Archives for politics

Closing Argument

11/06/2012 by me in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

 

After today, the political ads will go away. Thank god. But whatever happens, let’s end with some reality:

  • Mitt Romney has no economic plan. No one can substantiate his math, it simply does not make sense.
  • Mitt Romney has been both pro-choice and anti-abortion. He has been for immigration reform, and anti-immigration reform. He wanted to abolish FEMA, and now he doesn’t. He was for tying the minimum wage to inflation, then he was against it. He was for stem-cell research, then against it. He signed an assault-weapon ban which he is now against. He created a health-care mandate, said it should be nationwide, and now opposes Obamacare, which was modeled on his mandate.

Never mind the fact that he belongs to a cult (no, sorry, he’s not a Christian, no matter how much you wish him to be) and hides his finances off-shore, the man simply has no core. Whatever he think will win him votes, he will tell you that. He is the most dishonest Presidential candidate in modern history.

But it’s not all about the negative. The facts on Obama are simple.

  • When Obama took office, the US economy was losing 800,000 jobs a month. In his first term, 759,000 private sector jobs were created. The previous administration lost 1,1680,000 jobs in their first term. For 32 consecutive months the private sector has added jobs. If the public sector had been adding jobs under Obama the same way they did during the previous administration, unemployment would be significantly lower.
  • Obamacare, conceived by a right-wing think tank and implemented by a Republican governor, is reducing the cost of healthcare (I’ve already received a rebate from my insurance company), will make services available to 32 million uninsured Americans, children with pre-existing cannot be denied coverage, etc. etc. (Google it).
  • The stimulus worked.
  • The war in Iraq is over.
  • Osama bin Laden is dead.
  • GM and Chrysler exist.
  • Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is gone.
  • Supported regime change, dictators Gaddafi and Mubarak are gone.
  • Expanded Pell Grant spending.
  • Created Race to the Top educational reform.

I could go on, but I won’t. There is no counter, no response, that Romney/Ryan can provide. Their administration would be a catastrophe of epic proportions for the middle class of this country, eliminating the most crucial tax deductions, stripping rights from women, workers, minorities and every other non-white and male group that resides in the 47%.

The choice is clear.

Unemployment: Why Conservatives Love It

09/05/2012 by me in Politics | Leave a comment

Republicans love to point out the fact that, despite inheriting the worst economy since the Great Depression, the official unemployment rate has only dropped from a high of 10% to 8.3% as of August 2012. Never mind the fact that during the preceding Bush administration, for every ONE job created, FIVE were lost, the Obama administration has yet to meet its stated goals. But that’s not really the point, but, and this is going to come as a bit of shock, but here’s the truth:

Economic conservatives do not want to solve unemployment.

Let me state that again.

Economic conservatives do not want to solve unemployment.

Think for a moment: what would happen if close to zero or zero unemployment were to be achieved, meaning every person seeking a job had one? If this were to happen, all of sudden companies around the country would not have a pool of out-of-work potential employees to pick and choose from. These same corporations would have to COMPETE for employees, offering better salaries and benefits to not only acquire, but retain a workforce, instead of using high rates of unemployment as a weapon against current employees to deny raises, expand benefits, etc.

Make no mistake, unemployment is desirable economic conservatives because it removes the power from the worker and gives it to the corporation. Since the end of the Bush administration, when two million of jobs were shed across the country, corporations have been in no hurry to hire when, A). they can replace permanent employees with temporary workers (who are at an all-time high) with no worries of benefits, vacation or sick time, or B). they can simply load up the current workforce with additional work and responsibilities, often forcing breaks and lunches to be worked through and overtime to go unpaid, for fear of losing employment.

Unemployment is the weapon that conservatives use to keep corporations in charge, and workers desperate and fearful. They have no genuine interest in lowering it, period.

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