xxi Chronology 2011 A Congressional Budget Office study finds that the after-tax income gap (including after transfers payments and welfare are calculated in) between the top 1 percent of the population and everyone else had more than tripled since 1979. Between 1973 and 2007, after- tax income for the top 1 percent increased by 275 percent. For the bottom quintile, the increase was merely 18 percent, while for the middle-class or the middle three quintiles it increased by not quite 40 percent. 2013 The Census Bureau reports that in 2012 the median household income was $57,009 for Whites, $39,005 for Hispanics, and $33,321 for Blacks. 2014 In McCutcheon et al. v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court strikes down as unconstitutional aggregate campaign contribution limits that were initially adopted in 1974. 2016 The Center for Responsive Politics estimates the total money spent in federal elections to be nearly $6.5 billion.
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