Tag Archives: Barack Obama

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From the Middle Class Out


ThinkProgress War Room

Creating an Economy That Works for Everyone

For the last thirty years, we’ve been experiencing one long, failed experiment in so-called trickle-down economics. In practice, this means that the rich have gotten richer (exponentially so) while the middle class has fallen further and further behind. Trillions of dollars in tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and corporations, the one goal that binds the GOP together, utterly failed to trickle down, stifled economic growth, and contributed to the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

We need a different model — an economy that grows from the middle class out. What does this mean? How does that work? One of our colleagues, Senior Economist Heather Boushey, lays it all out in a new video:

BOTTOM LINE: The wealthy and corporations simply aren’t paying their fair share so in order to reduce our deficit in a smart way and still make investments in the middle class, we need to get rid of hundreds of billions of dollars in wasteful loopholes and giveaways in our tax code.

Evening Brief: Important Stories That You Might’ve Missed

57 terrible consequences of the sequester cuts that the GOP is allowing to kick in next week.

Bitter pill: why medical bills are killing us.

Oops: GOP senator accidentally gets behind Roe v. Wade.

Laura Bush supports marriage equality, she just doesn’t want anyone to know.

One top senator’s latest racist excuse for opposing the Violence Against Women Act.

The public takes President Obama’s side on major issues we need to deal with.

Anti-spending GOP reps wants taxpayer funds to turn George W. Bush’s boyhood home into a national park.

GOP rep won’t support pathway to citizenship because he wants to keep immigrants in “the dirtiest jobs.”

Austerity: still failing.

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Jobs V Loopholes


By ThinkProgress War Room

7 Tax Loopholes the GOP Loves to Love

In less than two weeks the very damaging across the board “sequester” cuts will kick in unless Republicans agree to a replacement that is a balanced compromise including both new revenues from closing tax loopholes and smarter, more targeted spending cuts.

When it was convenient for them to do so, Republicans including Speaker Boehner and Mitt Romney argued vociferously for closing loopholes and ending wasteful giveaways in the tax code. But now that push is coming to shove, these Republicans are refusing to help protect the economy and jobs by replacing the sequester cuts with new revenues from closing loopholes.

This intransigence has real consequences. As the president laid out yesterday, these cuts will cause pain:

So these cuts are not smart. They are not fair. They will hurt our economy. They will add hundreds of thousands of Americans to the unemployment rolls. This is not an abstraction — people will lose their jobs. The unemployment rate might tick up again.

Here’s a look at the top seven loopholes and giveaways that Republicans think are more important than protecting our economy, jobs, the middle class, and the most vulnerable among us:

  1. Extra tax breaks enjoyed by the wealthiest Americans — $520 BILLION
  2. Tax break for companies that ship jobs overseas — $168 BILLION
  3. Special tax breaks for the largest oil companies — $25 BILLION
  4. The loophole that allow people like Mitt Romney to pay a lower tax rate than middle-class workers — $21 BILLION
  5. Tax deductions for vacation homes and yachts — $10 BILLION
  6. The corporate jet loophole — $3 BILLION
  7. Special write-offs for horse breeders (aka the Bluegrass Boondoggle) — $126 MILLION

BOTTOM LINE: The Republicans are choosing to protect millionaires and special interests like Big Oil and Wall Street instead of funding our military and programs vital for the middle class and the health of our economy.

Evening Brief: Important Stories That You Might’ve Missed

Annals right-wing media failure: how a joke became an attack against Chuck Hagel.

Florida’s GOP governor will expand Medicaid under Obamacare.

Marco Rubio is no savior for women.

800.000 defense workers to be furloughed because of the sequester.

Fox News: Al Jazeera America is a plot to activate Muslim sleeper cells in Detroit.

Supporters of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline outspend opponents 35 to 1.

The latest sneak attack on unions.

The science of addictive junk food.

How the sequester cuts hurt the long-term unemployed.

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These Automatic Budget Cuts Will Hurt the Economy


Just 10 days from now, Congress might allow a series of severe and automatic budget cuts to take place that will hurt our economic growth, add hundreds of thousands of Americans to the unemployment rolls, and threaten military readiness.

But, as President Obama said this morning, these cuts don’t have to happen — Congress has the power to stop them.

Find out why these cuts are so harmful, and why Congress needs to act.

Watch President Obama's remarks

In Case You Missed It

Here are some of the top stories from the White House blog:

The Inside Story on Theodore Roosevelt’s Official Portrait For Presidents Day, White House Curator Bill Allman tells the inside story on Theodore Roosevelt’s official portrait.

From the Archives: George Washington Writes in the Margins Beginning in March, George Washington’s Acts of Congress will travel the country and visit the 13 Presidential Libraries of the National Archives through a partnership with Mount Vernon, offering a rare glimpse into history that is as relevant today as it was 224 years ago.

Giving Every Child a Chance in Life In Chicago, President Obama laid out a plan to rebuild ladders of opportunity for every American who is willing to work hard and climb them.

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Army: 11,000 Washington state jobs at risk if Congress won’t stop military cuts


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Documents obtained by USA Today give a state-by-state breakdown of the furloughs and financial impact related to the military, if Congress does not alter the current sequestration plan scheduled to take effect next month.

In terms of Army cuts, Washington state would be hit 11th-hardest hit in the nation. At Joint Base Lewis-McChord, if Congress changes nothing, a $341 million annual cut would be ordered, according to the Army.  More than 11,000 jobs statewide would be affected by furloughs (of more than 200,000 nationally), a figure that the Army says includes, not only immediate civilian furloughs, but jobs related to military spending. President Barack Obama has exempted military personnel from furloughs.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told Congress on Wednesday that if the cuts take effect in March 1, he may be compelled to furlough the “vast majority” of the Defense Department’s 800,000 civilian workers.
More from The Associated Press: Panetta also said the across-the-board spending reductions would “put us on a path toward a hollow force,” meaning a military incapable of fulfilling all of its missions.

In a written message to employees, Panetta said he notified members of Congress on Wednesday that if the White House and Congress cannot strike a deficit reduction deal before March 1 to avoid the furloughs, all affected workers will get at least 30 days’ advance notice.

The furloughs would be part of broad spending cuts the Pentagon would implement in order to achieve $46 billion in reductions through the end of this budget year, which ends Sept. 30. More cuts would come in future years as long as the automatic government spending cuts, known as sequestration, remained in effect.

In the event of sequestration we will do everything we can to be able to continue to perform our core mission of providing for the security of the United States, but there is no mistaking that the rigid nature of the cuts forced upon this department, and their scale, will result in a serious erosion of readiness across the force,” Panetta wrote.

Pentagon officials have said their furloughs would be structured so that nearly all 800,000 workers lose one day of work per week for 22 weeks, probably starting in late April. That means they would lose 20 percent of their pay over that period.

The Pentagon has begun discussing details of the furloughs with defense worker union officials.

House Speaker John Boehner put the blame on Obama and said he agrees with Panetta that automatic spending cuts would devastate the military.

Boehner released a copy of Panetta’s letter formally notifying Congress that the Pentagon will have to consider furloughing a large portion of its civilian workforce if sequestration kicks in.

The furloughs contemplated by this notice will do real harm to our national security,” Panetta wrote in his congressional notification letter, adding that it would make troops less ready for combat and slow the acquisition of important weapons.