Showing posts with label destruction of U.S. Middle Class. Show all posts
Showing posts with label destruction of U.S. Middle Class. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Long-term jobless eye bleak future as benefits end
Dec 11, 2011
By Lucia Mutikani
Source: Yahoo News
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - George Parks has been out of work for 21 months and his unemployment benefits will run out at the end of the month.
At 60, he fears his prospects of getting a job are very slim, even though he has a degree in civil engineering and has vast experience in project management.
A similar story is recounted by John Jones, 52, a fellow resident of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Jones lost his teaching job last July as the Pennsylvania state government tried to close a funding shortfall.
Parks and Jones are among the nearly 7 million Americans receiving jobless benefits under seven different state and federal programs. Around a quarter of those will fall off the rolls in January if Congress does not renew an extended benefits program that expires at year end.
Parks' savings are almost exhausted and his house has lost more than 30 percent of its value, making it hard for him to seek job opportunities outside Pennsylvania.
He has tried to market his management skills in manufacturing and the fast-growing field of health care, but has found them already overcrowded.
"It's really getting tight," Parks told Reuters. "The ability to provide is really diminishing and it becomes more the ability to survive."
Parks is collecting $500 a week in unemployment benefits, a far cry from the $80,000 a year he made in his last job as a project manager in architecture and construction.
Although his wife still has her teaching job, they are stretching to cover their monthly expenses, which include a $480 monthly car payment.
Last month, they combined and refinanced their mortgage and home equity loan, lowering their payment to $1,600 a month from $2,175. Gone are the vacations and gym memberships.
"Savings are pretty much gone, we are now into our 401(K) (retirement) money. I haven't bought any clothing in a year and a half; my wife does buy stuff occasionally to be presentable at school," said Parks.
"We have taken no vacations. I just spoke to the gym about volunteering some of my time instead of having to pay for the gym membership."
Jones, who is married and has one child, used to make about $40,000 annually teaching . His wife has an hourly paid job. He declined to say how much he was collecting in unemployment benefits.
"Before I lost my job we could go out and buy extra things for the house. Right now we do not have that option. We have to watch everything that we're spending and buying," said Jones.
That includes foregoing dental check-ups.
"Our savings are about gone and the benefits will be running out fairly soon," Jones added.
BENEFITS RUNNING OUT
The Obama administration estimates that through the course of 2012, about 6 million people would lose federally funded unemployment benefits if Congress does not act.
Currently, federal money ensures that the unemployed receive benefits for up to 99 weeks in states where joblessness is high. Ending the program would mean the newly unemployed would have to rely on state programs that usually last for only 26 weeks.
Extended benefits have been renewed several times as the economy struggled to mount a vigorous recovery from the 2007-09 recession, the worst since the Great Depression.
According to Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project, the average unemployed worker receiving extended benefits gets just $296 a week.
"That represents only 50 percent of the income needed to cover the most basic necessities of food, housing and transportation," she said.
The extended federal benefits have become a target in the fight over budget policy between Republicans and Democrats, and renewal is uncertain. Analysts warn that removing that cushion from the millions of unemployed would dampen the still-fragile economic recovery.
"If the unemployed do not have money to spend, then spending in the economy is going to decline. Providing unemployment benefits is one of the effective ways to create jobs," said Lawrence Mishel, head of the liberal Economic Policy Institute in Washington.
Analysts estimate that not extending benefits for the long-term unemployed could chip away as much 0.3 percentage point from GDP.
NO STIMULUS FROM JOBLESS BENEFITS?
Those opposed to extending the benefits, including the conservative Heritage Foundation, argue that they have failed to stimulate the economy and are instead encouraging recipients to continue seeking jobs that do not exist.
Half the jobs lost during the downturn were in manufacturing and construction. Most of them are not going to be recovered. That is bad news for Brian Krady, another Lancaster County resident, who lost his job in August after 20 years in manufacturing.
Krady, 47, is collecting $500 a week in jobless benefits that will extend for several more months.
