Subscribe to Common Dreams News Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
Serving US Poor a Cold Cup of Bitter Tea
It seems the only federal monies the right wing in this country likes to see spent is for state-sponsored executions and subsidies for corporations and the wealthy.
You may have been as aghast as I was at some comments from right-wing tea party types in the audiences of the two recent Republican presidential debates. At one debate, audience members enthusiastically cheered the fact that Texas Governor and presidential hopeful Rick Perry, has executed 234 people during his tenure. Then, at a debate sponsored by Tea Party Express, some loudly cheered "yeah!" in response to a debate moderator's question about whether candidate Ron Paul would leave a young man without health care to die rather than to intervene with a federally sponsored health program. It seems the only federal monies the right wing in this country likes to see spent is for state-sponsored executions and subsidies for corporations and the wealthy.
Do you wonder if they actually know how desperate people are? Do the right wing, the extreme candidates, and the tea party policymakers who continue to advocate a dismantling of the social safety net in favor of tax breaks for oil companies and billionaires know the real state of economic distress in this country? Are they shielded from the reality of rising poverty in the United States by their own privilege, or are they rendered irrational and heartless by a distorted ideology that supports principles contrary to the fairness and equality to which our nation strives?
The Problem: Increasing Poverty and Inequality
The September 13 U.S. Census Bureau's release of 2010 data on poverty, income and health insurance, really oughta serve as a slap in the face with a cold wet tea bag. Revealing an alarming downward trend which mirrors the right's anti-people policy preferences, poverty in the United States is soaring and children are suffering the most. In the world's wealthiest nation, over a quarter of all of our children aged 0-5 years are poor and overall poverty continues to rise at an alarming rate. The poverty rate grew from 14.3 percent in 2009 to 15.1 percent in 2010, and the number of people in poverty grew by 2.6 million, up from 43.6 million to 46.2 million. The poverty rate is the highest since 1993, and the number of people in poverty is the greatest since records began 52 years ago.
Further, the percentage of children in poverty nationally increased from 20.7 percent in 2009 to 22 percent in 2010. The number of children in poverty rose by 950,000, from 15.5 million to 16.4 million. Children are four times more likely to be poor in the United States than our seniors. And the median income of their parents is down. Median household income in 2010 declined from 2009 by $1,154, or 2.3 percent. Those in poverty are getting poorer and the middle class is shrinking.
The conservative right tends to use our children as excuses for deficit hysteria and for dismantling Medicaid and Social Security. Yet the cold hard reality is that our children are in need of more food, more family income, and more shelter, and are getting instead only more poverty and hunger. Dismantling social safety net programs under the guise of helping our children through decreasing their future debt burden is a cynical argument at best.
In truth, it is only our social safety net programs that kept millions more American children and adults out of poverty. Government programs such as unemployment insurance, food stamps and the Earned Income Tax Credit on household income played a critical role in keeping the poverty rate from rising even more dramatically. In 2010, 3.9 million Americans, including 1.7 million children, were lifted out of poverty because of food stamps, while 3.2 million Americans were kept out of poverty by unemployment insurance benefits. Social Security provided a safety net from poverty to 20.3 million of us. Medicaid, the HalfInTen campaign tells us, provided health care to 48.6 million seniors, people with disabilities, and low-income children and families who may otherwise have had none. And, were Earned Income Tax Credit counted in the official poverty measure, it would show that the credit helped lift 5.4 million people out of poverty.
One final counter to right-wing nonsense about government spending impoverishing our children and our middle class. Although those lacking health insurance increased from 49 million in 2009 to 50 million in 2010, and employment-based health coverage continued to decline, children were protected from this downward trend because Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) covered them. And, the Obama health care reform act, so much maligned by the right wing, enabled 18-24 year-olds to actually increase their health coverage by 2.0 percentage points.
The Solutions: Green Public Jobs, Unions and Bringing War Dollars Home
Until the unemployed, especially the long-term unemployed, have jobs to return to, the trend of increasing poverty, hardship and inequality can only continue. We need a comprehensive federal jobs package and we need it, as the President says, "right now." President Obama's American Jobs Act, is a good start. It recognizes that we need public money invested in jobs that will not only employ people, but that will fix our crumbling infrastructure. It recognizes the obscene gap between the super-rich and the rest of us. It recognizes the value in saving the jobs of our valued teachers and first responders. It recognizes that this must be paid for from those who have benefited the most and sacrificed the least in this recession: the super-wealthy and the big corporations.
