Yes, Virginia, There Is Income Inequality—Will the Super Committee Admit It?

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http://www.thenation.com/blog/164191/yes-virginia-there-income-inequality-will-super-committee-admit-it

A dramatic study released today shows income inequality in the United States is on a furious upward trajectory: since the late 1970s, the top one percent of earners more than doubled their share of the nation’s income. From 1979 to 2007, average inflation-adjusted after-tax income grew by 275 percent—and the top one-fifth now receives more income than the other four-fifths of the population. Meanwhile, people in the middle three-fifths of the population saw their shares of after-tax income decline by 2 or 3 percentage points.

The study’s results are dramatic, though certainly have been studied and noted before. But what adds juice is who conducted the study—it was released today in the heat of the Occupy Wall Street movement by the non-partisan Congressional Budget office, after years of work. The study was requested by Senators Max Baucus and Charles Grassley in 2006.

And this morning, there’s a perfect stage for these findings: Doug Elmendorf, the head of the CBO, is testifying again before the Congressional super-committee on deficit reduction, which is trying to find $1.2 trillion in cuts while possibly tackling the increasingly lopsided tax code, which the CBO found was a key contributor to the upward shift in incomes.

The last time Elmendorf testified, he urged the super-committee to focus on growing the economy now and cutting the deficit later. Many Democrats and union groups are urging the committee to focus on growing the economy and creating jobs now, as well. But Republicans on the panel weren’t receptive to Elmendorf’s message last time—“deficit reduction is a jobs plan,” Representative Jeb Hensarling claimed that day.

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1. Will we finally acknowledge it is social security/medicare that is responsible for a lot of this?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/26/us/politics/top-earners-doubled-share-of-nations-income-cbo-says.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&adxnnl=1&emc=tha23&adxnnlx=1319644889-mqw6g9W07L36mFW8WkHZHA

“The equalizing effect of federal taxes was smaller” in 2007 than in 1979, as “the composition of federal revenues shifted away from progressive income taxes to less-progressive payroll taxes,” the budget office said.

Also, it said, federal benefit payments are doing less to even out the distribution of income, as a growing share of benefits, like Social Security, goes to older Americans, regardless of their income.

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2. Surprise! The Rich Are Still Getting Richer

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2011/10/surprise-rich-are-still-getting-richer/44136/

In news that will surprise almost no one currently trying to occupy Wall Street, a new government report shows that the income of the top 1% is larger than ever and continuing to grow.

According to a new Congressional Budget Office report released on Tuesday, since 1979 the average, after-tax income of the top one percent of American households has risen 275 percent. Meanwhile, for the poorest one-fifth of the country, it's gone up just 18 percent. And for the biggest slice of "middle class" America -- the three-fifths of homes between the top and bottom 20% -- incomes have risen just 40%

All those numbers are inflation adjusted and only brings the data up to 2007, before the crisis that led to our current great recession.

The report also underlines how the good times of the last 30 years were good mostly for the wealthiest among us. The top 1 percent receives about 17 percent of all income in this country, a number that has doubled since 1979.

[valerief]

3. Just like the US's law inequality. nt