Tag: poor

Categories
Politics taxes

Report: Poor Families Pay Double The Tax Rate as Rich Families

And the Republicans rejoice. They have been working for this outcome for decades!

Middle- and low-income Americans are facing far higher state and local taxes than the wealthy, according to a new report assessing tax data from all 50 states.

In all, the analysis by the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) finds that the poorest 20 percent of households pay on average more than twice the effective state and local tax rate (10.9 percent) as the richest 1 percent of taxpayers (5.4 percent).

ITEP researchers say the incongruity derives from state and local governments’ reliance on sales, excise and property taxes rather than on more progressively structured income taxes that increase rates on higher earnings. They argue that the tax disconnect is helping create the largest wealth gap between the rich and middle class that has ever been recorded in American history.

“In recent years, multiple studies have revealed the growing chasm between the wealthy and everyone else,” Matt Gardner, executive director of ITEP, said. “Upside-down state tax systems didn’t cause the growing income divide, but they certainly exacerbate the problem. State policymakers shouldn’t wring their hands or ignore the problem. They should thoroughly explore and enact tax reform policies that will make their tax systems fairer.”

Categories
Domestic Policies News Politics Wealth

On Wealth, Inequality Rules

So I’m perusing through the news and I see this article about a Pew Research study on median wealth in the United States and how the Great Recession impacted household worth.

It is a stunning indictment of our fiscal, social and moral progress as a nation. If there’s anyone out there who needs a basic primer on why we are facing some months of unrest, then they need to take a look at this. What’s happened is that the wealth of white households has grown to 13 times that of African-American households since the end of the recession. In 2010, the gap was 8 times the wealth. For Hispanic households, the gap between their wealth and whites grew to 10 times the wealth, from 9 times in 2010.

In plain numbers, the results are even more shocking. In 2013, the median net worth of white households, which includes real estate, savings, stocks, bonds, etc., was $141,900, while that of African-Americans was $11,000, and the Hispanic household average was $13,700.

Linger over those numbers. How is it that we can address any kind of racial, ethnic or economic tensions when large groups of people in the United States have so little and fewer opportunities than whites to avail themselves of large parts of American society? These numbers are not well-publicized at all, but they need to be. Send them around social media. Put them on a poster. Talk to your friends.

But do something.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

Categories
Politics wealth inequality wealthy

Gap Between The Rich And Poor Now Same As in 1920s

Yet, Republicans and the rich are trying to extend that gap even more by implementing laws that will take from the poor and middle class, and give to the rich.

Categories
Politics

The Shocking Cost of Corporate Welfare

Republicans never miss the opportunity to tell you that poor people are leaches, sucking the life from the economy with their greed through the welfare system. But they never mention their millionaire friends and businesses, who are milking the system even more than the pocket change going to the poor.

State and local governments have awarded at least $110 billion in taxpayer subsidies to business, with 3 of every 4 dollars going to fewer than 1,000 big corporations, the most thorough analysis to date of corporate welfare revealed today.

Boeing ranks first, with 137 subsidies totaling $13.2 billion, followed by Alcoa at $5.6 billion, Intel at $3.9 billion, General Motors at $3.5 billion and Ford Motor at $2.5 billion, the new report by the nonprofit research organization Good Jobs First shows.

Dow Chemical had the most subsidies, 410 totaling $1.4 billion, followed by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire-Hathaway holding company, with 310 valued at $1.1 billion.

The figures were compiled from disclosures made by state and local government agencies that subsidize companies in all sorts of ways, including cash giveaways, building and land transfers, tax abatements and steep discounts on electric and water bills.

Categories
Politics

Poll: Republicans Know Nothing about The Poor and They Don’t Care

They think Americans are poor because they’re too lazy.

Findings released Thursday by Pew showed that most Republicans think rich people are largely responsible for their socioeconomic status. They also feel the same way about poor people.

Fifty-seven percent of GOP voters said that a person is rich because “he or she worked harder than others,” while just 32 percent attribute it to advantages they enjoyed. The results are almost completely flipped among Democrats.

