Austerity Now!

"Obama's out of control SPENDING is what's killing our economy!" / CUTS!! 
 -- click here for other posts with info/links on economy --

• Dave Johnson: Austeridiocy: Budget Cuts Take Money Out Of The Economy (8/12/2011)- http://goo.gl/qZqTx
• Cuts Only Shift Costs, They Don’t Cut Costs: The things government does have to be done, and cutting government doesn’t get rid of the need, it just shifts the costs. Cutting government budgets only shifts the cost away from the wealthier taxpayers who were asked to pitch in and give back to the system that enabled their wealth. It removes the “take care of and watch out for each other” concept of democracy and puts the costs on the backs of vulnerable individuals. Cutting government doesn’t remove the costs from the larger economy, and often increases the costs to the larger economy.
• Adios Austerity! E.U. Admits Right Wing Policy Of Punishing The Poor Has Failed (VIDEO) | Addicting Info (1/31/2012) 
• Paul Krugman - Truthout "Changing Minds, But Not Policy" (Aug 28, 2012) http://bit.ly/OnZvth 
• "Many of the British economists who called for austerity in 2010 now think the UK needs a stimulus. If only they'd admit austerity was a bad idea from day one, says Paul Krugman."
• The New Statesman magazine had a good idea this month — it went to 20 British economists who had all signed a letter in early 2010 calling for immediate austerity and asked them whether they still supported George Osborne's policies now that Britain is in a double-dip recession. Only one of those who replied said yes, while nine urged Mr. Osborne, the chancellor of the Exchequer, to reconsider his opposition to stimulus. Good on them."
• "...Mr. Laffer's extraordinary assertion [in WSJ] that Estonia and Ireland are the leading examples of failed stimulus [THEY'RE NOT: THEY"RE LEADING EXAMPLES OF FAILED AUSTERITY]: "Of the 34 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development nations, those with the largest spending spurts from 2007 to 2009 saw the least growth in G.D.P. rates before and after the stimulus," he wrote. "The four nations — Estonia, Ireland, the Slovak Republic and Finland — with the biggest stimulus programs had the steepest declines in growth." Weren't Estonia and Ireland supposed to be heroes of austerity? How incompetent do you have to be not to get that story straight? But then, it's become clear that The Wall Street Journal and the right in general have spent so long prioritizing loyalty over competence that they don't even notice when they're using people known for being wrong as supposed experts."
• Krugman blog: Ireland the Model - NYTimes.com (Dec 2010) http://nyti.ms/hKZRaC
• Quotes from 2006: Ireland stands as a shining example of the art of the possible in long-term economic policymaking [AUSTERITY].
• Krugman - America Goes Dark - NYTimes.com  ( What we're sacrificing for the top 2% - Aug '10) 
• Krugman (column) - The Austerity Debacle. - NYTimes.com (1/30/2012)  
• Krugman - Austerity Memories - NYTimes.com (1/28/2012) -- as MarKos writes, "Oh those funny economists who said austerity would lead to recession! Of course, they were right"

• Paul Krugman - Destructive Austerity, USA - NYTimes.com (1/29/2012) 
• The Austerity Delusion: The IMF's latest forecast: Perverse austerity | The Economist (IMF finds austerity could be making European crisis worse) (1/24/2012) 
• wonkronk: Poll: Americans Favor Social Security, Medicare Over Deficit Reduction (July 2011) 
• Deficit Solution: Get Americans Back To Work : NPR (May 9, 2011) 
• ThinkProgress » House Republican Spending Cuts Target Programs For Children And Pregnant Women (2/2011) 
• Goldman Sachs: Republican Budget Cuts to Slow Economy | Politically Illustrated (2/2011) 

Class Warfare (Wealth inequality, etc)

Mitt Romney flashing those benjamins

Also:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
World of Class Warfare - Warren Buffett vs. Wealthy Conservatives
www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show Full Episodes

Political Humor & Satire Blog

The Daily Show on Facebook

("World of Class Warfare: Warren Buffett vs. Wealthy Conservatives", Aug 18, 2011)

