News Release Archive - The U.S. Economy

Where Did Your Taxes Go?

April 10, 2012

National Priorities Project recently released Tax Day 2012 with the numbers on how federal income taxes were spent in fiscal 2011 — down to the penny, giving people a “Tax Receipt” for how their money is spent.

The group found “Federal income tax revenues totaled around $1.13 trillion in fiscal 2011. … Twenty-seven cents of every federal income tax dollar went to the military; 21.4 cents went to Medicare and other health programs; 14.5 cents paid for interest on the federal debt…”

In addition, “individuals can enter the amount of federal income taxes they paid in 2011, and find out exactly how much money they contributed to space flight research, disaster relief, food stamps, and more.” NPP found, for example, an individual earning $50,000 and paying approximately $6,000 in federal income taxes in 2011 contributed 64 cents toward high speed rail and $40.97 for nuclear weapons.

MATTEA KRAMER, mattea at nationalpriorities.org
Kramer, a senior research analyst at NPP, said today: “Individuals are our nation’s major bill payers, responsible for 86 percent of all federal revenue in fiscal 2011. That includes our income taxes, as well as payroll taxes, estate and gift taxes, and excise taxes on goods like gasoline.”

“JOBS Act” a “Recipe for Fraud” Creating a “Race to the Bottom”

April 5, 2012

President Obama is scheduled to sign the “JOBS Act” this afternoon.

WILLIAM K. BLACK, blackw at umkc.edu
Available for a limited number of interviews, Black is now an associate professor of economics and law at the University of Missouri, Kansas City and the author of “The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One.” He was the deputy staff director of the national commission that investigated the cause of the savings and loan debacle. He was just interviewed by The Real News: “JOBS Act 2012 a Recipe for Fraud.”

Black recently wrote an open letter signed by several noted analysts: “The JOBS Act is so Criminogenic that it Guarantees Full-Time Jobs for Criminologists,” which states: “As white-collar criminologists (and a former financial regulator and enforcement head) and experts in ferreting out sophisticated financial frauds, our careers and research focus on financial fraud by the world’s most elite private sector criminals and their political cronies. Therefore, we write to thank Congress and the President for preparing to adopt a JOBS Act that will provide us with job security for life. We will be the personal beneficiaries of Congress’ decision to adopt the law without the pesky hearings that would allow critics to launch devastating attacks on the proposed bill based on a brutally unfair tactic — the presentation of facts. Unfortunately, in our professional capacities, we must oppose the bill. This bill is an atrocity.

“The ‘Jumpstart Our Business Startups’ Act, the comically forced effort to create a catchy acronym, is the most cynical bill to emerge from a cynical Congress and Administration. It is an exemplar of why Congressional approval ratings are well below those of used car dealers. The JOBS Act is something only a financial scavenger could love. It will create a fraud-friendly and fraud-enhancing environment. It will add to the unprecedented level of financial fraud by our most elite CEOS that has devastated the U.S. and European economies and cost over 20 million people their jobs. Financial fraud is a prime jobs killer. …

“Among the many fraud-friendly policies that led to the deregulation that prompts our recurrent, intensifying financial crises, the undisputed most destructive aspect is the recurrent, intensifying embrace of the ‘regulatory race to the bottom.’ The ‘logic’ of the argument in the securities law context is that (1) dishonest issuers like bad regulation because it allows them to defraud with impunity, (2) our ‘competitor’ nations (typically described as the City of London) offer weaker regulation to induce the fraudulent issuers to locate abroad, and (3) we must not allow this to happen; we must make sure that fraudulent issuers are based in America. Of course, they never phrase honestly their ‘logic’ about dishonesty. Four national commissions investigated the causes of financial crises — the S&L debacle, the ongoing U.S. crisis, the Irish crisis, and the Icelandic crisis. Each of the commissions has decried the idiocy of the ‘race to the bottom’ dynamic and warned that it must end. The arguments advanced by industry in support of the JOBS Act reflect and worship at the altar of ‘the race to the bottom.’” http://neweconomicperspectives.org/2012/03/the-jobs-act-is-so-criminogenic-that-it-guarantees-full-time-jobs-for-criminologists.html

