Closing Post Offices Hurts Communities & Their Economies

Later this year, 3,830 postal offices will be closed to cut U.S. Postal Service spending by $295 million annually from its budget of $70 billion.  The Postal Service has 32,000 offices and most of the locations to be closed will be those in rural communities.  People living there experience more poverty on average than other Americans.  These small towns usually do not have Broadband Internet and their economies are more dependent on post offices than big cities are.  Shipping rates for UPS and FedEx are higher for those in rural communities.  People in these communities often have to drive on poorly maintained roads to find the nearest post office to send letters, pay bills, receive newspapers, and even file their tax returns.  This affects every business operating in a small town and these communities have a harder time attracting new business.  In other words, Congress does not care that it is screwing over rural communities to cut very little from the Budget Deficit.  Raising taxes on the wealthy, instead, would provide more than enough cash to save these offices, as well as rural communities' economies.  This would boost the national economic growth as the private sector would benefit from greater ease of movement of goods and information.  This important government function of making sure everyone can get things sent to their destinations in a timely way is often taken for granted.  It may be difficult to occupy post offices, but Occupy protesters in big cities protest for them, too.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/17/us-usa-usps-idUSTRE81D0M620120217

Shrinking U.S. Labor Force (For 2/8/12)

Last month, the unemployment rate fell to 8.3%, its lowest rate in three years. But, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke believes that it masks the lack of jobs. The number of people of working age who quit looking for work has risen as they cannot find jobs. Others have been forced into part-time work. Of Americans 16 or older, 88 million of them had no job and were not searching for one. Only 63.7% of these Americans were in the labor force last month. This is the lowest rate since May 1983. Some Fed officials have hope for growth. Average wages grew 1.9% last month from the same time last year. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-08/jobless-decline-masks-drop-in-u-s-labor-force-as-fewer-seek-work-economy.html

GOP Attacks Chrysler Ad; Mitt Romney Wanted Detroit to go Bankrup in 2008 (For 2/6/12)

During the Super Bowl, Chrysler aired a Super Bowl ad, known as "half-time in America" starring Clint Eastwood. It highlighted Detroit's recovery from the financial crisis. Republicans such as Karl Rove criticized President Obama for robbing taxpayers to give free advertising to automakers that his adminstration bailed out in 2009 for a total of $12.5 billion. Just as significant, Mitt Romney wrote an editorial in 2008, "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt." He argued that Detroit Automakers would continue to lose jobs and global market share due to product deficiencies. They have labor and pension costs that are too much for the market to handle. Therefore, he thought they did not deserve the bailout they got. However, much of the problems Detroit Automakers had resulted from the financial crisis that hit the stock market that year and rising healthcare costs during the last ten years. When all people nationwide lost much of their savings due to the September 2008 stock market crash, they cut back on big items such as new cars. All of sudden, the revenues of General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler dropped sharply in late 2008. Since one in ten American jobs is linked to these manufacturers, there was public pressure for a bailout in early 2009 after Wall Street got theirs. When Romney wrote this editorial, America was losing 700,000 to 800,000 jobs per month and headed for a Second Great Depression. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/us-election/9065539/US-Election-2012-Clint-Eastwood-defends-himself-over-political-Chrysler-Super-Bowl-ad.html http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/19/opinion/19romney.html

Exxon Mobil 2011 Profit: $41.1 Billion; Tax Rate About 17.6% (For 1/31/12)

Exxon Mobil's 2011 $41.1 billion profit was the largest of the five biggest oil companies. It recorded an estimated corporate tax rate of 17.6% from 2008-2010, lower than the 20.4% that the average American paid during the same time. It uses Carribean bank accounts as tax shelters and paid no federal income taxes on 2009 profits of $45.2 billion. From 2005 to 2010, job losses from the company's total workforce amounted to 11,200. Instead, it used its profits to enrich its executives, directors, and biggest investros with over $20 billion of stock buybacks in 2011. http://thinkprogress.org/green/2012/01/31/415242/exxonmobil-made-411-billion-in-2011-but-pays-estimated-176-percent-tax-rate/

Tuition for Four Years Could One Day Cost $420K+ (For 1/16/12)

The 4-year total tuition to attend one of the U.S.'s most prestigious colleges will rise to $422,320 in 2034, if current trends continue for children born this year. Public universities will average $81,000 by comparison. Students will pay off debt to attend college for the rest of their lives. The main reward for taking on student loans to get a college degree is a higher-paying job. Manufacturing job losses have shrunk income and benefits for Americans without college degrees. Minimum wage has not kept pace with inflation because of Republican policies. Without reform, only students from households of the Top 1% will be able to afford college. http://www.alternet.org/story/153788/%24422%2C320_for_a_college_degree_with_tuition_skyrocketing%2C_it_is_time_to_rethink_high

Romney Profitted from Tax Breaks, Subsidies (for 1/13/12)

During Mitt Romney's tenure, Bain Capital invested in Steel Dynamics to help its steel mill grow to over 6,000 jobs now in Indiana's DeKalb County. He has not told the public how Indiana and DeKalb County provided Bain with very favorable tax breaks and subsidies. Bain made a June 1994 investment of $18.2 million in Steel Dynamics and reaped $104 million off it five years later. Bain received $37 million in subsidies for the mill and despite citizen opposition, DeKalb County raised income taxes for infrastructure upgrades to benefit Bain, which also received $23.4 million in property tax relief from the County. State tax credits of $4.4 million also went to Bain. GS Industries, another Bain Investment, was based in Kansas City and went broke in 2001. Bain reaped huge dividends from GS Industries while taking away paychecks, health insurance, and some retirement benefits from 700 workers. Bain wanted the U.S. Government to back $50 million on this investment. Stories like these will drive the public to demand real tax reform that gets rid of subsidies that benefit corporations, investors, and the wealthy. The Cato Institute, a free-market think tank, has even decried these as example of "corporate welfare." http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-bain-subsidies-20120113,0,1268299.story