Middle Class

Further Proof That Mitt Romney Is Out Of Touch With Reality

Ronald 1 Comment

Mitt Romney, the presumptive GOP nominee for President, spoke to college students at Otterbein College in Ohio yesterday, and suggested they take a risk and start a small business.

Sounds like not a bad idea, right?

But he suggested that if that student does not have the money to start a business, then ask one’s parents to help him out with a loan.

Does Romney not realize that many families cannot afford to pay for their children’s college education, and yet they are supposed to be able to help their children start a business?

Does he not realize that many middle class, as well as poor families, are living hand to mouth, having lost jobs, homes, pensions, due to Republican policies under George W. Bush and the Republican Party in the first eight years of this century?

Mitt Romney had the advantage of wealthy parents, but most Americans do not have that advantage, and now, millions of them also have unbelievable levels of debt from their education, and would have, therefore, no means to be able to start a small business!

And of course, Romney would not support the idea of having taxpayers help pay off those student debts by, god forbid, expecting wealthy people to pay a fair share of taxes after eight years of getting away with that responsibility due to the Bush tax cuts. After all, that would mean that HE would have to pay more taxes, and that would be an absolute outrage, wouldn’t it?

So expect students to pay their debts in full, now nearing $1 trillion, even though we spend $2 trillion a month in Afghanistan, but still suggest that their impoverished parents give them a loan to start a small business!

It is clear that Mitt Romney is an ostrich with his head in the sand, totally out of touch with reality!

Barack Obama On The Attack Against Republicans And Conservatives: Critical Of The Supreme Court And The Paul Ryan Budget Plan

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Barack Obama has gone on the offensive against conservative and Republican philosophy, both on the Supreme Court and in Congress.

Already throwing down the gauntlet to the Supreme Court yesterday, Obama pointed out that the commerce clause and Supreme Court case history and two Circuit Court Judges (Laurence Silberman and Jeffrey Sutton) are a call for backing the Obama Health Care law, and it is clear that IF the Court declares it unconstitutional, the Court itself will be an issue in the upcoming Presidential campaign of 2012. And it is certain that the KEY issue of 2012, no matter what happens, is to realize that the future judicial appointments to the Supreme Court and the lower courts matter more than ANYTHING economic or foreign policy related, because the judiciary is a lifetime appointment!

If we are upset over a 5-4 Court to the right, imagine a 7-2 Court under a Republican President when and if Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Stephen Breyer, both in their 70s, leave the Court over the next four to eight years!

But today, President Obama is also mounting a full scale assault on the Paul Ryan budget plan adopted by the House Republican majority for the second year in a row, which includes massive tax cuts to the rich beyond the Bush tax cuts, and major cuts in Medicare and Medicaid and all other domestic spending programs that benefit the poor and the struggling middle class, as well as the elderly.

Obama is calling it today’s “Social Darwinism”, the prevalent philosophy of the Gilded Age of the late 19th century, a period being matched and surpassed with the growing concentration of wealth in the top one percent of the population in the past ten years, and now threatening to be even more concentrated under the budget plan of the House Budget Committee Chairman.

And with the growing possibility that Ryan might be the Vice Presidential running mate of Mitt Romney, the future of the nation is at stake on the Supreme Court and lower courts, and also on the Presidential and Vice Presidential level, along with the Congressional actions in future years.

This is a battle for survival of the middle class, and the continuation of understanding the plight of the poor, as class division and the potential for class warfare grows!

The Republican Party Losing The Future: Suicidal Tendencies

Ronald 3 Comments

The Republican Party of 2012 is a shell of its old self, and has allowed itself to move out of the mainstream of American politics based on the extremism of religious zealots, greedy capitalists, and neoconservatives who believe American power must be waged everywhere no matter what the cost to the American economy.

The problem for the GOP is that the nation has changed so much from what it was, and the younger generation is alienated from these trends.

The younger generation is alienated from organized traditional religion that subjugates women.

The younger generation is alienated by the abuses of the wealthy, and are concerned what their future is in an economy that has decimated the middle class, and caused the loss of hope in the “American dream”.

The younger generation is alienated from the war machine mentality of neoconservatives and the Pentagon, which thinks that military force all over the globe is the only answer to world problems, and they want America focusing on its internal problems, rather than being a crusader all over the world, as they see American power as “imperialistic”.

The GOP is losing women, African Americans, Hispanics and Latinos, college graduates, those under 35, the struggling middle class, most major metropolitan areas, and the coastlines with large electoral vote states.

