Empire In Retreat: Under Trump, we’re seeing the fall of the empire of America in real time

[Litwin]

things are coming unhinged, socially and culturally

The rise of Trumpism, of tribalism, the celebration of stupidity.

Trump's this vulgar, grotesque dope, everything I hate in people,

I’m ashamed at what we must look like as a culture to the world

It doesn’t feel like we’ve advanced. I think you’re seeing the fall of the empire of America in real time, before your eyes; the internet has eroded the fabric of decency in our civilization,.

New, Its clear , we have a traitor (not an useful idiot) in the white house. is it pee- tape or something else it doesn´t matter . Helping grandpa Vova Trumps goes against the UN resolutions and entire USA´s establishment, literally he risks everything for ex - KGB spy.

questions 1) Trump is a traitor (not an useful idiot)
2) Crimea is Ukraine or Muscovy

" President Donald Trump told leaders at a G7 summit dinner that Crimea is Russian because its people speak Russian, diplomatic sources told Buzzfeed. Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, which led to sanctions and its removal from what was then the G8. Trump also told leaders at the dinner last Friday that “Ukraine is one of the most corrupt countries in the world,” according to a diplomat.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/report...-speak-russian

 

[Brain357]

Nothing comes from cnn kid. Are you in some sort of stupid denial of facts?

How do you know since you never watch CNN? I'll be you didn't even vote for Hillary. Funny that no one watches CNN and no one voted for Hillary.

Because cnn does not calculate them, they probably report them. You seem really dumb. You think cnn calculates growth? Labor force
Participation?

OK, provide some reputable links instead of regurgitating stuff you heard on CNN, bearing in mind that you are almost always dealing with people far more sophisticated than yourself.

Bureau of Labor Statistics Data

Oh, so labor participation is up from Obama's last year. I warned you about dealing with those more sophisticated than yourself.

I see it is just as low as it was when trump said the actual unemployment rate was over 20%. It is not up from Obama...

 

[jc456]

Well for a falling empire we aren't doing bad.

There are jobs for anyone who wants one. UE is the lowest its been in decades.

Working people have more money in their pay checks.

The economy is roaring along.

More people are happy with the direction the country is moving in.

Guess you will be disappointed when the empire doesn't fall.

Oh well. Maybe next time. LOL.

Keep on living with your head in the sand.

Most people think we are going in the wrong direction.

Working people do not have more money in their pockets.

The Trump lie is about to get very real. So enjoy this short time. But when the shit hits the fan, and democrats control congress, don't blame democrats because that's what Trump is going to do.

especially obammy elitists that want everyone unemployed correct. LMFAO can't make this anti america crap up anymore.

 

[jc456]

things are coming unhinged, socially and culturally

The rise of Trumpism, of tribalism, the celebration of stupidity.

Trump's this vulgar, grotesque dope, everything I hate in people,

I’m ashamed at what we must look like as a culture to the world

It doesn’t feel like we’ve advanced. I think you’re seeing the fall of the empire of America in real time, before your eyes; the internet has eroded the fabric of decency in our civilization,.

New, Its clear , we have a traitor (not an useful idiot) in the white house. is it pee- tape or something else it doesn´t matter . Helping grandpa Vova Trumps goes against the UN resolutions and entire USA´s establishment, literally he risks everything for ex - KGB spy.

questions 1) Trump is a traitor (not an useful idiot)
2) Crimea is Ukraine or Muscovy

" President Donald Trump told leaders at a G7 summit dinner that Crimea is Russian because its people speak Russian, diplomatic sources told Buzzfeed. Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, which led to sanctions and its removal from what was then the G8. Trump also told leaders at the dinner last Friday that “Ukraine is one of the most corrupt countries in the world,” according to a diplomat.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/report...-speak-russian

huh?

 

[Votto]

I think you’re seeing the fall of the empire of America in real time, before your eyes; the internet has eroded the fabric of decency in our civilization,.

Our decay began long before Trump.

He is merely a symptom, a reflection.
.

You don't get it, do you.

Collapse the system that spanned about a 100 years of Progressive rule and right before it falls put a free market capitalist in there and blame them for the fall, showing the world once and for all that we need more Progressivism.

This is Progressivism 101.

 

[DGS49]

Where’s that $4,000 Raise the GOP Promised Workers?