The Heritage Foundation says raising benefits to 99 weeks has increased the unemployment rate by 0.5 percentage point.
"People are trying to find jobs similar to what they had previously, when those jobs completely don't exist, so they will spend a good portion of their period unemployed looking for jobs that they are unlikely to find," said James Sherk, a senior policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation.
"The only sound arguments for extended unemployment benefits are humanitarian."
DESPERATE TO WORK
Jones and Parks bristle at the suggestion they are contributing to the high unemployment rate by staying on benefits for a long time.
Both men have been actively looking for work with the help of the PA CareerLink of Lancaster County. The unemployment rate in the county is 6.1 percent, 2-1/2 percentage points below the rate for the nation as a whole.
Jones said he has applied for more than 100 jobs since being laid off, and some of them outside education.
"Most people don't respond. I have gone to visit places, trying to get a job and you can't even get past the front desk," he said. "You can't make a pitch, they just don't want to talk to you. Right now I am looking to work. I don't care what it is in."
Parks believes his age puts him at a disadvantage.
"I believe I run into some age discrimination when I get an opportunity to interview. Things go well into the interview, it sounds like it will progress to the next stage," he said.
"In one case they asked for a background check and they just disappeared. This has happened three times," said Parks. "You can't blame the employer, if they can find somebody younger and cheaper, and there is a glut of employees there, why should they choose to go with an experienced, expensive worker?"
The longer Parks and Jones remain unemployed, the dimmer their prospects of getting a job become as they lose skills and connections.
About 43 percent of the 13.3 million unemployed Americans have been out of work for 27 weeks and more.
"Most of the long-term unemployed are people who had pretty good jobs and these jobs were permanently eliminated," said Harry Holzer, professor of Public Policy at Georgetown University in Washington.
"If they exhaust their benefits ... what are their options?"
Already, the labor force participation rate -- the percentage of working-age Americans either with a job or looking for one -- is at 28-year lows.
While many experts advocate retraining, especially for those who lost their jobs in construction and some sections of manufacturing, Holzer warned that will not necessarily help older unemployed workers like Parks.
"For people who are in their 50s, it's hard to go back and retrain. A 55-year-old with a brand new degree is less attractive than a 25-year-old with the same degree," said Holzer.
Analysts say some of the long-term unemployed could end up settling for lesser-paying jobs, but even those are in short supply. For every one job opening, there are about 4.6 people.
"It means there are simply no jobs available for more than three out of four unemployed workers," said the Economic Policy Institute's Mishel.
"In a given month in today's labor market, the vast majority of the unemployed are not going to find a job no matter what they do." (Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Dan Grebler)
By Lucia Mutikani
Source: Yahoo News
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - George Parks has been out of work for 21 months and his unemployment benefits will run out at the end of the month.
At 60, he fears his prospects of getting a job are very slim, even though he has a degree in civil engineering and has vast experience in project management.
A similar story is recounted by John Jones, 52, a fellow resident of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Jones lost his teaching job last July as the Pennsylvania state government tried to close a funding shortfall.
Parks and Jones are among the nearly 7 million Americans receiving jobless benefits under seven different state and federal programs. Around a quarter of those will fall off the rolls in January if Congress does not renew an extended benefits program that expires at year end.
Parks' savings are almost exhausted and his house has lost more than 30 percent of its value, making it hard for him to seek job opportunities outside Pennsylvania.
He has tried to market his management skills in manufacturing and the fast-growing field of health care, but has found them already overcrowded.
"It's really getting tight," Parks told Reuters. "The ability to provide is really diminishing and it becomes more the ability to survive."
Parks is collecting $500 a week in unemployment benefits, a far cry from the $80,000 a year he made in his last job as a project manager in architecture and construction.
Although his wife still has her teaching job, they are stretching to cover their monthly expenses, which include a $480 monthly car payment.
Last month, they combined and refinanced their mortgage and home equity loan, lowering their payment to $1,600 a month from $2,175. Gone are the vacations and gym memberships.
