In the aftermath of the US Senate’s passage of the fiscal budget for 2014, the media has praised the so-called bipartisan spirit of Congressional Democrats and Republicans in passing the bill. The agreement will end federal extended unemployment benefits, cutting off 1.3 million from assistance days after Christmas. Also affected are members of the federal workforce, who will be forced to contribute additional funds toward their retirement with no increased benefits seen in return.
In addition, the bill also includes over $30 billion in cuts to Medicare, with more promised in future budgetary negotiations. Finally, the budget makes permanent over $1 trillion in cuts implemented during last winter’s federal “sequester.”
Income inequality
grows four times faster under Obama than Bush
The study noted that, in the aftermath of the Great
Depression, the US undertook policies “during the New Deal [that] permanently
reduced income concentration until the 1970s.” In contrast, the study noted a
striking absence of any measures to reign in social inequality in the present
crisis. Far from it, the Obama administrations’ bank bailouts, austerity
program and wage-cutting policies have vastly expanded the prevalence of social
inequality.
