"Keep Working...

[Ryan Ruck]

How does McDonald's respond to the protests they should pay employees more? Pay them with your tax dollars, of course!

McDonald's Helps Workers Get Food Stamps

October 24, 2013

McDonald's workers should have no problem qualifying for government programs like food stamps and heating assistance.

The hamburger chain pretty much admits that in a call made by a worker to "McResource"-- a helpline set up for its workers.

The advocacy group Low Pay is not Ok recorded a phone call made to the helpline by one McDonald's worker Nancy Salgado. The group circulated an edited video of the recording. McDonald's said the video was "not an accurate portrayal of the resource line" because it was "very obviously" edited.

However, CNNMoney reviewed the full recording of the call.

Salgado, who has worked at a Chicago McDonald's for 10 years and makes $8.25 an hour, asked the McResource representative a number of questions related to getting assistance to pay for her heating bill, her groceries and her sister's medical expenses. Salgado told the representative that she was recording the call for her sister.

The helpline operator never asked Salgado how much she made per hour, and how many hours per week she worked beyond the fact that she was a full-time employee. But she said that Salgado "definitely should be able to qualify for both food stamps and heating assistance."

The representative then pointed her toward a number of resources in Chicago, such as food pantries and a program that would help cover some of her heating bill. She said she would email her specific phone numbers and programs.

The operator also explained that the McResource line is available to help McDonald's workers who need help navigating the process of getting public assistance. The helpline's phone number is posted in fliers at many McDonald's locations.

McDonald's said in a statement that "the McResource Line is intended to be a free, confidential service to help employees and their families get answers to a variety of questions or provide resources on a variety of topics including housing, child care, transportation, grief, elder care, education and more."

But the line is not open to all McDonald's workers. Franchise owners need to pay for the service in order for their employees to use it.

Related: The real budgets of McDonald's workers

Salgado's franchise owner in Chicago, for example, had not paid for the service, even though she called the helpline.

The operator said that none of the Chicago franchises had paid for it.

"We can be a good program," the operator said. "We can do a lot of the leg work that takes a lot of the stresses off of you making a million phone calls trying to find services."

News of the McResource line comes a week after a report found that more than half of fast food workers have to rely on public assistance programs since their wages aren't enough to support them.

The report estimated that this public aid carries a $7 billion price tag for taxpayers each year.

A separate report by the National Employment Law Project released on the same day showed that McDonald's alone was responsible for $1.2 billion of that $7 billion alone.

The recorded phone call supports what the reports found and also the claims of hundreds of fast food workers that their pay is too low, they don't get scheduled for enough hours and they get no benefits. Since last November, workers have organized protests around the country, including New York City, Los Angeles, Memphis and Detroit calling for a minimum wage of $15 an hour and the right to organize without retaliation.

Earlier this year, McDonald's came under fire for releasing a budget planning guide for its employees. The sample budget it provided didn't account for either food or gasoline, a big expense for low income workers. The budget also left room for an income from a second job, which many called an admission by the fast food giant that its workers can't live on wages from one job at McDonald's.

[vector7]

How Redistribution to the Rich Has Broken the Back of America




PAUL BUCHHEIT FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

Conservative columnist Thomas Sowell recently declared, "The history of the 20th century is full of examples of countries that set out to redistribute wealth and ended up redistributing poverty."

Ironically for thinkers like him, the last 35 years have redistributed U.S. poverty by redistributing wealth to the rich. The middle class, once the backbone of a strong American society, has been broken, beaten down, pushed further and further toward poverty levels. Here are five well-documented ways that this has happened.

1. Income Redistribution Is Worse Than Usually Reported

We are told that the richest 1% doubled its share of income in the past thirty years. But from 1980 to 2006, according to both IRS and CBO figures, they nearly TRIPLED their share of income -- and that's after-tax income.

After 2006, the recession set everyone back temporarily, but in the first two years of the recovery, the richest 1% captured an incomprehensible 121% of the income gains (others saw debt rise faster than income).

