What is more important, our Freedoms or continuing to allow the richest Americans to ruin our country?
Since the Reagan administration we have been getting screwed by the richest people and corporations starting with trickle down economics. The bigotry party is giving tax breaks to the wealthy and slowing taking our Freedoms away! Citizens United has pretty much taken over Congress.
Big corporations have taken control of mainstream media. The anti diversity party has taken away a women’s right of choice. Our Freedoms are on the chopping block!
To listen to some of these not conservative views from this loud minority like MTG who wants to shut down the government and impeach our president without any evidence hoping some evidence will appear after they start an inquiry. Or Vivek Ramaswamy who said he would deport children of immigrants who were born here!
On the same day the House returned, Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced that he’ll direct the chamber to open an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
A loud minority of the GOP (Gaga Over Putin) party is Corrupt and the rest of the Republicans are complicit. Russia’s president Vladimir Putin defended Trump, saying that his prosecutions show that the United States is fundamentally corrupt. Putin has created a lot of our dissent by interfering in our elections! He is Pure Evil!
Liz Cheney recently said “Putin has now officially endorsed the Putin-wing of the Republican Party. Putin Republicans & their enablers will end up on the ash heap of history. Patriotic Americans in both parties who believe in the values of liberal democracy will make sure of it.”
The Constitutional patriots in the Republican Party have to stand up against these power seeking Putineers now or their legacies will be forever tainted!
Not only is it a moral choice, the child tax credit would stimulate the economy. As Kennedy said, “a rising tide lifts all boats,” that investing in economic development can benefit everyone who participates in the economy. Even yacht owning oligharchs should be able to grasp that.
President Joe Biden has said more recently: “We’ve lost sight of what President Kennedy told us when he said, “A rising tide lifts all boats.” And when we lift each other up, we’re all lifted up. You know, and the corollary is true as well: When any one of us is held down, we’re all held back. More and more economic studies in recent years have proven this, but I don’t think you need economic studies to see the truth.”
Republicans do not want the rising tide. They want a country where everyone must pick themselves up by their bootstraps without any government assistance. No public schools, no public safety net, no public heathcare and no minimum wage.
Republicans want a country where if anything negative happens to you, it's just tough luck and hate to be you. If you don't like it, move to another country where the government will take care of you.
The so called administrative state exists because someone or some corporation did something harmful, destructive and/or fatal. This includes activities that led to the aforementioned actions. i.e. Glass-Steagall removal was a major factor leading to the 2008 banking crisis and great recession.
If this ever came to be, our country's population will be split between the wealthy and the incarcerated. Hyperbole? Perhaps, but not too far off.
I used to think that Republicans want everyone to "pick themselves up by their own bootstraps"; then I got confused. Supposedly, these same people are voting for trump because they feel abandoned, forgotten, ignored, and don't get help. If everyone is supposed to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, then why are they complaining when they don't get help? Light finally dawned: they want help but no one else should get help.
I've also noticed that Republicans do everything in their power to destroy bootstraps, even the bootstraps of their own people. Again, confusion: if you want people to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, then why are you destroying things like public education which creates many kinds of bootstraps for many kinds of people?
They fix prices, profiteer, limit the competition.
When Republicans were in power, they "privatized" many agencies, in essencre stealing taxpayer money.
For me the worst aspect is that they either permit or are conmplicit with foreign interests that undermine our economy. The OPEC/Saudi/Russia cartel manpulates energy production, causing world wide inflations. Saudis own our largest oil refinery, control companies like Exxon. This is a national security issue.
Some of them want us to lose and Putin is their ally.
So what makes our country so strong that we can stumble and get back up? I am thinking if there are such things as children in poverty, massive homeless and breaks for the wealthy where corporations rule how does that mean we are strong? Define strong.
Thanks, Barbara, for shedding light on the point that Republicans are destroying the "bootstraps," in which you include public education. I would also include Social Security, into which every worker pays while working and they deserve to get it when they retire!
Omg I thought I was reading something my Republican sister wrote; and when she told me all of above years ago, I thought she is only repeating propaganda. She said she pulled herself up by her own bootstraps to a degree in teaching kindergartners for two decades in California. I reminded her she went to public school and attended a California state higher university, and all her life she had access to public libraries. Received monetary educational assistance (to be paid back). Yes, she had no help from our parents as we were poor. She did it on her own working partime. She forgot to consider how much government help she received. I told her leave it to the Republicans to bring us to the Stone Age.
No Republican thinks the got help from the "common good." I like to ask them what road they personally built; what street lights they personally put up/put on/shut off; what water treatment plant did they build or wells did they dig? Public schools, public colleges, public transportation, postal service - yep, they did it all themselves alone! LOL!
@David. I agree. As to why, just one example will say enough. Republicans do not want a rising tide because this raises the cost of labor. Right on down the list of yours, you can easily see why Republicans oppose any kind of safety net for people.
And, their wealth is not earned income so the wealthier they get the less relative tax they pay. They don't spend much of it on consumer goods, so they don't pay sales tax at the same level as the poor. Overall they contribute very little to the human needs of the true producers of a strong economy.
@ Laura. I don't think I said the rich suffer? But in a moral way, in the way of common good that Reich teaches, everyone is society is brought lower when any of our fellows are brought lower. An example, when the trash is not collected in NY City, the rich folks smell trash too...
Right. And I heard from that same sister I spoke of in an earlier reply told me on her defense she pulled herself up by her own bootstraps; that whatever riches came to the 1% it was good and theirs, because they had earned it.
I would say that this is what you get from a political party controlled by individuals who are too out-of-touch with their constituents and far too cozy with their donors; members of Congress who are wealthy, attended elite schools, and built elite networks.
"Even yacht owning oligharchs should be able to grasp that." If they weren't so drunk on their wealth and celebrity, maybe. They don't want a rising tide, how can they feel so great if others don't suffer?
Fay, you are so on the mark about the rich and powerful not wanting anyone else to rise or they won't feel as "special" or whatever it is they feel. What I don't understand is why we let people like that hold any kind of office or run our lives the way they do. They have too much money, too little empathy, and feel too important for their and our own good.
You are correct Ruth, and I don't understand either. I "blame' the 70's and 80's fascination and love for wealth and celebrity, but I admit I don't know if that is true. I do know that somewhere along the line we lost our esteem of the ethical, the honest, and critical thinkers, in favor of the rich and famous.
Fay, the truly sad and disturbing part for me is how little money does to make a person more caring, loving, kind, or any of the things that would help improve lives. We've had philanthropists over the years, but whatever they do so often must have their name on it. When their giving actually starts helping make a positive difference, they cut it and move on to something else. Bill Gates did that when the scholarships they established to help disadvantaged students were actually helping get more students into college, proving it really is poverty that keeps people down, not laziness or any of the other things usually blamed, the scholarships were cut from around a thousand a year to only a very few. Six of my students won the scholarships when they were plentiful. Later many of my students couldn't afford to go to college because so much money had dried up. Those later students were no less talented and deserving, but the rich guy moved on to something, I guess, that gave him more recognition than scholarships to advance students' education. Rich mostly white folks control our Congress, our courts and our economy yet have so little to offer. I don't get the fascination and the ridiculous belief a lot of people have that they are going to be rich some day. Maybe if they didn't believe that, they could concentrate more of their positive energy on making things better right where they are.
Great thoughts, Ruth. It is a shame that other ultra wealthy people didn't pick up the scholarships when Gates dropped them. Bill Gates now seems to be concentrating on Africa and India and is giving much needed health care and business assistance to women and children there. I don't know why he dropped the scholarships here, but Biden is working on free education in public universities and colleges through a BA so that should help IF, Joe Biden is re-elected. We all know Trump cares nothing about ordinary Americans and being a dummy himself cares even less about education.
And, most of CTC spending has about an 8:1 ROI in the local economy. It is spent to pay for local daycare, local small businesses and even when it is spent at Walmart it employs local workers. I can't think of a better investment of my tax dollars.
No, a rising tide does not lift all boats, if we have a bought and paid for government that firmly anchors the bottom 99% while their masters, corporations, are given golden rubber duckies.
Yes, child poverty in America is shameful and I agree
Daniel, a child tax credit would stimulate the economy. What I foresee because of the continued
movement of money to corporations and the 1%,
is a tipping point when people can no longer afford to buy what corporations are selling.
It’s not a difficult concept, much like your & Prof. Reich’s observation about the child tax credit, it should be obvious. I’ve also pointed out that what made us a wealthy nation was our upwardly mobile middle class, which is no longer upwardly mobile.
We need government intervention to avoid the tipping point when people can no longer afford to buy what corporations are selling. Like the Clayton Act. which in part bans certain discriminatory prices, services, and allowances in dealings between sellers.
I keep reminding that Republicans barred Biden from bringing actions for price fixing and price gouging but some states can do it.
IMHO all of the add ons and gouging relates to Trump setting long term energy limitayions, to the benefit of OPEC/Saudi/Russia and to the detriment of US economy. I'd sue the bastards for recouped losses, damages and take over the entire cabal. Prices would drop like a rock.
More importantly our national security would be improved radically.
people in the middle & bottom income brackets will
be forced to make sacrifices. That, in turn, will destabilize the economy and affect national security.
(not in a good way) Plus, the deterioration of the middle & bottom income brackets & the hoarding of money by the few will take place as catastrophic climate change disasters happen closer together.
Higher prices are because of the need to pay CEOs and shareholders ever-increasing profits, and they do so at the expense of the consumer. Follow the money. Corporate profits are up in all sectors, while consumers continue to pay higher prices. Joe Biden is not causing or profiting from that, and the GOP is not letting him try to fix the problem either.
Sarah, yes, and Republicans do whine so much about the debt being so high when they are generally the ones causing it. It is simply beyond comprehension that even the media let them get away with that nonsense. Why don't We the People demand more and vote for better?
Todays WSJ covered how much of the Aug inflation number is the direct result of fuel costs. That doesn't mean that owners of private jets are getting hit harder to fly.
Look to the top execs at those companies raking in personal profits at everyone else’s expense. Have you shared your sentiments at shareholder meetings?
Economic policies take from one to three years to permeate through the economy. A good example is the Trump tax scam. The revenue shortfall is not felt until the end of the following tax year when the money runs short, which is two year later. So, who was setting economic policy two year before 2022?
The lag causes uninformed voters to blame the wrong leaders, which is why we yo-yo between parties. It took Biden most of his first term to undo some of the damage Trump did, and those changes have not all taken effect even now. The infrastructure work is just getting started.
By the way, the stock market is a glorified casino where you bet on tomorrow's value of a company, and that perceived value has little relationship with the intrinsic (or liquidation) value of a company. When you buy on 20% margin, you magnify the effects of market swings by a factor of 5 on top of the effects of investor panics and optimism. The portability of the IRA was the bait to switch us from the stability of company pensions to the lottery tickets of the stock market. We can't go back now because corporate raiders found loopholes to raid the pension funds as the bankrupt companies.
Selective memory again. The S&P 500 is up over 14% so far in 2023 after falling 19% in 2022, and the Nasdaq (. IXIC) is up 29% year-to-date.Feds raised rates....but unemployment down. Overall outperformed Trump and deficit was cut in half.
Your higher prices are caused by "greedflation", not true inflation. And Joe is busy fighting that as well in the courts. He is bringing suit against google and Amazon right now, but we don't hear enough about it in the media. That is the fault of democrats. They should be shouting it from the rooftops. You must be invested in the wrong type of stock or in mutual funds if your 401k is taking a beating because the stock market is up.. I am complaining that I can't buy because I would be buying too high.
