Income Inequality Is A Problem And President Obama Is Tackling It
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Zachary A. Goldfarb: Don’t Think Obama Has Reduced Inequality? These Numbers Prove That He Has.
Today, the average after-tax income of a member of the top 1 percent of earners is $1.12 million. The average after-tax income of someone in the bottom 20 percent is $13,300. That means the average person at the top takes home 84 times the income that the average person in the bottom takes home. Now, consider what it would be like if none of President Obama’s tax policy changes had happened: not the upper-income tax hikes negotiated at the beginning of last year, not the upper-income tax increases imposed by the Affordable Care Act, not the low-income tax credits enacted in the 2009 stimulus and later renewed.
In this alternative universe, the average member of the top 1 percent would take home $1.2 million, or 6.5 percent more in income, according to a new analysis. The average member of the bottom 20 percent would bring home $13,100, or 1.2 percent less in income. As a result, the average member of the 1 percent would take home 91 times what the average person in the bottom would bring home. If you’ve wondered whether Obama has made any headway at reducing income inequality, here’s evidence that he has. Based on tax policy alone, he has slightly increased the income of the poor and more significantly reduced the income of the rich.
Zachary A. Goldfarb: Don’t Think Obama Has Reduced Inequality? These Numbers Prove That He Has.
Today, the average after-tax income of a member of the top 1 percent of earners is $1.12 million. The average after-tax income of someone in the bottom 20 percent is $13,300. That means the average person at the top takes home 84 times the income that the average person in the bottom takes home. Now, consider what it would be like if none of President Obama’s tax policy changes had happened: not the upper-income tax hikes negotiated at the beginning of last year, not the upper-income tax increases imposed by the Affordable Care Act, not the low-income tax credits enacted in the 2009 stimulus and later renewed.
In this alternative universe, the average member of the top 1 percent would take home $1.2 million, or 6.5 percent more in income, according to a new analysis. The average member of the bottom 20 percent would bring home $13,100, or 1.2 percent less in income. As a result, the average member of the 1 percent would take home 91 times what the average person in the bottom would bring home. If you’ve wondered whether Obama has made any headway at reducing income inequality, here’s evidence that he has. Based on tax policy alone, he has slightly increased the income of the poor and more significantly reduced the income of the rich.
LA Times: In Los Angeles, Obama Gives His Die-Hard Supporters A Tough-Love Talk
President Obama delivered a tough-love talk to his biggest boosters Wednesday, telling Democratic donors gathered in Los Angeles that they need to step it up before November if he’s going to get much done in his last two years in office. “You thought, ‘OK, we elect Barack and that’s it,’” Obama told a crowd big-dollar donors gathered in the lush Hancock Park backyard of TV producer Shonda Rhimes. He reminded them that he’d warned that it wasn’t about electing him but about getting “our democracy to work.” “I have got to have a Congress that has some sense and is willing to work and is willing to compromise and is focused on the American people. And we don’t have that right now.” Obama is often candid about what he describes as Democrats’ chronic problem: low turnout in midterm elections. But his remarks Wednesday came with a sharper ribbing for a crowd he seemed to think could take it.
Democrats like the fun of a presidential campaign, Obama said. But “we’ve got to step it up in the midterms. Not when it’s easy, not when it’s sexy, not when there’s hope posters….” While Democrats “don’t even know there’s an election,” Obama said, Republicans get to the polls. “Lo and behold we’re surprised when John Boehner is speaker of the House! What happened to Nancy Pelosi? What happened is y’all didn’t vote. And that’s when all kinds of … stuff happened,” Obama said, pausing as if deliberating on whether to keep the rant clean. “That’s what it was — stuff.”
Marketwatch: Jobless Claims Lowest In More Than Eight Years
The number of unemployed workers applying for jobless benefits tumbled in the most recent weekly data to the lowest level in more than eight years, signaling that employers are letting go of very few workers.
Applicants for regular state unemployment-insurance benefits in the week that ended July 19 dropped by 19,000 to 284,000 — the lowest level since February 2006, the U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had expected initial claims of 310,000 in the most recent weekly data.
Steve Benen: Jobless Claims Improve To Eight-Year Low
The last time the Labor Department published a report on initial unemployment claims this good, the Great Recession hadn’t even started yet:
The number of people who applied for regular state unemployment-insurance benefits in the week that ended July 19 tumbled by 19,000 to 284,000 – the lowest level since February 2006 – signaling that companies have further slowed down the pace of layoffs and are letting go of few workers, according to government data released Thursday….
Regular readers know I run the above chart every Thursday morning, highlighting initial unemployment claims since January 2007, the year the Great Recession started. Look closely, however, and you’ll notice that today’s report is the best since before the chart began.
Chicago Tribune: U.S. Health Insurers To Pay $330 Million In Premium Rebates
U.S. health insurers will send out about $330 million in rebates to employers and individuals this summer under President Barack Obama’s healthcare law, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said on Thursday.
The law, often called Obamacare, requires insurance companies to refund customers when they spend less than 80 percent or 85 percent of healthcare premiums they collect for medical care.
