It's just astonishing to us how long this campaign has gone on with no discussion of what's happening to poor people. Official Washington continues to see poverty with tunnel vision -- "out of sight, out of mind."
And we're not speaking just of Paul Ryan and his Draconian budget plan or Mitt Romney and their fellow Republicans. Tipping their hats to America's impoverished while themselves seeking handouts from billionaires and corporations is a bad habit that includes President Obama, who of all people should know better.
Remember: for three years in the 1980s he was a community organizer in Roseland, one of the worst, most poverty-stricken and despair-driven neighborhoods in Chicago. He called it "the best education I ever had." And when Obama left to go to Harvard Law School, author Paul Tough writes in the New York Times, he did so, "to gain the knowledge and resources that would allow him to eventually return and tackle the neighborhood's problems anew." There's a moving line in Dreams from My Father where Obama writes: "I would learn power's currency in all its intricacy and detail" and "bring it back like Promethean fire."
Oddly, though, for all his rhetorical skills, Obama hasn't made a single speech devoted to poverty since he moved into the White House.
Five years ago, he was one of the few politicians who would talk about it. Here he is in July 2007, speaking in Anacostia, one of the poorest parts of Washington, D.C.:
"The moral question about poverty in America -- How can a country like this allow it? -- has an easy answer: we can't. The political question that follows -- What do we do about it? -- has always been more difficult. But now that we're finally seeing the beginnings of an answer, this country has an obligation to keep trying."
Barack Obama the candidate said he wanted to spend billions on a nationwide program similar to Geoffrey Canada's Harlem Children Zone in New York City, widely praised for its focus on comprehensive child development. In the last three years, only $40 million have been spent with another $60 million scheduled for local community grants.
Obama's White House team insisted their intentions were good, but the depth of the economic meltdown passed along by their predecessors has kept them from doing more. And yes, billions have been spent on direct aid to families in the form of welfare, food stamps, housing vouchers and other payments. What's needed, as Paul Tough at the Times and others say, is a less scattershot, more comprehensive program that gets to the root of the problem, focusing on education and mentoring. Not easy to do when a disaffected middle class that votes says hey, what about us? -- and the wealthy one percent who lay out the fat campaign contributions simply say, so what?
Just a few days ago, The Chronicle of Philanthropy issued a report on charitable giving. Among its findings: "Rich people who live in neighborhoods with many other wealthy people give a smaller share of their incomes to charity than rich people who live in more economically diverse communities." Responding to that study, social psychologist Paul Piff told National Public Radio, "The more wealth you have, the more focused on your own self and your own needs you become, and the less attuned to the needs of other people you also become."
Those few who dedicate themselves to keeping the poor ever in sight realize how grave the situation really is. The Associated Press reports that "the number of Americans with incomes at or below 125 percent of the poverty level is expected to reach an all-time high of 66 million this year." A family of four earning 125 percent of the federal poverty level makes about $28,800 a year, according to government figures.
That number's important because 125 percent is the income limit to qualify for legal aid, but although that family may qualify for help, budgets for legal services have been slashed, too, and pro bono work at the big law firms has fallen victim to downsizing. So it's not surprising, the AP goes on to say, that there's a crisis in America's civil courts because people slammed by the financial meltdown -- overwhelmed by foreclosure, debt collection and bankruptcy cases -- can't afford legal representation and have to represent themselves, creating gridlock in our justice system -- and one more hammer blow for the poor.
We know, we know: It is written that, "The poor will always be with us." But when it comes to our "out of sight, out of mind" population of the poor, you have to think we can help reduce their number, ease the suffering, and speak out, with whatever means at hand, on their behalf and against those who would prefer they remain invisible. Speak out: that means you and me, and yes, Mr. President, you, too. You once told the big bankers on Wall Street that you were all that stood between them and the pitchforks of an angry public. How about telling the poor you will make sure our government stands between them and the cliff?
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This post is part of the HuffPost Shadow Conventions 2012, a series spotlighting three issues that are not being discussed at the national GOP and Democratic conventions: The Drug War, Poverty in America, and Money in Politics.