When Republicans in Congress passed a big, fat tax break bill in December, they insisted it meant American workers would be singing “Happy Days Are Here Again” all the way to the bank.

The payoff from the tax cut would be raises totaling $4,000 to $9,000, the President’s Council of Economic Advisors assured workers.

But something bad happened to workers on their way to the repository. They never got that money.

In fact, their real wages declined because of higher inflation. At the same time, the amount workers had to pay in interest on loans for cars and credit cards increased. And, to top it off, Republicans threatened to make workers pay for the tax break with cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

So now, workers across America are wondering, “Where’s that raise?”

It’s nowhere to be found.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics reported this week that wages for production and nonsupervisory workers decreased by 0.1 percent from May 2017 to May 2018 when inflation is factored in. The compensation for all workers together, including supervisors, rose an underwhelming 0.1 percent from April 2018 to May 2018.

That’s not what Congressional Republicans promised workers. They said corporations, which got the biggest, fattest tax cuts of all, would use that extra money to increase wages.

Some workers got one-time bonuses and an even smaller number received raises. But not many. The group, Americans for Tax Fairness, estimates it’s 4.3 percent of all U.S. workers.

Most of the money went to stock buybacks, which enrich corporate executives and wealthy stock holders because they have the effect of raising stock values. Corporations set an all-time record for buybacks in the first quarter of this year. They bought $178 billion of their own shares, up by more than 42 percent from the first quarter in 2017.

The New York Times story about this record breaker describes the phenomena way: “Companies buy back their shares when they believe they have nothing better to do with their money than to return capital to shareholders.” So despite promises from the GOP and the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, corporations believed further enriching their own executives and shareholders was a much better way to use the money than increasing workers’ wages – wages that have been stagnant for decades.

Form 1945 until 1982, worker pay rose in tandem with productivity. At that time, buybacks were rare, primarily because they were deemed a forbidden manipulation of stock prices. In 1981, S&P 500 companies spent about 2 percent of profits on buybacks.

But after 1982, when the Reagan administration legalized stock buybacks, the connection between wages and productivity broke wide apart as corporate executives focused all of their efforts on increasing share value. Last year, the S&P 500 companies spent 50 percent of profits on buybacks and 41 percent on dividends to stock holders. That left a pittance – 9 percent. Corporations socked away some or all of that in overseas tax havens. Their workers, whose labor produced that profit, got virtually nothing.

CEOs self-centered focus on stock buybacks is a big part of the reason Republicans’ promised raise is illusory. But it’s not just the raise. The tax cut itself is a sham.

Workers can be excused for not noticing that big, fat tax cut in their paychecks. Those who earn less than $25,000 a year, that is those in the lowest fifth of income brackets, will get a tax cut this year totaling $60. That’s just about a dollar a week.

For those in the middle income quintile earning between $49,000 and $86,000 a year, the average tax cut is $900. That’s $17 a week. The cost of a large pizza and a Coke. Hardly earth shattering.

By contrast, the top 1 percent of taxpayers, those with incomes above $733,000 a year, will get a tax cut averaging $51,000. That’s $980 a week. So every week this year, Uncle Sam will hand the nation’s richest a tax benefit that is $80 more than the entire amount that the middle-income worker will get in a year.

Workers across America are wondering, “Where’s that big, beautiful tax break?”

While they’re searching, workers will have to pay more for cars and homes and credit card debt. That’s because the Federal Reserve increased the cost of borrowing this week for the second time this year and promised two more hikes before year’s end.

Fed officials said they did it because the tax break and additional federal spending have heated up the economy. It’s hot for corporations, alright, but not for workers.

And the real cost to workers hasn’t yet hit. The GOP’s tax cut will add $1 trillion to the national debt. Even before passing the tax cut legislation, Republican leaders like Speaker of the House Paul Ryan began saying that workers would have to pay those costs in the form of cuts to cherished safety net programs, that is Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

And they’re not kidding. They already tried to slash funding for food stamps, the program that feeds the poor.

And now, incredibly, Republicans are planning a second round of tax cuts. They say they want to make that $17-a-week tax break for the middle class permanent. As it is now, that tax cut disappears in 2025, while the massive break Republicans gave corporations is permanent. In addition, Republicans want to slash the capital gains tax. This, again, is a tax cut for the rich.

