society.”  They are well compensated false prophets for the rich.   

The truth is that for the several decades the rich in the US have been getting richer and the poor and middle class have been getting poorer.  Look at the facts then make up your own mind.

The official US poverty numbers show we now have the highest number of poor people in 51 years.  The official US poverty rate is 14.3 percent or 43.6 million people in poverty. One in five children in the US is poor; one in ten senior citizens is poor.  Source: US Census Bureau.

One of every six workers, 26.8 million people, is unemployed or underemployed.  This “real” unemployment rate is over 17 per cent.   There are 14.8 million people designated as “officially” unemployed by the government, a rate of 9.6 per cent.  Unemployment is worse for African American workers of whom 16.1 per cent are unemployed.  Another 9.5 million people who are working only part-time while they are seeking full-time work but have had their hours cut back or are so far only able to find work part-time are not counted in the official unemployment numbers. Also, an additional 2.5 million are reported unemployed but not counted because they are classified as discouraged workers in part because they have been out of work for more than 12 months.  Source:  US Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics October 2010 report.

The median household income for whites in the US is $51,861; for Asians it is $65,469; for African Americans it is $32,584; for Latinos it is $38,039.  Source: US Census Bureau. 

Fifty million people in the US lack health insurance.  Source: US Census Bureau. 

Women in the US have a greater lifetime risk of dying from pregnancy-related conditions than women in 40 other countries.  African American US women are nearly 4 times more likely to die of pregnancy-related complications than white women.  Source: Amnesty International Maternal Health Care Crisis in the USA.

About 3.5 million people, about one-third of which are children, are homeless at some point in the year in the US.  Source: National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty.

Outside Atlanta, 33,000 people showed up to seek applications for low cost subsidized housing in August 2010.  When Detroit offered emergency utility and housing assistance to help people facing evictions, more than 50,000 people showed up for the 3,000 vouchers. Source: News reports.

There are 49 million people in the US who live in households which eat only because they receive food stamps, visit food pantries or soup kitchens for help.  Sixteen million are so poor they have skipped meals or foregone food at some point in the last year.  This is the highest level since statistics have been kept.  Source:  US Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.

Middle Class Going Backward: Facts

One or two generations ago it was possible for a middle class family to live on one income.  Now it takes two incomes to try to enjoy the same quality of life.  Wages have not kept up with inflation; adjusted for inflation they have lost ground over the past ten years.  The cost of housing, education and health care have all increased at a much higher rate than wages and salaries.  In 1967, the middle 60 percent of households received over 52 per cent of all income.  In 1998, it was down to 47 per cent.  The share going to the poor has also fallen, with the top 20 per cent seeing their share rise.

A record 2.8 million homes received a foreclosure notice in 2009, higher than both 2008 and 2007.  In 2010, the rate is expected to be rise to 3 million homes.  Sources: Reuters and RealtyTrac. 

Eleven million homeowners (about one in four homeowners) in the US are “under water” or owe more on their mortgages than their house is worth.  Source: “Home truths,” The Economist, October 23, 2010.  

For the first time since the 1940s, the real incomes of middle-class families are lower at the end of the business cycle of the 2000s than they were at the beginning.  Despite the fact that the American workforce is working harder and smarter than ever, they are sharing less and less in the benefits they are creating.  This is true for white families but even truer for African American families whose gains in the 1990s have mostly been eliminated since then.  Source: Jared Bernstein and Heidi Shierholz, State of Working America.

Rich Getting Richer: Facts

The wealth of the richest 400 people in the US grew by 8 per cent in the last year to $1.37 trillion.  Source: Forbes 400: The super-rich get richer, September 22, 2010, Money.com 

The top Hedge Fund Manager of 2009, David Tepper, “earned” $4 billion last year.  The rest of the top ten earned: $3.3 billion, $2.5 billion, $2.3 billion, $1.4 billion, $1.3 billion (tie for 6th and 7th place), $900 million (tie for 8th and 9th place), and in last place out of the top ten, $825 million.  Source: Business Insider.  “Meet the top 10 earning hedge fund managers of 2009.”

Income disparity in the US is now as bad as it was right before the Great Depression at the end of the 1920s.  From 1979 to 2006, the richest 1 per cent more than doubled their share of the total US income, from 10 per cent to 23 per cent.  The richest 1 per cent have an average annual income of more than $1.3 million.  For the last 25 years, over 90 per cent of the total growth in income in the US went to the top 10 per cent earners – leaving 9 per cent of all income to be shared by the bottom 90 per cent. Source: Jared Bernstein and Heidi Shierholz, State of Working America.   

In 1973, the average US CEO was paid $27 for every dollar paid to a typical worker; by 2007 that ratio had grown to $275 to $1.  Source: Jared Bernstein and Heidi Shierholz, State of Working America.