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I will say it one more time. There needs to be a change in the way American banks do business. I am a firm believer that the American credit score system is corrupt. Since there is no debtor's prison's in America, banks and credit card companies lobbied for a punitive system of punishment that continues to rob the poor and the middle class. If mortgages in American were structured differently, allowing people to pay down there houses quicker, without having to pay the interest first everyone would benefit. There needs to be a law stating that everyone, regardless of credit score, is entitled to a 4 percent interest rate on there primary resident, that everyone can also refinance at this fixed rate. The banks need to be broken in two, commercial and investment banks need to be separate. Nothing else will fix the system.
6. It's very nice what Michelle does to improve school feeding quality and availability; however, that does not excuse the President failing to assist the poor and low income who are not schoolchildren !
Obama has Executive Powers to fix/change Federal Programs/Federal Funding Management/Federal Policies...and he has failed to use those powers to help the poor/low income.
It is time for Obama to get on the tv and start telling the poor, the low income, the elderly, the disabled, the poor students, precisely what he is going to do for them the very next morning after he gets elected...and it's time for the poor to get out and vote...proving that money issn't everything in the USA.
4. YES, Obama has failed miserably to redress the deplorable conditions of the poor, failing to reverse the GOP's bastardizations of original JFK/LBJ programsin addition to the sta
tes skimming off the federal funds given to states to fund federal programs assistance for the poor.
We're supposedly a smart species. Apparently we're not smart ENOUGH to manage two simple things: peace and prosperity. "The poor will always be with us" is evidence of amoral tunnel-vision of all the pampered white guys in ivory towers, of politicians who spend more on their hair care products than most poor people spend on their monthly groceries. There is no excuse for this lame attitude for a supposedly "smart" species. We can land on the Moon but not manage to eliminate poverty for the entire globe? Uh-huh. If you believe that, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. Poverty is 14 karat proof of our lack of intelligence and compassion. No wonder politicians don't talk about it.
It has not mattered what the man has proposed as the GOP has just one answer "NO!"
Over the passed few days I have been re-watching HBO's "The Wire." One of its major themes is the faceless nature of our nation's poor, specifically in our inner-cities. David Simon went out on a limb to do the right thing by drawing attention to this seemingly intractable issue.
Over the course of the series various characters struggle with their consciences over the drug trade, and their role in it, or in stopping it. There are career-oriented police officers like Lt. Daniels who has to choose between climbing up the ladder in the "Company" and doing what is best for his investigation, over the long run. In the first season, Daniels reaches a crossroads. He comes to a point where his conscience is at odds with his ambition. He has to make a decision between doing the right thing for his city and doing what is best for his career. In a moving scene he takes on the power structure of the police department. He chooses his conscience. He chooses the right thing. Obama, unfortunately has thus far chosen his career. Hopefully he'll be given another term and have another chance to live up to the ideals that he aspired to in Chicago.
Nobody speaks of the War in Afghanistan - we still have people fighting there.
Nobody speaks of foreign policy - apparently because Romney doesn't have any knowledge on that subject.
The point is to talk only to the self-interest of the swing voters in a few swing counties in a few swing states.
A discussion of issues is now irrelevant.
A discussion of plans and hopes is irrelevant.
Proof of lack of corruption (taxes) and trustworthiness is irrelevant.
The only thing that matters is appealing to a small number of voters that, so far, have not paid attention and have a decision-making problem.
However, Obama has done nothing of the sort. Even with full control of the federal government during the 111th Congress ENDA didn't even get a vote.
The truth is that the Obama campaign assumes we'll be there for them because Romney would be a disaster, so they make no effort to be there for us when we need them.
Most telling example: In 2008, Barney Frank said (paraphrasing)"Get us 15 additional Democratic members of the House and we'll get ENDA passed next session." They got 22, full control of Congress and the White House, and ENDA didn't even get a vote. Now Nancy Pelosi is saying (paraphrasing)"Get us 25 new Democratic members and we'll get ENDA passed.".
What's next? Will we be sitting here without rights four years from now with Democrats telling us "Get us 50 new members and we'll get ENDA passed."? How much longer do we as Americans allow this bigoted shell game with our civil rights to go on before we finally stand up and say enough?
How people were taken in so easily is truly a testament to the mind numbing brain washing effect of the MSM. If anyone had watched Obama during the confirmation hearings of Condoleeza Rice as Sec of State and Robert Alito as Justice, no one would have been too surprised by this administrations fails and tendency to immediately capitulate even before its challenged..