Now, it’s not as if workers haven’t benefitted at all under the current administration. Jared Bernstein, a senior fellow at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities and former chief economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden, estimates that the real hourly pay of middle class workers has risen 0.4 percent over the past 18 months of Republican control of Congress and the White House.

At that rate, Bernstein figures, it will take 28 years for a worker to get that promised $4,000 pay bump.

So before Republicans start trying to reward rich people again for being rich, they need to answer one question:

Where’s that $4,000 pay raise promised to the middle class?

Where’s that $4,000 Raise the GOP Promised Workers?

The $4,000 (that was never actually promised) is right next to the $2,500 per family that Soetoro promised if ACA was passed. And if that's not good enough, it's probably somewhere in the LockBox where Al Gore put all the Social Security money.

 

[rightwinger]

America was once what Reagan called the shining city on the hill

What the rest of the world aspired to be. Now we are feared and ridiculed by the rest of the world. Trump is not trusted or respected in the Global Community and has surrendered the role of Leader of the Free World

Spread the word and tell them not to come and bring their spawn.

Not much European migration or from any industrialized nation

Certainly not illegal. Immigration, especially illegal, is overwhelmingly from where Trump correctly described as shit holes.

Immigration has traditionally come from shitholes

Ireland, Italy, Poland, China...

Where did your ancestors come from?

 

[rightwinger]

Where’s that $4,000 Raise the GOP Promised Workers?

When Republicans in Congress passed a big, fat tax break bill in December, they insisted it meant American workers would be singing “Happy Days Are Here Again” all the way to the bank.

The payoff from the tax cut would be raises totaling $4,000 to $9,000, the President’s Council of Economic Advisors assured workers.

But something bad happened to workers on their way to the repository. They never got that money.

In fact, their real wages declined because of higher inflation. At the same time, the amount workers had to pay in interest on loans for cars and credit cards increased. And, to top it off, Republicans threatened to make workers pay for the tax break with cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

So now, workers across America are wondering, “Where’s that raise?”

It’s nowhere to be found.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics reported this week that wages for production and nonsupervisory workers decreased by 0.1 percent from May 2017 to May 2018 when inflation is factored in. The compensation for all workers together, including supervisors, rose an underwhelming 0.1 percent from April 2018 to May 2018.

That’s not what Congressional Republicans promised workers. They said corporations, which got the biggest, fattest tax cuts of all, would use that extra money to increase wages.

Some workers got one-time bonuses and an even smaller number received raises. But not many. The group, Americans for Tax Fairness, estimates it’s 4.3 percent of all U.S. workers.

Most of the money went to stock buybacks, which enrich corporate executives and wealthy stock holders because they have the effect of raising stock values. Corporations set an all-time record for buybacks in the first quarter of this year. They bought $178 billion of their own shares, up by more than 42 percent from the first quarter in 2017.

The New York Times story about this record breaker describes the phenomena way: “Companies buy back their shares when they believe they have nothing better to do with their money than to return capital to shareholders.” So despite promises from the GOP and the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, corporations believed further enriching their own executives and shareholders was a much better way to use the money than increasing workers’ wages – wages that have been stagnant for decades.

Form 1945 until 1982, worker pay rose in tandem with productivity. At that time, buybacks were rare, primarily because they were deemed a forbidden manipulation of stock prices. In 1981, S&P 500 companies spent about 2 percent of profits on buybacks.

But after 1982, when the Reagan administration legalized stock buybacks, the connection between wages and productivity broke wide apart as corporate executives focused all of their efforts on increasing share value. Last year, the S&P 500 companies spent 50 percent of profits on buybacks and 41 percent on dividends to stock holders. That left a pittance – 9 percent. Corporations socked away some or all of that in overseas tax havens. Their workers, whose labor produced that profit, got virtually nothing.

CEOs self-centered focus on stock buybacks is a big part of the reason Republicans’ promised raise is illusory. But it’s not just the raise. The tax cut itself is a sham.

Workers can be excused for not noticing that big, fat tax cut in their paychecks. Those who earn less than $25,000 a year, that is those in the lowest fifth of income brackets, will get a tax cut this year totaling $60. That’s just about a dollar a week.

For those in the middle income quintile earning between $49,000 and $86,000 a year, the average tax cut is $900. That’s $17 a week. The cost of a large pizza and a Coke. Hardly earth shattering.

