corporations

While corporations are sitting on records amount of cash and still refusing to hire we have the reality absent GOP pushing for more tax cuts for these people. They consider to insist that their almost 30 year old failed experiment in economics is the way to go, that some how corporations will create supply without any demand. It's enough to make your head explode. 

Today Think Progress posted this chart. I have seen it before but always forgot to share it. It's a striking tell of what the Bush tax cuts did for the jobs market:

I know many on the right will be quick to dismiss this chart as some form of partisan hackery, compiled using fake numbers. To those people I ask you to look at the data source. This data comes straight from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and at the time of the data, George Bush was President. So if you honestly believe that the Bush administration would alter data to make it look like one of his keystone pieces of legislation was a failure then I'm amazed you even have the common sense to turn on a computer.

For those that do accept this data and realize it is true, especially given the fact that it was produced by the Bush administration, thank you. We can get beyond the partisan rhetoric and talk like grown ups, which is something greatly amiss in our country today.

Bob Cesca has posted the following chart, showing how the share of income labor sees is at a historic low:

What's interesting is how much the share dipped during the Bush years. During Clinton's term, the rate was on the rise, after a substantial fall during the Reagan and Bush 41 years.

So what does all that mean? Trickle down works!

Of course the trickle down I'm talking about isn't the one Republicans push. Instead it's one that see's the wealth of America rapidly decrease as the money trickles down to the mass population.

And speaking of Republican economics, this highlights another problem. Look again at the big dip in the Bush years. Republicans constantly told us how bigger tax cuts to corporate America would mean more jobs and better wages. Care to re-think that position?

In a world of supply side economics, the equating factor is simple - if the people have more money then they will buy more goods. Instead Republicans want you to think that if the big corporations have more money, they'll hire more people and put out more goods, even if those goods won't sell. It's that kind of thinking that will keep us in a recession and cause our middle class to keep declining. It's that kind of thinking that the media and right wing has pushed for years and so many Americans now buy into it, despite the historic numbers showing something totally different.

Today’s earthquake is another stark reminder that government regulations do save lives:

From seawalls that line stretches of Japan’s coastline, to skyscrapers that sway to absorb earthquakes, to building codes that are among the world’s most rigorous, no country may be better prepared to withstand earthquakes than Japan.

Had any other populous country suffered the 8.9 magnitude earthquake that shook Japan on Friday, tens of thousands of people might already be counted among the dead. So far, Japan’s death toll is in the hundreds, although it is certain to rise somewhat.

Ironically, it was just over a year ago that I posted something along the same lines. That was following the Chilean earthquake, where the loss of life was minimal. In terms of regulations, Chile ranks right up there with Japan.

I really hate turning devastation, like we are seeing right now, into political debate, but this is life and death we are talking about. Every time I hear some Republican or Tea Partier talking about “government controlling our lives through regulation”, I got to wonder how dense they really are. I know I want to make sure my family is in buildings that can sustain whatever mother nature, or any other disaster, might throw its way. I don’t trust corporations to “do the right thing” and neither should you, because when you find out that they did lie, or cut a few corners, it’s usually too late.

As if this comes as any shocker:

Corporate America finished the second quarter with "near-historic" profits, largely by cutting costs, laying off employees and streamlining operations, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Profits for companies in the S&P 500 soared 38 percent from the same period last year, hitting $189 billion, the WSJ says, the sixth-highest quarterly total ever. S&P analysts expect the trend to have continued in the third quarter.

Since 2008, corporate profits increased 10 percent -- but revenue was down 6 percent, the WSJ says. To achieve the impressive quarterly results, companies have had, as the WSJ puts it, to "streamline" their operations. This means firing workers, outsourcing labor and shuttering

This amounts to a Republican Mecca of capitalism ; the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. And while the poor are eating from hand to mouth, the Tea Partiers want to increase this dangerous economic disparity by doing such things as eliminating the minimum wage.

The thing that drives me crazier than anything though is the minions who by into this “let the corporations rule” meme the right pushes. So many are in the middle class and one down sizing or out sourcing away from hitting hard times. Reality is a myth to these people.

About damn time:

A team of top federal prosecutors and investigators has taken the first steps toward a formal criminal investigation into oil giant BP's actions before and after the drilling rig disaster off Louisiana.

The investigators, who have been quietly gathering evidence in Louisiana over the last three weeks, are focusing on whether BP skirted federal safety regulations and misled the U.S. government by saying it could quickly clean up an environmental accident.

The team has met with U.S. attorneys and state officials in the Gulf Coast region and has sent letters to executives of BP and Transocean Ltd., the drilling rig owner, warning them against destroying documents or other internal records.

Now that BP officials are starting to plead the 5th about the explosion, it's past time to get them into a criminal court. And this shouldn't end up as the status-quo for corporations charged with crimes. People need to go to jail for this and BP needs a fine well beyond the typical amounts we hear, most of which would amount to about a day's profit for the oil giant.

Chris Matthews proved again tonight that he in no way should have the job he does. First off he gets into with Alan Grayson, who is supporting the plan for the House to pass the Senate bill and then “patch” it through reconciliation. Matthews accuses Grayson of not being from the “real world” and instead being part of the Netroots.

This is some netroots plan? This is the exact plan that Nancy Pelosi was pushing Wednesday morning and even David Shuster talked about it.

Also tonight Matthews appeared oblivious to what the Supreme Court decision on campaign financing meant. He kept saying it means that corporations could give unlimited amounts of money to candidates, which is false. It means that corporations can spend unlimited amounts of money for a candidate, such as in advertising.

It’s far past time for MSNBC to bring in some new talent and get rid of Matthews. His time is long past gone. The guy doesn’t even understand the basics of our system. He has also become impossible to watch. He doesn’t interview or even try to debate. Instead he just rambles on and on, hardly ever letting his guests talk. The guy is a total waste of two hours a night.

Here’s Conrad’s latest:

Kent Conrad is pushing to decouple this Medicare buy-in from Medicare. Conrad wants to make it fake Medicare. He wants people in this fake Medicare to pay much higher reimbursement rates. and be placed in a separate risk pool. The people in fake Medicare might not even be able to use the Medicare provider network. This will make the premiums for Medicare buy-in dramatically higher, and might make the entire fake Medicare program unworkable. Already, the Federal Association of Hospitals is pushing for something like this change to gut the proposal.

Conrad is nothing but an insurance industry whore. Maybe it’s time to start calling his office and ask who he really represents – the people or the corporations?

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To prove this is a meme of the Republican Party just take a look at this blog post by Robert Stacy McCain (wingnut extraordinaire!):

Let me explain something to you, David Axelrod: Obama and the Democrats didn't "cut taxes" in a way that will stimulate economic growth. They didn't reduce or eliminate the capital gains tax. They didn't reduce or eliminate the corporate tax. Most of all, they didn't reduce the top marginal rate.

He is going after David Axelrod talking about the tax cut for 95% of Americans. See – the Republicans don’t care about 95% of the country. Instead they only worry about that top 5% and the big corporations. Screw everyone else.

Now I wonder how many of these wingnuts are gladly accepting the tax cuts under Obama? If they really believe what they say, then shouldn’t they give the money back, or better yet – donate it to a mega corporation of their choice? Prove you mean what you write. Yeah – I doubt that will happen.