In order to make significant progress filling the 14-million job hole that we need to fill, we must go farther. The U.S. Congressional Progressive Caucus and the Congressional Out of Poverty Caucus also have some plans that will do just that. Key pieces of these plans are: the revival of American manufacturing, creation of a national infrastructure bank, jobs for youth, green industry development, support for labor organizing and higher taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations.
Finally, if we were to bring home the billions of dollars now being spent in devastating and costly wars overseas, we could pay for the significant investments that must be made at home. These are investments that must be made if we maintain the hope of becoming a nation of shared prosperity in a world of shared prosperity. Note that in Afghanistan, we tax payers are paying $1 million per year per U.S. soldier. Consider that for that same money, we could bring that soldier home, employ her or him in a well-paying green job for $50,000 per year and similarly employ 19 more unemployed Americans.
In addition to this year's price tag of $122 billion for war in Afghanistan, we may forget that we are still paying almost $50 billion just this year for the continuing war in Iraq, with almost 50,000 troops still there. Think of how that money could better be spent on jobs and income security for us at home. The National Priorities Project offers analysis of what we could instead be paying for at home to help raise our economy out of economic hardship. They point out that 42 states and the District of Columbia are facing serious budget shortfalls for Fiscal Year 2012 and that this year’s spending alone on the Afghanistan war would more than pay to fill the gaps in these state budgets, keeping and created desperately needed jobs and public benefits.
Yes We Can
President Obama's 2008 campaign slogan, Yes We Can, ought to be revived. There is a way out of this misery. Many millions are suffering unduly as the tea party and its ilk offer us only in cold cups of bitter tea while serving up fountains of champagne to the super-rich, Wall Street and big corporations. Don't drink the tea, instead support the above ideas and get us working again and fight for our children to be well, healthy and able to participate in a thriving future.
50 Comments so far
Show AllOk CD editors, this is getting ridiculously redundant. We've heard all this before, over and over. Find some new material, or start to post articles that address solutions, most of which have been posted by CD posters over and over.
Here's one of my own fwiw: use religion directly against these people. They claim that as their strength, so attack their strength. Enlist liberal Christians who know Jesus stood for the poor, was an outright socialist, would never have charged a dime to those he healed. And hammer away at these non-Christian Christians relentlessly.
PERRY: I executed 234 people
RESPONSE: How dare you kill god's children like that you immoral sinner. You need to get to church and learn about the true savior Jesus Christ!
etc.
CD isn't radical, it's liberal.
You won't hear anything new here.
And they don't learn either.
I was looking at a few Israel/Palestine articles here. It seems no one has actually read and integrated the wikileaks files that proved that Israel and Palestine are PARTNERS in keeping Israelis and Palestinians in a permanent state of fear and anxiety for political purposes.
My question for this week is;
can a wales rugby fan paint their face?
can an aussie rugby fan paint their face
can a french rugby fan paint their face
what about a new zealand rugby fan?
I give up. Can they?
I've heard most Englishman, Scotsman and Irishman jokes, but this is a new one
No, N.Z. fans can't.
Guess they can only eat roots, shoots, and leaves.....
What about a New Zealand rugby fan?
Not being much of a rugby fan, I don't get it.
Though we did play a form of rugby when I was a kid - we called it "kill the guy with the ball" - though syntactically I guess it is more proper to say "kill the guy who has the ball".
"From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs."
People needed healing, the mythical Jesus provided it. I guess he was a Marxist,
__________________________________
"Socialism means that the state, and not YOU, owns all the money."
You're referring to State Socialism here. Democratic & Libertarian Socialists employ/advocate entirely different and more egalitarian socio-political structures.
Knights, what you describe is called Statism, not Socialism.
Ms. Dolan optimistically notes:
"President Obama's American Jobs Act, is a good start. It recognizes that we need public money invested in jobs that will not only employ people, but that will fix our crumbling infrastructure. It recognizes the obscene gap between the super-rich and the rest of us. It recognizes the value in saving the jobs of our valued teachers and first responders. It recognizes that this must be paid for from those who have benefited the most and sacrificed the least in this recession: the super-wealthy and the big corporations."
The gap between Obama RECOGNIZING a thing, and putting policy in place to enact it are as different as night and day. This guy is so good at lip service, one wonders if he served as a ventriloquist in another life.
