The Week in Review
The Senate on Tuesday passed a $2.5 trillion deficit-reduction deal that the White House brokered with congressional Republicans. An hour later, President Obama signed the bill into law. The agreement slashes programs for working families without asking the wealthiest Americans and the most profitable corporations to pay a nickel more. "This country needs deficit reduction, but we need to do it in a way that is fair and which will result in economic growth and job creation. This proposal does neither," Sen. Bernie Sanders said. He called provisions in the agreement "extremely unfair," "immoral" and "grotesque."
Watch an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer »
Phase I The deal calls for $917 billion in cuts over the next 10 years. Nobody can predict exactly what programs will fall under the budget knife or say how much they will be cut because those decisions will be made over the coming months and years by the appropriations committees. But here's some of what's at stake: Head Start, school funding, college grants, nutrition programs for seniors, community health centers, help for local police officers and firefighters. Also on the chopping block: home heating assistance, support for family farms, and cancer research. There also likely will be major staffing reductions in agencies charged with protecting the environment and regulating Wall Street.
Phase II With Republicans and an increasing number of Democrats calling for major cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, all of those programs will be in jeopardy in a second round of budget cuts. Sweeping new powers were given to a 12-member, evenly-divided House and Senate super committee. The panel's mandate is to look at every federal government program and come up with $1.5 trillion more in savings. Under the law, the super committee technically could consider ways to bring in more revenue to reduce the deficit. "The fact of the matter is the Republicans are not going to ask the wealthiest people and the largest corporations to contribute one cent toward deficit reduction. That`s what they`ve said. That`s what they`ve done. That`s what they will continue to do," Sanders told MSNBC. "The real issue is whether the Democrats will hold firm and make sure that they protect Social Security, which has not contributed one penny toward our deficit, whether they are going to protect Medicare and Medicaid and other important programs." To watch the interview, click here.
Jobs The unemployment rate edged lower last month, the Department of Labor reported Friday. Employers added 117,000 net new jobs in July, when the unemployment rate dipped to 9.1 percent. Unemployment stood at 9.2 percent in June. The July job growth pace still fell short of what's needed every month to keep pace with the growing population of working-age people, let alone making up for the 7 million jobs still needed to recover what was lost in the recession.
Markets Friday's better-than-expected jobs report came a day after a 512-point plunge in the Dow Jones industrial average.
U.S. Income Falls A new report on Wednesday showed total income in the United States in 2009 was down 15.2 percent in real terms since 2007. The Internal Revenue Service data showed an alarming drop in the number of taxpayers reporting any earnings from a job -- down by nearly 4.2 million from 2007. Average income in 2009 fell to $54,283, a drop of $3,516, or 6.1 percent in real terms compared with the year before. The average income hadn't been so low since 1997. Millionaires fared well. No income tax whatsoever was paid by 1,470 of the 235,413 taxpayers earning $1 million or more. The data come from the IRS's annual Statistics of Income tables.
Nuclear Safety The Nuclear Regulatory Commission came under fire at a Senate hearing for foot dragging on task force recommendations to beef up reactor safety in the United States in the wake of Japan's nuclear crisis. "Delay is not an acceptable option," Bernie said at an Environment and Public Works Committee hearing. "We must do everything in our power to make sure nuclear power plants are safe and that this country never experiences what happened in Japan."
