Political Notes

December 29, 2011

Politics Notes 12/2011

Monthly Notes:

Bush expanded eligibility for food stamps
Department of Agriculture administers food stamps
OECD wants countries to tax rich more and did a study that dispels the Trickle Down theory
US has fourth largest inequity level after Chile & Mexico & Turkey in OECD
Top 1% has more than doubled income from 1980-2011
Top 1% make an average after tax income of $1.2M
Poorest 20% make average of $17K after taxes
Benefits represent 6% of households in US while OECD it’s 16%
Top marginal rates of personal income tax: Australia 45%, Canada 29%, France 40%, Germany 45%, Italy 43%, Japan 40%, UK 50%, US 35% (not effective tax rates)
In past two fiscal years the federal government gave more than $1.5B in funds to just Catholic organizations
Russell Church - rats found to have empathy, another experiment showed rats freeing friends rather than partaking in food (and sometimes sharing food with freed rat)
Six Walton family members on Forbes 400 list have a networth equal to the bottom 30% of all Americans
Total US household wealth is $50T - $70T range
Waltons have .13% of all US wealth
In 2009 roughly 1/4 Americans (24.8%) had zero or negative net worth, up from 18.6% in 2007
In 2009 37.1% of households had networth of less than $12K (30% in 2007)

10:36am | URL: http://tumblr.com/ZQOKYyDye-AR

Filed under: oecd wealth inequality

December 1, 2011

Politics Notes 11/2011

Monthly Notes:

Obama is becoming known as the “Deportation President”, more have been deported under Obama so far than under Bush
Members of Congress have net worth of over $2B
Corporate tax breaks cost government $102B in lost revenue when the deficit was $1.3T
Average effective tax rate for corporations from 2008-2010 was only 18.5%
Reagan signed highest & largest corporate tax hike in history
Average income for the bottom 90% is $31,244
From 1992-2007 the top 400 people’s income went up 392% while their taxes went down 37%
Median net worth of American families: $120K, median net worth of members of Congress: $912K
In 1979 the average college grad made 38% more than the average highschool grad, in 2010 the average college grad made 75% more than the average highschool grad
Households 65 or older have 47 times the networth of people under 35
The richest three people have more financial assets than the lowest 48 nations combined
Galveston Bay, Texas… enough said
Tuition up 8.3% from last year
There is over $1T of student debt
Bush approved 643 rules during his first 33 months in office, Obama only 613
26% of small business owners cited poor sales as their top problem, not regulations
Less than 1% of the unemployed claimed they were fired because of regulations
25% of households the woman makes 10% or more than the man
Top .1% of the nation earn one half (50%) of the capital gains
$2B a week spent on Afghanistan

The three government agencies Rick Perry wants to cut:

1. Department Of Commerce:

US Patent & Trademark Office - without which we would have no way to ensure inventors intellectual property so they could not benefit from their innovations which would make people less likely to invent
US Census Bureau - lets leaders and policy makers determine housing, roads, and ultilities their communities need
National Weather Service - issues crucial warnings about the weather and evacuations

2. Department Of Energy:

Protects US nukes from accidents that would release radioactive material that would kill thousands
Also funds and promotes nuclear power

3. Department Of Education:

Hands out funds to states who adopt its preferred forms
Enforces policy and civil rights in schools

9:57am | URL: http://tumblr.com/ZQOKYyCg2xH_

Filed under: obama taxes government

October 28, 2011

Politics Notes 10/2011

Monthly Notes:

In 2005 25% of the largest US corporations paid no taxes
The top 6 financial institutions in the US have assets equal to more than 60% of our GDP
65% of people making 6 figures or more want higher taxes
66% of Republicans want higher taxes on millionaires
More than 1M people have top secret clearances, half of them contractors
There is little proof that companies or individuals would try and earn less and spend less to avoid taxes
Income fell 6.7% between June 2009 - June 2011
Income fell only 3.2% between Dec 2007 - June 2009
Top 1% have 40% of the wealth
We are the most unequal now than in any part of our history
Top 1% take home 24% of national income
Top 1% have half the countries stocks
Decrease wealth inequality by expanding unionization & taxing the rich
Bottom 80% have 7% of the wealth
In 1976 the top 1% took home 9% of national income, now it’s 24%
Bottom 50% have half a percent (.5%) of stocks, bonds, mutual funds
US is forth highest in income inequality, Israel is better
People making more than $1M pay only 18% personal income tax
19% of Americans said they have not been able to feed themselves and their families in the past year… China said only 6% weren’t able to
Percent of Americans with access to a doctor = 78.3% (was 82.5% in Sept 2008)
Only 82.3% have health insurance
50% of US workers earn less than $26,364 a year
Number of people making more than $1M up 18+% since 2009
College tuition has gone up 600% since 1980
85% of college grads go back home to live with their parents after college
Need to make $343,927 to be in the top 1%
Top 1% on average make $960K a year
Bigger wealth inequality leads to more child conflicts, homicide, imprisonment, trust issues, drug abuse, infant mortality, life expectancy, mental illness, obesity, HS dropouts, teenage births, social immobility, lower math & literacy scores
Youth unemployment rate is 17.3%
Top 1% accounted for 60% of income growth since 1979

