The 99 Percent Politics Continued
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Low-Wage Nation: Poverty and Inequality Are Threatening Our Democracy
With its catchy "We are the 99 Percent" slogan, the Occupy movement focused millions of Americans on our nation's chronic inequality. As that movement regains momentum, it must pay more attention to the whole 99 percent. (palmspringsdude/Flickr)
Over the three years that he's been in office, President Obama has accomplished many things. From getting the country out of a recession, standing up for equal rights and helping to create over four million jobs, the most notable might be the Affordable Care Act, or " Obamacare ." While conservatives believe that health care reform will cost too much money and that it's a way to bring socialism into the United States, the facts prove otherwise. According to a report by The Hill , the Kaiser Family Foundation has done a report that shows that $1.3 billion dollars will be generated from insurance rebates that will affect nearly $16 million Americans across the country.
New report: Americans will receive $1.3 billion in rebates due to 'Obamacare' - Orlando liberal
Whether you want it or not. It was a one sided battle that resulted in Democratic women walking out of the legislature while their male Republican colleagues voted to take away their right to choose. Now the bill that prompted the walkout has been signed into law by Georgia Republican Governor Nathan Deal, according to the Chicago Tribune . With its passage, Georgia is now the seventh state to ban abortion after 20 weeks. The legislation made no exceptions for women who are raped or impregnated by incest.
Republicans In Georgia Ban Abortions After 20 Weeks Of Pregnancy, Even In Cases Of Rape
Because Of Abstinence Education, 60 Percent Of Young Adults Are Misinformed About Birth Control's Effectiveness
A new study from the Guttmacher Institute unsurprisingly finds that greater knowledge about contraceptive services is directly correlated to a decrease in young adults’ risky sexual behavior. However, after quizzing a nationally representative sample of 1,800 sexually active Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 on their basic knowledge of contraception methods, Guttmacher reports that “more than half of young men and a quarter of young women received low scores on contraceptive knowledge, and six in 10 underestimated the effectiveness of oral contraceptives.” The study ultimately concluded:ON JULY 31st, Georgia's voters will decide whether to impose upon themselves a one-cent sales tax for the next ten years to fund transportation projects. Voters in each of Georgia's 12 regions will have seen (or at least, will have had the opportunity to see) the list of projects their tax will fund; money collected in that region will be spent in that region. Of the $18 billion the tax will raise, a plurality will be spent in metro Atlanta, a region increasingly being strangled by traffic congestion.
Georgia and the United Nations: Why walking leads to one-world government
Catholic Cardinal Says Church Is Willing To Let Poor People Starve In Protest Of Contraception Mandate (VIDEO)
Cardinal Timothy Dolan has made it very clear that he doesn’t like President Obama’s contraception mandate. And apparently, he and the Catholic Church are prepared to let poor people starve to death if President Obama doesn’t give in to their demands. In an appearance on Martin Bashir on MSNBC on Tuesday, Dolan said that the Church would abandon Jesus’ effort to help the sick and feed the poor in protest of the contraception mandate that only applies to insurance companies and not the Church itself. “If these mandates kick in, we’re going to find ourselves faced with a terribly difficult decision as to whether or not we can continue to operate,” Dolan said. “As part of our religion — it’s part of our faith that we feed the hungry, that we educate the kids, that we take care of the sick. We’d have to give it up, because we’re unable to fit the description and the definition of a church given by — guess who — the federal government.”(Photo: mini-66 ) There are places in the world where the majority of people are doomed to live no better than their parents and grandparents did. Places where a poor child from the slums might as well dream of being an astronaut as dream of having a decent middle-class job. Places where the children of the rich get even richer while the children of the poor stay poor. Places like Burma and Kenya and the United States. Well, at least if you're a poor Kenyan your son just might grow up to be president of the United States. For most poor Americans, even state senator is out of reach.
Beyond Wealth Gap Statistics: The Mobility Gap in the Land of Opportunity
Yesterday, National Journal 's Jim Tankersley introduced us to Nick Hanauer , a venture capitalist from Seattle, whose speech at the TED University conference was deemed "too politically controversial to post on their web site." Last night, NJ produced the full slideshow to accompany the full text of the speech. Here they are: TED 2012 More Slides Final1
Business - National Journal - Here Is the Full Inequality Speech and Slideshow That Was Too Hot for TED
Many of us have been unemployed at some point in our adult lives. Whether it was the terrifying period between graduation and that first “real-world job,” an unexpected lay-off, or just an unconquerable need for change, unemployment can be incredibly taxing. Although in the first few days or weeks it can be a good idea to try to enjoy the free time you do have, an extended period of unemployment can drag on, and drag your spirits down with it. Unemployment remains a pretty big problem in the United States right now.
The Truth Behind America’s Unemployment -
Mitt Romney's blueprint for privatising American education | Diane Ravitch | Comment is free
On 23 May, the Romney campaign released its education policy white paper titled A Chance for Every Child: Mitt Romney 's Plan for Restoring the Promise of American Education. If you liked the George W Bush administration's education reforms, you will love the Romney plan. If you think that turning the schools over to the private sector will solve their problems, then his plan will thrill you. The central themes of the Romney plan are a rehash of Republican education ideas from the past 30 years, namely, subsidizing parents who want to send their child to a private or religious school, encouraging the private sector to operate schools, putting commercial banks in charge of the federal student loan program, holding teachers and schools accountable for students' test scores, and lowering entrance requirements for new teachers.So why does the US economy stink? Why has job creation in America slowed to a crawl? Why, after several months of economic hope, are things suddenly turning sour? The culprits might seem obvious – uncertainty in Europe, an uneven economic recovery, fiscal and monetary policymakers immobilized and incapable of acting. But increasingly, Democrats are making the argument that the real culprit for the country's economic woes lies in a more discrete location: with the Republican Party.