Mary Ellen, there are a lot of Democrats trying to shout from the rooftops and everywhere else, but alas, the media is finding an escaped convict, Little Kebby's shenanigans in the House, Biden's age, Republican brinksmanship, and Trump and Kump's future court appearances far more important and more colorful. Greedflation does not hold the same kind of tension as the rest of what is in the news. That is not the fault of Democrats. When Dems finally do break through, people see it as just nitpicking and dismiss it. So many Americans, for some reason just can't make themselves believe their beloved rich people would do something like gouge prices when people are still coming out of a pandemic that did enormous, but easily dismissed damage to our nation.
Yes, you are — what a useless response. Zero substance to posts with data and background.
Your 401[K] value is not data. It’s a data point, and it has no context or substance as to why or how or how long or what forces and policies are acting upon it.
And your response above is the equivalent of children arguing “Yes, it is!” — “No, it’s not!”
See what Cory Booker says on this child poverty reversal: https://youtu.be/AK7qfKuM9Bw?si=967DnM2rsRSfmwzs. The 401 K remark was to the post I was reading. who complained that his 401k was losing money. Mine was too when it was in mutual funds. I took it out but have not been buying because stocks keep going up.
Your hero and a lot of a-holes like you told people to sell the markets short because the economy would tank. Did all they could do to make it happen. Guess what? More profits than ever.
Re inflation. Coupon clippers, people who live on bonds, universally Republicans CRAVE higher interest rates and inflation and that's what the Fed, controlled by oligharchs, does for them.
1. The 10% stock market gains under Biden may not be as great as the 50% increase under Trump, but the increases under Biden are *on top of* the performance under Trump. Your portfolio should still be better off today than it was at any time under Trump.
2. People invest retirement funds in the stock market because it generally goes up over the long-term. The only presidential administrations in the past century that saw negative stock market returns were George W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, Richard Nixon, and Herbert Hoover. Research shows stock market returns tend to improve under Democratic administrations, but with a sample of only 18 presidents over 100 years, it's not statistically significant. Presidents just don't have much effect on the market. There is, in fact, a more statistically significant correlation between the market and the music we listen to than who the President is.
3. Your 401K is a long-term investment and doesn't need to perform over a short 4 year time period like Presidents must. What matters is how it does over 15, 20, or 30 years, not how it did under Trump vs. Biden.
This can be filed under, if you need to explain, you already lost the political argument. You are absolutely correct John. Unfortunately, this is a hill of beans to the great unwashed whose leanings are motivated by short and simple headlines and talking points.
Keith Olson; When (or if) Fani Willis can get this big RICO case successfully prosecuted, it would be Truly GREAT to see those in Congress who voted against certifying President Biden's win REMOVED from their seats , along with Senate 'republican' MAGA sycophants!
I especially want that Maggot Traitor Goon gone, i am sick of her loud mouth and her stupid, ignorant, bossy attitude and her deluded demands that none of us want. She is a horrific embarrassment to the United States and the State of Georgia.
Think of what we all call 'classy' and you remember Jackie Kennedy & others who remain people we like to point to as role models for children to admire, and then think of who represents the opposite mode - MTG fills that slot - perfectly ! It amazes me that she appears to have zero shame that she is seen the way she is ! TACKY - TOTALLY TACKY with Boobert following along behind.
TACKY, you said the magic and correct description of that hag, MTG. And believe it or not, i watched a clip of those nuts that stormed the infamous, ''Area 51'' and there was a woman that looked almost exactly like MTG on there. Same hair, same putrid face, but the woman on there was quite a bit thinner than MTG. Lauren Boobert is just as despicable as she is.
Trey Crowder (The Liberal Redneck) has a hilarious short YouTube video on Boebert and her recent escapades at the play in Denver, and mentions MTG in it as well. I'd encourage all to watch it. In it he says "I'm of the Whiskey Tango [he means white trash] persuasion myself, and I know another Trash Monster when I see one." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIcqkzVN6Dw&t=164s
vcragain, Greene is truly a mess. I can think of nothing positive that can be said about her, so I won't. I heard someone say "Greene gives 'trailor trash' a bad name."
Fay Reid; Yes, if there is a way to follow the law, they could at least be called out on violating their oaths of office. If tfg is disqualified to run for office, why can't those who supported an insurrection? Why can't those who voted against even a debate on voting rights!? What good is a solemn oath that is a joke?
If children born here to immigrant parents are to be deported, then Ramaswamy needs to be the first one out. His parents are immigrants from India. What hypocrisy!
Jenn, the challenge is, ?Ramaswamy will never see that he is talking about himself because somehow, he has come to believe he is above the crap he says and the policies he favors. That proves his ignorance and unworthiness to be in charge of anything, but he is rich or says he is, and that probably won't matter. The same beliefs surround the very rich in general and lack of empathy or appreciation for anyone but themselves won't matter for Musk, Murdoch, Zuckerburg, Bezos, and so many others. Ramaswamy wants to be one of them and is working pretty hard at it.
Government has never been the employer of last resort but if, as happened to me, you need information or an answer from an actual person in order to make a decision you shouldn’t have to listen to (per my experience 31+ minutes) elevator music trying to get hold of a human being in social security before giving up and hanging up in despair.
Comments are nice. Like Mr. Reich says it's a feel good thing to rant. But I didn't get a reply yesterday to - what actions are you signing up for democracy today. These changes do not happen unless we show up.
I'm signed up for a Dems organizing meeting this week. What are you going?
PS) I'll amend this - when we show up in person or via internet for zooms, or phone calls. For anything progressive. Then we can take Mr. Reich's words and research and put them into tangible results. I'm quite fed up with the gop running us into the ground and I'm afraid also - to mandate going to their church - brainwashing women into giving up their rights - etc.
I made a similar comment on a different forum. I am older and on disability so I'm limited in some activities, such as protests, but even I can support existing organizations financially through small dollar donations, send out postcards and emails, and make phone calls. There are few excuse not to be involved, and since it appears that our politicians aren't going to do anything, we must be the guardians of democracy and protectors of our children.
Janet Adam's; " The Dems' huh? Who do you think we are? And more important : who are you? When you refer to the left by calling them "The Dems" , it isn't friendly. Seems unfriendly. Or just clueless.
Since when? I am a left wing progressive, and use Dem(s) all the time. It's short for Democratic Party, of which I am a member. If you find it offensive, then so be it, but I can assure you that that's not the consensus.
Sep 14, 2023·edited Sep 14, 2023Liked by Robert Reich
I support Inequality Media Civics Action and other progressive things when I can afford it. At 72 I am still running a small business.. I won't be marching in Washington any time soon though. I post to this forum which is read by some progressive people who may see an idea they can use in more expansive media forums, even TV!
I absolutely agree and would only add that our corrupted Supreme Court allowed this by giving corporations the right to political expression, which has come to mean the right to buy politicians.
So True and SO Sad. Will these “officials” have the courage to ACT like strong, patriotic Americans or just frightened lemmings not seeing the huge cliff they’re running toward.
Keith, thanks for the comment. I suspect Putin loves the fact that we have so much poverty because he can justify to himself keeping so many of his own people in poverty. His poor folks, though are too scared to speak up and they have few who will stand up for them. We at least have a significant number of people who try to champion impoverished Americans. They are standing against a huge amount of money directed at not only keeping people poor, but working to make their poverty more intense and long-lasting through high interest rates, payday lenders, sales taxes on critical items, and so much more. Attempts made to help, like the monthly payments made a huge difference for so many families, but Republicans and a few Democrats, saw that help as helping the lazy and taking from the rich who actually somehow earned everything they have (and they believe that BS). They are rarely challenged because the media does not want the rich to feel bad or something. It really is disgraceful!
Wow somehow Robert left out this is all Trumps fault. Next best thing to blaming Trump is blaming every Republican and anyone else that does not tow the progressive agenda
It’s the long term/end result of Reagan policies. My republican, not pro union and anti union, parents could see where Reagan’s anti union policies would take us. If the parents’ wages are suppressed over decades…
'Leftie' ; there have been teachers unions, air traffic controllers unions, barber unions, nursing unions, restaurant unions and many many more that were not manufacturing unions. You could do more research before posting, too.
Leftie FC : Reagan decided to tax Social Security. There were a 'bumper crop' of Baby boomers who were adversely affected who figured in to the increase in poverty rates even before 2022. BTW, if you are a Reagan defender, what are you doing here? Just curious.
Who decided that retired Public Employees should be subject to the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP). I only get about 40% of the SS I earn before Medicare is withheld. Not all state government workers are paid what elected officials and their appointed staff are paid, so our PERS is not always even above the poverty level.
I can't buy the arguments that are made today by you (and are made so often by so many) that "we" have chosen various things—in this case to impoverish huge proportions of the U.S. population. I did not do this. Yes, I ignorantly voted for Bill Clinton, who then betrayed me by undermining and destroying much of what I had believed was "our" U.S. government (the programs and policies of FDR and also of LBJ). But I did not "do" those things.
I did not choose to undermine the University of California and make it into an institution that is available only to the wealthy or to others by incurring huge debt at huge rates of interest. I did not choose to make Community Colleges (which were called Junior Colleges when I was young) expensive—they were tuition-free when I was young, and I wanted them to stay that way.
The Democratic Party was taken over by so-called "New Democrat" types who might as well have been Ronald Reagan Republicans.
I didn't want that and I don't want it now. I support Biden because he appears to me to be trying to move the Democratic Party back to being the champion of the people, not of the banks and financiers. That's what I want and support.
Yes. Many of us did not choose and disliked the changes harming workers that we see. Yet, maybe by remaining passive as these changes arose, we colluded with the forces that undermined the quality of civic and workers life. NAFTA etc. We were fuzzy in our commitment to workers. Insuring un-negotiable safe working conditions and fair wages for workers versus (rapacious corporate intentions to conquer) global economic dominance seems the core choice. An either-or forced choice. The corporate version propagandizes if corporate wins, everyone wins. Workers too. Not so. Starbucks. An alternative is this. "One such reform is co-determination, workers on company boards. In Sweden, Norway and Denmark it is mandatory for companies over a certain size to have board members elected by the employees....Co-determination allows unions to have a say in company affairs such as pay structure, profit allocation and general management. It helps increase wages for workers, can reduce the risk of outsourcing and often shift companies to taking a more long term and sustainable approach to profit maximization. Companies also benefit from co-determination as it is proven to have numerous other benefits, such as boosting productivity....One aspect of co-determination that could lead to a changing role of unions is that they then have a role in running the company as well as representing workers directly. This could be extended in their bargaining tactics. While unions usually bargain for wage increases or lower hours another aim could be profit-sharing initiatives or share distribution to workers".(mutualinterest.coop)
And the choice is obvious. Biden by a country mile, in a landslide, a walkover, grand slam, a no brainer. For a democracy to survive, politicians and voters must honor the rule of law as contained in our Constitution. That requires they have character, intellect, morals, and integrity. The difference is starkly apparent. Night (darkness, criminality, evil) and day (sunshine, honesty, democracy) measure the infinite chasm between the two choices. Biden and democracy, must and will, prevail.