No one in this forum challenges the anti-humanitarian ethos of the right wing; The problem is why Democrats, deceitfully led by Obama, go so faithfully along with it all. And the answer, seen in the form of 1000+ lobbyists in D.C. (added to a "Supreme" court that just lent its imprimatur to the unholy idea that $ = free speech) is based on the fiscal bottom line. Who pays, gets to play. It's an insidious quid pro quo, made all the worse by 30+ years of tax policies, added to a number of hairbrained deregulatory scams, that allowed HUGE sums to build up in all the most amoral pockets. Perfect for the purchase of law-makers... and alas, the broken laws that have led to a broken land, become the bankrupt ethos that passes for what our "democracy" is today.
"President Obama's 2008 campaign slogan, Yes We Can, ought to be revived."
This time without the fraudster who hid behind the slogan, please?
When is everyone going to come to the realization that all these suggestions to make the United States better is NOT what the present political Powers That Be want? The PTB WANT the poor, the ill, and the elderly to starve to death to lessen the population so that no money will have to be "wasted" on them.
All these writers with their common sense solutions seem to be under the impression that the dire times that the US is experiencing is some kind of accidental, natural occurrence. It is NOT. It is a cold, calculated strategy to get rid of the poor, the ill, and the elderly.
The only thing that that can stop this agenda is to get rid of those people who are pushing the agenda. But how can that be done? By voting? THAT hasn't worked so far. By assassinating them? That wouldn't work because as the guy at the auto parts store said the other day, they will just get replaced with other politicians. Then he said: "The REAL solution is to assassinate their kids, parents, wives, and mistresses, and give them a taste of the same suffering that they are imposing on the poor, the ill, and elderly."
Doesn't it seem clear that the driving force behind this agenda is that the poneristic Wealthy Elite, who have by dint of their wealth, bought the governments of the world, have embarked on an agenda of genocide unparalleled in the history of mankind? It sure is evident if one would only give up the idea that it is unthinkable, and take a good long look at the big picture.
MEL
very interesting post...thank you...
we must, all together, withdraw from the current system, taking the money and electricity away from those who would use them against us...
I suggest September 22, 2012...
This is what I've been saying--the lawmakers and the people who own them are very happy with the present economy--hell, they've never been richer or better off--so expect no change. These are pragmatists at their worse and will do anything to get what they want--war, no problem, torture, why not, false-flag attacks on their own buildings, make it so.
What makes you think they really care about, or can't replace, their kids, their wives or their mistresses.
There is a solution no one seems to suggest, the only thing they'll understand.
TAKE AWAY THEIR FUCKIN MONEY!
Who would do the taking away? Who could be trusted? That amounts to class warfare turning into armed robbery. The upper classes have access to the so-called Defense Department with all their weapons and technology. Think they will sit still for having their money taken away?
They understand all too well that we would, if we could, strip them of their wealth. It's why the poor are hated -- for the threat they seem to pose.
The only hope is to out propagandize them.
I just supply the suggestion, I leave it up to someone else to plan the logistics.
But, are you saying it's class warfare and theft when we take from them? What about when they take from us?
The SS trust fund is gone - spent on wars and tax cuts for the wealthy and accounting fraud - it's all worthless IOUs, as far as I understand. Which means to pay it back, the gov't either has to borrow the money - who pays for that if they do? - steal it from other agencies - most likely other social services - who pays for that if they do? - or find a way to wipe out the obligation to pay - who pays for that if they do? So that's the American SS system - they pick our back pocket and put it in our right hand and call it square?
I understand they need $22 billion/yr now and will need $600 billion/yr in 20 yrs to cover it. How do you think they are going to cover that scratch? Kill us off early and pay us less before they do seems to be the going idea. That's not class warfare turned into grand larceny and manslaughter, if not cold-blooded murder? At the very least its conspiracy after the fact to cover fraud.
The Supreme Court said 50 yrs ago they don't have to pay it back, anyway - it was a flat regressive tax, not an insurance fund.
Why do you think we've gotten crappy, expensive health care based on expensive drugs that make us sicker, all protected from lawsuits by FDA approval, instead of a national insurance plan based on a healthy environment and preventative care paid through taxes? Who of them wants 50 million healthy 65 yr olds around in 15 yrs demanding retirement benefits that aren't there? Why do you think even the crappy domestic jobs that are left are given to undocumented Mexicans, who will never collect a dime of any SS they do happen to contribute?