2. Wealth Redistribution Is Even Worse Than Income Redistribution

In 1983 the poorest 47% of America owned about 2.5 percent of the nation's wealth, an average of $15,000 per family.

In 2009 the poorest 47% of America owned ZERO percent of the nation's wealth (their debt exceeded their assets).

Hard to believe it could get even worse. But because of the housing crisis and recession, the median family net worth dropped 40% between 2007 and 2010, while the richest Americans were regaining all their losses, and beginning an even steeper climb to the top.

Perhaps the biggest reason for this wealth redistribution is that the richest 10% own almost 90 percent of stocks excluding pensions. Since the recession, as the U.S. economy has "recovered," almost two-thirds of the gain was due to growth in the stock market.

3. The Redistribution of Productivity: Boosting Profits Rather Than Wages

From 2001 to 2011, total corporate profits more than doubled, to almost $2 trillion, while the corporate federal income tax rate was cut in half.

Incomes for 99% of Americans have declined since the recession, with the median household income dropping by 7.3 percent. Low-income jobs ($7.69 to $13.83 per hour) made up 1/5 of the jobs lost to the recession, but accounted for 3/5 of the jobs regained during the recovery.

4. Finance is Outrunning Society, and Taking the Money With Them

Americans once trusted the financial industry to safeguard their retirement money. But high tech has transformed high finance, at a much faster rate than the average investor can understand the changes.

Rolling Stone reports on the loss of $2.3 billion in pension money in Maine -- and the simultaneous billing of $2.1 billion by the hedge funds, private-equity funds and venture-capital funds. Another report tells of local funding crises caused by indecipherable "structured finance" deals sold by bankers with promises of big returns. In 2007 a hedge fund manager (John Paulson) made $3.7 billion by conspiring with Goldman Sachs to create packages of risky subprime mortgages, so that in anticipation of a housing crash he could use other people's money to bet against his personally designed sure-to-fail financial instruments.

The high-speed high-tech chicanery continues in the stock market, where programs can intercept 'buy' orders and in a few nanoseconds purchase the stock and then complete the 'buy' order for a few pennies more.

The bankers and hedgers and hustlers have made up new rules for making money, and our government representatives don't know what's going on, or don't care, or don't want to stop the financial games that ultimately generate campaign funds. Finance is quickly printing its own new money. In less than ten years, the world's wealth has approximately doubled, from $113 trillion to $223 trillion. Much of that is sheer speculation: the derivatives industry is worth over $1 quadrillion. But those speculative transactions get cashed in as real money.

It's a dizzying high-speed fantasyland that redistributes the real money of the middle class to the super-rich while inventing new forms of fees and bonuses along the way.

5. Redistribution Through Government Manipulation

There are numerous ways the very rich have cajoled and coerced and connived their Congressional partners to redistribute money in their direction. Like the lower capital gains rate. An astonishing 75 percent of dividend and capital gain subsidies go to the richest 1%. That's still not enough for hedge fund managers, who call their income "carried interest" instead of "income" to keep their tax rate at the capital gains rate. And even this small amount may not be paid. Hedge fund managers with incomes in the billions can pay ZERO income tax by deferring their profits through their companies indefinitely.

About two-thirds of nearly $1 trillion in individual "tax expenditures" (tax subsidies from special deductions, exemptions, exclusions, credits, capital gains, and loopholes) goes to the top quintile of taxpayers.

Banks have arranged to get lower interest rates, saving them $83 billion per year.

The U.S. federal government spends $100 billion a year on corporate welfare, almost half for big agriculture and the fossil fuel industry.

Another $150 billion per year goes for excessive pharmaceutical expenditures, as the drug companies have lobbied for laws to keep cheaper medications out of the hands of Americans.

Better to Call It Pre-Distribution

The term 'pre-distribution' better represents, according to political scientist Jacob Hacker, "the way in which the market distributes its rewards in the first place." Unregulated free-market capitalism simply makes the rich richer. Even if they have to break the backs of productive middle-class Americans to get their way.

