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In the work for welfare program that started under Clinton many single mothers now work minimum wage jobs to meet the work requirement. They also often travel long distances by bus to reach those jobs. It may be intended for teenagers but that is not what is happening in the real world.
And this did indeed begin under Reagan who raised working class taxes a full 60%! He lowered taxes on people making real money and raised the FICA (Social Security and Medicare) from 9+% to 15.4% (employer and employee combined). If you work for yourself of course you pay the whole thing known as the 'self-employment tax'
He also began the destruction of private pensions in favor of IRAs and 401(k) plans which resulted in a huge transfer of money from individuals to stock brokers and financial advisors. Few have an IRA or 401 plan that comes even close to giving them what even the most measly pension plan did.
He also changed the capital gains taxes to favor big investors tying up large sums of money.
If wages had been allowed to increase with inflation there would be no tax shortfalls today, as taxes are a percentage of wages and fall mainly on the working and middle classes.
Yes, it began under Reagan.
When I was judge in family court, I told people virtually the same words as Thom Hartman writes below. I once told Bill Richardson to stop using the label "deadbeat dad" because all but a few dads who were behind in child support were really only dead broke dads because they weren't paid a living wage. I reckoned years ago that it took a $15/hour job before there could be a scrap of discretionary income available for child support. Then, as now, $15/hour jobs in New Mexico are not easy to come by. (The federal government spends millions, maybe billions, of dollars on a child support enforcement apparatus. This agency relies heavily on computers which lets the agency funnel money to giant data collection corporations one of which skimmed a ton of federal grant money meant to help NM's child support enforcement agency create a computer program that never did work. Of course, a good deal of the agency's money also goes to pay lawyers to hound parents who are behind on support. We'd all be better off if the agency used its money to support children directly.) Among other travesties of justice in the US, our policies and laws demonize poor parents, each of whom demonizes the other in turn, for making his/her life so miserable--one by seeing child support as too high; the other seeing it as too little--when the villains are employers who pay inadequate wages. It seems to me that many among us fail to recognize what a livable wage actually looks like, and Hartman is right that for a parent and two children, $24/hour is bare bones. Anne
Now I know why the US Census report of poverty identifies the single female head of household as the biggest contributor to poverty with high school dropouts.
Lets see how much energy Germany eventually purchases from France. Reneables in Germany is only 16.1% of total.
"The war Ronald Reagan started against the working class is a resounding success today"
This has to be one of dumbest statements I have read from you.....Minimum wage is for entry level workers NOT MOTHERS WITH TWO OR THREE CHILDREN LIVING ON THEIR OWN!
This is totally ridiculas Red Herring you are trying to foist here. The minimum wage is meant for high school kids on their first job. It has never been meant for anyone raising a family. Ronald Reagan had absolutley nothing to do with this kind of liberal insanity.....
Dear Thom, I listen to your show daily and while you are very knowledgeable I often wonder why you are unaware of the Baha'i Faith. Check it out and see what it's founder says (1865) about nuclear power, war, and equality of people, etc.
There is something in the American psyche that looks upon the killing of God’s children as Magical Moments. We know of Sacramental Moments and BOHICA Moments. The killing of God’s children are Magical Moments.
I want to share with you how to decipher my comments or posts. I look upon my comments falling into a rant and vent mode, an informational mode, my spiritual mode, and my dry sense of humor mode. I believe that whoever reads my comments will have to discern my mode (style) or modus operandi.
Why is there no talk of shared sacrifice for American corporations and the American rich?
Reflection of the week: “You who are journalists, writers, citizens, you have the right and duty to say to those you have elected that they must practice mindfulness, calm and deep listening, and loving speech. This is universal thing, taught by all religions.” - Thich Nhat Hanh
Anthony Gregory appears to be more of a conservative. His articles may be slanted to the right and so we will have to discern his thought processes more carefully.
http://independent.org/publications/policy_reports/detail.asp?type=full&id=40
Mr. Gregory needs to be more critical of Bush, the warmonger, for his immoral and wrong wars. We seem to forget that Bush was the first mass murderer and war criminal from his misadventures in Afganistan and Iraq. I would have to say that Obama has carried on the mass murders and war crimes. When a person becomes president or a member of Congress or a Supreme Court Justice as we have currently in the Supreme Court and we see the Mafia rrunning the circus, these persons are willingly selling their soul to Satan and they become one of Satan's loyal disciples.
REPLY TO MATBOY:
I saw one report on TV saying that the official conclusion (before the WHO report) didnt show any conclusion BUT she said buried in the back pages of the cell phone study report was the stats from people who had used cell phones OVER 10 YEARS showed a DEFINITE correlation with cancer. Nuff said for me. Got WAY too much to get done today.