All they can attract in majority numbers are Christian and other religious fundamentalists, blue collar whites who have not attended college, the wealthy top two percent of the population, and the military oriented hawkish foreign policy advocates.

The Republican Party is losing the future in a nation more socially moderate, believing in economic opportunity, and wishing for more direct democracy by the masses, instead of all power in the hands of a powerful wealthy elite.

In other words, the nation is more progressive than conservatives and Republicans want to believe!

Rick Santorum The Promoter of Class Warfare, Not Barack Obama!

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Republicans have, on a regular basis, accused President Barack Obama of promoting “class warfare”, because he promotes the concept that the wealthy have been very fortunate, with the biggest tax cuts in history during the Bush and early Obama years, and must start to pay their fair share of taxes to help support the national commitments and responsibilities.

But actually, it is Rick Santorum, above all, who is promoting class warfare, by advocating an anti elitist view about the news media, colleges and universities, and liberals, blaming them for reporting what is going on, and promoting investigation of the mess created by the Bush Administration and the Republican Party during the years they controlled the national government, and advocating open inquiry and analysis and thinking, rather than accepting what we are told is the ultimate truth from a man who advocates religion in government, rather than separation of church and state.

Santorum is trying to organize blue collar whites who are not educated beyond high school and have a much higher unemployment rate against white collar workers and college educated people who have a much lower unemployment rate.

Instead of seeing that education is the road to success and the stable middle class, and despite the fact that Santorum himself has three college and university degrees and will certainly hope his own children will get a college education to advance themselves economically over a lifetime, Santorum calls educated people snobs, and Obama is blamed for promoting a better life for the future generation!

This campaign pitch of Santorum is promotion of resentment, anger, and against the role of education in attainment of life’s goals. It is sick, insane, destructive of social mobility for the future of the nation, and Santorum needs to be repudiated in a massive way by his party, but they seem unwilling to take him on, and they are therefore promoting further degradation of the middle and working classes by NOT advocating what Obama says is necessary for success–as much education as any young person can handle, rather than a drive to the bottom!

If the blue collar whites of the Midwest back Rick Santorum, they are guaranteeing their continued decline into poverty and degradation!

Santorum’s pitch is the closest to that of Pat Buchanan in 1992 and George Wallace in 1968, but he is more of a threat to be the standard bearer of a major political party, and this could, therefore, be a calamity in the making!

Can Mitt Romney Survive A Loss In Michigan Primary? His “Competition” With George Romney’s Image And History!

Ronald 2 Comments

The biggest crisis in Mitt Romney’s privileged life is coming in Michigan, the state of his birth, the state which elected his father George Romney Governor for three terms in the 1960s, the state which he fundamentally abandoned when he called for the ordered bankruptcy of the auto industry, the state in which there has been a major turn around and drop in unemployment due to the intervention of the federal government to help General Motors and Chrysler survive. General Motors has seen its best growth in 25 years, and Michigan and the Midwest, as bad as they are in economic terms, are far better off because of what Barack Obama did, as opposed to what Romney wished to do for the area–NOTHING!

Romney is about to be paid back in spades, as the odds are now heavy that he will lose his “home state” to Rick Santorum, who can relate to blue collar workers on a fundamental basis, as compared to the filthy rich Romney who has no clue as to the struggles of auto workers or anyone else, and lives off investments but can joke about being “unemployed”!

If Romney loses the Michigan Primary, he is doomed, and will not be able to survive and win the nomination. And even if, by some intervention by “establishment” forces on Wall Street, he gets the nomination, he will have a flaw that will be enough to cause his defeat in November. He is simply too plastic, to stiff, too elitist, for the average American, and by catering to the extreme right in his rhetoric, he is causing the loss of major groups of voters–women, Hispanics and Latinos, African Americans, labor, the struggling middle class, independents, conservative Democrats, gays, etc. Does anyone NOT get the point?

Mitt Romney is NOT electable; he may have the lifelong desire to be what his father failed to be–President of the United States! But in a way, he is competing with a ghost, as George Romney was a much more genuine candidate, a man who knew what it was like to be poor, a man who really built up the auto industry, rather than live off buying up companies and firing workers, and making money on the resale of those companies.

George Romney was genuine, compassionate, principled, and honest to a set of values! Mitt Romney is none of these attributes of his father!

In a way, this reminds us of the struggle between father and son of George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush, another case of son trying to overcome the achievements of the father, but never matching up in any way, shape or form.

