Who Stole the American Dream? (74 page)
Read Who Stole the American Dream? Online
Authors: Hedrick Smith
61
Close the exemption in the payroll tax
“Warren Buffett Tells Charlie Rose Why Congress Should Stop ‘Coddling’ the Super-Rich,”
Charlie Rose
.
62
Solving the funding shortfall for Social Security
Larry Mishel, interview, July 7, 2010.
63
A majority of Americans
Fifty-four percent said capital gains should be taxed at the 35 percent rate or higher. Allison Kopicki, “Partisan Split over Tax Policies,”
The New York Times
, January 24, 2012. Romney’s tax rate: Nicholas Confessore and David Kocieniewski, “For Romneys, Friendly Code Reduces Taxes,”
The New York Times
, January 25, 2002.
64
Gains are heavily concentrated at the top
Robert Lenzner, “The Top 0.1% of the Nation Earn Half of All Capital Gains,”
Forbes
, November 20, 2011.
65
Citizens for Tax Justice examined the records
Robert S. McIntyre, Matthew Gardner, Rebecca J. Wilkins, et al., “Corporate Taxpayers & Corporate Tax Dodgers 2008–10,” Citizens for Tax Justice and Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, November 2011,
http://www.ctj.org
; John McKinnon, “Business Roundtable: We Pay Enough Taxes, Thank You,”
The Wall Street Journal Washington Wire
, April 14, 2011.
66
Others cashed in heavily on loopholes
Aviva Aron-Dine, “Well-Designed, Fiscally Responsible Corporate Tax Reform Could Benefit the Economy,” Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, June 4, 2008,
http://www.cbpp.org
.
67
The multinationals that have been most successful
McIntyre, “Corporate Tax Dodgers.”
68
Companies that pay roughly 35 percent
Catherine Rampell, “Winners and Losers Under the U.S. Corporate Tax Code,”
The New York Times Online
, January 27, 2011; Binyamin Appelbaum, “Corporate Taxes: More Winners and Losers,”
The New York Times Online
, January 27, 2011; “Analysis: 12 Corporations Pay Effective Tax Rate of Negative 1.5% on $171 Billion in Profits: Reap $62.4 Billion in Tax Subsidies,” Citizens for Tax Justice, June 1, 2011,
http://www.ctj.org
.
69
“Double Irish with a Dutch sandwich”
Charles Duhigg and David Kocienieski, “How Apple Sidesteps Billions in Taxes,”
The New York Times
, April 29, 2012.
70
Paid only $3.3 billion in taxes on $34.2 billion in profits
Ibid.
71
“Check the Box”
Vanessa Houlder, Megan Murphy, and Jeff Gerth, “Tax Wars: The Accidental Billion-Dollar Break,”
FT.Com
Financial Times
, September 27, 2011.
72
They lobby Congress for a “tax holiday”
David Kocieniewski, “Companies Push for Tax Break on Foreign Cash,”
The New York Times
, June 19, 2011; Linnley Browning, “A One-Time Tax Break Saved 843 U.S. Corporations $265 Billion,”
The New York Times
, June 24, 2008. Dhammika Dharmapala, C. Fritz Foley, and Kristin J. Forbes, “Watch What I Do, Not What I Say: The Unintended Consequences of the Homeland Investment Act,”
Journal of Finance
, April 27, 2010,
http://www.nber.org
.
73
Want tax reform to require proof
Hindery and Gerard, “Vision for Economic Renewal.”
74
Jobs advocates want ironclad provisions
Kocieniewski, “Companies Push for Tax Break”; Dan Eggen, “The Influence Industry: Companies Lobbying for Tax Holiday on Overseas Money,”
The Washington Post
, April 27, 2011; Mike Zapler, “Big Biz: How About a Tax Holiday?”
Politico
, March 4, 2011,
http://www.politico.com
.
75
China manipulates the value
Currency data from Peterson Institute for International Economics, in press release, Alliance for American Manufacturing, “Ending China’s Currency Manipulation Would Create Over 2 Million Jobs,” June 17, 2011.
76
Widespread intellectual piracy
“Ballmer Bares China Travails,”
The Wall Street Journal
, May 26, 2011; “Piracy: China Still in the Game,” ABC News, November 16, 2010; “Special Report: Warren Buffett’s China Car Deal Could Backfire,” Reuters, March 9, 2011.
77
A major national intelligence report
“Foreign Spies Stealing U.S. Economic Secrets in Cyberspace: Report to Congress on Foreign Economic Collection and Industrial Espionage, 2009–2011,” Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive, October 2011, accessed January 27, 2012,
http://www.dni.gov
.
78
Violating rules of the World Trade Organization
“Intel Chief: Obama (Still) Driving US off Cliff,”
The Register
, August 25, 2010,
http://www.theregister.co.uk
; Clyde Prestowitz, interview, January 11, 2011.