Overall, 51 percent of Americans said that people are wealthy due to advantages in life, while 38 percent said it had more to do with hard work.

Pew also found that 51 percent of Republicans believe that people are poor due to a lack of hard work, compared with just 32 percent who attribute it to circumstances beyond their control.

Those results also put Republicans out of step with the rest of the country.

Categories
Politics

Republicans’ Idea of Christianity… (PIC)

Based on how they have legislated recently, I’m sure Republicans would say that this is actually in the Bible.

Categories
Education

Thanks To Republicans, 57,000 Children Cut From Head Start Program

Just the way the Republicans planned it.

Head Start programs across the country eliminated services for 57,000 children in the coming school year to balance budgets diminished by the federal sequester, cutting 1.3 million days from Head Start center calendars and laying off or reducing pay for more than 18,000 employees, according to federal government data scheduled for release Monday.The latest numbers, based on the results of “reduction plans” Head Start grantees submitted to the Department of Health and Human Services, fall short of earlier predictions by the Obama administration that 70,000 children would lose access to preschool because of the mandatory 5 percent cuts. But the cuts will still affect tens of thousands of poor families across the country who rely on Head Start for early learning programs, day care and a network of social services and medical care.

The numbers aren’t as bad as some early projections; Virginia, Maryland and D.C. lost about 1,700 spots total.

The initial administration projection was based on “a worst-case scenario” in which all reductions would focus on children’s access to Head Start, said a senior administration official who was unauthorized to publicly discuss the matter, because the information had not yet been released. In reality, grantees had some flexibility in how they cut their budgets as long as they maintained quality and prioritized children’s health and safety.Some Head Start centers focused on cutting administrative and support services, such as transportation. Others chose to shorten the school year or the school day. The latest figures show that 18,000 program hours will be cut next year by centers that will start later in the day or end earlier.
Categories
Entertainment fail Movie Movies

The Fast and Furious 6 Short Review (Spoilers)

Well the weather hasn’t been great here in New Jersey so I stayed away from the shore this Memorial Day Weekend and spent Monday night at the movies with my friends. They talked me into seeing Fast and Furious 6; here is my short review.

 

What I liked:

  • There are two simple things that appeal to a teenage guy like me, fast cars and hot girls. This movie has them both so that part of me was satisfied.
  • This movie is a direct sequel to F&F 5 so there isn’t this hour of character introductions and back stories.

What I disliked:

  • It’s a direct sequel…so if you are just now jumping into the Fast and Furious series, well you’ll be totally lost and confused.
  • This movie is no Tokyo Drift. Tokyo Drift is the ultimate movie in this entire movie series; it encompasses everything Fast and Furious should be about: fast exotic cars, hot girls, and awesome street races
  • What in the world was I watching? Fast and Furious 6 seemed to have more love stories than Twilight, more explosions than Transformers, more cheesy one liners than any comedy movie, more car crashes than The Blues Brothers, and more gun fights than an old western.
  • Hey…uh where were the car races? There was one legitimate street race that lasted three or four minutes.
  • The plot gets even more unrealistic to the point it just doesn’t even make sense. (Spoiler Alert) You mean to tell me a car crew of internationally wanted cons aren’t able to be tracked down while hiding in the near open and hired by a crime fighting unit to take down a rival crew led by an ex SAS operative? Sure…
  • There’s going to be another next July. I can tell you already that Fast and Furious 6 was made to lead directly into the next one that’s already been confirmed. Now I understand the need to bring the story full circle but the plot is going to be the same just with a new “bad guy” in it who is another big name (ahem Jason Statham). I just hope they bring Fast and Furious back to it’s roots because this series is becoming as played out as Saw and Final Destination.

 

My final impressions? Well if you have that much free time, a little kid who wants to see it, or friends who will buy you your ticket then by all means go see Fast and Furious 6. Otherwise save yourself the $13 for a ticket and go buy lunch or dinner.

 

Categories
Mitt Romney Politics

Mitt Romney – Bain Was Formed To “Harvest” Companies For Potential Profit

Another gem from Mother Jones:

In the clip below, Mitt Romney is describing the real reason for Bain. Not to act as a job creator like Romney often says, but to invest in other companies with the hopes that in five to eight years, Bain could “harvest” to make a profit.