"Savings are pretty much gone, we are now into our 401(K) (retirement) money. I haven't bought any clothing in a year and a half; my wife does buy stuff occasionally to be presentable at school," said Parks.
"We have taken no vacations. I just spoke to the gym about volunteering some of my time instead of having to pay for the gym membership."
Jones, who is married and has one child, used to make about $40,000 annually teaching . His wife has an hourly paid job. He declined to say how much he was collecting in unemployment benefits.
"Before I lost my job we could go out and buy extra things for the house. Right now we do not have that option. We have to watch everything that we're spending and buying," said Jones.
That includes foregoing dental check-ups.
"Our savings are about gone and the benefits will be running out fairly soon," Jones added.
BENEFITS RUNNING OUT
The Obama administration estimates that through the course of 2012, about 6 million people would lose federally funded unemployment benefits if Congress does not act.
Currently, federal money ensures that the unemployed receive benefits for up to 99 weeks in states where joblessness is high. Ending the program would mean the newly unemployed would have to rely on state programs that usually last for only 26 weeks.
Extended benefits have been renewed several times as the economy struggled to mount a vigorous recovery from the 2007-09 recession, the worst since the Great Depression.
According to Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project, the average unemployed worker receiving extended benefits gets just $296 a week.
"That represents only 50 percent of the income needed to cover the most basic necessities of food, housing and transportation," she said.
The extended federal benefits have become a target in the fight over budget policy between Republicans and Democrats, and renewal is uncertain. Analysts warn that removing that cushion from the millions of unemployed would dampen the still-fragile economic recovery.
"If the unemployed do not have money to spend, then spending in the economy is going to decline. Providing unemployment benefits is one of the effective ways to create jobs," said Lawrence Mishel, head of the liberal Economic Policy Institute in Washington.
Analysts estimate that not extending benefits for the long-term unemployed could chip away as much 0.3 percentage point from GDP.
NO STIMULUS FROM JOBLESS BENEFITS?
Those opposed to extending the benefits, including the conservative Heritage Foundation, argue that they have failed to stimulate the economy and are instead encouraging recipients to continue seeking jobs that do not exist.
Half the jobs lost during the downturn were in manufacturing and construction. Most of them are not going to be recovered. That is bad news for Brian Krady, another Lancaster County resident, who lost his job in August after 20 years in manufacturing.
Krady, 47, is collecting $500 a week in jobless benefits that will extend for several more months.
The Heritage Foundation says raising benefits to 99 weeks has increased the unemployment rate by 0.5 percentage point.
"People are trying to find jobs similar to what they had previously, when those jobs completely don't exist, so they will spend a good portion of their period unemployed looking for jobs that they are unlikely to find," said James Sherk, a senior policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation.
"The only sound arguments for extended unemployment benefits are humanitarian."
DESPERATE TO WORK
Jones and Parks bristle at the suggestion they are contributing to the high unemployment rate by staying on benefits for a long time.
Both men have been actively looking for work with the help of the PA CareerLink of Lancaster County. The unemployment rate in the county is 6.1 percent, 2-1/2 percentage points below the rate for the nation as a whole.
Jones said he has applied for more than 100 jobs since being laid off, and some of them outside education.
"Most people don't respond. I have gone to visit places, trying to get a job and you can't even get past the front desk," he said. "You can't make a pitch, they just don't want to talk to you. Right now I am looking to work. I don't care what it is in."
Parks believes his age puts him at a disadvantage.
"I believe I run into some age discrimination when I get an opportunity to interview. Things go well into the interview, it sounds like it will progress to the next stage," he said.
"In one case they asked for a background check and they just disappeared. This has happened three times," said Parks. "You can't blame the employer, if they can find somebody younger and cheaper, and there is a glut of employees there, why should they choose to go with an experienced, expensive worker?"
The longer Parks and Jones remain unemployed, the dimmer their prospects of getting a job become as they lose skills and connections.