79
The United States would gain 2.25 million jobs
Robert E. Scott, “The
Benefits of Revaluation,” EPI Briefing Paper, June 17, 2011, Economic Policy Institute,
http://www.epi.org
.
80
Gain another 2.1 million full-time jobs
“China: Effects of Intellectual Property Infringement and Indigenous Innovation Policies on the U.S. Economy,” U.S. International Trade Commission, May 2011,
http://www.usitc.gov
.
81
“China’s currency manipulation”
Office of Senator Robert B. Casey, Jr., press release, “China’s Currency Manipulation Undermines U.S. Manufacturing Base by Making U.S.-Made Goods More Expensive Relative to Foreign Goods,” January 17, 2011.
82
Accused China of violating free trade rules
Keith Bradsher, “In Victory for the West, W.T.O. Orders China to Stop Export Taxes on Minerals,”
The New York Times
, January 30, 2012.
83
$450 billion in projected defense cuts
President Barack Obama, remarks, U.S. Department of Defense, January 3, 2012; Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, “Sustaining Global Leadership: Priorities for 21st Century Defense,” January 2012.
84
Another $500 billion in cuts
Congressional Budget Office, “Final Sequestration Report for Fiscal Year 2012,” January 12, 2012,
http://www.cbo.gov
.
85
$1 trillion can be cut
Lawrence J. Korb, “Why Panetta’s Pentagon Cuts Are Easier Than You Think,” Snapshot,
Foreign Affairs
, January 4, 2012; Winslow Wheeler, email, December 2, 2011; Christie and Sprey, letter to Erskine Bowles.
86
2007 level of $470 billion a year
Wheeler, email.
87
That level would still enable
Christie and Sprey, letter to Erskine Bowles; Winslow Wheeler, “Ignorance Is Not Bliss,”
The Hill
, March 9, 2011,
http://www.thehill.com
.
88
Cost the nation more than $3.5 trillion
Eisenhower Study Group, “The Costs of War Since 2001: Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan” (Providence, RI: Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown University, June 2011), table 5. From their total cost of $3.688 trillion, I have dropped war costs of $155 billion for fiscal years 2016–2020, since America’s actual involvement in war during those years is problematic,
http://costsofwar.org
. Daniel Trotta, “Cost of War at Least $3.7 Trillion and Counting,” Reuters, June 29, 2011.
89
Cutback of $1 trillion
Fareed Zakaria, “Why Defense Spending Should Be Cut,”
The Washington Post
, August 3, 2011.
90
The “gross mismanagement”
Vice Admiral Norb Ryan, Jr., “Another Burden for Our War Fighters,”
Washington Times
, November 23, 2011.
91
McCain issued a savage critique
Senator John McCain, remarks on the “military-industrial-congressional” complex, December 15, 2011,
http://mccain.senate.gov
.
92
“Every gun that is made”
President Dwight Eisenhower, speech, “A Chance for Peace,” April 16, 1953,
http://millercenter.org/president/speeches/detail/3357
.
93
“Instead of fighting this war”
Barack Obama, campaign speech, Charleston, WV, March 20, 2008,
http://www.cfr.org
.
94
A faster draw-down of U.S. forces
Leslie Gelb, “Mission Accomplished,”
The Wall Street Journal
, May 9, 2011.
95
Proposed $750 billion in defense cuts
Zakaria, “Why Defense Spending Should Be Cut.”
96
It’s a catch-22
“U.S. Refinancing Effort Casts Wider Net to Aid Underwater Owners,”
The New York Times
, November 30, 2011.
97
The agreement in February 2012
Nelson D. Schwartz and Julie Creswell, “Mortgage Plan Gives Billions to Homeowners, but with Exceptions,”
The New York Times
, February 10, 2012.
98
“No compensation, no amount of money”
Barack Obama, cited in ibid.
99
“Residential mortgage market is wholly inadequate”
William C. Dudley, “Securing the Recovery and Building for the Future,” speech, West Point, NY, November 17, 2011,
http://www.newyorkfed.org
; Floyd Norris, “To Revive Economy, Rescue Housing,”
The New York Times
, December 2, 2011.
100
Smart economists have suggested multiple ways
Ezra Klein, “Mass Refinancing: The ‘Biggest Thing’ Obama Can Do Without Congress,”
The Washington Post
, January 10, 2012.
101
Government buy up near worthless second mortgages
Alpert, Hockett, and Roubini, “The Way Forward.”
102
Convert many of these homes into rentals
Dudley, “Securing the Recovery.”
103
Offer loan guarantees
“Obama Proposes Mortgage Relief,”
The Washington Post
, February 2, 2012.
