U.S. POLITICS: “Trump Tax Returns: 10 Things You Need to Know” / Robert Reich ☮

Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich breaks down 10 things you need to know about Trump’s serial tax dodging. He paid $0 in income taxes in 10 of the past 15 years, and claimed a $70,000 tax deduction for hairstyling. He faces federal and state prosecution for bank fraud, tax fraud, wire fraud, and mail fraud, as does his entire family. In many ways, Trump’s tax returns show once again that he represents the worst side of America — a cheat, conman, someone who doesn’t give a fig about the United States, who puts himself first every chance he gets, and a hypocrite. Not surprisingly, Trump claims this bombshell is “totally fake news.” But the easiest way to refute it would be to make his tax returns public, which he refuses to do. Now we know why.

RED STATE WELFARE: “How Blue States Help Red States” / Robert Reich ☮

Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress love to demonize government handouts, which, in fact, their own supporters depend on and are increasingly financed by taxpayers in blue states. Our latest video explains how blue states subsidize red states.

DOMESTIC ECONOMICS: “Trump’s Infrastructure Scam” / Robert Reich, and MoveOn.org ☮

Trump vows to privatize the nation’s air traffic control system and spur $1 trillion in new investment in roads, waterways and other infrastructure. How? By charging us DOUBLE: Once for giving tax breaks to private investors in infrastructure, and then for paying the tolls and fees they’ll charge. It’s another of Trump’s giant scams. Don’t fall for it.

DOMESTIC ECONOMICS: “A Message to Working People from a Former Labor Secretary” / truthdig / Robert B. Reich ☮

Robert Reich

Your typical wage is below what it was in the late 1970s, in terms of what it can buy. Two-thirds of you are living paycheck to paycheck. Almost 30 percent of you don’t have steady employment: You’re working part-time or on contract, with none of the labor protections created over the last 80 years – no unemployment insurance if you lose your job, no worker’s compensation if you’re injured, no time-and-a-half pay for working more than 40 hours a week, no minimum wage, and you have to pay your own Social Security. Over 37 percent of you have dropped out of the workforce altogether because you’ve become too discouraged even to look for work. That’s a near record. As if all this weren’t enough, the schools and infrastructure on which you rely have been neglected, and the ravages of climate change – droughts, fires, and floods – are worsening.

Yet the American economy is twice as large as it was in the late 1970s. As a nation, we are richer than we’ve ever been. We could afford to do so much better.

None of this has happened by accident.

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