"The last thing you should do is cut their take-home pay right off the bat," a Clinton spokesman says.
POLITICO.COM
Bernie Sanders via Robert Reich
6 hrs ·
"Hillary Clinton is now attacking single-payer health care as a way to bring Bernie down. “Bernie Sanders has called for a roughly 9-percent tax hike on middle-class families just to cover his health-care plan,” said Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon today.
The Clinton campaign must be referring to single-payer legislation Bernie introduced in 2013, which was to be paid for by a 2.2 percent income tax across the board and a 6.7 percent payroll tax for employers. But even assuming that payroll tax increase would be paid for by workers, calling it a “9 percent tax hike” leaves out the savings average workers would get from a single-payer system. Because single payer would be far cheaper than today's private-insurance system, average workers would still come out far ahead of where they are today.
What really concerns me about Hillary’s tactic here is that this kind of faux analysis makes it harder for any future president – including Hillary Clinton herself, if she’s elected – to propose a single-payer healthcare system."
Hillary Clinton is now attacking single-payer health care as a way to bring Bernie down. “Bernie Sanders has called for a roughly 9-percent tax hike on middle-class families just to cover his health-care plan,” said Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon today.
The Clinton campaign must be referring to single-payer legislation Bernie introduced in 2013, which was to be paid for by a 2.2 percent income tax across the board and a 6.7 percent payroll tax for employers. But even assuming that payroll tax increase would be paid for by workers, calling it a “9 percent tax hike” leaves out the savings average workers would get from a single-payer system. Because single payer would be far cheaper than today's private-insurance system, average workers would still come out far ahead of where they are today.
What really concerns me about Hillary’s tactic here is that this kind of faux analysis makes it harder for any future president – including Hillary Clinton herself, if she’s elected – to propose a single-payer healthcare system.
Robert Reich: Something odd happened. Many of the conservative Republicans and Tea Partiers I met agreed with much of what I had to say, and I agreed with them.
Sharon Kyle: What has become known as the prison industrial complex has grown like a cancer in the United States, touching the lives of untold millions—especially black and brown people. I can honestly say that I don't know a single black person who has not been harmed by our “justice” system—myself included.
Robert Reich: Something odd happened. Many of the conservative Republicans and Tea Partiers I met agreed with much of what I had to say, and I agreed with them.
David Love: In a line of work where people are known to lie, embellish, stretch the truth and engage in artistic license, even Dr. Carson has gone over the line.
Steven Singer: Clinton’s solution to the charter school crisis is what exactly? She seems to be saying that charter schools have major problems, but the best way to fix them is to redouble our belief in this flawed and failing system.
Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy, University of California at Berkeley; author, 'Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few''
Posted: Updated:
Much of the national debate about widening inequality focuses on whether and how much to tax the rich and redistribute their income downward.
But this debate ignores the upward redistributions going on every day, from the rest of us to the rich. These redistributions are hidden inside the market.
The only way to stop them is to prevent big corporations and Wall Street banks from rigging the market.
For example, Americans pay more for pharmaceuticals than do the citizens of any other developed nation.
That's partly because it's perfectly legal in the U.S. (but not in most other nations) for the makers of branded drugs to pay the makers of generic drugs to delay introducing cheaper unbranded equivalents, after patents on the brands have expired.
This costs you and me an estimated $3.5 billion a year -- a hidden upward redistribution of our incomes to Pfizer, Merck, and other big proprietary drug companies, their executives, and major shareholders.
We also pay more for Internet service than do the inhabitants of any other developed nation.
The average cable bill in the United States rose 5 percent in 2012 (the latest year available), nearly triple the rate of inflation.
Why? Because 80 percent of us have no choice of Internet service provider, which allows them to charge us more.
Internet service here costs 3 and-a-half times more than it does in France, for example, where the typical customer can choose between 7 providers.
And U.S. cable companies are intent on keeping their monopoly.
