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Super-rich
up 280% since Reagan
This is why they want "less
government"
Tony Hayward will be receiving a
severance package amounting to an estimated $18 million.
"That's what he gets for presiding over a record oil disaster and
massive losses," commented Chris Hayes,
Washington editor of The Nation.
Hayes said "Tony Hayward's $18 million payoff is an absolute pittance
compared to the kind of cash top
CEO's are raking in." He cited a recent Wall Street Journal story which
revealed that over the past decade,
the two highest-paid CEOs at public companies each took in over a
billion dollars in compensation, while
thers in the top 25 received compensation in the hundreds of millions.
What makes these pay rates really "infuriating," says Hayes, is that
"CEO pay is both a cause and partly
a symptom of the staggering increase of inequality in this country.
Hayes cited a study recently released by the non-partisan Center on
Budget and Policy Priorities which
shows that if you're in the bottom 20% of earners, "you're making only
16% more today than you would
have in 1979." If you're in the middle fifth, you're making 25% more.
"But the top fifth of earners in this
country -- they're making 95% more."
Hayes exclaimed, "This is how much
better the top 1% of Americans are doing now.
The income of the very richest among us has shot up by 281% since 1979."
Non-millionaires could vote to stop this, but they keep falling for the
GOP's bait-and-switch.
In 2000, Bush said, "I think YOU need to
keep more of YOUR money," and
then what happened?
You and I got a
$600 LOAN until our taxes were due, while
the super-rich cleaned up.
Enron was given 3/4 of a
billion dollars - and they
hired nobody.
They even stole the money their employees had in their stock.
Ford was given $5.5 BILLION, they hired nobody, then we had to bail them out.
Weapons maker GE was given
$5.3 BILLION, and who did they hire? Nobody.
Microsteal was given $7.3 BILLION, and they hired temps
to save on medical insurance.
The list goes on and on.
The super-rich cleaned up and we were forced to pay for it.
Who do we blame?
Not the Republicans - that'd be like blaming a shark for biting you.
Sharks eat things, Republicans steal things.
It's what they do.
I blame the idiot Democrats for letting the GOP rape
the poor and rob the middle class.
As long as we stay silent, they'll keep on doing it - then on and on doing it.
"Send us money -
we'll fight hard for you - every day."
.