A letter to No Lables.org

 This letter is in response to an email from the organization No Labels sent out titled Left Behind which discusses the debt ceiling.

I am totally disgusted with the entire budget process.  To those of us at home we see several ways that the deficit can be cut.  First get all of our troops out of Afghanistan as we are losing too many good men and women and it is costing us too much money and a great deal of it is being used by the Afghanistan government in corrupt ways.  Then pull all of our troops out of Iraq.  We cannot win these wars and it is time we woke up and admitted it.

Second, we can take back the extension of the Bush Tax Cuts which put an unfair burden on the middle class.  Those cuts added a great deal to the deficit and they were not paid for!  But what happens?  Paul Ryan’s budget is called “courageous” and President Obama’s is called not enough.  Both of these proposals hurt the poor, the elderly and the middle class.  Also we can stop giving subsidies to big oil and big agriculture and do more to regulate the banks and Wall Street.  Can you imagine giving a 19 million dollar raise to Jamie Dimon?  That is a travesty and it is obscene.

Everyone is Washington is crying about social security but the simple solution is to raise the cap on earnings.  I paid on my full salary and so should everyone else.  But elected officials are too blind and too interested in what person or corporation is going to give them the next donation so they can stay in office and continue to wreck this country.  Greed and power are the problems here and the problems were not caused by the middle class.

But unfortunately I don’t see No Labels or any other group pushing for these solutions.  It is all about COMPROMISE and who get hurt by these compromises?  You know the answer.  It is the poor, women, the elderly and the middle class.

The Republicans campaigned on jobs, jobs, jobs and yet not one bill has come out of the Congress that addresses this critical problem.  If people don’t have jobs, they can’t spend money and therefore the economy suffers.

I could say so much more but I know you probably either won’t read this or will not pay any attention to it.  But groups like this could have a huge impact if they fight for the right issues but people are beaten down and see no hope for the future and that lack of hope kills the country and the will of the people.

Poverty in John Boehner's District

The Nation Magazine has a blog and recently there was a posting by Greg Kaufman describing the poverty that exists in Boehner's district.  The poverty rate is 14%.  The woman, Tina Osso, who has run The Shared Harvest Food Pantry for forty years has tried many times to contact Boehner.  He neither responds or accepts her invitations to visit.  She has worked tirelessly to get Boehner to recognize these problems.  She has written to him and explained how the proposed budget cuts will hurt his people but still gets no response.
Kaufman reports, "Indeed in 2009, childhood poverty rose over six points in the Boehner district to reach 19.1 percent, or 29,173 kids. Overall, 14 percent of Boehner’s constituents live below the federal poverty line of $22,400 per year for a family of four. Shared Harvest’s work has more than doubled—it distributed approximately 7 million pounds of food in 2007, and 16 million pounds in 2010."
This is not the only problem.  There are 152,000 people in this district who are struggling to make ends meet and hunger is a major problem.  The food bank is only in a few of the schools but serves 2100 children each week.
Why, you might wonder, do I think this story is important.  With these visible problems in Boehner's own district he is in favor of cutting the food stamp program and other programs that help the poor.  It is one more reason that points to the fact that those in Congress do not care about the people they serve.  As I mentioned in my last post neither Republicans or Democrats listen to anyone but the big corporations and wealthy who give them money for their campaigns.
Osso says this about the budget cuts. “It’s not just the cuts to the programs that we manage. It’s the overall meanness of this budget that targets the most vulnerable populations in our country—the weakest and the ones with the smallest voice,” she says.
I do  not understand how anyone can not listen to pleas like this and call them selves Christians.  Jesus believed in taking care of the least of these my brothers.  If we follow him how can we allow babies and young children to go to bed hungry and old people to get $20.00 worth of food  a month.
I shake my head in disbelief and weep for those who are so in need.

Does Any of This Surprise You?

