[Marion, Indiana]

Mike Earnest: Out of the blue one day we were told to build a thirty foot stage. Gathered the guys and we built that thirty foot stage, not knowing what it was for.

[Mitt Romney and Bain Capital purchased the paper plant.]

Just days later all three shifts were told to assemble in the warehouse.

[The company was profitable with three shifts working.]

A group of people walked out on that stage and told us that the plant is now closed and all of you are fired.

I looked both ways. I looked at the crowd and, uh, we all just lost our jobs. We don’t have an income.

[“there’s little question he made a fortune from businesses he helped destroy.” New York Post 2/19/11]

Mitt Romney made over a hundred million dollars by shutting down our plant and devastated our lives.

Turns out, that when we built that stage it was like building my own coffin. And it just made me sick.

[If Mitt Romney Wins, the middle class loses.]

Announcer: Priorities USA Action is responsible for the content of this advertising.

[Priorities USA Action is responsible for the content of this advertisement. Paid for by Priorities USA Action and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee. PioritiesUSAAction.org]

Any questions?

Crossposted from Antemedius, also at NowPublic

Under the first U.S. income tax law that was passed in 1913, only 1 percent of Americans were required to file income tax returns, and to be liable to file you would have had to be earning an annual income of about $120,000 in todays dollars. It was passed during a period called the Progressive Era: “a period of social activism and reform that flourished from the 1890s to the 1920s” during which there were widespread “efforts to reform local government, education, medicine, finance, insurance, industry, railroads, churches, and many other areas” of American life.

It was a period of steady economic growth in the U.S. and produced a since unparalleled level of prosperity that lasted for decades. The politics of the era included the concept of an economy of high wages and the idea that American labor could undersell foreign labor by being highly paid, well clothed, well educated, healthier labor with high productivity. The concept of “free market” during the period was an entirely different concept than it is today.

That idea of steady economic growth is now on the table.

Michael Hudson is President of The Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends (ISLET), a Wall Street Financial Analyst, Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City and is the author of “Super-Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire” (1968 & 2003), “Trade, Development and Foreign Debt” (1992 & 2009) and of “The Myth of Aid” (1971).

ISLET engages in research regarding domestic and international finance, national income and balance-sheet accounting with regard to real estate, and the economic history of the ancient Near East. Hudson acts as an economic advisor to governments worldwide, including Iceland, Latvia and China, on finance and tax law.

As a former advisor to the White House, the State Department and the Department of Defense at the Hudson Institute, and subsequently to the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), Hudson has been one of the best known specialists in international finance. He also has consulted for the governments of Canada, Mexico and Russia, most recently for the Duma opposition to the Yeltsin regime.

On January 01 this year we heard Hudson talk with The Real News Networks’ Paul Jay explaining that US economic history shows that the economy grows when top tier tax rates and workers wages are high, and explain that the U.S economy can again outperform foreign economies with high wages, increased living standards, and with high top tier tax rates producing higher productivity – a progressive concept, like Jeannette Wicks-Lim’s ideas outlined below – that is nearly the exact opposite of the free lunch economic ‘theories’ so widespread today that are behind wall street’s pillaging of the U.S. economy with the support of both major political parties.  

Hudson’s thinking has been ignored by the Obama Administration.

Jeannette Wicks-Lim completed her Ph.D. in economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2005, and now specializes in labor economics with an emphasis on the low-wage labor market and has an overlapping interest in the political economy of race, and is now Assistant Research Professor at the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI). She is author of a paper produced at PERI entitled Creating Decent Jobs in the United States (.PDF), in which she concludes that “collective bargaining presents a powerful way to turn the tide on the declining workers’ pay and benefits we have seen for decades“, finds that “a union worker has a 20 percent greater chance of having a decent job than a similar non-union worker“, and shows that “that there is no strong evidence that higher unionization rates lead to higher unemployment rates“.

Her dissertation: Mandated wage floors and the wage structure: Analyzing the ripple effects of minimum and prevailing wage laws (.PDF), is a study of the overall impact of mandated wage floors on wages.

Last December 31 we heard  Jeannette Wicks-Lim explain how currently most minimum wage earners in the U.S. can no longer the afford the basic necessities of life, and outline her proposal to combine minimum wage and earned income tax credit policies to guarantee a decent living wage for all.