Problem is always the striving for perfection and when they don't get that some Dem voters get so disillusioned they start dissing their own ! Biden can only do SOME of what he wants to do, not all of it, he will get stymied by several hundred other pols always looking out for their own best position, and that must be pretty hard, so to get any big program thru that process is an amazing accomplishment. Thank you Joe is my reaction - he is a good man, not a saint, but the best for the moment.
“That requires they have character, intellect, morals, and integrity.” Read the excerpt of the upcoming book based on Mitt Romney’s experience of the U.S. Senate. Disagree as I do with Romney’s politics, what he exposes in the vast majority of today’s elected officials is the total opposite of character, intellect, morals, and integrity. If half of our elected officials had the integrity of Mitt Romney, politics aside, our democracy would function as conceived in our constitution.
Character, intellect, morals, and integrity matter; Trump and the representatives and senators who support him lack these essentials.
As Edgar, in his guise as poor Tom in King Lear, or Demetrius, in A Midsummer Nights Dream, either by illness or by spell, both are found delusional. Perhaps the delusions found in the anti-democratic crowd can be attributed as well thusly, and their ghastly danger to our freedoms, democracy, and Nation, more clearly observed, understood, and defeated. “The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.” W.C. “Three things cannot be long hidden, the sun, the moon, and the truth.” Buddha.
Jennifer B. S. ; President Biden Supports Unions , Students who need debt relief, women who need medical care, building infrastructure, and generally speaking out against monopoly power and pushing for taxes on the rich. Supports the Constitution and the rule of law.
We all have a right to our own OPINION; however it seems you much prefer to dwell on the potential negatives as opposed to the postitive things that Biden has accomplished. It is said that the perfect is the enemy of the good...
My own opinion is that I'd would have preferred to have a more progressive person in the presidency, but Biden has done pretty well considering the huge dumpster fire that tffg left for him to manage. If the Yapping Yam becomes the R nominee, I'll vote for Biden with enthusiasm. If Yammie wins...then 2024 will almost certainly be the last chance you'll have to freely vote for your own choice.
Jennifer, did you consider America's 20 year long war on Iraq and Afghanistan warmongering? Did you agree with Biden's decision to pull us out of Afrghanistan? I'm not asking about HOW Biden did it, I'm asking if you agreed with his decision to get us out.
What are your views on Taiwan? And what are your views on China's Belts and Roads Initiative (BRI)? Does the Polar leg of BRI worry you?
The Child tax credit was Great 👍 the failure to continue it abysmal . Yet many want to stop abortions but don’t want to pay families to support children.
Having children was the greatest thing I ever did but also the most expensive .
Any tax credit program should fund children tax credit first before all other tax credits.
Being married to a first time pregnant wife was enough for me ; I was drinking a case of beer, and a bottle of scotch every week until the last month when I told her to knock it off or the child would be born fatherless because my liver quit right before she was born.
I'm convinced that they are saboteurs, planted in the Party by RepubliCons. If that's too far fetched and too conspiratorial, I'll settle for the two of them being greedy narcissists who seem committed to undermining Biden at every turn, largely for their personal benefit.
Indeed they did--I'd purely over to see both of them primaried by a REAL Democrat. Unfortunately that is unlikely to happen in the case of Manchin. However, Sinema may get her treacherous butt kicked by Ruben Gallego. I certainly hope so.
I wholeheartedly support expanding the Child Tax Credit as a top priority, but we need to continue to pursue policies that "fix" our economy so there are enough good paying jobs and economic opportunities that people don't need tax credits to be lifted out of poverty! Too many benefits flow to the wealthy rather than those who truly need it.
Never had children, but am happy to have my tax dollars help those who did. (Although I might want to make MAGA parents ineligible without proof that they don't indoctrinate their offspring with the cult view.)
You know, I find it very hard to rationalize the republicans against abortion and what they call killing babies with abolishing the Child Tax Credit that leaves our children impoverished. It absolutely makes no sense! Why in the world would these politicians decide to eliminate the one thing that was working to reduce child poverty? It was working for our children!! The two simply do not relate! They have screamed and hollered until they finally got the Supreme Court to do away with Roe V Wade saying that women had to have children no matter if it was due to rape, incest or health situations. They say they are doing it for the children yet they are willing to let millions of our children live in poverty. It is deplorable!! I retired from teaching and I know how hard it is for children to be able to concentrate when their little bellies are grumbling due to hunger. I always kept snacks (apples, raisins, crackers, etc.) for children that were hungry. I also made sure my students were able to eat at lunch. I am so saddened, sickened, and embarrassed that our country chooses to let our children live in poverty.
Well, DINO Manchin and DINO Sinema seemed to think that those families with children who live below the poverty level, who are struggling to keep a roof over their heads and a minimal amount of food on the table for their kids are using that small monthly check to buy drugs. Manchin--who drives a Maserati, btw--wants to add work requirements to the Child Tax Credit Act. As though most of those struggling families aren't also struggling to juggle two or three jobs. MAnchin and Sinema DISGUST me.
You’re not alone, Peggy. Hang in there. If there’s any justice to be had in this world, we should begin to receive some over the next 16 months. Courts plus election. Uncertainty breeds fear. We must remain strong in our convictions. We can do this.
Why is it that in the "richest" country in the world are both children and senior citizens living in poverty? It's all because the wealthy people don't give a damn..children well that's someone's else's concern but now due to the mentality of the Republicans you now will have those babies...so what it's not my problem! With seniors who worked out entire lives are barely getting by as once again they in Washington want to cut Social Security and Medicare, don't want to get lower drug process for seniors...the bottom line again is everything in the United States comes to GREED....as I've heard my entire life.." the rich keep getting richer, poor keep getting poorer, and the two will never meet" only in America are children and seniors disposable...
9 million children at 300 dollars per month would add $32.4 billion to the budget. The F-35 fighter jet, designed to kill, is estimated to cost $1.7 trillion by the GAO. Divide that out and the F-35 budget covers over 50 years of the child poverty program. Extremely expensive death dealing versus 50 years of 9 million healthier children. Which do you support? If politics were rational that sounds like a good campaign sound bite. Unfortunately rationality left the airport a while ago and we are left with Joe Manchin, Matt Gaetz, MTG, ...
Most of our country’s problems are policy choices. We choose to give corporations and the extremely wealthy enormous tax breaks, then, out of the other side of their mouth’s, our politicians lament how much we are spending on welfare, while the truth is that the tax breaks are far larger than anything one might call welfare. We choose to have a political system that allows legalized bribery and depriving people of equal representation via voter suppression, the representation scheme of the Senate, the filibuster, and partisan gerrymandering. We choose to squander enormous wealth on “defense” while we fail to educate the children of parents who can’t afford private education. We choose to have a medical system that shortens our lifespans, denies medical care to the poor, and bankrupts many. We choose to allow banks and fake universities to profit from high-interest loans we foist upon our students then burden with unaffordable payments.
Our policies are always a choice and we are making many short-sighted choices that are harming us and the future of our country. Of course, I know I’m preaching to the choir.
I agree. That’s why we need to change the system so that what people want is more important than what politicians or wealthy donors (including corporations) want. Until that happens, everything else is rearranging the deck chairs as our country sinks.
I agree with you and definitely think the DNC is in thrall to the so-called "neo-liberal" Democratic Leadership Council (DLC, defiantly right-center) and could usefully move to the left. However the Repubbies have moved so far to the right that they have become the very definition of fascist. Centrist the R's are not.
By “we” I mean the results that our political system, with all its built in flaws, yields. I don’t believe that our current political system yields the decisions that most of us (voting age citizens) want, but, of course, I can’t prove that.
Here's one effect of great wealth redistribution to the 1%. Port Royal, in Naples FL, is about 45 minutes south of my home.
Some wealthy Port Royal landowners have so much money, they don't know what to do with it all. One investor purchased and demolished a $22.5M luxury home and built a new, multi-million dollar home on the same lot BECAUSE HE COULD. Some Port Royal homes are occupied a mere two weeks a year, and multi-million dollar teardowns and rebuilds are said to be frequent in Port Royal.
As beautiful as the house was, I think most of the $22.5M value was in its location. Also, being a non-elevated beachfront home, probably built to pre-hurricane building codes, I suspect it was very expensive to insure (assuming it was even insurable). The home would have been totally destroyed if a major hurricane hit, which was most certain to happen. So replacing it probably made sense to the owner. Still, IMHO he has more money than brains!
We afre in the midst of a dilemna here in Baghdad By the Sea. South Beach once had a moratorium on building so that owners couldn't improve their own properties, After the moratorium was lifted, the art deco disstrict was designated as a historical area. Top height was 50 feet.
DeSantis and the right wing state legislature passed a Florida’s Live Local Act, which allows developers who set aside 40% of units for affordable or workforce housing to build as tall as local regulations allow within one mile of their projects.
The Clevelander hotel sits in the middle of the art deco district. Developers from Canada want to build a 30-story tower to replace it and adjacent Essex House hotel. The proposal includes a ground-floor restaurant and residential building featuring a mix of market-rate condos and workforce rentals — a plan that local politicians and residents have quickly decried as destroying the Art Deco character of Ocean Drive, where building heights are limited to 50 feet.
What do we want? Low cost housing or history?
Meanwhile, this is another example where DeSantis displaces local authority with top down Fascism. Obviously he is obliged to developers. Low income housing is probably a ruse. .
We have the highest rents and the smallest market for low income tenants in the US.
Is this what they mean by trickle down economics? Rich guy buys another rich guy's house. The real estate agent gets a big commission. New owner tears it down. Mike's Wrecking makes a lot of money. The city gets permit fees. Architect gets a fee. Chalushous Home Builders and contractors get paid to build the new one. Jorge snd Jose get paid non-union wages. But they get paid. The city gets paid for building permits. So trickle down does work sort of. Then the hurricane flattens it, or at least floods it. Will the owner ask FEMA for money? Kiddos, it's not that the uber-rich don't spend some of it. But they dole it out like soup by the ladle, in ways that keep bottom tier earners fed for the day but unable to accumulate enough to rise up the food chain. Wealth taxes would not prevent oligarchs from building palaces or buying yachts or bathing in caviar. But it would provide Jorge and Jose's kids day care, excellent education and healthcare and homes above the flood line.
You are right o Dr Reich, I was employed for over thirty five years assisting financially deprived persons/families. We had the most effective program during the pandemic but it was allowed to die by republicans and two so called democrats. Why, they want families on the edge so their corporate masters can hire at the lowest possible cost to maintain a huge profit. It is inhumane. Children cannot learn while they are hungry.
Couple this with the multiple ways our tax code favors corporations with the effect many multi bullion in profit do not pay federal tax or if they do at a rate lower than working families.
The total amount and rate of poverty in the U.S. is, of course, an aggregate of the rates across all fifty states, red and blue. But not all poverty is created equal.
In red states, particularly the Southeast, poverty, and lower incomes are, not surprisingly, a consequence of Republican governance BUT, not an UNINTENDED consequence.
Because prices for most goods and services tend to rise only as high as the majority of the likely consumers of those goods and services are able and/or willing to pay, it is in the interests of the politicians who control the economies of these states to keep as many people possible poor or in the lower-middle class, because surrounding the rich — whose interests Republicans so tirelessly serve in return for financial rewards down the road — with poor people increases not only the real and perceived disparities between the two economic classes, but, tangibly, their actual buying power because the basic goods and services that the poor and other lower-income people consume also serve as the raw materials and building blocks of the luxury goods and services that the rich consume.
We’ve always known that conservatives, promoters of a patriarchal society and foes of abortion, want to keep women barefoot and pregnant, but you can add to that that they want to keep practically everybody else poor.
