Opinions Based on Facts: OBOF TYMHM & MORE PART 47

WELCOME TO OPINIONS BASED ON FACTS (OBOF)

THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED (TYMHM)

YEAR THREE

Name	Published
OVERVIEW
OBOF & TYMHM PART 14	Dec 18, 2012
OBOF & TYMHM PART 15	Jan. 02, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 16	Jan. 08, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 16 EXTRA	Jan. 11, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 17	Jan. 15, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 18	Jan. 22, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 19	Jan. 29, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 20	Feb. 05, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 21	Feb. 14, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 22	Feb. 20, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 23	Feb. 27, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 23 SPECIAL	Mar. 06, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 24	Mar. 07, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 25	Mar. 12, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 25-EXTRA	Mar. 14, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 26	Mar. 19, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 27	Mar. 26, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 28	Apr. 02, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 29	Apr. 08, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 30	Apr. 17, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 31	Apr. 23, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 32	Apr. 30, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 33	May 07, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 34	May 18, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 35	May 21, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 36	May 30, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 37	June 05, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 38	June 11, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 39	June 18, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 40	June 25, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 41	July 02, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 42	July 09, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 43	July 16, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 44	July 23, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 45	July 30, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 46	Aug. 06, 2013
OBOF & TYMHM PART 47	Aug. 14, 2013

IN THIS ISSUE

1. Koch brothers in Congress.

2. A look at the next few months by Dr. Allen Smith.

3. Wrapped in the Flag. How today parallels with the

John Birch Society days.

4. E-Mail from the V. P.

5. Austerity is dead.

6. Chuck Todd on Hillary miniseries.

7. New York Times not for sale.

8. Five reasons Congress should be ashamed about jobs.

KOCH BROTHERS WORKING RIGHT

INSIDE CONGRESS

Word came after the fact that the Koch brothers hosted a closed-door meeting last week with Paul Ryan, Eric Cantor and New Mexico’s governor.

They intentionally kept this hidden, calling it a “private political event.” They want to keep their plans for implementing their extreme agenda secret. This will be something to keep our eyes on. They are planning something that isn't good for our country, would be my guess.

~~~

A LOOK AT WHAT WE MAY SEE IN THE NEXT FEW MONTHS.

Recently, I wrote my very good friend, Dr. Allen W. Smith, with some interesting tid bits as listed below. I think, that you too, will find them interesting and I want to thank all 228 of you for hanging in with me.

Much more important than the figures listed below, is the response from Dr. Allen.

Hi Allen: Interesting little tid bit. Hits during the past month. U.S. 171, Russia 29, Poland 5, Germany 5, S. Korea 5, Switzerland 3, Bangladesh 2, Malaysia 2, and Sweden 2. Total 228

Floyd

His, very interesting, answer.

Hi Floyd,

Congratulations! Your posts are reaching far beyond the borders of the United States. It's interesting that your second most hits country was Russia. That sure would not have happened during the cold war.

The world has changed so much the last few decades because of the technological explosion. Some of the change is good and some of it is not so good. I spent $193.00 yesterday to have 108 viruses removed from my computer. The technician said that most viruses come from outside the U.S.

In terms of politics, I see major problems and a lot of conflict during the next few months. It is my understanding that freshman Senators Rand Paul and Ted Cruz are trying to convince other senators to support a standoff where Republicans would not allow the approval of any funding unless Obama Care is completely defunded. They are threatening to shut the government down until they get their way.

If that happens, it won't take long for Americans to understand that the trust fund is empty and there is no reserve fund for paying Social Security benefits. The amount of revenue coming in each month from the payroll tax is not enough to pay full benefits. If the government does not raise taxes, or raise the debt ceiling, so the money can borrowed, full Social Security benefits cannot be paid. If it comes to that, perhaps the

~~~

Weekend Reader:

Wrapped In The Flag:

