The Real Reason the Republicans Want to Abolish the Affordable Care Act

Abolishing the Affordable Care Act will provide tax breaks for the rich. According to the LA Times, “the Affordable Care Act’s tax provisions, and the discovery that repeal would provide the wealthiest taxpayers with an immediate tax cut totaling $346 billion over 10 years. Every cent of that would go to taxpayers earning more than $200,000 a year ($250,000 for couples). As Nicholas Bagley of the University of Michigan observed a few days after the election, the imperative of handing their wealthy patrons a gift of this magnitude may well outweigh their solicitude for the mostly middle- and low-income constituents whose individual insurance plans would be at risk from repeal.”

All of the income gains of the last 35 years have gone to the 1 percent, and this has been achieved by government legislation and international trade scams that export jobs overseas, and the difference between the old higher US wages and the new lower overseas wages has always gone straight into the pockets of the 1 percent. Income from performing labor is taxed at a higher rate than just sitting on your ass doing nothing, and this has come about due to tax legislation.

See the link below for the whole story.

The Real Reason Republicans Want to Abolish the Affordable Care Act–LA Times

Read Full Post »

State-by-State, and In Every State: Pew Charitable Trust Reports on the Shrinking Middle Class

The US middle class has been shrinking for decades, but never as rapidly as under the Obama administration. 95 percent of all income growth since 2009 has gone to the super affluent. This means the uber wealthy now steal 37 percent of all income produced in the United States every year, compared to 21 percent in 2009, and 8 percent in 1980. And they’re stealing it from the middle and lower classes. They’re sucking the middle class dry because these rich folks have all the gold, which follows the golden rule. He who has the gold makes the rules. Check out the link below from the Pew Charitable Trust to see how much your senators and congressional representatives have robbed from the middle class and given to the rich. That’s what the rich pay them to do.

The Shrinking Middle Class Mapped State-by-State–Pew Charitable Trust

Take the case of Wall Street Senator Ron Wyden. He is supposed to represent the people of Oregon, rather than the robber barons of Wall Street, but Wyden has led the fight to ship and create jobs overseas, as well as privatization scams. Wall Street Ronnie is no dumb dumb. He knows these things redistribute income from the 99 to the 1 percent. That shows whose side he is on in the war against the middle class. The senator has a 100 percent voting record for shipping and creating jobs overseas. He calls his efforts free trade treaties, but in reality, these deals are designed and negotiated by multi-national corporations to redistribute income, wealth and political power from the 99 to the 1 percent. The senator has also proposed measures to redistribute Medicare benefits from the 99 to the 1 percent via a privatization scams. He claims he is bipartisan, but he has never led a Republican to successfully support legislation that reverses his shameful income redistribution policies.

Wyden voted for NAFTA and every income redistribution treaty since. He’s the Democratic senator who led the fight in favor of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), the largest income and political power redistribution treaty ever. The result of the senator’s work in the halls of congress are evident:

In Oregon,

• 47.7 percent of all people live in middle class households as of 2013, compared to 51.4 percent in 2010. Rest assured, when the numbers are compiled for 2014 and 2015, the number of people living in middle class households will be less than in 2013.
• medium income has declined from $50,251 per household per year in 2013, compared to an inflation adjusted $56,382 in 2000. Worse yet, the medium family income has declined. The senator has voted to redistribute that $6,000 a year to the 1 percent year after year.
• Poverty is up.
• The 1 percent now steal 37 percent of all income made in the USA, compared to 10 percent when Wyden entered congress over twenty disastrous years ago.

Luckily, people are organizing in Oregon because they’re fed up with the disastrous policies of one of Wall Street’s favorite employees, that’s Wyden.

Wyden is in a dominant position inasmuch as he and the local corporate propaganda machine hide his economic legislative record by extolling the virtues of his social issues. However, Kevin Stine, a Medford city council member is running in the primary against Wyden. Wyden’s disastrous economic policies, bad for Oregonians and good for Wall Street, have begun to come out and his position is not so secure anymore.

Read Full Post »

Inequality is the Defining Issue of Our Day, But Here’s How the Corporate Propaganda Machine Stomps It Down

The corporate propaganda machine, commonly known as the corporate media, always seeks to advance the cause of the 0.01 percent in redistributing income from the 99 percent to themselves. One of the ways to do this is to distract the mass of people from the real issues.

So when President Obama said that increasing income inequality was a threat to the American dream, and “the defining challenge of our time,” the president was right on, since the 1 percent now steal 37 percent of all US income, compared to 8 percent in 1980. This has been brought about due to federal legislation, such as tax cuts for the rich, privatization scams, the use of corporate mercenary soldiers to hide US military causalities abroad, and free trade agreements.

This is nothing short of political corruption to the max by the one percent.

