MERRY HOLIDAYS

So I've been downloading podcasts of the Majority Report, my favorite Air America show. I've been burning CDs of them and listen to it whenever I'm in the car, which is usually only for 10-15 minutes at a time. So it takes me several days to listen to a whole show, and I've got a backlog.

I just now listened to the show from November 17, and Sam interviewed Bernie Sanders. And a few of the statistics he brought up are so damning of the current "conservative Republican" mindset and the whole "free market" fiasco and the idea that tax cuts end up helping the less fortunate, and on and on.

To wit, and I'm paraphrasing--listen to the show for the exact quotes:

Astounding Income inequality
1. a 2003 IRS study determined that the income of 99% of the country did not keep up with inflation, while the top 1% did very well and the top 1/10 of that1% did extremely well.

Poverty--tax cuts not the answer
2. Since George Bush took office in 2001, 5 million more Americans have fallen into poverty than before Bush came in--that's a million people a year.

Middle class wages sunk by inflation
3. A two-income household today has less disposable income than a one-income family did in 1973--wages are not keeping up with inflation and people are working longer hours for less $$.