George Osborne's budget cuts will hit Britain's poorest families six times harder than the richest

[panzerfaust]

Source: Guardian (UK)

The impact of George Osborne's emergency budget on the poor has been revealed in a study that finds the country's least well-off families face cuts equivalent to 21.7% of their household income. That means they will be hit six times harder than the very richest by the coalition's deficit-cutting measures.

The study, the first to fully account for the impact of deep future cuts in public spending, comes as world leaders meet in Toronto to discuss the global economy. Treasury figures have only considered tax and benefits because the impact of spending cuts had not been modelled. The Institute for Fiscal Studies said that this was "perhaps the most important omission in any distributional analysis" of government austerity plans.

Now economists working in conjunction with the left-leaning Fabian Society have created a model that gives a quantitative account of cuts for the first time. The study assumes that health spending and international development spending will be protected, as stated in the budget, and that spending cuts will be equally distributed across the other government departments. It concludes that the poorest will be by far the biggest losers in the drive to move Britain back into a budget surplus by the end of this parliament...

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jun/27/osborne-budget-cuts-hit-poorest

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Soon to come to America ... the Brits are just a bit further down the same financial road we are on.

What to do to avoid it?

Where to start: Raise taxes on corporations, on the super-rich (at least above the current ZERO), the rich (near zero), the upper middle class (about 30% - that's me, and NO I don't WANT to pay more).

But raising taxes is only a short-term fix as the Sun King demonstrated for all time (though he taxed the poor - as there were so many more of them - rather than the rich).

Essential in the long run: Number One must be to end our foreign wars of choice.

Beyond that: Decriminalize all drugs and legalize most (thus gaining tax revenue, reducing police state expenditures, saving lives, and preserving civil liberty); Dismantlement, or greatly reduce the size of, no longer effective government agencies (The VA comes to mind, each year the number of beneficiaries shrinks, each year the number of bureaucrats and 'workers' grows); Halt the export of jobs to the Third World (yes Virginia, at one time most things you bought said "Made in America"); End meaningless, but destructive, programs such as "No Child Left Behind"; Stop paying companies to exploit us (eg the old oil/resource depletion allowance type of scams - similar schemes still exist I am sure) ... The list goes on and on ... and this only deals with financial responsibility, much less such things essential to a democracy as restoration of the right of Habeas Corpus, freedom from illegal surveillance, national repudiation of torture, verifiable voting ballots and other underpinnings of our republic which have been systematically destroyed - and which we voted to change, but which, oddly, remain the same.

Oh look - the World Cup is on ...

[xchrom]

1. indeed - thats how it's done anymore. nt

[activa8tr]

2. Of COURSE it will, the new top guy is the leader of the CONSERVATIVE

party in Britain.

Did folks actually think they were having a real Obama-change style election in Britain?

[SILVER__FOX52]

3. Dude....

Leave the VA, alone. It's all I have. I'm an unemployed, non-combat, vet and would most surely be dead, right now, if it were not for VA health care.

[pattmarty]

4. You forgot to tax the "churches". The problem in the US is we don't.....

......have all that many social programs like the Europeans have. Here (for the poor, working class, and lower middle class) we have SS and Medicare and that's it. Oh, I forgot unemployment (AND so did the fucking Republicans last week) which is for all ages and just a hair better than fucking nothing. If these programs are cut, then the old will be super-fucked. The wealthy don't seem to be suffering at all, since profits are up and the stock market is hummin' just like it was pre 2008.

[SemperEadem]

5. there is no way in hell the VA should be touched--not at this time

not with all of the troops who will be coming back and will require the services--and the government has a duty to look after those who took up arms and fought for it.

Reconstruct it? Yes. Do away with it and leave those troops to fend for themselves? Not in a million years would I go along with that.