{"id":7646,"date":"2012-05-02T11:28:04","date_gmt":"2012-05-02T18:28:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=7646"},"modified":"2012-05-02T11:28:04","modified_gmt":"2012-05-02T18:28:04","slug":"income-inequality-is-the-gop-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/02\/income-inequality-is-the-gop-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Income Inequality IS the GOP Plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ever since the Reagan Revolution, the 1% have gotten richer and richer at the expense of everyone else, especially the poor.  New data show that the disparity is actually worse than previously thought.  In spite of this, the only thing that has changed about Republican policy is that it has become even more draconian in its design to strip the 99% of wealth and drive us deeper and deeper into debt.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\"2chart-debt-divide\"Income inequality surged<\/a><\/font> onto the national political radar in 2011, as the 99 Percent Movement focused America on the fact that while the richest Americans\u2019 incomes were skyrocketing, wages remained relatively stagnant for the lower and middle classes. American income inequality is now worse than it is in countries like Ivory Coast and Pakistan<\/a><\/font>, and it may be even worse than it was in Ancient Rome<\/a><\/font>.<\/font><\/p>\n

That inequality has crushed the middle class and has perilous consequences for the American economy. It is also contributing to another problem: rising debt inequality. As income inequality has risen, the bottom 95 percent of Americans have fallen deeper into debt<\/a><\/font> over the last three decades, according to a new report from the International Monetary Fund. The top five percent, meanwhile, have seen their personal debt reduced, CNN Money reports:<\/font><\/p>\n

In 1983, the bottom 95% had 62 cents of debt for every dollar they earned<\/font><\/strong><\/span>, according to research by two International Monetary Fund economists. But by 2007, the ratio had soared to $1.48 of debt for every $1 in earnings<\/strong><\/span>.<\/font><\/p>\n

The bottom 95% had incomes of roughly $160,000 or less in 2007, including capital gains.<\/font><\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s the top 5%. Their debt-to-income level actually fell during the same period, from 76 cents of debt for every dollar earned in 1983, to just 64 cents in 2007<\/strong><\/span>.<\/font><\/p>\n

\u2026 [emphasis original<\/em><\/span>]<\/font><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Think Progress<\/a>><\/p>\n

The article covers the effects well, but does not focus on causes or future expectations.  For that,  <\/font>Rachel Maddow and Paul Krugman discuss income inequality and the Republican effort to increase it.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/font> <\/p>\n

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news<\/a>, world news<\/a>, and news about the economy<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The bottom line here is simple. Every penny Democrats spend to benefit the nation is a penny Republicans cannot give to a billionaire.  Therefore, every Republican in office is one Republican too many!<\/font><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ever since the Reagan Revolution, the 1% have gotten richer and richer at the expense of everyone else, especially the poor.  New data show that the disparity is actually worse than previously thought.  In spite of this, the only thing that has changed about Republican policy is that it has become even more draconian in […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7646\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}