Tuesday, October 29, 2013
JC Penney CEO Makes 1,795 Times More Than Workers - Largest Gap in U.S. - as Company Loses 73% Value
"JC Penney declined to comment, perhaps due to the sobering fact that, while Johnson makes an annual salary of $53.3 million, his workers earn a meager average salary of $28,688. Or maybe the company declined to comment since it cut 43,000 jobs last year. Or perhaps it's because, at a time in which it has created the largest CEO-to-worker pay gap in the country, it is also fighting a proposed SEC rule that would require corporations to consider workers' salaries when calculating that of a CEO.
Of course, most of corporate America is fighting this proposed law as well. Apparently, not because these executives deserve the money they are being paid based on performance.
No. They are fighting the proposed rule due to blind corporate greed. They are fighting the rule due to systematic attempts by executives to protect their own interests at the expense of those workers who allow their companies function. Those workers who cannot afford many of the basic necessities of life, including those products they work hard to sell."
rest at http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/10/27/1251041/-JC-Penney-CEO-Makes-1-795-More-Than-Workers-Largest-Gap-in-U-S-as-Company-Loses-73-Value?detail=email
McConnell’s throw down with the tea party is nothing but good news for the Democrats
"The decision to fight a two front war against both his primary challenger and his fall opponent Alison Lundergan Grimes is risky. If McConnell gets damaged in the primary, it could open the door for Grimes to take his seat in the fall.
The fallout from the government shutdown continues. The mainstream media is obsessed with the healthcare.gov website, but the same conflict within the Republican Party that almost caused the nation to default is raging on. These tea party challenges to incumbent Senate Republicans are great news for Democrats, and the great irony in all of this is that Mitch McConnell opposes all forms of campaign finance regulation. McConnell favors all forms of unlimited outside campaign money, just not when it is used against him."
rest at http://www.politicususa.com/2013/10/29/mitch-mcconnell-declares-war-ted-cruz-sarah-palin-tea-party-groups.html
Democratic Congressman Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) Blows Up At GOP During Obamacare Hearing: ‘Are You Really Serious?’
"Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) slammed Republicans for failing to support the Affordable Care Act once it became law, challenging them to go back to their districts and tell their constituents that they'll be taking away their coverage.
"What are you going to do about the approximately 17 million children with preexisting conditions who can no longer be denied health insurance coverage," Parscrell asked the GOP during a House hearing on Obamacare. Standing up and pointing his finger at the other side of the aisle, he continued, "We want to go back and want to say you are no longer covered any longer — are you going to tell the parents of those kids?"
Rep. Tim Griffin (R-AR) tried to answer that question, highlighting GOP proposals to cover individuals with pre-existing condition. The reply sparked even greater outrage from Parscrell:
GRIFFIN: You asked a question and I'm going to answer it. It's a false choice to say it's Obamacare or nothing. There are numerous proposals including one that I'm a co-sponsor of…
PASCRELL: Are you serious what you just said? Are you really serious? After what we've gone through and what we've gone through in the last three and a half years? Have you — you can sit there and say, that you had a legitimate alternative after these years? We've gone through 44 votes, 48 votes now, of you trying to dismantle the legislation. You call that cooperation? I don't!"
Food Stamp Cuts Coming For Everyone — Including Nearly A Million Veterans
"The depth and breadth of the SNAP cuts that take effect in November are unprecedented," Rosenbaum and Keith-Jennings note. "Past cuts have affected specific states or groups, but they have not affected all participants nor been as large as these cuts."
Republican arguments against those on food stamps being "takers" dining on lobster at taxpayer expense often miss two crucial facts: 1. The maximum benefit is barely enough to survive and is getting smaller — dropping from $200 per month to $189 on November 1; 2. A recent study showed that the fastest growth of new SNAP beneficiaries is in areas that vote Republican.