Daniel Solomon ; all of those ; "culture" hate, peer pressure etc. are dictated by our media ; most of which misinform and push ideas that most of us do not need.
Also, i have read where some of these dedicated TUMP followers have let their children go hungry so they could ''Donate'' to the sleazy SOB Donald TUMP. If that isn't a total disgrace, i don't know what is. My ex-wife's sister is one of them, except she will do without household necessities to donate to him. She is looney as it gets when it comes to TUMP and will burst out crying when someone is very critical of TUMP. She even has a sign at her home that says, '' I AM A SUPER MAGA''
Which simply confirms the view that for a lot of these MAGA people they belong to a cult - trump owns their brains ! If/when trump- dies they will likely start churches dedicated to his worship - that is how far 'gone' they are !
"She will do without household necessities...." In most states if a person harms herself or the kids like that, she can be committed for a mental evaluation.
When I was first practicing, people like that were fodder for "Child Welfare."
Her two sons live with her, but they are grown and as far as i know neither one of them has a job. One of her sons is mentally challenged, or mentally ill and my ex wife lives there with them now and has to buy groceries and other needs while her sister keeps sending money to the Orange blob of lard. I have tried time and again to get my ex-wife to come back and live with us at our house. My daughter and youngest grandson and my oldest son lives with me. We never have to do without here, we have everything we need and are doing well. However, my ex-wife continues to complain about living with her sister when i have consistently offered her to come back to me and not have to put up with her deluded and gullible sister, but she refuses to do so for some mysterious unknown reason. My ex never has explained to me why she left in the first place. Donald TUMP has ruined countless citizens lives with his despicable behavior. I have never hated a person in my entire life like i hate him.
There are actually churches in my area that have a big picture of TUMP hanging next to a picture of Jesus Christ. These people in my area are very dedicated TUMP cult members, i no longer speak to any of them as they actually do worship that creep. I read where some TUMP cult members pray to TUMP like a normal person would pray to God. ''Oh please, my lord TUMP, keep me and my family safe, and my lord TUMP, watch over us while we travel or go to work'' that is just how beholden they are to that Orange blob of lard. Looney Tunes to the extreme!
Avie Hern ; If you want to evaluate the greatness of a society, look at how the women are treated. The status of mothers affects the status of their children. Women comprise a majority of citizens in our country, and all races/faiths. Poverty and it's twin ; ignorance, ultimately govern our future unless remedied/eliminated.
Reviewing Prof R's presentation, and going back and looking up tge details of the IRA child tax credits and emergency funds, I am astonished at how little it cost to get 9 million kids above the drowning line. For the whole country LESS than one hostile corporate take over! OMG what a bargain!
Another very timely and important message from Robert Reich. As usual, he's in the zone, saying the right things at the right time in the right way. (I wish more of us knew how to do that, myself especially.)
I grok your heavy-handed and righteous hint, Robert: We've got a serious problem, and we can fix it. Yes, we can, but we're up against (1) pure meanness and (2) ignorance -- oceans too wide to cross, mountains too high to climb.
Pure meanness cannot and will not be changed by appeals to humanity, mercy, kindness, or generosity. That's trying to fit a square peg into a round hole; mean people are unreachable, Ebenezer Scrooges before the three ghosts visited them.
I learned of an intellectual mask for meanness just yesterday: Right-wing thought leaders fervently believe in the "unsustainable crisis that is the entitlement state," i.e., government aid is the ultimate dead-end, because we can't afford it and because people become permanently dependent, lazy, thus dragging down the nation and everyone in it. Sounds reasonable, eh?
According to this mindset, we just can't help our neighbor; such tactics can't work; therefore, they must stand on their own two feet, these poor people, who are with us always -- unless forced to overcome their problems. Sure, they'll do a little suffering, but that pain will drive them to grab the golden ring of independence, Emerson's vaunted goal of self-reliance, perhaps the loftiest American value, rugged individualism. Just give a man a bottle of water and a sharp stick, and if he's worth his salt, he'll discover how to support himself and live the good life. Just stand back and watch the magic work.
Yeah, that's a theory, a hypothesis, a fantasy. Most humans need a lot of help getting out of the hole they're born in and staying out of it. Most rich people today inherited their wealth; they did not earn it, the Walton family, the richest in the world, are a prime example of such. The Trump kids, the Kennedy kids and grandkids, and the Rockefeller kids are others in that grouping.
And regarding ignorance: Most Americans believe that the federal budget is just like their household's, or at least the same as a corporation's or a state and local government's, all of which must balance their budgets and not spend, for very long, money they don't have and aren't going to get in all probability, i.e., they can't live forever, or even very long, on credit.
Fortunately, the federal government finds itself in a unique and powerful position: It can levy taxes, set interest rates, and print money, a fiat currency, in our case. Those capabilities are game-changers. The federal government, like no other entity, can help people who need it, which in turn helps the nation itself, thus making generosity or welfare a wise and effective policy. A conclusion that no believer in monetarism will ever trust or support. And they honestly think that they are correct; it's just the way of the world, how finances work.
That conclusion is wrong, painfully wrong. We now know better; the full story, an explanation of how big money really works, can be found in Modern Monetary Theory, a bright light at the end of the macroeconomic tunnel. If interested, and I hope you are, a good place to start is with Dr. Stephanie Kelton's "The Deficit Myth." And you can find many free YouTube videos by numerous MMT economists explaining the new insights that MMT has discovered. Or just go to Wikipedia for references.
Thanks as always, Robert, for your stimulating ideas and messaging. You clear things up and point the way to a better America.
Amen to that!!! Being just above the poverty line or close to it, I am struggling daily to meet my expenses, have gas for transportation, and food to eat. It is demoralizing to say the least!! I was under the mistaken belief that I would be okay with my social security and my retirement. That is a fool's dream, I know that now. My heart hurts for those that cannot afford to pay their bills or provide enough food for their family!
What do they care about the suffering of others? It's a very common human attitude to maintain that life is all about me. A foundational goal of most religions is to love ye one another, a goal rarely achieved.
For some reason I don't understand, Chuck Schumer insisted we needed Manchin and Sinema, despite the fact that on all really important legislation they refused to back President Biden. Manchin has always backed the fossil fuels industry (of which he is an owner - coal) and Sinema is a bimbo like Sarah Palin, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert. The only decent thing she has done is admitting she is not really a Democrat, but even that was flawed, she didn't make the announcement until after she won another term. You are correct, Professor, in a nation as wealthy as ours it is a huge stain to have so many people unhoused, underfed, and so poorly educated. We should hang our heads in shame.
What defines the US as "the richest country in the world?" Another interesting statistic might be where in the world the US lies in income inequality. Does it really matter to the bottom 50%, who may struggle to meet an emergency $400 bill, that they live in the Richest Country in the World??
Have they no decency? It seems we have many Joe McCarthy’s in congress these days. Their children are not affected by these men and women who vote against children of lesser means. Fools, indeed.
In FACT, Congress should have DOUBLED that child tax credit, not cut it! $500/mo should be where it sits! Social Security should be doubled (or TRIPLED), because we are facing a Republican demand to cut it! And it is these same IDIOT conservatives that want to eventually eliminate ALL private retirement plans. Republicans want (they are demanding) us to work till we die. It is up to US, the working folks who BUILT AMERICA, to force our will on this MINORITY of skinflint rich, spoiled conservatives. But we have to GET LOUD! We have to show OUR POWER!
To All Americans. It’s time to choose.
What is more important, our Freedoms or continuing to allow the richest Americans to ruin our country?
Since the Reagan administration we have been getting screwed by the richest people and corporations starting with trickle down economics. The bigotry party is giving tax breaks to the wealthy and slowing taking our Freedoms away! Citizens United has pretty much taken over Congress.
Big corporations have taken control of mainstream media. The anti diversity party has taken away a women’s right of choice. Our Freedoms are on the chopping block!
To listen to some of these not conservative views from this loud minority like MTG who wants to shut down the government and impeach our president without any evidence hoping some evidence will appear after they start an inquiry. Or Vivek Ramaswamy who said he would deport children of immigrants who were born here!
On the same day the House returned, Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced that he’ll direct the chamber to open an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
A loud minority of the GOP (Gaga Over Putin) party is Corrupt and the rest of the Republicans are complicit. Russia’s president Vladimir Putin defended Trump, saying that his prosecutions show that the United States is fundamentally corrupt. Putin has created a lot of our dissent by interfering in our elections! He is Pure Evil!
Liz Cheney recently said “Putin has now officially endorsed the Putin-wing of the Republican Party. Putin Republicans & their enablers will end up on the ash heap of history. Patriotic Americans in both parties who believe in the values of liberal democracy will make sure of it.”
The Constitutional patriots in the Republican Party have to stand up against these power seeking Putineers now or their legacies will be forever tainted!
At the same time, even right wing Republicans have to admit that "somehow our economy is among the strongest in the world. Our economic competitors stumble and fall; we stumble, and somehow bounce back.." https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/07/opinion/economy-china-america-decline.html
Not only is it a moral choice, the child tax credit would stimulate the economy. As Kennedy said, “a rising tide lifts all boats,” that investing in economic development can benefit everyone who participates in the economy. Even yacht owning oligharchs should be able to grasp that.
President Joe Biden has said more recently: “We’ve lost sight of what President Kennedy told us when he said, “A rising tide lifts all boats.” And when we lift each other up, we’re all lifted up. You know, and the corollary is true as well: When any one of us is held down, we’re all held back. More and more economic studies in recent years have proven this, but I don’t think you need economic studies to see the truth.”
Republicans do not want the rising tide. They want a country where everyone must pick themselves up by their bootstraps without any government assistance. No public schools, no public safety net, no public heathcare and no minimum wage.
Republicans want a country where if anything negative happens to you, it's just tough luck and hate to be you. If you don't like it, move to another country where the government will take care of you.
The so called administrative state exists because someone or some corporation did something harmful, destructive and/or fatal. This includes activities that led to the aforementioned actions. i.e. Glass-Steagall removal was a major factor leading to the 2008 banking crisis and great recession.
If this ever came to be, our country's population will be split between the wealthy and the incarcerated. Hyperbole? Perhaps, but not too far off.
I used to think that Republicans want everyone to "pick themselves up by their own bootstraps"; then I got confused. Supposedly, these same people are voting for trump because they feel abandoned, forgotten, ignored, and don't get help. If everyone is supposed to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, then why are they complaining when they don't get help? Light finally dawned: they want help but no one else should get help.
I've also noticed that Republicans do everything in their power to destroy bootstraps, even the bootstraps of their own people. Again, confusion: if you want people to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, then why are you destroying things like public education which creates many kinds of bootstraps for many kinds of people?
They fix prices, profiteer, limit the competition.
When Republicans were in power, they "privatized" many agencies, in essencre stealing taxpayer money.
For me the worst aspect is that they either permit or are conmplicit with foreign interests that undermine our economy. The OPEC/Saudi/Russia cartel manpulates energy production, causing world wide inflations. Saudis own our largest oil refinery, control companies like Exxon. This is a national security issue.
Some of them want us to lose and Putin is their ally.
So what makes our country so strong that we can stumble and get back up? I am thinking if there are such things as children in poverty, massive homeless and breaks for the wealthy where corporations rule how does that mean we are strong? Define strong.
