Month: October 2011

Faux Outsider: Cain Was a Lobbyist In Bed with Big Tobacco

Trish

If you’re having trouble grocking Herman Cain, a recent article in the New York Times will make your mental light bulb shine.

Cain, who has been the next Reagan since he won the straw poll at Florida’s Presidency 5 confab in September, says his main virtue is that he is an outsider to politics. And while it’s true that Cain has never held elected office, he is only an outsider in the Jack Abramoff sense of that word.*

…the role that helped propel Mr. Cain into politics was that of an ultimate Washington insider: industry lobbyist.

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Top 1% Almost Tripled Their Income in Past 28 Years

Buck Banks

275%

Amount that average inflation-adjusted after-tax income grew for the 1 percent of the population with the highest income from 1979 to 2007, according to the Congressional Budget Office. For others in the top 20 percent of the population, average real after-tax household income grew by 65 percent. By contrast, the budget office said, for the poorest fifth of the population, average real after-tax household income rose 18 percent. And for the three-fifths of people in the middle of the income scale, the growth in such household income was just under 40 percent.

Americans Now Embrace Guns

Buck Banks

26%

Of Americans — a record-low — favor a ban on handguns in the U.S. Also, for the first time, Americans are more likely to oppose (53%) than favor (43%) a ban on assault rifles. More broadly, Americans’ support for stricter handgun laws and passage of new gun laws is the lowest Gallup has measured.