12:12pm | URL: http://tumblr.com/ZQOKYyBDMX4I

(Notes: 11)

Filed under: taxes wealth inequality college

October 3, 2011

Politics Notes 9/2011

Monthly Notes:

300K of 1M jobs created in Texas were government jobs
9.5% of hourly Texas workers earn minimum wage (national average of hourly workers who earn minimum wage is 6%)
51% of Texas workers make less than $33K a year, only 30% make more than $50K a year
Health Care Reform - CBO says more people would choose not to work because of better access to health care
26% of Texas doesn’t have health care (national average 17%)
Median income in the US was $53K in 2000 and $49K in 2010
US had a poverty rate of 11% in 2001, 15.1% in 2010, poverty of 1 in 6 Americans, highest in any major industrialized nation
If you’re in the lower 20% you will die 6.5 years sooner than someone in the upper 20%
Texas has the lowest level of adults with a high school diploma
66% of Americans favor taxing the rich more
Employer health insurance premiums went up 9% in 2011, below the average of 13% each year since 2000 (131% increase in 10 years)

OCCUPYWALLST.ORG

1:21pm | URL: http://tumblr.com/ZQOKYyAEiOcV

(Notes: 12)

Filed under: taxes poverty texas

September 1, 2011

Politics Notes 8/2011

Monthly Notes:

Pentagon’s budget rose from $307B in 2001 to $529B in 2010… 72%
Debt deal could subtract more than a percentage point from GDP next year
July jobs: +154K private jobs, -37K public jobs… Yeah, Obama’s increasing the size of government alright
TARP bail out cost more than 50 years of NASA put together
When Romney was governor, Massachusetts was 47th in job growth
2,000 species moving away from the equator at a mile a year
Texas needed $17B from the stimulus to balance its budget in 2009
Texas has as many minimum wage jobs as Mississippi… Minimum wage jobs are created in Texas
25 of the 100 top paid CEOs earned more than their companies paid in taxes
Many companies spend more on lobbying than in taxes
Wartime Contracting Commission estimated that $31-60B was wasted in Iraq & Afghanistan

10:15am | URL: http://tumblr.com/ZQOKYy909SF4

Filed under: jobs taxes wars

August 1, 2011

Politics Notes 7/2011

Monthly Notes:

Sony & Warner Bros & Universal & Walt Disney & Paramount & 20th Century Fox control 95% of US film industry
Sony & Time Warner & GE & Walt Disney & Viacom & News Corp have 90% of all US media
In 2007 the average American household borrowed 127% of its income, now 112%
Earnings for companies expected to raise 13.6% compared to a year ago
Older workers are taking teenager jobs so teens are out of work
Citigroup eliminated 5,000 jobs and only paid 16.9% taxes
Only 4% of Americans think corporations are paying their fair share
Corporate taxes in the US are among the lowest of developed countries
Separation of campaign and state, abusive campaign regulation = no regulation
In 1980 500,000 people were incarcerated, now 2.3M
No jobs bill in this Congress, they haven’t doe anything but attack Planned Parenthood
88% of income of the economy to profit, 1% goes to wages
If Apple made everything here they’d still make 50% profit
500K less government jobs since Obama took office
Total revenue as a share of GDP has been under 15% for 3 straight years
In 1950 corporate tax counted for 5% of revenue of GDP, now 1.2%
We spend over $1T in loopholes, subsidies, breaks in tax codes a year
Defense spending 3.1% of US economy in 2001, 4.8% in 2010
For 14th year in a row the Pentagon asked for an increase in funds
Bush was the first president to cut taxes during war time
Reagan more than equaled the entire debt burden produced by previous 200 years
Michele Bachmann has a farm and takes farm subsidies
Legalizing pot would give us a profit of $24B over 10 years
Pass McCain/Kennedy 2007 act would give us a profit of $48B
First time in 60 years the net immigration is 0
Financial service industry spent more than $95M last year in campaigns
If every American gave up meat and cheese for one day a week it would be the equivalent of saving 91B driving miles a year
Between 2005-2009 the share of wealth of top 10% rose from 49% to 56%
Median worth of white family is 20 times that of Black and 18 times that of Hispanic
Total cost of new policies: Bush = $5.07T, Obama = $1.44T
Exxon profit up 41% or $10.68B even with recent oil spill
2025 fuel efficiency at 54.5MPG thanks to Obama
UN Food & Agriculture (FAO) lifestock farming generates 18% of greenhouse gas emissions while all transportation accounts for 13%
Reasons why meat generates greenhouse gasses: deforestation, manure (296 times more harmful than CO2), methane gas from cows (200L a day per cow)
Average person eats 176 pounds of meat a year

Monthly Questions:

People do realize that companies are sitting on their money rather than hiring? If we were to lower taxes right now with the debt crisis, do people really think companies would hire?
Why shouldn’t we have regulations? We have laws?

