The rabbit hole is widening. Do you really think you are immune to falling into it? You will, in time, unless we all stand up and stop our descent. Trickle Up Poverty - Your Next!
Our diarist, Unaspenser, never thought her family would. This is what is happening to families. I recommend reading this first. I'm Scared. Don't know how we'll survive.
If Republicans, well I guess most of Congress, get their way. And, with the likes of Max Baucus, they always get their way.
the Republican plan would provide a windfall to the most affluent households, by permanently reducing the top tax rate to 28 percent.
Putting all logic aside, picture the insanity of this.
Family USA is sitting around the kitchen table, tearing its hair out, trying to figure out how to get out of oppressive debt.
After months of trying to figure out how to do this, Family USA is chosing to reduce Dad's wages and cut Dad's benefits .
Give us a freaking break. Every family in the USA knows what you have to do to get out of debt. Earn more money AND cut unnecessary expenses. You can't cut necessary expenses like food, housing, and health care.
Krugman agrees with me
Superfraud
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a turkey!
I thought I had worked out all the worst-case scenarios for the supercommittee (there was never a best-case). But this is even worse than my worst imagining: a deal to undermine key social insurance programs in return for a promise that Congress will come up with a plan for raising revenue at some future date. If you think that promise has any credibility whatsoever – if you have any doubts that the end result would be to gut Social Security and actually cut taxes for the wealthy – I have this Nigerian bank account that can be yours if you send me $100,000 in expenses.
The worst of it is that Democrats might actually go for it.
I've been trying to tell you all: There is a worldwide push to dismantle ALL Social Safety nets.
Why would this be preferred? Two reasons: Enrich privatized markets and to enslave the workers who will have to accept whatever jobs/wages there are so his/her kids won't starve.
We are delusional if we really think that Congress will ever, ever return this country to the quality of life we enjoyed in the 1950s - the 1970s when we had a truly progressive tax rate system.
By refusing to raise revenue, by Dad refusing to work longer hours and mom going to work full-time, the US debt will not be sufficiently reduced.
Does Congress really think that the USA won't be downgraded again?
Is Congress intentionally handing us over to crawling to the IMF like Greece?
You might want to watch this video. I run it in the background. We are screwed.
SHAME SHAME SHAME
Are we as hoodwinked here as the Fox News Crowd? I hope not. Here's the history of disinformation, sponsored by the 1%, that has deluded half our population:
The gap between the top 1% and everyone else hasn't been this bad since the Roaring Twenties
The years of shared prosperity, the 1950s - the 1970s had a true progressive tax rate:
In 1982, their TAX HOLIDAY BEGAN. The tax rate dropped 20%! From
90% The tax rate, 1944 - 1964, to
70% where it remained until it dropped to
50% in 1982. Not good enough! It dropped AGAIN to
38.5% in 1987. Still not good enough. It dropped AGAIN to
28% in 1988! Bush I, increased it to
31% in 1991, Clinton increased it to
39.6% in 1993, and Bush II dropped it AGAIN to
38.6% in 2002. Still not good enough. Bush II dropped it AGAIN to
35% in 2003.
There were No Tax Holidays for the majority of us, however.
Since 1941, most income earners have paid between 20% - 28% income tax consistently!
Why aren't the Democrats framing the issue and asking:
"How will Increasing the tax rate by a mere 4.6%, for only 1,198,412 people, hinder job creation?
Why continue the 30 Year TAX HOLIDAY that only those earning over $250K have enjoyed?
You might want to re-read LaFeminista's diary
Democracy? Just where the hell are we going?
Now in a perfect system wealth would be distributed evenly hence everyone would have ownership of the society as we all know this is far form being the case.
The Top 1%
a] Have 33.8% of the wealth
b] Own 50.9% of stocks and bonds
The bottom 50%
a] Have 2.5% of the wealth
b] Own less than 0.5% of the stocks and bonds.
We have not seen this level of inequality since before the Great Depression.
We have recently
1] Bailed out the financial sector with tax payer money.
2] Given tax cuts to those we bailed out.
I don't suppose I am the only one that thinks something is amiss?
So let us see how far down our capitalist system has profited the population as a whole.
The top 10%
1] Have 70% of the wealth
2] Own 90% of the stocks and bonds
Not very far down as one can see?
This is the group that the Republicans held the unemployed hostage for, and funnily enough many Democrats in DC were happy to go along with the show.
This is the default Status Quo position.