Wealthy, Middle Class and Poor Class?
For a nation that prides itself on being a class-less society, encouraged by ones ability to ascend from one level in life to another, it seems all we ever talk about is class warfare. One party is identified typically as a defender of the wealthy, the Upper Class while the other campaigns on an agenda for the Middle Class. But what no one ever is heard saying the words Lower Class for fear of sounding crass and well, uppity.
With the most recent election just in the rear view mirror, no candidate truly had a path for the poorest among us. Governor Romney, the Republican Presidential nominee spoke of assisting the poor by keeping tax rates for the wealthy at the current levels with the addition of cutting capital gains taxes (taxes paid on money earned from investments) and creating more jobs. No one ever quite understood how that would directly benefit anyone putting food on their tables but that’s what the Governor offered.
Mr. Obama fared a little better but not by much. The President often times seemed to be a bit boxed in on developing his message for how he would help those in the lower levels of the income scale. Reason being, he had just about tried everything in his first term to get the economy moving but progress had crept along. He started with cars, the popular “Cash for Clunkers” which benefited the ago industry at a pivotal time, but also got some folks into new cars who would not have been able to otherwise pay for them.
The economic stimulus package which was intended to get backs lending also failed when banks received the cash infusion, but still refused to lend it out. Then the President cut the banks out of the College loans business to help those who could not normally afford college, pay for it with reduced loans expenses. As unemployment rose, so did the number of Food Stamps applications so the President sought to make it easier for those in need to receive food assistance, but that only got him criticized for being the “Food Stamp President” by former Speaker of the House and presidential candidate, Newt Gingrich.
The working poor, those who are gainfully employed, yet considered poor, are seemly the recipients of whatever is leftover from the classes above it. Very little is designated as poor-policy. And the programs that are in place like Welfare assistance, again, Food Stamps, Social Security, Disability and Medicaid are currently under attack by the republicans because those are all being renamed and rebranded as “entitlements”; implying the poor believe they are entitled.
Romney and the GOP pushed ideas that would have ended many tax exemptions that those at the lower ring count on so heavily like the child earned income credits. They were discussed as negatives and even in Romney’s infamous 47% comment, it left such a bad mark for the candidate, the belief that the poor are a drag on the economy and therefore looking for “gifts”, like Mr. Romney’s post election conference call moved several demographics away from the republican hopeful.
Although that wedge opened up an opportunity for the President to pounce, no direct message could truly create the association that the poor had a policy-specific path. If rhetoric means anything, Obama delivered the demographic who believed he would work for them. With a divided government and a brutal battle brewing over the government’s balance sheet, not sure how much more the President can do in the short term. Add the fact that he will be forced to get his legacy established in two years because the final two will send him into the lame-duck status.
The poor are fortunate to have this president on their side. There will be no mafia style capping at the knees and whatever they currently have may only improve their lives. The President’s healthcare program will be the game-changer once fully implemented in 2014. How did immigration rise to the top of the political mainstream instead of a poor-man’s policy?…they vote in impressive numbers. They decide elections and they speak very loud. Lets not forget, this is still politics. That’s my story and um sticking to it.
PoliticianNextDoor.com
Antron Johnson
GOP Took Themselves To The Woodshed!
1. Entitlements – Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, Food Stamps systems are broken and all require reforms.
2. Defense Spending is way too high and requires reforms.
3. Taxes are too high for Small Business at a time when the country is attempting to rebound and this too, must be reformed.
4. This morning half of the electorate are not happy with the re-election of President Obama and will take some time to take it all in but more of the same distrust and angst of the last four years cannot be productive.
5. Republicans must find a way to work with this President, opposing, obstructing and in some cases, just being plane ‘ole weirdos to their base of support also won’t help the party very much either.
Obama won the tight election last night at the top of the ticket in dramatic style. The night began slow, but there were no real surprises to the electoral map, each state within the first hour and a half unfolded just as expected. It was only after the 9pm poll closures in certain states that republicans began the long trip out back to the woodshed; commence with the spanking.
Florida looked to become the replica of its 2000 election self as the totals began to dribble in. The Senate being decided early, but the presidential numbers would not be determined until this morning due to the record turnout in major urban areas throughout the state. What was startling is the notion that Democrats and Obama beat the Republicans and Romney; not true. As usual, conservatives beat themselves.