The result of this inequality is the weakest economic growth and weakest job growth of all US economic expansions. It’s also responsible for declining real income for the 99 percent, and most of the other financial maladies afflicting society, such as underfunded schools, frayed social service nets, problems financing the social security trust fund 18 years down the road, rising poverty, and much more.

When the president said inequality was the “defining issue of our time,” what did the 1 percent do to protect their ability to corrupt the government? They unleashed their so-called free press to make us understand the president’s comment was “Class warfare,” and that was a bad thing. The Democrats and President Obama immediately retreated from this issue, save for a few, such as US Senator Bernie Sanders and US Senator Elizabeth Warren. Expect this issue to be pushed to the side by the rich person’s propaganda machine during the upcoming elections, save for Bernie Sanders.

The odd thing is the rich have been waging war on the 99 percent by using their corruption of government to enact legislation that redistributes income from the 99 to the 1 percent. But they refuse to call this class warfare, when that’s precisely what it is. Quite naturally, the corporate propaganda machine has been instructed to never mention this fact, or the job security of editors and reporters will be terminated. Corporate advertisers will vacate the parts of the machine that report real news that is not in harmony with the desires of the rich.

Of course, there are a few other reasons why Americans fall for this treachery time and again, and John Oliver explains it wonderfully in the video above.

The rich know class warfare has been waged for the last thirty-five years, as Warren Buffett, the third most richest person in the US, so famously said years ago.

Read Full Post »

Weekend News Dutifully Not Reported by the Corporate News and Propaganda Media: TPP Trade Talks Stall

On Friday, July 31 the negotiators from twelve nations announced in Maui that negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) had reached a roadblock. The TPP is massive income redistribution scam for the 1 percent, and particularly for Wall Street, major corporations and their overpriced CEOs and their shareholders, but it is being falsely marketed as a trade agreement.

President Obama wants to be able to deliver this scam before the upcoming elections so that Wall Street and major corporations who stand to gain at the expense of the 99 percent will open up its pockets more to Democratic candidates. However, as the Democratic base realizes this president and many of his Democratic cronies, such as Wall Street Senator Ron Wyden, has sacrificed their interests and redistributed their income and wealth to the 1 percent over and over again, along with Obama’s Republican party cronies (think Mitch McConnell, Orrin Hatch, John Boehner, etc…, the Democratic base has been abandoning ship.

In other words, the Democratic machine might get the cash to compete on television advertisements with the Republican machine if Obama and his henchmen like Wall Street Senator Ron Wyden can deliver the TPP, but in doing so, the Dems will have fewer and fewer votes on which it can count on. So the party will lose more seats in the US senate and the house of representatives.

That means the party base in shrinking and it doesn’t matter how much money the Democratic leadership can conjure up. They will continue to lose voters as more and more of the base can no longer discern any significant difference between the Democratic and Republican parties on bread and butter issues.

Trying to rally the base with social and international issues, such as the Iran nuclear deal, the liberalization of relations with Cuba, and gay marriage, will be less and less effective in helping to win elections if the sole purpose of the party on economic matters is to continue to impoverish the base with scams like the TPP.

According to CNN the negotiations broke down over the following:

Canada is balking at opening its dairy market for more imports — a key demand not just of the United States but also of New Zealand, where dairy giants like Fonterra are eager to expand the country’s top export.

In Japan, the United States wants easier access for its agriculture and automotive companies, but Prime Minister Shinzo Abe faces a legislature strongly influenced by small rice farmers. Long-standing foreign auto trade barriers are difficult to tear down in that country.

And the United States’ push for 12 years of patent protection on pharmaceutical drugs is tripping up poorer countries — such as Malaysia and Vietnam — that fret they’d face public health challenges without access to cheaper generics.

Critics in manufacturing states have said the deal should include a crackdown on countries that manipulate the value of their currencies to give their exports a price advantage in the United States. That, though, is a non-starter and would halt the deal’s progress entirely, negotiators from several countries have said.

Read Full Post »

Why All American Citizens Should Support Bernie Sanders for President

A friend on the political right wrote me about my support for Bernie Sanders for US president. My friend had some objections about Senator Sanders positions. So I wrote the response below. I should also like to point out that Bernie is a US senator from Vermont, where large pockets of conservatism flourish, and Republicans are elected to statewide offices. Yet Bernie continues to win election after election, campaigning mainly on bread and butter issues.

Anyway, below is my reason why everybody should vote for Bernie, regardless of their political ideology.

“…the Democratic and Republican Party leaderships, and the big money that controls them, also controls the levers of political power. I am against any candidate supported by the leadership of either major political party. That’s why over the years I’ve been a supporter of such diverse independent minded politicians as Ron Paul, Pat Buchanan, Ralph Nader and Bernie Sanders. Besides, it doesn’t matter what Bernie wants, what matters it what he can achieve as president. If Bernie becomes president, with both houses of congress likely to be controlled by the twin party leadership, Bernie will likely only be able to limit their damage to the middle class in terms of economics.”