(Image: Jared Rodriguez / t r u t h o u t; Adapted: Azureon2, bayat)

[American Patriot]

NOT! In truth, when one retires, one moves on to other things. Just sitting around the house collecting unused fat about one's middle, and vegetating in front of a mindless television is certainly a damned good way to lose brain cells. But, I might suggest that if you plan ahead and DO THINGS, you plan things, and you accomplish something new, you're in better shape than the average retiree.

I can tell you - I haven't yet retired officially, but I've got "boots on the ground". I'll still be working, and we're putting the house back on the market after Thanksgiving to get it sold - but right now, I've already found that getting RID of television (we don't have one at ALL in the house right now) has forced me to continue my studies on celestial navigation, working on my writing, and I am taking up guitar (something I've always wanted to do, and in fact, find it difficult to type at my normal 3000 words per minute right now, lol).

The fact is, when you retire - you should be PREPARED to retire. Not sit on your ass and do nothing at all. (And yes, I know that this thread isn't about that, but rather the government political version of "Keep working" - but presented it here because obviously there are those who want us all to work until we drop and they work trying to get us to do so).


Keep working? Research suggests retirement kills brain cells

by Heidi

DeseretNews

Retirement can be deadly to cognitive function, says Mark Friedman in the Wall Street Journal, pointing to research that says a sense of purpose and engagement with the world is crucial to preventing cognitive deterioration in later years.


Friedman refers to French research that “studied 429,000 previously self-employed retirees in that country show(s) a 3.2 percent reduction in the risk of a dementia diagnosis for every additional year these individuals worked before retiring. The individuals who worked to 65 had a 14.6 percent lower chance of dementia than those retiring at age 60.”


The French study is summarized by Richard Eisenberg at Next Avenue: “The French analysis echoes a 2009 study of 382 British male dementia patients by Cardiff University and the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London. Those researchers found that every extra year that men worked beyond age 65 postponed the onset of their dementia symptoms by nearly six weeks.”

[Ryan Ruck]

32 Year Old Welfare Recipient: "Working is Stupid"

December 1, 2013

An Austin welfare recipient tells Austin’s Morning News she gets a lot of welfare money and can stay home and smoke weed. Listen to her phone call earlier today on the show with Mark Caesar, Ed Clement and Sgt. Sam Cox.

Lucy is 32 with three kids. She is on welfare just like her parents and admits her kids will do the same. She says taxpayers are the fools... she gets to lay up all day and smoke weed while you go to work.

[Ryan Ruck]

10,982,920: More Americans on Disability Than People in Greece

December 3, 2013

The total number of people in the United States now receiving federal disability benefits hit a record 10,982,920 in November, up from the previous record of 10,978,040 set in May, according to newly released data from the Social Security Administration.

The 10,982,920 Americans taking disability benefits in November outnumbered the total population of Greece, which is 10,772,967, according to the Central Intelligence Agency.

The record 10,982,920 total disability beneficiaries in November, included a record 8,941,660 disabled workers (up from 8,936,932 in October), 1,883,594 children of disabled workers, and 157,666 spouses of disabled workers.

November was the 202nd straight month that the number of disabled workers in the United States increased. The last time the number decreased was January 1997. That month the number of workers taking disability dropped by 249 people—from 4,385,623 in December 1996 to 4,385,374 in January 1997.

The record 10,982,920 total disability beneficiaries in the United States in November also exceeded the total number of people in Portugal (10,799,270), Tunisia (10,835,873) and Burundi (10,888,321).

[American Patriot]

How many people are on government dole?

And - what percentage of them out of total population? A quick math gives me 0.03660973333333333333333333333333 or 3% of the American Population.

Greece pretty much sunk.... and from my understanding they have a massive number of people getting a government funded stipend or pension.

We don't have that problem.

Yet.

[Ryan Ruck]

Posted somewhere in this thread is an article that 49% of US households receive some form of government assistance.

[American Patriot]

I remember that. I'm just wondering about the total on each form.