A Personal History

Of America’s Radical Right

August 10th, 2013

National Memo Staff

This weekend, The Weekend Reader brings you Wrapped In The Flag: A Personal History Of America’s Radical Right by Claire Conner. What separates Wrapped In The Flag from other critiques of the far right is the author’s personal connection to the John Birch Society, which paved the way for the modern Tea Party. Conner opens up about growing up in an ultra-conservative household, and the consequences of her upbringing continue today as she attempts to relate to her family. Wrapped In The Flag lays out how the power of political ideology affects both individuals and society — and how that power can be perverted by the untoward influence of money on politics

Five years ago, I was sure I’d heard the last of conspiracies, secret Communists, and America’s imminent collapse. After all, the Cold War had been over for twenty years, my parents and most of their fanatic friends were dead, and the Bush administration was killing America’s appetite for right-wing Republicans. “There’s no one left to hoist the extremist flag,” I told myself.

I was wrong. By 2008, political discourse sounded eerily similar to that of 1958, when a brand-new right-wing, populist movement—the John Birch Society—burst onto the American scene. All across the country, newly awakened Birchers rallied to “take our county back.” Two dedicated Birch leaders mobilized the Midwest: Stillwell and Laurene Conner—my parents.

Dad and Mother had been primed for their lurch to the right for many years. They loved Joseph McCarthy and hated the Communists. They’d decided that government assistance made people weak and lazy, and that the New Deal was really a bad deal. They loathed Franklin Roosevelt and blamed Democrats for destroying our free-enterprise system.

So in 1955, when Mother and Dad were introduced to Robert Welch, a candy-company executive turned conspiracy hunter, they immediately recognized a kindred soul. My father said Welch was “a brilliant mind and the finest patriot I’ve ever had the privilege to know.” Three years later nts’ lifelong obsession; nothing was allowed to

old enough to take up the cause as full-fledged adult members. During Birch activities, the other Conner children were banished upstairs, where my ten-year-old sister was put in charge of the baby (eighteen months) and my six-year-old brother fended for himself. In only a few months, the entire Conner family lived and breathed Birch.

Night after night, Birch activists and new recruits filled our living room. They received hours of instruction about the secret conspiracy, the New World Order, hidden codes on the dollar bill, and Communist spies inside our government. Birchers were schooled in the evils of creeping socialism, Communism, and Marxism. Good Birchers understood the sins of welfare and Social Security. It was time to rise up against the unholy alliance of the Left—Communists, socialists, liberals, union bosses, and the liberal press.

Robert Welch identified Communists as one enemy in this epic struggle to save the country. Of course, in the 1950s the march of the Communists across Eastern Europe and Asia was scary to Americans, but Welch was more worried about the Communists lurking inside our country, often holding positions of influence. These home-grown American Communists were ready to spring into action to take down our Constitution and replace it with a socialist manifesto.

Birchers believed that those American Communists were all over the place. They served on school boards, advocated putting fluoride in drinking water, and taught subversive university classes. Others organized labor unions, led the civil rights movement and served in the Congress.

The Birch message resonated. Membership exploded and revenue spiked. My father was rewarded for his dedication with a promotion to the Birch National Council, where he served for thirty-two years.

From the outset, the GOP applauded the Birchers for their patriotic zeal and embraced them as good Republicans. But after a scandal rocked the society in 1961, the GOP worried that its closeness to the Birchers would taint the Republican brand. It could not afford to be painted by the Democrats as the political arm of the radical right. Republican leaders decided to label the Birchers as crackpots and push them out of the party. Problem solved.

The effort worked. Before long, the Birchers had joined the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, and other kooks as the most extreme reactionaries in American politics. The Republican Party took credit for saving the United States from fringe-of-the-fringe crusaders who imagined that even the president was a Commie.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, while the politicians and pundits declared the Birchers dead and buried, the moneyed Birch leadership went to plan B, redirecting their cash and their influence into think tanks and foundations. My parents joined in that diversifying effort. They founded a right-wing Catholic organization, the Wanderer Foundation, in St. Paul, Minnesota, they could.

My parents never had big money, but other Birch families spent huge sums to bankroll Birch ideas. Fred Koch, one of the original Birch founding members and a National Council member with my father, invested a small fortune on his pet projects, including the so-called right-to-work laws, designed to hamper union organizing.

