37 Scientists date the American slide Evan Osnos, “Green Giant—Beijing,” The New Yorker, December 21, 2009. Osnos’s statistics come from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
38 The United States fell to No. 4 Robert D. Atkinson and Scott M. Andes, “The Atlantic Century II: Benchmarking EU and U.S. Innovation and Competitiveness,” Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, July 2011, http://www.itif.org.
39 China in 2008 surpassed the United States Alan L. Porter, Nils C. Newman, Xiao-Yin Jin, et al., “High Tech Indicators: Technology-Based Competitiveness of 33 Nations” (Atlanta, GA: Technology Policy and Assessment Center, Georgia Tech University, 2008), http://www.tpac.gatech.edu.
40 Ranked the United States fifth “U.S. Falls to 5th in Global Competitiveness, Survey Shows,” Associated Press, September 7, 2011.
41 The trends in patents National Academy of Sciences, Gathering Storm, Revisited.
42 The United States will soon be importing Rob Atkinson, Michael Shellenberger, Ted Nordhaus, et al., “Rising Tigers, Sleeping Giant: Asian Nations Set to Dominate the Clean Energy Race by Out-Investing the United States,” Breakthrough Institute and Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, November 2009, http://www.thebreakthrough.org.
43 It will take dramatically expanding government funding National Academy of Sciences, Gathering Storm, appendix E, recommendations called for $13 billion a year in government spending for a decade, starting in 2007.
44 Obama provided a kick start President Barack Obama, remarks, National Academy of Sciences, April 27, 2009; “Fact Sheet: A Historic Commitment to Research and Education,” April 27, 2009, http://www.whitehouse.gov.
45 Obama put $400 million Matthew L. Wald, “Energy Firms Aided by U.S. Find Backers,” The New York Times, February 2, 2011.
46 Government has to be much smarter “FBI Raids Solar-Panel Maker,” The Wall Street Journal, September 9, 2011; “In Rush to Assist a Solar Company, U.S. Missed Signs,” The New York Times, September 22, 2011; “Rich Subsidies Powering Solar and Wind Projects,” The New York Times, November 12, 2011.
47 “Many bought into the idea” Jeffrey R. Immelt, “An American Renewal,” Detroit Economic Club, June 26, 2009; Steve Lohr, “G.E. Goes with What It Knows: Making Stuff,” The New York Times, December 4, 2010.
48 “Without an industrial base” Richard McCormack, “The Plight of American Manufacturing,” American Prospect, December 21, 2009, http://prospect.org.
49 “You cannot survive as a nation” Leo Hindery, Jr., interview, June 28, 2011.
50 Fifty-nine thousand factories were shut down U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment & Wages (QCEW) Database, accessed January 20, 2012, http://www.bls.gov.
51 “Close a manufacturing plant” McCormack, “Plight of American Manufacturing.”
52 Booz Allen Hamilton predicted Booz Allen Hamilton, “The Green Jobs Study,” U.S. Green Building Council, November 12, 2009, http://www.boozallen.com.
53 More modest job growth “Clean Power, Green Jobs,” Union of Concerned Scientists, March 2009, http://www.ucsusa.org; Robert Pollin, James Heintz, and Heidi Garrett-Peltier, “The Economic Benefits of Investing in Clean Energy,” Center for American Progress, June 2009, http://www.americanprogress.org; Steven Greenhouse, “Millions of Jobs of a Different Collar,” The New York Times, March 23, 2008.
54 The test is whether Grove, “How America Can Create Jobs. ” 394 The Alliance for American Manufacturing Hindery and Gerard, “Vision for Economic Renewal.”
55 The alliance wants the government “Our Plan,” Alliance for American Manufacturing, August 15, 2011, http://www.americanmanufacturing.org.
56 Two recent high-profile cases David Barboza, “Bridge Comes to San Francisco with a Made-in-China Label,” The New York Times, June 26, 2011; Annys Shin, “As Chinese Workers Build the Martin Luther King Memorial, a Union Investigates,” The Washington Post, November 23, 2010.
57 George W. Bush tax cuts Fieldhouse and Pollack, “Tenth Anniversary of the Bush-Era Tax Cuts.” Thomas L. Hungerford, “Changes in the Distribution of Income Among Tax Filers Between 1996 and 2006: The Role of Labor Income, Capital Income, and Tax Policy,” Congressional Research Service, December 29, 2011, fpc.state.gov. Edmund L. Andrews, “Tax Cuts Offer Most for Very Rich, Study Says,” The New York Times, January 8, 2007.