The difference is THIS time, it is not going to work out that this country has to deal with the psychological effects of the father-son battle for supremacy, as Mitt Romney is NOT going to be President of the United States, and is highly unlikely, as things stand now, to be the GOP nominee chosen at the Tampa Republican National Convention in August.

It is actually humiliating and embarrassing to see Romney trying to pander to Michigan now, talking about his old high school, the height of the trees, loving the lakes of the state, loving cars and Detroit! Such phoniness and catering to voters who know better than to be suckered by a rich guy who does not care about the “very poor”, the middle class, but only the rich, despite his protestations to the contrary!

Nine Months To Presidential Election, And Obama Is Over 50% Support Against Mitt Romney!

Ronald 1 Comment

With nine months to go to the Presidential Election Of 2012, President Barack Obama has broken a barrier that is very significant.

The President has, for the first time ever in an election poll, the Washington Post–ABC News Poll, hit a majority of registered voters, with 51 percent to 45 for Mitt Romney, his likely GOP opponent. Obama had last been over 50 percent in May in a non election poll, when he was able to accomplish the killing of Osama Bin Laden.

At the same time, among all Americans, Obama has 52 percent to 43 for Romney, and among independents, Obama leads by the razor thin margin of 48 to 47, his first lead.

Obama is ahead of Romney on issues including who would better protect the middle class, handle foreign policy, and fight terrorism.

Romney is seen as out of touch with average Americans, and having not paid his fair share of taxes. But his business experience makes many voters feel that he could handle the economy better, and on job creation, the candidates are seen as equal. Of course, the good jobs report in January helps Obama, and if it continues, could give him a lead over Romney in later polls on economic policy.

The timing looks good for Obama to win the election, unless there is a major economic downturn, or a major foreign policy crisis that he is seen as mishandling.

The Truth About The Safety Net: Full Of Holes And The Worst In The Developed World!

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Mitt Romney claimed two days ago that we have a “safety net” for the very poor, and that, therefore, we don’t have to worry about them.

What a distortion of the truth, as we have the absolutely WORST “safety net” for the very poor in the developed world. It is not enough to say how fortunate our poor are as compared to Africa and parts of Asia and Latin America, as this is America!

Here are the facts:

The official US poverty rate is 15.1 percent, and it does not include the millions of the middle class who have been impoverished by the Great Recession and its aftermath.

One out of five children lives in dire poverty in America, and if one is born into that background, the odds of escaping it are far less likely than for other children.

Our Food Stamp program provides $1.44 per meal to each of its recipients.

Medicaid only covers the poorest children, of parents working at 63 percent of the poverty line, and 37 percent of non working parents. The new health care law would cover the gaps, but Romney endorses repealing it.

Only one in four poor renters get housing vouchers as assistance to pay the rent.

Supplemental Security Income helps the impoverished elderly and disabled, but only 27 percent of this group receives such welfare assistance, while in 1996, 68 percent received such aid. And SSI at its best only lifts those families to 75 percent of the poverty level.

Any person who wishes to be President should have the decency and the compassion to recognize that the “very poor” are not well treated in a society which believes in mobility, and that we MUST do better, and stop having conservatives and so called “religious” people continue to condemn and deplore the poor, and not give a damn about their ability to survive and advance in society, with a sense of dignity! This is a MORAL cause above all!

Mitt Romney’s Psychological Self Destruction Again Evident!

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Imagine this: Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts Governor, is able to accomplish a major victory in Florida, and he goes ahead in the next 24 hours or less to destroy what he has accomplished!

Mitt had this urge to tease second place finisher Newt Gingrich by pointing out that Gingrich had failed to call him, and maybe had forgotten his number, said with a hearty laugh! That is very stupid, to make fun of the loser, and yet expect that the very competitive and vindictive Gingrich will eventually come around and drop his challenge. After this idiotic move by Romney, he has only guaranteed more grief longer term for his campaign. It also shows the level of arrogance that Romney has, something known before, but made worse by his cockiness after his Florida victory!

But then, Romney, in an interview on CNN, declares that he is not concerned about the “very poor”, as they are well protected by the “safety net”. This is an outrageous statement, as the very poor are in dire straits, and the so called “safety net” is full of holes, and it is no fun to see the working poor struggle to make ends meet every day of their lives! But of course, many Americans, including Romney, would like to forget these people, as they are an inconvenient annoyance!

He is also not concerned about the very rich (like himself) as they don’t need government, a totally true statement, but showing how he can only relate to his own aristocratic class of citizens. But of course, the government must not take away any of the wealth from his class in the form of taxes!