Thanks, Barbara, for shedding light on the point that Republicans are destroying the "bootstraps," in which you include public education. I would also include Social Security, into which every worker pays while working and they deserve to get it when they retire!
Omg I thought I was reading something my Republican sister wrote; and when she told me all of above years ago, I thought she is only repeating propaganda. She said she pulled herself up by her own bootstraps to a degree in teaching kindergartners for two decades in California. I reminded her she went to public school and attended a California state higher university, and all her life she had access to public libraries. Received monetary educational assistance (to be paid back). Yes, she had no help from our parents as we were poor. She did it on her own working partime. She forgot to consider how much government help she received. I told her leave it to the Republicans to bring us to the Stone Age.
No Republican thinks the got help from the "common good." I like to ask them what road they personally built; what street lights they personally put up/put on/shut off; what water treatment plant did they build or wells did they dig? Public schools, public colleges, public transportation, postal service - yep, they did it all themselves alone! LOL!
That’s what I mean- we would be back into Stone Age living. Thanks for your elaboration on public services we all enjoy.
@David. I agree. As to why, just one example will say enough. Republicans do not want a rising tide because this raises the cost of labor. Right on down the list of yours, you can easily see why Republicans oppose any kind of safety net for people.
It's not true that the rich suffer when we increase poverty, they grow richer and richer regardless.
And, their wealth is not earned income so the wealthier they get the less relative tax they pay. They don't spend much of it on consumer goods, so they don't pay sales tax at the same level as the poor. Overall they contribute very little to the human needs of the true producers of a strong economy.
@ Laura. I don't think I said the rich suffer? But in a moral way, in the way of common good that Reich teaches, everyone is society is brought lower when any of our fellows are brought lower. An example, when the trash is not collected in NY City, the rich folks smell trash too...
Right. And I heard from that same sister I spoke of in an earlier reply told me on her defense she pulled herself up by her own bootstraps; that whatever riches came to the 1% it was good and theirs, because they had earned it.
This is what you get when you have a political party controlled by individuals with well-oiled brains and hearts of coal.
I would say that this is what you get from a political party controlled by individuals who are too out-of-touch with their constituents and far too cozy with their donors; members of Congress who are wealthy, attended elite schools, and built elite networks.
@ Victor. LOLOLOLOLOLOL
"Even yacht owning oligharchs should be able to grasp that." If they weren't so drunk on their wealth and celebrity, maybe. They don't want a rising tide, how can they feel so great if others don't suffer?
Fay, you are so on the mark about the rich and powerful not wanting anyone else to rise or they won't feel as "special" or whatever it is they feel. What I don't understand is why we let people like that hold any kind of office or run our lives the way they do. They have too much money, too little empathy, and feel too important for their and our own good.
You are correct Ruth, and I don't understand either. I "blame' the 70's and 80's fascination and love for wealth and celebrity, but I admit I don't know if that is true. I do know that somewhere along the line we lost our esteem of the ethical, the honest, and critical thinkers, in favor of the rich and famous.
Fay, the truly sad and disturbing part for me is how little money does to make a person more caring, loving, kind, or any of the things that would help improve lives. We've had philanthropists over the years, but whatever they do so often must have their name on it. When their giving actually starts helping make a positive difference, they cut it and move on to something else. Bill Gates did that when the scholarships they established to help disadvantaged students were actually helping get more students into college, proving it really is poverty that keeps people down, not laziness or any of the other things usually blamed, the scholarships were cut from around a thousand a year to only a very few. Six of my students won the scholarships when they were plentiful. Later many of my students couldn't afford to go to college because so much money had dried up. Those later students were no less talented and deserving, but the rich guy moved on to something, I guess, that gave him more recognition than scholarships to advance students' education. Rich mostly white folks control our Congress, our courts and our economy yet have so little to offer. I don't get the fascination and the ridiculous belief a lot of people have that they are going to be rich some day. Maybe if they didn't believe that, they could concentrate more of their positive energy on making things better right where they are.
Great thoughts, Ruth. It is a shame that other ultra wealthy people didn't pick up the scholarships when Gates dropped them. Bill Gates now seems to be concentrating on Africa and India and is giving much needed health care and business assistance to women and children there. I don't know why he dropped the scholarships here, but Biden is working on free education in public universities and colleges through a BA so that should help IF, Joe Biden is re-elected. We all know Trump cares nothing about ordinary Americans and being a dummy himself cares even less about education.
This is so sad but so true!
That’s the Sickness they’ve chosen -
We recovered with less vigor since Reagan.
And, most of CTC spending has about an 8:1 ROI in the local economy. It is spent to pay for local daycare, local small businesses and even when it is spent at Walmart it employs local workers. I can't think of a better investment of my tax dollars.
"Our" economy is indeed doing very well. Unfortunately it's tipped towards the top 0.1%.
No, a rising tide does not lift all boats, if we have a bought and paid for government that firmly anchors the bottom 99% while their masters, corporations, are given golden rubber duckies.
Bad analogy. Safety net for about 15% of the general population.
Yes, child poverty in America is shameful and I agree
Daniel, a child tax credit would stimulate the economy. What I foresee because of the continued
movement of money to corporations and the 1%,
is a tipping point when people can no longer afford to buy what corporations are selling.
It’s not a difficult concept, much like your & Prof. Reich’s observation about the child tax credit, it should be obvious. I’ve also pointed out that what made us a wealthy nation was our upwardly mobile middle class, which is no longer upwardly mobile.
I’m baffled. Are Americans that dumb, or are we
that greedy?
We need government intervention to avoid the tipping point when people can no longer afford to buy what corporations are selling. Like the Clayton Act. which in part bans certain discriminatory prices, services, and allowances in dealings between sellers.
I keep reminding that Republicans barred Biden from bringing actions for price fixing and price gouging but some states can do it.
IMHO all of the add ons and gouging relates to Trump setting long term energy limitayions, to the benefit of OPEC/Saudi/Russia and to the detriment of US economy. I'd sue the bastards for recouped losses, damages and take over the entire cabal. Prices would drop like a rock.
More importantly our national security would be improved radically.
Right--the accumulation of money at the top means
people in the middle & bottom income brackets will
be forced to make sacrifices. That, in turn, will destabilize the economy and affect national security.
(not in a good way) Plus, the deterioration of the middle & bottom income brackets & the hoarding of money by the few will take place as catastrophic climate change disasters happen closer together.
What we need to be doing is working together to
prepare a “climate disaster-proof” economy that
will enhance national security rather than
destabilize it.
Higher prices are because of the need to pay CEOs and shareholders ever-increasing profits, and they do so at the expense of the consumer. Follow the money. Corporate profits are up in all sectors, while consumers continue to pay higher prices. Joe Biden is not causing or profiting from that, and the GOP is not letting him try to fix the problem either.
Sarah, yes, and Republicans do whine so much about the debt being so high when they are generally the ones causing it. It is simply beyond comprehension that even the media let them get away with that nonsense. Why don't We the People demand more and vote for better?
Todays WSJ covered how much of the Aug inflation number is the direct result of fuel costs. That doesn't mean that owners of private jets are getting hit harder to fly.
Look to the top execs at those companies raking in personal profits at everyone else’s expense. Have you shared your sentiments at shareholder meetings?
I can't afford to buy stocks.
I can't afford a new pair of ankle socks.
Yes, I agree that you r post is as you say.
Mine is doing perfectly fine.
I also know why groceries are cruelty beyond the means of young families and fixed income households.
It’s not Joe Biden
I’m too late to the game - it’s literally the opposite of what that troll said. Fidelity reports retirement accounts have risen!
https://newsroom.fidelity.com/pressreleases/fidelity--q1-2023-retirement-analysis--despite-economic-challenges--retirement-account-balances-cont/s/3086190f-5ed1-4c54-b7c8-d1ce72445804
Economic policies take from one to three years to permeate through the economy. A good example is the Trump tax scam. The revenue shortfall is not felt until the end of the following tax year when the money runs short, which is two year later. So, who was setting economic policy two year before 2022?
The lag causes uninformed voters to blame the wrong leaders, which is why we yo-yo between parties. It took Biden most of his first term to undo some of the damage Trump did, and those changes have not all taken effect even now. The infrastructure work is just getting started.
By the way, the stock market is a glorified casino where you bet on tomorrow's value of a company, and that perceived value has little relationship with the intrinsic (or liquidation) value of a company. When you buy on 20% margin, you magnify the effects of market swings by a factor of 5 on top of the effects of investor panics and optimism. The portability of the IRA was the bait to switch us from the stability of company pensions to the lottery tickets of the stock market. We can't go back now because corporate raiders found loopholes to raid the pension funds as the bankrupt companies.
Selective memory again. The S&P 500 is up over 14% so far in 2023 after falling 19% in 2022, and the Nasdaq (. IXIC) is up 29% year-to-date.Feds raised rates....but unemployment down. Overall outperformed Trump and deficit was cut in half.
Your higher prices are caused by "greedflation", not true inflation. And Joe is busy fighting that as well in the courts. He is bringing suit against google and Amazon right now, but we don't hear enough about it in the media. That is the fault of democrats. They should be shouting it from the rooftops. You must be invested in the wrong type of stock or in mutual funds if your 401k is taking a beating because the stock market is up.. I am complaining that I can't buy because I would be buying too high.
Mary Ellen, there are a lot of Democrats trying to shout from the rooftops and everywhere else, but alas, the media is finding an escaped convict, Little Kebby's shenanigans in the House, Biden's age, Republican brinksmanship, and Trump and Kump's future court appearances far more important and more colorful. Greedflation does not hold the same kind of tension as the rest of what is in the news. That is not the fault of Democrats. When Dems finally do break through, people see it as just nitpicking and dismiss it. So many Americans, for some reason just can't make themselves believe their beloved rich people would do something like gouge prices when people are still coming out of a pandemic that did enormous, but easily dismissed damage to our nation.
Mmmmm, the psychology of group wrong-think if strong among these….
Yes, you are — what a useless response. Zero substance to posts with data and background.
Your 401[K] value is not data. It’s a data point, and it has no context or substance as to why or how or how long or what forces and policies are acting upon it.
And your response above is the equivalent of children arguing “Yes, it is!” — “No, it’s not!”
That’s not fact checking; that’s BS.
See what Cory Booker says on this child poverty reversal: https://youtu.be/AK7qfKuM9Bw?si=967DnM2rsRSfmwzs. The 401 K remark was to the post I was reading. who complained that his 401k was losing money. Mine was too when it was in mutual funds. I took it out but have not been buying because stocks keep going up.
Your hero and a lot of a-holes like you told people to sell the markets short because the economy would tank. Did all they could do to make it happen. Guess what? More profits than ever.
Re inflation. Coupon clippers, people who live on bonds, universally Republicans CRAVE higher interest rates and inflation and that's what the Fed, controlled by oligharchs, does for them.
Trump.
You're ignoring some facts (from the internet):
1. The 10% stock market gains under Biden may not be as great as the 50% increase under Trump, but the increases under Biden are *on top of* the performance under Trump. Your portfolio should still be better off today than it was at any time under Trump.
2. People invest retirement funds in the stock market because it generally goes up over the long-term. The only presidential administrations in the past century that saw negative stock market returns were George W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, Richard Nixon, and Herbert Hoover. Research shows stock market returns tend to improve under Democratic administrations, but with a sample of only 18 presidents over 100 years, it's not statistically significant. Presidents just don't have much effect on the market. There is, in fact, a more statistically significant correlation between the market and the music we listen to than who the President is.