Obama will win Florida also when the final totals are certified. I always believed Florida would go to Obama although the pundits and cable news talking heads handed it to Romney simply because of lazy reporting and just blatant disregard for the facts in the polling. Add their fear for being wrong, no one, as was demonstrated in this election will step out on a limb.
However you want to look at it, the GOP began to unravel last year in the Republican Presidential Primary when all the candidates were attempting to move so far to the right in their own political spectrum, that they out republicanized each other. At the time it was perceived to be cool to be “anti” Obama but those cool kids have now lost the second presidential election in a row which cannot feel that socially acceptable this morning.
A note to the republicans, if you want to win The White House ever again, unload the weapon you have been concealing for the last four years and place it on the table. This will only protect you and keep you from shooting yourself in the feet once again. All the stray bullets have only ricocheted, missing their targets to hurt you and your party. After a billion dollars, literally, spent to elect Mitt Romney, you now have to ask yourself was it a good investment. Let me answer that, maybe, but you will never know because of all the self-inflicted wounds that go beyond the flesh down to your core.
Yesterday in my article Obama Will Win By The Numbers, my projections for the race were pretty much summed up in good fashion as the numbers rolled in. Again, no major surprises from my predictions surrounding the race. More specifically, the battlegrounds were all predicted successfully with the obvious results in Florida still outstanding due to ongoing counting in the state.
Obama did exactly what I said the winner would have to do to become President of the Battleground States of America by winning 9 of the 10 battleground states but more importantly, the President won four of the five much needed battleground states: Virginia, Wisconsin, Iowa, Ohio and Florida (verdict still out).
The math was always tough but I just didn’t see the data working for Mr. Romney as the media would have liked. It was believed that Romney would take New Hampshire and Florida, I never believed that due to the minority turnout. They thought he had a chance a month ago in Pennsylvania, on October 23rd, I called that race for the Democrats so imagine my shock to see Romney’s campaign plane landing in the state the final two days before Election Day. Such a waste of fuel.
The bandaging has begun, but will the scab be peeled off again to expose the same broken ideals in the next Congress? Few Republicans are celebrating this morning. Pat McCrory of North Carolina is now Governor-Elect McCrory simply because he stuck to being himself. He remained “truthful” to the people of Charlotte and it paid off. The Governor-Elect actually built relationships with the outside residents to build their trust and was able to remain positive in his campaign because his tone was reasonable. He didn’t change his principles or his ideology, but his tone was appropriate. Where he won, Romney struggled.
Republicans had a a fair argument for the country. Spending is too high, Defense cuts are necessary and entitlements do need to be reformed, but because they lost their tone along the way, the race became more about untruths, distortions and unreasonable parsing of former words and a whole lot of “well, what I meant to say was…”.
The GOP should run, not walk back to the middle. Don’t change your principles, don’t change your ideologies, but look for ways you could actually “show” real genuine compassion and not appear so distant. In his concession speech last night for example, Romney thanked his “sons and their wives and their children”. I would have loved to hear Mr. Romney say “…my daughter-In-Law and my beautiful grandchildren”. His inability to show himself human and engaged was costing him from the beginning. This is systemic within the party.
To his credit however, Romney did encourage republicans to look at ways to compromise; a word conservatives ran from for the first Obama term. This failure is another weapon that turns against themselves. Another weapon, stop electing weirdos. It’s hurting you. Conservative should not mean weird. Stop that. That’s my story and um sticking to it.
PoliticianNextDoor.com
Antron Johnson
How Food Stamps Help Wall Street
At a time when more than 51% of Americans are relying on the nation’s $75 Billion food stamp program, it has become the stuff political wedge used to attack the President for his economic policies. The republicans have spun America’s reliance on the system as a direct reflection on the over reach of the democratic party. Republican Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan has proposed slashing food stamp spending and turning it into a block grant program.
Democrats have spoke out in an effort to remind voters precisely where the economic problems began; under the previous administration. They continue, the record dependence for food assistance has only increased since the economic woes of 2008.
