Mitt Romney: Fake Working Class Hero

New York Mayor Bill De Blasio calls bullshit on Mitt Romney's plans to run as an anti-poverty Republican in 2016.

“Doing it in such a ham-handed manner in what appears to be a deathbed conversion is a strange way to suddenly come out of the box with it, and I find it disingenuous, and I think a lot of other people will too,” de Blasio told Politico in an interview over the weekend. “This is a guy who was pretty brazenly uninterested in addressing income inequality in 2012.”

“It is very telling that a guy who’s trying to find his way back to political relevance will grab onto it,” de Blasio said.

Mitt Romney positioning himself as a working class politico is hysterical. Does Romney really expect people to forget his famous 47 percent quote.

Romney: There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it. That that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what. And I mean, the president starts off with 48, 49, 48—he starts off with a huge number. These are people who pay no income tax. Forty-seven percent of Americans pay no income tax. So our message of low taxes doesn't connect. And he'll be out there talking about tax cuts for the rich. I mean that's what they sell every four years. And so my job is not to worry about those people—I'll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives. What I have to do is convince the 5 to 10 percent in the center that are independents that are thoughtful, that look at voting one way or the other depending upon in some cases emotion, whether they like the guy or not, what it looks like. I mean, when you ask those people…we do all these polls—I find it amazing—we poll all these people, see where you stand on the polls, but 45 percent of the people will go with a Republican, and 48 or 4…

Romney can't call poor people freeloaders and then expect to be able to pander to them. It just isn't going ti work.

In related news: Republican Rep. Charlie Dent (PA) tells MSNBC Romney will lose if he runs in 2016.

The Middle Class Getting Poorer in Florida

Interest.com released an affordability study to examine housing markets. Tampa's medium income is $45,880. Tampa rated a D+ in paycheck power in 2012, 2013 and 2014. Tampa is the lowest rated city in the study. Miami is the second lowest rating city for medium income.

The Tampa Bay Times has an infographic of the jobs Gov. Rick Scott promised to deliver from giving companies tax incentives. Colt's Manufacturing currently has no people in their manufacturing building. Global Voter Solutions has declared bankruptcy. GVS was involved in a scandal using illegal voting software. Several states rejected the faulty Diebold machines GVS used.

Evolution was given a $100,000 tax credit from the state of Florida. Evolution has produced zero jobs in Florida. The list goes on.

Income inequality is increasing in Florida. All the gains from 2009 to 2011 went to the top 1 percent in Florida.

The report found Florida is one of 26 states in which all income growth from 2009 to 2011 went to the top 1 percent. While the average income of the top 1 percent in Florida rose 9.2 percent in that period, the remaining 99 percent saw its average income fall 2.4 percent. Robert Trigaux reports:

Just to break into the 1 percent bracket in Florida requires an annual income of $336,935. To enter the more elite 0.1 percent in Florida requires an income of $8,659,187.

Bottom line? In the Florida economy, the report says, the top 1 percent average of $1.14 million income is 32.2 times greater than that of the other 99 percent. Only Fortune 500-rich New York and Connecticut, home to many Wall Streeters and other highly paid workers, reported a larger disparity in income ratio.

This thread isn't going to change with the McJobs in Florida anytime soon.

Quote of the Day: Rush Limbaugh Edition

"This is the president citing the pope, his new best friend, because the pope is ripping America, the pope ripping capitalism,” the radio host explained. “And Obama’s having an orgasm. Jeremiah Wright is beside himself. Jeremiah Wright thought he was Obama’s preacher, now pope somehow has co-opted Obama."

Rush Limbaugh

Charles Johnson made a great comment about Limbaugh's latest rant.

If I never hear Rush Limbaugh talk about anyone (let alone President Obama) having an orgasm again, it will be too soon.

Amen to that.

I wrote yesterday that wages in Florida and America aren't keeping up with productivity. Limbaugh rants that income inequality doesn't exist.

“And I tell you the way he means that, ‘We’ve got too many rich people, we need more people who are poor and lower middle class, that’s the only way we can have equality and fairness.’ This is just — people have got to be cringing that they ever voted for this guy.”