3. Your 401K is a long-term investment and doesn't need to perform over a short 4 year time period like Presidents must. What matters is how it does over 15, 20, or 30 years, not how it did under Trump vs. Biden.
Stock buybacks under the orange "business" man also reduced supply with an offsetting increase in price per share.
This can be filed under, if you need to explain, you already lost the political argument. You are absolutely correct John. Unfortunately, this is a hill of beans to the great unwashed whose leanings are motivated by short and simple headlines and talking points.
We should all listen to this clearly unbiased anecdote instead of all the evidence to the contrary!
You'll disregard the source anyhow. I know a troll when I see one.
Keith Olson; When (or if) Fani Willis can get this big RICO case successfully prosecuted, it would be Truly GREAT to see those in Congress who voted against certifying President Biden's win REMOVED from their seats , along with Senate 'republican' MAGA sycophants!
I especially want that Maggot Traitor Goon gone, i am sick of her loud mouth and her stupid, ignorant, bossy attitude and her deluded demands that none of us want. She is a horrific embarrassment to the United States and the State of Georgia.
Think of what we all call 'classy' and you remember Jackie Kennedy & others who remain people we like to point to as role models for children to admire, and then think of who represents the opposite mode - MTG fills that slot - perfectly ! It amazes me that she appears to have zero shame that she is seen the way she is ! TACKY - TOTALLY TACKY with Boobert following along behind.
TACKY, you said the magic and correct description of that hag, MTG. And believe it or not, i watched a clip of those nuts that stormed the infamous, ''Area 51'' and there was a woman that looked almost exactly like MTG on there. Same hair, same putrid face, but the woman on there was quite a bit thinner than MTG. Lauren Boobert is just as despicable as she is.
Trey Crowder (The Liberal Redneck) has a hilarious short YouTube video on Boebert and her recent escapades at the play in Denver, and mentions MTG in it as well. I'd encourage all to watch it. In it he says "I'm of the Whiskey Tango [he means white trash] persuasion myself, and I know another Trash Monster when I see one." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIcqkzVN6Dw&t=164s
vcragain, Greene is truly a mess. I can think of nothing positive that can be said about her, so I won't. I heard someone say "Greene gives 'trailor trash' a bad name."
Have you heard the one about MTG being on a short list as Dump’s possible VP choice? You can’t make this shit up!
I wish, Laurie, I really wish. But it would take some one of courage to start the ball rolling.
Fay Reid; Yes, if there is a way to follow the law, they could at least be called out on violating their oaths of office. If tfg is disqualified to run for office, why can't those who supported an insurrection? Why can't those who voted against even a debate on voting rights!? What good is a solemn oath that is a joke?
We're in total agreement, Laurie, as usual (:-)
If children born here to immigrant parents are to be deported, then Ramaswamy needs to be the first one out. His parents are immigrants from India. What hypocrisy!
Jenn, the challenge is, ?Ramaswamy will never see that he is talking about himself because somehow, he has come to believe he is above the crap he says and the policies he favors. That proves his ignorance and unworthiness to be in charge of anything, but he is rich or says he is, and that probably won't matter. The same beliefs surround the very rich in general and lack of empathy or appreciation for anyone but themselves won't matter for Musk, Murdoch, Zuckerburg, Bezos, and so many others. Ramaswamy wants to be one of them and is working pretty hard at it.
Yup! The slick wall street douchebag set.
I saw elsewhere Ramaswamy also said he wanted to cut 75% of the federal workforce. For all practical purposes that would end federal government.
Jan then government would be "Small enough to drown in a bathtub" . Just like the 'republicans' wanted all along.
We don’t need a government if we want fascist control
Exactly
Government has never been the employer of last resort but if, as happened to me, you need information or an answer from an actual person in order to make a decision you shouldn’t have to listen to (per my experience 31+ minutes) elevator music trying to get hold of a human being in social security before giving up and hanging up in despair.
That’s no excuse when your spouse has died, you have a specific question, and really need an answer from a human being employed by that agency.
Comments are nice. Like Mr. Reich says it's a feel good thing to rant. But I didn't get a reply yesterday to - what actions are you signing up for democracy today. These changes do not happen unless we show up.
I'm signed up for a Dems organizing meeting this week. What are you going?
PS) I'll amend this - when we show up in person or via internet for zooms, or phone calls. For anything progressive. Then we can take Mr. Reich's words and research and put them into tangible results. I'm quite fed up with the gop running us into the ground and I'm afraid also - to mandate going to their church - brainwashing women into giving up their rights - etc.
I made a similar comment on a different forum. I am older and on disability so I'm limited in some activities, such as protests, but even I can support existing organizations financially through small dollar donations, send out postcards and emails, and make phone calls. There are few excuse not to be involved, and since it appears that our politicians aren't going to do anything, we must be the guardians of democracy and protectors of our children.
Yes, and I also phone bank. The Dems have an online system - we can volunteer from anywhere! :)
Thank you :)))))
Janet Adam's; " The Dems' huh? Who do you think we are? And more important : who are you? When you refer to the left by calling them "The Dems" , it isn't friendly. Seems unfriendly. Or just clueless.
Since when? I am a left wing progressive, and use Dem(s) all the time. It's short for Democratic Party, of which I am a member. If you find it offensive, then so be it, but I can assure you that that's not the consensus.
This comment makes no sense. It's a general statement since they are the only major party opposing the gop.
I support Inequality Media Civics Action and other progressive things when I can afford it. At 72 I am still running a small business.. I won't be marching in Washington any time soon though. I post to this forum which is read by some progressive people who may see an idea they can use in more expansive media forums, even TV!
I have a small business too. I make small $ contributions and make phone calls for candidates
:)
I absolutely agree and would only add that our corrupted Supreme Court allowed this by giving corporations the right to political expression, which has come to mean the right to buy politicians.
So True and SO Sad. Will these “officials” have the courage to ACT like strong, patriotic Americans or just frightened lemmings not seeing the huge cliff they’re running toward.
Keith, thanks for the comment. I suspect Putin loves the fact that we have so much poverty because he can justify to himself keeping so many of his own people in poverty. His poor folks, though are too scared to speak up and they have few who will stand up for them. We at least have a significant number of people who try to champion impoverished Americans. They are standing against a huge amount of money directed at not only keeping people poor, but working to make their poverty more intense and long-lasting through high interest rates, payday lenders, sales taxes on critical items, and so much more. Attempts made to help, like the monthly payments made a huge difference for so many families, but Republicans and a few Democrats, saw that help as helping the lazy and taking from the rich who actually somehow earned everything they have (and they believe that BS). They are rarely challenged because the media does not want the rich to feel bad or something. It really is disgraceful!
The Mainstream Media is controlled by billionaires and corporations
I am afraid their reputations are already tainted
Well said!
Wow somehow Robert left out this is all Trumps fault. Next best thing to blaming Trump is blaming every Republican and anyone else that does not tow the progressive agenda
It’s the long term/end result of Reagan policies. My republican, not pro union and anti union, parents could see where Reagan’s anti union policies would take us. If the parents’ wages are suppressed over decades…
You only think in short term, immediate gratification. Got it.
'Leftie' ; there have been teachers unions, air traffic controllers unions, barber unions, nursing unions, restaurant unions and many many more that were not manufacturing unions. You could do more research before posting, too.
You should care more about others in a discussion. Seem to think you can just judge and name call; like tfg.
Leftie FC : Reagan decided to tax Social Security. There were a 'bumper crop' of Baby boomers who were adversely affected who figured in to the increase in poverty rates even before 2022. BTW, if you are a Reagan defender, what are you doing here? Just curious.
Who decided that retired Public Employees should be subject to the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP). I only get about 40% of the SS I earn before Medicare is withheld. Not all state government workers are paid what elected officials and their appointed staff are paid, so our PERS is not always even above the poverty level.
'You people' ?! I guess we are 'other'. Kind of hostile, aren't you? ! Who needs You?.
I can't buy the arguments that are made today by you (and are made so often by so many) that "we" have chosen various things—in this case to impoverish huge proportions of the U.S. population. I did not do this. Yes, I ignorantly voted for Bill Clinton, who then betrayed me by undermining and destroying much of what I had believed was "our" U.S. government (the programs and policies of FDR and also of LBJ). But I did not "do" those things.
I did not choose to undermine the University of California and make it into an institution that is available only to the wealthy or to others by incurring huge debt at huge rates of interest. I did not choose to make Community Colleges (which were called Junior Colleges when I was young) expensive—they were tuition-free when I was young, and I wanted them to stay that way.
The Democratic Party was taken over by so-called "New Democrat" types who might as well have been Ronald Reagan Republicans.
I didn't want that and I don't want it now. I support Biden because he appears to me to be trying to move the Democratic Party back to being the champion of the people, not of the banks and financiers. That's what I want and support.
Yes. Many of us did not choose and disliked the changes harming workers that we see. Yet, maybe by remaining passive as these changes arose, we colluded with the forces that undermined the quality of civic and workers life. NAFTA etc. We were fuzzy in our commitment to workers. Insuring un-negotiable safe working conditions and fair wages for workers versus (rapacious corporate intentions to conquer) global economic dominance seems the core choice. An either-or forced choice. The corporate version propagandizes if corporate wins, everyone wins. Workers too. Not so. Starbucks. An alternative is this. "One such reform is co-determination, workers on company boards. In Sweden, Norway and Denmark it is mandatory for companies over a certain size to have board members elected by the employees....Co-determination allows unions to have a say in company affairs such as pay structure, profit allocation and general management. It helps increase wages for workers, can reduce the risk of outsourcing and often shift companies to taking a more long term and sustainable approach to profit maximization. Companies also benefit from co-determination as it is proven to have numerous other benefits, such as boosting productivity....One aspect of co-determination that could lead to a changing role of unions is that they then have a role in running the company as well as representing workers directly. This could be extended in their bargaining tactics. While unions usually bargain for wage increases or lower hours another aim could be profit-sharing initiatives or share distribution to workers".(mutualinterest.coop)
IF Biden stopped his warmongering in other nations and giving money to the huge military complex things might be better.
Now all you can vote for is: Biden=Trump AGAIN.
And the choice is obvious. Biden by a country mile, in a landslide, a walkover, grand slam, a no brainer. For a democracy to survive, politicians and voters must honor the rule of law as contained in our Constitution. That requires they have character, intellect, morals, and integrity. The difference is starkly apparent. Night (darkness, criminality, evil) and day (sunshine, honesty, democracy) measure the infinite chasm between the two choices. Biden and democracy, must and will, prevail.
Problem is always the striving for perfection and when they don't get that some Dem voters get so disillusioned they start dissing their own ! Biden can only do SOME of what he wants to do, not all of it, he will get stymied by several hundred other pols always looking out for their own best position, and that must be pretty hard, so to get any big program thru that process is an amazing accomplishment. Thank you Joe is my reaction - he is a good man, not a saint, but the best for the moment.
Joe Biden isn't a Saint, yet, but he walks with Angels on Earth.
“That requires they have character, intellect, morals, and integrity.” Read the excerpt of the upcoming book based on Mitt Romney’s experience of the U.S. Senate. Disagree as I do with Romney’s politics, what he exposes in the vast majority of today’s elected officials is the total opposite of character, intellect, morals, and integrity. If half of our elected officials had the integrity of Mitt Romney, politics aside, our democracy would function as conceived in our constitution.