The House GOP broke precedent in September and separated food stamps from the rest of the farm bill in order to pass $40 billion in additional cuts to benefits over the next 10 years. Notably, 13 of the 217 congressmembers who voted for those cuts receive federal farm subsidies from the farm bill that the GOP hasn't targeted for cuts — nearly all of these 13 Republicans are millionaires.
rest of story here http://www.nationalmemo.com/food-stamp-cuts-coming-for-everyone-including-nearly-a-million-veterans/@TomCoburn voted against the Hurricane Sandy relief and is fundraising on Sandy's anniversary
"Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) found it "disgraceful" that some members of his party -- including Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) -- were fundraising in New York on the Hurricane Sandy anniversary, having voted in January against recovery funding for the disaster.
But it was Coburn who was dishing out the real insults Monday evening, according to the New York Daily News.
Coburn was headlining a gala fundraiser for the New York Young Republican Club when he was reportedly asked about relations within the Senate.
While Coburn admitted "great relationships" with some Democratic senators, he said he felt differently about one member of the opposition in particular -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).
"There's no comity with Harry Reid. I think he's an absolute a--hole," Coburn said, according to New York Daily News.
It's no secret that Coburn isn't Reid's biggest fan. Coburn had choice words for the Democratic leader last year, blaming him for congressional gridlock.
"If you want to ask why the Senate isn't working, there's one reason; it's called Harry Reid," Coburn said. "Incompetent and incapable of carrying on the leadership in the Senate."
Coburn issued an apology for those comments, but felt his anger was justified.
"I don't apologize for my frustration of this place, but occasionally my words are harsh and inaccurate," he said.
The bite doesn't just come from the right. In a recent interview with The Huffington Post, Reid took shots at several Republican lawmakers. He said Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) "isn't playing with a full deck," called Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) "a laughing stock to everybody but him," and questioned House Speaker John Boehner's (R-Ohio) conscience through the shutdown talks.
UPDATE: Reid spokesman Adam Jentleson responded to the comment on Tuesday morning. "Nothing says 'comity' like childish playground name-calling, especially from a senator who has not sponsored a single piece of successful bipartisan legislation during his entire Senate career," he said in an email to HuffPost."
wow: @gop Nevada Republican Jim Wheeler would allow slavery
"After Republicans did a bang-up job at minority outreach last week, it was tempting to think the party couldn't possibly make matters worse. Think again.
A Nevada assemblyman came under fire Monday after a YouTube video surfaced in which he told a Republican gathering he would vote to allow slavery if that is what his constituents wanted him to do."If that's what they wanted, I'd have to hold my nose … they'd probably have to hold a gun to my head, but yeah," Assemblyman Jim Wheeler told members of the Storey County Republican Party at a meeting in August.
For his part, Wheeler published an explanation of sorts on his personal website, saying that his point was only that he's inclined to support literally any position embraced by his constituents. It's not that he endorses slavery, only that he would allow slavery if his constituents wanted him to.
Remember, this is supposed to be his defense.
this is what @gop is all about: @RepPaulRyan : Budget negotiations are for cutting federal pensions, not corporate tax loopholes
"If this conference is used as an excuse to raise taxes, then I fear we will not be successful," House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) said last week. "We'll take the spending cuts we have if that's all it's going to be."Because heaven forbid giant, hugely profitable corporations have to be spared the agony of paying as much in taxes as they pay their CEOs. Ryan does have one idea for who Congress could make pay, though:
As for the future, Ryan has proposed a 2014 budget that would require federal employees to pay more toward their retirement benefits while eliminating special supplemental payments to certain federal employees who retire before age 62. The savings under that plan would be an estimated $132 billion over 10 years.In recent years, federal workers have faced pay freezes, sequester furloughs and a government shutdown. All while many of them earn less than they would in the private sector. Now, Republicans are suggesting what amounts to a significant pay cut for these workers—just, heaven forbid, not a tax increase for those who can most easily afford it, be they billionaires or banks. And driving the most qualified people out of the government is a great way to make the government function worse, achieving another Republican goal by creating problems they can point to in their everlasting quest to break and dismantle government entirely.
