General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWho or what exactly enables "austerity", or "sequestration"?
Last edited Wed Jul 24, 2013, 04:08 PM - Edit history (1)
Corporate Profits Have Grown By 171 Percent Under Obama -- Highest Rate Since 1900http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/corporate-profits-have-grown-171-percent-under-obama-highest-rate-1900
"Average annual corporate profit growth under Obama is the highest since 1900, whereas profit growth declined during both Bush presidencies. As a share of the economy, corporate profits have never been higher.
Unfortunately, this profit deluge has not been shared by workers, whose wages as a percentage of the economy have fallen to all-time lows. Workers also got dinged by the recent increase in the payroll tax, which was large enough to wipe out a minimum wage increase in some states."
8 Huge Corporate Handouts in the Fiscal Cliff Bill
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/8-huge-corporate-handouts-fiscal-cliff-bill
"Throughout the months of November and December, a steady stream of corporate CEOs flowed in and out of the White House to discuss the impending fiscal cliff. Many of them, such as Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs, would then publicly come out and talk about how modest increases of tax rates on the wealthy were reasonable in order to deal with the deficit problem. What wasnt mentioned is what these leaders wanted, which is whats known as tax extenders, or roughly $205B of tax breaks for corporations. With such a banal name, and boring and difficult to read line items in the bill, few political operatives have bothered to pay attention to this part of the bill. But it is critical to understanding what is going on.
5) Subsidies for Goldman Sachs Headquarters Sec. 328 extends 'tax exempt financing for York Liberty Zone,' which was a program to provide post-9/11 recovery funds. Rather than going to small businesses affected, however, this was, according to Bloomberg, 'little more than a subsidy for fancy Manhattan apartments and office towers for Goldman Sachs and Bank of America Corp.' Michael Bloomberg himself actually thought the program was excessive, so thats saying something. According to David Cay Johnstons The Fine Print, Goldman got $1.6 billion in tax free financing for its new massive headquarters through Liberty Bonds."
The Untouchables: How the Obama administration protected Wall Street from prosecutions
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/23/untouchables-wall-street-prosecutions-obama
Yes, Virginia, the Rich Continue to Get Richer: the Top 1% Got 121% of Income Gains Since 2009
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/02/yes-virginia-the-rich-continue-to-get-richer-the-1-got-121-of-income-gains-since-2009.html
U.S. banks in 2012 post highest profits since '06
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/26/us-usa-fdic-earnings-idUSBRE91P0N820130226?utm_source=Daily+Digest&utm_campaign=de8376aab3-DD_2_27_132_27_2013&utm_medium=email#.US5jjkXSlU8.twitter
This Years Subsidy to Wall Street = the Amount of This Years Sequester Cuts
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/02/this-years-subsidy-to-wall-street-the-amount-of-this-years-sequester-cuts.html#.US_yiFwwnHY.facebook
Dont Blink, or Youll Miss Another Bailout
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100466032
America faces more than a dozen deadlines, all caused by billionaires and wealth transfer
http://americablog.com/2013/02/america-faces-more-than-a-dozen-deadlines-all-caused-by-billionaires-and-wealth-transfer.html
Bank Bailout 2: Obama Lets Mortgage Abusers Off the Hook
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/02/09-5
So sure, Obama is absolutely powerless to stop "austerity", which means the very rich double-dipping into our money and future. He's been fighting the banks and regulating wall street and taking back the trillions in bailout money given to CEOs as bonuses and stopping even more bailouts...any day now, I'm holding my breath...pay no attention to the banksters behind the partisan curtain.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)"Sequester" gets you a higher score in Scrabble.
HereSince1628
(36,063 posts)you can get to sequester by playing S-E-Q-U on the word 'ester'
You could get to austerity by playing I-T-Y on auster, a poetic term for the south wind
Fire Walk With Me
(38,893 posts)HereSince1628
(36,063 posts)"squabble" being an 8 letter word that can only on an existing word, for example, being built by adding B-L-E to an already played squab.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)talk about that. Or, to spend lots of time reading financial articles to know where the REAL Blame lies. The Deregulation, the breaking of Unions with Reagan and the shipping of jobs Overseas with NAFTA.
The "China Syndrome" where we built that countries economy on the backs of American Workers and turned us all into Consumers while Wall Street pumped and dumped us with the Tech Bubble and a Deregulated financial system went wild pushing Real Estate which they then used to slice and dice our Mortgages into risky financial intsruments selling them to each other and into the EuroEconomy crashing the banking system.
We Bail out the International Banking system and Wall Street and it's Entitlements that are supposed to be the problem. Not the Crooks and Liars who did this who now are fixing to do it again! Because No One of Importance has been Held Accountable.
Segami
(14,923 posts)"..So Republicans are feeling the public (and private) opinion pressure enough to pretend to moderate the effects of the sequester (when really, they're just trying to save their largest campaign contributors). Yet despite their vulnerability, Obama is once again offering up Social Security and Medicare as a sacrifice:
"I will continue to seek out partners on the other side of the aisle so that we can create the kind of balanced approach of spending cuts, revenues, entitlement reform that everybody knows is the right way to do things," he said at the start of a cabinet meeting.
In phone calls with lawmakers at the weekend, Obama raised anew the issue of cutting entitlements such as Medicare and Social Security as a way out of the budget cuts. Reforming the social safety net is a pet project of Republicans...."
Uh, not just the Republicans. The Republicans are worried, yet instead of kicking them when they're down, and putting the squeeze on to get additional tax revenue, Obama offers up the safety net as an enticement. I'm not surprised, of course. But I'm still furious.
http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/gop-nervous-about-defense-cuts-so#comment-2228521
Fire Walk With Me
(38,893 posts)monies; the only thing which changes is excuse. It's about the banksters, not the partisan puppets serving them.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)The ABSURDITY of the craven corporate propaganda that argues we should cheer for one side and accept vicious, predatory legislation because it's the best we can hope for, and the other side's solution would have been worse.
Solution to what? A bipartisan Shock Doctrine faux debt ceiling faux budget "crisis" scam specifically orchestrated to ensure that Austerity A and Austerity B were the only two possible outcomes.
There is NO justification for what is being done to us. NONE. This country and all of us have been LOOTED beyond recognition, and still the corporate rhetoric insists that we must give them more. It's the same fucking scam, over and over and over again. We are given two vicious, predatory possible outcomes, and exhorted to cheer for the one offered by "our side."
What masquerades as political debate now is blatant, offensive, relentless corporate propaganda to justify the looting of the unwilling many by the tyrannical few.
I have seen this George Carlin video posted here many, many times over the past few days. It needs to run 24/7 on our networks and in Times Square, as far as I am concerned:
Fire Walk With Me
(38,893 posts)Every day until everyone gets it...
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)Fire Walk With Me
(38,893 posts)which seeks to spread into Australia and elsewhere. Bush and friends showed us with 9/11, if there is chaos (whether LIHOP or MIHOP), you can far more easily take control and force your agenda upon others.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)seems now to be our system of government.
kenny blankenship
(15,689 posts)sez "our"* President.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/22/business/economy/obama-offers-to-cut-corporate-tax-rate-to-28.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
*If the we to which the "our" refers to is a corporation.