Distribution of Wealth

• Why the truly alarming economic trend is not income inequality. It's the Wealth Gap, Stupid | Mother Jones (2/13/2012) 
• The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office confirms that the rich have been getting richer. : CBO | Trends in the Distribution of Household Income Between 1979 and 2007 (10/25/2011) 
• Young Turks covers this CBO report

From CBO report, Oct 25 2011

(chart from MoJo's "It's the Inequality, Stupid")

Growing Pie? shrinking pieces for 99%

• How the McEconomy Bombed the American Worker | MichaelMoore.com  (May 10, 2011)
• Divide and Conquer; convince you that you have to fight for an ever smaller piece of the pie.  (robert reich, "The Republican Strategy" (Feb 2011) 
• "They pit average working Americans against one another, distract attention from the almost unprecedented concentration of wealth and power at the top, and conceal Republican plans to further enlarge and entrench that wealth and power."
• ONE | Catholic bishops to US House: ‘Make the poor a top priority’  (4/14/2011)

Poverty, Income inequality...

• Corporate Profits Just Hit An All-Time High, Wages Just Hit An All-Time Low - Business Insider - (6/22/2012) http://goo.gl/yk4jh
• As Big Bank Stocks Plunge, CEOs Continue To Reap Huge Salaries | ThinkProgress (1/2/2012) 
• Bottom Line - CEOs rake in huge sums when their companies go bankrupt (1/27/2012) 
• Wall St. Record pay when regular Americans facing unemployment, stagnant wages (2/4/2011)--the study is by Wall Street Journal: $135 billion in compensation. Exec payouts = 1/3 of the total Wall St bank bailout ($417billion)
• Review: The Spirit Level by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett | Books | The Guardian (3/13/2009)
• the life-diminishing results of valuing growth above equality in rich societies can be seen all around us. Inequality causes shorter, unhealthier and unhappier lives; it increases the rate of teenage pregnancy, violence, obesity, imprisonment and addiction; it destroys relationships between individuals born in the same society but into different classes; and its function as a driver of consumption depletes the planet's resources.
• Wilkinson, a public health researcher of 30 years' standing, has written numerous books and articles on the physical and mental effects of social differentiation. He and Pickett have compiled information from around 200 different sets of data, using reputable sources such as the United Nations, the World Bank, the World Health Organisation and the US Census, to form a bank of evidence against inequality that is impossible to deny.
• 21 CEOs With $100 Million Golden Parachutes | Mother Jones (1/18/2012) 
• Thirty Years of Unleashed Greed | Truthout (10/28/2011) 
• Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1% - Vanity Fair (5/2011) 1% of the people take nearly a quarter of the nation’s income—an inequality even the wealthy will come to regret.
• The Forgotten Truth That Conservatives Created The Welfare State Ray Medeiros/Politicus 2/2011 ( Low wages push ppl onto welfare) 
• Executive Bonuses Bounce Back - WSJ.com  (3/18/2011)
• Executive Excess 2010: CEO Pay and the Great Recession - IPS (Sept 2010)
• Executive Excess 2011: The Massive CEO Rewards for Tax Dodging - IPS (Sept 2011)
• The Rich Get Richer: CEO Bonuses Skyrocket; Worker Pay Flat | Mother Jones 3/18/2011
• War On The Poor: Minnesota Republicans Want To Bust Poor People Who Carry Cash | Crooks and Liars (3/2011)
• "250K Isn't Rich If You're A CEO But 50K is Rich If You're A Teacher":  Ray Medeiros 3/2011
• "It's the Inequality, Stupid" -MoJo 3/2011, great CHARTS AND GRAPHS abt income inequality
• Poverty Scorecard: 2010 scorecard analysis 
• "Executive Excess 2010: Exec Pay and the Great Recession", 9/2010, Institute for Policy Studies
• the CEOs who slashed their payrolls the deepest took home 42 percent more compensation than the year’s chief executive pay average for S&P 500 companies.
• American workers, by contrast, are taking home less in real weekly wages than they took home in the 1970s 
• Politifact:True: , just 400 Americans -- 400 -- have more wealth than half of all Americans combined," (Michael Moore statement in Wisconsin 3/2011)

"Redistribution of Wealth! Communist!"