Monday, October 28, 2013
thanks @gop and @democrats : SNAP Benefit Cuts Will Affect Thousands of Veterans In Every State
Thousands of veterans in every state will be among the nearly 48 million people who now participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and who will experience a benefit cut as the 2009 Recovery Act's temporary benefit boost ends on November 1, according to a new Center on Budget and Policy Priorities analysis.[1]
The new analysis, which uses data from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey, finds thousands of veterans lived in SNAP households in every state between 2009 and 2011. For instance, more than 100,000 veterans lived in SNAP households in two states: Florida (109,500) and Texas (105,700). North Dakota had the fewest such veterans (2,200). (See Table 1.)
Nationwide, in any given month, a total of 900,000 veterans nationwide lived in households that relied on SNAP to provide food for their families in 2011, a previous analysis of Census data estimated.[2]
The 2009 Recovery Act temporarily raised SNAP benefits as a form of effective economic stimulus and to reduce the hardship that low-income families faced during the recession. This benefit increase is set to expire on November 1. The coming benefit cut will reduce SNAP benefits, which are already modest, for all households by 7 percent on average, or about $10 per person per month. Without the Recovery Act's boost, SNAP benefits in fiscal year 2014 will average less than $1.40 per person per meal. This is a serious cut, especially considering that over 80 percent of SNAP participants live in poverty. House and Senate members who are now beginning to negotiate a final Farm Bill should keep this benefit cut in mind as they consider, in reauthorizing the SNAP program, whether to make even deeper cuts.
| Table 1 State Table: Veterans in Households Receiving SNAP Benefits, 2009 to 2011 | |
| State | Estimated Number of Veterans Receiving SNAP |
| Alabama | 29,700 |
| Alaska | 4,500 |
| Arizona | 40,100 |
| Arkansas | 19,000 |
| California | 82,800 |
| Colorado | 17,900 |
| Connecticut | 10,200 |
| Delaware | 5,300 |
| District of Columbia | 3,900 |
| Florida | 109,500 |
| Georgia | 53,500 |
| Hawaii | 6,000 |
| Idaho | 9,400 |
| Illinois | 49,800 |
| Indiana | 31,900 |
| Iowa | 16,500 |
| Kansas | 12,400 |
| Kentucky | 28,100 |
| Louisiana | 29,100 |
| Maine | 12,400 |
| Maryland | 21,600 |
| Massachusetts | 21,600 |
| Michigan | 69,400 |
| Minnesota | 14,700 |
| Mississippi | 16,300 |
| Missouri | 40,900 |
| Montana | 5,700 |
| Nebraska | 7,600 |
| Nevada | 11,300 |
| New Hampshire | 5,000 |
| New Jersey | 15,900 |
| New Mexico | 10,800 |
| New York | 69,900 |
| North Carolina | 50,900 |
| North Dakota | 2,200 |
| Ohio | 72,500 |
| Oklahoma | 24,600 |
| Oregon | 37,300 |
| Pennsylvania | 59,300 |
| Rhode Island | 5,000 |
| South Carolina | 30,300 |
| South Dakota | 4,300 |
| Tennessee | 50,400 |
| Texas | 105,700 |
| Utah | 8,700 |
| Vermont | 4,900 |
| Virginia | 35,100 |
| Washington | 51,600 |
| West Virginia | 13,500 |
| Wisconsin | 26,200 |
| Wyoming | 2,700 |
| Notes: Estimates shown are for veterans living in households that received any SNAP income during the past 12 months. Monthly estimates of SNAP participation would be lower. Source: CBPP Analysis of data from the U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2009 to 2011 | |
For low-income veterans, who may be unemployed, working in low-wage jobs, or disabled, SNAP provides an essential support that enables them to purchase nutritious food for their families. Nationwide, SNAP is a powerful anti-hunger and anti-poverty tool: in 2011, it kept 4.7 million people above the poverty line, including 2.1 million children. SNAP has been shown to reduce hardship and to allow struggling households greater access to food.[3]
Many veterans returning from service face challenges in finding work. While the overall unemployment rate for veterans is lower than the national average, the unemployment rate for recent veterans (serving in September 2001 to the present) remains high, at 10.1 percent in September 2013. About one-quarter of recent veterans reported service-connected disabilities in 2011,[4] which can impact their ability to provide for their families: households with a veteran with a disability that prevents them from working are about twice as likely to lack access to adequate food than households without a disabled member.[5]
Veterans who participate in SNAP tend to be young, but their ages range widely: 57 percent of the veterans in our analysis are under age 30, while 9 percent are aged 60 or older. They served during many conflicts, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Vietnam, and in some cases, Korea and World War II, as well as in peacetime.
