WEALTH, INCOME, UNEMPLOYMENT AND TAXES

 

Who owns the wealth in the U.S?  Whose wealth grows at the greatest rate?  Who receives the greatest percentage of U.S income and who has the greatest percentage

of income growth?  Who receives most of the tax cuts and who pays the lowest tax rate?

Who has the lowest unemployment rate?

 

WEALTH—the top 20% of Americans own 85% of America’s wealth. The bottom 80% of Americans own 15% of America’s wealth.

 

WEALTH-- for the top 5 % of Americans from 1983--2010 increased 74.2% while the wealth for the bottom 20% declined 2.6%

 

This is the division and growth of WEALTH during the greatest economic growth in America’s history during the Clinton Presidency 1992-2000 and this is the division and growth of wealth when America suffered its second greatest economic collapse during the George W. Bush Presidency 2001-2009.

 

INCOME –The top 1% OF Americans receive 17.2% of America’s income while the bottom 90% receive 55.5%.

 

INCOME GROWTH—income for the top 1% of Americans from 1979 through 2007 grew on average 275% while income for the bottom 20% grew at 18%, according to a study of the non partisan Congressional Budget Office.

 

INCOME GROWTH---income for the top 400 income earners in America increased on average 392% from 1992-2007.

 

This is the division and growth of  INCOME when  Democrats were in control of Congress  and this is the division and growth of income when Republicans controlled Congress

 

RATIO OF CEO PAY TO WORKER PAY-- In 1970 CEO’S made $25.00 for every $1 the average worker made.  In 2010 CEO pay skyrocketed to $500 for every $1 the average worker made.

 

This wide gap between what a CEO and what a worker is paid depends on only one thing---whether you are the CEO or whether you are the worker.  It is not determined by your race, religion political party or how many hours you work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UNEMPLOYMENT—the gap in the percentage of unemployed based on household income is at the widest level since these records were begun and the lowest household levels are near the unemployment rate for all workers during the Hoover depression.  The following charts were prepared by the Census Bureau:

 

Household income   Unemployment rate

Under $20,000          2011-24.5% -2012-22.6%-2013-21.3%

$20,000-$39,999      2011-12.2%- 2012-11.2%-2013-10.5%

$40,000-$59,999      2011-7.9%-  2012-7.3%-   2013-6.9%

$60,000-$74,999      2011-6.5%-  2012-5.5%-   2013-5.2%

$75,000-$99,999      2011-4.8%-   2012-4.5%-   2013-4.3%

$100,000-$149,999  2011-3.8%-   2012-4.0%-   2013-3.5%

$150,000+                2011-3.2%-   2012-3.0%-   2013-3.2% 

 

TAX CUTS from 2004-2012 after the Bush largest cuts in history for the top 1%  $522,062.00 and for the bottom 20% $1,426.00.

 

TAX RATE PAID--Warren Buffet the second richest man in the U.S with $60 billion in wealth PAYS A TAX RATE OF 11.6%, a rate lower than the rate his secretary pays--Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican Nominee for President after working 15 years has over $250 million in wealth which produces over $20 million in yearly income on which he pays a tax rate of 13.9%

 

Does your personal wealth fall within the 85% or 15% group?

Does your wealth grow at 74.2% or decline at 2.6%?

Does your income grow 275% or 18%?

Is your rate of unemployment 24.5% or 3.2%?

How much did you receive from the Bush tax cut?

How does your wealth and the tax rate you pay compare to the wealth and tax rate of Warren Buffet and Mitt Romney?

 

Name one industrialized country in the world which has a greater inequality of wealth than the U.S.

 

The facts indicate if you are in the top 10% of Americans you will do well financially in times of economic growth or economic disaster.  If you are in the bottom 10% you will not do well in times of economic growth or economic disaster or the rich always get richer and the poor always get poorer.