Those are the typical political posturings of political animals, however to Mr. Ryan’s dismay, the food assistance program has been a boon; a stimulus of sorts to many of our nation’s food distributors as well as their shareholders.
Tony Vernon, the incoming CEO at the world’s third largest food and beverage company, has come out against cutbacks. According to The Financial Times this past Sunday, Vernon isn’t the only major executive to make his political views known regarding the strong bottom lines strengthened by the program.
In this case, food stamps are vital to Kraft’s bottom line. Food stamp purchases make up at least one-sixth of Kraft’s revenue and an even larger share of the company’s total sales, Vernon said in the FT article. America’s biggest food makers and retailers have joined in the fight against pending cuts to federal food assistance programs largely because they rely heavily on sales purchased with food stamps.
Republicans are being pressured by the lobbyists representing these distributors and suppliers to our nation’s grocers. Democrats are not going to let the opportunity go to waste, so they are touting the support it has given to both ends of the supply chain, the supply side as well as the demand side. Last month we submitted a post, “Reforming Your Rights”, which spoke of the entitlement program Dems have gone on record to speak of the unexpected benefits the food program has been the source of.
The food stamp program has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years. Funding for SNAP, as it’s known, jumped to $72 billion in 2011, up from $30 billion just four years earlier. Some health groups have argued that food stamps are too often used to buy junk food from companies like Kraft and Walmart.
All things are political in the 24hr cable news cycle. Just this morning, there was “Breaking News” about CNN’s Wolf Blitzer’s new glasses…Really? So after former GOP Presidential Candidate Newt Gingrich called Obama “The Food Stamp President”, the term among conservatives has set the imagery for the fall campaigns and has been repeated as a mantra for the anti-Obama movement.
Wall Street has benefited from the program by leaps and bounds. Just as the healthcare industry will reap the rewards of Universal Healthcare, both ends of the supply chain in various sectors have found ways to survive in these economically challenged times. Kraft’s Vernon is concerned about losing the additional revenues, just as Americans are concerned about losing the additional food assistance.
That’s my story and um sticking to it!
PoliticianNextDoor.com
Antron Johnson
Reforming Your Rights
Take a few moments to understand the political language being thrown back and forth right now at the GOP convention in Tampa and the conservative blogosphere. Many things are intentionally disguised as code words to ensure the message is so watered down and ambiguous that most voters don’t really and truly understand where their candidate stands on an issue.
Then take a few more moments to understand the implications imposed; a right in this country is considered an entitlement. Women are entitled to a right to choose and equal pay for an equal amount of work performed. Men are entitled to an honest days work… Americans are entitled to a voice in this democracy through their right to vote, that too is an entitlement.
Entitlement reform typically in this election season refers to different forms of rights. As an American citizen, you should have the right to receive help when you lose your job due to no fault of your own. For this reason, corporations are required to pay certain fees to each state to ensure checks are paid out in that event. Why are we still legislating this type of aide for citizens?
Every American who qualifies should receive assistance with food. Our government has long instituted a program where this has proved invaluable, yet, we discuss it in the public arena as a negative. The Americans who currently receive this benefit, once were vibrant members of the working class with upward mobility. Today, they take underemployed, if employed at all. Politicians should realize there is a difference between unemployed and the unemployable.
The hard truth is, working Americans represent tax revenue or income for the government. When that income is affected, Americans are unemployed, the bills for the government still must be paid, but cuts in the government’s budget have to made to adjust to the lower government income. That is understandable of course.
Republicans believe you should cut services; the services that are causing the higher costs. Democrats believe you should either raise taxes on those who could afford to pay more, assess fees to revenue generating tools like permits, various licensure i.e. passports, or taking on the red ink in the balance sheet as debt. Democrats don’t mind taking on debt for social entitlements. Republicans don’t mind taking on debt for national defense entitlements.
So now that we are at the crossroads, everyone has had to reveal their hand. Dems have to show they don’t mind more debt with so many in need for food, jobs and homes. Politically, they can’t admit that for fear of it being used against them. To date, republicans are running ads calling President Obama “the food stamp president as if he should be shamed for ensuring more people have access to food in this rough economy…that they admit they are responsible for.
