The expanding gap between rich and poor is not only widening the gulf in incomes and wealth in America. It is helping the rich lead longer lives, while cutting short the lives of those who are struggling, according to a study released this week by the Government Accountability Office.
Almost three-quarters of rich Americans who were in their 50s and 60s in 1992 were still alive in 2014. Just over half of poor Americans in their 50s and 60s in 1992 made it to 2014.
via New York Times.
See more posts like this on Tumblr
#politics #economy #income gap #poverty #wealthyMore you might like
Poor and middle-class Americans are much less likely to survive into their 70s than the wealthy, federal report says.
via Washington Post.
A reason why Congress should BOOST Social Security benefits for all working Americans.
Sign our petition by clicking here.
Voters strongly oppose a wide array of components of the GOP plan, especially provisions that will raise costs for older people and give tax breaks to the wealthy while hurting the middle class. But the bottom line is: under this plan, costs will go up, and coverage will go down.
- Millions will lose health insurance.
- Tax cuts for the wealthy.
- Skyrocketing premiums for ‘near seniors’.
Learn more about the bill here.
The Senate bill begins to phase out the Medicaid expansion in 2021 — and cuts the rest of the program’s budget too. The Senate bill would end the Affordable Care Act’s expansion of Medicaid to millions of low-income Americans. This program has provided coverage to more Americans than the private marketplaces…
The bill would cut taxes for the wealthy. Obamacare included tax increases that hit wealthy Americans hardest in order to pay for its coverage expansion. The AHCA would get rid of those taxes. Obamacare was one of the biggest redistributions of wealth from the rich to the poor; the AHCA would reverse that.
via VOX.
Related Reading:
- CBO analysis validates seniors’ worst fears about Senate health bill.
- The C.B.O. report also confirms that a disproportionate number of older Americans (age 50-64) will lose health coverage under the Senate bill. These ‘near seniors’ will face skyrocketing premiums, co-pays, and deductibles for private insurance.
On Thursday, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) held his fifth hearing on the War on Poverty, and for the first time he allowed a person actually living in poverty to testify. Tianna Gaines-Turner shared her personal experiences struggling to make ends meet and provide food for her three children who suffer from medical conditions along with her husband. She works as a seasonal employee with children for $10.88 an hour, while her husband works at a grocery store for $8.50.
Government programs — like Social Security, the earned-income tax credit and food stamps — have kept tens of millions from sinking into poverty year after year. But a main driver behind the impressive 1.2 percentage point decline in the poverty rate, the largest annual drop since 1999, was that the economy finally hit a tipping point after years of steady, if lukewarm, improvement.
via New York Times.
Related Reading:
The number of households who survive on $2 or less per person each day has increased by 159.1 percent since 1996, growing from about 636,000 to about 1.65 million by mid-2011, according to a new analysis from H. Luke Shaefer and Kathryn Edin in Stanford’s Pathways Magazine. Families living in this state of extreme poverty now make up 4.3 percent of all non-elderly families with children.
The GOP Tax Scam gives tax cuts to the wealthy, raises the deficit, and will have little change to our economy. At the same time, the GOP says we are better off now.
Exactly who is better off now?
Fifty years after the launch of the War on Poverty, it’s time to apply our lessons learned to today’s economic and social challenges to usher in a new era of shared prosperity.
Did you know:
Social Security is still the foundation for most seniors’ retirement. Without this critical safety-net program, over half of all older Americans would fall into poverty.
A new analysis by the National Institute on Retirement Security shows that #WomensRetirement income lags behind men’s. Our #EleanorsHope initiative is dedicated to helping close the gap between women & men when it comes to retirement savings and benefits. https://www.ncpssm.org/eleanors-hope/