About 43 percent of the 13.3 million unemployed Americans have been out of work for 27 weeks and more.
"Most of the long-term unemployed are people who had pretty good jobs and these jobs were permanently eliminated," said Harry Holzer, professor of Public Policy at Georgetown University in Washington.
"If they exhaust their benefits ... what are their options?"
Already, the labor force participation rate -- the percentage of working-age Americans either with a job or looking for one -- is at 28-year lows.
While many experts advocate retraining, especially for those who lost their jobs in construction and some sections of manufacturing, Holzer warned that will not necessarily help older unemployed workers like Parks.
"For people who are in their 50s, it's hard to go back and retrain. A 55-year-old with a brand new degree is less attractive than a 25-year-old with the same degree," said Holzer.
Analysts say some of the long-term unemployed could end up settling for lesser-paying jobs, but even those are in short supply. For every one job opening, there are about 4.6 people.
"It means there are simply no jobs available for more than three out of four unemployed workers," said the Economic Policy Institute's Mishel.
"In a given month in today's labor market, the vast majority of the unemployed are not going to find a job no matter what they do." (Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Dan Grebler)
Saturday, September 10, 2011
EPA declares hay a pollutant in effort to drive small, mid-sized family cattle ranchers out of business
September 09, 2011
by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
Source: Natural News
(NaturalNews) The assault against American industry and individual livelihood continues -- and no, it is not coming from Al-Qaeda or other foreign terrorists. A recent report from R-CALF USA, an advocacy group for American cattle producers, says the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has declared harmless cattle hay a "pollutant," which is part of the agency's agenda to squelch family-scale cattle ranches in favor of corporately-owned, mega-sized feedlot operations.
At the recent 12th Annual R-CALF USA Convention in Rapid City, SD, an audience member asked Mike Callicrate, a Kansas cattle feeder, if the EPA had, indeed, declared hay a pollutant. His affirmative answer was startling to many, but not necessarily surprising in light of the US government's apparent agenda to destroy every single producing sector in the nation and to reduce the country to a poverty-stricken, corporately-dominated wasteland.
"Now that EPA has declared hay a pollutant, every farmer and rancher that stores hay, or that leaves a broken hay bale in the field, is potentially violating EPA rules and subject to an EPA enforcement action," responded Callicrate. "How far are we going to let this agency go before we stand up and do something about it?"
Callicrate currently operates what is considered a mid-sized cattle ranch, and was ostracized by some of the nation's largest beef packers back in 1998 for exposing their illegitimate buying practices. Callicrate ended up having to cease operations for two years, but later reopened as a direct marketer of meat to consumers.
"I believe the EPA's enforcement action is a premeditated effort by EPA to partner with the beef packers to finish the job the beef packers couldn't do alone," added Callicrate, referring to EPA's failure to enforce the same rules for large meat packers like JBS-Brazil and Cargill (the two largest beef packing operations in the country).
Between 2008 and 2010, 45 small to mid-sized family cattle operations were forced out of business, according to R-CALF USA. During the same time, the nation's largest feedlots expanded their operations, and now own and feed roughly 25 percent of the nation's cattle.
"EPA is turning a blind eye toward the mega-feedlots that are a real risk for pollution and, instead, is antagonizing small to mid-sized family operations in an effort to help their packer-partners capture the entire live cattle supply chain away from family farm and ranch operations."
Sources for this story include:
http://r-calfusa.com/news_releases/...
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/033537_hay_pollutant.html#ixzz1XZnOZi37
by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
Source: Natural News
(NaturalNews) The assault against American industry and individual livelihood continues -- and no, it is not coming from Al-Qaeda or other foreign terrorists. A recent report from R-CALF USA, an advocacy group for American cattle producers, says the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has declared harmless cattle hay a "pollutant," which is part of the agency's agenda to squelch family-scale cattle ranches in favor of corporately-owned, mega-sized feedlot operations.