Yesterday as I was flying home from a great vacation in sunny California I was reading an article in Mother Jones magazine.  I just happened to pick up a copy at the airport and am I ever glad that I did.  It reaffirmed what I have thought all along.  I would recommend that you get a copy of the March/April issue as it has several very good articles in it.
In the article "Plutocracy Now" author Kevin Drum points out two things that we all need to be aware of.  The first is the fact income inequality has grown since the mid 70's.  He says, "the bulk of our growing inequality has been a product of skyrocketing incomes among the richest 1 percent and even more dramatically-among the top 0.1 percent."
The second things is that American politicians don't care about the voters who have moderate incomes.  In a study by a Princeton political scientist done in the early 90's he found that US Senators respond more to high income voters than to anyone else.  He also found that Republican senators do not respond at all to those voters with modest incomes.  He also found that Democratic senators don't respond to voters with mosdest incomes either.
The author draws the conclusion that if neither party cares about the desires of the middle class and poor, and they have put in place policies that favor the wealthy.  This has not only taken money out of the pockets of the middle class but that has deeply affected the economy.  It has also put power into the hands of a few and that does not benefit most of us at all.
Mr. Drum connects this to the declining strength of the unions and the Democratic party.  As unions have lost their political power and funding the Democrats have turned to Big Business for funding.  This is one reason that they don't care about those of us with modest incomes.  This is a long article with many charts and graphs and a wealth of information.  I recommend it to all of you. Here is the link to the article http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/income-inequality-labor-union-decline
My own take on this article is that it verifies what I already suspected.  It make me angry but I also know that those of us who care must keep up the pressure on our Congress people.  It may seem discouraging but we need to make our voices heard by supporting folks like Russ Feingold and his new organization, Progressives United, http://www.progressivesunited.com and moveon.org.  These groups allow many voices to be heard through a group that is organized and has more political clout.  Other voices to support are those of Anthony Weiner, a congressman from New York and Senator Bernie Sanders an independent from Vermont.  Both of these men speak up for the common person and I respect them for their courage and their willingness to speak out and to stand by their beliefs.
As you can tell this article made a big impression on me and I hope that many of you will read it and keep the faith that eventually we can change things.

Government Shutdown Averted. But At What Cost?

Well, after weeks of scaring the beejesus out of the public and capturing the attention of the beltway media, Congress and Obama have come to an agreement.  The problem is the cost to taxpayers especially the poor and middle class.  The details of the agreement are not yet published so there is still much to learn.
But Ezra Klein of the Washington Post and MSNBC said that estimates of job loses from this agreement are between 150,00 and 450,000.  That is just what we need.  I find it very strange that the Republicans campaigned on job creation but have yet to sponsor one bill that actually creates jobs and the worst part of it is that the Democrats seem to be going along with them!
As usual it will be the middle class and the poor who will suffer.  The fight over Planned Parenthood is just one example.  So many women get benefits from that organization that have nothing to do with abortion.  Women receive cancer screenings, mammograms, SDT screenings and diabetes screenings.  This actually saves the government money as it is cheaper to prevent disease than to treat it.
The lies told about Planned Parenthood are ridiculous.  Senator John Kyl (R) got up on the Senate floor and said that 90% of Planned Parenthood's money went towards abortion.  When confronted with the truth his spokesperson said "that was not meant to be a factual statement."  So that means that we cannot believe anything that Senator Kyl says.  So why is he still in the Senate?  Do they all  lie like that?
It is mostly men who are advocating no funding for Planned Parenthood.  It is mostly men who want to have control over women's health.  Now if the women put forth a bill that said Medicare Part D, the prescription drug plan, would no longer pay for Viagra or Cialis there would be an uproar the likes of nothing we have seen.  This is just another example of men in power who want to control women and not treat them equally.
Now don't get me wrong, not all men are like that but the majority of men in power are.
So when will we actually see all of the details and why is President Obama saying this is an historic agreement when he and Harry Reid have given in to the Republicans AGAIN!  More on this topic as details become available.

WHAT???? Another War?