58 Large majorities of the public favor Bruce Bartlett, “23 Polls Say People Support Higher Taxes to Reduce the Deficit,” Capital Gains and Games, August 10, 2011, http://www.capitalgainsandgames.com; “Poll Shows Americans Oppose Entitlement Cuts to Deal with Debt Problem,” The Washington Post, April 20, 2011; CNN poll, August 5–7, 2011; Gallup poll, August 10, 2011.
59 An alternative idea is to Fieldhouse and Pollack, “Bush-Era Tax Cuts.” 395 Estimated the tax loss to Charles Rossotti, former IRS commissioner, interview, October 27, 2003.
60 “They are very decent people” Warren Buffett, “Stop Coddling the Super-Rich,” The New York Times, August 15, 2011.
61 Close the exemption in the payroll tax “Warren Buffett Tells Charlie Rose Why Congress Should Stop ‘Coddling’ the Super-Rich,” Charlie Rose.
62 Solving the funding shortfall for Social Security Larry Mishel, interview, July 7, 2010.
63 A majority of Americans Fifty-four percent said capital gains should be taxed at the 35 percent rate or higher. Allison Kopicki, “Partisan Split over Tax Policies,” The New York Times, January 24, 2012. Romney’s tax rate: Nicholas Confessore and David Kocieniewski, “For Romneys, Friendly Code Reduces Taxes,” The New York Times, January 25, 2002.
64 Gains are heavily concentrated at the top Robert Lenzner, “The Top 0.1% of the Nation Earn Half of All Capital Gains,” Forbes, November 20, 2011.
65 Citizens for Tax Justice examined the records Robert S. McIntyre, Matthew Gardner, Rebecca J. Wilkins, et al., “Corporate Taxpayers & Corporate Tax Dodgers 2008–10,” Citizens for Tax Justice and Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, November 2011, http://www.ctj.org; John McKinnon, “Business Roundtable: We Pay Enough Taxes, Thank You,” The Wall Street Journal Washington Wire, April 14, 2011.
66 Others cashed in heavily on loopholes Aviva Aron-Dine, “Well-Designed, Fiscally Responsible Corporate Tax Reform Could Benefit the Economy,” Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, June 4, 2008, http://www.cbpp.org.
67 The multinationals that have been most successful McIntyre, “Corporate Tax Dodgers.”
68 Companies that pay roughly 35 percent Catherine Rampell, “Winners and Losers Under the U.S. Corporate Tax Code,” The New York Times Online, January 27, 2011; Binyamin Appelbaum, “Corporate Taxes: More Winners and Losers,” The New York Times Online, January 27, 2011; “Analysis: 12 Corporations Pay Effective Tax Rate of Negative 1.5% on $171 Billion in Profits: Reap $62.4 Billion in Tax Subsidies,” Citizens for Tax Justice, June 1, 2011, http://www.ctj.org.
69 “Double Irish with a Dutch sandwich” Charles Duhigg and David Kocienieski, “How Apple Sidesteps Billions in Taxes,” The New York Times, April 29, 2012.
70 Paid only $3.3 billion in taxes on $34.2 billion in profits Ibid.
71 “Check the Box” Vanessa Houlder, Megan Murphy, and Jeff Gerth, “Tax Wars: The Accidental Billion-Dollar Break,” FT.Com Financial Times, September 27, 2011.
72 They lobby Congress for a “tax holiday” David Kocieniewski, “Companies Push for Tax Break on Foreign Cash,” The New York Times, June 19, 2011; Linnley Browning, “A One-Time Tax Break Saved 843 U.S. Corporations $265 Billion,” The New York Times, June 24, 2008. Dhammika Dharmapala, C. Fritz Foley, and Kristin J. Forbes, “Watch What I Do, Not What I Say: The Unintended Consequences of the Homeland Investment Act,” Journal of Finance, April 27, 2010, http://www.nber.org.
73 Want tax reform to require proof Hindery and Gerard, “Vision for Economic Re
newal.”
74 Jobs advocates want ironclad provisions Kocieniewski, “Companies Push for Tax Break”; Dan Eggen, “The Influence Industry: Companies Lobbying for Tax Holiday on Overseas Money,” The Washington Post, April 27, 2011; Mike Zapler, “Big Biz: How About a Tax Holiday?” Politico, March 4, 2011, http://www.politico.com.
75 China manipulates the value Currency data from Peterson Institute for International Economics, in press release, Alliance for American Manufacturing, “Ending China’s Currency Manipulation Would Create Over 2 Million Jobs,” June 17, 2011.