At the recent 12th Annual R-CALF USA Convention in Rapid City, SD, an audience member asked Mike Callicrate, a Kansas cattle feeder, if the EPA had, indeed, declared hay a pollutant. His affirmative answer was startling to many, but not necessarily surprising in light of the US government's apparent agenda to destroy every single producing sector in the nation and to reduce the country to a poverty-stricken, corporately-dominated wasteland.
"Now that EPA has declared hay a pollutant, every farmer and rancher that stores hay, or that leaves a broken hay bale in the field, is potentially violating EPA rules and subject to an EPA enforcement action," responded Callicrate. "How far are we going to let this agency go before we stand up and do something about it?"
Callicrate currently operates what is considered a mid-sized cattle ranch, and was ostracized by some of the nation's largest beef packers back in 1998 for exposing their illegitimate buying practices. Callicrate ended up having to cease operations for two years, but later reopened as a direct marketer of meat to consumers.
"I believe the EPA's enforcement action is a premeditated effort by EPA to partner with the beef packers to finish the job the beef packers couldn't do alone," added Callicrate, referring to EPA's failure to enforce the same rules for large meat packers like JBS-Brazil and Cargill (the two largest beef packing operations in the country).
Between 2008 and 2010, 45 small to mid-sized family cattle operations were forced out of business, according to R-CALF USA. During the same time, the nation's largest feedlots expanded their operations, and now own and feed roughly 25 percent of the nation's cattle.
"EPA is turning a blind eye toward the mega-feedlots that are a real risk for pollution and, instead, is antagonizing small to mid-sized family operations in an effort to help their packer-partners capture the entire live cattle supply chain away from family farm and ranch operations."
Sources for this story include:
http://r-calfusa.com/news_releases/...
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/033537_hay_pollutant.html#ixzz1XZnOZi37
Sunday, July 10, 2011
On the News With Thom Hartmann: Brzezinski Warns Wealth Gap May Lead to Uprising in US Streets, and More
7 July 2011
by: Thom Hartmann
The Thom Hartmann Program | News Report
Source:truth-out
Thom Hartmann here – on the news…
You need to know this. President Obama is summoning Congressional leaders to the White House today for another round of debt-limit negotiations and he’s advised Republicans to “check their ultimatums at the door.” The President is trying to pitch a $4 trillion deficit reduction package over the next 10 years – that slashes away at programs mostly affecting the working class and even cuts up the social safety net in America – trimming $400 billion from Medicare and Medicaid. All of these tough cuts will be in exchange for closing a few tax loopholes for corporations, millionaires, and billionaire. Ultimately, President Obama’s deal is heavy on spending cuts, light on tax hikes. But don’t expect Republicans to like the deal – they’d rather crash the Americans economy than see tax rates for their millionaire and billionaire campaign donors go up a measly 3% - to where they were under Bill Clinton when we had a budget surplus and created 23 million jobs. Right now – government revenue in America is at a 60-year-low – and Republicans are refusing to acknowledge that our government is going broke because of 3 decades of Reagan’s “starve the beast” economics and an army of corporate lobbyists that have blown holes in the tax code. We don’t have a spending problem in America – we have a revenue problem – and a debt-limit deal needs to focus on this reality. Roll back the Reagan tax cuts – and make billionaires hedge fund managers on Wall Street - who pay less in taxes than their janitor – cough up their fair share like the rest of us. That’s what shared sacrifice looks like.
Workers in Wisconsin are screwed…what else is new? Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is transforming the workforce in his state. Not only did Walker bust up public unions – but also he took away their power to declare certain jobs around the state as “union-only work” – meaning the state can now bring in private employees willing to work for less money and less benefits – creating a race-to-the-bottom in the labor force. And Walker has already hit rock bottom in that race. Since Walker’s new law went into effect – Racine County in Wisconsin has called up prison inmates who work for no money and no benefits to do work that unions used to do like landscaping and maintenance around the county. I guess this is Walker’s idea of deficit reduction – employing free prison slave labor. Let’s hope Congressional Republicans don’t get any ideas from their hero in Wisconsin.
