A Plea for the Democrats: Or Why the Right Won’t, Fix Anything with this Election

It’s no secret that I am a left leaning Democrat. I hope it’s also no secret that I do not believe that the left has all the answers. They don’t. But I vote Democrat because I care. I care about people. I care about getting great public education. I care about jobs. And I truly believe that the government is run by the people, so I want people involved in what the government is doing, and I believe that the government, aka the people, are responsible for this country. 

Lets get the “elephant in the room” out of the way first. Jobs. The job market is in the toilet, this is true. But let me spell this out for those who may not know. The current job market was not created under the democratic/Obama administration. All of the problems we have currently; the wars, the economy, jobs, the deficit, the idea of bailing companies out. All of these things started under the Bush administration. If you don’t believe this then your a right-wing nut job and you should stop reading this now. If you are still here, then you believe the facts (look it up) and you have an open mind.

Look, I don’t want this to become a rant against Bush, but lets look at some facts. Republicans complain about “Obama’s” $787 billion stimulus package is raising the debt. That package is focused on tax relief, social security hikes, unemployment hikes, infrastructure, housing, healthcare, education, security, law enforcement. Bush on the other hand, put into place 2 different packages. The first one was a $152 billion “stimulus checks” followed by the $700 billion TARP stimulus package. But here is the problem. The $152 billion were stimulus checks to go to Regan-omics, The Trickle Down Theory. If you look at the numbers, the facts, this has never and will never work. If you give the rich more money, they buy more toys. They do not create more jobs. Check out this site: http://www.miseryindex.us/urbymonth.asp. You can see that unemployment has not gone down since Regan. Period. It doesn’t work. And thats what $152 billion was spent on. The other stimulus is, TARP. And, no that hasn’t worked yet either. But here is the problem. If you think that our unemployment, or economy can be fixed in a few short years, you are a fool who knows nothing about economics. I don’t know a lot, but even I know that the collapse of our economy cannot be fixed in less then 2 years, which is the Republican and Tea Party argument against the Democratic party this year. They are using this because they believe the American people are morons. These individuals think that if they play on the fact that things are improving slowly they can convince the people that the current administration is not doing anything. Be smarter. Know that these things take time.

Now lets back up. Do I think that all of the Democratic ideas will fix everything and the country will be a paradise for everyone? No, of course not. The Democrats do not have all the best ideas. Here is the problem. The right has no new ideas. Listen to these politicians closely. They will tell you what’s wrong with this country and what the left is doing to cause these issues. They will bitch and moan and complain, but they rarely ever offer any new ideas. Oh, they will offer ideas alright. The same ideas that have been in place since 2000. The same ideas that got us into this economic mess in the first place. But they sell it. And they are selling it now. Is this every right wing candidate? No, there are some who actually have good ideas. But the majority are just spouting the same old shit, and IT DOESN’T WORK!!! But the polling data is showing that the country is leaning back to the same old same old. And if thats the way we really feel the country will improve. Fine. Vote that way. That is your right. But before you vote, do some research. Look at what the candidates have voted on in the past. You can find all this information online. 

But in the end of the day, I do not want the Executive and both Houses of Congress to be all Democratic. I want an equal representation of both ideologies to be represented. Because there are good ideas on both the left and the right. And when we bring those two together, we get the best possible solution. But at the moment, the left is offering new ideas that might make the government a bigger part, yes, when it comes to helping the middle class. But the right is offering no new ideas. And that is dangerous. So please get INVOLVED, and get INFORMED. 

Humble Musings on the Crisis of the Middle Class Part 2

Welcome to part 2 of my Crisis of the Middle Class post. If you didn’t read part one, you should. I spoke mainly on the Political Climate, less then a month before the mid term elections. On this one, I would like to focus on taxes and the middle class. 

Where to begin on taxes? Before I get into this I want you to take a moment, a real moment and think about what your taxes go to.............................. Are you back? Good. Was your first thought welfare? How about the war? Did you think of roads? Or maybe schools? 

