I started this blog because of my concerns about what's happening to the 'Middle Class' in our country. I believe it is everyone's responsibility to participate in the process of how our government works, how it uses its power (or not), how Congress is serving its constituents, and how and why we choose our Congressional representatives. I think most of us agree that our government is broken, and that Congressional representatives are getting paid big bucks for doing absolutely nothing!
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Sunday, September 22, 2013
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Securing money to keep New York's hospitals open continues to be a major problem for politicians!
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Debating a Fix for Hospitals in Dire Straits by Anemona Hartocollis
"Of all the issues in the Democratic primary for mayor, one of the few that most candidates seem to agree on is that struggling New York City hospitals need to be saved." More -- http://nyti.ms/17jAwAX
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
And, how will attacking Syria affect the horrific economic situation in the U.S?
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Kerry Admits Possibility of 'Boots on the Ground' in Syria
by Jon Queally
Boots on the ground?
Asked by Senate Robert Menendez (D-NJ)
whether or not language should be inserted in a congressional
authorization for an attack on Syria that would prohibit 'U.S. boots on
the ground,' U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that would not be
good idea. Kerry stammered, and then declared—"in the event Syria
imploded, for instance"—that he wouldn't want to take that option "off
the table" by inserting such a clause.Sunday, September 1, 2013
The High Probability of Being Poor by Matt Bruenig
"Late last month, the Associated Press ran a report about economic insecurity that managed to gain some traction in certain parts of the political internet, and since then, again and again in certain relevant debates. The statistical bomb dropped in the first sentence of the report really says it all:
Four out of 5 U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives, a sign of deteriorating economic security and an elusive American dream." More -- http://bit.ly/16sHOSG
This is a pretty sad story about the enormous salaries earned by the top CEO's in the United States - at taxpayers' expense!
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Why Supersized CEO Pay Is the Worst—in Three Charts
by Sarah Anderson
"At the Institute for Policy Studies, we’ve tallied the top 25 highest-paid CEOs for each of the past 20 years."
"That’s a total of 500 richly rewarded executives—each one of whom made more in a week than average workers could make in a year. We’re told CEOs deserve these massive rewards because they add exceptional “value” to their businesses. They’re getting “paid for performance.”"Financial bailouts are just one example of how a significant number of CEO pay leaders owe much of their good fortune to taxpayers. Government contracts are another. CEOs of firms on the federal government’s top 100 contractors list occupied 62 of the 500 slots on the annual highest-paid CEO lists of the last 20 years. In the same years that their CEOs pocketed some of corporate America’s fattest paychecks, these firms received $255 billion in taxpayer-funded federal contracts." More -- http://bit.ly/186Zbrc
I believe we should all be concerned when banks start controlling power plants, airports and other "essential lifelines." An important article to be read by anyone concerned about the wealthy controlling our public assets and commodities!
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The Leveraged Buyout of America by Ellen Brown
"Giant bank holding companies now own airports, toll roads, and ports; control power plants; and store and hoard vast quantities of commodities of all sorts. They are systematically buying up or gaining control of the essential lifelines of the economy. How have they pulled this off, and where have they gotten the money?" Article -- http://bit.ly/15ciaEO
Clarion Call Rings Throughout Nation: 'Low Pay Is Not OK'.
Wave of fast food worker strikes resurges on Thursday with walkouts across the US by Andrea Germanos
Federal contracting jobs doubled between 1996 & 2009 for low-paying jobs, which means taxpayers are subsidizing these jobs twice!
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Testimony on Low-Wage Work: How Our Tax Dollars Drive Inequality by Amy Traub
"For our report “Underwriting Bad Jobs: How Our Tax Dollars Are Funding Low-Wage Work and Fueling Inequality,” my colleague Robert Hiltonsmith
and I analyzed data on federal contractors, health care spending, Small
Business Administration loans, federal infrastructure grants and Public
Buildings Service property leases.[1]
We found that through these sources of federal funding, nearly two
million private sector workers are employed, doing jobs we have decided
are worthy of public funding, for wages of $12 an hour less, in some
cases much less. There is no single private sector employer responsible
for this many low wage employees." Read more -- http://bit.ly/16KCRaB.
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