By contrast, the top 1 percent of taxpayers, those with incomes above $733,000 a year, will get a tax cut averaging $51,000. That’s $980 a week. So every week this year, Uncle Sam will hand the nation’s richest a tax benefit that is $80 more than the entire amount that the middle-income worker will get in a year.

Workers across America are wondering, “Where’s that big, beautiful tax break?”

While they’re searching, workers will have to pay more for cars and homes and credit card debt. That’s because the Federal Reserve increased the cost of borrowing this week for the second time this year and promised two more hikes before year’s end.

Fed officials said they did it because the tax break and additional federal spending have heated up the economy. It’s hot for corporations, alright, but not for workers.

And the real cost to workers hasn’t yet hit. The GOP’s tax cut will add $1 trillion to the national debt. Even before passing the tax cut legislation, Republican leaders like Speaker of the House Paul Ryan began saying that workers would have to pay those costs in the form of cuts to cherished safety net programs, that is Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

And they’re not kidding. They already tried to slash funding for food stamps, the program that feeds the poor.

And now, incredibly, Republicans are planning a second round of tax cuts. They say they want to make that $17-a-week tax break for the middle class permanent. As it is now, that tax cut disappears in 2025, while the massive break Republicans gave corporations is permanent. In addition, Republicans want to slash the capital gains tax. This, again, is a tax cut for the rich.

Now, it’s not as if workers haven’t benefitted at all under the current administration. Jared Bernstein, a senior fellow at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities and former chief economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden, estimates that the real hourly pay of middle class workers has risen 0.4 percent over the past 18 months of Republican control of Congress and the White House.

At that rate, Bernstein figures, it will take 28 years for a worker to get that promised $4,000 pay bump.

So before Republicans start trying to reward rich people again for being rich, they need to answer one question:

Where’s that $4,000 pay raise promised to the middle class?

Where’s that $4,000 Raise the GOP Promised Workers?

The $4,000 (that was never actually promised) is right next to the $2,500 per family that Soetoro promised if ACA was passed. And if that's not good enough, it's probably somewhere in the LockBox where Al Gore put all the Social Security money.

Where are the raises?

Workers haven’t seen a significant increase in pay in ten years.
What possible reason is there to deny them?

Unemployment is at 3.8 percent, businesses just got a 50 percent tax cut, stock market is booming

Why don’t employees benefit

 

[Avatar4321]

We aren’t an empire so our empire can’t fall.

We have cultural rot and decay but that started at least in the sixties

 

[IsaacNewton]

If ending the empire is the result then Trump was worth it

Ignorance incarnate, once China displaces the US as the world leader guess which country then drives the world economy, who's currency will dominate, how much more enabled Russia, North Korea, Syria and the rest of the batshits of the world will be, and how many million of jobs Americans will see go bye bye for good. The US can pull back from a military empire gradually no problem. But the rest is just surrending to China and Russia.

 

[rightwinger]

We aren’t an empire so our empire can’t fall.

We have cultural rot and decay but that started at least in the sixties

What are we?

 

[rightwinger]

If ending the empire is the result then Trump was worth it

Ignorance incarnate, once China displaces the US as the world leader guess which country then drives the world economy, who's currency will dominate, how much more enabled Russia, North Korea, Syria and the rest of the batshits of the world will be, and how many million of jobs Americans will see go bye bye for good. The US can pull back from a military empire gradually no problem. But the rest is just surrending to China and Russia.

Trump is giving away our global leadership role in an attempt to placate his isolationist base

 

[SeaGal]

...we the people are gonna take back this country and we refuse to go back to yesterdays America!!

Uh, We the People already did. Yesterday's America belonged to Obama & Co, after he fundamentally transformed it...'member? I don't want to go back to that either.

Clearly you are among those who think this country is just for you. Obama allowed ordinary working class tax paying citizens a piece of this pie you greedy white mf think is just for you. And for his efforts, he got elected not once, but twice and could have gone a 3rd where it feasible. I warn you, Trump will never see a second term and I pray to God he never finishes this one. You people are sick and demented and I pity you to the core if you think Obama was worse than Trump.

Relax, take a deep breath and step away from the mirror.