It seems like there are about a billion things the government uses our billions of tax dollars on. However some politicians only want you focusing on the small things. The things thats will get a rise out of people. Like welfare. But lets really break it down. Here’s the simple way to look at it (from 2009): 54% (approx. $1,449 billion) on Military spending, 46% (approx. $1,210 billion) on non-military spending. But thats really broad. So lets break it down a little further, shall we. The Military spending consists of both current military, $965 billion, (which is paying personnel, research and development, nuclear weapons, NASA,  Homeland Security, Department of Defense, the current wars, etc.) and past Military, $484 billion, (Veteran’s Benefits, Interest on National Debt created by military spending). That’s the 54%. Then we have 30% to Human Resources, $789 billion, (Health and Human Services, Social Security, Education, Housing, Labor Dept., etc.) 11% to General Government, $304 billion, (Treasury, Government Personnel,   all the different departments; Justice, State, Homeland Security, Judicial, Legislative, International Affairs, etc.) And Physical Resources make up the remaining 5%, $117 billion, (these include Agriculture, transportation, Homeland Security for the 3rd time, Commerce, energy (non-military), Environmental protection, Army corps engineers, etc.)

Now, you tell me if our government is spending way to much money on welfare, education, and the environment. They’re not. Regardless of what the politicians might claim. The majority of our money goes to war. Not to these things that people are angry about their tax money going to. 

And then there are the same politicians who promise to cut taxes while increasing education, and jobs, and blah, blah, blah. They are lying right to your face. In a sense. the ones that claim they can do this are going to cut taxes. For the richest 2% of the country. the people who give them thousands in campaign contributions. But you, me, Joe Schmo. We get to catch up that lost revenue. Do you think the Government just pulls money out of thin air? No, it comes from taxes. That’s the only thing required to live in America. You pay taxes. But everyone is to busy bitching and moaning about all their taxes. And then they turn around and bitch and moan because their roads are shit, the education system sucks, and tuition is to high. You can’t have no taxes and a better society. It doesn’t work like that. And those candidates promising to cut your taxes, they know this already. But if they lie, you’ll vote for them. 

“But we had a tax cut at the beginning of Bush’s presidency, why can’t we have one now,” you might say. Well because the government can’t just give tax cuts because they feel like it. When Bush was elected and his administration came into office he was handed a multi-billion dollar surplus. Because taxes were a bit higher in the Clintion years. And because of responsible spending, we were able to keep money set aside. And when that happens, governments are able to give tax cuts. But now, after squandering billions and now into the trillions of dollars during the Bush administration, guess what? It’s time to pay up again. Hey, I didn’t vote for him either time. But I still understand that because this country voted the way they did both in 2000 and 2004, I get to pay up in order to bring down the debt while at the same time fixing things like education. It’s tax time ladies and gentlemen. Deal with it. And anyone who claims to be able to fix our issues like education and unemployment, all while cutting taxes, is one of 2 things; Lying to you (or maybe they’re just ignorant) or they are going to cut things like government jobs in order to make small headway. Are any of these politicians going to take salary cuts? Ha!! I don’t think so. But they expect the middle class to.

And there it is. My segue to the middle class. This is something I’ve been wanting to speak about for quite some time. Most of the people reading this, most of the people you know, me, we are in the middle class. And I’m very sorry to be the one to break this to you, but you will spend your life working, struggle to get some of the things you want, grow old, and die. You are never going to be one of the rich 2% of Americans. Almost all of those people either got their money and status from their parents or started their own business decades ago and their children will be the newest 2%. I am urging you to please, stop believing that one day you will be wealthy and all of these tax breaks (or higher taxes) will affect you. They never will. I’m not advocating that you should not strive to work toward a better life. But I see farmers and farmers families supporting politicians who vote against helping farmers because they support tax breaks for the rich. They do this because they believe that one day they will be rich. It blows my mind, this idea. Now thats not to say that is the only reason the vote for a certain person. The other reason is because of religious beliefs. Another hard thing to break to some people. NOBODY running for office supports abortions. Not a single candidate has ever said, hey let’s kill some babies. This is a non issue and I can’t understand how. . . . . Nope, sorry got off on another tangent. But seriously, look past the silly things that aren’t even a real issue in this country but that politicians love to run on because they are so polarizing. Don’t fall pray. If someone stands up at a podium and starts talking about gay marriage and abortion, ignore them. They will get the picture and start talking about things that matter like the economy, unemployment, education, and the war, AND insist they detail exactly how they plan on fixing these issues. If they mention that they won’t raise taxes to fix these problems, they are lying to get your vote. Period. 

I guess my whole point with these last two posts is that the voters need to stop listening to all the buzz words and hot button issues. Take a good hard look at the candidates and really decide if these people have YOUR best interest at heart. They are supposed to be representatives of YOU, and YOUR opinions. Don’t listen to the sound bites. Look past the BS. Then do what is right. Vote for YOUR representative. But most importantly, VOTE!!