His sons, David and Charles Koch, inherited their father’s multimillions, turned them into multibillions, and invested liberally in their favorite political causes: the Cato Institute, the Heritage Foundation, Americans for Prosperity, and others. Those organizations incorporated many John Birch Society ideas and effectively increased both their reach and their impact on American politics. Since Citizens United, the 2011 Supreme Court decision that opened the floodgates to unlimited and unregulated corporate political donations, the Kochs have contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to individual candidates and political-action committees.

The Kochs and their allies envision the same framework for American government that I heard from my father and his John Birch Society allies: the New Deal dismantled, the federal government reduced to a quarter of its current size, and most federal programs gutted. In this right-wing, libertarian utopia, businesses and individuals would be free to do anything, unrestrained by rules or taxes.

In 2008, when the economy tanked and Barack Obama emerged as the Democratic nominee for president, the radical right went on the offense. The Democrat was labeled a Marxist, a Socialist, and a friend of terrorists. Folks unfurled the yellow “Don’t Tread on Me” flag and shouted about trees of liberty being watered with the blood of tyrants.

When I heard frenzied voters at a Republican rally shouting, “Treason,” and “Kill him,” in response to one of Sarah Palin’s anti-Obama rants, I worried. “My parents are back,” I told anyone who’d listen.

People looked at me like I’d lost my mind. I realized that the Birch Society had faded out of America’s memory. It had been confined to a footnote on a footnote for political wonks.

Six months after President Obama was inaugurated, a new right-wing, populist movement arose. The Tea Party—bankrolled by the Koch brothers and Americans for Prosperity—staged rallies and protests across the country. Self-appointed zealots suggested “Second Amendment remedies” if they didn’t achieve their goals at the ballot box. I shuddered when I heard my father’s favorite rally cry: “We’ve come to take our country back.”

These newly minted right-wingers were rattling off old Birch slogans:

• Immigrants are the enemy. Protect our borders and deport all illegal aliens.

• Gays are ungodly. Pray the gay away from children and teens.

• Unemployed people don’t want to work, and poor people keep themselves poor, on purpose. If we cut the minimum wage and eliminate unemployment compensation, everyone will have a job.

• Unions caused the economic collapse by shielding lazy, incompetent public employees.

• Rich folks are “job creators,” and we need to protect their wealth.

• Social Security is unsustainable, and Medicare and Medicaid have to be restricted so that corporations and “job creators” have lower tax rates.

• Abortion is murder and must be outlawed even in cases of rape and incest.

• No exception means no exceptions; even in cases where the mother’s life is in danger.

• The economic meltdown of 2008 came from high taxes on corporations, too many regulations, and poor people taking out mortgages they couldn’t afford.

• The government can’t create jobs, so stimulus programs don’t work.

• Cutting taxes creates jobs.

• The government can’t limit the right to own or carry guns. If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.

• America is God’s chosen nation, but our president can’t understand our exceptionalism. After all, he’s not a “real” American; he’s a Marxist, Socialist, Muslim racist who hates America.

I know that this new radical Right is a rewrite of the old John Birch Society. This time, however, the movement has enormous political muscle, unlimited dollars, and right-wing media support. This reality hit me after studying my parents’ files and personal writing, combing historical archives, and reading contemporary accounts and documents produced by the Birch Society itself.

My notes credit published works and archival documents, but much of this narrative comes from my experience. This book chronicles the history of the John Birch Society and its impact on America, past and present.