9:30am | URL: http://tumblr.com/ZQOKYy7n41CK

Filed under: military taxes defense wealth inequality climate change meat

July 1, 2011

Politics Notes 6/2011

Monthly Notes:

Average American spends 52 cents of every dollar on housing and transportation
$2.8T spent on top 1%
Trade tariffs: US = 2%, China 20%, India 40%
Government isn’t about turning a profit
Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq are all Muslim countries which we’re bombing
Bush tax cuts promised growth in GDP, increase in wages, and more jobs but has only lead to the slowest growth of any period since WWII
40% of the Bush tax cuts went to the top 1%
One half of Americans can’t come up with $2,000 in 30 days
More than $6.6B in Iraq reconstruction funds are missing
Meat packing industry causes 18% of greenhouse gas emissions
Less than 2% of people are without health care in Massachusetts, kids less than 1%
We consume in one year what it takes to produce in 1.3 years
During the Bush Administration, Republicans voted 19 times to increase the debt ceiling by $4T

Republican Hypocrisy:

Four Republican Senators who wanted to do PayGo backed out when Obama wanted it
Republicans came up with the bipartisan Deficit Commission but as soon as Obama backed it, they didn’t want it anymore
Cap and Trade was a Republican idea, now they don’t support it
Health insurance mandate was a Republican idea, now they don’t support it
Terrorism trials they once supported but now do not
Republicans were for ending oil subsidies but now are against it
Number of GOP Senators who voted for the debt ceiling increase: 31 in 2002, 50 in 2003, 50 in 2004, 51 in 2006, 26 in 2007, 34 in 2008, 33 in 2008… Since Obama took office: 2 in 2009, 1 in 2009, 0 in 2010

Monthly Questions:

How come we still practice Bush policies but Obama gets blamed for the slow economic recovery?
Is it really mature to walk out of a meeting about something as important as the debt ceiling?
How bad is it that our citizens have to rob banks to get health care?

12:24pm | URL: http://tumblr.com/ZQOKYy6eaX8F

(Notes: 46)

Filed under: tax cuts transportation tariffs iraq health care hypocrisy

June 2, 2011

Politics Notes 5/2011

Monthly Notes:

Michigan is taxing pensions to pay for tax cuts for corporations, 86% of businesses won’t pay taxes there
Average wage less than half of 1% of what a typical CEO makes
CEOs paid better now than in 2007 when the economy was booming (stock up, unemployment half)
Profit for companies in AP rose 41% from last year
39% of Republicans don’t think Obama deserves credit for bin Laden
Bush Doctrine: if you’re harboring terrorists, you are a terrorist
General Petraeus to lead CIA (news not reported)
GOP budget will leave 44 million more uninsured due to cuts in Medicaid
Exxon makes $83K a minute, the top 5 oil companies made $1.5T last year
The average college student is $24K in debt after college
Pakistan was given $20B from our government to fight terrorism since 9/11, they’ve been building nukes with it
We move our stuff through Pakistan to get to our troops in Afghanistan
Private sector gained 1.7M jobs, public lost 404K jobs
Clinton and Obama appointed people who are capable to FEMA, Bush I & II didn’t
US is 17th in developing green energy
10 banks hold 77% of US bank assets
Paul Ryan’s plan predicts unemployment rate of 2.8% which is not possible
Massachusetts ranked #2 in HC in the country

Monthly Questions:

Why should we give subsidies to the most profitable industry the world has ever known?
Why do we test things on animals if they’re not related to us evolutionarily?
To people who are for drug testing for people on welfare: Where’s the money coming from to test these people? Aren’t you the same “fiscal conservatives”?
Why do Republicans say government is so horrible then elect people who prove it?