Republicans cannot admit to disregarding their clarion calls for debt reduction when they see national defense on the table. Billions upon billions have been added to the national debt for space programs, wars without coalitions, nation building and etc. Republicans cannot admit they don’t mind these expenditures on the balance sheet.
Paul Ryan cannot admit he voted for nearly $7 Trillion dollars of debt programs under President George W. Bush…he has attempted to redefine himself as a disciplined budget hawk, so clearly, he can’t admit the obvious votes he has casted, so he lies and pretend he didn’t cast them, hoping you forgot. However, PoliticianNextDoor.com has a long memory.
Entitlements are not just social needs, they are rights for the citizens of this nation. Romney wanted them for the people of Massechusetts and Ryan wanted them for the people of Janesville WI, and just as recent as yesterday, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal requested federal aid for the people of New Orleans due to Hurricane Isaac. We believe all are acceptable. Governor Jindal will get his entitlements, and any American who demonstrates the the need, who has invested in it and supports it are entitled.
Every basic right is an entitlement. Blacks weren’t given the right to vote by God, that was an act of government. Women were not treated fairly by the universe, that was a long fight on the floor of the United States Congress. Freedom of religion was not decided by the moon or the stars, but instead by the “big government” most conservatives hate so much.
We should all want Americans to receive what they are entitled too. However, entitlements don’t stop there. Neither party has the right answer so regardless of who becomes president, the Legislative branch will be working overtime to define our nation’s new way forward. You, Dear Neighbor, are entitled to learn the laws, champion them, make them better through our democratic process and activism. Despite the gray areas, you are required to read between the lines. That’s my story and um sticking to it.
PoliticianNextDoor.com
Antron Johnson
GOP DAY 2: What Won’t Be Mentioned
There are several things that won’t be discussed tonight, Day two of the Republican Convention in Tampa. This won’t be because there’s a shortage of air time or because there’s a lack of money to extend the convention. These won’t be discussed because the GOP have determined that if they talk about them, voters will become angry, simple.
Immigration: Ann Romney said on Wednesday that Latinos “are mistaken if they think they’re going to be better off with Barack Obama as their president.” Mrs. Romney steered clear of all the issues that anger Hispanics most, like her husband’s desire for Latinos to ” self-deport”. Really? Mr. Romney’s idea if immigration reform is “just go back home and apply to come back legally, then you can get a job here”.
That will never work. Obviously. Mrs. Romney was only speaking about her husbands goals to lower small business tax rates, economic policies and strong family values. That doesn’t benefit Latinos specifically as a large voting block. Tonight, you will not hear anything about immigration for sure. Obama is currently polled taking nearly 78% of the Hispanic vote.
Romney taxes: as reported yesterday in the post, “GOP ROUGH DRAFT: If Romney Loses”, I pointed out the pitfalls that have angered the left because of his stubbornness to release his tax documents. You can be assured, Ryan or Romney, or any other speaker tonight, will speak of taxes unless they are referring to your taxes or mine.
Obama’s increasing margin with Women over Romney: You will hear nothing regarding women’s rights with regard to abortion, equal pay for equal work and the definition of rape, since the GOP has had some trouble with that in this last month. The President has been able to open up a sizable lead over Romney with likely female voters. Since this is a sore spot for the party as a whole, you won’t hear anything of the art tonight.
Details and specifics about Medicare: Although Paul Ryan gets credit for a budget plan that includes massive cuts to Medicaid, those who need it most; children, those with special needs and seniors will be hurt. That’s not a political position, this is fact. In order for Ryan’s plans to work, he wants to cut taxes for the wealthy, cuts to Medicaid and to just about every entitlement, like Food Stamps and earned income credits.
When you cut taxes, there will undoubtedly be a shortfall of cash. He will have to find new money from somewhere else or cut things that you value most, i.e. planned parenthood, early child care, etc.
The War on Terror: Not once, not one speaker ever mentioned the men and women currently fighting for our nation anywhere on the globe. You should not expect to hear anything tonight either. A major void, considering the $2 billion a week this nation spends to fight “wars that cannot be won”. The Romney’s attempt to stay focused on the economy has actually ignored many facets of our nation, let’s hope that doesn’t backfire…hard to believe that it wont.
That’s my story and um sticking to it.
PoliticianNextDoor.com
Antron Johnson
