Grover Norquist Thinks You're Too Dumb To Realize You Get Paid More Now, For Sure
Maybe drowning worker protections in the bathtub was a bad idea?
Grover Norquist is confused about direct deposit. Yes, THE Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform. The same unelected Grover Norquist who makes every GOP member of Congress sign a fealty pledge to HIM not to ever raise taxes, under any circumstances, and willblackmailpersuade them not to using that pledge.
Speaking to Fox and Friends, Norquist hypothesized why Americans aren't really feeling the effects of the "amazing," "wonderful" tax cuts the Republicans passed last year -- and which no Republican is running on , and hint, it is because Americans are too dumb to check their bank statements.
Norquist: Some polls suggest a number of Americans are unaware that they're keeping more money. One of the reasons for that is that 83% of Americans have direct deposit so they never look at their paycheck because their pay goes straight to the bank. And it's nice, you don't have to go to the bank and drop off your paycheck and cash it every two weeks. But it pays to take a look at your bank account.
So Grover Norquist thinks that every working American is surprised when the HR fairies deposit magical funds into our accounts? Hey, Grover, if this is how you use Direct Deposit, you are doing it wrong. Electronic banking doesn't mean traditional home-budgeting skills have died, at least for those of us who aren't constantly being surprised by overdraft fees. It just means more time with our money before I hand it to bill collectors and less time waiting in line at a bank to process it into my account.
But maybe the reason people haven't noticed their pay going up isn't direct deposit; it's that wages have actually flattened, as Forbes contributor Teresa Ghilarducci explains.
Real wages have been practically flat during this expansion. Wages rose 2.7% from a year earlier in June, below the 2.8% increase economists had expected. Over the last 30 years, executive and professional pay for the top 1% more than doubled. The bottom 90% of workers only got a 15% raise.
The typical worker received less than one half of one percent annual increase in real wages since the 1970s. And, no, increasing health care costs aren't the reason. Heath and pensions are substitutes. Total labor compensation including health insurance has not kept up with labor productivity.
So on top of rising costs and inflation, the vast majority of us seeing only a tiny increase -- or a decline -- compared to the top 1% doubling their wealth at the same time is probably more of a problem than Norquist's insight that people may not be cross-checking their pay slips with last year's.
It sure seems to us that Grover Norquist should be glad most Americans are only failing to look at their pay slips. If they really started looking at why their bank accounts aren't doing so well, they might really get pissed.
[ Forbes ]
Just fuck Grover Norquist. The silly bastard is named after a sesame street character. Only complete doofuses and dumb toadys could take a guy named Grover seriously. Holy shit right wingers are dumb.
Was going to respond to someone in the thread below, but they aren't worth the effort of engaging with.
Your social security is NOT going to 'run out of money' by 2034 or 2037 or 2040 or some doomsday date that righties throw around, It can't, unless you all just stop working and paying tax (at least income taxes). The calculations only work if you consider that every part of the equation is static. That the amount collected or the amount being taken out won't change. Or that the return on the money invested won't. That is harder to project accurately.
The reason the scenario occurs is that the recession that started in 2008 hit the collection side hard. By 2011 collections were down, But they didn't stay down. Returns on the invested funds were down, but they didn't stay down. So, to cap - you are collecting more money and getting a better return than in 2010. You can't be sure that there won't be another recession, but it would be better to spend time avoiding the conditions that might lead to one. Don't believe the hype.