But above all, Wrapped in the Flag is my story.

~~~

E-MAIL FROM THE

VICE PRESIDENT

JOE BIDDEN

Floyd --

I've been in politics for a while now, but I've never seen anything quite like this.

A group of freshmen senators are running the show in the Republican Party -- that is not hyperbole.

You should see what these guys are doing now. They're asking their Republican colleagues to sign a pledge to shut down the federal government unless we defund Obamacare.

Now these aren't bad guys, but I want you to think about this: not only are they still trying to get rid of health care reform -- they're willing to use the entire federal government as a bargaining chip to get it done.

That's what we're dealing with in Washington right now, and it's unprecedented in my lifetime.

Make no mistake -- one thing we don't need is to let the Republicans outrun us in 2014, and elect a bunch more people to the House and Senate who think, act, and vote the way Ted Cruz and Rand Paul do.

Chip in $25 or more right now and help build the organization that's going to stop these guys:

https://my.democrats.org/Close-the-Gap

Thanks,

Joe

P.S. -- I'm serious about this -- the other side is hard at work gearing up for the next election. We can't fall behind.

Austerity is Dead: Stop Pushing

Drop the Chained CPI and Social Security

Richard (RJ) Eskow

Campaign for America’s Future / Op-Ed

Published: Monday 20 May 2013

Deficit projections have already by $200 billion for this year alone, so why do Republicans keep lunging for ever-more radical spending cuts like they were corn dogs at a barbecue? That’s more in deficit reduction than President Obama’s proposed cut to Social Security would “save” in ten. So why hasn’t he withdrawn the proposal?

It would make more sense to dial back on the sequester, which is the biggest driver of these revised deficit figures, and work on the fundamental weaknesses in our economy that are prolonging the recession. In the long run this approach would do more to reduce deficits, too.

Instead of cutting Social Security, they should be strengthening the country’s social safety net. A good start would be the passage of Sen. Tom Harkin’s bill to increase Social Security’s benefits. (If I were you I’d contact our Senators and Representative and demand that they support it. I already have, by signing this petition.)

The Mother of All Crises

You wouldn’t know it from listening to most politicians, but there’s a crisis going on. In fact, there are a few of them going on – including the crisis of un- and under-employment, the crisis of wage stagnation, and the crisis caused by lost social mobility.

Each of these unaddressed problems feed into the Mother of All Economic Crises, the one that our mothers and fathers are facing and we’ll all confront ourselves someday: the retirement crisis. Sen. Tom Harkin has a bill that starts to address that crisis, in a bill that should be passed immediately.

Harkin’s bill would increase the typical Social Security benefit by roughly $800 per year. Since most seniors depend on Social Security as their primary source of income, most of that money would be spent immediately. That means the Harkin bill will also have a modest but genuine stimulus effect. And by providing added protection for lower-income retirees, which would protect more seniors from falling into poverty while increasing the stimulus effect.

And it’s all paid for. Harkin’s bill would pay for this benefit increase and ensure Social Security’s solvency by removing the tax cap which currently exempts income above a certain level (currently about $110,000) from taxation.

Passing this bill would be a good move, and would be a first step toward the national conversation we should really be having – the one about restoring the middle class, educational opportunities, and social mobility.

Austerity’s corpse won’t stop dancing.

And yet some politicians are still obsessing instead about the phony crisis over government deficits, which has been ginned up by the corporate interests and billionaires, especially deficit-increasing corporations like defense contractors and deficit-increasing individuals like undertaxed hedge fund billionaires. (We’re looking at you, “Fix the Debt” and Pete Peterson!)

The deficit situation of the last five years was never urgent, and which was only going to be exacerbated by the austerity ideology that’s currently devastating Europe. This misplaced priority has extended the recession, prolonged the jobs crisis, shut down educational opportunities, and allowed wage stagnation to go on killing the middle class.