76 Widespread intellectual piracy “Ballmer Bares China Travails,” The Wall Street Journal, May 26, 2011; “Piracy: China Still in the Game,” ABC News, November 16, 2010; “Special Report: Warren Buffett’s China Car Deal Could Backfire,” Reuters, March 9, 2011.
77 A major national intelligence report “Foreign Spies Stealing U.S. Economic Secrets in Cyberspace: Report to Congress on Foreign Economic Collection and Industrial Espionage, 2009–2011,” Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive, October 2011, accessed January 27, 2012, http://www.dni.gov.
78 Violating rules of the World Trade Organization “Intel Chief: Obama (Still) Driving US off Cliff,” The Register, August 25, 2010, http://www.theregister.co.uk; Clyde Prestowitz, interview, January 11, 2011.
79 The United States would gain 2.25 million jobs Robert E. Scott, “The Benefits of Revaluation,” EPI Briefing Paper, June 17, 2011, Economic Policy Institute, http://www.epi.org.
80 Gain another 2.1 million full-time jobs “China: Effects of Intellectual Property Infringement and Indigenous Innovation Policies on the U.S. Economy,” U.S. International Trade Commission, May 2011, http://www.usitc.gov.
81 “China’s currency manipulation” Office of Senator Robert B. Casey, Jr., press release, “China’s Currency Manipulation Undermines U.S. Manufacturing Base by Making U.S.-Made Goods More Expensive Relative to Foreign Goods,” January 17, 2011.
82 Accused China of violating free trade rules Keith Bradsher, “In Victory for the West, W.T.O. Orders China to Stop Export Taxes on Minerals,” The New York Times, January 30, 2012.
83 $450 billion in projected defense cuts President Barack Obama, remarks, U.S. Department of Defense, January 3, 2012; Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, “Sustaining Global Leadership: Priorities for 21st Century Defense,” January 2012.
84 Another $500 billion in cuts Congressional Budget Office, “Final Sequestration Report for Fiscal Year 2012,” January 12, 2012, http://www.cbo.gov.
85 $1 trillion can be cut Lawrence J. Korb, “Why Panetta’s Pentagon Cuts Are Easier Than You Think,” Snapshot, Foreign Affairs, January 4, 2012; Winslow Wheeler, email, December 2, 2011; Christie and Sprey, letter to Erskine Bowles.
86 2007 level of $470 billion a year Wheeler, email.
87 That level would still enable Christie and Sprey, letter to Erskine Bowles; Winslow Wheeler, “Ignorance Is Not Bliss,” The Hill, March 9, 2011, http://www.thehill.com.
88 Cost the nation more than $3.5 trillion Eisenhower Study Group, “The Costs of War Since 2001: Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan” (Providence, RI: Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown University, June 2011), table 5. From their total cost of $3.688 trillion, I have dropped war costs of $155 billion for fiscal years 2016–2020, since America’s actual involvement in war during those years is problematic, http://costsofwar.org. Daniel Trotta, “Cost of War at Least $3.7 Trillion and Counting,” Reuters, June 29, 2011.
89 Cutback of $1 trillion Fareed Zakaria, “Why Defense Spending Should Be Cut,” The Washington Post, August 3, 2011.
90 The “gross mismanagement” Vice Admiral Norb Ryan, Jr., “Another Burden for Our War Fighters,” Washington Times, November 23, 2011.
91 McCain issued a savage critique Senator John McCain, remarks on the “military-industrial-congressional” complex, December 15, 2011, http://mccain.senate.gov.
92 “Every gun that is made” President Dwight Eisenhower, speech, “A Chance for Peace,” April 16, 1953, http://millercenter.org/president/speeches/detail/3357.
93 “Instead of fighting this war” Barack Obama, campaign speech, Charleston, WV, March 20, 2008, http://www.cfr.org.
94 A faster draw-down of U.S. forces Leslie Gelb, “Mission Accomplished,” The Wall Street Journal, May 9, 2011.
95 Proposed $750 billion in defense cuts Zakaria, “Why Defense Spending Should Be Cut.”
96 It’s a catch-22 “U.S. Refinancing Effort Casts Wider Net to Aid Underwater Owners,” The New York Times, November 30, 2011.
97 The agreement in February 2012 Nelson D. Schwartz and Julie Creswell, “Mortgage Plan Gives Billions to Homeowners, but with Exceptions,” The New York Times, February 10, 2012.
98 “No compensation, no amount of money” Barack Obama, cited in ibid.
99 “Residential mortgage market is wholly inadequate” William C. Dudley, “Securing the Recovery and Building for the Future,” speech, West Point, NY, November 17, 2011, http://www.newyorkfed.org; Floyd Norris, “To Revive Economy, Rescue Housing,” The New York Times, December 2, 2011.