Since 1992, the average tax rate on the richest 400 taxpayers in the US dropped from 26.8 per cent to 16.62 per cent.  Source: US Internal Revenue Service.

The US has the greatest inequality between rich and poor among all Western industrialized nations and it has been getting worse for 40 years.  The World Factbook, published by the CIA, includes an international ranking of the inequality among families inside of each country, called the Gini Index.  The US ranking of 45 in 2007 is the same as Argentina, Cameroon, and Cote d’Ivorie.   The highest inequality can be found in countries like Namibia, South Africa, Haiti and Guatemala.  The US ranking of 45 compares poorly to Japan (38), India (36), New Zealand, UK (34), Greece (33), Spain (32), Canada (32), France (32), South Korea (31), Netherlands (30), Ireland (30), Australia (30), Germany (27), Norway (25), and Sweden (23).  Source: CIA The World Factbook:

Rich people live an average of about five years longer than poor people in the US.  Naturally, gross inequality has consequences in terms of health, exposure to unhealthy working conditions, nutrition and lifestyle.  In 1980, the most well off in the US had a life expectancy of 2.8 years over the least well-off.  As the inequality gap widens, so does the life expectancy gap.  In 1990, the gap was a little less than 4 years.  In 2000, the least well-off could expect to live to age of 74.7 while the most well off had a life expectancy of 79.2 years.  Source: Elise Gould, “Growing disparities in life expectancy,” Economic Policy Institute.
Conclusion

These are extremely troubling facts for anyone concerned about economic fairness, equality of opportunity, and justice.

Thomas Jefferson once observed that the systematic restructuring of society to benefit the rich over the poor and middle class is a natural appetite of the rich. “Experience declares that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to…the general prey of the rich on the poor.”  But Jefferson also knew that justice can only be delayed so long when he said, “I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever.”

The rich talk about the rise of socialism to divert attention from the fact that they are devouring the basics of the poor and everyone else.  Many of those crying socialism the loudest are doing it to enrich or empower themselves.  They are right about one thing – there is a class war going on in the US.  The rich are winning their class war, and it is time for everyone else to fight back for economic justice. 

Bill Quigley is Legal Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights and professor of law at Loyola University New Orleans. You can reach him atquigley77@gmail.com

By BILL QUIGLEY

The Scam On America

With great fanfare, House Republicans unveiled their "Pledge to America" yesterday, a document comprised primarily of attacks on legislation passed under President Obama. "The 45-page booklet explaining the Pledge contains archaic fonts reminiscent of the founding texts," writes the Washington Post's Dana Milbank. "Yet for all the grandiosity, the document they released is small in its ambition." Further investigation of the final release -- once the attacks on an "arrogant and out-of-touch government of self-appointed elites" and the full-color photographs of the House Republican elite are overlooked -- reveals that the "2010 Republican Agenda" is little more than a re-affirmation of the "Party of No."Yesterday's Progress Report noted that the entire economic platform of the pledge is a return to Bush's tax cuts and spending levels, the failed policies that brought us the worst recession since the Great Depression. The promised combination of regressive tax cuts, deficit reduction, and new spending in the Pledge is "fuzzy Washington math," charges Newsweek's Ben Adler. Energy policy is dispatched in one sentence. The Republican plan on health care is to replace the Affordable Care Act with provisions from the Affordable Care Act. "The Pledge to America should have been called the Scam on America because it does nothing to help Americans," writes the Examiner's Maryann Tobin, "unless of course they are CEOs of big oil companies, drug companies, or Wall Street bankers." Conservatives found the document risible as well. "It is a series ofcompromises and milquetoast rhetorical flourishes in search of unanimity among House Republicans because the House GOP does not have the fortitude to lead boldly in opposition to Barack Obama," charged right-wing blogger and CNN contributor Erick Erickson. "We're not going to be any different than what we've been," House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) said at the Pledge's revealing. "It's not even a sequel!" the Daily Show's Jon Stewart responded. "It's like a shot-by-shot remake."

Is The New GOP ‘Pledge’ A Way To Bring Ryan’s Radical Budget Plans In Through The Backdoor?

Today, House Republicans released their “Pledge to America,” a document styled after 1994’s Contract with America that the GOP claims is “an outline of the party’s targetsin the final weeks of the legislative session.” We’ve already explained how the Pledge promises to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act with portions of the Affordable Care Act and how it represents a blood oath to Big Oil, so let’s turn to another aspect: its effect on the deficit.