In the best of the rest of the news…
The National Bureau of Economic Research has released a report that shows just how important Medicaid is to the well-being of our nation. The study found that individuals on Medicaid were 35% more likely to see a doctor and 15% more likely to have access to prescription drugs. Also – Medicaid recipients were 30% more likely to be admitted into a hospital – and women on Medicaid were 60% more likely to seek preventative care like mammograms. With better access to the healthcare system thanks to Medicaid – individuals were 25% more likely to say their health was in excellent conditions. Despite all that though – Republicans in Congress as well as Republican Governors around the country are trying to dismantle Medicaid. The idea that a government program is actually improving the lives of millions makes them sick.
Is wealth inequality in America hurdling our nation toward civil unrest? In a television interview this morning – former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski warned that the growing wealth imbalance in America – now reaching levels not seen since the Great Depression – could lead to civil unrest in the streets. As the middle-class in America falls deeper and deeper into desperation – Brzezisnki said, “we’re going to slide into intensified social conflicts, social hostility, some forms of radicalism, there is just going to be a sense that this is not a just society.” We have a society in which 400 Americans own more wealth that 150 million other Americans. We have a society in which 50% of all the children in America will depend on food stamps at some point in their life before they are 18 – and among African American children that number is 90%. We no longer live in a just society - and if Brzezinski is right - turbulent times could be ahead for America.
No more rewards for bad behavior. Federal regulators at the FDIC approved a new plan yesterday that holds Wall Street CEOs accountable if they run their banks into the ground. Under the new authority given to the FDIC – federal regulators can take back those fat paychecks to CEOs in the event that their bank collapsed and needs to be liquidated. Back in 2008 – we saw over and over again – corporate executive running from the wreckage of their failing banks with their pockets filled to the brim in bonus cash. But this new policy by the FDIC ensures that the executives who screwed their corporation and their shareholders with risky gambling – now have to go down with the ship.
Is Rupert Murdoch’s media empire crumbling? As a phone-hacking scandal that British Prime Minister David Cameron described as “absolutely disgusting” threatens to take down Murdoch’s News of the World tabloid in the UK - NewsCorp’s shares are plummeting and British lawmakers are calling for a crackdown on Murdoch’s many media holdings in the country. With the turmoil overseas – Murdoch is focusing on his detractors here in the states – namely MediaMatters – the non-profit media watchdog. Over the last ten days – Murdoch’s Fox so-called News has run over 30 segments attacking MediaMatters – and is mobilizing viewers to flood the IRS with petitions to strip MediaMatters of their non-profit tax-exempt status. The British have had enough with Murdoch’s perversion of the media – and sensing the United States might be turning on him too – Murdoch is going after the truth-tellers like MediaMatters. I sense desperation…
And that’s the way it is today – Thursday, July 7th, 2011. I’m Thom Hartmann – on the news.
by: Thom Hartmann
The Thom Hartmann Program | News Report
Source:truth-out
Thom Hartmann here – on the news…
You need to know this. President Obama is summoning Congressional leaders to the White House today for another round of debt-limit negotiations and he’s advised Republicans to “check their ultimatums at the door.” The President is trying to pitch a $4 trillion deficit reduction package over the next 10 years – that slashes away at programs mostly affecting the working class and even cuts up the social safety net in America – trimming $400 billion from Medicare and Medicaid. All of these tough cuts will be in exchange for closing a few tax loopholes for corporations, millionaires, and billionaire. Ultimately, President Obama’s deal is heavy on spending cuts, light on tax hikes. But don’t expect Republicans to like the deal – they’d rather crash the Americans economy than see tax rates for their millionaire and billionaire campaign donors go up a measly 3% - to where they were under Bill Clinton when we had a budget surplus and created 23 million jobs. Right now – government revenue in America is at a 60-year-low – and Republicans are refusing to acknowledge that our government is going broke because of 3 decades of Reagan’s “starve the beast” economics and an army of corporate lobbyists that have blown holes in the tax code. We don’t have a spending problem in America – we have a revenue problem – and a debt-limit deal needs to focus on this reality. Roll back the Reagan tax cuts – and make billionaires hedge fund managers on Wall Street - who pay less in taxes than their janitor – cough up their fair share like the rest of us. That’s what shared sacrifice looks like.