I doubt the DOD will give a flying shit if the rich end up poor, especially after they are poor. You think those Generals make any more than $125,000/yr. They're only G-11 Fed employees, in the end, anyway.
In actual, fact, no one has to TAKE the money, it can just be destroyed and it's the same thing. How about a good computer cracker wipes the electronic records of every major investment bank. Though of course, back-up tapes are a complication. That's all money is now anyway, electronic accounts on computer disks and tapes.
If only 400 families have co-opted 50% of the GDP, how hard can it be to wipe them out? There's 300 MILLION of us!
How about we do stop supporting the industries that keep them rich? If most of their net worth is really just the resale value of stocks we could just crash the exchanges - there goes all their net worth!
How about we all just drag them in the street and shoot them? Once they are all gone, who'll complain?
Isn't that what you do with rabid dogs, anyway?
What keeps us all in line is the idea they deserve their lucre and the right to amass it at our expense; that we need them more than they need us. That's totally bullshit! Once enough of us realize we've been played for suckers for 6000yrs maybe we'll grow some balls. Until then, keep jotting off those nasty letters to the editor.
Propaganda without action is masturbation! You think Bill Gates cares what you think or say about him?
PHINEAS thought he'd lecture me on "thread etiquette" following another article, but then posts these offensive words:
"maybe we'll grow some balls. Until then, keep jotting off those nasty letters to the editor.
Propaganda without action is masturbation!"
You know something, women are tired of the constant reference to balls! You imbeciles with balls ran the world to where it is, so stand aside and let some intelligent women who CANNOT grow balls, but do in fact care deeply about life and sentient creatures, take over... to at least BALANCE the controls! More Mars rules, which is to say THAT focus on balls, is NOT going to right the direction of the failed ship of state.
And if you're going to lecture, son, clean up your own act first!
Siouxrose wrote:
"So stand aside and let some intelligent women who CANNOT grow balls, but do in fact care deeply about life and sentient creatures, take over... to at least BALANCE the controls!"
Sioux! You may well be onto something here!
Remember in the ancient world, the women of the island of Lesbos told their men that there would be no more sex until the men quit warring?
Well, all the men who see what the Wealthy Elite, government-owning, poor-hating, rulers-of-the-world are doing, and suggest all sorts of solutions like killing them, killing their families, and best of all, taking their money, but none of those things ever get done.
So how about the fairer gender (as you suggest) start the process of "taking over" by making it crystal clear that there is going to be no more cohabitation until the Wealthy Elite are themselves poor and dead as church mice in a mousetrap? :)
MEL
The problem is not what these idiot tea partiers think. The problem is that anyone pays attention to them. They are a small group of rabid extremists, and should be treated as such--like the KKK. The reason they are given such credence and such publicity is that we have a corporate owned media. THAT is the problem.
This "small group of rabid extremists" (GORE) is what keeps the duopoply thriving, the sine qua non of American politics. What would the "lesser of two evils" very savvy progressive voting strategy be without it?
hey, Ms. Dolan!
you write:
Key pieces of these plans are: the revival of American manufacturing, creation of a national infrastructure bank, jobs for youth, green industry development, support for labor organizing and higher taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations.
you also write:
Don't drink the tea, instead support the above ideas and get us working again and fight for our children to be well, healthy and able to participate in a thriving future.
in the first, you call for a return to domestic manufacturing, in the second, for us to work and fight for healthy children with a thriving future...
how do you not understand the physical and chemical realities of manufacturing, that you cannot see that manufacturing kills both children and the natural world...there is no future on this planet for any of us if we do not terminate the manufacturing already occurring...
more is not what is needed...money is not what is needed...
air, water, food, sex...these are what is needed, and none are the result of manufacturing...
what you actually need are resources...land...
take your life back, take the land back...Spetember 22, 2012...
hi dubet--hmmm. i wrote a reply then i must've done something wrong as it didn't post. anyway, the short of it is that there really is a push, prominent in the Progressive Caucus proposals and in orgs like IPS where I work, for "green industries." Any new industry must use renewable clean energy, not poison its workers or environs. I know, "green" can be overused to the point that its meaningless, but i am sure there are good enviro orgs out there that have an assesment...anyone have links?
Two of the best ...
