True Tax Reform considers a living wage nationally.

In many American communities, families working in low-wage jobs make insufficient income to live locally given the local cost of living.

Recently, in many communities, community organizers and citizens have successfully argued that the prevailing wage offered by the public sector and key businesses should reflect a wage rate required to meet minimum standards of living.

Who Uses the Living Wage Tool and Why?

Living Wage Rate Tied to the Cost of Housing and Child Care.

Results from the 2016 Data Update.

The living wage in the United States in 2016 is $15.84 per hour according to MIT’s Living Wage Calculator, before taxes for a family of four (two working adults, two children) or, $65,894 a year before taxes.

07/09/2017 AHCA and BCRA are bad deals for citizens.

Here is a summary of major provisions of the House bill, the American Health Care Act (AHCA):

• To help people buy insurance, if they do not have coverage at work or under a government program like Medicare or Medicaid, or through the Department of Veterans Affairs, the bill would offer $2,000 to $4,000 a year in tax credits, depending mainly on age. A family could receive up to $14,000 a year in credits. The credits would be reduced for individuals making over $75,000 a year and families making over $150,000.

• Under current rules, insurers cannot charge older adults more than three times what they charge young adults for the same coverage. The House bill would allow them to charge five times as much. The Congressional Budget Office said this change would reduce premiums for young adults and increase premiums for older Americans.

• The bill would end Medicaid as an open-ended entitlement to health care and would put the program on a budget. States would receive an allotment of federal money for each beneficiary, or, as an alternative, they could take the money in a lump sum as a block grant, with fewer federal requirements. Medicaid cuts would total $880 billion over 10 years.

• The bill encourages people to maintain “continuous coverage” by requiring insurers to impose a 30 percent surcharge on premiums for those who experience a gap in coverage.

• Under the bill, states could opt out of certain provisions of the Affordable Care Act, including one that requires insurers to provide a minimum set of health benefits, such as maternity care and emergency services, and another that prohibits them from charging higher premiums based on a person’s health status. Insurers would not be allowed to charge higher premiums to sick people unless a state had an alternative mechanism, like a high-risk pool or a reinsurance program, to help provide coverage for people with serious illnesses.

• The bill would provide states with $138 billion over 10 years that could be used for various purposes like subsidizing premiums, providing coverage to people with pre-existing conditions and paying for mental health care and the treatment of drug addiction.

Key provisions of the Republican Senate Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA) take effect over several years and include:

• Eliminate employer and individual mandates and related penalties, substituting a one-time premium increase of 30% for persons that were without coverage previously for a specified time period (63 days).

• States would be allowed more flexibility in establishing essential health benefits (i.e., insurance policy content).

• Change tax credit/subsidy formulas used to help pay for insurance premiums (initially age-based, later modified to income-based) and eliminate a "cost-sharing subsidy" that reduced out-of-pocket costs.

• Provide funding to health insurers to stabilize premiums and promote marketplace participation, via a "Long-Term State Stability and Innovation Program" with features analogous to a high-risk pool.

• Reduce income ceiling used for Medicaid eligibility and substitute a tax credit for those below 100% of the poverty line.

• Reduce Medicaid payments relative to current law, by capping the growth in per-enrollee payments for non-disabled children and non-disabled adults, by using a lower inflation index.

• Repeal taxes on high-income earners established under ACA/Obamacare, repeal the annual fee on health insurance providers, and delay the excise tax on high premium health plans (the so-called "Cadillac tax").

• Allow insurers to charge premiums up to five times as much to older people vs. young people, instead of three times, unless the state sets a different limit.

• Remove federal cap on the share of premiums that may go to insurers' administrative costs and profits (the "minimum medical loss ratio").

07/05/2017 Government is Out of Control

When was the Declaration of Independence written and approved?

In fact, independence was formally declared on July 2, 1776, a date that John Adams believed would be “the most memorable epocha in the history of America.” On July 4, 1776, Congress approved the final text of the Declaration. It wasn't signed until August 2, 1776.

"When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of ...

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent ...

What is meant by the pursuit of happiness in the Declaration of Independence?

The pursuit of happiness is defined as a fundamental right mentioned in the Declaration of Independence to freely pursue joy and live life in a way that makes you happy, as long as you don't do anything illegal or violate the rights of others.

After 18 months of not posting to this blog I felt it time to do so; so that certain people understand that it is real and that it also applies today!

