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U.S. Representative Bob Turner, who famously won ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner’s Congressional seat in a September special election, announced today that he will challenge incumbent Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand in the 2012 Senate election.

“I will travel to the Republican State Convention in Rochester later this week and humbly ask for the Republican nomination for the United States Senate,” Turner said in a statement. “There is serious work to be done to get this economy back on track, and I will not walk away from that work now. I will run for the Senate, and I will run to win.”

Republicans hope that Turner, whose Congressional seat will soon be eliminated by redistricting, can provide some competition to Gillibrand, who was expected to coast to an easy re-election. Turner may have trouble, however, running against an outspoken women’s rights advocate in the Sandra Fluke era.

Just hours after Turner’s announcement, Gillibrand spokesman Glen Caplin released a statement welcoming the “former Rush Limbaugh producer” to the race.

“We welcome Congressman Turner to the race,” Caplin said. “We look forward to contrasting Senator Gillibrand’s record of fighting for New York’s middle class with that of Congressman Turner’s record as a former Rush Limbaugh producer turned self-proclaimed ‘pandering’ Republican if he becomes the nominee.”

“As a member of Congress, his record of voting with House Republicans to help protect tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, raise Medicare premiums for seniors, and block efforts to put middle class families back to work is far too extreme for New York.”

Turner has bragged in the past that he was responsible for Rush Limbaugh’s failed attempt to move from radio to television in the 1990s.

Wendy Long, one of Turner’s rivals for the Republican nomination, also made a subtle reference to the Republican Party’s gender gap by telling the New York Daily News through a spokesman that “We welcome Bob to the race and look forward to seeing him and the rest of the guys in Rochester.”

Gender politics are not the only obstacle facing Turner. Gillibrand’s approval ratings have been rising over the past few weeks, and she has a significant financial advantage over Turner. According to the Daily News, Gillibrand has $8.1 million of cash on hand, while Turner has just $72,600 — and is carrying $65,500 in debt.

Inequality In America & It’s Shocking Truth: The Top 1 Percent Have 40 Percent Of All Of The Nation’s Wealth

Why does this amazing video now have over 5,000,000 views? Because it shatters Americans’ perception of just how bad wealth inequality has become in America.

It’s based on Dan Ariely and Michael Norton’s 2011 study and it helps visually illuminate facts that are nearly impossible to comprehend — such as finding out that one family owns more wealth than the bottom 41.5 percent of America. However, when you see the situation laid out in the context of just 100 Americans, it becomes clear how much the richest 1 percent of the country has amassed.

As we’ve told you before, our progressive tax system is doing little to hedge this inequality. This probably has a lot to do with the fact that people who earn $450,000 a year pay the same tax rate as people who earn $450,000,000. In fact, because of tax breaks that benefit investors, it’s likely that the person earning $450,000,000 pays a lower tax rate.

Why are billionaires taxed so lightly? Maybe it’s because our political system is bent to serve their needs.

WealthChart

 

The Big Lie of the Day: Republicans Balance Federal Budgets

The Big Lie of the Day: Republicans Balance Federal Budgets

The Lie: Republicans have a plan to balance the federal budget and care deeply about fiscal responsibility.

The Truth: The last Republican president who ever balanced the budget was Dwight Eisenhower.

Between 1998 and 2000, President Bill Clinton’s Treasury Department paid off more than $360 billion in debt. As a result of 115 straight months of economic expansion that began after an increase in the top income tax rate — which was virulently opposed by the right —  the huge deficits left by 12 years of Republican rule had been transformed into a surplus.

Within months after taking office in the narrowest victory of nearly any U.S. president—by only one vote in the Supreme Court—George W. Bush had begun to turn that surplus back into deficits that grew and grew, despite funding two wars on emergency supplemental bills that were not figured into the budget.

Vice-President Cheney laughed off the promises that the Bush tax breaks would pay for themselves and the budget would be balanced:  “Reagan proved deficits don’t matter.” But deficits do matter to Republicans…whenever there is a Democratic president.

Since they woke up from a coma on the day President Obama was elected, Republicans have pushed two Big Lies: The President is responsible for the deficit, which is nearly entirely the result of Bush-era choices that the Republicans refused to abandon, and the deficit is responsible for the poor economy.

In both instances, the opposite is true.

Using the deficit as a battering ram, the GOP pushed for the rapid adoption of a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution, which would ignore the true causes of the deficit—tax breaks, the wars and an unfunded Medicare expansion—and demand huge cuts to Medicaid, Pell Grants and every service the government provides.

Paul Ryan proposed a budget plan with these draconian measures yet impartial experts warn that his budget doesn’t balance for decades. The largest expenditure in the Ryan budget is interest on the national debt.

Eager to prove how conservative he is, Mitt Romney signed up for a balanced budget plan that works even faster than Ryan’s, by cutting even more government services. And he pledges to do it without asking rich Americans like himself to ever pay a nickel more in taxes.

Like the majority of Republicans in Congress, Romney has signed a pledge to never say aye to any new taxes. Forget asking the rich to contribute what they can. Under Romney’s plan they’ll pay even less. Of course, to do this Romney would have to demand that the working poor and the middle class pay up to $2000 a year more to make the math work.

And when does Mitt Romney’s budget balance? Don’t ask Romney senior adviser Ed Gillespie (who also advised George W. Bush). Yesterday Gillespie told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, “ Uh…Wolf, I’m not sure of that myself, actually. I’ll get that to you though and I’m sure it’s on our website.” Don’t count on it.

Why? Romney purposely released a budget that can’t be scored, and thus makes no serious projections. No one can say he isn’t a Republican now!

Republicans have long abandoned any impulse to open a real discussion about the federal budget in hopes of distorting the debate. They’re attacking cuts that eliminate wasteful spending in Medicare, while proposing trillions in cuts that would do real damage. They’re blaming deficit spending for a bad economy that only deficit spending can help us to escape. They’re promising to balance the budget with Paul Ryan’s smile and the magic of trickle-down economics.

And how did that work out last time?

Photo: AP Photo via Mary Altaffer