Larger Standard Deduction. The standard deduction is almost doubled,

$2,000 Child Tax Credit. The child tax credit (CTC) is doubled

Analysis of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act

Most of middle America is paying less in taxes than during the last administration. Employment rates for minorities are at record highs - https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/01/05/black-unemployment-falls-to-lowest-level

And, while you're praying to God to 'remove' the president from office, remember His Son's words in Matthew 7:5.

None of this has anything to do with skin color - everything to do with policy.

 

[sparky]

 

[Deno]

things are coming unhinged, socially and culturally

The rise of Trumpism, of tribalism, the celebration of stupidity.

Trump's this vulgar, grotesque dope, everything I hate in people,

I’m ashamed at what we must look like as a culture to the world

It doesn’t feel like we’ve advanced. I think you’re seeing the fall of the empire of America in real time, before your eyes; the internet has eroded the fabric of decency in our civilization,.

America was once what Reagan called the shining city on the hill

What the rest of the world aspired to be. Now we are feared and ridiculed by the rest of the world. Trump is not trusted or respected in the Global Community and has surrendered the role of Leader of the Free World

Reagan was a globalist fuck bag.

You don’t have to keep proving your ignorance…

We get it….

 

[Deno]

Where’s that $4,000 Raise the GOP Promised Workers?

When Republicans in Congress passed a big, fat tax break bill in December, they insisted it meant American workers would be singing “Happy Days Are Here Again” all the way to the bank.

The payoff from the tax cut would be raises totaling $4,000 to $9,000, the President’s Council of Economic Advisors assured workers.

But something bad happened to workers on their way to the repository. They never got that money.

In fact, their real wages declined because of higher inflation. At the same time, the amount workers had to pay in interest on loans for cars and credit cards increased. And, to top it off, Republicans threatened to make workers pay for the tax break with cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

So now, workers across America are wondering, “Where’s that raise?”

It’s nowhere to be found.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics reported this week that wages for production and nonsupervisory workers decreased by 0.1 percent from May 2017 to May 2018 when inflation is factored in. The compensation for all workers together, including supervisors, rose an underwhelming 0.1 percent from April 2018 to May 2018.

That’s not what Congressional Republicans promised workers. They said corporations, which got the biggest, fattest tax cuts of all, would use that extra money to increase wages.

Some workers got one-time bonuses and an even smaller number received raises. But not many. The group, Americans for Tax Fairness, estimates it’s 4.3 percent of all U.S. workers.

Most of the money went to stock buybacks, which enrich corporate executives and wealthy stock holders because they have the effect of raising stock values. Corporations set an all-time record for buybacks in the first quarter of this year. They bought $178 billion of their own shares, up by more than 42 percent from the first quarter in 2017.

The New York Times story about this record breaker describes the phenomena way: “Companies buy back their shares when they believe they have nothing better to do with their money than to return capital to shareholders.” So despite promises from the GOP and the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, corporations believed further enriching their own executives and shareholders was a much better way to use the money than increasing workers’ wages – wages that have been stagnant for decades.

Form 1945 until 1982, worker pay rose in tandem with productivity. At that time, buybacks were rare, primarily because they were deemed a forbidden manipulation of stock prices. In 1981, S&P 500 companies spent about 2 percent of profits on buybacks.

But after 1982, when the Reagan administration legalized stock buybacks, the connection between wages and productivity broke wide apart as corporate executives focused all of their efforts on increasing share value. Last year, the S&P 500 companies spent 50 percent of profits on buybacks and 41 percent on dividends to stock holders. That left a pittance – 9 percent. Corporations socked away some or all of that in overseas tax havens. Their workers, whose labor produced that profit, got virtually nothing.

CEOs self-centered focus on stock buybacks is a big part of the reason Republicans’ promised raise is illusory. But it’s not just the raise. The tax cut itself is a sham.

Workers can be excused for not noticing that big, fat tax cut in their paychecks. Those who earn less than $25,000 a year, that is those in the lowest fifth of income brackets, will get a tax cut this year totaling $60. That’s just about a dollar a week.

For those in the middle income quintile earning between $49,000 and $86,000 a year, the average tax cut is $900. That’s $17 a week. The cost of a large pizza and a Coke. Hardly earth shattering.

By contrast, the top 1 percent of taxpayers, those with incomes above $733,000 a year, will get a tax cut averaging $51,000. That’s $980 a week. So every week this year, Uncle Sam will hand the nation’s richest a tax benefit that is $80 more than the entire amount that the middle-income worker will get in a year.