Workers in Wisconsin are screwed…what else is new? Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is transforming the workforce in his state. Not only did Walker bust up public unions – but also he took away their power to declare certain jobs around the state as “union-only work” – meaning the state can now bring in private employees willing to work for less money and less benefits – creating a race-to-the-bottom in the labor force. And Walker has already hit rock bottom in that race. Since Walker’s new law went into effect – Racine County in Wisconsin has called up prison inmates who work for no money and no benefits to do work that unions used to do like landscaping and maintenance around the county. I guess this is Walker’s idea of deficit reduction – employing free prison slave labor. Let’s hope Congressional Republicans don’t get any ideas from their hero in Wisconsin.
In the best of the rest of the news…
The National Bureau of Economic Research has released a report that shows just how important Medicaid is to the well-being of our nation. The study found that individuals on Medicaid were 35% more likely to see a doctor and 15% more likely to have access to prescription drugs. Also – Medicaid recipients were 30% more likely to be admitted into a hospital – and women on Medicaid were 60% more likely to seek preventative care like mammograms. With better access to the healthcare system thanks to Medicaid – individuals were 25% more likely to say their health was in excellent conditions. Despite all that though – Republicans in Congress as well as Republican Governors around the country are trying to dismantle Medicaid. The idea that a government program is actually improving the lives of millions makes them sick.
Is wealth inequality in America hurdling our nation toward civil unrest? In a television interview this morning – former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski warned that the growing wealth imbalance in America – now reaching levels not seen since the Great Depression – could lead to civil unrest in the streets. As the middle-class in America falls deeper and deeper into desperation – Brzezisnki said, “we’re going to slide into intensified social conflicts, social hostility, some forms of radicalism, there is just going to be a sense that this is not a just society.” We have a society in which 400 Americans own more wealth that 150 million other Americans. We have a society in which 50% of all the children in America will depend on food stamps at some point in their life before they are 18 – and among African American children that number is 90%. We no longer live in a just society - and if Brzezinski is right - turbulent times could be ahead for America.
No more rewards for bad behavior. Federal regulators at the FDIC approved a new plan yesterday that holds Wall Street CEOs accountable if they run their banks into the ground. Under the new authority given to the FDIC – federal regulators can take back those fat paychecks to CEOs in the event that their bank collapsed and needs to be liquidated. Back in 2008 – we saw over and over again – corporate executive running from the wreckage of their failing banks with their pockets filled to the brim in bonus cash. But this new policy by the FDIC ensures that the executives who screwed their corporation and their shareholders with risky gambling – now have to go down with the ship.
Is Rupert Murdoch’s media empire crumbling? As a phone-hacking scandal that British Prime Minister David Cameron described as “absolutely disgusting” threatens to take down Murdoch’s News of the World tabloid in the UK - NewsCorp’s shares are plummeting and British lawmakers are calling for a crackdown on Murdoch’s many media holdings in the country. With the turmoil overseas – Murdoch is focusing on his detractors here in the states – namely MediaMatters – the non-profit media watchdog. Over the last ten days – Murdoch’s Fox so-called News has run over 30 segments attacking MediaMatters – and is mobilizing viewers to flood the IRS with petitions to strip MediaMatters of their non-profit tax-exempt status. The British have had enough with Murdoch’s perversion of the media – and sensing the United States might be turning on him too – Murdoch is going after the truth-tellers like MediaMatters. I sense desperation…
And that’s the way it is today – Thursday, July 7th, 2011. I’m Thom Hartmann – on the news.
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