It’s time to say it: Austerity is dead. The results out of Europe prove it. The complete discrediting of its economic hocus-pocus proves it. As John Carney observes, even Wall Street knows it’s dead. Memo to Washington: When you’ve lost Goldman Sachs, you’ve lost Oligarch America.

But austerity’s corpse is still engaged in a grotesque St. Vitus’ Dance, a dance that has Republicans shrieking about more spending cuts. That’s not surprising, since the GOP is the party of corporate prostitution. They’re a lost moral cause. But why are Democrats like President Obama still playing Ginger Rogers to austerity’s desiccated but still dancing corpse?

In the name of all that’s decent: Won’t somebody stop the music?

No Cuts, Mr. President

It’s the President, not his Republican counterparts, who have proposed the madly punitive “chained CPI” cut to Social Security benefits. We’re told that cut, which will take money from America’s seniors and disabled, will reduce government deficits by $120 to $130 billion over ten years. But the Congressional Budget Office’s projected deficit for this year has already fallen by $200 billion since February, when Obama was presumably preparing the budget which includes this chained CPI cut.

That bears repeating: The projected deficit for this year has already fallen by $200 billion, way more than the “chained CPI” cuts, since last February when those cuts were being prepared. And that’s for only one year, as opposed to Obama’s ten.

Mr. President: Please remove this unkindest cut of all from your budget.

Without a leg to stand on.

Economists have always spoken of retirement security as a “three-legged stool” made up of savings (including assets like a home), pensions, and Social Security. But Wall Street’s greed and criminality shattered the balance sheet of middle-class America, causing Americans to lose trillions in real estate assets and much of their hard-earned savings.

Corporations have also improved their bottom line at their employees’ expense by shifting from defined-benefit pension plans to 401(k) programs and other plans that over very little security to retired Americans.

In other words, corporate profits have kicked two legs off that three-legged stool. The third – Social Security – is splintered and cracked, thanks to Wall Street. Banks convinced Americans to sink their fortunes and their destinies into real estate in order to fuel a bubble that made bankers rich and left Americans bereft.

The resulting crisis drained even more from taxpayers’ resources, and the result “recovery” exists in name only for most people – except for corporations and the wealthy, who have captured all of its growth and a little extra besides.

Benefit cut? No, thanks, just had one.

Americans who lost their jobs because of the recession, and the others who aren’t earning as much as they did, will already see a cut in Social Security benefits, since those benefits are calculated based on lifetime earnings.

So will a generation of young Americans who are entering the worst job market in history. (That’s what reveals the utter cynicism are moral bankruptcy of the austerity crowd’s claims that they’re fighting “greedy geezers” on behalf of the young, who’ll suffer the most if they succeed.)

That means that the wage stagnation that’s afflicted the middle class will also lead to a benefit cut for most Americans. So will Congress’ refusal to act on raising the minimum wage, which is less than half of what it was in 1968 (in real dollars).

Leadership, not phony “savings”

It’s even a misnomer to suggest that Obama’s “chained CPI” cut will even “save” what it claims to save from the Federal budget. That kind of thinking reveals a lack of understanding about economies as a whole. If you take money from the pocket of struggling seniors and disabled people, they won’t be able to spend that money on goods and services that grow the entire economy.

That means less prosperity for all. It also means less tax revenue for the Federal government and more demands for its resources to help the needy. The “savings” figures thrown around in Washington aren’t real – but the pain these cuts will cause is very, very real.

Can’t anybody around here read a spreadsheet? Leaders of the nation, please show us that our entire capital hasn’t gone insane: Drop the chained CPI. Stop the austerity talk. Pass the Harkin bill.

Stop the Republican march toward austerity madness. And for God’s sake, Democrats: More of you should take a cue from people like Sen. Harkin and Sen. Warren, and lead for a change.

