Politics 2012

Tid­bits & snip­pets from the cam­paign trail

2012-​01-​10: Mass­a­chu­setts Sen. Scott Brown, the most vul­ner­a­ble Repub­li­can up for re-​election this fall, pulled in more than $3 mil­lion in the last quar­ter of 2011, end­ing the year with about $12.8 mil­lion in the bank via Roll­call

2012-​01-​17: On Jan­u­ary 20 & 21, 2012 … activists across the coun­try are orga­niz­ing to protest the Cit­i­zens United rul­ing to urge that it be over­turned by amend­ing the Con­sti­tu­tion. Please use these tools to learn more about orga­niz­ing an event via United For the People

2012-​01-​17: A report by the non­par­ti­san Con­gres­sional Research Ser­vice shows that, between 1996 and 2006, the share of total after-​tax income attrib­ut­able to div­i­dends and cap­i­tal gains grew by 40 per­cent, faster than any other cat­e­gory. Earned mostly by the well-​to-​do, invest­ment income was the largest con­trib­u­tor to the increase in income inequal­ity between 1996 and 2006, accord­ing to CRS… is related to the so-​called pro­posed “Buf­fett Rule” ( “No house­hold mak­ing over $1 mil­lion annu­ally should pay a smaller share of its income in taxes than middle-​class fam­i­lies pay” ), whereby the Omaha bil­lion­aire War­ren Buf­fett pays income tax at a lower effec­tive rate than his sec­re­tary does, largely because so much of his income comes from invest­ments — famous NYTimes OPEd essay here.

2012-​01-​17: Defin­i­tive Guide for over­turn­ing Cit­i­zens United … “the most dan­ger­ous vehi­cles for cor­rup­tion in Amer­i­can pol­i­tics today”… Fred Wertheimer (watch­dog group Democ­racy 21) via Cor­po­ra­tions Are Not People

2012-​01-​17: Mitt Romney’s Mis­lead­ing Debate Per­for­mances… just in case you missed them via Tae­gan Goddard’s Polit­i­cal Wire