2016/01/16 Getting real about Social Security and Medicare!

US Household Income. According to the Census ACS (American Community Survey), the median (midpoint of a frequency distribution of observed values) household income for the United States was $55,775 in 2015, the latest data available. 2016 Census ACS data (including 2016 national household income numbers) will be released in September of 2017.

The average Social Security benefit was $1,360.00 per month.

The maximum possible benefit for a worker retiring at age 66 is $2,366. But to get this amount, the worker would need to earn the maximum taxable amount, currently $106,800, each year after age 21.

Number of people receiving Social Security, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), or both, November 2016 (in thousands).

Type of beneficiary	Total	Social Security only	SSI only		Both Social Security and SSI
All beneficiaries	65,990	57,700		5,538	2,752
Aged 65 or older	45,323	43,125		975	1,223
Disabled, under age 65 a	14,065	7,973		4,563	1,529

Your Annual Income		2016 Premium Amount
Individual Tax Return	Joint Tax Return	You Pay
$85,000 or less	$170,000 or less	$121.80
$85,001 up to $107,000	$170,001 up to $214,000	$170.50
$107,001 up to $160,000	$214,001 up to $320,000	$243.60

Just over a third (34 percent) of retirees age 65 and older got 90 percent or more of their retirement income from Social Security. The majority of retirees age 65 and older (64 percent) get at least half of their retirement income in the form of a Social Security payment.

Medicare does kick in once you are 65, but there are costs for that coverage, too. And many retirees choose to buy so-called Medigap policies that provide coverage above and beyond what is offered through Medicare, or Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage.

2016 Medicare Part B premiums based on income.

Fidelity Investments, which has been tracking retiree health care costs for more than a decade, estimates that a 65-year-old couple retiring this year will need $240,000 to cover future medical costs. The average monthly health care expense for a couple at 65 is $583.

Average retired Social Security beneficiary to get measly $5 raise in 2017.

The high costs of the retirement Dream.

So this means that with couple earning an median Social Security of $1,360 per person they have a disposable income of $32, 640 of total household income.

The cost for a couple to live is $40,938; which means on person of the couple must work 22 hours a week at $7.25 to make up the $8,298 shortfall.

If Medicare is turned into a voucher system the second member of the retired couple must work 22 hours a week at $7.25 an hour to pay for health insurance.

So much for retirement for the average couple in the United States of America according to Republican plans for Social Security and Medicare.

01/02/2017 No Federal Funding of Road Tollways for Interstates, Bridges, Etc.

You're driving along an Interstate, perhaps I-95, minding your own business when suddenly, up ahead, there's a toll booth! 

And another one after that. And still more toll booths. Does the Federal Government know about this, you wonder?

Is the State trying to balance its budget by "taxing" out-of-State motorists?

Didn't you already pay for this road with your gas tax?

And so, you go home and write a letter to the President asking how in the world these States can be charging you for use of an Interstate highway that you already paid for.

In the 1939 report to Congress, Toll Roads and Free Roads, the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) rejected the toll option for financing Interstate construction because most Interstate corridors would not generate enough toll revenue to retire the bonds that would be issued to finance them. In part, the report attributed this conclusion to "the traffic-repelling tendency of the proposed toll-road system." Although some corridors had enough traffic to support bond financing, the report predicted that motorists would stay on the parallel toll-free roads to a large extent.

After extensive debate, Congress decided in 1956 to authorize the BPR to incorporate toll facilities in the Interstate System to ensure connectivity without added expense. Section 113(a) of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 stated:

Upon a finding by the Secretary of Commerce that such action will promote the development of an integrated Interstate System, the Secretary is authorized to approve as part of the Interstate System any toll road, bridge, or tunnel, now or hereafter constructed, which meets the standards adopted for the improvement of projects located on the Interstate System, whenever such toll road, bridge, or tunnel is located on a route heretofore or hereafter designated as a part of the Interstate System: 

Provided, That no Federal-aid highway funds shall be expended for the construction, reconstruction, or improvement of any such toll road except to the extent hereafter permitted by law: 

Provided further, That no Federal-aid highway funds shall be expended for the construction, reconstruction, or improvement of any such toll bridge or tunnel except to the extent now or hereafter permitted by law.