Wicks-Lim’s proposal was ignored by the Obama Administration.

In another interview released Monday by The Real News Network, Michael Hudson again talks with Paul Jay about the state and direction of the US economy and the governments plans and actions, now warning that:

…what’s happening in Greece is a dress rehearsal for what’s going on in the United States. Already, a few weeks ago in Athens, the protestors had signs up referring to Wisconsin and the problems here. What’s happening in Greece in the last week is exactly what’s happened in Minnesota with the close-down of government. And the demands of privatization–Greece sell off its roads, its land, its port authority, its water and sewer–is just what Illinois’s been doing, what Chicago’s been doing, what Minnesota’s been told to do, and what American cities are trying to do. So you have an identical strategy being used between Greece and the United States. Greece is the first domino since Iceland. And the financial interests that are looking at this post-2008 debt crisis as a grab bag think ‘now is the chance for us to make our move’. Now we can take all this debt that we’ve built up and we can get out of the financial system, we can turn it into direct ownership of property. We can own the Greek islands, we can own the Greek public domain, just like we can own what Minnesota, Chicago, Wisconsin, and California own. And all of a sudden you have a huge virtual foreclosure process.

[snip]

You can look at what’s happening in Greece when it says cut back your pensions, cut back your Social Security, cut back your medical care. This is exactly what we’re going to see done in the next two weeks by the Obama administration here.

Real News Network – July 11, 2011

Greece a Dress Rehearsal for United States

Michael Hudson: Cuts to Social Security and Medicare and privatization at the state level mirror strategy imposed on Greece

…full transcript here…

Hudson will in all l
ikelihood be ignored again.

From the White House:

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

May 23, 2011

Statement by the President on the Tornado in Missouri and the Severe Storms Across the Midwest

Michelle and I send our deepest condolences to the families of all those who lost their lives in the tornadoes and severe weather that struck Joplin, Missouri as well as communities across the Midwest today.  We commend the heroic efforts by those who have responded and who are working to help their friends and neighbors at this very difficult time. At my direction, FEMA is working with the affected areas’ state and local officials to support response and recovery efforts, and the federal government stands ready to help our fellow Americans as needed.

President Barack Obama talks on the phone with Missouri Governor Jay Nixon, during his visit to Dublin, Ireland, May 23, 2011. The President and Gov. Nixon discussed the deadly tornado that touched down in Joplin, Mo., Sunday night. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

A Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) release:

FEMA AND FEDERAL PARTNERS SUPPORT MISSOURI, MIDWEST STATES IN RESPONSE TO TORNADOES AND SEVERE STORMS

FEMA Administrator, Deputy Administrator Heading to Joplin, Missouri; Tornado Survivors in Joplin Can Now Apply for Federal Disaster Assistance

WASHINGTON – The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and its federal partners are working closely with state and local officials in Missouri and the other states impacted by the deadly tornadoes and severe storms that struck the Midwest on Saturday and Sunday.  At the direction of President Obama, FEMA this morning added the two Missouri counties impacted by tornadoes, Jasper and Newton, to an ongoing disaster declaration the state received for recent storms, which means that tornado survivors in those counties can now apply for disaster assistance with FEMA.

FEMA has already deployed staff on the ground in Missouri to help state officials with coordination and other needs as they continue their response. Earlier this morning, President Obama and Secretary Napolitano both called Missouri Governor Jay Nixon to express that all of the families of Joplin affected by the severe tornadoes are in their thoughts and prayers and reiterate this administration’s commitment to assisting the state and Missouri residents.

At the President’s request, FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate will travel to Missouri to ensure that the state has all the support it needs, and today FEMA Deputy Administrator Rich Serino will also travel to Joplin to tour the damages and meet with state and local officials. More details on Fugate’s trip will be released later today.

“What happened over the weekend in Missouri, Minnesota and Kansas, is simply heartbreaking, and all of us are thinking of and praying for the families and communities devastated by these deadly storms,” said Administrator Fugate.  “As President Obama and Secretary Napolitano told Governor Nixon over the past day, the entire federal family is ready to support the impacted states in any way needed. We thank the first responders, volunteers and good Samaritans who have been working heroically, around the clock, to save lives and conduct search and rescue efforts. We urge all survivors of these storms in Jasper and Newton counties to contact FEMA about applying for federal disaster aid by visiting http://www.disasterassistance.gov or m.fema.gov.”

