Hubert Humphrey once said that "the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped."
This Labor Day and in the days leading up to the election, Republican candidate Mitt Romney and his running mate, Representative Paul Ryan, will pay lip service to America's workers and talk about their plans to strengthen the middle class. But instead of offering any serious solutions for creating jobs with benefits and wages that can support a family, Romney and Ryan have made it clear that they are planning to balance the budget on the backs of America's workers and the poor.
There is no denying that the Romney/Ryan budget plan would critically wound and significantly impact services for the middle class and those who are in the dawn, twilight and shadows of life -- including making significant cuts to K-12 education, job training and grants which help kids go to college, replacing Medicare with a voucher system that would increase health care costs for seniors and gutting Medicaid for the working poor. The only groups benefiting from the Romney/Ryan plan are the wealthiest Americans -- whose tax cuts would be permanent if Romney and Ryan have their way -- and corporations, which would receive tax breaks even as they continue to ship good middle class jobs overseas.
The Romney/Ryan plan to cut programs that help the poor and middle class will lead to fewer jobs and slow down our country's recovery from the economic downturn that President Obama inherited from the previous administration. These cuts will also cause unnecessary suffering and weaken Americans' confidence in their government at a time when many believe they will never achieve the American dream of owning a home, sending their children to college or retiring.
As the gap between the rich and poor continues to grow, it is clear that we need to stand together and demand that workers are paid what they need and deserve. Upholding the freedom of hard-working men and women to stick together to bargain for dignity and respect on the job and decent wages and benefits would strengthen America's middle class and level the playing field. Romney and Ryan and their corporate backers know this, and both candidates have challenged the very idea of a worker's right to stick together and bargain for basic rights -- including fair pay, health care and retirement benefits.
This election year, America's workers face a stark choice -- and a moral choice -- that boils down to a simple question: Do we want a leader who favors the wealthy one percent at the expense of the young, the elderly, the sick and the poor, or a leader who has given a voice to those who are too often overlooked and is fighting to create jobs and prosperity for all Americans?
Joseph T. Hansen is the president of the 1.3 million member United Food and Commercial Workers International Union and chairperson of Change to Win. He also serves as a member of President Obama's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.
Follow Joe Hansen on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@ufcw
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 |
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| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Electoral Votes (270 to win) |
332 | 206 |
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Total | 65,899,660 | 60,932,152 |
| Percent | 51.1% | 47.2% |
| Democrats* | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Current Senate | 53 | 47 |
| Seats gained or lost | +2 | -2 |
| New Total | 55 | 45 |
| Democrats | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Seats won | 201 | 234 |
Romney's plan is to reduce the government burden on businessess so that they can form more businesses to hire workers and create a middle class from the poor.
Which do you think has a better chance of long term success.
-- Rebecca Gordon
Picture a three-legged dog. Now if the leg on the diagonal of the missing leg is chopped off, then that dog with just TWO legs to stand on will gain much greater strength in those two legs that remain.
That's how Republicans will hope the least among us. They want to give those who are destitute and weak the freedom to move on up without the burden of receiving funds or benefits from the federal government.
Generosity of spirit like that can help people who are in the cellar of life move all the way up to the ground floor, or, even more likely, move further down to the sub-cellar where they will be less of a burden to society as a whole. Either way, those who are well off will become even better off, and those who are destitute will be on their own. God bless the USA.
And I also find it deeply disturbing that they can make all these changes to programs for the poor without even so much as asking their opinion on it. I means it effects their lives. Doesn't their opinion matter? How is that self-governing, how is that 'all men are created equal'?
We always managed before each side getting something and giving something. But now we have people like Rush Limbaugh saying, "No, I want everything my way, I want it all,' and instigating this perpetual civil war. I don't know how people think that's good for the country. I don't even think it's rational.
As much of an attack the poor are currently facing, I'd like to see a position looking out for their interest. They don't have campaign cash or lobbyists to sway or buy influence, but deserve no less attention than any other citizen.
And, from a fellow Yankees fan, here's hoping they get through the rest of the season successfully.
Then there is the health care issues, millions and millions cannot afford any medical care at all. The poor, middle class cannot afford to put food on the table and pay their bills; they must chose between health care and the aforementioned.
The American moral is low, the American immorality is high, with debauchery covering the landscape.
A moral test of conscience, goodwill, love for your brother irrespective if he is tall, short, black or white. Is by putting money and programs that would put the American citizen back into his home, placing in a system that he cannot lose his home. Bring back the billions being put into the pockets of despots in Muslim lands and put that money into mortgage programs, food programs, and job programs.
These kind of programs would lift the spirit, renew confidence in American gov, recreate love for all Americans, and raise to moral beacon in the land.
Morality is something which lives now and has always lived independently of churches but culture and policy can distort it as anyone who’s ever looked at what god says to do can plainly see. It is part of human nature like eyesight or feeling the cold.
Allah is not akbar.
Where are those jobs Paul Ryan and Speaker John Boehner?
How are your promises to the American electorate holding up?
Can't hear you! ... Can you please repeat? ... Can't hear you! .... Can't hear you!
Silence! ...... Is the sound system dead?
Republican (Romney-Ryan) New Math for 2012
20% Tax Cuts (on top of Bush's tax cuts) + Increased Defense Budget = Balanced Budget
Oops! $ 716 Billion cut from Medicare; using savings from ACA which Romney promises to abolish on his first day in office. (part of the New Math)
Working people's wages have stagnated since the 80s...instead of getting more rights, we have gotten less and people have no job security in whatever few jobs are left, have to work longer hours for less pay, and usually wind up with no life savings, retirement pensions, health insurance or even assets, like homes...and are too tired to persue their interests.
In a first-world country like ours, how did things change for the worse like they have? Was this some grand, greedy scheme by rich corporations and their "bought" politicians to form a corporate "gulag"...by having tons of desperate and downtrodden people to "cherrypick" from in our own country...because workers over in China and India are beginning to ask for higher wages and better benefits now?
This could be the only reason that neocons and their rich campaign doners want to "bust" unions and lay off government workers...by making their voter base envious of all of the high wages, "good" benefits and "huge" pensions that they get...the "goodies" that we ALL should have been getting today.
Any of this sound at all familiar Joe?