This benefit cut, which will reduce benefits to each of the veterans who rely on SNAP, takes effect the same week that the House and Senate Agriculture Committees begin their conference committee negotiations on the Farm Bill, which includes a reauthorization of and additional proposed cuts to SNAP. The House version of the bill would cut SNAP by nearly $40 billion over the next 10 years, denying benefits to about 3.8 million people in 2014 and an average of 3 million people each year over the coming decade.
Notes on Methods
The Center analyzed the American Community Survey (ACS) for this state-level analysis. The figures presented here represent our best estimate of the number of veterans who are likely at any time in the next 12 months to receive a lesser amount of SNAP benefits than they would have received. The number who will experience a cut in any given month is somewhat lower.
The analysis combines data for three years, 2009 through 2011, to improve the reliability of the state estimates. The figures, which total 1.5 million veterans nationwide, refer to veterans who live in households where anyone received SNAP benefits at any time in the past 12 months. An earlier CBPP analysis, based on a different Census survey (the Current Population Survey), estimated that 900,000 veterans lived in SNAP households in an average month. The figures differ for three reasons. First, the 1.5 million total here represents veterans in SNAP households at any point in the year, which is necessarily a larger group than a monthly average. Second, it comes from a different survey, the ACS; the earlier figure is from the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey, which tends to undercount SNAP recipients more than the ACS does. Third, it covers a different period, 2009 through 2011; the earlier estimate was for 2011 alone.[6] Both surveys likely badly undercount homeless veterans, though the ACS probably misses fewer.
End notes:
[1] For more information on the temporary benefit boost, see Stacy Dean and Dorothy Rosenbaum, "SNAP Benefits Will Be Cut for All Participants in November 2013," Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Revised August 2, 2013, http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3899.
[2] Dottie Rosenbaum, Stacy Dean, and Robert Greenstein, "Cuts in House Leadership SNAP Proposal Would Affect Millions of Low-Income Americans," Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Revised September 17, 2013, http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=4009.
[3] See, for example, James Mabli, Jim Ohls, Lisa Dragoset, Laura Castner, and Betsy Santos, "Measuring the Effect of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Participation on Food Security," prepared by Mathematica Policy Research for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service, August 2013, http://www.fns.usda.gov/sites/default/files/Measuring2013.pdf.
[4] Congressional Research Service, "Employment for Veterans: Trends and Programs," R42790, October 2012, https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42790.pdf.
[5] Alisha Coleman-Jensen, and Mark Nord, "Food Insecurity Among Households With Working-Age Adults With Disabilities," ERR-144, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, January 2013. About one-third (33.5 percent) of households with a working-age member who was out of the labor force due to disability were food insecure. While the food insecurity prevalence rate was slightly lower (30.5 percent) for households with a veteran who was out of the work force due to disability, this rate is still much higher than households with no working-age adults with disabilities (12 percent).
[6] The inclusion of the two earlier years is likely to make the ACS figure lower because SNAP caseloads were growing during this period in response to the still-weak economy.
The costs and benefits of Republican shutdown of government in one image
Via liberalsarecool:
.@RepPaulBrounMD Rep. Paul Broun makes aggressive bid for stupidest shutdown claim
"Look, Rep. Paul Broun, we've already decided that Texas Republican Louie Gohmert is America's Dumbest Congressman. You don't have to keep trying so hard.
"There was absolutely no reason, whatsoever, for this administration to block access to the World War Two Memorial or the Lincoln Memorial. It's never ever been done in a government shutdown prior to this administration doing so."There are at least two problems with this.