I’ll let Romney explain in his own words:

Bain Capital is an investment partnership which was formed to invest in startup companies and ongoing companies, then to take an active hand in managing them and hopefully, five to eight years later, to harvest them at a significant profit…

Yes, we all know the real reason anyone goes into business is to make a profit. But if you listen to Mitt Romney on the campaign trail, he will have you believe that Bain existed for the sole purpose of creating jobs. Romney is often heard saying, “I know how to create jobs. I’ve done it before,” and he attacks the president, falsely stating that Mr. Obama’s policies “destroys jobs.”

We’ve seen ads from the Obama reelection team detailing companies that went bankrupt after they were bought by Bain, while Romney and his investors walked away with huge profits. Romney’s campaign usually respond by saying that Bain created more jobs than were lost. His campaign also points to Staples as their success story. But hearing Romney’s mission statement in the video, it seems that Staples’ success was in spite of Bain’s intervention, not because of it.

Here’s the video, filmed in 1985.

Categories
Paul Ryan Politics wealthy

House Republicans Pretending The Senate Approved Paul Ryan’s Budget

House Republicans have all agreed and passed the Paul Ryan Budget – a budget that takes $5.3 Trillion from services that helps the poor and transfer $4.3 Trillion to the rich in the form of subsidies and tax cuts.

Knowing that the Democratically controlled Senate will never approve such a dumb and draconian budget, House Republicans are now pretending that the Senate did just that. Included in a House Resolution (H.RES.614) this week was this little provision:

Pending the adoption of a concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2013, the provisions of House Concurrent Resolution 112, as adopted by the House, shall have force and effect in the House as though Congress has adopted such concurrent resolution

In other words, we know the Senate didn’t approve and would never approve this Paul Ryan Republican budget (House Concurrent Resolution 112), but this provision allows us pretend and act as if they did. Yay for Paul Ryan!

Just another day in the life of a Do-Nothing Republican House of Representatives.

Categories
Black people Newt Gingrich Politics Republican Rick Santorum United States

Poverty In America – More Whites In Poverty Than Blacks

 Edward Wyckoff Williams writes: The leaders of today’s Republican Party are expert storytellers. When it comes to manipulating racial stereotypes for political gain, they are akin to animation artists of the 1920s: coloring the lines in black and white.

Last Thursday Newt Gingrich told a crowd of senior citizens in New Hampshire, “The African-American community should demand paychecks and not be satisfied with food stamps.” Rick Santorum was even more egregious, claiming he doesn’t “want to make black people’s lives better by giving them other people’s money” (although he later claimed that he never intentionally said “black”).

Gingrich’s latest offense comes only weeks after he received widespread criticism for saying that poor children should work as janitors and clean toilets. He specifically made a point of addressing “inner city” youths — which has become conservative code for black and brown people everywhere, from the South to the coasts, the suburbs to the metropolises, regardless of where they actually live.

The report states;

Of the 46 million people living in poverty in America in 2010, the U.S. census revealed that 31 million were white. Ten million were black. Of the 49 million people without health insurance coverage, 37 million were white; 8 million were African-American. The face of poverty in America is overwhelmingly white, but as a 2009 study on children in poverty [explained], the white American poor, especially those in rural areas, are “forgotten.”

Categories
money Politics United States

While Congress Got Richer, Average Americans Got Poorer

The New York Times is once again, shedding some light on the selfish, mine mine mine mentality that is now elected Congressional members. Apparently, Congress is the place to go if you want to be a millionaire, while the rest of your constituents suffer!

While the median net worth of members of Congress jumped 15 percent from 2004 to 2010, the net worth of the richest 10 percent of Americans remained essentially flat. For all Americans, median net worth dropped 8 percent, based on inflation-adjusted data from Moody’s Analytics.

Going back further, the median wealth of House members grew some two and a half times between 1984 and 2009 in inflation-adjusted dollars, while the wealth of the average American family has actually declined slightly in that same time period, according to data cited by The Washington Post in an article published Monday on its Web site.

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