Background: The New York Times piece this week, “JOBS Act Jeopardizes Safety Net for Investors,” states: “Maybe President Obama should have bought shares in Groupon’s I.P.O. If he had, he would understand what some Groupon investors may be feeling as he prepares this week to sign a new piece of legislation to help start-ups get financing. Had he purchased $10,000 worth of shares on the open market on the first day of public trading for Groupon, the online coupon company based in his hometown Chicago, he would have lost a good chunk of his investment, putting him in the red by almost $4,100 today.”

Also see: “Obama JOBS Act Leaves Labor Fuming In Democratic Feud.”

Ryan Budget: Increases Pentagon, “Out of Touch”

March 20, 2012

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) unveiled a 2013 budget plan today.

WILLIAM HARTUNG, hartung at newamerica.net
Hartung is a senior research fellow in the New America Foundation’s American Strategy Program and author of the book Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex, which is just being released in paperback. He said today: “While pretending to make the ‘tough choices,’ Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget cutting plan gives a free ride to the largest single item in the discretionary budget: Pentagon spending. In fact, Ryan would spend $400 billion MORE over the next decade than current Pentagon plans. That will result in harsh cuts to virtually every other domestic program. By contrast, the budget developed by the Sustainable Defense Task Force, a plan endorsed by Representatives Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Ron Paul (R-Texas), would reduce military expenditures by $1 trillion over the next ten years. This can be done without undermining our security, by taking measures such as eliminating outmoded and unnecessary conventional weapons, cutting the Army and Marines back to pre-2001 levels, and eliminating plans for new nuclear bombers, submarines and weapons factories.

“Even as Ryan goes easy on the Pentagon, Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney offers the arms industry an unprecedented bonanza. His plan, which would keep Pentagon spending at 4 percent of Gross Domestic Product, would result in $8 trillion more in Pentagon spending over the next decade, roughly 25 percent more than even Ryan’s generous plan. If Romney endorses the Ryan plan, it is fair to ask whether he is going to eliminate his prior commitment to massive Pentagon budgets or simply pretend the differences between the two approaches don’t exist. That would be a huge deception, if he’s allowed to get away with it.”

ROBERT KRAIG, robert.kraig at citizenactionwi.org
Kraig is executive director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin. He said today: “It is shameful that Paul Ryan and the House Republicans are proposing massive cuts that will further threaten economic and health security for 99% of Americans to fund billions of dollars in irresponsible new tax giveaways for the wealthy.”

KAREN DOLAN, via Lacy MacAuley, lacy at ips-dc.org
Dolan, fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and director of IPS’s Cities for Progress project, said today: “Ryan unveiled a 2013 budget plan that would impose unnecessary hardship on already hurting Americans. Before the economy has had a chance to bounce back, the GOP budget would slash critical safety net programs to rates below what both parties had agreed to in last summer’s Budget Control Act. At the same time, the Ryan budget would give tax breaks to the wealthy and to corporations. I think this shows not only that the GOP is wildly out of touch with average Americans, but that they lack the ability to lead us anywhere but off a cliff. We need revenues, investments, jobs and a strong safety net for the millions of Americans who continue to suffer from the 2008 recession. Tax breaks for the rich and less for everyone else is an idea which has already failed the vast majority of Americans.”

Filed Under: Electoral Issues, The U.S. Economy Tagged With: budget, economy, military spending, Robert Kraig, social security, William Hartung,

Progressives Respond to Obama

May 19, 2011

AIMEE ALLISON, aimee at rootsaction.org
Co-Executive Director of RootsAction, Allison said today: “Obama will need the support of progressives in his reelection bid, but the biggest issues — from closing Guantanamo to ending war in Iraq to protecting the social safety net haven’t been addressed.” The group released a video today titled “Louder Than Words” featured on their webpage: RootsAction.org.