Of course, the Pledge includes a promise to extend all of the Bush tax cuts — including those for the richest two percent of Americans — for a total price tag of $4 trillion over the next decade, while laying out spending cuts that, even if the numbers are taken at face value, don’t come close to covering that cost. ABC’s George Stephanopoulos asked Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) — the ranking member of the House Budget Committee — to explain how the GOP can square its desire for huge, regressive tax cuts with its supposed commitment to deficit reduction:

Tea Party Backer David Koch Becomes Wealthiest New Yorker

New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg is no longer the wealthiest New Yorker according to Forbes Magazine. Tea party backer David Koch is now number one after his income soared from $16 billion to $21.5 billion in 2009. The New Yorker magazine recently revealed that David Koch and his brother Charles have quietly helped bankroll the tea party movement and dozens of other right-wing causes. The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer reported the Kochs are longtime libertarians who believe in drastically lower personal and corporate taxes, minimal social services for the needy, and much less oversight of industry—especially environmental regulation.

The angry poor

Why Mozambicans took to the streets

Sep 9th 2010 | JOHANNESBURG

FOLLOWING recent riots in Maputo, the capital, and in other cities in Mozambique that have left at least a dozen dead and more than 400 injured, the government has called off a 30% increase in the price of bread. Police said they had to resort to live ammunition against protesters after running out of rubber bullets. The government has apologised, saying it had never authorised the use of lethal force.

Shops and banks were looted, cars stoned and roads barricaded with rocks and burning tyres during three days of alcohol-fuelled rioting that paralysed the capital and shut down the main airport. Nearly 300 demonstrators were arrested, including nine accused of “incitement” for sending out mobile-phone text-messages urging people to join the protests against rising utility, transport and food prices.

UC Berkleley- People of Lower Socioeconomic status Give More Than there upper status counterparts.

Abstract

Lower social class (or socioeconomic status) is associated with fewer resources, greater exposure to threat, and a reduced sense of personal control. Given these life circumstances, one might expect lower class individuals to engage in less prosocial behavior, prioritizing self-interest over the welfare of others. The authors hypothesized, by contrast, that lower class individuals orient to the welfare of others as a means to adapt to their more hostile environments and that this orientation gives rise to greater prosocial behavior. Across 4 studies, lower class individuals proved to be more generous (Study 1), charitable (Study 2), trusting (Study 3), and helpful (Study 4) compared with their upper class counterparts. Mediator and moderator data showed that lower class individuals acted in a more prosocial fashion because of a greater commitment to egalitarian values and feelings of compassion. Implications for social class, prosocial behavior, and economic inequality are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved

The New Yorker: Billionaire Brothers Charles & David Koch Have Quietly Given More Than $100 Million to Right-Wing Causes

An article in the latest issue of The New Yorkermagazine by Jane Mayer profiles billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, two of the richest men in America who have quietly given more than a hundred million dollars to right-wing causes. Mayer writes, "The [Koch] brothers have funded opposition campaigns against so many Obama Administration policies—from health-care reform to the economic-stimulus program—that, in political circles, their ideological network is known as the Kochtopus." [includes rush transcript]

Rich Nations Urged to Meet Pledges at Opening of Global AIDS Conference

A major international conference on global AIDS policy is underway in Austria this week. On Sunday, hundreds of people marched through the conference halls demanding rich nations meet their pledges to ensure universal access to AIDS treatment. Julio Montaner of the International AIDS Society criticized wealthy countries for failing to meet the UN’s Millennium Development Goals.

Julio Montaner: "I cannot hide my profound disappointment and deep frustration with the recently concluded GI and G20 meetings in anywhere else but Canada, by failing to take full responsibility for the universal access pledge, and, more importantly, for failing to articulate the next steps to meet not just the six MDGs [Millennium Development Goals], but also all of them, because without universal access (to AIDS treatment), there shall be no MDGs by 2015.

G20: Illegitimate, Incompetent and Out of Control

By Raj Patel
You can’t formulate a sensible international economic policy without the basics: helicopters, snipers, riot police, attack dogs, tanks and miles of chain link fence. Wherever ministers of finance gather, the essential accessories for crowd control and popular repression are always to be found. But even by the historical levels of unaccountability, profligacy and cowardice set at meetings of the world’s richest economies, this weekend’s Canadian G8/G20 meetings raise the bar. By the time the teeth of the last protester are hosed from the soles of the last Mountie, the security bill will have topped one billion dollars. The six kilometer fence in the middle of Toronto cost $5 million alone but most of the rest of the bill is secret – ‘national security’ provides an alibi for backhanders and white elephants.


So what will Canadians (and the rest of the word) get for their money? Very little. The meeting will produce a tepid ‘big tent’ declaration with language elastic enough to stretch over the bickering interests of thrifty Europeans, improvident Americans, tightrope-walking Chinese, and restive Saudis. All done.
What’ll be worse, though, is what the G20 meeting will fail to do. It will prevent open debate about alternatives, it will let those responsible for the financial crisis maintain their veneer of legitimacy, and it’ll chip away at the institutions that, still, offer an alternative to the G20’s traveling circus. Here, just for the record, are three reasons why the G20 is already a failure.