8:51am | URL: http://tumblr.com/ZQOKYy5hyepp

Filed under: taxes oil bin Laden banks

April 28, 2011

Politics Notes 4/2011

Paul Ryan’s bill that passed the house:

Independent economists say it doesn’t reduce the deficit
Balanced budget in 2040

Monthly Notes:

For every $1 spent on unemployment $1.61 is put into the economy, for every $1 spent on the Bush Tax Cuts only 32 cents is put into the economy
This country buys extra sugar to keep it at a high price
Audit of Pentagon spending finds $70B in waste
Median income of people 65+ only $19,000
$330B scammed out of taxes in 2010
For every $1 the IRS spends on tax evasion they get back $10
Defense spending up 81% since 2000, not including Afghanistan and Iraq wars
Tax cuts for the rich have not created the jobs Republicans have promised
Obama has caved in showing bipartisanship (public option, tax cuts for the rich, watered down financial reform)
Created 22M jobs in 1990’s
Ike cut defense 28%, Nixon cut defense 37%, Bush I cut defense 14%
Richest 400 people paid average of 16.6% in taxes where the average American paid 22.5%
Republicans think 5% of budget goes to NEA (reality .00004%)
Republicans think 25% of budget goes to foreign aid (reality .18%)
Americans on average buy 533 gallons of gas per year

Monthly Questions:

Republicans like to think we are the chosen ones, cause that worked out so well for the Jews?
25 years of cutting taxes for the rich and it hasn’t increased revenue; when do we give up that failed idea?
So Republicans don’t have to pay for their trillion dollar wars but Democrats have to pay for health care for everyone?
What’s going to happen to seniors when they run out of their $15,000 for Medicare?
Do Republicans think health care isn’t a basic human necessity?
What would this country look like without Social Security and Medicare?

11:27am | URL: http://tumblr.com/ZQOKYy4gqes-

Filed under: budget tax cuts taxes health care defense

March 29, 2011

Politics Notes 3/2011

SCOTUS corruption:

Scalia & Thomas attended conservative events & fundraisers by billionaires who raise money for conservative candidates who ran ads against Democrats
Thomas’ wife formed non profit organization against HCR, formed lobbyist shop for Republicans to repeal law
Thomas failed to report his wife’s income from non profits
Scalia gave speech to Republican lawmakers organized by Tea Party caucus
Alito attended fund raising dinner for a conservative magazine

Monthly notes:

As union membership decreased over the years, so did middle class income
US only spends 2.4% on infrastructure, Europe over 5%, China closer to 10%
90%+ of Planned Parenthood funds are for prevention, only 2% for abortion
40,000 more abortions per year if Planned Parenthood goes away
A half of Americans think HCR was repealed or weren’t sure
Women still only make 80 cents per $1 for a man
Only 3% of fortune 500 companies CEO’s are women
They wrote the second amendment when they had muskets
We used to be 5th in the world in infrastructure in 2002, now 23rd
Ronald Reagan put taxes on gas to pay for roads
We need sacrifice from the top income earners & wall street who have gotten all the breaks in the past 10 years, we need to take back the power from the people who really hold it
Regulations in Japan saved thousands of lives
Walker gave tax breaks to corporations which created their deficit
GE 14%, Carnival Cruise paid 1% in 2009 taxes
GE paid NO TAXES in 2010, plus got $3.2B from federal government
$4.5B goes to oil companies in subsidies per year
Republicans start with kids (Head Start) & middle class & poor people when cutting budget
$40B in farm subsidies
Real welfare states are red states, blue states paying for red states: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v499/adiemas/welfarestates2.gif
Tens of thousands of Americans die prematurely every year because of coal
EPA proposed new standards for power plants, 1st national standard for mercury and other toxins, regulations prevent thousands of deaths per year
52 million uninsured in 2010 (vs 38 million in 2001), 75 million skipped doctors visits, 49 million spent 10%+ of income on HC (vs 31 million in 2001), 75% uninsured found it impossible to find a plan they could afford
Mercury levels in environment have risen 1-3% every year since the industrial revolution
In 2006 experts predict a total collapse of world fish stock in 40 years
Using only 3% of Arizona, it has enough solar energy to power the US
NIMBY = Not In My Back Yard
Florida gave $1.5M tax cuts for the rich, Michigan gave tax cuts to oil companies, Arizona wants to drop health insurance for 100K poor people
Tomahawk missiles cost $1-1.5M each
Reagan reformed the tax code when he learned GE paid no taxes in the 1980’s, in 1990’s GE started to lobby for less taxes and won, GE doesn’t have to pay taxes on profits overseas
Bush in 2004 the American Jobs Creation Act gave $13B a year in tax cuts to corporations (GE saved $1B in 3 years)
McCain was buddies with Kadafi 18 months ago
70% of crops we eat bees pollinate
In 1950 share of taxes from corporations was 30%, now 6.6%

Montly Questions:

How come it’s never the time to talk about it? (Re: oil after BP, guns after AZ shootings, nuclear after Japan disaster)
Workers got collective bargaining rights in 1959 so it took 51 years to bankrupt states? (Re: Wisconsin)
All of a sudden Obama wants money for war and now the military budget is a problem?