I am totally shocked that President Obama is leading us into another war.  Not only will we lose more young men and women but this is nothing short of an invitation to terrorists to try and take their vengeance out on this country.  We do not need to be the caretaker of every country in the world.  I thought President Obama was opposed to the War in Iraq.  I think we have been misled and I for one do not appreciate it.  I thought he was a peace loving man and not a warmonger.
We are spending billions of dollars a week in Afghanistan and who knows how much to keep troops in Iraq.  The cessation of these two wars could help repair the deficit and avoid the horrendous cuts that the Republicans are making.  So how can we afford to take on more?
I know that the President has said that he will not ask Congress for more money but obviously the money has to come from somewhere.  Now we have lost an aircraft and how much will it cost to replace it?  Thank God the two crew members have been rescued.
I hope everyone will write to the White House and express their anger and disappointment as I have.

An Open Letter to The President and to Congress

Mr. President, Speaker Boehner, Senators Harry Reid, Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, Representatives Chellie Pingree and Michael Michaud,
This business of budget cutting is getting out of hand.  Yes, we need to cut the budget and control spending but we need to create jobs even more.  We need to be fixing our infrastructure.  You people are playing a game of chicken with the lives of American people to see who is going to give in first.
When you cut things like LIHEAP which will affect the working poor and middle class you are playing with fire.  . My hero is Joe Kennedy!  He knows how to help people.  You are guessing that the price of heating oil will not go up.  Well, I have news for you, it already is!
When you begin to take away the rights of women to choose and to receive basic health care screening such as screening for cervical cancer or mammograms you are saying that you don't give damn about women.  When you try to redefine rape to make it seem like the woman is at fault you denigrate women.
I wonder why you are not proposing to cut your own government paid health insurance when you want to defund health care for the rest of us.  Don't forget who is paying for that!  The American taxpayer, that's who.
You want to freeze federal employees' salaries but not the salaries of the Congress.  Come on guys and girls share the burden with us.  What is good for the goose is good for the gander.
But no, you will not share with the people and you will still kowtow to corporate interests in the hopes that you will get money from them to be reelected.  You know this is not supposed to be a lifetime job .  Don't forget you just gave huge tax cuts to the wealthy when we could have had that money go towards the deficit.  You have shown who you care for and that is not the ordinary citizen.  We are as corrupt as any other nation, thanks to you folks and Wall Street and the big banks and corporations.
Get us out of Afghanistan and Iraq and save the money instead of putting it on the backs of the American people.  These two places are so corrupt that out tax money is being stolen away and we might as well get it back by withdrawing.  Also  make the corporations pay higher taxes.  They aren't hiring people anyway and then they are discriminating against people who are unemployed.  We sent you to Washington to fix these problems and they have just gotten worse.
The people aren't stupid and you can see from what is happening in Wisconsin and may move to other states, the people are fed up.  So instead of taking a week off every three weeks put in a full year of working together (like the rest of the country does) to fix these problems

Who Wants to Cut Social Security and Medicare

The answer to this question is obvious.  It is the Republican "deficit hawks".  Of course they weren't deficit hawks when they gobbled up a huge surplus and funded two wars and spent liberally.  Today in the Maine Sunday Telegram Tony Payne had an article advocating these cuts.  What follows is a letter to the editor in response to his article.  How do you feel about this?
To the editor:
This morning I read the article by Tony Payne, "We must bite the bullet and cut back Social Security, Medicare".  As I read I grew angrier and angrier.  Mr. Payne must be one who is wealthy enough not to have to rely on Social Security.  Even Representative Paul Ryan, who Mr. Payne mentions in his article and who doesn't have to worry as he will get a healthy pension and health insurance paid for by us, the United States taxpayers.
Recipients of Social Security have not had an increase in two years, yet the cost of food, clothing, heating oil, gasoline have continued to rise steadily.  It is a balancing act to keep ahead of these rising costs.
He and others want to raise the retirement age.  Have you gone to a grocery store lately or some other retail store or restaurant and seen the elderly working there when they should be able to be enjoying their retirement years but work to survive.
Maybe we should cut Social Security off for those folks who make over $50,000.00 a year in retirement.  Lets raise the cap on Social Security so that income over $90,000.00 is taxed.  But don't cut the benefits for those of us who need it to live on.
As for medicare, it always amazes me that people in power or who are wealthy want to see seniors medical coverage taken away from them.
Let's get real, and know that this is a country that has prided itself on caring for its people.  We are losing that to the power and greed of the wealthy corporations who control Washington.