The recession has hit middle-income and poor families hardest, widening the economic gap between the richest and poorest Americans as rippling job layoffs ravage household budgets.
The wealthiest 10% of Americans — those making more than $138,000 a year — earned 11.4 times the $12,000 or so made by those living near or below the poverty line in 2008, according to newly released census figures. That ratio is an increase from 11.2 in 2007 and the previous high o11.22 in 2003.
Household income declined across all groups, but more sharply for middle-income and poor Americans. Median income fell last year from $52,163 to $50,303, wiping out a decade's worth of gains to hit the lowest level since 1997. the median is the midpoint — half of households made more, half less.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Income Gap Widens Under President Obama
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
POTUS Quotes - Ronald Reagan
Without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure.
While I take inspiration from the past, like most Americans, I live for the future.
When you can't make them see the light, make them feel the heat.
What we have found in this country, and maybe we're more aware of it now, is one problem that we've had, even in the best of times, and that is the people who are sleeping on the grates, the homeless, you might say, by choice.
Welfare's purpose should be to eliminate, as far as possible, the need for its own existence.
We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so we will always be free.
We should measure welfare's success by how many people leave welfare, not by how many are added.
We might come closer to balancing the Budget if all of us lived closer to the Commandments and the Golden Rule.
We have the duty to protect the life of an unborn child
We can't help everyone, but everyone can help someone.
To sit back hoping that someday, some way, someone will make things right is to go on feeding the crocodile, hoping he will eat you last - but eat you he will.
To paraphrase Winston Churchill, I did not take the oath I have just taken with the intention of presiding over the dissolution of the world's strongest economy.
Thomas Jefferson once said, 'We should never judge a president by his age, only by his works.' And ever since he told me that, I stopped worrying.
They say the world has become too complex for simple answers. They are wrong.
There are no great limits to growth because there are no limits of human intelligence, imagination, and wonder.
There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect.
The problem is not that people are taxed too little, the problem is that government spends too much.
The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help.
The government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away.
Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don't interfere as long as the policy you've decided upon is being carried out.
Republicans believe every day is the Fourth of July, but the democrats believe every day is April 15.
Protecting the rights of even the least individual among us is basically the only excuse the government has for even existing.
Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book.
Politics is just like show business. You have a hell of an opening, coast for a while, and then have a hell of a close.
Politics I supposed to be the second-oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.
One way to make sure crime doesn't pay would be to let the government run it.
No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth!
My philosophy of life is that if we make up our mind what we are going to make of our lives, then work hard toward that goal, we never lose - somehow we win out.
Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.
Where Did All The Anti-War Liberals Go?
Obama Cultists Caught On Camera Praying To Their Master
Thomas Jefferson Quotes
Monday, September 28, 2009
Obamacare Is Losing Support
Just 41% of voters nationwide now favor the health care reform proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats. That’s down two points from a week ago and the lowest level of support yet measured.
BOA Drops ACORN
In response to questions from The Wall Street Journal, a spokesman for the banking company said it has "suspended current commitments" to Acorn Housing, an affiliated group, and "will not enter into any further agreements with Acorn or any of its affiliates," pending assessments by the bank of the organization's operations.
Everything Is George Bush's Fault
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Ben Stein Writes Scathing Piece On Obama
Why is President Barack Obama in such a hurry to get his socialized medicine bill passed?
Because he and his cunning circle realize some basic truths:
The American people in their unimaginable kindness and trust voted for a pig in a poke in 2008. They wanted so much to believe Barack Obama was somehow better and different from other ultra-leftists that they simply took him on faith.
They ignored his anti-white writings in his books. They ignored his quiet acceptance of hysterical anti-American diatribes by his minister, Jeremiah Wright.
They ignored his refusal to explain years at a time of his life as a student. They ignored his ultra-left record as a "community organizer," Illinois state legislator, and Senator.
The American people ignored his total zero of an academic record as a student and teacher, his complete lack of scholarship when he was being touted as a scholar.
Now, the American people are starting to wake up to the truth. Barack Obama is a super likeable super leftist, not a fan of this country, way, way too cozy with the terrorist leaders in the Middle East, way beyond naïveté, all the way into active destruction of our interests and our allies and our future.
The American people have already awakened to the truth that the stimulus bill -- a great idea in theory -- was really an immense bribe to Democrat interest groups, and in no way an effort to help all Americans.
Now, Americans are waking up to the truth that ObamaCare basically means that every time you are sick or injured, you will have a clerk from the Department of Motor Vehicles telling your doctor what he can and cannot do.
The American people already know that Mr. Obama's plan to lower health costs while expanding coverage and bureaucracy is a myth, a promise of something that never was and never will be -- a bureaucracy lowering costs in a free society. Either the costs go up or the free society goes away.
These are perilous times. Mrs. Hillary Clinton, our Secretary of State, has given Iran the go-ahead to have nuclear weapons, an unqualified betrayal of the nation. Now, we face a devastating loss of freedom at home in health care. It will be joined by controls on our lives to "protect us" from global warming, itself largely a fraud if believed to be caused by man.
Mr. Obama knows Americans are getting wise and will stop him if he delays at all in taking away our freedoms.
There is his urgency and our opportunity. Once freedom is lost, America is lost. Wake up, beloved America.
Source: http://spectator.org/archives/2009/07/24/weve-figured-him-out
I agree with most of what Stein writes about in his piece. Almost everything. The jury is still out on whether Obama's "anti white." In my opinion.