The problem isn't that America has too many rich people. A Congressional Budget Office study found that income inequality has greatly increased.

The top 1 percent have seen a +281 increase in after tax income. The bottom fifth has experienced only a +16 increase. So much for trickle down economics lifting all ships. Considering Limbaugh's history with viagra, he should stick to talking about orgasms and leave economics to others.

America Needs to Stop Austerity

Ezra Klein reports that the federal deficit went down by 37 percent in 2013. The deficit fell to $680 billion. That translates into 4.1 percent of the GDP. In 2012, the deficit was 6.8 percent of GDP. Contrary to the supply side nonsense from Republicans, increasing taxes on the top income bracket and getting rid of the payroll tax cut (which Republicans supported) is a reason why there is more tax revenue.

Most of all, there was more revenue. Government receipts totaled $2.774 billion, up $325 billion from 2012, and rising to 16.7 percent of GDP from 15.2 percent. That reflects in part a stronger economy that increased income and payroll taxes. It also includes the expiration of a payroll tax holiday that increased tax receipts, and higher rates for upper-income Americans agreed to for this calendar year.

I support getting rid of the payroll tax cut and raising taxes on top income earners. The payroll tax cut. It endangers the Social Security trust fund and the Treasury Department had to pay the difference to make up lost revenue to the trust fund. It was neither fiscally wise or did much to stimulate the economy. A better way to help workers is to raise the minimum wage. It is shameful that President Barack Obama hasn't used his political capital to raise the minimum wage. Wages are not keeping up with cost of living. Mother Jones had these numbers for 2011.

Increase in real value of the minimum wage since 1990: 21%

Increase in cost of living since 1990: 67%

One year's earnings at the minimum wage: $15,080

Income required for a single worker to have real economic security: $30,000

Obviously, there has been no minimum wage increase since MoJo posted these numbers. Income inequality is a far more important issue than the federal deficit. Austerity could lead to long-term economic problems. You can't fund the government if the majority of Americans are overworked and underpaid.

Inequality For Al Trailer

Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich is releasing the documentary Inequality For All. Democracy For America is promoting the movie. The film won the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award at the Sundance Film Festival.

Income Inequality

The Hamilton Project has done a study on how income inequality social mobility and education. As you can see by the chart; Americans making less aren't moving above their economic status. In America the Haves have more and the have nots are getting poorer.

Figure 1 illustrates the diverging fortunes of children based on their family’s income, as measured by the U.S. Census Bureau. Children in families at the top of the income distribution have experienced sizable gains in their families’ incomes and resources since 1975. Children living in the top 5 percent of families, for instance, have seen a doubling of their families’ incomes. But such gains have been more modest for children in the middle of the distribution, and children living in lower-income families have experienced outright declines in incomes. In fact, in 2011 the bottom 35 percent of children lived in families with lower reported incomes than comparable children thirty-six years earlier.

The Hamilton Project compared a college education to other investments. The findings show it makes financial sense to further the education of young people.

What will hurt the future of education America's young people is the increase in student loan debt.

Over the past decade, the volume and frequency of student loans have increased significantly. The share of twenty-five-year-olds with student debt has risen by about 15 percentage points since 2004, and the amount of student debt incurred by those under the age of thirty has more than doubled (Lee 2013).

Despite these increases, the majority of students appear to borrow prudently. About 90 percent have loan balances less than $50,000, and 40 percent have balances under $10,000 (Fry 2012). Given that a college graduate can expect to earn, on average, about $30,000 more per year than a high school graduate over the course of his or her life, the returns to college appear to warrant the cost of student loans for most students.

House Republicans wanted to raise student loan rates from 3.4 to 8.5 and let rates fluctuate with increases in Tresury notes. Democrats wanted to wanted to lock in rates at 3.4 percent for another two years. House Speaker recessed without bringing up student loan rates. Boehner spent the week failing to pass the Farm bill.

We have one of the two major political parties helping cause income inequality by making college education too expensive for students.