KEVIN GRAY, kevinagray57 at gmail.com
Today is Malcolm X’s birthday. Gray is author of The Decline of Black Politics: From Malcolm X to Barack Obama. He said today: “Cornel West for all his class contradictions isn’t so far off the mark when he says ‘Barack Obama has a certain fear of free black men.’ Obama’s White House can have the black entertainment-minstrel class come to the White House through a revolving door because they’re safe. Yet meeting with black leadership — elected and not, to include the black press — has to be done behind closed doors or with no record of what was discussed behind those doors.

“And in the face of depression-level unemployment in the black community, Obama’s response to black critics is ‘cut me some slack’ instead of ‘make me do it.’

“If Malcolm X were alive — and had for the most part, the same politics he had at the time of his death — no doubt Obama would repudiate Malcolm and his history quicker than he rejected Jeremiah Wright and Louis Farrakhan.

“Barack Obama is for protecting empire, structural white supremacy and the global capitalist elites, that’s the job he volunteered to do. Malcolm was for the recognition of human and civil rights protections for all individuals.”

Background: IPA news release, “Malcolm X’s Legacy” which includes quotes from Malcolm X

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

Filed Under: Electoral Issues, The U.S. Economy, War: Info, Analysis, Policy Options

Japan Nuclear Disaster: Danger for U.S.

May 18, 2011

A New York Times piece titled “In Japan Reactor Failings, Danger Signs for the U.S.” reports: “Emergency vents that American officials have said would prevent devastating hydrogen explosions at nuclear plants in the United States were put to the test in Japan — and failed to work, according to experts and officials with the company that operates the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant….

“The improved venting system at the Fukushima plant was first mandated for use in the United States in the late 1980s as part of a ‘safety enhancement program’ for boiling-water reactors that used the Mark I containment system, which had been designed by General Electric in the 1960s. Between 1998 and 2001, Tokyo Electric followed suit at Fukushima Daiichi, where five of six reactors use the Mark I design.”

ARNIE GUNDERSEN, arnie at fairewinds.com, fairewinds.com
Gundersen is a former nuclear industry insider and now an independent consultant. He said today: “The U.S. Mark 1 Designs are just as vulnerable to containment failures as Fukushima. I have argued this point with the NRC [Nuclear Regulatory Commission] for the last six years, and the NRC continues to assume that the probability of containment leakage is zero.”

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

Institute for Public Accuracy
980 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045
(202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org * ipa@accuracy.org
___________________________________________________

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Japan Nuclear Disaster: Danger for U.S.

Interviews Available

ARNIE GUNDERSEN, (802) 865-9955, arnie@fairewinds.com, http://fairewinds.com
Gundersen is a former nuclear industry insider and now an independent consultant. He said today: “The U.S. Mark 1 Designs are just as vulnerable to containment failures as Fukushima. I have argued this point with the NRC [Nuclear Regulatory Commission] for the last six years, and the NRC continues to assume that the probability of containment leakage is zero.”

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020, (202) 421-6858; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

Filed Under: The U.S. Economy Tagged With: enviornment, nuclear,

Social Security: Beyond the Doom-and-Gloom

May 13, 2011

MAX RICHTMAN, PAMELA TAINTER CAUSEY, causeyp at ncpssm.org
Richtman is executive vice president/acting CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security; Causey is communications director for the group.

He said today: “It’s important that Americans understand the [just-released] 2011 Trustees Report confirms that Social Security and Medicare continue to fulfill their mission, providing retirement and health security to millions still suffering during the worst economic crisis of a generation. Beyond the doom-and-gloom news headlines and calls to cut these programs in order to ‘save’ them, the fiscal facts in this annual report show that Social Security has a $2.6 trillion surplus which continues to grow. While healthcare reform has extended the solvency of the Medicare Trust Fund, the economic recession and high healthcare costs continue to take their toll. The bottom line is Social Security is not in crisis and further reforms to our healthcare system are necessary to bring down costs nationwide, not just in Medicare.”