104
Measures to slow Medicare cost growth
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, “Affordable Care Act Update: Implementing Medicare Cost Savings,” August 2010,
www.cms.gov
.
105
Eliminate the anticipated Social Security shortfall
Thomas Geoghegan, “Get Radical: Raise Social Security,”
The New York Times
, June 20, 2011; Andrew Fieldhouse, Economic Policy Institute, email, August 22, 2011.
106
Our economy is projected to grow by 60 percent
Lawrence Mishel, “We’re Not Broke, Nor Will We Be,” EPI Briefing Paper, May 19, 2011, Economic Policy Institute,
http://www.epi.org
.
1
“There is a disconnection”
Gardner, “American Experiment.”
2
“Either democracy must be renewed”
Phillips,
Wealth and Democracy
, 422.
3
Government “of the 1%”
Stiglitz, “Inequality.”
4
“Selling the country to the highest bidder”
McCain, CNN AllPolitics.
5
Public discontent
“Rising Share of Americans See Conflict Between Rich and Poor,” Pew Research Center.
6
Confidence in government
“Disapproval Rate for Congress at Record 82% After Debt Talks,”
The New York Times
, August 5, 2011.
7
Special interests have too much influence
“Alienated Nation: Americans Complain of Government Disconnect,” CBS News poll, June 28, 2011,
http://www.cbsnews.com
.
8
“We don’t have representative government anymore”
Stanley B. Greenberg, “Why Voters Tune Out Democrats,”
The New York Times
, Sunday Review, July 30, 2011.
9
Senators were “vastly more responsive to affluent constituents”
Bartels,
Unequal Democracy
, 253.
10
Politicians had disregarded the views of middle-class voters
Martin Gilens, “Inequality and Democratic Responsiveness,” special issue,
Public Opinion Quarterly
69, no. 5 (2005): 778–96,
www.princeton.edu
.
11
Dissatisfaction with both parties
Neil King, Jr., “Antsy Voters Look for a Third Way,”
The Wall Street Journal
, November 26–27, 2011.
12
“There is just so much unrest”
Ibid.
13
By early 2012, Americans Elect
Ezra Klein, “Save American Politics: Kill the Primary,”
The Washington Post
, March 17, 2012. Krissah Thompson, “Group Seeks Middle Option for 2012 Ballot,”
The Washington Post
, November 25, 2011.
14
Bloomberg, seemed to cast himself as a centrist contender
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, remarks on economic growth, Brooklyn Navy Yard, December 8, 2010,
http://www.nyc.gov
.
15
Another sign of rising protest against political extremism
Liz Halloran, “New ‘No Labels’ Movement Seeks Bipartisanship,” NPR, December 13, 2010.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2010/12/13/132033081/new-no-labels-movement-seeks-bipartisanship
.
16
To counteract “this kind of hyper-partisanship”
The Diane Rehm Show
, “Prospects for a Less-Polarized Nation,” National Public Radio, December 16, 2010,
http://thedianerehmshow.org
.
17
Its leaders … want to break party control
William A. Galston and Elaine C. Kamarck, “The Still-Vital Center: Moderates, Democrats, and the Renewal of American Politics,” Third Way, February 2011,
http://www.thirdway.org
.
18
“The problem is the party system itself”
Rehm
, “Less-Polarized Nation.”
19
Open primaries … push candidates
Galston and Kamarck, “Still-Vital Center,” 4, Table 1.
20
The parties wound up with less of a lock
Ibid.
21
Favor more moderate candidates
FairVote, “Congressional and Presidential Primaries: Open, Closed, Semi-Closed, and ‘Top Two,’ ” accessed February 1, 2012,
http://www.fairvote.org
.
22
To increase American voter turnout
U.S. Census Bureau, “Participation in Elections for President and U.S. Representatives, 1932–2010,” Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2012, table 397,
www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2012/tables/12s0397.pdf
.
23
An estimated 2.2 million Americans
The Pew Center on the States,
“Upgrading Democracy: Improving America’s Elections by Modernizing States’ Voter Registration Systems,” November 2010.
http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/uloadedFiles/Upgrading_Democracy_report.pdf
.
24
Maine, Minnesota, and Wisconsin
Mann and Ornstein,
It’s Even Worse Than It Looks
, 136.
25
In America, 25 percent of eligible voters
Ibid, 140.
26
About thirty countries have compulsory voting
William A. Galston, “Telling Americans to Vote, Or Else,”
The New York Times
, November 6, 2011.
http://www.newyorktimes.com/2011/11/06/opinion/sunday/tellingamericans-to-vote-or-else?pagewanted=all
.
27
“The way to gain votes”
Norman Ornstein, “Vote—or Else,”
The New York Times
, August 10, 2006.
28
“Corrupted by the process”
John McCain,
ABC This Week
, October 3, 1999.