[vector7]

Budget deal rips vets retirement

Written by Allen West on December 12, 2013



My fellow veterans, below is the text of an email legislative update I received from the Military Officers Association of America. Please read and take action:


”A proposed bipartisan budget deal threatens to significantly slash retirement benefits for current and future military retirees, and it’s scheduled to be voted on by the House tomorrow.

The FY 2014 budget proposal drafted by Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. Paul Ryan includes a provision that cuts the annual Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for military retirees by 1 percent a year until reaching age 62.



The cuts will have a devastating and long-lasting impact, reducing retired pay for those who serve a 20-year career by nearly 20 percent at age 62. An E-7 retiring at age 40 today would experience a loss of $83,000 in purchasing power — an O-5 would lose $124,000.

 Act now. Send your elected officials an MOAA-suggested message imploring them to reject this radical proposal that breaks faith with current and future military retirees, and threatens long-term readiness and retention in the uniformed services.”

This is what I most detested about Congress. A couple of folks get together with their respective committee staffs — often barely 25 years old — and make major policy decisions affecting the lives of Americans. These “deals” are done behind closed doors. Then a surprise briefing is produced, subsequently with a rushed vote, and voila, more BS for the American people to swallow. This is not how our legislative process within our constitutional republic was intended.

Today, members of the House of Representatives will vote on this “budget deal” and I can guarantee you they will not have read it in entirety and certainly do not comprehend it.

However, they’re in a rush to get home so in the end you’ll be getting a lump of coal in your stocking for many Christmas seasons to come.

Our Congress does not principally solve problems, it just puts a band-aid over a sucking chest wound. To see that two individuals, Rep. Paul Ryan and Sen. Patty Murray would covertly erode veteran benefits is truly disturbing. If anyone in America deserves the honor, thanks, and regards of the nation — and their hard earned benefits, it is our veterans.

Never forget the quote from George Washington, “future generations will regard their service to this nation, no matter how justified the war, based upon how well we have treated our veterans. “

The veteran network needs to light up the phones.

And a special hat tip to one of our many voices, the Military Officers Association of America, who recently extended their membership to senior Non- Commissioned Officers.

[American Patriot]

Link in there is giving network errors.

[American Patriot]

Reid is planning a vote this afternoon to extend the expired unemployment benefits.

Welcome to hell.

[American Patriot]

Reid is planning a vote this afternoon to extend the expired unemployment benefits.

Welcome to hell.

So this "test vote" is supposed to be taking place right now (or shortly) and the President will appear on TV (right after?) surrounding himself with poor, unemployed Americans to make himself a smaller target - er I mean to "garner" sympathy from other Americans....

Maybe if the sleezy fucker would stop regulating businesses, stop fucking up the health care system, and allow businesses to get back to putting people to work, instead of trying to make the GOVERNMENT put them to work, we wouldn't be in this condition....

[American Patriot]

Obama pushes GOP on unemployment insurance

By Carrie Dann, NBC News
President Barack Obama lauded the Senate’s advancement of a bill to extend jobless aid on Tuesday as a “very important step” and called on Republicans in both chambers to back the legislation “without obstruction or delay.”
"Voting for unemployment insurance helps people and creates jobs and voting against it does not," Obama said in remarks at the White House.
"We have got to get this across the finish line without obstruction or delay and we need the House of Representatives to be able to vote for it as well," he said. "That’s the bottom line."
President Barack Obama delivers remarks Tuesday at the White House about extending unemployment insurance benefits for Americans who are out of work.

Obama’s remarks came shortly after the Senate voted 60-37 to begin formal debate on the unemployment insurance extension, which would offer a three-month extension of the long-term aid to 1.3 million Americans. Those benefits halted on December 28 when Congress failed to reach a deal to continue the program.
In his first public appearance since returning from a two-week vacation, Obama excoriated the argument -- put forward by some conservatives -- that offering insurance to the long-term unemployed "saps their motivation to get a new job."
"That really sells the American people short," he said.
Making both an economic argument and a "moral case" for extending the benefits, Obama said Americans believe in helping each other in the case of misfortune.
"We know that, there but for the grace of God, go I," he said.
The congressional fight is far from over. Although six Republicans joined all present Democrats to advance the bill in the Senate, many lawmakers say they want the $6.4 billion cost to be offset by spending cuts – an idea that the White House previously rejected.
And House Republican leaders say the current Senate proposal is not enough.
In a statement after the Senate vote, House Speaker John Boehner said the aid extension must be paid for and contain a larger plan for job creation.
"One month ago I personally told the White House that another extension of temporary emergency unemployment benefits should not only be paid for but include something to help put people back to work," he said. "To date, the president has offered no such plan."