 

 

 

 

TAXPAYERS COST OF LITIGATING ARKANSAS ABORTION LAWS

 

   In 1958 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Cooper v. Aaron:   “The State of Arkansas could not pass legislation undermining the Court’s May 17, 1954 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education that racial segregation in public schools is unconstitutional.”  For more than 50 years since that ruling the citizens of Arkansas have paid millions of taxpayer dollars in legal expenses litigating the unconstitutional segregation laws passed by the Arkansas legislature.

 

   In 1989 Arkansas taxpayers in all 75 Arkansas counties were ordered by the court to pay $70 million a year to help finance 6 magnet schools in Little Rock.  You do the math –24 years at $70 million a year –the amount Arkansas taxpayers in Cleburne County and the other 74 counties have paid to the Little Rock School District. No one knows when or if this $70 million yearly payment will end.

 

 In 2012 Judge Price Marshall approved an attorney fee of $875,000.00 to civil rights attorney John Walker to be paid by the Pulaski County Special School District.

 

  On March 26, 2012 a three judge panel of the 8^th U.S. Court of Appeals ruled Arkansas taxpayers must pay $69,972.00 to lawyers for the Little Rock School district and $149,417.50 to the civil rights lawyers who had intervened in the case.

 

  The most recent payment in the ongoing Little Rock school desegregation case was on July 23, 2013 when U.S. District Judge Price Marshall ordered taxpayers in the North Little Rock School District to pay attorney John Walker an additional fee of $87,500.00.

 

    In March 2013 the Republican controlled Arkansas Legislature passed Act 301 entitled the “Arkansas Human Heartbeat Protection Act” banning abortions after the 12^th week of pregnancy.  Governor Beebe vetoed the bill because it was in conflict with Roe v. Wade and unconstitutional.  The Republican legislature overrode the Governor’s veto and Act 301 was scheduled to become law August 13, 2013.

 

   The format for Act 301 and 16 other states was prepared by “American United for Life,” a Washington D.C. group.  Daniel McConchie Vice-President of  American United said:  “..we work with legislators to pass laws that will essentially spark the right kind of court challenge.”

 

  Arkansas Act 301 was promptly challenged in court and in May 2013 U.S. District Judge Susan Weber Wright issued a temporary injunction preventing Act 301 from becoming law until she rules on its constitutionality and stated:  “ the law was likely to be declared unconstitutional.”

 

  State abortion laws in Arizona, Oklahoma, Idaho, Iowa and Kentucky have been held unconstitutional.

 

 

  In this great country it is your privilege to support unconstitutional laws on segregation, abortion or any other subject and vote for lawmakers who enact such laws.

 

   Enacting and litigating unconstitutional segregation laws cost Arkansas taxpayers millions of dollars in legal expenses over the past 50 years millions which should have been spent improving the educational system.

 

   Will Arkansas taxpayers repeat the segregation experience and follow Republican lawmakers to federal court and spend millions of taxpayer dollars litigating unconstitutional abortion laws for the next 50 years?

 

    Will 50 years of litigation on abortion bring people on both sides of the abortion issue closer together or will they become more bitter and polarized?

 

   Will 50 years of litigation on abortion have any effect on the number of abortions?

 

   Some people believe “unwanted pregnancies” are the problem not abortion and they further believe society would be better served if we spent our time and millions of taxpayers dollars making pregnancy a “purposeful decision” not a “mistake.”

 

  Americans in 25 years eliminated polio and have made AIDS a treatable disease instead of a death sentence.

 

  If Americans would spend their time and resources reducing the number of “unwanted pregnancies” as they did on eliminating polio and making AIDS a treatable disease we would certainly reduce the number of “unwanted pregnancies” and make abortions unnecessary.

 

  Will Republican make government smaller by spending millions of taxpayer dollars enacting unconstitutional abortion laws and litigating those laws for the next 50 years? Reduce your taxes?

 

  Should the Arkansas legislature make the decision when and under what circumstances an Arkansas woman may exercise her constitutional right to have an abortion or should that be the decision of the woman involved, her doctor and her family?

