Wednesday, November 30, 2011
U.S. Collects Third-Lowest Tax Revenue In Developed World
U.S. Collects Third-Lowest Tax Revenue In Developed World: pDespite Republicans’ constant protestations that the U.S. has “a spending problem, not a tax problem,” the U.S. actually collects the third-lowest amount of tax revenue as a percentage of GDP in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. According to the OECD’s latest data, “Mexico (18.7% in 2010) and Chile (20.9%) have the lowest tax-to-GDP [...]/p
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
GOP Willing To Raise Payroll Taxes On 113 Million Households To Spare 345,000 Millionaires From Tiny Surtax
GOP Willing To Raise Payroll Taxes On 113 Million Households To Spare 345,000 Millionaires From Tiny Surtax: pSenate Democrats yesterday introduced legislation — as they’ve been promising to — that would extend a soon-to-expire payroll tax cut, and pay for it by implementing a surtax on income above $1 million. Republicans, of course, are opposing the plan, reviving their false claims that taxing the very wealthiest Americans will hit small businesses and [...]/p
Former Treasury Secretary Paulson Gave Insider Information To Hedge Fund Buddies
Former Treasury Secretary Paulson Gave Insider Information To Hedge Fund Buddies: pAccording to Bloomberg News, former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, who was at the helm when the financial crisis hit in 2008, leaked inside information regarding the government takeover of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to several hedge fund traders, including former colleagues of his at Goldman Sachs. There’s no evidence that the traders [...]/p
Monday, November 28, 2011
Rick Scott Says ‘I Care Completely’ About Homelessness After He Proposed Cutting All Funding For Homeless Programs
Rick Scott Says ‘I Care Completely’ About Homelessness After He Proposed Cutting All Funding For Homeless Programs: pIn a state that is near the top of the national chart in food insecurity, Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) took time this holiday to pass out Thanksgiving dinner to about 1,000 families at a shelter in East Naples. The shelter’s program fed about 7,000 families last week, with roughly 200 volunteers packing and distributing [...]/p
Mastermind of $850,000 Smear Campaign Against Occupy Wall Street Co-Hosting Mitt Romney Fundraiser
Mastermind of $850,000 Smear Campaign Against Occupy Wall Street Co-Hosting Mitt Romney Fundraiser: pTwo weeks ago, a leaked secret memo written by a Republican lobbying firm, Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford, outlined an $850,000 plan for the American Bankers Association (ABA) to combat the growing resonance of the Occupy Wall Street movement’s message — that we need an economy that works for everyone, not just the wealthiest 1 Percent. (The [...]/p
Wall Street Banks Earned Billions In Profits Off $7.7 Trillion In Secret Fed Loans Made During The Financial Crisis
Wall Street Banks Earned Billions In Profits Off $7.7 Trillion In Secret Fed Loans Made During The Financial Crisis: pIn the lead-up to the financial crisis that crippled the American economy and plunged the country into a recession, the Federal Reserve made trillions in undisclosed loans to struggling banks and financial institutions, according to official documents obtained by Bloomberg News. Six of the country’s largest banks then turned those loans into more than $13 [...]/p
GOP Sen. Kyl Pushes Raising Payroll Taxes On Middle Class But Refuses To Raise Taxes On Millionaires
GOP Sen. Kyl Pushes Raising Payroll Taxes On Middle Class But Refuses To Raise Taxes On Millionaires: pIn a clear display of misplaced priorities, congressional fiscal super committee member Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) entirely dismissed the idea of extending the payroll tax cut for middle class families yesterday, even though failure to do so “would reduce GDP growth by 0.5 percent and cost the economy 400,000 jobs.” “The payroll tax holiday has [...]/p
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Hunger In America, By The Numbers
Hunger In America, By The Numbers: pLast year, 17.2 million households in the United States were food insecure, the highest level on record, as the Great Recession continued to wreak havoc on families across the country. Of those 17.2 million households, 3.9 million included children. On Thanksgiving Day, here’s a look at hunger in America, as millions of Americans struggle to [...]/p
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Former AIG CEO Sues Claiming Taxpayers Need To Pony Up $25 Billion More
Former AIG CEO Sues Claiming Taxpayers Need To Pony Up $25 Billion More: pFor many years, insurance behemoth AIG was so poorly managed that the American taxpayer eventually had to invest nearly $70 billion in the incompetently run company to prevent its collapse from taking the entire U.S. economy along with it (much of this money has since been repaid). Former AIG CEO Maurice Greenberg, however, thinks that [...]/p
Companies Lay Off Workers While Spending Billions On Share Buybacks To Enrich Executives
Companies Lay Off Workers While Spending Billions On Share Buybacks To Enrich Executives: pEven as Republicans and CEOs of major companies complain that taxes are stifling job creation, corporations have been sitting on trillions of dollars in cash reserves, at some of the highest levels on record. The New York Times this morning notes another wrinkle in this story, pointing out that some companies have been laying off [...]/p
