on the poor and the middle class!
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Facts and graphs below are compiled from reports by the
Joint Economic Committee of Congress of the United States
and other government and non-government websites.
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Exposing the Republican assault
on the poor and the middle
class!
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Above To Buy a Bumper Sticker
Facts and graphs below are compiled from reports by the
Joint Economic Committee of Congress of the United States
and other government and non-government websites.
BUSH ADMINISTRATION’S "ACCOMPLISHMENTS"
New data released by the Census Bureau
show that during the first 5 years of the
Bush Administration, income for the typical American household fell by $1,273
5.4 million more people descended into poverty, and 6.8 million more joined the
ranks
of the uninsured.
"Today’s Census reports confirm that the Bush
administration’s economic policies
have not benefited most working families," said Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), Ranking
Democrat on the Joint Economic Committee. "Lackluster job creation and stagnant
wages during the President’s first term pushed millions of adults and children
into
poverty, left families with lower incomes, and contributed to the growing number
of
uninsured Americans. Instead of pursuing policies that would help working
families,
the President has pushed irresponsible tax breaks and proposed Medicaid cuts
that
would leave more of our poorest and most vulnerable families uninsured. Many
Americans are feeling the squeeze of thinner paychecks in the face of soaring
gas
prices and health care costs, but there’s no relief in sight from this
administration."
http://bigpicture.typepad.com/
In the budget spending reconciliation bill enacted in
December 2005, families in the
poorest fifth of the income distribution bear a disproportionate burden from
permanent cuts in programs providing payments for individuals. Those families
have
just 3 percent of aggregate family income, but they bear 22 percent of the net
cuts in
programs such as student loans, Medicare, and Medicaid. The bill reduces the FY
2006-2010 deficit by $39.7 billion (and includes savings that are not readily
allocable
to families, such as the proceeds from spectrum auctions). However, the FY 2006
budget resolution also provides for $70 billion of reconciled tax cuts, so that
the net
impact of reconciliation would be to increase the budget deficit. Based on
action taken
in the House and Senate so far, the bulk of the benefits from a tax
reconciliation bill
would go to people in the richest fifth of the income distribution.
INCOME
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The typical American family’s
real (inflation-adjusted) income declined by about
$1,273 since 2000 (a 2.7 percent decline). That drop occurred despite a
2.4 percent
average annual increase in inflation-adjusted gross domestic product (GDP) over
the same period.
The real income of
American households has declined since 2000 across the income
distribution. Since
2000, real income has declined by 7.5 percent for the poorest fifth
of households and by 1 percent for the richest fifth of
households.
HEALTH INSURANCE
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Rising Health Care Costs Prohibit Coverage For Many Families. Every other advanced
industrial nation has virtually universal access to decent medical care, at much
lower
cost than the United States. [Competing
Solutions]
The number of
Americans without health insurance rose by 1.3 million in 2005 to
46.6 million. The number of uninsured has increased in each of the last 5
years and
more people are without health insurance than at any
point since Census began
collecting comparable data starting 1987. Since
2000, the ranks of the uninsured
have grown by 6.8 million.
The percentage of
the population NOT covered by health insurance increased by 0.3
percent in 2005 to 15.9 percent. The
percentage of people not covered by health
insurance has not been this high since 1998.
$4.3 Trillion More Debt in 2008
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In February 2001, the Bush
Administration projected that the federal debt would
be $1.2 trillion in 2008 if their policies were enacted, and that it would not
be prudent
or possible
• The public debt is federal debt held outside government and
does not include debt held
in
the Social Security Trust fund and elsewhere within the
government. gross federal
debt, which includes debt held by government agencies, was $7.9 trillion in 2005
and is
projected to be $9.6 trillion at the end of 2008.
• Instead of building up surpluses and retiring debt in order
to prepare properly for the
retirement of the baby boom generation, the Bush
Administration abandoned all pretense
of fiscal discipline and let the debt skyrocket.
Large Projected Surpluses Turned into Large Deficits Back To Top
• Budget Deterioration Under This Administration Totals $8.9
Trillion — When this
Administration took office, it inherited a projected ten-year surplus
(2002-2011) of
$5.6 trillion. Based on a realistic estimate of the President’s policies, that
surplus has
now become a $3.3 trillion deficit over the same period of time, a dramatic
fiscal
reversal of $8.9 trillion. The long-term budget outlook is little changed
and
continues to show persistent large structural
deficits into the foreseeable future.
Large Deficits Undermine Other Priorities — Large deficits
mean growing national
debt, resulting in more and more resources being wasted to pay the interest on
that
debt. CBO projects net interest payments exceeding $178 billion every year for
the
next ten years, even before the cost of additional Republican policies are added
in.
According to CBO’s March estimate of the President’s 2005 budget, $402 billion
will
be spent on interest payments in 2014. These interest payments absorb scarce
resources that could be better spent on priorities like homeland security. In
fact,
annual interest payments already dwarf the size of federal spending on
priorities
like education, the environment, and veterans’ services. Meanwhile, foreign
investors
now hold more than 40 percent of the public debt.
Bush Tax Cuts Were Nearly 90 Times Larger for Millionaires
The average amount of 2001-2004 tax cuts for households with more than $1
million
of income was $103,000 in 2005. The comparable figure for households with
incomes
of $50,000 to $75,000 was $1,187. That made the millionaires’ average tax
cut 87 times
larger. It was 146 times larger than the average tax cut for households with
$20,000 to
$50,000 income and 54 times larger than the average tax cut for households with
$75,000 to $100,000 of income.
| The Gross National Debt: |
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