Workers across America are wondering, “Where’s that big, beautiful tax break?”

While they’re searching, workers will have to pay more for cars and homes and credit card debt. That’s because the Federal Reserve increased the cost of borrowing this week for the second time this year and promised two more hikes before year’s end.

Fed officials said they did it because the tax break and additional federal spending have heated up the economy. It’s hot for corporations, alright, but not for workers.

And the real cost to workers hasn’t yet hit. The GOP’s tax cut will add $1 trillion to the national debt. Even before passing the tax cut legislation, Republican leaders like Speaker of the House Paul Ryan began saying that workers would have to pay those costs in the form of cuts to cherished safety net programs, that is Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

And they’re not kidding. They already tried to slash funding for food stamps, the program that feeds the poor.

And now, incredibly, Republicans are planning a second round of tax cuts. They say they want to make that $17-a-week tax break for the middle class permanent. As it is now, that tax cut disappears in 2025, while the massive break Republicans gave corporations is permanent. In addition, Republicans want to slash the capital gains tax. This, again, is a tax cut for the rich.

Now, it’s not as if workers haven’t benefitted at all under the current administration. Jared Bernstein, a senior fellow at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities and former chief economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden, estimates that the real hourly pay of middle class workers has risen 0.4 percent over the past 18 months of Republican control of Congress and the White House.

At that rate, Bernstein figures, it will take 28 years for a worker to get that promised $4,000 pay bump.

So before Republicans start trying to reward rich people again for being rich, they need to answer one question:

Where’s that $4,000 pay raise promised to the middle class?

Where’s that $4,000 Raise the GOP Promised Workers?

If you like your doctor you can keep him...

What a dumb ass.....

 

[Deno]

things are coming unhinged, socially and culturally

The rise of Trumpism, of tribalism, the celebration of stupidity.

Trump's this vulgar, grotesque dope, everything I hate in people,

I’m ashamed at what we must look like as a culture to the world

It doesn’t feel like we’ve advanced. I think you’re seeing the fall of the empire of America in real time, before your eyes; the internet has eroded the fabric of decency in our civilization,.

You got one thing wrong and one thing right.

The US is not an empire.

Trump and his ilk are destroying this country and everything it means to be an American.

No Dumb Ass Dip Shit liberal.

It’s the sore ass Butt Hurt liberals

like you and your ilk

that are trying to destroy America.

 

[DustyInfinity]

1. I love the line that Trump is the president of the rich. You should change that to president of those who WORK. It shouldn't be a mystery why tax cuts should benefit those who have a job. I've seen posts before where people say you should have to have a job to vote. I agree. It is a cancer for people without jobs voting to take working people's money.
2. I also love the loss of Global Standing argument. We are somehow isolationist because we refuse to be taken advantage of? That makes no sense at all..Don't screw us over, we'll be the best trade partner and ally you ever had.

 

[rightwinger]

Where’s that $4,000 Raise the GOP Promised Workers?

When Republicans in Congress passed a big, fat tax break bill in December, they insisted it meant American workers would be singing “Happy Days Are Here Again” all the way to the bank.

The payoff from the tax cut would be raises totaling $4,000 to $9,000, the President’s Council of Economic Advisors assured workers.

But something bad happened to workers on their way to the repository. They never got that money.

In fact, their real wages declined because of higher inflation. At the same time, the amount workers had to pay in interest on loans for cars and credit cards increased. And, to top it off, Republicans threatened to make workers pay for the tax break with cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

So now, workers across America are wondering, “Where’s that raise?”

It’s nowhere to be found.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics reported this week that wages for production and nonsupervisory workers decreased by 0.1 percent from May 2017 to May 2018 when inflation is factored in. The compensation for all workers together, including supervisors, rose an underwhelming 0.1 percent from April 2018 to May 2018.

That’s not what Congressional Republicans promised workers. They said corporations, which got the biggest, fattest tax cuts of all, would use that extra money to increase wages.

Some workers got one-time bonuses and an even smaller number received raises. But not many. The group, Americans for Tax Fairness, estimates it’s 4.3 percent of all U.S. workers.