100 Smart economists have suggested multiple ways Ezra Klein, “Mass Refinancing: The ‘Biggest Thing’ Obama Can Do Without Congress,” The Washington Post, January 10, 2012.
101 Government buy up near worthless second mortgages Alpert, Hockett, and Roubini, “The Way Forward.”
102 Convert many of these homes into rentals Dudley, “Securing the Recovery.”
103 Offer loan guarantees “Obama Proposes Mortgage Relief,” The Washington Post, February 2, 2012.
104 Measures to slow Medicare cost growth Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, “Affordable Care Act Update: Implementing Medicare Cost Savings,” August 2010, www.cms.gov.
105 Eliminate the anticipated Social Security shortfall Thomas Geoghegan, “Get Radical: Raise Social Security,” The New York Times, June 20, 2011; Andrew Fieldhouse, Economic Policy Institute, email, August 22, 2011.
106 Our economy is projected to grow by 60 percent Lawrence Mishel, “We’re Not Broke, Nor Will We Be,” EPI Briefing Paper, May 19, 2011, Economic Policy Institute, http://www.epi.org.
CHAPTER 22: POLITICS: A GRASSROOTS RESPONSE
1 “There is a disconnection” Gardner, “American Experiment.”
2 “Either democracy must be renewed” Phillips, Wealth and Democracy, 422.
3 Government “of the 1%” Stiglitz, “Inequality.”
4 “Selling the country to the highest bidder” McCain, CNN AllPolitics.
5 Public discontent “Rising Share of Americans See Conflict Between Rich and Poor,” Pew Research Center.
6 Confidence in government “Disapproval Rate for Congress at Record 82% After Debt Talks,” The New York Times, August 5, 2011.
7 Special interests have too much influence “Alienated Nation: Americans Complain of Government Disconnect,” CBS News poll, June 28, 2011, http://www.cbsnews.com.
8 “We don’t have representative government anymore” Stanley B. Greenberg, “Why Voters Tune Out Democrats,” The New York Times, Sunday Review, July 30, 2011.
9 Senators were “vastly more responsive to affluent constituents” Bartels, Unequal Democracy, 253.
10 Politicians had disregarded the views of middle-class voters Martin Gilens, “Inequality and Democratic Responsiveness,” special issue, Public Opinion Quarterly 69, no. 5 (2005): 778–96, www.princeton.edu.
11 Dissatisfaction with both parties Neil King, Jr., “Antsy Voters Look for a Third Way,” The Wall Street Journal, November 26–27, 2011.
12 “There is just so much unrest” Ibid.
13 By early 2012, Americans Elect Ezra Klein, “Save American Politics: Kill the Primary,” The Washington Post, March 17, 2012. Krissah Thompson, “Group Seeks Middle Option for 2012 Ballot,” The Washington Post, November 25, 2011.
<
br /> 14 Bloomberg, seemed to cast himself as a centrist contender Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, remarks on economic growth, Brooklyn Navy Yard, December 8, 2010, http://www.nyc.gov.
15 Another sign of rising protest against political extremism Liz Halloran, “New ‘No Labels’ Movement Seeks Bipartisanship,” NPR, December 13, 2010. http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2010/12/13/132033081/new-no-labels-movement-seeks-bipartisanship.
16 To counteract “this kind of hyper-partisanship” The Diane Rehm Show, “Prospects for a Less-Polarized Nation,” National Public Radio, December 16, 2010, http://thedianerehmshow.org.
17 Its leaders … want to break party control William A. Galston and Elaine C. Kamarck, “The Still-Vital Center: Moderates, Democrats, and the Renewal of American Politics,” Third Way, February 2011, http://www.thirdway.org.
18 “The problem is the party system itself” Rehm, “Less-Polarized Nation.”
19 Open primaries … push candidates Galston and Kamarck, “Still-Vital Center,” 4, Table 1.
20 The parties wound up with less of a lock Ibid.
21 Favor more moderate candidates FairVote, “Congressional and Presidential Primaries: Open, Closed, Semi-Closed, and ‘Top Two,’ ” accessed February 1, 2012, http://www.fairvote.org.
22 To increase American voter turnout U.S. Census Bureau, “Participation in Elections for President and U.S. Representatives, 1932–2010,” Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2012, table 397, www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2012/tables/12s0397.pdf.
23 An estimated 2.2 million Americans The Pew Center on the States, “Upgrading Democracy: Improving America’s Elections by Modernizing States’ Voter Registration Systems,” November 2010. http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/uloadedFiles/Upgrading_Democracy_report.pdf.
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