The Economist's report that the GOP is "economically illiterate and disgracefully cynical" was spot on but the story doesn't end there. An inexplicable outcome of the debt ceiling saga -- cutting spending while tossing tax increases overboard -- is really happening.
An angst-ridden nation's concern over the economy drove the 2010 midterm election results. Exit polls from those midterms showed a public evenly divided about what policies they supported to counter economic and employment stagnation: as many favored spending increases as favored debt reduction . One week later, the president's bipartisan Bowles-Simpson Deficit Commission released its recommendations. By the time Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson took their show on the road, the Administration's messaging began to harmonize with the long-standing GOP Cut, Don't Tax hymnal. The GOP chorus grew louder right down to the last chord of a compromise with a compromise that had been compromised seeking compromise.
Contrary to those who frame the deficit as an economic threat analogous to Al-Qaeda and national security, the ratio of Net Debt/GDP of 65% is, as the conservative editors at The Economist note, anything but impractical. That fiscal measure is all the worse because of the impact of the the Bush/Obama-McConnell tax cuts for the rich, the Great Recession, the Bush/Obama wars on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan and Washington's failure to mitigate soaring healthcare costs. Though the deficit is a danger to the country's well-being, it is not an imminent danger. Washington got the message and should begin to implement third rail spending and tax reforms. But not now. There's a more immediate threat: poverty.
A deplorable condition that's only worsened, poverty in America is the most corrosive of the wars we're losing but never mention. Poverty is not merely offensive to the human condition, it is also the enemy of economic and civil stability in America. In addition to those who are mired in poverty, there are millions more on the cusp of poverty and yet millions more haunted by the specter of falling into poverty. Let's have a scratch your head moment: just how much poorer does a poor person have to be to still be poor? There aren't many Americans who pause and ask that question and that's not surprising: very few political leaders have taken up the mantle for the poor in America over the past half-century. The most prominent and vocal advocates for the poor who come to my mind are LBJ, Bobby Kennedy & John Edwards. By contrast, the president and Congress only offer light-touch, attendant proposals for job creation driven largely by their politics.
A telling snapshot reveals that roughly 21% of children in America live in poverty. Veterans are more likely than other Americans to be homeless (Support the Troops, huh?) Amongst all Americans, a staggering 16.2% are underemployed. Families, veterans and the working poor have taken refuge in homeless shelters, automobiles and seedy motels. Children are going to bed at night and to school in the morning hungry in the wealthiest nation in the world.
The poor can't sustain themselves on mere proposals. Giving a speech about jobs is not analogous to uplifting the impoverished. Listening to Mr. Obama, one would think that America lives on one of two blocks: Main Street or Wall Street. Though the president has a political strategy for balancing the budget, economic growth, quality healthcare, education, national security, border security, international relations and the like, what is his poverty strategy? Has anybody bothered to ask?
If the poor are to have a voice, they need a chorus of the people behind them -- and that's what a growing beehive of activists outside the Beltway are trying to do in redressing social blights like poverty. A new Beta-phase organization called Jumo allows one to connect with supportive organizations (as does Volunteer Match) and to promote their own. Tavis Smiley and Cornel West are embarking on a nationwide poverty tour next week. Budding social entrepreneurs are crafting organizational models that attack poverty with the robustness of a 21st century creative class. I've found in my travels that much of the most laudable work in impoverished communities is being undertaken by faith organizations like the Durham Rescue Mission in North Carolina.
Poverty is not a Democratic problem or a Republican problem. It's not a Christian or a Muslim problem. It's not a black or white problem. It is our problem. It is an American problem. It is a moral failure. And it is a national disgrace.
Until tens of millions of Americans are impoverished no more, we're all poor. Very poor.
