Tag: Economy

Poverty Rate Rises to Quarter Century High

Jon Ponder
chart-poverty-rates-1959-2010
Census chart updated by Pensito Review to show presidential eras

Last week, the Census Bureau released a report on poverty that found that the number of Americans living in poverty has risen to 15.1 percent, the highest it has been since 1983:

About 46.2 million people, or nearly one in six, were in poverty in 2010, compared with 43.6 million, or 14.3 percent, in 2009.

The statistics, contained in the report, titled “Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage: 2010,” cover 2010, when U.S. unemployment averaged 9.6 percent, up from 9.3 percent the previous year.

Highlights:

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Beginning to Wonder If Republicans Are Right About the Economy?

Trish

We’re taking the name of this post at Truth-Out.org, “Three Charts to Email to Your Right-Wing Brother-In-Law,” as encouragement to share. And since these graphs appeal to our love of accuracy, we will do just that.

6088811201_96839c6977

For starters, we have the amount that federal spending has increased under Pres. Obama (a barely cost-of-living equivalent 7.2 percent) compared to how much it increased under the two off-the-books wars and one unfunded prescription drug mandate man, Pres. Bush (a whopping 88 percent). Truth-Out noted that the figures do not include recent budget cuts.

But wait, there’s more reality-based number crunching ahead.

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Job Growth Has Stalled Since Boehner’s GOP-Tea Party Took Charge

Jon Ponder

1. Job growth under stimulus when Democrats controlled Congress; 2. Job decline under Boehner and GOP tea party anti-growth obstructionism
1. Job growth under stimulus when Democrats controlled Congress; 2. Job decline under Boehner and GOP tea party anti-growth obstructionism
The GOP tea party won control of the House last year by promising independent voters that, if elected, they would focus on “jobs, jobs, jobs.” But upon gaining a majority in the House, the tea party has focused instead on abortion, gay marriage and playing political games designed to obstruct the economic recovery in order to ensure that Mitt Romney, Rick Perry or someone even more incompetent and less qualified is elected president next year.

The latest jobs report out today indicates that employment has stalled, with unemployment stuck at 9.1 percent, proving yet again that the GOP tea party’s obstructionism on the economy is paying off. And since their endgame is to saddle the White House with responsibility for the poor growth their own obstructionism creates, their leader, Speaker John Boehner, was quick to blame the president for the weak numbers.

Steve Benen at Washington Monthly has nailed Speaker Boehner and his tea party bosses for first claiming credit for a good jobs report in the early spring, but now trying to blame the White House for the stalled growth ever since.

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FOX Begrudges the Poor Their Refrigerators

Trish

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
World of Class Warfare – The Poor’s Free Ride Is Over
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

Here is another brilliant summation from Jon Stewart, this one on Republican attempts to shift more of the taxation burden to the middle and poor classes, and keep the rich fat and happy. Hopefully more people will begin to understand that we are being played like violins by the ultra-rich, who know that as long as we buy into the fiction that it’s us (the struggling middle class) versus them (the struggling poor), the rich win.

What Should Obama Do? Any Ideas?

Trish

ObamaA lot of people aren’t happy with the state of American government right now and many blame Pres. Obama. On our team, we say that he should be more aggressive, more assertive, more…something.

But the only ideas we came up to win the debt ceiling battle were things that would have fueled the claims of birthers and others that his presidency is illegitimate – things like having the Treasury forge a magic coin that would cover the difference or use the Constitution’s 14th Amendment in a way unsupported by precedent and that would have ensured an impeachment drive from Republicans.

The absence of practical solutions was painfully clear on a recent segment of the Diane Rehm Show that focused on riots in England and related European economic problems. Kenneth Lieberthal of The Brookings Institution and former Clinton administration National Security Council member expressed progressives’ frustrations well but ran out of steam when reminded of Republican realities. So did Scheherazade Rehman, professor of International Business/Finance and International Affairs at George Washington University. Even a caller to the show resorted to the classic political candidate’s move of answering the question you prefer to be asked.

All three fell to Rehm’s query: “What can President Obama do?”

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Bitter Friday Fun Break

Trish

nfl-football-debt-ceiling-s

Time to laugh in the final hours of life as we knew it before Congress said, “Hold my hand. We’re jumping!” and took us all over the cliff of welshing on America’s debt, which they — Republicans included — authorized when they voted to spend all that money. As we call our collective Visa companies, we say, “You know all those restaurants I already ate at, and all the Netflix I already watched, and oh yeah, that big ol’ car repair bill I already used my card to pay for? Well I don’t want any of it now and I’m not going to pay for it. See ya!” We will pass the time waiting for Visa’s response by futilely contacting our elected officials and then blaming it all on Pres. Obama. Happy times.

McCain Still Angry and Delusional

Trish

The principle of not raising taxes is something that we campaigned on last November and the results of the election was the American people don’t want their taxes raised and they wanted us to cut spending. They don’t want compromise.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who didn’t say which American people or which individual races he was talking about, but reminded many of us why we’re so glad he and Sarah Palin lost in 2008.