2006 Year in Review: Drum Major Institute

I like the year-end review produced by the Drum Major Institute, a progressive, populist think tank. Click to read or download the report, which emphasizes issues of social and economic justice -- sure to be major topics in the coming presidential race. It's broken down into the following categories:

• The Executive Summary
• The Best of Public Policy in 2006
• The Worst of Public Policy in 2006
• The State of the States (produced with Progressive States)
• The DMI 2006 Injustice Index
• Eye on the Right
• DMI Interviews 8 People Advancing Progressive Public Policy in 2006
• Hot List: The 2006 Required Reading List for Progressives
• The Year in the Netroots
• Voices of 2006

They deem 2006 'The Year of Systems Failure' because, "Most Americans were tired of the status quo—on the war, on the economy, on the lapsed ethics of those entrusted to represent our interests. The result: on Election Day, they rebooted, ready to try again."

Their choices for best national public policy this year? Legislation that would reverse the raid on student aid, protect access to the polls, shield troops from predatory lending, preserve a neutral internet, replace hunger with health and close the Medicare drug plan's donut hole.

I especially like their rundown on what right-wing think tanks are producing, as well as their Injustice Index, which includes these nuggets:

Wages that an average CEO earns before lunchtime: more than a full-time minimum wage worker makes in a year

Ratio of the average U.S. CEO’s annual pay to a minimum wage worker’s: 821:1

Percentage of women earning less than $40,000 per year who receive no paid vacation time at all: 37

Payment per episode that Donald Trump receives to host The Apprentice: $3,000,000

Estimated number of people lined up outside the new M&M store set to open in Times Square responding to ads for “on-the-spot” hiring for 200 jobs, 65 of which were fulltime: between 5,000 and 6,000. Starting salary that drew them there: $10.75 per hour

Number of households using credit to cover basic living expenses: 7 in 10

Amount in tax breaks and subsidies that last year’s energy bill paid out to the gas and oil industry during a period of record profits and higher prices at the pump: $6 billion

Percent of African-American and Latino families that have zero or negative net worth, respectively: 31 and 38

Total Wal-Mart received in government subsidies, sometimes called “corporate welfare” by activists, in 2005: $3.75 billion

Percentage of the GDP that went to wages and salaries in the first half of 2006: 51.8

Time when the percentage of GDP belonging to wages and salaries was lower than in 2006, out of the 77 previous years for which these data are available: never

Percentage increase in out-of-pocket medical expenses for the average American in the past 5 years: 93

Estimated amount the U.S. would save each year on paperwork if it adopted single-payer health care: $161,000,000,000