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ANYTHING I NEED TO DO TO WIN

 

     On August 15, 2013 New Jersey Republican governor Chris Christie appeared before the Republican National Committee summer meeting in Boston and made a speech which  many believe was the announcement of  his candidacy for president in the 2016 Republican primary.

 

   Christie told the RNC “I am going to do ANYTHING I need to do TO WIN.  I think we have some folks who think we have to be college professors.  For our ideas TO WIN we have to govern.  And if we don’t WIN we don’t govern.  There is nothing wrong with our party.  We should focus entirely on the mechanics of electing Republicans.  We are a political operation that wants TO WIN.”.

 

      Steve Munisteri, chairman of the Texas Republican Party summarized Christie’s remarks as follows:  “I took all that to mean, I’m going to run in 2016, and I’ve demonstrated a winning formula. And if you want to WIN and don’t care about ideology, I’m your candidate.”

 

     Many Republicans in the 2012 Republican presidential primary said Mitt Romney “would say anything to WIN,” including Fox News host Bill O’Reilly and GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum.  So Christie’s pledge “to do ANYTHING I need to do TO WIN” is following in Romney’s footsteps—the Republican nominee in 2012.

 

    On August 16, 2013 the Republican National Committee voted unanimously to ban CNN and NBC from participating in the Republican 2016 presidential primary.  Christie went a step further and said “Republicans should not have debates within the party over foreign policy, social issues and legislative tactics.”

 

   If Republicans do not participate in any debates, or only a few, how will voters know the Republican position on the issues?

 

   Christie in a jab at another potential 2016 presidential candidate, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal  said  “I am not going to be one of those people who are going to call our party stupid.  I’m not going to be one of those people who are navel gazing.”

 

     Last month Christie said Rand Paul, another potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate’s, criticism of the government’s surveillance programs was “dangerous and part of an esoteric, intellectual debate.”

 

     Obviously Christie is willing to SAY ANYTHING about his fellow Republicans  needed to WIN.

 

    

 

    Christie said “We have an opportunity as a party to drive a wedge in the union movement.  And the laboratory where that is happening right now is in my state.”

    

     A continuation of the Republican divide and conquer politics of the last 50 years.

 

      Karl Rove, the most successful Republican political consultant for the last 30 years believes Republicans have lost a number of races (such as the Todd Akin race in Missouri and the Richard  Mourdock race in Indiana) “because the wrong candidates were selected.” Rove has formed The Conservative Victory Project which will intensely vet prospective Republican contenders for congressional races to weed out candidates who The Conservative Victory Project believe is too flawed to WIN general elections.

 

     So anyone who wishes to be a candidate in certain Republican races must first pass the Karl Rove WIN test.

 

   Eric Cantor, Republican majority leader in the House revealed why Republicans “will do or say anything to WIN” in this statement: “Look we screwed up when we were in the majority….We fell in love with POWER.”   Yes POWER.

 

   It appears Republicans love of POWER in 2016 will cause them to focus on candidates who will DO ANYTHING they need to do to WIN.

 

   Check closely in 2016 and see if you can find candidates who promise:

“I will do anything I need to do TO reduce the number of people living in poverty, TO reduce the number of unemployed, TO reduce the gap between the wages of workers and CEO’s, TO solve the immigration problem, TO provide adequate health care for all Americans, TO reduce the number of people killed with guns, TO provide for the common good not a select few.

 

  

 

 

 

 

  

 

   PIPELINE REGULATIONS TESTING AND OIL SPILLS

 

    A 22 foot rupture in the Exxon-Mobile Pegasus pipeline near Mayflower, Arkansas on March 29, 2013 sent an estimated 210,000 gallons of thick Canadian crude oil flowing down the streets of Northwoods Subdivision and into a cove of Lake Conway. The Pegasus pipeline is 850 miles long running from Patoka, Illinois to Corscina, Texas. The pipeline was built in 1947-48 by a long defunct Youngstown, Ohio business.

