The economy is showing signs of improvement. So why aren’t Democrats talking about it?

The rich are getting richer so that's all good, right?

"Today, President Obama will be in Denver, talking about improvements in the economic picture and his work toward making them happen. The unemployment rate is at 6.1 percent, and the United States has added 1.4 million new jobs since the beginning of 2014.

Despite Obama's intentions of spreading the good news, though, Colorado's top Democratic officials are staying away from the speech. And few Democratic candidates in close elections around the country are citing economic gains as a reason to elect them. Instead, the party continues to advance its agenda as the best way to fix a still-struggling economy.

Why the disconnect? Well, despite the sunnier jobs picture and some indications of the economy's upswing, most Americans haven't felt much of a change yet.



Gallup's economic confidence index -- which measures whether Americans think the economy is improving or getting worse, along with their current perception of the economy -- remains double-digits negative, right about where it was at the start of 2014. Only one in five Americans think the economy is excellent or good. The Fannie Mae National Housing Survey, released this week, found that 54 percent of Americans think the economy is on the wrong track.

More than 40 percent of the jobs created in the past year have been in food service, retail and temporary help, according to the Wall Street Journal. These sectors of the economy typically have the lowest wages. In other words, the decreasing unemployment number doesn't do a great job of capturing the quality of the new employment.

Link, please?

Floridatexan wrote:
Link, please?

Try todays Washington POST, have someone show you how to use the GOOGLE. Or maybe you can't. LOL.

gatorfan wrote:

Floridatexan wrote:
Link, please?

Try todays Washington POST, have someone show you how to use the GOOGLE. Or maybe you can't. LOL.

Aren't you charming? I tried google with the first words of your post and nothing came up. Thanks for nothing.

Here's your link, smartass:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/07/09/the-economy-is-improving-so-why-arent-democrats-celebrating/?hpid=z5

In a nutshell, Democrats can't celebrate a weak recovery, and the GOP has done everything possible, including shutting down the government, to prevent a real recovery from happening...since January 21, 2009.

Here are some reasons:

http://www.bankrate.com/finance/taxes/tax-deductions-favor-rich-1.aspx

5 tax deductions that favor the rich (slide presentation)

It's good to be rich

When it comes to tax deductions, it is good to be rich -- the richer, the better.

Middle-class America enjoys some of the same tax breaks as the wealthy on things like the mortgage interest on home loans, capital gains on retirement investments and donations made to charity.

However, the rich enjoy these deductions and others to a wildly disproportionate degree when compared to the rest of taxpayers. According to the National Priorities Project, America's top earners will get an average tax cut of $66,384 in 2011 while the bottom 20 percent will realize an average tax savings of about $107.

Seth Hanlon, director of fiscal reform for the Center for American Progress, says that while all tax breaks are well-intended, the "upside-down" nature of some miss their target.

"Most people don't see these as being government expenditures, but from an economic and budget point of view, they're really the same thing as programs that spend money directly," says Hanlon. "There are ways to reform them to make them work better."

Many agree, including President Barack Obama, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates.

Here are five tax deductions that help the rich get richer.

1) Mortgage interest deduction:


According to a study by The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, mortgage interest deductions for households with incomes between $40,000 and $75,000 average just $523, while households with incomes above $250,000 enjoy an average write-off of $5,459, or more than 10 times as much.

You must itemize on IRS Form 1040 Schedule A to claim the deduction. If you do, you can also deduct the interest paid on a second home. The rich do both, but most of the middle class does neither.

"For millions of taxpayers, therefore, the mortgage interest deduction provides no added incentive to buy a home," says Hanlon. "It makes no sense in terms of targeting the incentive at the people who need or could use it."

2) Capital gains

3) Step-up in basis (allows wealthy to pass on assets to children at higher asset valuation without paying additional taxes)

4) Retirement savings

5) Charitable deduction policy flaws

You can read the rest at the link.

I will add the vastly expanded estate tax threshold and the failure to collect Social Security tax from those above a certain earnings limit.