I HAVE A DREAM!

I HAVE A DREAM!

(National Journal, Wall Street Journal, Fox News, Huffpost)

(Nick Hubble, BBC News, Frazer Chronicle)

 

So sequestration has taken effect, the big bad giant of taking away from us, the taxpayer, all sorts of services that are paid for by us through our tax to the federal government. Funny I haven’t noticed a single service that has stopped yet, have yet to go to some federal agency with questions that weren’t answers, but yet, our elected officials talk about the coming doom.

 

I’m just kidding, I know it might take either weeks or months before we feel the pain of governmental programs being cut back…..or out. I also understand that the more money a person has, or makes will soften the blow and pain of less governmental programs and entitlements, these upper echelon folks will probably be speared initially any of the pain that lower class’s will encounter.

 

And in the midst of all the doom and gloom by both political parties with regards to governmental indebtedness, how poorly our employment picture looks to say nothing of the stagnant wage, we hear the stock market, the former barometer of what was happening with American economy seems to have taken on a life of its own.

 

If you read carefully you’ll notice that I said (former barometer) because years ago, when the Dow Jones struggled to reach 2000 I was told that it, the Stock Market, was a reflection of how a country was either operating or was being operated.

 

But today, report after report tells of the Bull or Bear market swings of the market, and how just recently the Dow Jones achieved its highest rating, 14,270, completely erasing the 54 percent loss between 2007 and 2009. Actually the market is back to where it was in 2000.

 

However amid all the glorious reporting regarding the market, unemployment remains at an unacceptable rate and the wages of the American worker remains at a snail’s pace…..unless you are telling me that you would like to work for $10 an hour while raising two or three kids?

 

In the illustrious words of Strother Martin in the movie Cool Hand Luke, “What we have here is a failure to communicate." It would seem that the engine that is pushing part of the economy is completely unrelated to what products are being produced here in the United States.

 

Why is the stock market doing so well while many Americans are doing so badly, let’s count the reasons:

1. Productivity gains, corporations have been investing in technology rather than in their workers. Tax credits and deductibles for such investments, there are no such breaks for improving the skills of employees, now employers can do more with fewer workers.

 

2. High unemployment rates, a weak job climate eliminates worker bargaining power, keeping wages low.

 

3. Globalization, many American companies are expanding overseas where markets are growing faster, tax and trade policies have actually encouraged this trend.

 

4. Finally our own government’s easy-money policies, pushing investors into the stock market because bonds yield is so low, 1.9% on the 10 year U.S. Treasury note.

 

 

All of this spells a widening inequality in America because the people who invest the most in the stock market have high incomes. Those who rely most on wages really are S.O.L. Corporations profits are claiming at a larger share of national income than at any time during the last 60 years, while the portion of total income for employees is near its lowest since 1966.

 

I HAVE A DREAM

I’m tired of saying or thinking this, but it’s true, the top 1% of the country got a lion’s share of the country’s gains, while the bottom 99% kept right on losing. I really think that this statement and the accompanying figures are all bunk. What exactly does this mean, does the 1% drive the rest of the country, is there a sinister plot by the man to keep us down?

 

I am beginning to understand the meaning of a bull market, and a bear market…..yes, I’m sure that I understand, the 1% has bull hides to stay warm, while the bear market is for the under employed, or the unemployed, don’t have any clothes what-so-ever…..they are bare. There I think that covers the subject completely, at least for the top 1%.

 

The sequester is likely to make all of this stuff worse than it’s been, it likely will slow the economy, keep unemployment higher, and it will hurt the most vulnerable. Some $1.9 billion in low-income rental subsidies will be eliminated which will affect over a hundred thousand people. Agriculture cuts will affect farmers and rural low income people.

 

Unemployed people, some 3.8 million Americans which are on long term unemployment benefits will have their payments reduced by as much as 9.4%, a loss of benefits that will average $400 in benefits. I must interject here that I think extended unemployment benefits do nothing more than help keep people unemployed rather than looking for a job. I’m not sure what needs to be done with these people, but I do know that they need to get off the public dole.

 

I HAVE A DREAM

There will be cuts to the Department of Education’s Title 1 programs, which helps schools serving more than 1,000,000 disadvantaged, $715 million, and $400 million will be cut from the Head Start a pre-school program for poor children. Cuts will also be made to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for women, infants and children, which provides nutrition assistance and education.

 

These cuts and elimination of programs are mostly unheard of in American history; these cuts will affect the most unfortunate of us and will expose the average American worker to such widespread inequality and insecurity.

 

To me, as uneducated as I am with regards to the economic stability of the United States, it is easy to figure out, although some people say that “figures can be twisted to fit into whatever you want them to,” some figures are cut into stone, are undeniable, and can’t be twisted. If you make $10 an hour, and bring into your household $320 a week after taxes, you will only be able to cover so much of your living expenses.

 

$1280 a month less $400 for rent, $100 for utilities, $400 for food, $100 for insurance, and $200 for miscellaneous spending leaves you $80 to put away for that proverbal rainy day. Good luck attaining any sort of purchasing power with this paycheck.

 

 

 

I HAVE A DREAM

Obama-care is supposed to give almost everybody the access to health care, I’m not sure how, but I want to trust the program. All I hear is, "Where will the money come from to fund the program?" I think that question is a legitimate one.

 

Comically I have heard people taking about not letting the government, more precisely, President Obama tell us when, where, how much, and what it will cost. You know what, any idiot that does not except the idea that we all need health care is, well…..an idiot.

 

Everybody needs to have access to health insurance and prescription medication, hell I need a pill to get out of bed, another to get me through the day, and a pill to get back to the bed. It’s a full time job, just to get from morning to morning…..and if I couldn’t afford my extra insurance I would have been…..dead by this time.

 

The Dream should be that we all are covered and medically taken care of, who in hell argues this point, you guessed it, some Republicans, an odd assortment of Tea Baggers, young people with the insensible attitude of youth, and some really dumb older people.

 

I know of a person who argued with me about his feeling of not wanting the government to tell him that he has to get insurance, yet when I asked him who is insurance company was he said he didn’t have any. Well guess who would end up taking care of that guy…..us, he probably uses a hospital emergency from for his medical treatment without paying, who does he think ends up paying for that bill…..us.

 

I HAVE A DREAM

Now we have Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Representative, who says that he has a plan to balance the budget not in 25 years like he originally said, but, get this…..in ten years through all sorts of cuts to the federal budget.

 

Ryan pointed to Obama-care as a principle program that he would eliminate, would cut any expansion in Medicaid, the government program that provides medical services to low-income families. Ryan wants Medicaid to be operated by states through block grants.

 

I gotta confess, I had to look up the term and exactly what it meant…..and I’m glad I did, like the man said, “knowledge will set you free.” It’s true, block grants is a large sum of money that the Federal Government gives to states or regional governments with only general provisions as to how it is spent. A categorical grant has more constraints with regards to how the money can be spent.

 

There are three major drawbacks to the block grant system of federal medical programming, and it applies to any block grant program, they are:

1. Award system can be manipulated as that grants can be distributed to award the federal administrations own party, like a Republican or a Democratic governor.

2. At the local level, the same sort of partisan favoritism may occur when the money is allocated.

3. Distribution of funds through state or local governments makes federal oversight of their proper use difficult at best.

 

I HAVE A NIGHTMERE

I think Paul Ryan’s plan is based largely on several trusts, trust that Republicans will remain in power, and trust that…..Republicans will stay in power.

KEEP THE FAITH BABY!