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

Filed Under: The U.S. Economy

Dangers of — and Subsidies to — U.S. Nuclear Industry

May 13, 2011

The Boston Globe reports today: “Nuclear plant emergency generators like those that failed in Japan following the March earthquake and tsunami also failed during tests at the Seabrook Station in New Hampshire and 32 other U.S. plants in the past eight years, according to a report by U.S. Representative Edward J. Markey’s office.”

HARVEY WASSERMAN, solartopia at me.com
Wasserman recently wrote the piece “Let’s Join Japan and Junk New Nukes,” which states: “Japan will build no new nuclear reactors. It’s a huge body blow to the global industry, and could mark a major turning point in the future of energy.

“Says Prime Minister Naoto Kan: ‘We need to start from scratch … and do more to promote renewables.’

“Wind power alone could — and now probably will — replace 40 nukes in Japan.

“The United States must join them. Axing the $36 billion currently stuck in the 2012 federal budget for loan guarantees to build new reactors could do the trick.”

Wasserman is author of Solartopia! Our Green-Powered Earth, AD 2030 (which includes an introduction by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.).

Wasserman edits nukefree.org — which features relevant news articles, for example, recently: “TEPCO [Tokyo Electric Power Company]: Nuclear Fuel Melted as Rods Fully Exposed” and “Panel Recommends Germany Shut All Nukes by 2021.”

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

Institute for Public Accuracy

980 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045

(202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org * ipa@accuracy.org

___________________________________________________

Friday, May 13, 2011

Dangers of — and Subsidies to — U.S. Nuclear Industry

Interviews Available

HARVEY WASSERMAN, (614) 231-0507, (614) 738-3646, solartopia@me.com, http://www.solartopia.org

Wasserman recently wrote the piece “Let’s Join Japan and Junk New Nukes,” which states: “Japan will build no new nuclear reactors. It’s a huge body blow to the global industry, and could mark a major turning point in the future of energy.

“Says Prime Minister Naoto Kan: ‘We need to start from scratch … and do more to promote renewables.’

“Wind power alone could — and now probably will — replace 40 nukes in Japan.

“The United States must join them. Axing the $36 billion currently stuck in the 2012 federal budget for loan guarantees to build new reactors could do the trick.” http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/05/11

Wasserman is author of “Solartopia! Our Green-Powered Earth, AD 2030″ (which includes an introduction by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.).

Wasserman edits http://nukefree.org — which features relevant news articles, for example, recently: “TEPCO [Tokyo Electric Power Company]: Nuclear Fuel Melted as Rods Fully Exposed” and ”Panel Recommends Germany Shut All Nukes by 2021.”

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:

Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020, (202) 421-6858; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

Filed Under: The U.S. Economy

Immigration: “U.S. Drug Demand Destabilizes Mexico”

May 11, 2011

JOHN GIBLER, john.gibler at gmail.com
Author of the forthcoming book To Die in Mexico: Dispatches from Inside the Drug War as well as Mexico Unconquered: Chronicles of Power and Revolt, Gibler said today: “Immigration from Mexico to the U.S. is largely the result of failed policies by the U.S. and Mexican governments. These include trade policies that have resulted in a lack of economic opportunities in Mexico and drug policies that have led to a recent explosion of violence in Mexico. Rather than focusing exclusively on the symptoms with immigration reform, as Obama appears to be doing, he should start by dealing with drug policy reform, so that drug demand in the U.S. stops destabilizing Mexico.”