Romney claims he is there for the middle class, but he has shown no evidence of concern, and seems to fail to realize that much of the middle class has become poor due to the policies and programs of the Republican Party for the twelve years they controlled Congress, and their unwillingness to do anything to help these people because it might help make Barack Obama look better.

Romney just shows how out of touch he is with reality, and to expect him to do anything economically in the next four years for the middle class is a hallucination, as his whole record shows he is only concerned with protecting his own, and other wealthy people’s, assets!

Even conservatives, who truly don’t care about anyone but the wealthy, have expressed shock and dismay that Romney actually said what he said. They may, quietly agree with his statement, but trying to be elected and making such statements is tantamount to suicide.

What Mitt Romney has done in one day is guarantee a longer battle for the Republican Presidential nomination, and more “red meat” for Barack Obama and his campaign to use against him. It is almost as if Mitt Romney has a “death wish”, and really does not want to be elected President of the United States!

The 130th Anniversary Of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Birth: The Sustained Republican Attack On The New Deal’s Survival!

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Today marks the 130th anniversary of the birth of our second greatest President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, who served 12 years and 39 days in the Presidency, and took America through the Great Depression and most of World War II.

Rated the greatest President in most polls of scholars and experts after Abraham Lincoln, FDR personified the growth of big national government, including the recognition that the federal government was needed to deal with the crisis presented by the depression, the worst economic downturn in American history.

Now in 2012, we are being told by the opposition Republicans that the answer is to revert to the philosophy of Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover, and keep the federal government out of the economy as much as possible. Mitt Romney can be seen as the new Herbert Hoover, aloof, imperial in nature, unable to relate to ordinary people’s problems and daily struggles, extremely rich, and believing that the private capitalistic system without government interference is the best for America’s future.

Even Herbert Hoover started to abandon that belief in laissez faire, and is called, therefore, the “forgotten progressive” by Joan Hoff and others. And maybe Mitt Romney, due to his past reputation of being a moderate to liberal as Governor of Massachusetts, might back away from his present promotion of a conservative image.

But the Republican Party, whether Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul or anyone else as the nominee, has fundamentally declared war on the New Deal!

The GOP wants to privatize Social Security and Medicare, and gut as many government departments and agencies as possible, along with destroying labor unions and showing lack of concern for the environment, all major tenets of the New Deal. When Republicans can claim that the New Deal was “socialism”, as some of them do, they are being ridiculous and setting out to end the laws and programs that have advanced America and helped to create the middle class!

Conservative scholars and propagandists have been advocating negatives about the New Deal as part of their aim to destroy the good programs that Barack Obama has achieved, and to go back to the mentality of the 1920s era and the Gilded Age of the late 19th century.

We can be sure that if FDR was alive today, that he would be on the attack against the Republican Party and their aims of destroying his New Deal, and it is therefore the job of Barack Obama to go out and assault, rhetorically, those who wish to destroy not only the New Deal of FDR, but also the Great Society of Lyndon B. Johnson, and the other progressive, human oriented programs of Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Harry Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton.

This is the time to defend big government and FDR, not shrink from the challenge!

Wisconsin Recall Petitions On Governor Scott Walker: A Sign Of True Democracy!

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The movement to recall Republican Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin, who forced through cutbacks in state funding of education, and declared war on state government workers and labor rights last year in his first year in office, has led to more than one million people signing petitions for his recall, almost double the number needed to set up a recall election.

Never before have so many people in any state signed petitions for a recall vote for anyone, and only two governors in the history of the United States have been successfully recalled, but this threat to Scott Walker is real!

If the signatures are proved legitimate, at least half of them, then an election will be held in late spring or early summer, with recalls of the Lieutenant Governor and several Republican State Senators also in play.

This is a great moment of democracy, and shows that the Republicans are in danger, not only in Wisconsin, but other states that have “Bully Governors”, who have run rampant over taxpayers and workers. It is an assault on the Tea Party Movement as well, and on the power of the Koch brothers and other wealthy right wingers who think their money and the Citizens United decision of the Supreme Court two years ago will be able to destroy democracy in America.

The Occupy Wall Street Movement and progressives all over the nation will fight to restore decency and humanity to politics, and the Republican Party will suffer in state after state, as well as nationally, as the people rise up against the injustices perpetrated on the middle class and the poor.

This is a moment of great triumph, but the battle has only begun, and must come in Florida with Rick Scott, Ohio with John Kasich, Michigan with Rick Snyder, and Maine with Paul LePage, and some other states as well!