Happy Friday.

Friday, February 17, 2006

The End

Happy Friday.

It has been a year since Happy Friday began. Remember "Extraordinary Rendition" whereby the current administration ships individuals to other countries where they are interrogated through torture?

It is still happening.

A lot has been discussed over the past year: lies about North Korea; the destruction of American families; the truth about the estate tax; lies about the war on terror; the massive corruption within the republican party; and the promise of what lies ahead, among much else.

But, alas, it is time to move on. The midterms are on the horizon and I am focusing my attention there--among other places.

Of course the ugly will continue for another two years. "This administration will go down as the worst in history." Accordingly, I anticipate some egregious conduct that will mandate a reappearance by HF. I also welcome your contributions.

Please continue to pay attention, talk about the issues, and vote.

Take America back.

Friday, February 10, 2006

The Big Question

Happy Friday.

Last week we learned that socially liberal and fiscally conservative supporters of the republican party obtained neither for their vote.

The GOP imposes its conservative dogma on our heretofore democratic society attacking those who refuse to compromise their identities or sacrifice their individual rights to conform to an anachronistic doctrine. It is not socially liberal.

The GOP's so-called conservative economic policies have generated a massive deficit totaling $929 billion, unprecedented debt, a 30% increase in spending, and tremendous wealth disparity. It is not fiscally conservative.

While these facts speak for themselves, there is another problem with the false construct of a socially liberal, fiscally conservative republican. It is a paradox. Economics impacts upon the social landscape, and vice-versa. The desire for a "conservative" laissez-faire economy clashes with socially "liberal" concerns like the ability to find a decent paying job, a good school, and affordable healthcare.

The GOP does not stand for a socially liberal, fiscally conservative America because it can't. A socially liberal and fiscally conservative vote is a myth.

As the below statistics from the Economic Policy Institute reveal, the average American is far worse off today than five years ago. Because social and economic issues are intertwined, Americans suffer in both arenas.

If the number one reason people voted for Dubya is national security, it's time to ask: At what cost is it worth protecting our nation from a foreign threat when the real threat to our lives, our values, and our families is at home?
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1. Profits are up, but the wages and the incomes of average Americans are down.

  • Inflation-adjusted hourly and weekly wages are still below where they were at the start of the recovery in November 2001. Yet, productivity—the growth of the economic pie—is up by 13.5%.[1]
  • Wage growth has been shortchanged because 35% of the growth of total income in the corporate sector has been distributed as corporate profits, far more than the 22% in previous periods.[2]
  • Consequently, median household income (inflation-adjusted) has fallen five years in a row and was 4% lower in 2004 than in 1999, falling from $46,129 to $44,389.[3]

2. More and more people are deeper and deeper in debt.

  • The indebtedness of U.S. households, after adjusting for inflation, has risen 35.7% over the last four years.[4]
  • The level of debt as a percent of after-tax income is the highest ever measured in our history. Mortgage and consumer debt is now 115% of after-tax income, twice the level of 30 years ago.[5]
  • The debt-service ratio (the percent of after-tax income that goes to pay off debts) is at an all-time high of 13.6%.[6]
  • The personal savings rate is negative for the first time since WWII.[7]

3. Job creation has not kept up with population growth, and the employment rate has fallen sharply.

  • The United States has only 1.3% more jobs today (excluding the effects of Hurricane Katrina) than in March 2001 (the start of the recession). Private sector jobs are up only 0.8%. At this stage of previous business cycles, jobs had grown by an average of 8.8% and never less than 6.0%.[8]
  • The unemployment rate is relatively low at 5%, but still higher than the 4% in 2000. Plus, the percent of the population that has a job has never recovered since the recession and is still 1.3% lower than in March 2001. If the employment rate had returned to pre-recession levels, 3 million more people would be employed.[9]
  • More than 3 million manufacturing jobs have been lost since January 2000.[10]

4. Poverty is on the rise, and so is wealth concentration.

  • The poverty rate rose from 11.3% in 2000 to 12.7% in 2004.[11]
  • The number of people living in poverty has increased by 5.4 million since 2000.[12]
  • More children are living in poverty: the child poverty rate increased from 16.2% in 2000 to 17.8% in 2004.[13]
  • At the same time, the richest one percent's share of taxes (those earning $400,000 or more) is less than that of the 56 million Americans commonly refered to as the middle class (those earning between $45,000 and $400,000).[14]

5. Rising health care costs are eroding families' already declining income.

  • Households are spending more on health care. Family health costs rose 43-45% for married couples with children, single mothers, and young singles from 2000 to 2003.[15]
  • Employers are cutting back on health insurance. Last year, the percent of people with employer-provided health insurance fell for the fourth year in a row. Nearly 3.7 million fewer people had employer-provided insurance in 2004 than in 2000. Taking population growth into account, 11 million more people would have had employer-provided health insurance in 2004 if the coverage rate had remained at the 2000 level.[16]

SOURCES

[1] Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Employment Statistics Survey. BLS, Labor Productivity and Costs. Productivity is non-farm business output per hour.

[2] Bureau of Economic Analysis. NIPA Table 1.14.

[3] Census Bureau. Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2004.