It's another hidden upward distribution - from us to Comcast, Verizon, or another giant cable company, its executives and major shareholders.
Likewise, the interest we pay on home mortgages or college loans is higher than it would be if the big banks that now dominate the financial industry had to work harder to get our business.
As recently as 2000, America's five largest banks held 25 percent of all U.S. banking assets. Now they hold 44 percent -- which gives them a lock on many such loans.
If we can't repay, forget using bankruptcy. Donald Trump can go bankrupt four times and walk away from his debts, but the bankruptcy code doesn't allow homeowners or graduates to reorganize unmanageable debts.
So beleaguered homeowners and graduates don't have any bargaining leverage with creditors -- exactly what the financial industry wants.
The net result: another hidden upward redistribution -- this one, from us to the big banks, their executives, and major shareholders.
Some of these upward redistributions seem to defy gravity. Why have average domestic airfares risen 2.5% over the past, and are now at their the highest level since the government began tracking them in 1995 -- while fuel prices, the largest single cost for the airlines, have plummeted?
Because America went from nine major carriers ten years ago to just four now. Many airports are now served by one or two.
This makes it easy for airlines to coordinate their fares and keep them high -- resulting in another upward redistribution.
Why have food prices been rising faster than inflation, while crop prices are now at a six-year low?
Because the giant corporations that process food have the power to raise prices. Four food companies control 82 percent of beef packing, 85 percent of soybean processing,63 percent of pork packing, and 53 percent of chicken processing.
Result: A redistribution from average consumers to Big Agriculture.
Finally, why do you suppose health insurance is costing us more, and co-payments and deductibles are rising?
One reason is big insurers are consolidating into giants with the power to raise prices. They say these combinations make their companies more efficient, but they really just give them power to charge more.
Health insurers are hiking rates 20 to 40 percent next year, and their stock values are skyrocketing (the Standard & Poor's 500 Managed Health Care Index recently hit itshighest level in more than twenty years.)
Add it up -- the extra money we're paying for pharmaceuticals, Internet communications, home mortgages, student loans, airline tickets, food, and health insurance -- and you get a hefty portion of the average family's budget.
Democrats and Republicans spend endless time battling over how much to tax the rich and then redistribute the money downward.
But if we didn't have so much upward redistribution inside the market, we wouldn't need as much downward redistribution through taxes and transfer payments.
Yet as long as the big corporations, Wall Street banks, their top executives and wealthy shareholders have the political power to do so, they'll keep redistributing much of the nation's income upward to themselves.
Which is why the rest of us must gain political power to stop the collusion, bust up the monopolies, and put an end to the rigging of the American market.
ROBERT B. REICH's new book, "Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few," will be out September 29. His film "Inequality for All" is now available on DVD and blu-ray, and on Netflix. Watch the trailer below:
ROBERT B. REICH, Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center for Developing Economies, was Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration. Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the twentieth century. He has written fourteen books, including the best sellers “Aftershock, “The Work of Nations," and"Beyond Outrage." He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine and chairman of Common Cause. His film, INEQUALITY FOR ALL is available on Netflix, iTunes, Amazon. His new book, "SAVING CAPITALISM: For the Many, Not the Few" is out 9/29.
The budget deal just reached between the Republican leaders of the House and the White House would suspend the debt limit until March 16, 2017, allowing the Treasury to continue to borrow for the next 17 months. Conservative Republicans are screaming that the U.S. national debt is $18.1 trillion and the new deal doesn’t reduce it. They don’t know the basic things they need to know about the debt. Please share our video to your favorite Republican.
ROBERT B. REICH, Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center for Developing Economies, was Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration. Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the twentieth century. He has written fourteen books, including the best sellers “Aftershock, “The Work of Nations," and"Beyond Outrage." He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine and chairman of Common Cause. His film, INEQUALITY FOR ALL is available on Netflix, iTunes, Amazon. His new book, "SAVING CAPITALISM: For the Many, Not the Few" is out 9/29.