~~~

Chuck Todd Says NBC's Hillary Miniseries Will Be a "Total Nightmare" For Its News Division

By Josh Voorhees

| Posted Thursday, Aug. 8, 2013

The nominally bipartisan chorus taking issue with NBC Entertainment's planned miniseries on Hillary Clinton added another unlikely voice on Thursday, with NBC News political director Chuck Todd calling the event-programming project a "total nightmare" for the network's news division. Politico snags the longer version of the quote, which was offered up on MSNBC’s Morning Joe:

"This is why this mini-series is a total nightmare for NBC News ... We know there's this giant firewall, we know we have nothing to do with it, we know that we'd love probably to be as critical or whatever ... But there's nothing we can do about it, and we're going to only own the negative ... People are going to see the peacock, and they see NBC, and they see NBC News, and they think, 'Well, they can't be that separate.' ... The two entities are sometimes at war with each other ... I can't tell you how many fights we've had internally about whether to cover ... some live news event and those ... guys on the West Coast, they want to ... run some rerun of 'Parks and Recreation' or whatever, because they'll make money. ... Actually, please, NBC Entertainment, can you please make some money? ... Thank God for all of the cable channels, right?"

The surprise here, if you can call it that, isn't that Todd feels that way about the project, but that he voiced those feelings so directly (and on one of the network's cable stations no less). His comments come three days after RNC chairman Reince Priebus called the NBC project—along with CNN's planned Hillary documentary—"thinly veiled [attempts] at putting a thumb on the scales of the 2016 presidential election," and threatened an end to primary debate cooperation with the networks if the network execs don't quickly scrap their plans. The RNC's complaints then received backing from an unlikely source the following day, with progressive watchdog Media Matters raising similar issues, albeit for very different reasons.

~~~

The New York Times Is Not For Sale, Says the New York Times Co.

By Josh Voorhees

Posted Thursday, Aug. 8, 2013MYSLATE

Here's the full memo that New York Times Company chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and vice chairman Michael Goldman sent to NYT staff last night, as first snagged by Politico and Gawker, among others:

Colleagues –

We were all taken by surprise on Monday afternoon with the announcement of the Graham family’s decision to sell The Washington Post. Surprise probably doesn’t cover it; we were stunned.

We have spoken to Don Graham and he reiterated to us his desire to put The Washington Post into the hands of someone who he and his family believe is best positioned to help it grow and thrive and compete in the global and digital marketplace. It’s sad to see a great American newspaper family like the Grahams depart from The Post, a publication for which we at The Times have much affection and common ground. While The Times will continue to compete with them for the big story, we hope for the sake of quality journalism and an informed citizenry that Jeff Bezos will continue the tradition of excellence that the Grahams achieved in their eight decades of stewardship.

This leads us to the Ochs-Sulzberger family and this great institution, The New York Times. There has been much speculation and understandable concern about what this could mean for us. Will our family seek to sell The Times? The answer to that is no. The Times is not for sale, and the Trustees of the Ochs-Sulzberger Trust and the rest of the family are united in our commitment to work together with the Company’s Board, senior management and employees to lead The New York Times forward into our global and digital future.

All of us at The Times are aware of the great strides we have made. Our digital subscription model set the standard for the industry and put us on the path forward. The Company is profitable and generates very strong cash flow, which we believe makes us perfectly able to fund our future growth. The Times has both the ideas and the money to pursue innovation.

Mark Thompson has articulated our strategic plan to enable that growth, and we are implementing it beginning with a focus on The New York Times brand, increased investment internationally, in video, in paid products and in brand extensions. Jill Abramson is presiding over a newsroom that is raising the bar with its innovation in storytelling capabilities while maintaining the highest standard of excellence in its journalism. The same can clearly be said for Andy Rosenthal’s leadership in Opinion.

We're incredibly proud of our association with this great institution and, on behalf of the Trustees and the other members of our family, we plan for that association to continue for many years to come.

Arthur and Michael
On behalf of the Ochs-Sulzberger Trustees and family

~~~

Five Reasons Congress Should be Deeply Ashamed About Jobs

Paul Buchheit

NationofChange / Op-Ed

Published: Monday 12 August 2013

U.S. Representative Marlin Stutzman said, "Most people will agree that if you are an able bodied adult without any kids you should find your way off food stamps." That depends on whether those ways can be found. If Stutzman and other members of Congress believe it's that easy to find a job with a living wage, they're either ignorant of middle-class life or victims of free-market delusion. In either case, Congress, with its shameful response to the people who elected them, has not only made the job search more difficult for average Americans, but has also impeded the process.

Senate Republicans killed a proposed $447 billion jobs bill in 2011 that would have added about two million jobs to the economy. They filibustered Nancy Pelosi's "Prevention of Outsourcing Act," and temporarily blocked the "Small Business Jobs Act." Most recently, only one member of Congress bothered to show up for a hearing on unemployment.

Congress' unwavering support of big business donors shows a callous disregard for the needs of the millions of Americans they're supposed to be representing. Here are five of the paralyzing consequences:

1. They've stifled the growth of millions of young adults

In the U.S., more than half of college graduates were jobless or underemployed in 2011. Over the last 12 years, according to a New York Times report, the United States has gone from having the highest share of employed 25 to 34-year-olds among large, wealthy economies to having among the lowest. The Wall Street Journal recently noted that nearly 300,000 people with at least a bachelor's degree were making the minimum wage in 2012, double the number in 2007. Not since the 1960s have so many young adults been living with their parents.

