America The Unequal
The US leads in inequity. The Atlantic's Matthew O'Brien: "...all societies are unequal, but some are more unequal than others. The question is why the U.S. has become more so than just about any other rich country the past 30 years. After all, if rising inequality is mostly about universal factors like technology and globalization, we would expect the rise of inequality to be, well, universal. It hasn't. As you can see in the chart ... from a new paper by Facundo Alvaredo, Anthony Atkinson, Thomas Picketty, and Emmanuel Saez, the top 1 percent have risen and risen in the U.S., but have only just risen [slightly], if that, most everywhere else."
Europe's recession ends, but future uncertain. NYT: "...even modest growth is a relief in a region where unemployment has risen to 12.1 percent and there are still fears of a new debt crisis and existential questions about the euro. The meager growth rate will not make a serious dent in the problems of the 26 million people Eurostat says cannot find work ..."
Millions of eligible Americans don't take food stamps. HuffPost: "...contrary to the idea that America's poor people are collectively gorging themselves on food stamps, they're actually leaving food on the table ... in fiscal 2010 nearly 51 million Americans were poor enough to qualify but only 38 million received benefits ..."
House GOP Considers New Hostage
House GOP may seek debt limit showdown instead of shutdown showdown. TPM: "...senior Republicans have all but conceded that theywon’t end up defunding Obamacare in a continuing resolution to keep the federal government open after the money runs out on Sept. 30 ... But House Republican leaders are taking so much fire from conservative advocates that they’re weighing a more dangerous gambit: taking the United States’ ability to pay its bills hostage to advance the party’s goal of disrupting and dismantling the Affordable Care Act ... A House Republican leadership aide described this plan as an option, but cautioned TPM that no decisions have been made yet ... it could push Congress to the brink of letting the United States default on its debt, a move that stands to send shock waves through the economy, if not grind it to a halt."
Republicans have "zero answer" for healthcare, says CNN's Newt Gingrich: "...you go home in the next two weeks when your members of Congress are home, and you look them in the eye and you say, 'What is your positive replacement for Obamacare?' They will have zero answer ... We are caught up right now in a culture ... where as long as we are negative and as long as we are vicious and as long as we can tear down our opponent, we don't have to learn anything."
Immigration Rallies Pressure GOP
Big pro-immigration rally pressures #3 House Republican. McClatchy: "As more than a thousand immigrant rights activists marched outside his district office, U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., issued a statement Wednesday that cast further doubt on the likelihood that he will support an immigration overhaul that includes a path to citizenship ... Wednesday's protest was one of hundreds planned across California this month and next, to persuade members of Congress to vote on a comprehensive bill. On Tuesday, activists targeted the Orange County district of Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif ..."
Republicans need to build a white-Latino coalition to win back the presidency, but not necessarily Congress, notes NYT's Tom Edsall: "The party can try to boost its backing among whites, a steadily declining share of the electorate, or it can try to boost margins among Hispanics. The truth is that a winning Republican candidate will probably have to do both ... just as the Democrats from 1968 onward have struggled to maintain — and win with — a biracial coalition, white and black. It’s a tough row to hoe, as Hubert Humphrey, George McGovern, Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis, and the one-termer Jimmy Carter can testify, but as Bill Clinton and Obama have more recently demonstrated, it’s not an impossible one."