With the help of the corporate news media, which can better be described as the corporate propaganda machine, the Democratic and the Republican leadership rip the grassroots of both parties apart and against each other by inventing social issues, while raping the grassroots of both parties financially on behalf their billionaire and millionaire benefactors.

The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Fast Track Authority are classic examples of how the leadership of both political parties team together in their financial rape of the 99 percent.The Federal Reserve estimates the TPP will cost four to five million US jobs. The difference between the old higher US wages, and the new lower overseas wages, will go straight into the pockets of the 1 percent via higher corporate profits, dividends and share prices. That money will be stolen straight out of the pockets of working Americans and redistributed into the already fat bank accounts of the 1 percent, much of which will find its way into the pockets and campaigns of the Democratic and Republican party leadership. The local and state tax dollars paid by the jobs losers will no longer support schools, police, fire, road maintenance and much more. In other words, the TPP will rape our schools and other public services.

The TPP will also steal money that should go to the social security trust fund because the rich only pay social security taxes on the first $118,000 of their income. Worse yet, the TPP will force China to manipulate its currency even more than is already the case, costing the US millions more jobs than the Federal Reserve estimates. This manipulation of currency will compel US corporations to ship more jobs overseas because Chinese currency manipulation increases the profits of those who manufacture in China. (See Four Graphs that Will Make You Boiling Mad About the Trans Pacific Partnership–Or Why President Obama, along with executives from Nike, Microsoft, Apple and other US corporations Steadfastly Support China’s Currency Manipulations–JohnHively.wordpress.com).

In other words, the TPP has been negotiated specifically to redistribute income from the 99 to the 1 percent, and since 2009, the 1 percent has stolen 95 percent of all US income growth. Their share of the total national income has risen from 8 percent in 1980, to 21 percent in 2008, to 37 percent in 2015.

The TPP has also been negotiated to undermine US laws and democracy.

Hillary Clinton has stated publicly on 45 occasions that she is for the TPP. All of the Republican candidates are for it. Bernie would veto the TPP if he was president. Ergo, damage to the vast majority of US citizens would be limited.

Here’s something to think about. Opposition to the Trans Pacific Partnership brought together unusual allies, such as the John Birch Society, the Tea Party, Black Lives Matter, and the AFL-CIO. We need more, not less, of that kind of cooperation among US citizens. Bernie understands this, and his candidacy is encouraging this. That’s precisely what the leadership of both political parties and their billionaire benefactors don’t want: Americans of all colors and political persuasions united together in opposition to the billionaire class and their complete corruption of the US government for their own ends.

Read Full Post »

House Republicans Prepare to Vote on Bill To Increase Income and Wealth Inequality in the USA, as Well As Increase Government Corruption by the 1 Percent

From the Economic Policy Institute:

This week, the U.S. House is scheduled to vote on a repeal of the federal estate tax. A tax which only effects the top 0.2 percent of households and provides a meaningful check on the growing concentration of wealth in the United States.

Today, the top 1 percent own 42 percent of the nation’s wealth while the bottom 90 percent own just 23 percent. The estate tax, on average, levies a 16.6 percent tax on wealth being passed down from one generation to the next, but only effects estates worth more than $5.4 million for individuals or $10.9 million for married couples. (It should be pointed out that eliminating the tax will also increase income inequality in the USA and political corruption as well, since the 1 percent will have more money to corrupt are already extremely corrupt government.)

Repeal of the estate tax would result in a $3 million average tax cut to the wealthiest 0.2 percent of households and a $269 billion tax revenue shortfall for the federal government over 10 years. To put these figures in perspective, this $269 billion could help pay for the $164 billion federal highway and mass transit trust funds shortfall, President Obama’s $75 billion proposal to provide publicly-funded preschool to low- and moderate-income children, and the president’s $60 billion proposal to provide free community college to nine million students.

In one form or another the estate tax has been around since 1797 and in its current form in our laws since 1916. It was most recently amended in 2001 as part of the Bush tax cuts and again in 2012, lowering the top tax rate from 55% to 40% and raising the estate tax exemption from $675,000 to $5.4 million, greatly narrowing the scope of the tax.

At a time when Congress is slashing the federal budget to the tune of $5 trillion and making devastating cuts to programs such as food stamps, education, Medicare and Medicaid, college aid, job training, medical research and rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, Congress should be looking for ways to generate new income, not cut existing taxable income for the very wealthy.