2. They've mocked the concept of a "living wage."

At the very least, one would think, workers should be able to sustain their lifestyles over the years, to keep from falling backwards in earnings. But they've lost 30 percent of their purchasing power since 1968. This happened during a time of steady American productivity.

It has been estimated that a minimum wage tied to productivity should now be $16.54 per hour, but the current $7.25 is less than half of that, and below poverty-level. It's been getting worse in the last five years. While 21 percent of post-recession job losses were considered low-wage positions, 58 percent of jobs added during the recovery were considered low-wage. Congress fiddles while more and more American families lose their earning power.

3. They've allowed nearly half of America to go into debt

Our young adults are not only underemployed, but the college graduates among them are dealing with an average of $26,600 in debt, which translates, according to Demos, into $100,000 of lifetime wealth loss. Total student debt has quadrupled in just ten years.

It goes beyond students to the population at large, many of whom survived the boom years by borrowing heavily on homes and credit cards. In 1983 the poorest 47 percent of America owned an average of $15,000 per family, 2.5 percent of the nation's wealth. By 2009 the poorest 47 percent of America, as a group, owned ZERO PERCENT of the nation's wealth. Their debt exceeds their assets. Yet Congress caters to "too big to fail" financial institutions while "too little to matter" American homeowners don't earn enough to stay out of debt.

4. They've persisted with the trickle-down "job creator" myth

The "low tax = job creation" argument is absurd. Congress need only look at four of its pet projects: Bank of America, Citigroup, Pfizer, and Apple. Each one of the first three made much of their revenue in the U.S. over the last two years, but claimed billions of dollars of U.S. losses (big foreign gains, though). Yet with almost zero U.S. taxes among them, all three companies are among the top ten job cutters.

Apple is a special case. Rand Paul fumed, "What we need to do is apologize to Apple and compliment them for the job creation they're doing." But Apple only has 50,000 U.S. employees, and despite earning about $400,000 per employee, they were the biggest U.S. tax avoider in 2012.

As America waits in vain for corporate job growth, Congress might look in its own back yard for the very worst job cutter, the federal government itself, which has begun to slice up a long-time model of public service, the Post Office.

5. They've aligned against the one area that would ensure jobs and a safer future

A study at the University of Massachusetts concluded that at least 1.7 million jobs could be generated by a commitment to clean energy, about three times as many as in the fossil fuel industry. Half of them would be labor-intensive jobs requiring at most a high school education. And all these new employees would help to reduce their own home heating costs. A recent report by a Kansas energy group, which analyzed data from 19 wind projects, concluded that wind energy generation "is equivalent to, or in some cases significantly cheaper than, new natural gas peaking generation."

If Congress were really concerned about job creation, and about the cost and environmental impact of energy choices, and about the implications of falling behind China and Germany in clean technologies, they would see that a transition to wind and solar power is necessary. But oil, gas, and coal received over twice the level of subsidies provided for renewable fuels from 2002 to 2008. Globally it's six times more, with U.S. post-tax fossil fuel subsidies of $502 billion leading the world. Even with their subsidy advantage, right-wing groups, funded by Koch Industries, are seeking to repeal renewable energy initiatives in individual states. Their deceitfully-named "Electricity Freedom Act" will keep the money flowing to dirty energy. But not the jobs.

Shame, Shame

How can the job-defeating behavior of Congressional Republicans be explained? It was suggested earlier that they're either ignorant of middle-class life or victims of free-market delusion. Perhaps it's more insidious. Thom Hartmann reports on a dinner meeting the night of January 20, 2009, when "Republican conspirators vowed to bring Congress to a standstill, regardless of how badly Congressional inaction would hurt the already hurting American economy and people." In short, they don't want Obama to look good. If that's true, it goes beyond shame. To disgrace.

~~~

If the good Lord is willing and the creek don't rise, I'll talk with you again next Tuesday, August, 20, 2013.

God Bless You All of You

God Bless the United States of America.

Floyd

Opinions Based on Facts

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

OBOF TYMHM & MORE PART 47

Chuck Todd Says NBC's Hillary Miniseries Will Be a "Total Nightmare" For Its News Division

The New York Times Is Not For Sale, Says the New York Times Co.

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