 

    Hurst Metallurgical Laboratories Inc. was employed to examine the Mayflower ruptured pipe and after completing its testing issued a 250 page report in which it determined “hook cracks” more than 13 inches long in the seam of the pipe caused the pipe to rupture.

 

   Prior to the pipeline rupture at Mayflower Exxon had conducted a number of tests to determine if there were defects in the pipeline which might cause the pipe to rupture.

 

   One test was conducted in 2006 after Exxon shut down the Pegasus pipeline  from 2002-2006 and the Federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration required Exxon to test the pipeline for defects.   Exxon used what is called a hydrostatic-pressure check to find defects and The Federal Pipeline Safety Administration released a 160 page report showing that test revealed 12 defects in the pipeline:

 

       Four defects in a 42.75 mile test section under the Oakdale, Illinois station.

       One defect  in a 33.54 mile test section under the Cherokee, Pass, Mo., station.

       One defect in a test section under the Donaphin, Mo., station.

       Two defects in a Glenwood, Arkansas 19.25 mile test section.

       Two defects in a Foreman, Arkansas 34.07 mile test section.

        Two defects occurred at milepost 298.1 and 294.1 in a 15.76 milr test section near Conway, Arkansas

  

      This 2006 test did not indicate any defects in the pipeline in the Mayflower, Arkansas section where the March 29, 2013 rupture occurred.  Exxon said it had repaired the defects revealed in the 2006 test and was allowed to begin using the pipeline in February 2006

 

      In 2010 Exxon ran two inline inspections on the Pegasus pipeline.  One test was to test for metal loss on the entire 850 mile pipeline.  In its 630 page report on this test The Federal Pipeline Safety Administration  said the problem was not confined to one or two pipe segments.  “The seam weld defects and metal loss defects are distributed throughout the pipeline.  Approximately 12% of the total number of spools contain a seam weld defect or a metal loss defect,” the report stated.

      The 120 page report covering tests on the 142.68 miles of pipeline from Doniphan, Mo to Conway, Arkansas revealed five seam weld defects and 5,510 metal loss defects. Of the 5,510 defects seven were “axial orientated seam weld metal loss and were classified as metal loss touching or crossing the seam weld”.  The remaining 5,503 were manufacturing and metal loss features in the pipe’s main body.

 

     According to Karen Tyrone, vice-president of Exxon-Mobile Pipeline an in-line  inspection in February 2013, less than two months before the Mayflower pipeline rupture  “didn’t identify the defects in the Mayflower segment but the results were still being studied.”

 

   In preliminary reports and supporting documents of a $4.5 million three year study by Battelle Memorial Institute of Columbus, Ohio and posted on the web site of Pipeline  Safety Administration 1,840 pipeline accidents /incidents occurred between 2002-2010.

The kind and number are:  Corrosion-- 477, Material/weld—244, Excavation—232, Equipment failure—224,  Natural forces—190, Incorrect operation—106, Other outside forces—104, Pipe seam—75, Other—188.

 

   Republican Congressman Tim Griffin of Little Rock recently told Exxon-Mobile officials, “federal regulations to ensure the integrity of pipelines are not sufficient to detect deficiencies and prevent an oil spill” and Exxon-Mobile should perform additional testing on the 13.5 mile segment which runs through the Lake Maumelle area.

 

   Congressman Griffin for more than a year before the Mayflower pipeline rupture was  advocating construction of the Keystone oil pipeline which would save the Koch brothers $3 billion a year and SPONSORED a bill to force the Obama Administration to approve the Keystone pipeline WITHOUT the environmental review now required by law.

 

  Congressman Griffin has not explained why he supports construction of the Koch brothers Keystone oil pipeline without regulations and why Exxon-Mobile should  conduct MORE testing than regulations require on the Pegasus oil pipeline.  Is it possible the $167,000 campaign contribution Koch brothers made to Congressman Griffin had some effect on his position on oil pipelines?