Monday, November 21, 2011
With 50 Million Americans In Poverty, David Vitter Proposes Gutting Food Stamp Program
With 50 Million Americans In Poverty, David Vitter Proposes Gutting Food Stamp Program: pA record number of Americans have fallen into poverty since the financial crisis sparked a deep recession in 2008, but that hasn’t stopped House and Senate Republicans from targeting the poor on their crusade to slash federal spending. In September, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul (R) declared that “the poor are getting richer even faster” than [...]/p
Bank Lobbying On Track To Reach Record High This Year
Bank Lobbying On Track To Reach Record High This Year: pAs the Occupy Wall Street protests have highlighted the outsize influence financial institutions wield in politics, banks’ spending on lobbying is on track to reach an all-time high this year. Lobbying expenditures by the five biggest spenders among commercial banks are up 12 percent so far this year compared to 2010, according to an analysis [...]/p
Washington Lobbyists Crafted $850,000 Secret Plan For Bank Lobbyists To Undermine Occupy Wall Street
Washington Lobbyists Crafted $850,000 Secret Plan For Bank Lobbyists To Undermine Occupy Wall Street: pThis weekend, the MSNBC show Up! With Chris Hayes broke a stunning story about how Washington lobbyists are scrambling to undermine the protesters on Wall Street and across the country. Hayes’ report, which can be viewed here, details how the Washington, D.C.-based lobbying firm Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford (CLGC) compiled a secret plan to [...]/p
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Police Attack Peaceful UC Davis Students With Pepper Spray
Police Attack Peaceful UC Davis Students With Pepper Spray: pYesterday, a group of students at the University of California Davis staged a sit-in to protect their occupation encampment and demand the release of those who had already been arrested. Police dressed in riot gear approached the peaceful group of students and began attacking them with peppy spray, forcing them to cover their faces. Many [...]/p
Thursday, November 17, 2011
CHART: Median Income For Young Adult Males Has Dropped 10 Percent Since 1980
CHART: Median Income For Young Adult Males Has Dropped 10 Percent Since 1980: pThe unemployment rate for teens and young adults under age 24 is a staggering 16.7 percent, and recent polls have shown that young adults are pessimistic about their financial future. Today, Demos released a chart showing even more bad news for young adult males. According to this chart, the median annual income for young adult [...]/p
Fox Nation: ‘God Bless Income Disparity’
Fox Nation: ‘God Bless Income Disparity’: pPolls show that Americans are increasingly concerned with growing income inequality in the country, but conservative news outlets and think tanks are pushing back with their own reports praising the widening gap between the rich and everyone else. The Heritage Foundation, for instance, argued on their blog that “economic inequality is not necessarily an injustice, [...]/p
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
More Than Half Of All Congressional Members Are Millionaires
More Than Half Of All Congressional Members Are Millionaires: pIf the voices of the 99 Percent Movement are being heard in Washington at all, they’re being heard predominantly by the 1 percent. As the Center for Responsive Politics notes, “About 47 percent of Congress, or 249 current members are millionaires.” Sixty-six percent of the U.S. Senate reported an average net worth in excess of [...]/p
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Gov. Christie Is Blocking School Construction Projects That Would Create Nearly 9,000 Jobs And Make Schools Safer
Gov. Christie Is Blocking School Construction Projects That Would Create Nearly 9,000 Jobs And Make Schools Safer: pNew Jersey’s blunt-talking Gov. Chris Christie (R) is not shy about shredding his state’s budget. Since taking office in 2010, Christie has slashed $3 billion in funding, leaving low-income citizens with a severe lack of legal help, the mentally ill without a home, thousands of New Jersey women without health clinics to visit, 15,000 low-income [...]/p
Congress To Cut Financial Market Watchdog’s Funding In Latest Round Of Budget Negotiations
Congress To Cut Financial Market Watchdog’s Funding In Latest Round Of Budget Negotiations: pThe current round of funding for the federal government runs out on Friday, but House and Senate negotiators have reportedly agreed to a new funding package under the guidelines of the deal that raised the debt ceiling over the summer. One of the casualties of the budget cuts imposed by this agreement will be the [...]/p
Monday, November 14, 2011
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
POLL: 99 Percent Message Nearly Twice As Popular As Tea Party GOP Message
POLL: 99 Percent Message Nearly Twice As Popular As Tea Party GOP Message: pA new NBC-Wall Street Journal poll out last night found that a whopping 60 percent of Americans strongly agree with the basic sentiment of the 99 Percent Movement, as expressed in the statement below: The current economic structure of the country is out of balance and favors a very small proportion of the rich over the [...]/p
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
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