29
The Supreme Court … ruled
Adam Liptak, “Justices, 5–4, Reject Corporate Spending Limit,”
The New York Times
, January 21, 2010.
30
In Iowa’s Republican caucuses
Nicholas Confessore and Jim Rutenberg, “Group’s Ads Rip at Gingrich as Romney Stands Clear,”
The New York Times
, December 30, 2011.
31
In South Carolina, the pro-Gingrich
Trip Gabriel and Nicholas Confessore, “PAC Ads to Attack Romney as Predatory Capitalist,”
The New York Times
, January 8, 2012.
32
“The Super-PACs are plainly an avenue”
Mann and Ornstein,
It’s Even Worse
, 154.
33
Super-PACs had raised $160 million
Center for Responsive Politics, “Super-PACs,” Open Secrets.
http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/superpacs.php
.
34
A small group of billionaire would-be kingmakers
Nicholas Confessore, Michael Luo, and Mike McIntire, “In G.O.P. Race, a New Breed of Superdonor,”
The New York Times
, February 22, 2012; Dan Eggen and T.W. Farnam, “The Men Behind the GOP’s Millions,”
The Washington Post
, February 22, 2012. Monica Langley, “Texas Billionaire Doles Out Election’s Biggest Checks,”
The Wall Street Journal
, March 22, 2012.
Journal
chart shows that by late March 2012, three donors provided more than one-fifth of all the Super-PAC funding to date: the Adelsons, with $15 million, Howard Simmons and Contran, with $14.4 million, and Robert Perry, with $6.6 million.
35
record-breaking $1.8 billion presidential election
Federal Election Commission, new release, “2008 Presidential Campaign Financial Activity Summarized: Receipts Nearly Double 2004 Total,” June 8, 2009.
http://www.fec.gov/press/press2009/20090608PresStat.shtml
.
36
Charles and David Koch, billionaire owners
Amanda Terkel and Ryan Grim, “Koch Brothers, Allies Pledge $100 Million at Private Meeting to Beat Obama,”
HuffPost Politics
, February 3, 2012.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/03/koch-brothers-100-million-obama_n_1250828.html
.
37
American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS
Jim Rutenberg and Jeff Zeleny, “ ‘Super PAC,’ Eyeing General Election, Aims Blitz at Obama,”
The
New York Times
, April 8, 2012; T. W. Farnam, “Mystery Donor Gives $10 Million for Attack Ads,”
The Washington Post
, April 14, 2012.
38
Initially, President Obama had rejected
Jeff Zeleny and Jim Rutenberg, “Obama Yields in Marshaling of ‘Super PAC,’ ”
The New York Times
, February 6, 2012.
39
Fred Wertheimer of Democracy 21
Fred Wertheimer, “Super PACs Can Be Thwarted,”
The Washington Post
, April 9, 2012.
40
“The loss of civic faith”
Gardner, “American Experiment.”
41
Business outspent labor 97 to 1
“Lobbying Database,” Center for Responsive Politics, based on data from Senate Office of Public Records, January 31, 2011,
http://www.opensecrets.org
; Drutman,
The Business of America Is Lobbying
, online doctoral thesis, 3–6.
42
“hands off my Medicare”
“S.C. Senator Is a Voice of Reform Opposition,”
The Washington Post
, July 28, 2009; Paul Krugman, “Health Care Realities,”
The New York Times
, July 31, 2009.
43
94 percent had actually benefited
Suzanne Mettler, “Our Hidden Government Benefits,”
The New York Times
, September 20, 2011.
44
“Housing debt is at the heart”
Floyd Norris, “To Revive Economy, Rescue Housing,”
The New York Times
, December 2, 2011.
45
It cuts consumer demand
Mark Lasky and Andrew Gisselquist, “Housing Wealth and Consumer Spending,” Congressional Budget Office, January 2007, 7,
http://www.cbo.gov
; Binyamin Appelbaum, “Gloom Grips Consumers, and It May Be Home Prices,”
The New York Times
, October 18, 2011.
46
Cost the U.S. economy
Karl E. Case, John M. Quigley, and Robert J. Shiller, “Wealth Effects Revisited 1978–2009” (New Haven, CT: Cowles Foundation, Yale University, February 2011), 30–37,
http://cowles.econ.yale.edu
.
47
“Consumer spending”
Livingston, “It’s Consumer Spending, Stupid.”
48
In Israel
“Protests Grow in Israel, with 250,000 Marching,”
The New York Times
, August 6, 2011.
49
Israelis threw up tent cities
“Protests Force Israel to Confront Wealth Gap,”
The New York Times
, August 11, 2011.
50
“The consumer will feel the government’s decision”
“Israeli Cabinet Approves Tax Plan Following Social Protests,” Bloomberg, October 30, 2011,
http://www.bloomberg.com
.