Character, intellect, morals, and integrity matter; Trump and the representatives and senators who support him lack these essentials.
VOTE
I believe.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/11/mitt-romney-retiring-senate-trump-mcconnell/675306/?fbclid=PAAaa7XIJiTwOIukNPPC-aN_KKF84d57CM2GfvCB42UGTCjo3RZ517gRhWdLk_aem_AbQAYE9hER5dCAyZJ2-ttun64BFLFlBtYuCleY49xlL0LbciqWHFufwW1J5knm1-vTA
As Edgar, in his guise as poor Tom in King Lear, or Demetrius, in A Midsummer Nights Dream, either by illness or by spell, both are found delusional. Perhaps the delusions found in the anti-democratic crowd can be attributed as well thusly, and their ghastly danger to our freedoms, democracy, and Nation, more clearly observed, understood, and defeated. “The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.” W.C. “Three things cannot be long hidden, the sun, the moon, and the truth.” Buddha.
Repeated indictments appear to equate to delusional (and exceedingly criminal) perpetrators, and their cultish following.
A naked truth is always better than the best dressed lie.
Instead of criticising Biden, think about what he has achieved for the people.
You're asking a right wing nutjob to think? Expect disappointment
What has he achieved for the poor?
Jennifer B. S. ; President Biden Supports Unions , Students who need debt relief, women who need medical care, building infrastructure, and generally speaking out against monopoly power and pushing for taxes on the rich. Supports the Constitution and the rule of law.
Let's see what happens when the UAW goes on strike in a few days?
Jennifer, what are you afraid will happen if the UAW goes on strike?
Jennifer Bleasdale Stokes ; I wonder if you would feel more comfortable in a right wing forum ; Maybe your own. You seem more troll like every post.
Oh dear. Anyone who doesn't agree with you is a troll!
We all have a right to our own OPINION; however it seems you much prefer to dwell on the potential negatives as opposed to the postitive things that Biden has accomplished. It is said that the perfect is the enemy of the good...
My own opinion is that I'd would have preferred to have a more progressive person in the presidency, but Biden has done pretty well considering the huge dumpster fire that tffg left for him to manage. If the Yapping Yam becomes the R nominee, I'll vote for Biden with enthusiasm. If Yammie wins...then 2024 will almost certainly be the last chance you'll have to freely vote for your own choice.
I did not say that.
There are a lot of people who don't agree with me that's fine but to be called a "Russian troll or 'operative.' seems rather puerile?
Just what did Trump do for the average person besides nothing? Please someone tell me..
He told them it was okay to blame everything on non-whites.
Nothing........
This is not making any sense.
It is Not warmongering to support Ukraine in their fight for independence against Russia. It's in our national interest.
What National interest? You mean they have thing the the US wants? Have you read about the Maidan coup?
Warmongering--encouragement or advocacy of aggression toward other countries or groups.
Maybe you didn’t notice, Pres. Biden, along with other NATO nations is helping Ukraine defend itself against a Russian invasion of Ukraine’s sovereign
territory.
Already crossed 2 red lines.
1. Cluster bombs
2. Bombers.
Jennifer, did you consider America's 20 year long war on Iraq and Afghanistan warmongering? Did you agree with Biden's decision to pull us out of Afrghanistan? I'm not asking about HOW Biden did it, I'm asking if you agreed with his decision to get us out.
What are your views on Taiwan? And what are your views on China's Belts and Roads Initiative (BRI)? Does the Polar leg of BRI worry you?
Yes I did.
Yes I agree that troops should be pulled from Afghanistan.
In my view Taiwan should solve it's own problems, nothing to do with the US!
China's road a Belt initiative I can only see as good.
No why should it?
Glad I asked and glad you answered. Our views are very similar.
The Child tax credit was Great 👍 the failure to continue it abysmal . Yet many want to stop abortions but don’t want to pay families to support children.
Having children was the greatest thing I ever did but also the most expensive .
Any tax credit program should fund children tax credit first before all other tax credits.
Citizen J ; Yes, the forced birth policy is the biggest unfunded mandate ever! It is also cruel beyond words, unDemocratic and the worst power grab!
More like a Keep them Down play.
Since you cannot get pregnant you don't know the half of it.
Being married to a first time pregnant wife was enough for me ; I was drinking a case of beer, and a bottle of scotch every week until the last month when I told her to knock it off or the child would be born fatherless because my liver quit right before she was born.
Can’t get pregnant but I paid my tax also .
Get help for the alcohol issue.
Thank fake Dems Manchin and Sinema for the loss of the Child Tax Credit.
They stood in the way if voting rights also.
I'm convinced that they are saboteurs, planted in the Party by RepubliCons. If that's too far fetched and too conspiratorial, I'll settle for the two of them being greedy narcissists who seem committed to undermining Biden at every turn, largely for their personal benefit.
Indeed they did--I'd purely over to see both of them primaried by a REAL Democrat. Unfortunately that is unlikely to happen in the case of Manchin. However, Sinema may get her treacherous butt kicked by Ruben Gallego. I certainly hope so.
I wholeheartedly support expanding the Child Tax Credit as a top priority, but we need to continue to pursue policies that "fix" our economy so there are enough good paying jobs and economic opportunities that people don't need tax credits to be lifted out of poverty! Too many benefits flow to the wealthy rather than those who truly need it.
Never had children, but am happy to have my tax dollars help those who did. (Although I might want to make MAGA parents ineligible without proof that they don't indoctrinate their offspring with the cult view.)
Retro active birth control?
Probably just limits religious freedom. Not my real intent but then is MAGAism a real religion or just more grift?
You know, I find it very hard to rationalize the republicans against abortion and what they call killing babies with abolishing the Child Tax Credit that leaves our children impoverished. It absolutely makes no sense! Why in the world would these politicians decide to eliminate the one thing that was working to reduce child poverty? It was working for our children!! The two simply do not relate! They have screamed and hollered until they finally got the Supreme Court to do away with Roe V Wade saying that women had to have children no matter if it was due to rape, incest or health situations. They say they are doing it for the children yet they are willing to let millions of our children live in poverty. It is deplorable!! I retired from teaching and I know how hard it is for children to be able to concentrate when their little bellies are grumbling due to hunger. I always kept snacks (apples, raisins, crackers, etc.) for children that were hungry. I also made sure my students were able to eat at lunch. I am so saddened, sickened, and embarrassed that our country chooses to let our children live in poverty.
Well, DINO Manchin and DINO Sinema seemed to think that those families with children who live below the poverty level, who are struggling to keep a roof over their heads and a minimal amount of food on the table for their kids are using that small monthly check to buy drugs. Manchin--who drives a Maserati, btw--wants to add work requirements to the Child Tax Credit Act. As though most of those struggling families aren't also struggling to juggle two or three jobs. MAnchin and Sinema DISGUST me.
You’re not alone, Peggy. Hang in there. If there’s any justice to be had in this world, we should begin to receive some over the next 16 months. Courts plus election. Uncertainty breeds fear. We must remain strong in our convictions. We can do this.
Peggy, it doesn’t make sense because it’s not about babies it’s about power and control and money, winning at all costs.
Why is it that in the "richest" country in the world are both children and senior citizens living in poverty? It's all because the wealthy people don't give a damn..children well that's someone's else's concern but now due to the mentality of the Republicans you now will have those babies...so what it's not my problem! With seniors who worked out entire lives are barely getting by as once again they in Washington want to cut Social Security and Medicare, don't want to get lower drug process for seniors...the bottom line again is everything in the United States comes to GREED....as I've heard my entire life.." the rich keep getting richer, poor keep getting poorer, and the two will never meet" only in America are children and seniors disposable...
Truth.
9 million children at 300 dollars per month would add $32.4 billion to the budget. The F-35 fighter jet, designed to kill, is estimated to cost $1.7 trillion by the GAO. Divide that out and the F-35 budget covers over 50 years of the child poverty program. Extremely expensive death dealing versus 50 years of 9 million healthier children. Which do you support? If politics were rational that sounds like a good campaign sound bite. Unfortunately rationality left the airport a while ago and we are left with Joe Manchin, Matt Gaetz, MTG, ...
I agree with you but the per unit cost of a F 35 is 80 million+-. Were you referring to the total cost of the F 35 program?
Most of our country’s problems are policy choices. We choose to give corporations and the extremely wealthy enormous tax breaks, then, out of the other side of their mouth’s, our politicians lament how much we are spending on welfare, while the truth is that the tax breaks are far larger than anything one might call welfare. We choose to have a political system that allows legalized bribery and depriving people of equal representation via voter suppression, the representation scheme of the Senate, the filibuster, and partisan gerrymandering. We choose to squander enormous wealth on “defense” while we fail to educate the children of parents who can’t afford private education. We choose to have a medical system that shortens our lifespans, denies medical care to the poor, and bankrupts many. We choose to allow banks and fake universities to profit from high-interest loans we foist upon our students then burden with unaffordable payments.
Our policies are always a choice and we are making many short-sighted choices that are harming us and the future of our country. Of course, I know I’m preaching to the choir.
I don't see many choices for the people?
You have a 2 party system, both centrist, and run by money.
I agree. That’s why we need to change the system so that what people want is more important than what politicians or wealthy donors (including corporations) want. Until that happens, everything else is rearranging the deck chairs as our country sinks.
I agree with you and definitely think the DNC is in thrall to the so-called "neo-liberal" Democratic Leadership Council (DLC, defiantly right-center) and could usefully move to the left. However the Repubbies have moved so far to the right that they have become the very definition of fascist. Centrist the R's are not.
Agree.
As Dr. Bertelsen said above, what you mean "we"?
By “we” I mean the results that our political system, with all its built in flaws, yields. I don’t believe that our current political system yields the decisions that most of us (voting age citizens) want, but, of course, I can’t prove that.
Mostly a 2 party system.
It's obvious many don't vote because they don't like either party.
Here's one effect of great wealth redistribution to the 1%. Port Royal, in Naples FL, is about 45 minutes south of my home.
Some wealthy Port Royal landowners have so much money, they don't know what to do with it all. One investor purchased and demolished a $22.5M luxury home and built a new, multi-million dollar home on the same lot BECAUSE HE COULD. Some Port Royal homes are occupied a mere two weeks a year, and multi-million dollar teardowns and rebuilds are said to be frequent in Port Royal.
See link for pictures.
https://www.naplesnews.com/picture-gallery/money/real-estate/2019/03/20/photos-port-royal-mansion-just-sold-22-5-m-and-then-torn-down/3228922002/
As beautiful as the house was, I think most of the $22.5M value was in its location. Also, being a non-elevated beachfront home, probably built to pre-hurricane building codes, I suspect it was very expensive to insure (assuming it was even insurable). The home would have been totally destroyed if a major hurricane hit, which was most certain to happen. So replacing it probably made sense to the owner. Still, IMHO he has more money than brains!
BECAUSE HE COULD. Therein lies the problem. Demolishing that mansion to build a bigger one is just a hedonistic as hosting wild orgies.
The old house looked amazing to me. Idk... It's such a shame.
I wish the owner had disassembled the house into several pieces and moved it to another lot. It was worth saving.
Makes ya nauseous, doesn't it?
We afre in the midst of a dilemna here in Baghdad By the Sea. South Beach once had a moratorium on building so that owners couldn't improve their own properties, After the moratorium was lifted, the art deco disstrict was designated as a historical area. Top height was 50 feet.
