One of the driving forces behind the ongoing Occupy Wall Street protests is the fact that corporations have not been paying their fair share in taxes. A new report from Citizens for Tax Justice will no nothing to alleviate the protesters’ frustration. CTJ looked at 280 companies, all of them members of the…
Student jailed 2 nights when she can’t show ID
Early in the morning on Oct. 22, a Saturday, Ms. Zucker, 21, and her friend Alex Fischer, also 21, were stopped by the police in Riverside Park and given tickets for trespassing. Mr. Fischer was permitted to leave after he produced his driver’s license. But Ms. Zucker, on a visit to New York…
Citizens United Going Down? Democrats Introduce Constitutional Amendment To Overturn Ruling
The Supreme Court may treat corporations like people who can spend whatever they want on elections, but the American people dont have to accept it, said Democratic senators who proposed a constitutional amendment Tuesday to retake control of campaign spending.The amendment, introduced by Sen. Tom Udall D-N.M., doesnt directly address the justices legal…
Thirty Years of Unleashed Greed and the Beginnings of Class Warfare
Between 1979 and 2007, as the Congressional Budget Office reported this week, the average real income of the top 1 percent grew by an astounding 275 percent. And that is after payment of the taxes that the superrich and their Republican apologists find so onerous. Those three decades of rampant upper-crust greed unleashed by the…
Oakland Police Under a Cloud for Violent Occupy Crackdown
A shot-filled bean-bag round held by a protester at Frank Ogawa Plaza Tuesday night. Schuyler Erle/Twitter On Tuesday night I was at the intersection of 14th and Broadway, just outside Frank Ogawa Plaza, for several harrowing hours: I witnessed police officers firing projectiles indiscriminately into the crowd—not carefully targeting instigators, as OPD policy dictates. Freelance…
Boehner rejects Democrats’ $3 trillion deficit reduction proposal to ‘supercommittee’
Democrats said Thursday they had put forward a good-faith offer that included legitimate savings against the swelling federal debt and included a package of more than $300 billion in stimulus for the sagging economy. “We’ve always said there are two important things—get the economy moving and have jobs and to have a balanced approach,” said…
68 Percent Of Millionaires Support Raising Taxes On Millionaires
According to a new survey by the Spectrem Group, “68% of millionaires (those with investments of $1 million or more) support raising taxes on those with $1 million or more in income. Fully 61% of those with net worths of $5 million or more support the tax on million-plus earners.” Spectrem’s George Walper told the…
CHART: Thanks To The 99 Percent Movement, Media Finally Covering Jobs Crisis And Marginalizing Deficit Hysteria
For example, at the beginning of August, when Washington, DC was debating the debt ceiling crisis, the national debt dominated the airwaves. While it was appropriate for the media then to be covering the deficit due to the debt ceiling debate at the time, there was a stunning lack of coverage of the…
Oakland Mayor Jean Quan Says She Will Minimize Police Presence And That She Supports The Movement
After the first heavy-handed police crackdown on demonstrators in Oakland, Mayor Jean Quan wrote a statement on her Facebook page praising police for closing down the Occupy Oakland protest encampment. Now, facing anger from across the world, Quan is backing down on her aggressive language and even says she supports the goals of the movement….
The Numbers: CBO on income inequality
Several years ago, Senators Max Baucus and Charles Grassley asked the Congressional Budget Office to whip up an analysis of income inequality in America. It took awhile to piece together, but the report’s now out, and the picture’s quite stark. The incomes of the wealthiest 1 percent have nearly tripled since 1979. Everyone else? Not…
The Numbers: U.S with Stimulus vs. U.K. Without
At Tax.com, Martin Sullivan rebuts those who claim that the 2009 Recovery Act (i.e. the stimulus) did nothing to boost the economy. “Republicans constantly remind us that the Obama stimulus — the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 — did not work. They voted against it. In the United Kingdom the government…
GDP Grew At 2.5 Percent In The Third Quarter
According to the latest data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the U.S. economy grew by 2.5 percent in the third quarter, an improvement over last quarter’s 1.3 percent growth. This quarter’s growth is right in line with analysts’ expectations. via GDP Grew At 2.5 Percent In The Third Quarter | ThinkProgress.
Shell More Than Doubles Profits To $7 Billion
Royal Dutch Shell announced their 2011 third-quarter earnings, reporting profits of $6.98 billion, more than double their profits posted a year ago, bringing their total profits for 2011 to over $21 billion. Below is a quick look at Shell by the numbers: – Shell has spent nearly $8 million on lobbying in 2011, making it…
Deficit-Cutting Supercommittee: ‘We’re Not There Yet’ : NPR
The 12-member supercommittee charged with finding at least $1.2 trillion in budget cuts next month met publicly for the first time in six weeks Wednesday — and agreed on little more than the fact that time is indeed growing short for them to approve a deal. Co-chairman Patty Murray, D-Wash., said a lot of hard…
Florida’s welfare drug testing halted by federal judge
Gov. Rick Scott, who signed the measure into law on May 31, touted it as a way to ensure taxpayer money isn’t “wasted” on those who use drugs. “Hopefully more people will focus on not using illegal drugs,” he said then. But, in her order, Scriven issued a scathing assessment of the state’s argument in…
Oakland Police Use Rubber Bullets, Flash Grenades, And Smoke Bombs To Evict Occupy Oakland
Late last night, Oakland police, under orders from the city, began surrounding the Occupy Oakland encampment in preparation to oust the protesters from Frank Ogawa Plaza.Approximately an hour ago, hundreds of Oakland police officers raided the camp. Dressed in riot gear, the police used rubber bullets, flash grenades, and gas canisters to forcibly evict and/or…
Vatican Calls For Economic Equality, Sweeping Reform Of Global Financial System
With protesters taking to the streets around the world to fight for better income equality and economic opportunities for the poor and middle classes, the Vatican called Monday for an overhaul of world’s financial systems and a return to a global economy based on ethical behavior and “achievement of a universal common good,”…
Power Shift Renews Energy Of Occupy Cleveland
With police arresting 11 Occupy Cleveland protesters Friday night in downtown Cleveland, 200 participants in the youth climate summit Midwest Power Shift marched to join the Occupy Cleveland group, renewing the energy of the 99 Percent Movement. via Power Shift Renews Energy Of Occupy Cleveland | ThinkProgress.
Americans who pay no income taxes, EITC edition
People are leeching off the tax system? But this turns out to be fairly misleading. A new study offers a more nuanced look at the role the Earned Income Tax Credit actually plays in the U.S. economy. The EITC, remember, is a refundable tax credit that helps supplement the income of poor employed workers with…
Goldman Sachs Withdraws From Credit Union Fundraiser After Learning Occupy Wall Street Was Being Honored Too
Earlier this month, the Lower East Side People’s Federal Credit Union in New York City held a fundraiser to celebrate its 25th anniversary. It just so happened that this the credit union many of the protesters at Occupy Wall Street OWS were using to store funds — and the protest group became an honoree at…