1. A
family story that highlights the incomplete recovery from the
2006/2008 recession;
2. The GOP Tax Scam Two-Step: Explode the Deficit With Cuts for Rich, Then Screw the Poor;
3. The health insurance disaster from the new legislation
As you probably know, the news of the "growing economy" has mostly to do with the finance/investment sector and little to do with jobs and wages. As "baby boomers" retire from higher paying jobs, there has been growth in numbers of jobs with low pay, which is most of them. In recent years I have seen several charts that showed that on average, the income of those earning below $50,000 has not increased in real buying power since 1979.
Rather than just link to it again, here next below is the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) chart dated November 26, 2017 that I have been pointing you to over the past couple of days. Again, the difference between this chart and the one that Republican leaders are pushing is that this one includes both the effect of the removal of the mandate to sign up for health insurance and the combined effects of the fairly inevitable resulting cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and the Basic Health Program in the very near future. The restoration of the deduction for state and local taxes this week would affect the chart in a minor way.
To begin with please see line by line the effects on people with incomes of less than $10,000, less than 20,000, and less than 30,000. Our living costs are projected to increase over the years by BIG numbers, including MORE THAN DOUBLING for those whose incomes are less than $10,000. Much of that has to do with having to pay more for medical expenses--except of course that people will be dying instead of being able to pay for medical expenses. Of course there are multiple times more of us than there are people with incomes over $50,000. And you know darn well that it's not because most of us are lazy.*
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/senate-gop-tax-bill-hurts-the-poor-more-than-originally-thought-cbo-finds/ar-BBFLSvI
1. "The Never-Ending Foreclosure: How can the country survive the next economic crash if millions of families still haven't recovered from the last one?," by Alana Semuels, The Atlantic, December 1, 2017 This is a family story that highlights the incomplete recovery from the 2006/2008 recession
2. "The GOP Tax Scam Two-Step: Explode the Deficit With Cuts for Rich, Then Screw the Poor," by Jake Johnson, staff writer, Common Dreams, December 1, 2017. The second step has to do with the aforementioned near future planned cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, and the Basic Health Program.
3. "Obamacare Is on the Ropes—Again: With open-enrollment numbers slipping, the Republican tax plan gaining steam, and CHIP still in limbo, critical elements of health-insurance programs are in danger," by Vann R. Newkirk III, The Atlantic, December 1, 2017.
love to you and your family,
Larry
* As with most people, I hate to talk about my financial situation, but there is a hint of it there anyway. Never mind how it happened. There was a combination of several rather unusual and unforeseeable disasters involved. But I do still manage without asking anybody for anything besides help with health insurance. I figure that being able to pay medical expenses was supposed to have been part of my Social Security Retirement income that I paid for. But, you know, the annual cost of living increases to Social Security Retirement have been short for years. And, as you probably also know, instead of repaying any of it, Congress spends my money from the separate Social Security retirement insurance fiduciary fund to pay for bombs and bomb delivery mechanisms that I for one do not appreciate. In the past I have laid out the facts of how this works in more detail. LS
2. The GOP Tax Scam Two-Step: Explode the Deficit With Cuts for Rich, Then Screw the Poor;
3. The health insurance disaster from the new legislation
As you probably know, the news of the "growing economy" has mostly to do with the finance/investment sector and little to do with jobs and wages. As "baby boomers" retire from higher paying jobs, there has been growth in numbers of jobs with low pay, which is most of them. In recent years I have seen several charts that showed that on average, the income of those earning below $50,000 has not increased in real buying power since 1979.
Rather than just link to it again, here next below is the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) chart dated November 26, 2017 that I have been pointing you to over the past couple of days. Again, the difference between this chart and the one that Republican leaders are pushing is that this one includes both the effect of the removal of the mandate to sign up for health insurance and the combined effects of the fairly inevitable resulting cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and the Basic Health Program in the very near future. The restoration of the deduction for state and local taxes this week would affect the chart in a minor way.
To begin with please see line by line the effects on people with incomes of less than $10,000, less than 20,000, and less than 30,000. Our living costs are projected to increase over the years by BIG numbers, including MORE THAN DOUBLING for those whose incomes are less than $10,000. Much of that has to do with having to pay more for medical expenses--except of course that people will be dying instead of being able to pay for medical expenses. Of course there are multiple times more of us than there are people with incomes over $50,000. And you know darn well that it's not because most of us are lazy.*
1. "The Never-Ending Foreclosure: How can the country survive the next economic crash if millions of families still haven't recovered from the last one?," by Alana Semuels, The Atlantic, December 1, 2017 This is a family story that highlights the incomplete recovery from the 2006/2008 recession
2. "The GOP Tax Scam Two-Step: Explode the Deficit With Cuts for Rich, Then Screw the Poor," by Jake Johnson, staff writer, Common Dreams, December 1, 2017. The second step has to do with the aforementioned near future planned cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, and the Basic Health Program.
3. "Obamacare Is on the Ropes—Again: With open-enrollment numbers slipping, the Republican tax plan gaining steam, and CHIP still in limbo, critical elements of health-insurance programs are in danger," by Vann R. Newkirk III, The Atlantic, December 1, 2017.
love to you and your family,
Larry
* As with most people, I hate to talk about my financial situation, but there is a hint of it there anyway. Never mind how it happened. There was a combination of several rather unusual and unforeseeable disasters involved. But I do still manage without asking anybody for anything besides help with health insurance. I figure that being able to pay medical expenses was supposed to have been part of my Social Security Retirement income that I paid for. But, you know, the annual cost of living increases to Social Security Retirement have been short for years. And, as you probably also know, instead of repaying any of it, Congress spends my money from the separate Social Security retirement insurance fiduciary fund to pay for bombs and bomb delivery mechanisms that I for one do not appreciate. In the past I have laid out the facts of how this works in more detail. LS
