Debt deal: anger and deceit has led the US into a billionaires' coup
The debt deal will hurt the poorest Americans, convinced by Fox and the Tea Party to act against their own welfare
Aug 1,2011
Partly as a result of the Bush tax cuts of 2001, 2003 and 2005 (shamefully extended by Barack Obama), taxation of the wealthy, in Obama's words, "is at its lowest level in half a century". The consequence of such regressive policies is a level of inequality unknown in other developed nations. As the Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz points out, in the past 10 years the income of the top 1% has risen by 18%, while that of blue-collar male workers has fallen by 12%.
The deal being thrashed out in Congress as this article goes to press seeks only to cut state spending. As the former Republican senator Alan Simpson says: "The little guy is going to be cremated." That means more economic decline, which means a bigger deficit. It's insane. But how did it happen?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/01/us-debt-deal-tea-party?fb=optOut
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