1. The Lincoln Memorial was indeed closed during a previous government shutdown in 1995. That one was also caused by Republicans trying to extract concessions from a Democratic president. Broun should remember it well, since he ran for Congress the following year. (He lost.)
2. The World War II Memorial was completed in 2004, and so did not exist during any previous shutdowns. While this renders Broun's statement technically true, it is true in the same way as saying "Abraham Lincoln never dined at Chipotle" is true. Neither statement makes a particularly intriguing point.
Paul Broun is running for the U.S. Senate this time around, possibly because Paul Broun has been running for things for over 20 years and is bored with being a mere congressman. He is also known for being the congressman who thinks evolution, embryology and the Big Bang Theory are lies from the pit of Hell. Observing that monuments were never closed during time periods in which they did not exist is precisely the level of insight Mr. Broun typically brings to conversations; observing things that are flatly and provably untrue is just the usual conservative model for pandering to the base."
Friday, October 25, 2013
Barack Obama Is Totally Torpedoing Deficit Levels
Any debate about debts and deficits becomes much more robust when the numbers are considered relative to the size of the economy.
"Under Obama, the deficit is falling from 10% of GDP to just 3%," tweeted MSNBC's Ari Melber. "But only 6% of America knows it.
There's often a misconception that a democratic President would be more likely to raise these ratios by promoting big government.
But the reality is quite the opposite.
As you can see from this chart from Deutsche Bank's David Bianco, Obama has been one of the most effective presidents in American history to reduce deficit levels.
On a related note, the latest jobs report showed that Obama continues to be a destroyer of government jobs.
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Bill Gross tells Icahn to leave apple alone and help others instead of himself
"Did Carl C. Icahn just change the rules of the activist game?
On Thursday, the septuagenarian activist investor, who has been stirring things up at Apple, ratcheted up the pressure by posting a letter to Timothy D. Cook, Apple's chief executive, on his new Web site. The letter, which Mr. Cook received on Wednesday, urged Apple to immediately begin an offer to buy back $150 billion in Apple shares at the current share price of $525 a share, "financed with debt or a mix of debt and cash on the balance sheet."
His letter goes on:
"While this would certainly be unprecedented because of its size, it is actually appropriate and manageable relative to the size and financial strength of your company. Apple generates more than enough cash flow to service this amount of debt and has $147 billion of cash in the bank."
He ends the letter by saying he does not plan to personally benefit from such a stock buyback. "To invalidate any possible criticism that I would not stand by this thesis in terms of its long term benefit to shareholders," he writes, "I hereby agree to withhold my shares from the proposed $150 billion tender offer. There is nothing short term about my intentions here."
Apple shares rose 0.4 percent, to $527.21 in late morning trading.
Mr. Icahn's view is sure to start a debate. The bond investor Bill Gross, who runs Pimco, sent out a tweet late Thursday morning disagreeing with him:
Gross: Icahn should leave #Apple alone & spend more time like Bill Gates. If #Icahn's so smart, use it to help people not yourself.
Mr. Icahn's move to the Web is unusual, though not entirely unprecedented. Activist investors like Mr. Icahn, who is known for taking a caustic approach with corporate executives, typically air their views through print and television media, and the letters they send to corporate executives find their way to the media through back channels.
But Mr. Icahn seems intent on shaking things up. He timed his letter to Mr. Cook to the introduction of his new Web site, the Shareholders' Square Table. It's an idea Mr. Icahn has had for some time. In an interview in 2005, he said that he was thinking of setting up a forum that would be "the shareholders' answer to the business roundtable."
A cartoon on the Web site's main page depicts shareholders trying to scale the walls of a castle. Corporate executives are perched on top of the castle, throwing down poison pills, while slipping stock options and a new jet to a chief executive on the side. One executive is holding a bag of gold that says, "Cheap stock."
Mr. Icahn has been publicly agitating since August for Apple to do something with its large cash reserves, using his personal account on Twitter as his platform to apply pressure. (He has 103,335 followers.)"