Gibler just wrote the piece “A War of Anonymous Death,” which states: “After four years of President Felipe Calderón’s so-called war on Mexico’s drug trafficking organizations, murder and impunity have become the order of the day. Since December 2006, more than 38,000 people have been killed, with no noticeable reduction in drug shipments across the border. Federal authorities have opened investigations into less than five percent of those homicides. Most of the people killed are assumed to be guilty of their own murders by the implied logic that surely they were up to no good if they ended up in a ditch, wrapped in a blanket, and shot through the head.”

Background: BBC reports: “More than 20,000 people have gathered in the centre of Mexico City to protest about the large number of deaths caused by drug-related violence and the government’s response to it.”

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

Filed Under: Resources: Trade, World Bank, IMF, The U.S. Economy Tagged With: Mexico,

“Major Corporations Are Threatening Us”

May 10, 2011

RICHARD WOLFF, [in NYC] rdwolff at att.net, rdwolff.com
Wolff just wrote the piece “The Threats of Business and the Business of Threats,” which states: “More and more we hear that nothing can be done to tax major corporations because of the threat of how they would respond. Likewise, we cannot stop their price gouging or even the government subsidies and tax loopholes they enjoy. For example, as the oil majors reap stunning profits from high oil and gas prices, we are told it is impossible to tax their windfall profits or stop the billions they get in government subsidies and tax loopholes. There appears to be no way for the government to secure lower energy prices or seriously impose and enforce environmental protection laws. Likewise, despite high and fast rising drug and medicine prices, we are told that it is impossible to raise taxes on pharmaceutical companies or have the government secure lower pharmaceutical prices. And so on.

“Such steps by ‘our’ government are said to be impossible or inadvisable. The reason: corporations would then relocate production abroad or reduce their activities in the U.S. or both. And that would deprive the U.S. of taxes and jobs. In plain English, MAJOR CORPORATIONS ARE THREATENING US. We are to knuckle under and cut social programs that benefit millions of people (college loan programs, Medicaid, Medicare, social security, nutrition programs, and so on). We are not to demand higher taxes or lower subsidies or fewer tax loopholes for corporations. We are not to demand government action to lower their soaring prices. And if we do, corporations will punish us. …” http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/wolff100511.html

Wolff is author of the book Capitalism Hits the Fan: The Global Economic Meltdown and What to Do About It. He is professor of economics emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and currently a visiting professor in the Graduate Program for International Affairs at the New School University in New York City. Video of his talk “Capitalism Hits the Fan” is available at: capitalismhitsthefan.com.

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

Filed Under: Resources: Trade, World Bank, IMF, The U.S. Economy

Big Oil “Swimming in Revenue”

April 28, 2011

ROBERT WEISSMAN, via Barbara Holzer, bholzer at citizen.org, Dorry Samuels, dsamuels at citizen.org
President of Public Citizen, Weissman said today: “ExxonMobil and Shell today announced skyrocketing profits, as did BP yesterday, and as Chevron will tomorrow. The reason is simple: Prices at the gas pump are jumping, even though the cost of drilling hasn’t changed for the giant integrated firms. Big Oil is able to pocket the difference — at the direct expense of consumers.

“Beneficiaries of such a windfall certainly should not be the recipients of billions in government subsidies.

“Even more fundamentally, there is an obvious response to the windfall profits of the oil companies: a windfall profits tax. The government should tax the windfall profits of the oil giants, and invest the money in renewable energy programs, so that we reduce our dependence on oil and dirty energy.”

ABC News is reporting today: “Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell today reported first-quarter profit increases of 69 percent and 30 percent, respectively, from the same period last year. With rising gas and oil prices, analysts expected the five biggest oil companies — with Exxon as the largest — to report that they are swimming in revenue.”

AP is reporting: “Venezuela is imposing a windfall profits tax on royalties from oil projects when crude prices are above $40 a barrel, seeking to squeeze as much as $16 billion mostly out of foreign oil companies, the government said Tuesday.”

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

Filed Under: The U.S. Economy

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