Extreme wealth inequality. And according to a new paper from Thomas Hungerford at the Congressional Research Service, capital gains and dividend tax loopholes are responsible for our nation's unequal income divide. Capital gains and investments used to be taxed like regular income, but they were lowered once in 1996, and again by the Bush tax cuts. Over the last decade, those tax loopholes allowed the rich to gain massive amounts of wealth, and led to an extreme increase of income inequality in our nation.

According to Mr. Hungerford's report, changes in wages between 1986 and 1996 had an equalizing effect, and most of the equalization occurred after a 1993 tax hike. However, after the Bush-era tax cuts in 2001 and 2003, Hungerford says, “most of the equalizing effect was reversed.” And this isn't the first time Thomas Hungerford researched the the income divide in our nation. In a 2011 study he prepared for the Congressional Research Service, he found that between 1996 and 2006, income grew at 25% for all Americans, but the top 1% saw a 74% growth rate on their wealth.

So, thanks to big tax breaks, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. It's time to make the rich pay their fair share. Close the capital gains loophole and stop rewarding people who make money with money. Let's help out the real job creators in our country – the working people.

-Thom

(What do you think? Tell us here.)

Free excerpt, read book for free at Truthout, buy the book!

Wednesday's Daily Stack

Article: "You've Heard of the Birthers, Now Meet the Simpson-Bowlers" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "The new, real Simpson-Bowles plan: Less revenue, more cuts" by Joan McCarter.

Article: "Moving The Goal Posts: Simpson And Bowles Renege On Their Own Plan For More Revenue" by Jeff Spross.

Article: "A Bipartisan Path Forward to Securing America's Future" by Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson .

The Big Picture
- Sam Sacks, The Big Picture producer, progressive commentator

Article: "'Hubris: Selling The Iraq War' Details Lies Spun To Justify It" by Susie Madrak.

Documentary: "Hubris: Selling The Iraq War".

Article: "North Carolina Governor Signs ‘Unprecedented’ Gutting Of Unemployment Insurance" by Travis Waldron.

Article: "Angry town hall crowd heckles McCain for opposing mass deportations" by David Edwards.

Article: "Supreme Court tilts toward Monsanto in battle with farmer" by AFP.

Quote: "The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness." -- John Kenneth Galbraith.

Article: "Bush Rejects Taliban Bin Laden Offer" by Kathy Gannon, 13 October 2001.

Book: "Rebooting the American Dream: 11 Ways to Rebuild Our Country" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "Bulgarian government resigns amid growing protests" by Sam Cage and Tsvetelia Tsolova.

Book: "JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters" by James W. Douglass.

Book: "Trauma Room One: The JFK Medical Coverup Exposed" by Charles A. Crenshaw.

Book: "Ultimate Sacrifice" by Lamar Waldron with Thom Hartmann.

Book: "Legacy of Secrecy" by Lamar Waldron with Thom Hartmann.

Article: "Alan Simpson: Social Security Is 'A Milk Cow With 310 Million Tits'" by Ryan Grim, 08/24/10.

Hour Two: Equal pay...equal paid leave?
- Kay Hymowitz, Manhattan Institute / Author, "Manning Up"

Book: "Manning Up: How the Rise of Women Has Turned Men into Boys" by Kay S. Hymowitz.

Article: "Paid Leave for Women … And Men" by Ellen Bravo.

Book: "The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Deny Science- and Reality" by Chris Mooney.

Book: "Conservatives Without Conscience" by John W. Dean.

Clip: "Iraq sits on top of 10 percent of the world’s oil reserves, very significant reserves, second only to Saudi Arabia." Vice President Dick Cheney, Meet the Press, September 14, 2003.

Hour Three: 10 yrs since the invasion of Iraq (3/19)...time to charge Bush/Cheney with war crimes yet?
- Clifford "Cliff" May, Foundation for Defense of Democracies

Quote: "In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program." Congressional Record, V. 148, Pt. 15, October 10, 2002".

Quote: "We know that he has stored secret supplies of biological and chemical weapons throughout his country." Text of Gore speech", September 23 2002.

Article: "Weapons of Mass Destruction quotes by Democrats" by Snopes.

Article: "My Testimony for the Downing Street Memo Hearings" by Cindy Sheehan, June 16 2005.

Book: "War is a Racket" by Smedley D. Butler.

Clip: "The Man from Abilene" - Eisenhower (you need to select it).

The good: The People of Bulgaria: "Bulgarian government resigns amid growing protests" by Sam Cage and Tsvetelia Tsolova.

Hour One: Fox News: 5 against 1...?
- John Fugelsang

Hour Two: Profits up, pay down and no raise for you...what's wrong with this picture?
- Harry Veryser, Professor of Economics-University of Detroit Mercy / Author-It Didn't Have to Be This Way: Why Boom and Bust is Unnecessary -- and How the Austrian School of Economics Breaks the Cycle

Hour Three: Will the Supreme Court dismantle our vote?
- Myrna Perez, Senior Counsel-The Brennan Center

And, the best of the rest of the news and your calls right here on...

The Thom Hartmann Program...your media support group for "we the people"...

I'll have a conversation with Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) about National Manufacturing Centers...bringing our jobs back home...and the sequester, what is really going on behind closed doors?

Plus, it's Anything Goes on Townhall Friday...your chance to tell me what's on your mind...

The Thom Hartmann Program, Occupying The Media 3 hours a day 5 days a week" for "we the people"...Democracy is NOT a spectator sport...it begins with you...