The secret history of America's unemployed - War Room. Capital gains tax rates benefiting wealthy are protected by both parties. For the very richest Americans, low tax rates on capital gains are better than any Christmas gift.
As a result of a pair of rate cuts, first under President Bill Clinton and then under Bush, most of the richest Americans pay lower overall tax rates than middle-class Americans do. And this is one reason the gap between the wealthy and the rest of the country is widening dramatically. The rates on capital gains — which include profits from the sale of stocks, bonds and real estate — should be a key point in negotiations over how to shrink the budget deficit, some lawmakers say. Rational Irrationality: Poverty in America: Four Lost Decades. The latest poverty and income figures came out this week, and boy are they disturbing.
It’s not so much the headline figures, which have been well covered in the Times and elsewhere: 46 million Americans living under the poverty line in 2010, the highest number since the Commerce Department started collecting the figures back in 1959. That’s a horrible statistic. (Amy Davidson responded on Tuesday.) As Middle Class Shrinks, P&G Marketing Aims High and Low.