UN Expert: US Income Inequality ‘Can Only Be Made Worse’ By Trump Tax Law

Philip Alston, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, gives a press conference at the UN offices in Quito, Ecuador, on July 15, 2010. Alston (degrees)s in Ecuador invited... Philip Alston, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, gives a press conference at the UN offices in Quito, Ecuador, on July 15, 2010. Alston (degrees)s in Ecuador invited by Ecuadorean government for investigating extrajudicial executions. AFP PHOTO / Pablo COZZAGLIO (Photo credit should read PABLO COZZAGLIO/AFP/Getty Images) MORE LESS

BERLIN (AP) — A human rights expert is criticizing the U.S. for failing to tackle poverty, days after Washington quit the United Nations body that appointed him.

New York-based law professor Philip Alston said Friday that high U.S. income inequality “can only be made worse” by the Trump administration’s policy of cutting taxes and restricting welfare.

A day before Alston presented his report to the Human Rights Council, U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley branded it “misleading and politically motivated” in a letter to Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Announcing the U.S. pullout from the Geneva-based body Tuesday, Haley described the council as a “cesspool of bias.”

No U.S. diplomats were present to respond Friday when Alston told the council of witnessing “raw sewage” pouring into poor residents’ gardens in Alabama.

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  1. I’m starting to long for the days when dystopias only showed up in fiction.

  2. New York-based law professor Philip Alston said Friday that high U.S. income inequality “can only be made worse” by the Trump administration’s policy of cutting taxes and restricting welfare.

    True. And compounding the inequality will lead us down the same path it historically always does. This article from The Atlantic is a long read but worth it.

    The 9.9 Percent Is the New American Aristocracy
    The class divide is already toxic, and is fast becoming unbridgeable. You’re probably part of the problem.

  3. Avatar for sandi sandi says:

    If you want the comic book version, Adam Ruins Everything’s Suburbs gives a quick but compelling run-down of how redlining after WWII ripples through generations of African Americans.

  4. Avatar for caltg caltg says:

    Let us face the new reality. Since taking office, our so-called president Trump and his criminal band of cabinet members and directors have made just about everything in America worse and have done irreparable damage to our relations with the rest of the world.

    Unless we the people successfully throw some meaningful roadblocks in front of this conspiracy to destroy our country by this November’s elections, we may never again recognize the United States for the greatness it once had.

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