• On redistribution of wealth : Does The Bible Mix Religion and Politics? - The Christian Left Blog (6/2/2011) 

There's a War on the Middle Class

• House moved to kill HAMP/Obama Mortgage Plan (CNN Money) - Mar. 29, 2011 
• Robert Reich (The Republican Strategy) 2/17/2011 
• - split the vast middle and working class – pitting unionized workers against non-unionized, public-sector workers against non-public, older workers within sight of Medicare and Social Security against younger workers who don’t believe these programs will be there for them, and the poor against the working middle class.
• How the middle class became the underclass (And how the DECLINE OF UNIONS hastens the decline of the middle class)- CNN Money Feb. 16, 2011
• Gov Walker's threat to American political stability (Huffpo, Steven Cohen, 3/2011)
• The American middle class owes its existence to the fact and threat of union organizing. That is why the attack on public workers' right to collective bargaining is an attack on the middle class
•  Michael Moore, "The Smug Wealthy Have Gone Too Far", Alternet 3/6/2011
• 400 obscenely rich people, most of whom benefited in some way from the multi-trillion dollar taxpayer "bailout" of 2008, now have more loot, stock and property than the assets of 155 million Americans combined. If you can't bring yourself to call that a financial coup d'état, then you are simply not being honest about what you know in your heart to be true
• Michael Moore: We Face a Global War on the Middle Class, AlterNet 3/2011 
• "Foreclosure Follies" House Republicans have introduced bills to eliminate four federal antiforeclosure programs and replace them with — nothing - NYT Ed, 3/2011
• The American Dream is Disappearing for This Generation! - Brian Conners, 2/2011 (compares our econ. situation to Egypt)

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Men of a Certain Wage - Money Talks
www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show Full Episodes

Political Humor & Satire Blog

The Daily Show on Facebook

("Men of a Certain wage - Money Talks")

[this post was getting too long; I've split off the UNION links to its own blog post]

(related content on Unions and Wisconsin at "Middle Class Fights Back" and "It's the Economy, Stupid" posts)

It's the Economy, Stupid

from: Doing the math on Obama’s deficits - Washington Post (2/1/2012) 

Obama’s and Bush’s effects on the deficit in one graph  

Extending Bush's Deficits with the "Bush Tax Cuts"

Off the Charts Blog | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities | Dissecting the Deficit (8/2012) http://goo.gl/XYtIl:  Indeed, the tax cuts and the wars alone account for nearly half of the public debt by 2019.

UPDATE: This NYTimes "solve the deficit" puzzle should be required activity for anyone who claims we should extend the Bush deficit-bombs, tax giveaways to the top 2%.  And here's a useful FACT SHEET about the Bush tax giveaways, from Politifact.
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Here's what's on the table:

 

And here's a little sense of history--the top marginal tax rates over time--with some helpful Questions to Consider in the graphic: 

 UPDATE Dec 1 2010:

The President just announced, with much fanfare, a plan to Freeze federal workers' pay as part of an austerity/cost cutting measure. 

Our own Scott Brown is refusing to extend Unemployment Benefits (which will impact middle and working class Americans right at the holidays) because of the impact on the deficit.

Consider this: 

The "savings" from freezing fed workers' pay is less than 1% of the total deficit.  Not even a drop in the bucket. 

And extending the Bush tax cuts (deficit bombs) for income over $250,000 will add ANOTHER $700 BILLION to the deficit!!

If we are to believe Senator Scott Brown, The Deficit and Not Adding to It is a primary concern that trumps all others, including the protection of families meager safety net income in the winter, over the holidays.  

If Senator Brown argues FOR extending Bush tax holidays for income over $250,000--he will prove himself a liar:  that he doesn't actually care about the deficit. 

 

Call him on it. DO NOT LET SENATOR BROWN GET AWAY WITH VOTING FOR BUSH TAX GIVEAWAY EXTENSIONS.   

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How income has been bleeding away from middle class to the top 1% for the last 30 years...

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CONTACT SENATOR SCOTT BROWN

Email: Click thru his "Comment" Form on website:

Phones:

Boston -- (617) 565-3170

Washington, DC -- (202) 224-4543

FAX: (202) 228-2646

(you can use services like FaxZero.com to send free faxes from the internet!)