What’s Wrong with this Picture?

We live in a very different United States of America than the one I was born in. Republican President Dwight Eisenhower tried to warn us back in the 50s and 60s (see my October 5^th blog: Dwight David Eisenhower & the Military Industrial Complex), but in the end, the power elites of this nation rule fairly completely to the exclusion of the interests of the majority of Americans. Both the Tea Party (they blame the government) and the Occupy movement (they blame Wall Street) are coming to the same basic conclusion: the government doesn’t serve the country, and the country is headed in the wrong direction. While their suggestions for cure may vary, this deep dissatisfaction from such diverse sectors of the electorate does not augur well for the viability of the nation as a whole. Consider some of the following facts:

Thirty large American corporations spent more money on lobbying than they paid in federal taxes from 2008 to 2010, according to a report from the nonpartisan reform group Public Campaign… All of the companies were profitable at the time. In spite of this, and the massive federal budget deficit, 29 out of the 30 companies featured in the study managed through various legal tax-dodging measures to pay no federal income taxes at all from 2008 through 2010. The lone exception, FedEx (FDX), paid a three-year tax rate of 1%, nowhere near the 35% called for by the federal tax code…In fact, the report explains, the 29 companies that paid no tax actually received tax rebates over those three years, ‘ranging from $4 million for Corning (GLW) to nearly $5 billion for General Electric (GE).’ The total value of the rebates received was nearly $11 billion; combined profits during the same period were $164 billion. DailyFinance.com, December 13^th.

When the Census Bureau [in November] released a new measure of poverty, meant to better count disposable income, it began altering the portrait of national need. Perhaps the most startling differences between the old measure and the new involves data the government has not yet published, showing 51 million people with incomes less than 50 percent above the poverty line [labeled “near poverty’]. That number of Americans is 76 percent higher than the official account, published in September. All told, that places 100 million people — one in three Americans — either in poverty or in the fretful zone just above it. New York Times, November 18^th.

When you consider that living within two times the poverty line is considered “low income” (versus the “near-poverty” or “poverty” statistics in the above paragraph), the statistics get even worse, suggesting a very significant deterioration in the number of people in the middle class: Squeezed by rising living costs, a record number of Americans — nearly 1 in 2 — have fallen into poverty or are scraping by on earnings that classify them as low income… The latest census data depict a middle class that's shrinking as unemployment stays high and the government's safety net frays. The new numbers follow years of stagnating wages for the middle class that have hurt millions of workers and families….‘Safety net programs such as food stamps and tax credits kept poverty from rising even higher in 2010, but for many low-income families with work-related and medical expenses, they are considered too `rich' to qualify,’ said Sheldon Danziger, a University of Michigan public policy professor who specializes in poverty.

‘The reality is that prospects for the poor and the near poor are dismal,’ he said. ‘If Congress and the states make further cuts, we can expect the number of poor and low-income families to rise for the next several years.’… In a U.S. Conference of Mayors survey being released Thursday, 29 cities say more than 1 in 4 people needing emergency food assistance did not receive it. Many middle-class Americans are dropping below the low-income threshold — roughly $45,000 for a family of four — because of pay cuts, a forced reduction of work hours or a spouse losing a job. Housing and child-care costs are consuming up to half of a family's income. NPR.org. December 15^th.

Let me see… profitable corporations paying no taxes but spending more money than ever to pressure Congress to tow their line, and a profound movement of masses of Americans down and out of the middle class. Yup, what’s wrong with this picture?

I’m Peter Dekom, and if you think something is wrong too, exactly what do you plan to do about it?