Robert Oak's blog

46.2 Million People in Poverty for 2010

The Census released a comprehensive report on poverty, income and health insurance coverage in the United States for 2010. There were 46.18 million people living in poverty, in the United States. The Census population for 2010 was 305,688,000. This means that 15.1% of people in the United States are below the poverty thresholds, or one in 6.6 people.

 

How Obama is Going to Pay for a $245 Billion Cut to Social Security Contributions

out of work free cardWe all know the United States needs jobs. We need jobs right now! Last week Obama proposed a new Stimulus plan, which we did a first pass on. Unfortunately most press is busy covering superficial politics instead of what is in the bill, how it would be paid for and most importantly, the effectiveness, or lack thereof.

USA today claims the plan is to tax the rich as they put it, or as we put it, close loopholes and tax hedge fund managers, currently living living high off the hog at a 15% tax rate.

Here's the gist of how Obama plans to pay the $447 billion his plan costs.

  • Limit on itemized deductions ($200,000 individuals, $250,000 families) - $400 billion
  • Carried interest would be treated as "ordinary income" rather than at capital-gains rate - $18 billion
  • Oil- and gas-company tax breaks - $40 billion
  • Corporate-jet depreciation would change - $3 billion

Greece on the Verge of Default

greek dominoesThe rumors are swirling that a Greek Default is imminent:

Despite strong denials that the country is heading for a default, rumours have grown that the end game is approaching. Wolfgang Schäuble, the German finance minister, has insisted that a sixth, €8bn (£6.8bn) instalment of aid will not be released unless Greece enacts corrective measures to kickstart its economy and improve competitiveness. Experts from Washington and Brussels will fly into Athens this week to assess whether Greece is sticking to its programme of drastic spending cuts and tax rises, amid fears that its creditors could be ready to pull the plug.

Literally there are talks about seizing Greek assets, by force.

Germany’s EU commissioner Günther Oettinger said Europe should send blue helmets to take control of Greek tax collection and liquidate state assets.

Greece, assuming in response, announced a new property tax, collected through electricity bills:

The tax is €4 per square meter (about $0.50 per sq. feet). The government is projecting this levy will make up for the revenue shortfall due to the sharper than expected contraction in the Greek economy.

Saturday Reads Around The Internets - Outsourcing Jobs and Tax Cuts

shocknews
Welcome to the weekly roundup of great articles, facts and figures. These are the weekly finds that made our eyes pop.

You may wonder why to create jobs, government doesn't just stop offshore outsourcing them? We sure do. With that, the theme of this week's links is offshore outsourcing.

 

First Pass on Obama's Jobs Stimulus Redux

President Obama introduced his so called jobs plan, spending $447 billion. 51% of this is tax cuts, 31% is infrastructure and local aid and 14% of unemployment insurance. Firstly, it has been shown time and time again, tax cuts do not create jobs. We just showed one would be better off hiring people to cut grass with scissors than enact a payroll tax cut. The payroll tax cuts alone are $240 billion, or over half of Obama's plan.

Payroll Tax Cut As Stimulus

One cornerstone of Obama's jobs plan is a $120 billion payroll tax cut. This tax cut has been enacted already for 2011 and according to Obama, the claim is this tax cut put an average $1000 into worker's pockets.

This is a tax cut that reduced those Social Security contributions, what you see as FICA, the social security component, on your W-2, by 2% for 2011. That's right, they defunded social security by 2% for 2011.

Social security is calculated on gross income, normally 6.2%. This is why attacking social security is almost a crime. You've actually been putting money into your benefit your entire working life. It's capped to a wage base and for 2011 it's $106,800.

Additionally, median income is a tad misleading, for it's household income, on aggregate, instead of individual income. Additionally, it's not median wages, which since social security is a regressive tax, affecting wage earners disporportionately, using median income to estimate the tax benefit isn't quite right. After all, most of us are have nots, the median wage for 2009 was $26,261, much lower than the household median income of $49,777 for 2009.

The Presidential Candidate Not There

It seems safe to say no one is happy with the Presidential candidate field. Poll after poll shows strong disapproval with government and why not, with inane policies promoted by both sides.
corporate politicians

Tonight is yet more political football with pundit coach potato quarterbacks featured on every cable news channel. It's another Republican debate.

So, why is a GOP candidate, a former Louisiana governor as well as Congressman, now running for President not there?

Because they wouldn't let him.

Buddy Roemer is running for President. Yup, a GOP candidate is talking about China, corruption in politics, trade and jobs. He's even picking up on one of Obama's empty campaign promises, removing corporate tax incentives to offshore outsource your job. Even more promising for broad appeal, it seems Roemer was once a conservative Democrat and switched parties. Hopefully that implies he might actually have an open mind to agenda that adds up by the numbers and makes economic sense, unlike most of the GOP field. Roemer also has a Harvard MBA and unlike Bush, didn't skate, so he might just have a little clue on economic policy that isn't made up by corporate lobbyists.

Any Jobs Bill Must Have Buy American and Hire America Mandatory Requirements

arra signPaul Krugman shows the 2009 economic stimulus was not enough.  We've shown as have many others, tax cuts for the rich do not create jobs.   Yet, many criticized the $787 Billion Stimulus bill as spending, loaded with political favors and misdirected funds.  For example, 84% of the green jobs went offshore and build America bonds were yet another gift for Goldman Sachs.

The problem with the original stimulus wasn't that it wasn't big enough.  It was not smart enough.  What we need is true domestic stimulus.  If you're going to spend our money to stimulate our economy, stop shipping our dough to China instead.
buy american
Is this possible?  Can one stop the offshore outsourcing of jobs, especially jobs created with our hard earned taxpayer dollars?  Is there anything that can be done which actually goes to American workers?   Why yes there is.  First and foremost, all stimulus funding should have two mandatory requirements, Buy American and Hire America.  If a government is enacting Keynesian economic stimulus, they must keep that spending within the domestic economy they wish to stimulate.  The last thing America's workers need is stimulating China's economy and generating more jobs for them.

Pages