Those of us in the middle and working classes will see our taxes raised big time if Mitt Romney is elected president, according to a new report released today by the Center for America Progress at a day-long event examining Romney’s proposals. Romney is proposing a set of so-called tax reforms that would increase taxes for 18 million working families, meaning an average income couple with two kids would pay $850 per year more in taxes.

In sharp contrast, Romney would gain $4.5 million in tax cuts in just the first year, and rake in more than $100 million in tax breaks over his lifetime (click chart at left to expand).

At a time when creating jobs in this nation is top priority, Mitt Romney is running for president on a record in which Massachusetts under his years as governor was 47th in job creation. Worse, Romney apparently didn’t care—when state customer service call center jobs were outsourced to India, Romney vetoed legislation to stop the practice.

This and more info on the Romney record are available at our new Meet Mr. 1% website.

On Aug. 11, thousands of American workers will come together in Philadelphia in the first major action of the Workers Stand for America campaign, the centerpiece of which is America’s Second Bill of Rights:

• Full employment and a living wage.
• Full participation in the political process.
• A voice at work.
• A quality education for all.
• A secure and healthy future.

Dear Abby’s got nothing on Dear David when it comes to navigating the workplace.

Dear David, Working America’s advice columnist, knows you deserve to be treated fairly on the job. And he’s available to answer any question you may have, whether it's co-workers making off-handed comments that you should retire or you feel like your job’s long hours are causing stress.

Time is running out. Tomorrow (Thursday) the U.S. Senate will vote on the Bring Jobs Home Act (S. 3364 [formerly S. 2884]). Make your voice heard in the battle to stop corporate tax breaks for firms that export American jobs overseas and reward companies that bring jobs home.

Call your senators at 888-659-9401 and urge them to support the Bring Jobs Home Act.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is using Horizontal Wireline Services, a small business outside Pittsburgh, as a prop for today’s campaign stumping.

But there are a couple other companies Romney likely will never get near: American Pad & Paper, 25 miles south of his speech today, and Sensata Technologies, over in Freeport, Ill.

The huge export of American jobs (some 6 million manufacturing jobs in the past decade) by U.S. corporations has become a focal point of the presidential campaign. Today, a new report from the Center for American Progress (CAP) outlines how Republican Mitt Romney’s proposals would:

encourage and further accelerate the outsourcing of American jobs to foreign countries.

The furor is growing since it was reported Wednesday that the spiffy red, white and blue outfits U.S. Olympians will wear in the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games in London were Made in China.

Sen. Majority Leader  Harry Reid (D-Nev.) blasted the committee’s choice to offshore the Olympians’ uniforms.

I think the Olympic committee should be ashamed of themselves. I think they should be embarrassed. I think they should take all the uniforms, put them in a big pile and burn them and start all over again.

Jeff Faux, Distinguished Fellow at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), joined us here today at the AFL-CIO to discuss his new book, The Servant Economy: Where America’s Elite is Sending the Middle Class. The event launches the AFL-CIO summer book series, which includes discussions with noted economists who will talk about their new books on jobs, inequality and the U.S. financial crisis. (Get details and RSVP here.)

In his last book, The Global Class War, Faux in 2006 correctly predicted the permanent decline of our debt-burdened middle class at the hands of our off-shoring executives, out of control financiers and their friends in Washington. So we asked Faux a few questions about what his latest analyses and predictions in The Servant Economy.

Union members from around the Detroit metro area rallied Tuesday in support of the Bring Jobs Home Act (S. 2884), a common sense bill authored by Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.)  that would incentivize American companies to bring jobs back to America from overseas. The bill would also close tax loopholes that reward corporations that continue to outsource in the pursuit of outsized corporate profits. Stabenow told the crowd:

The time is now for my Republican colleagues to stop stonewalling this common sense legislation and do what’s right for the American people.