I do not know if Anthony Gregory is conservative or progressive. Is he a patriotic American or not??? He feels Bush's third term is worse than his first two terms. Is he right???
http://original.antiwar.com/anthony-gregory/2011/05/31/worse-than-a-third-bush-term/
When you read this article, you must be bending over for BOHICA moment. You will not be experiencing a Sacramental Moment.
http://original.antiwar.com/peter-casey/2011/05/31/where-have-all-the-missiles-gone/
Louise, if cost of living kept pace when the minimum wage law was passed, the hourly minimum wage would be $19.00. Reagan has impoverished the working class of peons.
Erik300, CNN didn't pooh-pooh the results. Their host actually blew the results out of proportion on the side of "DANGER! DANGER!"
Louise, if cost of living kept pace when the minimum wage law was passed, the hourly minimum wage would be $19.00. Reagan has impoverished the working class of peons.
I recommend reading this article on the WHO's cell phone announcement: http://scienceblog.cancerresearchuk.org/2011/05/31/who-verdict-on-mobile-phones-and-cancer/.
REPLY TO MATHBOY: Guess who some of CNN's biggest corporate sponsors are? The TELECOMMUNICATIONS giants who are all in cell phone biz. That's why they suppress and poopoo the results.
Okay, I'm going by the CNN report. The WHO has been "reviewing studies", which means they did a study of studies, or meta-study, not original research. Meta-studies suck, because the methods and conditions of the included studies vary, and therefore a meta-study's results cannot be taken as gospel. And they came out of it saying the it's possibly a carcinogen. Not definitely a carcinogen. This means that they don't really know jack--the hypothesis was neither proven nor disproven. But then the CNN woman (not the medical correspondent, who was careful with her words) finishes up by calling it "conclusive", which is not what "possibly" means. "Possibly" literally means it's not conclusive.
REPLY TO MATHBOY: Yes cell phones cause a rare form of brain cancer called Glioma cancer. As Thom pointed out, Ed Kennedy used cell phones a lot over the past 20 years and he died of glioma cancer at the same side as he held his cell phone. The stats also show a definite correlation of glioma and those who have used cell phones a lot FOR OVER 10 YEARS.
Cell phones use a frequency of 2-2.5 GHz which is on the low end of microwave oven radiation frequency range.
Light bulbs release a lot of radiation too. It's called visible light. Not all radiation is the same.
Microwaves are less energetic than visible light, and are non-ionizing radiation. If cell phones cause brain cancer, then they should also cause ear cancer and hand cancer. I don't care if it makes your flesh warm; that's just heat, and you've experienced it many times in your life without getting cancer from it.
CORDLESS phones do cause cancer. Its the cordless phone BASE that is dangerous as it puts out a large amount of radiation like its a mini cell tower. So they warn to keep the base far away as possible from where you sit or sleep.
Something just occured to me in regards to Thom's theory that Ted Kennedy's brain tumor was probably caused by use of early style cell phones. If that's true, can we expect an epidemic of the wealthy getting brain tumors? Makes one think of what the result of a massive die off the wealthy in the next 10-20 years will do. Perhaps this is why it is said the meek will inherit the earth, because the wealthy will die off using the newest and apparently dangerous technology that's available out there.
Isn't it ironic?
N
I had to make my previous comment quickly before going to lunch.
Anyway, the idea was to make the smallest state join up with a neighboring state while the biggest one splits, so that the number of states remains the same. The maps are fun to look at, the spreadsheets less so.
A nice thing about the process is that after 5 iterations, every state has at least 2 representatives, and after 10 iteratons, every state has at least 3 reps. (Doesn't it seem weird that a state can have 2 senators and only one representative?)
Obviously, I didn't reach the ratio of 3 that would stop the process according to the rules, but I stopped after 11 iterations because I couldn't decide which state to make WV join up with.
I live in Southern California and our differences with No. California are not as great some callers were stating. So. and No. Calif almost always vote the same in elections. So. Cal. is also very progressive/environmentally oriented. Priuses and other hybrids are very common in So. Cal urban and most suburban areas. So. Cal does have more conservative areas than No. Cal. but No. Cal. also has the Sacramento area which is pretty conservative from what I hear.
watch Weather Channel and have noticed big change in format that started couple of weeks ago when "Al" brought over to WC morning show. All of a sudden began 6 commercials between weather spots. Last night around 8PM guy on WC said paraphrasing that a lot of prople think corporations are out to do them harm, followed by not so as almost all including CitiGroup doing all it can to tell folks what they need to do to get green, etc. Talk about propaganda in favor of corporations! It is clear to me that WC has been taken over by whoever moved "Al" around, and all the commercials, and pitch in favor of INCS. So much for WC. I hope only that FreeSpeech TV will someday come up with a good weather channel segment. I like CCTV and Aljazeera has a good weather segment on LINK TV, but the days of WC are numbered, same for ClearChannel, NBC, CBS, ABC, and all other main stream media in the USA. And by the way, take a look at http://www.dutchsinse.com/