On August 21, 1957, the BPR announced that it had added 2,100 miles of toll roads in 15 States to the Interstate System. The inclusions had been recommended by the State highway departments and approved by the BPR. The additions included 1,837 miles in operation. A BPR press release explained:

Inclusion of the 2,102 miles of toll roads in the Interstate System will not affect their status as toll roads. The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 permits this, although no Federal-aid funds may be used for their improvement.

There is a glaring error in Interstate Highway, etc. funding. It needs to be added that if a state wants a toll road it must be constructed totally, from its beginning, without federal funds compromised. In simpler words, it means existing roads constructed with federal funds cannot be converted to toll roads.

10/05/2016 Is there really a reason to have a Presidential debate?

Donald Trump the liar and bragger in chief; that is totally disconnected from reality. He does not have the character, knowledge, or ability to learn what is required to be President of the United States.

Let me tell you why self-promoting actually does you far more harm than good. But first, let’s talk about why people with little or no proven redeeming qualities feel the need to make themselves sound like the second coming in the first place.

With the record below and the responses; why would you vote for him?

Donald Trump says climate change is bullshit and a hoax.

Terrifying things Donald Trump has publicly said about nuclear weapons.

 

Best Reagan Quotes on Nuclear Weapons.

 

Donald Trump’s immigration hypocrisy.

 

Reagan on Amnesty & Illegal Immigration.

Donald Trump’s ‘callous’ PTSD comment.

Donald Trump takes 3 different positions on the minimum wage in less than30 Seconds.

Facts About the Minimum Wage.

Business the Donald Trump way.

Leverage everything at high interest rates on the backs of workers and small businesses (Bankruptcy is Donald Trump’s way of doing business.).

Donald Trump Tax Records Show He Could Have Avoided Taxes for Nearly Two Decade.

The $916 million loss certainly could have eliminated any federal income taxes Mr. Trump otherwise would have owed on the $50,000 to $100,000 he was paid for each episode of “The Apprentice,” or the roughly $45 million he was paid between 1995 and 2009 when he was chairman or chief executive of the publicly traded company he created to assume ownership of his troubled Atlantic City casinos. Ordinary investors in the new company, meanwhile, saw the value of their shares plunge to 17 cents from $35.50, while scores of contractors went unpaid for work on Mr. Trump’s casinos and casino bondholders received pennies on the dollar.

“Cops put their lives on the line everyday” Said Vice Presidential Candidate Pence?

Whose Life Is On the Line? Cop Stats.

 

Donald Trump’s tax plan could land America $10 trillion deeper in debt.

Much more could be said; but ENOUGH HAS BEEN SAID!

07/31/2016 2016 election definitions, terminology, and predictions.

Some important distinctions and things to understand! Liberal and Progressive are now completely separate philosophies and ideologies.

Liberals are Democrats and Progressives are Independents in the 2016 election cycle.

Democrats (30% of voters):

Liberal: Open to new behavior or opinions and willing to discard traditional values.

Liberalism is a political philosophy or worldview founded on ideas of Freedom, liberty and equality. Whereas classical liberalism (Democrats - Neo-Capitalism) emphasizes the role of liberty, social liberalism (Independent Progressivism - Populism) stresses the importance of equality. 

Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally they support ideas and programs such as freedom of speech, freedom of the press per the Journalist's Creed, Freedom of Worship (religion), Freedom from Want (Civil Rights), Freedom from Fear, Democratic Societies, and International Cooperation (Free Markets - Monopolies); which is different from Fair Markets (Consumer Activism).

Republicans (26% of voters):

Conservative: Holding to traditional attitudes and values and cautious about change or innovation, typically in relation to politics or religion.

Conservatism: As a political and social philosophy promotes retaining traditional social institutions in the context of culture and civilization. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others, called reactionaries, oppose modernism and seek a return to "the way things were".

Independent (44% of Voters):

Independent: Free from outside control; not depending on another's authority. Not depending on another for livelihood or subsistence.

An independent is an individual that is not affiliated to any political party. There are numerous reasons why someone may stand for being independent.

• Independents may support policies which are different from those of the major political parties.
• In some parts of the world electors may have a tradition of electing independents, so standing for a political party is a disadvantage.
• In some countries (including Russia) a political party can only be registered if it has a huge number of members in more than one region, but in certain regions only a minority of electors support the major parties.
• In some countries (including Kuwait), political parties are unlawful and all candidates thus stand as independents.

Some independents may be associated with a political party, perhaps as former members of it, or else have views that align with it, but choose not to stand in its name, or are unable to do so because the party in question has selected another candidate. 