Rocky Mountain Institute (founder, Amory Lovins):
http://www.rmi.org/rmi/
Friends of the Earth (founder, David Brower)
http://www.foe.org/
I appreciate your response, karendolan...
thank you for following your writing with your time and attention...
it is easy, around here, to lose something you intended to post! we get used to saving things elsewhere, then copying and pasting, just in case...
You are a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, you think the "green economy" is going to be resource neutral and provide a US standard of living for 7+ BILLION people and you're asking us for links to research?
Why are we listening to these "typing heads"!
We're DOOMED!
its painful for the well off tea partiers to look at others pain
therefore they don't look at it, and use rationalizations so the don't have to feel it
and prefer those is pain to go away, even die
..............................
as for the "not well off" tea partiers, they get to pretend they are "well off" tea partiers, and shield themselves from their own pain
they also want to push others pain away along with their own
so they fantasize and bury their head in the sand, and says mean cruel things about.........themselves?
The thought occurred the other night that those of us who see how callous the Tea Party is should maybe start attending their media covered events, and exceeding the TPs at their own callousness, i.e. cheering excessively for the death of anyone other than the Tea Partiers.
As much as is being made of the cheering on of: Perry's campaign to kill more prisoners in Texas then any other governor; and the debate crowd calling for the letting die of the poor guy in the coma without health insurance; having it appear that the Tea Party is actually much more blood-thirsty than they really are (if that is possible) would not only be efficacious but it might actually be fun! Might even make the national news.
There might even be some Tea Partiers who would have to relent, and pull back from their Roman Coliseum Crowd attitude, and that might cause a schism in their ranks. Might even create a left wing of the right wing, and a right wing of the right wing. A sort of divide and conquer type strategy.
MEL
Actually Judaism is the parent religion to Christianity, and the spiritual life of sub Saharan Africa is the parent of all religions judaism included.
People aren't naturally outside the world of the spirit at all.
That's very Eurocentric to say.
Actually Judaism is the parent religion to Christianity, and the spiritual life of sub Saharan Africa is the parent of all religions judaism included.
People aren't naturally outside the world of the spirit at all.
That's very Eurocentric to say.
For those who would say one religion or the other is the one true one, that is truly shallow and is the father or mother to so much other of the worst bigotry. The Catholic Church today sure isn't the only true religion-- give me a break! Yes we are all brothers and sisters, but some seek to become Neanderthals reversing evolutuon which is virtually a proven fact.
We all need to embrace the words of one of the greatest Americans in history, Henry Wallace when speaking of "Mohamedanism, Judaism, Hinduism, Confusianism, and others faiths. When we look beneath the outer forms, we find all these faiths preach the dignity of each human soul. . .and the doctrine of the essential unity of the entire world."
Here are some words directly from the Prince of Peace-- "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." "Blessed are the pure in heart, they shall see God." "Blessed are they who are pesecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
It doesn't say one word about even being of the Christian religion or even being a theist. An atheist could be in any of the above categories.
Yeah, we'd be so much better off now if the Reformation never happened!
God, I hate Papists!
The old catholic church was incomaptible with capitalism in that it prohibited usury. The protestant reformation was primarily about enabling the rise of capitalism.
Ahh, my good buddy the biblical scholar, weighs in again.
This time, rather than an 'atheist' vs.'christian', motif, we have the 'protestant' vs 'catholic' motif. It always seems to be 'us' vs. 'them' in your world, and when you describe the Calvinists as "some of the sternest and meanest religious types...", I can't seem to get the image of the pot talking about the kettle out of my mind.
For his trouble, Martin Luther was ordered killed by Pope Leo, who would have succeeded but for the intervention of Fredrick. Luther's 'sin' was that he opposed the "sale' of "indulgences". These of course were a 'get out of hell free' pass issued to those capitalists who took time enough away from raping and pillaging the masses to bestow a sizable gift upon the Church (of Rome). Martin Luther thought it unfair that the little guy had to live by the letter of the Word while the rich guy could do whatever the hell he pleased and still see the pearly gates.
The same Pope Leo, it has been written, would celebrate birthdays by having young boys pop out of his cake. Talk about precedent.
So, at a minimum, if the 'protestants' created the spirit of capitalism, it seems the 'catholics' sucked up to it. And the result was the same in either system. The rich, greedy bastards go to heaven. Seems like both systems are broken, and neither is what I would feel comfortable calling 'religious'.
