On the recordOctober 26, 2011
The supercommittee is at a standstill. The Democrats won't consider cuts to entitlement programs if the money is primarily to pay for cutting taxes on the wealthy. Republicans won't consider raising taxes on the wealthy from their currently historically low levels because these are the job creators. But where are the jobs? The fact is that corporate profits are at historic highs, as are CEO and investor compensation. But the reason for that corporate profit being historically high is that over the last several years, 75 percent of corporate profit has come from reduction in personnel costs. Then the top 1 percent reward themselves for cutting those costs and raising profits by increasing their own income and bonuses to record high levels. In fact, the CBO report that came out today confirms this. The wealthiest 1 percent, whose income the Republican majority wants so much to protect, went up by 275 percent since 1980. You don't get upward mobility, you don't realize our full potential as a Nation when we have such a concentration of wealth at the top. ____________________
