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As Media Matters reported, Fox's John Stossell went on Fox & Friends to discuss his special Rich Man, Poor Man which aired on both of their networks, and made some dubious claims about what's happened to income growth for those who are living in poverty:

Fox Mangles Data To Claim "The Poor" Are Getting "Richer":

Fox's John Stossel claimed that it's a "myth" that "the poor are getting poorer" and that they are actually getting "richer." In fact, incomes for the bottom fifth have shown almost no growth in recent decades, and the numbers Stossel used to support his argument were cherry-picked.

Incomes At The Bottom Have Shown Almost No Growth In Decades; Stossel Calls It "Getting Richer"

Stossel: "The Rich Have Gotten Richer, But So Have The Poor." From Fox News' Fox & Friends:

STOSSEL: There are just two myths. One is that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. And the truth is yes, over time the rich have gotten richer, but so have the poor -- 20 percent richer since I was in college. [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 5/24/12]

CBPP: "The Era Of Shared Prosperity Ended In The 1970s." From the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities report:

Census family income data show that the era of shared prosperity ended in the 1970s and illustrate the divergence in income that has emerged since that time. CBO data allow us to look at what has happened to comprehensive income since 1979 -- both before and after taxes -- and offer a better view of what has happened at the top of the distribution.

As Figure 2 shows, between 1979 and 2007, average income after taxes in the top 1 percent of the distribution rose 277 percent, meaning that it nearly quadrupled. That compares with increases of about 40 percent in the middle 60 percent of the distribution and 18 percent in the bottom fifth.

The report included this graph:

[Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 3/5/12]

Media Matters has a lot more charts and information in their post along with debunking more of what Stossel said on the air.

Here's the promo for Stossel's special which you can watch the very beginning of in the clip above from Fox Business Channel where it originally aired this week: Rich Man, Poor Man:

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While discussing the fact that a large number of school districts across the country have now decided to start operating on a four day schedule because of budget constraints, Fox Cashin' In contributor Jonathan Hoenig jumps the shark so badly during this segment, that even his fellow wingnuts that normally spend these Saturday show trashing public education and any public sector unions had to disagree with him.

HOENIG: Government, which of course has a monopoly over the public schools, really has become the parent. If the reason for keeping this failed school system is day care, I mean honestly Tracy, believe me, it's cheaper for you to hire a baby sitter for your kids, than to fund this union dominated school system.

(crosstalk)

BYRNES: Jonathan, it's about learning. It is about keeping us on par with the rest of the world.

HOENIG: Why do you want to keep them there more? That's the whole point. They're not learning in the public schools. You want to keep them there more... an extra day? They'd do better on the streets!

This is the same idiot that John wrote about back in Feb. 2008 here -- Jonathan Honeig thinks it's a right to smash a dog's head against a wall.

And I'm beginning to think Tracy Byrnes is suffering from the same syndrome as Megyn Kelly who suddenly became a born again liberal when it comes to maternity leave that Karoli wrote about here -- Megyn Kelly Defends The Family Medical Leave Act. Besides defending the public school system as she did in this segment, earlier in the show she was defending national flood insurance, after, you guessed it, her home was in one of the areas affected by the hurricane and she just got her power turned back on the day before the show.

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The Nation's Chris Hayes laid out very plainly why the protests in Wisconsin matter. This move by Gov. Scott Walker is one of a series of power grabs by Republicans with the intent of achieving some of their long time goals; destroying unions and the middle class and getting rid of our public education system.

And as Chris noted, it's a reminder of the fact that when our political institutions fail us, people mobilizing outside of those institutions through the process of peaceful protests as we've seen in Wisconsin have brought about some of the greatest moments of progressive transformation in the United States.

Chris' fellow contributor to The Nation, Naomi Klein discussed how what Walker doing is a classic example of the Shock Doctrine, where politicians create a crisis and then using that crisis as an excuse to push through horribly unpopular economic policies. And as Hayes and Klein both explained, what ends up happening in Wisconsin is not only going to have local implications, but national as well.

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Star Parker who decided that wingnut welfare paid a lot better than actual welfare was one of the speakers at the Values Voters Summit 2009 this year, so C-SPAN decided to grace us with her presence on Washington Journal.

Here's Brad at Sadly, No!'s description of a wingnut welfare queen which I could not have described any better.

Basically, I define wingnut welfare queens as people who:

a.) Have very little talent.

b.) Work in the right-wing media machine, think-tank circles, or the Republican Party.

c.) Are employed solely on their willingness to act as shills for the GOP or wingnuttery in general.

When a Democratic caller noted the racism coming from the likes of Glenn Beck and many of those at the Tea Bag protests and said there is racism on all sides of the aisle, and asked Ms. Parker why evangelicals don't get upset about the death penalty or about the number of Iraqi babies killed in "this useless war we had", here's how she responds.

Parker: He's also not the first President that has gotten opposition from day one. We saw it under Bush and even before Sept. 11th. This is what we do as Americans. This is our society.

Now getting to the question of racism, you're absolutely right. I am sure that there are racists in this society on both sides. There are white racists, there are black racists, there are Korean racists, there are Japanese racists, there are... race is an issue regardless.

But now what we have to say are... is that everybody in the Republican Party racist. See this is what liberals have tried to convince society of. All of the racists are in the Republican Party.

Well I think it's just as racist for ah... for somebody to say that black children cannot learn in a private environment, so we're going to force them to a government school. I think it's just as racist to say that black people will never be able to learn how to save and invest their money, so we're going to force them into a Social Security that we know that they're going to die before they recover all of the money that they put into it.

I think it's just as racist to say that when we're having health care discussions we have to start at the premise that people can't fend for themselves--that they will not be able to look at private insurance options and choose one.

So, you know we can keep throwing that term on the table and acting like either everybody has to be all pure or everybody is not, but we can say let's move beyond the name calling and talk about the issues of the day. And on this issue of the day with health care and with this expansion of government, from the stimulus, to the auto industry, to the banking industry, you're absolutely right.

There is tremendous push back from the right against Barack Obama's policies and it's because we disagree with him.

Wow. I'm white, but I have quite a few very good black friends and I cannot imagine any one of them being able to listen to this tripe without being completely insulted. I don't think I've ever heard anyone denigrate their own race this badly before with the exception of possibly Michelle Malkin.

So apparently in Star Parker's world, if you're not for funneling tax dollars to private religious schools, you think black children can't learn in that environment. Social Security is somehow keeping black people from understanding how to invest their money if they’re lucky enough to have any to invest in the first place. And last but not least saying that anyone that thinks everyone should have affordable health insurance coverage which is possibly provided by the government thinks that black people are too stupid to pick from the non-existent choices they have now.

These wingnuts sure know how to pick 'em for their choice of speakers at these conferences, don't they?

Maybe Star Parker could just get all of the black people in America jobs shilling at right wing think tanks and Fox News for the Republican Party like she did and all of their problems would be solved.