Dick Cheney-"Economy Superb"; Report-Inequality Widens at Frightening Rate

[Clara T]

Ignoring reality, Vise President Dick Cheney popped up on right-wing radio the other day to confirm his host Hugh Hewitt's observation that we're experiencing "an astonishing run of economic good news."
The two agreed that the press has done a miserable job of spreading this information. As Cheney said:
The bottom line is that a lot of people end up convinced that the economy is not doing very well, when, in fact, it's been performing superbly.

As is so often the case, particularly when he talks about your family's financial future, Cheney lies. A new report by the mainstream Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute paints a scary picture of the growing gap between rich and poor in America. But not just between the rich and poor. The gap is widening between the richest 5 percent and the 300 million rest of us.
I've written about this subject before, but the CBPP outdid itself this time, breaking down the breakdown state by state. So I'm unhappy to tell you that after the first three years of George W. Bush's first term, the income gap in New York state (my residence) between the richest 20 percent of families and the poorest 20 percent was tops in the nation — if you don't count the poor people in the District of Columbia, who are even worse off.

I'm not talking about dollar figures here. Of course, in those terms, the rich always get richer. I'm talking about percentages, and if you're not in the top 5 percent, you're a sucker for supporting the Bush regime's disastrous policies of tax cuts for the wealthy and cutbacks of social programs.

Despite the current regime's disastrous tax cuts for the rich, you can't pin this solely on George W. Bush or the de facto president, Dick Cheney. But the start of the "Reagan revolution" in the early '80s was a watershed. Newt Gingrich's ascendancy hurt, considering that it helped usher in a whole generation of greedy schnooks like Grover Norquist and Jack Abramoff. The stock market boom during the Clinton years merely masked the fact that, since the late '70s, the decades-long progress of bringing people into the middle class went into reverse.

http://villagevoice.com/blogs/bushbeat/archive/002386.php



Foiled again: While Don Rumsfeld looks on, cabal partner Dick Cheney licks frosting from a cake celebrating the Army's 228th birthday during a Pentagon party on June 13, 2003

[WI_DEM]

1. I went to a car dealer last week and the salesman said the

economy is the worst he's ever seen it.

[BrotherBuzz]

5. I spoke with a used car salesman and he said times are booming...

who 'ya gonna believe? ;)

[Beaverhausen]

2. How does he sleep at night?

:banghead:

[Cassandra]

7. He's a vampire.

He doesn't have to.

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. It's his kind of economy: Lots of chaos and he has government power

to give no-bid contracts to his buddies.

[LiberalAndProud]

4. It's hard work

to lie to Americans about the contents of their own pockets.

[wtbymark]

6. It is a superb for cheney

the corperations are raping us - things are awesome for them

[Clara T]

8. An Example

At Exxon Mobil, a Record Profit but No Fanfare

By SIMON ROMERO and EDMUND L. ANDREWS
New York Times

HOUSTON, Jan. 30 Exxon Mobil, aided by strong energy prices, disclosed Monday that it had set a record for profits among American companies, reporting $36 billion in annual income. But while most companies would be proud to trumpet record profits, Exxon Mobil did everything it could to play down the news.
For Exxon Mobil, which also handily widened its lead over Wal-Mart as the company with the largest revenues in the nation, the report was an embarrassment of riches. Anxious about criticism of the results, executives began laying the groundwork months ago to try to prevent a political reaction against the company and the energy industry.

For example, Exxon Mobil paid for advertisements in leading newspapers arguing that profit margins in the industry lagged far behind those of other industries, like pharmaceuticals and banking.
Still, growing oil profits are generating new scrutiny of the industry, with legislators and taxpayer groups expressing concern over Big Oil's good fortune, as soaring energy prices put increasing pressure on the pocketbooks of consumers.

"If it's Google, no one asks about the profits because they're too busy buying the stock," said Amy Myers Jaffe, associate director of the energy program at Rice University. "Exxon is different. We have these emotional feelings related to gasoline because there's no readily available substitute."

Exxon Mobil's results on Monday, of course, caused jaws to drop; by some measures, the company became richer than some of the world's most pivotal oil-producing nations. Exxon Mobil reported a 27 percent surge in profit for the fourth quarter as elevated fuel prices gave rise to a full-year profit in 2005 of $36.13 billion on revenue of $371 billion. Exxon Mobil said its overall profit climbed more than 40 percent last year, while its tax bill rose only 14 percent.

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060131/ZNYT01/601310439/1001/BUSINESS