Others may belong to or support a political party at the national level but believe they should not formally represent it (and thus be subject to its policies) at another level.

In running for public office, independents sometimes choose to form a party or alliance with other independents, and may formally register their party or alliance. Even where the word "independent" is used, such alliances have much in common with a political party, especially if there is an organization which needs to approve the "independent" candidates.

Progressivism:

Progressive: Happening or developing gradually or in stages; proceeding step by step. A person advocating or implementing social reform or new, liberal ideas.

Progressivism is a philosophy based on the idea of progress, which asserts that advancement in science, technology, economic development, and social organization are vital to improve the human condition. The contemporary common political conception of progressivism in the culture emerged from the vast social changes brought about by industrialization in the Western world in the late 19th century, particularly out of the view that progress was being stifled by vast inequality between the rich and the poor; minimally regulated laissez-faire capitalism with monopolistic corporations; and intense and often violent conflict between workers and capitalists, thus claiming that measures were needed to address these problems.

Corporatists: 

Corporatism: the control of a state or organization by large interest groups.

Corporatism is the sociopolitical organization of a society by major interest groups, or corporate groups, such as agricultural, business, ethnic, labor, military, patronage, or scientific affiliations, on the basis of common interests. It is theoretically based on the interpretation of a community as an organic body. 

Corporatism may also refer too economic tripartism involving negotiations between business, labor, and state interest groups to establish economic policy. This is sometimes also referred to as neo-corporatism and is associated with social.

Pragmatism:

Pragmatic: An approach that assesses the truth of meaning of theories or beliefs in terms of the success of their practical application.

Pragmatism rejects the idea that the function of thought is to describe, represent, or mirror reality. Instead, pragmatists consider thought an instrument or tool for prediction, problem solving and action. Pragmatists contend that most philosophical topics—such as the nature of knowledge, language, concepts, meaning, belief, and science—are all best viewed in terms of their practical uses and successes.

Consider the practical effects of the objects of your conception. Then, your conception of those effects is the whole of your conception of the object.

So what are the predictions for the 2016 election?

For 40 years’ people have lost as citizens financially, economically, and politically.

America is setup to be only a two party system. So what happens when over 60% of the population feels left behind due to political corporatism? 

At its root, populism is a belief in the power of regular people, and in their right to have control over their government rather than a small group of political insiders or a wealthy elite.

Counter to corporate medias reports of 90% of Bernie Sanders supporters (44% independents and 10% of democrats) are being ignored and left out of democracy and government? 

According to a new poll 91% of these voters will not vote or vote a third party for President.

If something does not change Donald J. Trump will be elected President!

Why? 

This year most of those that call themselves conservative and republicans will not do any further evaluation of the candidates because they are averse to change their politics. Voter turnout will be 26 percent of voters.

Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine are seen as Corporatists by 54% plus of the countries voters. This means that at most Clinton and Kaine will receive only 20% of votes from voters this year.

The story gets even worse when you look to congress. Democrats will take control of the Senate. The House of Representatives will be close to 50/50 democrats and republicans.

With the President appointing judges, the Supreme court will become conservative for decades.

What a mess!

What can be done to stop this?

More inclusiveness in discussions and decisions on legislative policy etc. of the 54% percent of voting populists by the democratic party.

NO TPP etc.

$15 minimum wage implemented within 2 years; note: a living wage anywhere in the country is over $30,000 a year.

Medicare for all health care (single payer system). Saving hundreds of billions of dollars over 10 years.

Tax reform of mandatory; 15% bottom bracket for individuals with incomes more than $60,000 a year and corporations on all income. Increasing revenue hundreds of billions of dollar over 10 years.

Banking and Wall Street reform. A fair credit reporting system, transaction tax…

Paid family leave (90 days for birth of a child) and sick days of 10 days a year.

Repeal of “Citizens United” and public funding of political campaigns with election campaigns lasting 90 days 120 days at the most if 50% of population does elect a President by over a 50% margin. Removal of the Electoral college and use of popular vote elections.

$3 Trillion on infrastructure jobs over 5 years and implement of the energy grid to be 75% less polluting of the environment over 5 years.

Control of policing and demilitarization.

Rational gun control through ammunition registration similar to California and licensing with no effect on the second amendment…

So none of this happens?

Turmoil, demonstrations, work walk outs (sick outs)... What do the United States of America's Declaration of Independence and Constitution say?????????????????????????????