[Malsua]

Pay for unemployment benefits by entering the homes of people on welfare and selling any item that goes for over $200 on Ebay.

[American Patriot]

hahaha. We've been saying that for years (wife and I).

Someone we know was "bragging" about welfare. I asked how they pay for 1) smoking, 2) new iphone, 3) satellite TV, 4)high speed internet - among other things.

No answer....

[vector7]

Sheila Jackson Lee wants word ‘welfare’ changed to ‘transitional living fund’

January 9, 2014 by Michael Dorstewitz 64 Comments


Photo credit: dailycaller.com

U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, strongly endorsed federal entitlement programs as “something for all of us,” during a House floor speech Wednesday, and called for changing the word, “welfare” to something more politically correct.

“Maybe the word welfare should be changed to something of, ‘a transitional living fund.’ For that is what it is — for people to be able to live,” she said, according to C-SPAN.

Jackson Lee praised a long list of federal programs, including the Affordable Care Act, as “huge safety nets — not handouts, but safety nets,” she said.

I, for one, would welcome the name change. The word “transitional” suggests something that’s in a temporary state while it’s transitioning to something else — such as self-reliance.

With that in mind, perhaps welfare should be temporary — cease after 12 months. If the congresswoman feels that’s being too draconian, maybe reduce assistance by 1o percent each year, with the understanding that the balance would be made up by gainful employment.

But I somehow don’t believe that was quite what she was trying to get across in her floor speech.

H/T CNS News

[American Patriot]

I want the words "Sheila Jackson Lee" Dumb Assed Black Congressbitch.

[Ryan Ruck]

Record 20% of Households on Food Stamps in 2013

January 21, 2014

A record 20% of American households, one in five, were on food stamps in 2013, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The numbers also show there was a record number of individuals on food stamps in 2013 and that the cost of the program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), was at an all-time high.

The USDA says that there were 23,052,388 households on food stamps in the average month of fiscal 2013, an increase of 722,675 from fiscal year 2012, when there were 22,329,713 households on food stamps in the average month.



Those numbers were compared with the Census Bureau’s estimates for the total number of U.S. households in the last month (September) of each fiscal year to determine the percentage of all U.S. households in that fiscal year that were on food stamps.

In 2013, according to the Census Bureau, there were 115,013,000 households, which means the that the households on food stamps--23,052,388 households--equaled 20.0% of all households.

In the past five years alone, the number of households on food stamps has greatly increased. In fiscal year 2009 – Oct. 1, 2008 through Sept. 30, 2009 -- the number of households on food stamps was 15,232,115. Five years later, in 2013, that amount had increased by 51.3% to reach 23,052,388 households.



Not only have households seen a major increase in food stamps’ participation, but so have individuals.

In 2013, the monthly average for individuals on food stamps hit an all-time-high of 47,636,084, according to the USDA, an increase of 1,027,012 over the 46,609,072 individuals who were participating in the program in 2012.

That number has dramatically increased from five years ago. In fiscal year 2009, the number of individuals participating in the food stamp program was 33,489,975. In 2013, the number was 47,636,084, an increase of 42.2%.



Furthermore, the cost of food stamps, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), has reached an all-time high.

For fiscal year 2013, the SNAP program cost $79,641,880,000, which is a 164% increase over the past decade. When adjusted for inflation, the cost of the SNAP program was $30,153,090,000 in fiscal year 2003.