This morning, FEMA added Jasper and Newton counties to a pre-existing disaster declaration Missouri had received for recent storms, which was the quickest way to approve disaster aid for individuals and communities. Specifically, the counties were approved for individual assistance to help survivors repair or replace damaged properties and other personal losses, and public assistance to help with debris removal and other emergency response needs.  Individuals in these counties can apply for aid three ways: by calling FEMA at (800) 621-3362 / TTY (800) 462-7585; online at http://www.disasterassistance.gov; or directly on their mobile phones at m.fema.gov.

Since the tornadoes struck, FEMA, through its regional offices in offices in Kansas City, Missouri, and Chicago, Illinois, has been in constant contact and coordination with officials in Missouri, Minnesota and Kansas.  At the request of the state, FEMA has already deployed staff to Missouri’s emergency operations center to help with coordination needs, and deployed special teams to support the state as response efforts continue.

Specifically, last night FEMA deployed a Mobile Emergency Response Team to Missouri to provide self-sustaining telecommunications, logistics and operations support. In anticipation of requests from the state, FEMA has also sent an Incident Management Assistance Team to Joplin to coordinate with state and local officials; this team is currently en route.

Also last night, FEMA activated the Department of Health and Human Services to coordinate hospital medical needs and patient evacuations with the state of Missouri, if needed.  HHS has the lead federal role in supporting the state for public health and medical services needs during disasters.

Last week, as part of the federal government’s National Level Exercise 2011, which simulated a catastrophic earthquake hitting Missouri and other states in the central U.S., Administrator Fugate spent time in Missouri with state and local officials, including Governor Nixon. Missouri was one of several states that participated in the exercise, along with federal agencies, the private sector and other organizations….

Taxation is the price we pay for civilization.

Apparently.

Interestingly, the Missouri republican party hasn’t mentioned Denny Hoskin’s (r-noun, verb, CPA) property tax problem. I wonder why? Is it because that’s a reason to vote “No” on Denny Hoskins? Just asking.

The Missouri republican party continues to prop up Denny Hoskins (r), the incumbent in the 121st Legislative District, with expensive attack mail pieces directed at Courtney Cole (D).

Okay, we’ll bite. Um, the Democratic Party demon every other republican across the country has been running against? Nancy Pelosi!

No?

Who would have thought that Courtney Cole was more powerful than the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. Impressive. That kind of pull doesn’t seem like a negative, especially when the republican incumbent you’re trying to prop up with these expensive mail pieces has such a lackluster legislative record.

Right, I forgot. For the teabagger set that’s a feature, not a bug.

Nice photo with an added microphone. Apparently their tracker couldn’t get anything grainy and more darkly lit.

Whoa! Courtney Cole (D) hangs with the President? That’s some serious pull! Do you think he’ll visit Johnson County within the next three weeks?

Let’s see. They’ve recycled stuff from their previous attack mail:

“…Cole is a card-carrying member of a liberal special interest group…”

Uh, Courtney Cole (D) is a high school teacher. The footnote refers to the Missouri National Education Association (MNEA), a group which advocates for our children and our public schools.

Uh, didn’t that “card carrying” bullshit go out with the anti-fluoridation whack jobs from the fifties? Apparently not. Same type of right wing extremists, different wedge issues….

And what does any self respecting grassroots supported Democratic Party candidate do when they’re subjected to this kind of drech?

Why, they continue their door to door campaigning and engage voters one on one at events. There was one this evening in Warrensburg:

Previously:

“Noun, Verb, CPA”: Hoskins (r) mail attack on Cole (D) in the 121st Legislative District race (October 8, 2010)

Hoskins (r) mail attack on Cole (D) in the 121st Legislative District race, part 2 (October 9, 2010)

Courtney Cole (D) in the 121st Legislative District: mail – a constructive outlook for the district (October 10, 2010)

Denny Hoskins (r) in the 121st Legislative District: Mail? What mail? (October 12, 2010)

Courtney Cole (D) in the 121st Legislative District: mail – and who didn’t pay their taxes? (October 13, 2010)