Most of the money went to stock buybacks, which enrich corporate executives and wealthy stock holders because they have the effect of raising stock values. Corporations set an all-time record for buybacks in the first quarter of this year. They bought $178 billion of their own shares, up by more than 42 percent from the first quarter in 2017.

The New York Times story about this record breaker describes the phenomena way: “Companies buy back their shares when they believe they have nothing better to do with their money than to return capital to shareholders.” So despite promises from the GOP and the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, corporations believed further enriching their own executives and shareholders was a much better way to use the money than increasing workers’ wages – wages that have been stagnant for decades.

Form 1945 until 1982, worker pay rose in tandem with productivity. At that time, buybacks were rare, primarily because they were deemed a forbidden manipulation of stock prices. In 1981, S&P 500 companies spent about 2 percent of profits on buybacks.

But after 1982, when the Reagan administration legalized stock buybacks, the connection between wages and productivity broke wide apart as corporate executives focused all of their efforts on increasing share value. Last year, the S&P 500 companies spent 50 percent of profits on buybacks and 41 percent on dividends to stock holders. That left a pittance – 9 percent. Corporations socked away some or all of that in overseas tax havens. Their workers, whose labor produced that profit, got virtually nothing.

CEOs self-centered focus on stock buybacks is a big part of the reason Republicans’ promised raise is illusory. But it’s not just the raise. The tax cut itself is a sham.

Workers can be excused for not noticing that big, fat tax cut in their paychecks. Those who earn less than $25,000 a year, that is those in the lowest fifth of income brackets, will get a tax cut this year totaling $60. That’s just about a dollar a week.

For those in the middle income quintile earning between $49,000 and $86,000 a year, the average tax cut is $900. That’s $17 a week. The cost of a large pizza and a Coke. Hardly earth shattering.

By contrast, the top 1 percent of taxpayers, those with incomes above $733,000 a year, will get a tax cut averaging $51,000. That’s $980 a week. So every week this year, Uncle Sam will hand the nation’s richest a tax benefit that is $80 more than the entire amount that the middle-income worker will get in a year.

Workers across America are wondering, “Where’s that big, beautiful tax break?”

While they’re searching, workers will have to pay more for cars and homes and credit card debt. That’s because the Federal Reserve increased the cost of borrowing this week for the second time this year and promised two more hikes before year’s end.

Fed officials said they did it because the tax break and additional federal spending have heated up the economy. It’s hot for corporations, alright, but not for workers.

And the real cost to workers hasn’t yet hit. The GOP’s tax cut will add $1 trillion to the national debt. Even before passing the tax cut legislation, Republican leaders like Speaker of the House Paul Ryan began saying that workers would have to pay those costs in the form of cuts to cherished safety net programs, that is Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

And they’re not kidding. They already tried to slash funding for food stamps, the program that feeds the poor.

And now, incredibly, Republicans are planning a second round of tax cuts. They say they want to make that $17-a-week tax break for the middle class permanent. As it is now, that tax cut disappears in 2025, while the massive break Republicans gave corporations is permanent. In addition, Republicans want to slash the capital gains tax. This, again, is a tax cut for the rich.

Now, it’s not as if workers haven’t benefitted at all under the current administration. Jared Bernstein, a senior fellow at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities and former chief economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden, estimates that the real hourly pay of middle class workers has risen 0.4 percent over the past 18 months of Republican control of Congress and the White House.

At that rate, Bernstein figures, it will take 28 years for a worker to get that promised $4,000 pay bump.

So before Republicans start trying to reward rich people again for being rich, they need to answer one question:

Where’s that $4,000 pay raise promised to the middle class?

Where’s that $4,000 Raise the GOP Promised Workers?

If you like your doctor you can keep him...

What a dumb ass.....

98 percent of people kept their insurance

 

[Deno]

...we the people are gonna take back this country and we refuse to go back to yesterdays America!!

Uh, We the People already did. Yesterday's America belonged to Obama & Co, after he fundamentally transformed it...'member? I don't want to go back to that either.

Clearly you are among those who think this country is just for you. Obama allowed ordinary working class tax paying citizens a piece of this pie you greedy white mf think is just for you. And for his efforts, he got elected not once, but twice and could have gone a 3rd where it feasible. I warn you, Trump will never see a second term and I pray to God he never finishes this one. You people are sick and demented and I pity you to the core if you think Obama was worse than Trump.

You are an ignorant know nothing RACIST....