"There is only one religion", said George Bernard Shaw, while conceding there are a hundred versions. Every accepted religion in the world starts with the "golden rule" and builds from there. Most also adopt something similar to Jesus' most powerful teaching; "love thy neighbor as thyself." (this means love your neighbor more than you love yourself).
It is interesting that you take on "capitalism" in today's post. You were referring to posters on the article about Rick Perry and capital punishment as "atheistic socialists". Perhaps you are making headway. The opposite of "capitalism" is NOT "socialism" as most people in this country have been brainwashed to believe. The opposite of "capitalism" is "religion". And "true religion" is never 'us' vs. 'them'.
KofC writes: "True religion has to be an "us vs them" because the "them" are those who hate God and thus, hate us. Jesus the Christ told us to expect this. He said that if we follow Him, there would be those who hate us."
I can't recall Christ instructing anyone to hate those who hate you. Christ said all men are brothers (and sisters), and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Jesus never advocated an "us vs. them" imperative. We are all one, regardless of our chosen religious path or lack thereof, and all are a part of "His family," as you put it.
Check out the US Federal Discretionary Budget for FY 2011. This countries major industry has become WAR!! At 58% of our federal budget, war income for our military industrial complex, has become more important than any other aspect of our economy including health education and welfare of our citizens.
Bush and Osama Bin Ladin have won: Now we all live in fear!!!!!
http://nationalpriorities.org/resources/federal-budget-101/charts/discretionary-spending/discretionary-budget-fy2011/
This article would have you believe that the Democrats are not culpable in "dismantling of the social safety net in favor of tax breaks for the wealthy." I guess this writer was sleeping when the Democrats appeased the extreme right wing Republicans to extend the Bush Tax Cuts on the wealthy while also downsizing social programs like Head Start and Home Heating assistance to the poor. Or most recently when Obama and the Dems capitulated on the Debt Crisis Bill of two months ago. Even John Bohner asserted the Republicans got 99 percent of what they wanted. Just another Dem apologetic.
Democrats would get more value by voting Third Party if for no other reason than to re-establish an oppositon party again.
Another TEA Party heartwarmer:
Atlanta dialysis patients left to die
By Kranti Kumara, 15 September 2011 [wsws.org]
At least 22 indigent patients suffering from kidney failure in Atlanta, Georgia have been literally left to die for the past several weeks.
This is a Politically Partisan Article - It bashes the GOP [including Ron Paul] while giving the Obama & the Dems more-or-less a pass.
This article begins w TX Gov Rick Perry bragging about executing 234 folks on TX Death-row - but who assumed the power to execute anyone in the World [even Americans] that he proclaims to be a terrorist WithOut even a Trial- using Bush's /Cheney's / NeoCon's phony 'War on Terror' paradigm as justification [& if you believe the story- did just that in the recent Bin-Laden Kill episode]- Obama!
This article criticizes Ron Paul's position on Gov't funded health-care [he's against it]- but Who pushed a phony Health-care Bill [actually a Health Insurers' Bail-out Bill] -that Won't even cover everyone yet Mandates that Everyone Must Buy Health Insurance from Corp Profiteers, while taking 'Medicare for All' off the Table & only paying Lip-service to a 'Public Option'- Obama!
This article talks about Green Jobs but who threw green jobs advocate Van Jones [& ACORN too] to the FOXes after Glen Beck got to howling Wolf- Obama!
This article talks bringing the War $s home - but who escalated the Af-Pak War & started a new one in Libya under false pretenses [just like Bushes started the Iraq Wars under false pretenses] - O-Bomb-em!
This article talks about support for workers & Unions - but who has ignored the unoin card-check bill, - is attacking teachers unions w RTTT, -ordered a 2yr pay freeze on public sector employees, - let GM & Ford force the UAW Union into taking a pay cut & cutting pensions & health insurance plans [after GM & Ford got Gov't bail-outs] -&- is now hawking NAFTA [a Slick-Willie bi-partisan 'achievement'] type{Job Killing - 3rd World Exploiting / Sovereignty Eroding}trade agreements after promising he would Never Do So- Obama!
This article talks about protecting Social Security & Medicare- but who voluntarily set-up a Deficit {chicken}Hawk commission chaired by guys known to be adversaries to SS & Medicare & then voluntarily put SS & Medicare on the table to be drastically cut- Obama!
Obama [& most Dims] & the Repugs are operating like a good-cop / bad-cop tag-team on all of these issues.
America has become a cruel uncaring third world country!