[4] Flow of Funds Accounts in the United States. Total household liabilities, Federal Reserve Flow of Fund's Balance Sheet tables. Deflated using CPI-U from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

[5] Flow of Funds Accounts in the United States. For Disposable Income, Bureau of Economic Analysis Table 2.1. Mortgage and consumer debt from the Federal Reserve Flow of Fund's Balance Sheet tables.

[6] Federal Reserve: Household Debt Service and Financial Obligations Ratios.

[7] Flow of Funds Accounts in the United States. NIPA Table 2.1, adjusted using the price index for Personal Consumption Expenditures (Table 2.3.4).

[8] Analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data. For methodology see Price, Lee (2005) The Boom That Wasn't, EPI Briefing Paper #168.

[9] Analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data. For methodology see Bernstein, Jared and Lee Price (2005) An Off-Kilter Expansion, EPI Briefing Paper #164.

[10] Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Employment Statistics Survey. See also Bivens, Josh (2005) "Trade deficits and manufacturing employment," Economic Snapshot, November 20, 2005.

[11] Census Bureau. Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2004.

[12] Census Bureau. Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2004.

[13] Census Bureau. Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2004.

[14] New York Times. The Wealthiest Benefit More from the Recent Tax Cuts: June 2005.

[15] See Mishel, Lawrence et al. (2004) Less Cash in Their Pockets, Briefing Paper #154.

[16] See Mishel, Lawrence et al. (2004) Less Cash in Their Pockets, Briefing Paper #154.

Friday, February 03, 2006

See the Light

Happy Friday.

Some of my favorite people are those who vote republican because they claim to be "fiscally conservative" although "socially liberal." It's a great excuse for what can only amount to one of two things: greed or bigotry (maybe both, in same cases).

The election of the new House Majority Leader, Rep. John Boehner (R-OH), by the GOP caucus eviscerates such thinking. Rep. Boehner consistently has voted in favor of a socially conservative agenda imposing, for example, his personal religion on the nation (see below). There goes that argument.

How about fiscal conservatism, the hallmark of which is controlled spending and budget surpluses? Spending has increased 30% over the five years of Dubbya's tyrannical reign. The current national debt totals $8,202,381,905,119.75 , or $27,485.59 for every man, woman, and child. For those who could stomach the State of the Union, the L.A. Times presents the actual facts underlying Tuesday night's spin (lies?) that the economy is "robust." There goes that argument.

The GOP agenda is not fiscally conservative and socially liberal. It is fiscally classist and socially draconian. These are the facts. It's time to see the light.
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  • For School Prayer and Amending the Constitution: Rep. Boehner supported a school prayer amendment to the United States Constitution in 1997 (H.J.Res. 78), 1999 (H.J.Res 66), and 2001 (H.J.Res. 52); voted to permit school prayer "during this time of struggle against the forces of international terrorism" (House Roll Call Vote 445, Nov. 15, 2001); and voted to only allow federal aid to schools that allow prayer (House Roll Call Vote 85, March 23, 1994).
  • For Forced Religion in Anti-Poverty Programs: Rep. Boehner voted to permit taxpayer-funded anti-poverty programs to require aid recipients to join in religious activities. (House Roll Call Votes 16 and 17, Feb. 4, 2004)
  • 100% Against a Woman's Right to Choose: Rep. Boehner received a "0%" pro-choice score from NARAL Pro-Choice America in 2005.
  • For Religious Employment Discrimination: Rep. Boehner voted to permit taxpayer-funded anti-poverty programs to engage in federally-funded employment discrimination. (House Roll Call Votes 15 and 17, Feb. 4, 2004)
  • Against the Rule of Law in Ten Commandments Case: Rep. Boehner voted to prevent the Justice Department from enforcing a court order to remove a 5,000 pound Ten Commandments monument from Alabama's state supreme court. (House Roll Call Vote 419, July 23, 2003)
  • Against Common-Sense Environmental Safeguards: Rep. Boehner voted for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (House Roll Call Vote 122, April 20, 2005); voted to gut the Endangered Species Act (House Roll Call Vote 506, September 29, 2005); and voted to weaken the National Environmental Policy Act (House Roll Call Vote 242, June 15, 2004).
  • For More Religious Employment Discrimination: Rep. Boehner voted to permit taxpayer-funded job training programs to engage in religious discrimination when hiring and firing employees with federal funds. (House Roll Call Vote 46, March 2, 2005)
  • Against Confronting Proselytizing at the Air Force Academy: Rep. Boehner voted against an amendment to squarely address religious coercion and proselytizing at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado. The amendment criticized "coercive and abusive religious proselytizing" of cadets at the Academy while observing that "_expression of personal religious faith is welcome" throughout the military. (House Roll Call Vote 283, June 20, 2005)
  • Led the Effort to Inject Religious Employment Discrimination into Head Start: Rep. Boehner added a controversial amendment in September to a previously bipartisan School Readiness Act which would "allow federally funded early-child-care providers to discriminate on religious grounds."
  • Pushed Ohio Schools to Embrace "Intelligent Design:" People For the American Way reports that Rep. Boehner and fellow Ohio Republican Rep. Steve Chabot wrote to the Ohio school board claiming that legislative language required that references to "Intelligent Design" be included in Ohio's science standards. In fact, such language was removed from the relevant education bill before it became final.