2012-10-05 03:03:40 UTC
"Spain's corporate tax take has tumbled by almost two thirds from pre-crisis levels as small businesses fail and a growing number of big corporations seek profits abroad to compensate for the prolonged downturn at home."
This summer:
5/1/12 New York Times:
-In Spain, trade unions estimated that more than one million people had protested in 80 cities
-Spain has slipped into a recession for the second time in three years, joining 11 other European countries officially in recession
-Labor unions have warned of mounting unrest if the center-right government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy pushes ahead with austerity measures to meet its budget-deficit targets while 5.6 million people — almost a quarter of Spain’s work force — are unemployed.
-The German Federation of Trade Unions said more than 400,000 members had turned out for protests and marches over austerity measures
7/19/12 BBC: Spain anti-austerity protests end in unrest. Protesters set alight rubbish bins as riot police charged them in the city centre, near the parliament building. Public sector workers crowded the streets of Madrid, Barcelona and several other cities, chanting slogans against government "robbery".
Among those protesting were firefighters and police officers, as well as health and education workers.
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U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000): The unemployment rate has been over 8.1% for 44 months.
-8/13/10 USA Today: Federal civil servants earned average pay and benefits of $123,049 in 2009 while private workers made $61,051 in total compensation, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
-3/31/10, postalemployeenetwork.com: “Postmaster Potter has made headway in reducing work hours and the costs of benefits and pensions, but the average postal employee still makes $83,000 in salary and benefits a year, placing postal workers among the highest-paid government employees.”
-1/25/11 npr.org: “During his [Bush’s] presidency, the national debt rose by an average of $607 billion a year. How does that compare to Obama? During Obama's presidency to date, the national debt has risen by an average of $1.723 trillion a year — or by a jaw-dropping $1.116 trillion more, per year, than it rose even under Bush.”
-6/8/11 U. S. News: “Two new EPA pollution regulations will slam the coal industry so hard that hundreds of thousands of jobs will be lost, and electric rates will skyrocket 11 percent to over 23 percent, according to a new study based on government data.”
-7/8/11 U. S. News Report (usnews.com): The actual number of private sector jobs decreased since 2008. Government jobs increased.
-6/8/12 Investors Business Daily: “Private-sector jobs are still down by 4.6 million, or 4%, from January 2008, when overall employment peaked Meanwhile government jobs are down just 407,000, or 1.8%. Federal employment actually is 225,000 jobs above its January 2008 level, an 11.4% increase.”
8/15/12 USA Today/Gannet:
-More than 21,000 retired federal workers receive lifetime government pensions of $100,000 or more per year.
-Government pensions are vastly more generous than those in the private sector," says economist Veronique de Rugy of the market-oriented Mercatus Center: The average federal pension pays $32,824 annually. The average state and local government pension pays $24,373, Census data show. The average military pension is $22,492. ExxonMobilExxon Corporation, which has one of the best remaining private pensions, pays an average of $18,250 per retiree.
-Pension payments cost $70 billion last year, plus $13 billion for retiree health care. Taxpayers face a $2 trillion unfunded liability — the amount needed to cover future benefits — for these programs, according to the government's audited financial statement.
-Google search Obama saying, "Under my plan, energy prices would necessarily skyrocket" and watch him actually say that (in September, 2008).
-11/3/08 LA Times: “So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it's just that it will bankrupt them because they're going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being emitted."
-6/8/11 U. S. News: “Two new EPA pollution regulations will slam the coal industry so hard that hundreds of thousands of jobs will be lost, and electric rates will skyrocket 11 percent to over 23 percent, according to a new study based on government data.”
-8/31/12 gallup.com: Union approval has always varied by party. Currently, 74% of Democrats approve, 31% of Republicans approve.
9/5/12 CNBC News http://www.cnbc.com/id/48905756: The World Economic Forum survey ranks nations by competitiveness: the US fell two positions to the 7th spot marking its fourth year of decline.