INSTITUTE INDEX: The debt deal's unequal burden
Under the U.S. debt ceiling agreement expected to be signed into law by President Obama today, initial cuts to federal discretionary spending over the next decade: about $1 trillion
Additional amount in cuts to be proposed by an evenly bipartisan, 12-member Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction by Thanksgiving: $1.5 trillion
Percent of the deal's burden that will be shouldered by poor and middle-class households: almost 100
Percent by which the deal increases taxes on the wealthiest Americans: 0
Amount the deal raises by closing corporate tax loopholes: $0
Amount it cuts in subsidies to oil companies: $0
Federal subsidies that big oil and gas companies are expected to receive annually over the next decade: more than $8 billion
Amount in profits Texas-based oil giant Exxon Mobil earned in the first quarter of this year alone: $10.7 billion
In a recent CNN/ORC International poll, portion of respondents who preferred a deal with a mix of spending cuts and tax increases: 2/3
Portion of Republicans who say the budget should be balanced without any tax increases: 1/4
Number of members to be named to the Joint Select Committee by House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) who will be willing to consider proposals to raise tax revenue: 0
If the Select Committee fails to agree on a debt-reduction plan, number of years that automatic, across-the-board cuts would be implemented instead: 9
Under the automatic cuts, percent of domestic program cuts compared to defense cuts: 50-50
Percent by which funding for Medicare, the health care program for seniors, would be automatically cut: 2
Date on which Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), a noted civil rights leader, voted against the agreement out of concern that, among other things, it "puts in the hands of a few the decisions that should be considered by many": 8/1/2011
Date on which Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, called the debt deal a "Satan sandwich" that fails to protect "the poor, the widows, the children": 7/31/2011
Date on which a range of economists and financial analysts said the deal might not go far enough to prevent a downgrade of the United States' triple-A credit rating: 8/1/2011
(Click on figure to go to source. Photo of an ad on a Washington bus stop that's part of a campaign to cut federal spending by Public Notice, a nonprofit headed by Republican operative Gretchen Hamel that's critical of federal spending, is from the group's Flickr stream.)
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Sue Sturgis
Sue is the former editorial director of Facing South and the Institute for Southern Studies.