Follow Jim Neal on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JNealNC
Johannes Wheeldon, Ph.D: The Crisis of Credibility
Rev. Peter M. Wallace: Understanding the Psalms through the Cries of the Homeless
Troy Jackson: Politicians Should Consider the Poor
My brush with poverty was the result of a childhood injury, and my husband's death. I had been covered under his policy and after his death I found that I couldn't get a decent, affordable health insurance policy. Ah... Those pesky pre-existing conditions.
I have an engineering degree, and an advanced degree in physics, but despite being a PE I found myself unemployable. Potential employers alway told me that they'd be delighted to take me on as a consultant, yet refused to hire me as a regular employee for fear of having the health insurance company use my joining the company as an excuse to raise the company's premiums.
In the end I did find a job, in Europe. I packed up the kids - my youngest was just a few months old - and emigrated.
Fear and poverty ended the moment my feet touched the ground in our new country.
Some years have passed since we left the US. Now we are all citizens of a country and society that has treated us far better than the one where we were all born. I work, and pay taxes, loads of taxes, because I'm a high earner now. I don't mind though, as my taxes assist my fellow citizens in the way that they once assisted me.
As for the US... we will not be returning.
The fact that you chose to move to one of those so-called socialist states is hardly surprising. They enjoy a higher quality of life and greater sense of the collective "we". They don't have as many extremely wealthy people, but they're richer nations than the US in more substantive terms than wealth.
Just how much richer does a rich person have to be to stil be rich? You certainly can't measure in dollars and cents me thinks.
Curiosity must ask: where did you move? Reply here or jaswnealjr@gmail.com. Thanks.
We might as well say goodbye to humanity in the USA.
People are more interested in what happened in the world of infotainment or politainment. That's what sells, not poverty.
Thanks for your comment.
jim
Michael Moore's analogy to ancient Rome (see Capitalism: A Love Story) is more frighteningly accurate than many people are willing to give credence. The only difference is that America likely won't burn to the ground - it will simply dissolve, slowly and painfully, unless we do SOMETHING to counteract the overwhelming force of sheer greed, selfishness, and vanity in American politics.
Run for Congress in Michigan and I'd vote for what you have to say in a heartbeat.
When does this shame end? When we rise up? What then if we do will they call out the Guard like in 1920 Blair mountain.
I am ashamed and disgusted to be American with the hate from the kristian groups, grinding poverty is a war on the citizens, killing social programs that we have paid for out of our pay checks is theft on a breath taking scale, and congress could give a damn about us , just collecting the next round of campaign bribes and behind the scenes insider trading.
I can only guess at how families feel when they have lost their homes due to the rank deregulation of banking institutions who sold funny money loans. I realize my partner are lucky because we do not have children..
America is not about equality and good things for all , its now all about greed and self serving CEOs who make 700 x what a normal wage earner makes..and We are the ones who MAKE capitol while they are parasites.
That man or that woman had/have a mother and a father. They're sons and daughters of a country, a nation, a people who have lost all sense of empathy and whose moral compasses point elsewhere. Yes, I'm ashamed of my country. Ashamed, outraged but not about to surrender.
Don't give up. Don't surrender. Stay vocal. You've got a voice and clearly know how to use it.
Godspeed,
jim
I worked for a very high line firm as grunt help. I was amazed at the attitudes from some well off, some cared and wanted to change things, many thought poor deserved to be poor and that they expected you to work for free, 'because Im rich'.
I have survived I guess because Im stout enough to advocate while so many cannot be heard. I see so many who don't have a voice or if they do speak up are treated as wrong or criminal.
Prosperity Gospel churches are so righteous. They spend much time and money to deny the others that have less instead of helping.
The disadvantaged want help up not a hand out.
Gutting our progressive programs only brings misery, it seems like they take joy in that 'superiority'.
My Grandmother was Real Christian. In her last days, people I had never met came to pay respects. We never knew she took meals and gifts to people who were in need. I can't even begin to tell.
She, a waitress and had spent her money,time and heart well indeed. A blessed soul, her last words were for my partner , that she loved him.