The rebates will go to about 6.8 million people and have a value of about $80 per family. They are to be sent by Aug. 1 either directly to consumers or to the employer providing the health coverage, who is required to pass the savings onto employees, the agency said in a report.
Pro Publica: Even After Open Enrollment, Activity Remains Unexpectedly High On Federal Health Insurance Exchange
New federal data, obtained by ProPublica under the Freedom of Information Act, shows nearly 1 million insurance transactions since mid-April.
For months, journalists and politicians fixated on the number of people signing up for health insurance through the federal exchange created as part of the Affordable Care Act. It turned out that more than 5 million people signed up using Healthcare.gov by April 19, the end of the open-enrollment period.
But perhaps more surprising is that, according to federal data released Wednesday to ProPublica, there have been nearly 1 million transactions on the exchange since then. People are allowed to sign up and switch plans after certain life events, such as job changes, moves, the birth of a baby, marriages and divorces.
The volume of these transactions was a jolt even for those who have watched the rollout of the ACA most closely.
More than half the public says Obamacare has helped either their families or others across the country, although less than one in five Americans say they have personally benefited from the health care law, according to a new national poll. A CNN/ORC International survey also indicates that a majority of Americans oppose the Affordable Care Act, but that some of that opposition is from people who don’t think the measure goes far enough.
The poll, conducted this past weekend, was released on Wednesday, one day after a federal appeals court upheld Obamacare tax subsidies. That ruling came just a couple of hours after a separate appeals court struck down such subsidies for the millions of Americans enrolled in the federal government’s HealthCare.gov exchange. 53% say that Obamacare has helped either their families or others across the country.
ThinkProgress: Demonizing Migrant Children Proves An Epic Fail For Anti-Immigrant Groups
Anti-Immigrants can’t even throw a good rally anymore.
Anti-immigrant groups have hit upon the issue of children fleeing violence who are arriving unaccompanied by adults at our southern border. These children are coming from three countries: El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. All three countries have very serious problems with gang violence, murder and child trafficking into prostitution. Under current US federal law these children have the right to have their cases thoroughly evaluated to ensure that no child is returned to a country where they might be killed, injured or trafficked.
… To make their case that Americans are really upset about an increase in unaccompanied children at the border, anti-immigrant groups staged what was supposed to have been a massive number of protests around the country. They staged a “National Day of Protesting Against Immigration Reform, Amnesty & Border Surge”….
…. Despite this all in effort, the anti-immigrants failed miserably to turn people out to protest children. If these rallies around the country were meant to demonstrate the power of the anti-immigrant movement, they may instead signal its end. In many cases, no one showed up at all.
Brian Beutler: The Conservative Judges Who Ruled Against Obamacare Missed This One Very Important Detail
We now know that two conservative judges on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals have declared it illegal for the government to subsidize Obamacare health plans in states that didn’t set up their own insurance exchanges. In reaching that conclusion, Judge Thomas Griffith, who authored the opinion of the court, sought to rebut each of the Obama administration’s arguments to the contrary—that the law clearly contemplates subsidizing health plans in every state whether or not a state built its own marketplace. But in one instance he based his counterargument on information that became outdated less than one week ago.
And the recent development turns that counterargument on its head. One of the White House’s most straightforward arguments is that neither Congress nor the administration would have approved a punitive system so at odds with the ACA’s ultimate, stated goal of achieving near-universal insurance coverage. The law seeks to achieve near-universal coverage by mandating the purchase of guaranteed, subsidized (and thus affordable) health plans. Take away the subsidies, and the plans are no longer affordable. If the plans aren’t affordable, they’re no longer compulsory. And if they aren’t compulsory and affordable the coverage expansion goal will be unattainable.
Senator Obama waves to the crowd after making a speech in front of the Victory Column in Berlin, July 24, 2008
Sen. Obama waves from his car on July 24, 2008 in Berlin, Germany
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President Obama shares a lighter moment with Vice President Biden in the Oval Office on July 24, 2009 (Photo by Pete Souza)
President Obama meets with leaders from the disability community in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on July 24, 2009 (Photo by Pete Souza)
President Obama shakes the hand of a young military family member at the Marine Barracks evening parade in Washington, D.C. on July 24, 2009 (Photo by Samantha Appleton)
President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama attend the U.S. Marine Barracks evening parade in Washington, D.C. on July 24, 2009 (All photos by Samantha Appleton)
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First Lady Michelle Obama bids farewell to departing staff Eirene Busa, White House Stenographer, center left, and Holli Crawford, White House Communications Agency, center right, aboard Bright Star during a flight from Manchester, N.H., to Joint Base Andrews, Md., July 24, 2011 (Photo by Samantha Appleton)
President Obama and Vice President Biden walk around the South Lawn of the White House, Sunday, July 24, 2011 (Photo by Pete Souza)
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President Obama greets patrons and restaurant staff during a local stop at the Gateway Breakfast House in Portland, Ore., July 24, 2012 (Photo by Pete Souza)
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President Obama presents Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., with a birthday cupcake aboard Air Force One, July 24, 2013 (Photo by Pete Souza)
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