Looks like Santa is bringing a lump of something to working families, and it isn’t a fatter paycheck.
New data show America’s workers earned less in 2009 than in 2008, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Compensation was down by 3.2 percent in 2009 with declines in construction and manufacturing fueling the plunge. St. Louis County, the hardest hit, saw a decline of 11.5 percent.
For those lucky enough to have a job, average pay increased by 1.2 percent. But overall income inequality is now at its worst since 1928. As the chart by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) shows here, between 1979 and 2005, households at the bottom fifth of the income scale have seen an average, inflation-adjusted income growth of just $200. The $200 figure does not represent an average annual increase in income, but rather an increase of $200 over the entire 26-year period. By contrast, a small number of households at the top 0.1% of the income scale saw average income growth of almost $6 million over that same period.
In addition, the “wealth gap,” which differs from the income gap because it measures total net worth, is now 225 times greater between the richest 1 percent and the median family net worth.
Lest we forget, corporations are sitting on $1.93 trillion as of Sept. 30—up from $1.8 trillion at the end of June–and not using some of that money pot to create jobs.
We already have a Scooge of the Year. But in many ways, the combined firms of Wall Street are Scrooge’s evil little elves.
House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee chairman Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.) has issued a new report that outlines 24 consequences of repealing health care reform–which Republicans say is among their top agenda items next year.
Republicans want to repeal these vital consumer protections, and reinstate the power health insurers had to deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, charge higher premiums and exclude benefits.
The health care reform law also provides tax credits and other cost-sharing devices that will make health coverage more affordable for as many as 28.6 million low- and moderate-income workers. But, says Stark:
If Republicans repeal health reform, they will eliminate these new tax credits and the cost-sharing assistance, leaving tens of millions of people unable to afford coverage.
Despite all their pronouncements about the need to bring the federal deficit under control, if Republicans were successful in repealing health care reform, Stark says it “would cause the deficit to skyrocket.” The Congressional Budget Office estimates the health reform law reduces the deficit by $143 billion in the first 10 years and by more than $1 trillion dollars in the following decade.