When we think of minimum-wage workers, most of us think of McDonalds, Burger King, and Walmart. But that leaves out the financial sector. The most common jobs in banks are bank tellers. According to the National Employment Law Center, bank tellers earn an average of $12.25 an hour; a full-time teller earns $25,800 a year. That's close to a poverty wage for a family of three. In New York State, the median bank teller gets $13.31 an hour, with the result that almost 40 percent of them receive public assistance.
Why can’t Bank of America, Citibank, Wells Fargo, and other giant banks pay their tellers a decent wage? One bright note: New York’s Amalgamated Bank is the first to institute a $15 minimum wage. The Bank’s president and CEO, Keith Mestrich, has been a vocal supporter of the Fight for $15 movement, and has called on other banks to follow its lead.
What do you think? Should banks pay their tellers a living wage?
ROBERT B. REICH, Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center for Developing Economies, was Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration. Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the twentieth century. He has written fourteen books, including the best sellers “Aftershock, “The Work of Nations," and"Beyond Outrage." He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine and chairman of Common Cause. His film, INEQUALITY FOR ALL is available on Netflix, iTunes, Amazon. His new book, "SAVING CAPITALISM: For the Many, Not the Few" is out 9/29.
Donald Trump has opened the floodgates to lies about immigration. Here are the myths, and the facts
MYTH: Immigrants take away American jobs.
Wrong. Immigrants add to economic demand, and thereby push firms to create more jobs.
MYTH: We don’t need any more immigrants.
Baloney. The U.S. population is aging. Twenty-five years ago, each retiree in America was matched by 5 workers. Now for each retiree there are only 3 workers. Without more immigration, in 15 years the ratio will fall to 2 workers for every retiree, not nearly enough to sustain our retiree population.
MYTH: Immigrants are a drain on public budgets.
Bull. Immigrants pay taxes! The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy released a report this year showing undocumented immigrants paid $11.8 billion in state and local taxes in 2012 and their combined nationwide state and local tax contributions would increase by $2.2 billion under comprehensive immigration reform. MYTH: Legal and illegal immigration is increasing.
Wrong again. The net rate of illegal immigration into the U.S. is less than zero. The number of undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. has declined from 12.2 million in 2007 to 11.3 million now, according to Pew Research Center.
Don’t listen to the demagogues who want to blame the economic problems of the middle class and poor on new immigrants, whether here legally or illegally. The real problem is the economic game is rigged in favor of a handful at the top, who are doing the rigging.
We need to pass comprehensive immigration reform, giving those who are undocumented a path to citizenship.
Scapegoating them and other immigrants is shameful.
I had a great time talking with Democracy for America members on Tuesday night on our exclusive DFA Live call.
We chatted about the problems with capitalism, the threat of increasing income inequality, and how we can build progressive political power to push back -- all things I discuss in my book, "Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few."
In this new book, I explain in detail how the American economy is failing us and what we can do to fix it. As we head into the critical 2016 election cycle, my book arms progressives like you with the knowledge necessary to effectively push Democratic politicians to directly address the greatest crisis of our time: Skyrocketing income inequality.
Together, driven by DFA's relentless focus on income inequality, we can take this movement to the next level and build an economy that works for everyone.
ROBERT B. REICH, Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center for Developing Economies, was Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration. Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the twentieth century. He has written fourteen books, including the best sellers “Aftershock, “The Work of Nations," and"Beyond Outrage." He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine and chairman of Common Cause. His film, INEQUALITY FOR ALL is available on Netflix, iTunes, Amazon. His new book, "SAVING CAPITALISM: For the Many, Not the Few" is out 9/29.
SEE BELOW FOR THE 1001STTIME THE REITERATION OF DEMAND PAYMENT OF RETIREMENT PAY WHICH SHELL REFUSED TO HONOR IN THE PRESENCE AND DEEMED APPROVAL OF THE HONORABLE MAGISTRATES OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE PHILIPPINES