During the last five years, the SNAP program grew by 36.8%, from $58,223,790,000 in 2009 to $79,641,880,000 in 2013.

[American Patriot]

U.S. TEETERS TOWARDS DEBT DEFAULT, CASH COULD RUN DRY BY END OF FEB

Posted by tomfernandez28 on February 5, 2014
Posted in: Uncategorized. Tagged: 2/5/2014, America, congress, Democrats, GOP, HEALTHCARE.GOV, IRS, medicare, Obama, obamacare, President Obama, Republicans, SECRETARY TREASURER JOCOB LEW, Social Security, the Affordable Care Act, THE DEBT, The United States, The White House, Washington D.C., WWW.RT.COM. 2 comments




On Friday, America’s debt limit extension expires and Congress is expected to renew its legal $16.7 trillion debt cap. If the debt limit isn’t raised, the US could burn through its cash as soon as February 28, Secretary Treasurer Jacob Lew warns.


“Time is short. Congress needs to act to extend the nation’s borrowing authority, and it needs to act now,” Lew told an audience at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington DC think tank.


On Friday, February 7, Congress will vote to increase the statutory debt limit, which will enable the government to pay for spending bills it has already passed.


“Without borrowing authority, at some point very soon, it would not be possible to meet all of the obligations of the federal government,” Lew said.


The Bipartisan Policy Center has also calculated if policymakers don’t act, the Treasury won’t have enough cash-on-hand to pay for government programs, but estimates the ‘X date’ – when the US runs out of money- will fall between February 28 and March 25, with a high probably it will occur on or before March 14.


Spring tax season makes the maneuver all the more tricky. This is the time of year the federal government is sending out tax refund checks, an additional drain on the country’s cash pile. Spending in just one day in March could exceed $10 billion.


Because the next months will be cash-tight, Lew and other policymakers strongly urge Congress to raise the public borrowing limit.


The debt limit has been suspended since October 17, when Congress passed a fiscal deal in order to re-open the government, which had partially shut down for 16 days. The autumn budget turmoil in the US cost the American economy an estimated $24 billion and sent waves of panic through global markets.


If the US continues its cash dash, a debt ceiling showdown between Republicans and Democrats could resurface as early as March. In October, the government shut down (http://rt.com/usa/us-congress-government-shutdown-568/ ) because Republicans used the threat of default in an effort to re-negotiate “Obamacare”, which they wanted to defund.

‘Extraordinary measures’


If Congress doesn’t come to an agreement on raising the debt ceiling, the US Treasury will have to use fiscal tools, or tricks, to pay the bills. These have been dubbed by Lew as “extraordinary measures”.


Debt Payments


• Daily: $2-15 billion in tax refunds
• February 28: $37 billion in major payments (Medicare $17 billion, Debt Interest $5 billion, Military Pay, Veteran Benefits)
• March 3: $26 billion in Social Security payment
• March 12: $12 billion in Social Security payment
• March 19: $12 billion in Social Security payment

“In just a matter of days, the temporary suspension of the debt limit will end, and the Treasury Department will have to start using extraordinary measures so the government can continue to meet its obligations,” Lew said Monday.


‘Extraordinary measures’ would mean more public debt for the country, which already has skyrocketed to over $17 trillion. About $198 billion in extra cash would be made available in case spending outpaces the debt limit.


Congress has already approved a $1.1 trillion bi-partisan spending bill, but raising the debt ceiling is the next step to guarantee the government can cover the approved expenditure.

[American Patriot]

Thank you for clearing that up…

by Heidi

White House: Americans out of Workforce No Longer ‘Trapped in a Job’

“Bored with your job? No worries – now you can quit, thanks to the generosity of other taxpayers,” quips Roy. “Want to retire early? No worries – now you can, thanks to the generosity of other taxpayers, and also thanks to the higher premiums that young people will be forced to pay on your behalf.”
“The White House’s apparently sincere belief – echoed by progressive pundits at MSNBC, The New Republic, and the L.A. Times – is that it’s a good thing for fewer Americans to be economically self-sufficient,” Roy concluded.