The top 1% of Americans, now make 24% of the income and own 34% of all American wealth. They (the top 5% of Americans) now own more than the entire bottom 95% of Americans combined! Roughly they own 60% of all of America's wealth!So be sure to send a big 'thank you and can I have another?" to Rep. John 'we don't need no stinking regulations' Kline. By his votes while in office, he took a country that used to have a middle class and turned it into a nation where only the richest 1% have rights. His insistence on 'trickle down' has turned America into a third rate nation with only two class, rich (top 5%) and super rich (top 1%)!
For those left that even care, besides redistributing wealth, John Kline has also allowed the poor to have more debt... a whopping 73% of debt. For the vast majority of poor Americans, their homes are the most significant wealth they possess but also represents their largest debt:
Now that the middle class has been eliminated, look for Kline to squeeze the poor even harder to make more money/profit/returns for the wealthiest 1%...
Extending Bush Tax Cuts
Kline wants ALL the Bush tax cuts extended...
In other words, Kline wants the wealthiest 1% to continue to avoid their fair share of taxes.
Inheritance Tax
Rep. Kline is against any inheritance tax or as he calls it for PR reasons...a 'death tax'. Yet it's a tax only on 1% of Americans. According to a study published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, only 1.6% of Americans receive $100,000 or more in inheritance. Another 1.1% receive $50,000 to $100,000. On the other hand, 91.9% receive nothing, zero, zip, nada!
Thus, ultra-conservatives like John Kline in eliminating inheritance taxes takes a huge bite out of government revenues for the benefit of less than 1% of the population. Kline's stance can only be seen as anti-American government and only serves the wealthy 1%...but does not reflect the majority or those that are middle class or poor.
Social Security
Even though social security has enough funds to pay for itself though 2039, Kline wants to do away with social security. Yet Social Security has not contributed one dime to the federal deficit – it actually has a surplus of $2.6 trillion today. As it stands today, only the first $105,000 of a person's income is taxed for Social Security purposes, so it would clearly be a boon to the Social Security Fund if everyone -- not just those making less than $105,000 -- paid the Social Security tax on their full incomes.
Given Kline's position on protecting the top 1% of wealthy Americans, look for social security to end under his tutelage.
CEO Pay
If you compare the actual rates of increase of the salaries of CEOs to ordinary workers from 1990 to 2005, CEOs pay increased almost 300% (adjusted for inflation), while production workers gained a scant 4.3%. The purchasing power of the federal minimum wage actually declined by 9.3%, when inflation is taken into account. Yet Kline voted against raising the minimum wage.
The bottom 80% of Americans receive only 6% of all the new financial wealth generated in the United States during the '80s, '90s, and early 2000s (Wolff, 2007). So while Kline goes after unions and collective bargaining units (can you say the shrinking middle class?) CEO's are reaping huge benefits and becoming the wealthiest of Americans. Kline's mantra of 'letting business determine it's own rules' has lead us to fewer jobs, lower pay, higher corporation profits, gross CEO pay and incentives, and lower industry standards of safety.
All in all, the voters decided last week to give up and let Rep. John Kline continue to vote against their best interests and continue down the path of being a third rate nation...so congratulations to Kline, and to all who voted for him. Expect more bridges to fall down, less road repairs, more fees and higher taxes, with less government regulations and rules protecting your community. In other words, expect more of the same since Kline has been in office.
Inheritance Tax
Rep. Kline is against any inheritance tax or as he calls it for PR reasons...a 'death tax'. Yet it's a tax only on 1% of Americans. According to a study published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, only 1.6% of Americans receive $100,000 or more in inheritance. Another 1.1% receive $50,000 to $100,000. On the other hand, 91.9% receive nothing, zero, zip, nada!
Thus, ultra-conservatives like John Kline in eliminating inheritance taxes takes a huge bite out of government revenues for the benefit of less than 1% of the population. Kline's stance can only be seen as anti-American government and only serves the wealthy 1%...but does not reflect the majority or those that are middle class or poor.
Social Security
Even though social security has enough funds to pay for itself though 2039, Kline wants to do away with social security. Yet Social Security has not contributed one dime to the federal deficit – it actually has a surplus of $2.6 trillion today. As it stands today, only the first $105,000 of a person's income is taxed for Social Security purposes, so it would clearly be a boon to the Social Security Fund if everyone -- not just those making less than $105,000 -- paid the Social Security tax on their full incomes.
Given Kline's position on protecting the top 1% of wealthy Americans, look for social security to end under his tutelage.
CEO Pay
If you compare the actual rates of increase of the salaries of CEOs to ordinary workers from 1990 to 2005, CEOs pay increased almost 300% (adjusted for inflation), while production workers gained a scant 4.3%. The purchasing power of the federal minimum wage actually declined by 9.3%, when inflation is taken into account. Yet Kline voted against raising the minimum wage.
The bottom 80% of Americans receive only 6% of all the new financial wealth generated in the United States during the '80s, '90s, and early 2000s (Wolff, 2007). So while Kline goes after unions and collective bargaining units (can you say the shrinking middle class?) CEO's are reaping huge benefits and becoming the wealthiest of Americans. Kline's mantra of 'letting business determine it's own rules' has lead us to fewer jobs, lower pay, higher corporation profits, gross CEO pay and incentives, and lower industry standards of safety.
All in all, the voters decided last week to give up and let Rep. John Kline continue to vote against their best interests and continue down the path of being a third rate nation...so congratulations to Kline, and to all who voted for him. Expect more bridges to fall down, less road repairs, more fees and higher taxes, with less government regulations and rules protecting your community. In other words, expect more of the same since Kline has been in office.
No comments:
Post a Comment