DeSantis and the right wing state legislature passed a Florida’s Live Local Act, which allows developers who set aside 40% of units for affordable or workforce housing to build as tall as local regulations allow within one mile of their projects.
The Clevelander hotel sits in the middle of the art deco district. Developers from Canada want to build a 30-story tower to replace it and adjacent Essex House hotel. The proposal includes a ground-floor restaurant and residential building featuring a mix of market-rate condos and workforce rentals — a plan that local politicians and residents have quickly decried as destroying the Art Deco character of Ocean Drive, where building heights are limited to 50 feet.
What do we want? Low cost housing or history?
Meanwhile, this is another example where DeSantis displaces local authority with top down Fascism. Obviously he is obliged to developers. Low income housing is probably a ruse. .
We have the highest rents and the smallest market for low income tenants in the US.
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/miami-beach/article279264079.html#storylink=cpy
I hope you can fight it and preserve the Art Deco district which is a real asset of Miami.
While lower income housing is a worthy goal it can go many places.
Is this what they mean by trickle down economics? Rich guy buys another rich guy's house. The real estate agent gets a big commission. New owner tears it down. Mike's Wrecking makes a lot of money. The city gets permit fees. Architect gets a fee. Chalushous Home Builders and contractors get paid to build the new one. Jorge snd Jose get paid non-union wages. But they get paid. The city gets paid for building permits. So trickle down does work sort of. Then the hurricane flattens it, or at least floods it. Will the owner ask FEMA for money? Kiddos, it's not that the uber-rich don't spend some of it. But they dole it out like soup by the ladle, in ways that keep bottom tier earners fed for the day but unable to accumulate enough to rise up the food chain. Wealth taxes would not prevent oligarchs from building palaces or buying yachts or bathing in caviar. But it would provide Jorge and Jose's kids day care, excellent education and healthcare and homes above the flood line.
You are right o Dr Reich, I was employed for over thirty five years assisting financially deprived persons/families. We had the most effective program during the pandemic but it was allowed to die by republicans and two so called democrats. Why, they want families on the edge so their corporate masters can hire at the lowest possible cost to maintain a huge profit. It is inhumane. Children cannot learn while they are hungry.
Couple this with the multiple ways our tax code favors corporations with the effect many multi bullion in profit do not pay federal tax or if they do at a rate lower than working families.
The total amount and rate of poverty in the U.S. is, of course, an aggregate of the rates across all fifty states, red and blue. But not all poverty is created equal.
In red states, particularly the Southeast, poverty, and lower incomes are, not surprisingly, a consequence of Republican governance BUT, not an UNINTENDED consequence.
Because prices for most goods and services tend to rise only as high as the majority of the likely consumers of those goods and services are able and/or willing to pay, it is in the interests of the politicians who control the economies of these states to keep as many people possible poor or in the lower-middle class, because surrounding the rich — whose interests Republicans so tirelessly serve in return for financial rewards down the road — with poor people increases not only the real and perceived disparities between the two economic classes, but, tangibly, their actual buying power because the basic goods and services that the poor and other lower-income people consume also serve as the raw materials and building blocks of the luxury goods and services that the rich consume.
We’ve always known that conservatives, promoters of a patriarchal society and foes of abortion, want to keep women barefoot and pregnant, but you can add to that that they want to keep practically everybody else poor.
The irony isthat many people who need help for their familiess vote against their own economic and physical well being.
I find this hard to understand. These poor, struggling people will vote for politicians that have absolutely NO interest in serving them.
Peggy Freeman ; Don't forget the rich right wing owned media which constantly 'informs' the public!
Because "culture," hate, peer pressure etc. are more important to them.
Daniel Solomon ; all of those ; "culture" hate, peer pressure etc. are dictated by our media ; most of which misinform and push ideas that most of us do not need.
How about the collective racial subconscious predisposition to hate "the other"?
Also, i have read where some of these dedicated TUMP followers have let their children go hungry so they could ''Donate'' to the sleazy SOB Donald TUMP. If that isn't a total disgrace, i don't know what is. My ex-wife's sister is one of them, except she will do without household necessities to donate to him. She is looney as it gets when it comes to TUMP and will burst out crying when someone is very critical of TUMP. She even has a sign at her home that says, '' I AM A SUPER MAGA''
Which simply confirms the view that for a lot of these MAGA people they belong to a cult - trump owns their brains ! If/when trump- dies they will likely start churches dedicated to his worship - that is how far 'gone' they are !
"She will do without household necessities...." In most states if a person harms herself or the kids like that, she can be committed for a mental evaluation.
When I was first practicing, people like that were fodder for "Child Welfare."
Her two sons live with her, but they are grown and as far as i know neither one of them has a job. One of her sons is mentally challenged, or mentally ill and my ex wife lives there with them now and has to buy groceries and other needs while her sister keeps sending money to the Orange blob of lard. I have tried time and again to get my ex-wife to come back and live with us at our house. My daughter and youngest grandson and my oldest son lives with me. We never have to do without here, we have everything we need and are doing well. However, my ex-wife continues to complain about living with her sister when i have consistently offered her to come back to me and not have to put up with her deluded and gullible sister, but she refuses to do so for some mysterious unknown reason. My ex never has explained to me why she left in the first place. Donald TUMP has ruined countless citizens lives with his despicable behavior. I have never hated a person in my entire life like i hate him.
There are actually churches in my area that have a big picture of TUMP hanging next to a picture of Jesus Christ. These people in my area are very dedicated TUMP cult members, i no longer speak to any of them as they actually do worship that creep. I read where some TUMP cult members pray to TUMP like a normal person would pray to God. ''Oh please, my lord TUMP, keep me and my family safe, and my lord TUMP, watch over us while we travel or go to work'' that is just how beholden they are to that Orange blob of lard. Looney Tunes to the extreme!
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Avie Hern ; If you want to evaluate the greatness of a society, look at how the women are treated. The status of mothers affects the status of their children. Women comprise a majority of citizens in our country, and all races/faiths. Poverty and it's twin ; ignorance, ultimately govern our future unless remedied/eliminated.
As the American poet William Ross Wallace wrote in 1865, “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle is the Hand that Rules the World.”
Didn't get civil rights until about 1967.
Reviewing Prof R's presentation, and going back and looking up tge details of the IRA child tax credits and emergency funds, I am astonished at how little it cost to get 9 million kids above the drowning line. For the whole country LESS than one hostile corporate take over! OMG what a bargain!
Bless you, Professor Robert, for your Humanism.
Shana Tova!
Chris
Stranded in Afghanistan and need some help.
Another very timely and important message from Robert Reich. As usual, he's in the zone, saying the right things at the right time in the right way. (I wish more of us knew how to do that, myself especially.)
I grok your heavy-handed and righteous hint, Robert: We've got a serious problem, and we can fix it. Yes, we can, but we're up against (1) pure meanness and (2) ignorance -- oceans too wide to cross, mountains too high to climb.
Pure meanness cannot and will not be changed by appeals to humanity, mercy, kindness, or generosity. That's trying to fit a square peg into a round hole; mean people are unreachable, Ebenezer Scrooges before the three ghosts visited them.
I learned of an intellectual mask for meanness just yesterday: Right-wing thought leaders fervently believe in the "unsustainable crisis that is the entitlement state," i.e., government aid is the ultimate dead-end, because we can't afford it and because people become permanently dependent, lazy, thus dragging down the nation and everyone in it. Sounds reasonable, eh?
According to this mindset, we just can't help our neighbor; such tactics can't work; therefore, they must stand on their own two feet, these poor people, who are with us always -- unless forced to overcome their problems. Sure, they'll do a little suffering, but that pain will drive them to grab the golden ring of independence, Emerson's vaunted goal of self-reliance, perhaps the loftiest American value, rugged individualism. Just give a man a bottle of water and a sharp stick, and if he's worth his salt, he'll discover how to support himself and live the good life. Just stand back and watch the magic work.
Yeah, that's a theory, a hypothesis, a fantasy. Most humans need a lot of help getting out of the hole they're born in and staying out of it. Most rich people today inherited their wealth; they did not earn it, the Walton family, the richest in the world, are a prime example of such. The Trump kids, the Kennedy kids and grandkids, and the Rockefeller kids are others in that grouping.
And regarding ignorance: Most Americans believe that the federal budget is just like their household's, or at least the same as a corporation's or a state and local government's, all of which must balance their budgets and not spend, for very long, money they don't have and aren't going to get in all probability, i.e., they can't live forever, or even very long, on credit.
Fortunately, the federal government finds itself in a unique and powerful position: It can levy taxes, set interest rates, and print money, a fiat currency, in our case. Those capabilities are game-changers. The federal government, like no other entity, can help people who need it, which in turn helps the nation itself, thus making generosity or welfare a wise and effective policy. A conclusion that no believer in monetarism will ever trust or support. And they honestly think that they are correct; it's just the way of the world, how finances work.
That conclusion is wrong, painfully wrong. We now know better; the full story, an explanation of how big money really works, can be found in Modern Monetary Theory, a bright light at the end of the macroeconomic tunnel. If interested, and I hope you are, a good place to start is with Dr. Stephanie Kelton's "The Deficit Myth." And you can find many free YouTube videos by numerous MMT economists explaining the new insights that MMT has discovered. Or just go to Wikipedia for references.
Thanks as always, Robert, for your stimulating ideas and messaging. You clear things up and point the way to a better America.
They also ignore the psychological effect that poverty has on people.
Amen to that!!! Being just above the poverty line or close to it, I am struggling daily to meet my expenses, have gas for transportation, and food to eat. It is demoralizing to say the least!! I was under the mistaken belief that I would be okay with my social security and my retirement. That is a fool's dream, I know that now. My heart hurts for those that cannot afford to pay their bills or provide enough food for their family!
What do they care about the suffering of others? It's a very common human attitude to maintain that life is all about me. A foundational goal of most religions is to love ye one another, a goal rarely achieved.
Thank you for providing sources to help me understand all of this better.
For some reason I don't understand, Chuck Schumer insisted we needed Manchin and Sinema, despite the fact that on all really important legislation they refused to back President Biden. Manchin has always backed the fossil fuels industry (of which he is an owner - coal) and Sinema is a bimbo like Sarah Palin, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert. The only decent thing she has done is admitting she is not really a Democrat, but even that was flawed, she didn't make the announcement until after she won another term. You are correct, Professor, in a nation as wealthy as ours it is a huge stain to have so many people unhoused, underfed, and so poorly educated. We should hang our heads in shame.
Need a majority BEFORE ALL ELSE!!!!!
Otherwise Republicans like McCarthy rule.
What defines the US as "the richest country in the world?" Another interesting statistic might be where in the world the US lies in income inequality. Does it really matter to the bottom 50%, who may struggle to meet an emergency $400 bill, that they live in the Richest Country in the World??
In many cases, the same folks vote against themselves. Red states are poorest and most needy.
Have they no decency? It seems we have many Joe McCarthy’s in congress these days. Their children are not affected by these men and women who vote against children of lesser means. Fools, indeed.
In FACT, Congress should have DOUBLED that child tax credit, not cut it! $500/mo should be where it sits! Social Security should be doubled (or TRIPLED), because we are facing a Republican demand to cut it! And it is these same IDIOT conservatives that want to eventually eliminate ALL private retirement plans. Republicans want (they are demanding) us to work till we die. It is up to US, the working folks who BUILT AMERICA, to force our will on this MINORITY of skinflint rich, spoiled conservatives. But we have to GET LOUD! We have to show OUR POWER!