DUers go forth and spread this on Facebook....
There is no denying what the GOP has been up to since Gingrich and the so called Contract with America. More aptly, it is a Contract for the 1% by the 1%, while the 99% get screwed. I am copying and pasting this also on comments threads on MSM news sites in swing states like Ohio.
Republican strength in Congress aids super-rich, president's affiliation has no effect
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-10/asa-rsi092712.php
Study investigates the rise of the top 1 percent
WASHINGTON, DC, September 27, 2012 — Republican strength in Congress increases the share of income held by the top 1 percent, but the president's political affiliation has no effect, suggests a new study in the October issue of the American Sociological Review that looks at the rise of the super-rich in the United States.
"This points to the central role that Congress has in the legislative process," said study co-author Thomas W. Volscho, an Assistant Professor of Sociology at CUNY-College of Staten Island. "The president has limited ability to make the sort of legislative changes necessary to affect the top 1 percent without the support of Congress, making Congress the central actor here."
According to the study, "The Rise of the Super-Rich: Power Resources, Taxes, Financial Markets, and the Dynamics of the Top 1 Percent, 1949 to 2008," following years of relative stability post World War II, the income share of the top 1 percent grew rapidly after 1980—from 10 percent in 1981 to 23.5 percent in 2007, a 135 percent increase. The income share of the super-rich dropped to about 21 percent in 2008, likely as a result of the financial crisis that had begun, Volscho said. By way of comparison, the income share of the top 1 percent was 11.7 percent in 1949.
"We found evidence that congressional shifts to the Republican Party, diminishing union membership, lower top tax rates, and financial asset bubbles in stock and real estate markets played a strong role in the rise of the 1 percent," said Volscho, who co-authored the study with Nathan J. Kelly, an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Tennessee. "From the early 1980s to 2008, these measures saw major shifts after relative stability in Democratic dominance of Congress, union membership, tax rates, and prices of stocks and real estate during the postwar era of the late 1940s to the late 1970s."
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"Democrats are more favorable than Republicans toward social programs that redistribute income, but the parties also differ over what the economic rules of the game should be," Volscho said. "Based on our analysis, Democrats appear to favor an economic system that produces more egalitarian outcomes even before any redistribution occurs."
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