This is a classic story of why Republican governance is always inferior to Democrat governance. I say that not as a partisan statement but as a matter of objectively verifiable facts. Every congressional Republican voted against the the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act bill, arguing it was nothing more than handouts to prop up climate and social justice programs. But now it is Republican states that are all too happy to take the great bulk of the benefits this climate law provides.
A julo Othow started solar and storage company EnerWealth Solutions seven years ago to get small solar projects on farmland and other places in rural communities in the Southeast where money is tight and the phrase “green economy” is rarely spoken.
In just the last year, Othow said the amount of solar her company has developed went from 2 megawatts of power to 25 — an increase of 1,150% because of the Inflation Reduction Act, the massive climate and economic development law enacted in 2022.
“What the Inflation Reduction Act allows us now to do is for everyday people to start to take advantage of this technology,” said Othow, a longtime lawyer in North Carolina’s solar industry and the president of Black Owners of Solar Services.
The IRA is the Biden Administration’s signature climate law. The historic act is the most aggressive climate policy in U.S. history, rolling out billions in tax breaks and other incentives with the goal of cutting economy-wide carbon emissions 40% by 2030.
Every congressional Republican voted against the bill, arguing it […]
Thom Hartmann, Contributing Writer - Raw Story | Commentary
Stephan:
I have been telling you for 30 years that the tax changes made during the Reagan administration fundamentally changed the structure of America, and created the vast wealth inequality and the uber-rich oligarchs who are now trying to end democracy in the United States. Thom Hartmann apparently agrees with me, and here is his take on these issues. Reagan was a loathsome president, but a typical Republican candidate, not very bright, utterly self-centered, easily manipulated by the wealthy the class to which he wanted to belong. Read this, it will explain a great deal about what has happened in the UNited States and why our democracy is in such danger.
Nancy and Ronald Reagan at his inauguration in 1981 Credit: National Archives
Twenty-two years ago, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman wrote for The New York Times Magazine about the era in which he and I both grew up, when the top income tax rate on the morbidly rich ran between 74 and 90 percent.
“[T]he America I grew up in — the America of the 1950’s and 1960’s — was a middle-class society, both in reality and in feel. The vast income and wealth inequalities of the Gilded Age had disappeared. Yes, of course, there was the poverty of the underclass — but the conventional wisdom of the time viewed that as a social rather than an economic problem. Yes, of course, some wealthy businessmen and heirs to large fortunes lived far better than the average American. But they weren’t rich the way the robber barons who built the mansions had been rich, and there weren’t that many of them. […]
This is what the Reagan and Republican Congresses restructuring of the U.S. tax system and the Citizens United Supreme Court decision legalizing bribery of politicians has produced. This grotesque wealth equality has completely reshaped America producing so much fear, resentment, and stress in our society today.
The Koch network’s flagship group, Americans for Prosperity, has spent two decades pouring money into influencing U.S. elections.
As the group celebrates its 20-year anniversary, its hybrid super PAC ranks third in outside spending in the 2024 cycle.
Americans for Prosperity Action, a hybrid PAC affiliated with the group, has spent over $257 million since 2004 to support conservative congressional and presidential candidates.
The organization is known for supporting reduced government spending, opposing collective bargaining and curbing regulations.
Its website calls Americans for Prosperity “the premier grassroots advocacy organization transforming policy around the country.”
Americans for Prosperity’s super PAC, AFP Action, has spent approximately $62 million to bolster Republican candidates and $10 million to oppose Trump in the 2024 cycle, as of August 6. Despite pledges to reach across party lines and work with Democrats in the wake of former President Donald Trump’s election, not a single penny has been spent in support of Democrats during the 2024 cycle.
Aarthi Swaminathan, Personal Finance Reporter - Market Watch
Stephan:
As The New York Times quoted him: “In the 1980s, Peter F. Drucker, the economist and Wall Street Journal columnist, cited research showing it felt “about right” when C.E.O.s received 10 to 12 times what workers earned. He said pay ratios as high as 20 to one might be all right for workplace morale and social cohesion, though that was stretching it.” Well, that was then, this is now. Another result of how the Republican rigged U.S. economics.
Tax cuts implemented in 2017 have contributed to pay inequality between workers and CEOs, according to a new report. Credit: Getty
Want to make as much money as a CEO does?
Do you have 267 friends?
You’d need to pool everyone’s wages to have as much as the average CEO earned in 2023, according to the annual report by the AFL-CIO. The CEOs of S&P 500 companies made $17.7 million on average in 2023, more than 268 times what the median worker at those companies earned.
“CEO payflation strikes again,” the report said.
For its analysis, the AFL-CIO looked at compensation data for executives at 3,000 companies, including the 500 in the S&P 500 index
. The average CEO-to-worker pay ratio was calculated as the arithmetic mean of the company’s disclosed pay ratios, the union federation said.
CEO pay increased 6% in 2023 from a year earlier. Workers’ median weekly earnings rose 5.45% to $1,142 in the fourth quarter of 2023 compared with the same period a year […]
Shania Baweja and Taylor Galgano, Reporters - CNN Business
Stephan:
I have been telling you this would happen, and here is a confirmation of my prediction. Just as sea rise has made obtaining home insurance very difficult in Florida, so forest fires are affecting Northern California, as this report describes. And this is just the beginning of what we will see in coastal, forested, and tornado-ridden states, all as a result of the various effects of climate change.
Smoke rises above the roadway as the Park Fire jumps Highway 36 near Paynes Creek in Tehama County, Califoria, on Friday, July 26, 2024. Credit: Noah Berger / AP
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA — After the 2018 Camp Fire – the deadliest wildfire in California’s history – engulfed Michael and Kristy Daneau’s Paradise home, the couple and their four daughters were forced to move 30 miles away to find a home they could afford.
They moved to Cohasset to buy a home with money they received through their insurance claim and their portion of an $11 billion Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) settlement with insurance companies for the blazes linked to its equipment failure.
Six years later, the family’s experiencing déjà vu: Their new home in the rocky region of northern California recently burned down to the studs in the 2024 Park Fire, the fourth largest fire in the state’s history.
But this time the Daneaus don’t have the safety net of insurance to help them rebuild their lives.