It should also be pointed out that the principal recipients of government handouts in one form or another are the 1 percent. They steal this money via bribery in one form or another via government subsidies, military spending, forced federal public school testing, keeping the minimum wage artificially low, food stamps for employees of corporations which subsidizes their profits that go to the rich, and many of these corporations are enjoying record profits year after year.

Let congress know you that you are opposed to another welfare program for the rich. Join the Economic Policy Institute by clicking the link below and signing the petition.

Stand with the EPI Policy Center and urge Congress to reject the repeal of the estate tax, which only benefits the top 0.2 percent and ultimately hurts millions of American families through cuts to critical services. Economic Policy Institute

Read Full Post »

Why Non-Corporate Democrats Think Social Security Benefits Should Be Increased

Read Full Post »

This Will Be As True For Elizabeth Warren If She Runs For President As It Was For FDR

Organized money is what controls politics in the United States. Money can be organized in any number of ways. A corporation is made up of money organized from investors. So too are hedge funds. In FDR’s time, organized mob meant organized crime. So what FDR said below should read,

“Government by the rich is just as dangerous as government by organized crime. Never before in all of our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today, They are unanimous in their hate for me–and I welcome their hatred.”

That’s the way it will be for Elizabeth Warren should she run for president.

In reality, in our government, organized money and organized crime are the same thing. That’s why so many Wall Street CEO’s can get away any crimes they desire, including fraud and money laundering for drug cartels. So, in reality, today, we have a government that is managed by politicians on the payroll of organized crime.

Perhaps this is why US middle class Senator Elizabeth Warren has refused to run for US president in 2016. She would be taking on the modern version of organized crime. Remember the golden rule; he who has the gold makes the rules. Guess who has the gold in the political markets? Just take a look below, and you’ll discover the answer.

Read Full Post »

World Health Organization Lists the GMO Herbicide Glyphosate (In Roundup Ready) as a Possible Cause of Cancer

Last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) listed the GMO herbicide as a possible cause of cancer. There are numerous studies that show Glyphosate causes all sorts of human maladies, such as autism, cancer, obesity and many other things. Check out the video below to discover more about these studies.

Your government is putting corporate profits over your health for a simple reason. The more medical problems you get from GMOs, the more hospital profits go up. For profit making hospitals, this is a win-win situation, and your government is a willing partner is this crime.

Dr Mercola has studied this issue for years and he writes, “Increasing exposure to glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide, may be at least partially to blame for rising rates of numerous chronic diseases in Westernized societies, according to recent research.

The finding, published in Entropy,1 has ramifications for virtually every man, woman and child in developed nations, as this pesticide is widely used on both conventional and, especially, genetically modified (GM) crops (to the tune of more than one billion pounds sprayed in the US alone).

If you eat processed foods, most of which are made with GM corn and soy ingredients, you’re consuming glyphosate residues, probably in each and every bite. Knowing this, and the fact that tests show people in 18 countries across Europe already have glyphosate in their bodies,2 the following news should leave you very, very concerned… if not compelled to take action against this health-endangering chemical.

Check out the rest of what Dr. Mercola below.

Gut-Wrenching New Studies Reveal the Insidious Effects of Glyphosate–Mercola.com

Read Full Post »

The 1% will own more wealth than the rest of the world’s 99 percent—by next year

The one percent are set to own over 50 percent of the world’s wealth sometime next year if current trends continue, according to a new report by Oxfam, a poverty fighting group. The report notes that this extreme inequality “is the consequence of political choices. Extreme poverty and inequality are the result of a skewed economic and political system that favors the few at the expense of everyone else.”

Basically, the folks at Oxfam are saying that the golden rule is the cause of inequality; “he who has the gold makes the rules.”

Currently, the top 1 percent own about 48 percent of the world’s wealth, up from slightly above 44 percent in 2010. Much of this rapid growth is due to free trade treaties which place downward pressure on wages.

Wealth, by the way, are things that you own. It’s different than income, which is money you have coming in, either in the form of income, or capital gains.

There is an important connection between income and wealth. You cannot accumulate wealth without getting the income to do so. So in that sense, the massive difference between the wealth owned by the 1 and the 99 percent is caused by a massive income inequality, which is nothing more than a function of inequality of political power, which is the root cause of wealth inequality.

The Oxfam report notes that the wealth of the world’s 80 richest people has doubled from 2009 to 2014. Most of the world’s billionaires get their money primarily from industries such as investments, banking and pharmaceuticals, which coincidentally, amazingly, are industries that will prosper even more if the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) becomes law. We know this because of leaked documents. 600 corporate lobbyists are helping the negotiators secretly construct this deal, and it’s literally a done deal. The TPP is a perfect example of how the rich use their political clout to redistribute income from the 99 percent to themselves.

For more on the Oxfam report, click the link below.

Click to access Wealth_Having_it_all_and_wanting_more.pdf

Read Full Post »