2.21.2011

The War on Poor People

"Callin' out around the world, are you ready for a brand new beat? Summer's here and the time is right for dancin' in the streets! They're dancin' in Wisconsin, Alabama, too. Can't you hear the music playin' down in Ohio, too?"

There is something seriously wrong with a universe in which poor people and the little money they take home to feed their kids is considered a problem. Think about it, one man on wall street takes home a paycheck in 2010 totaling 5-billion dollars. That is $1159.00 for every second of every day for the 365 days. This 5-billion dollar paycheck follows a 4-billion dollar check from a couple of years ago to the same man.

Yet, there was hardly a peep out of anyone, anywhere. The teabaggers in the House didn't blink, sitting quietly as he testified before a House subcommittee, defiantly justifying his take home pay. No outrage about the lopsidedness of the pay structure. No concern about the people at the other end of the ladder worrying about meeting their mortgages. No wonderment at how one company can pay one man so much, yet not be able to add more hourly workers in order to help the country get its unemployment under control. No talk that congress was kicking the can down the road and foisting the problem off on future generations.

The newly elected members of the House of Representatives, the governors of many states, including Wisconsin, Ohio and Florida have decided that the problem is poor people and the money they make in order to live.  It's their money, in 40 and 50-thousand dollar yearly chunks that will bankrupt their kids down the road. The benefits they won through collective bargaining is bad. Collective bargaining is bad. They don't deserve to be able to talk back to their bosses who still get automatic pay raises and bonuses tallying in the millions and billions of dollars.

All this despite few if any pay raises to equal the cost of the living for the past several years or of having to live with wage freezes because their companies tell them there is no money to pay them, or to fund their pension plans.The workers are told they will have to work more and longer if they want to make enough money on which to live.  John Kasich of Ohio even thinks anyone bold enough to talk back, should be fired for insubordination. 

Kasich bragged about the pay raises he gave his  virtually all white male, minority-free staff before they took office, all the while refusing stimulus funds designed to tie Ohio into the projected high speed rail system and create jobs. He also is refusing education funds designed to improve Ohio schools and elevate the intellect of Ohio kids who rank right up there with a box of rocks.

These same legislators are leading the challenge against health care reform, against women in general,  against reform on wall street, against medicare and medicaid and social security. Pensions need to be cut because investment counselors like the good governor of Ohio used to be, fumbled the pass and dropped the ball, losing billions of dollars for the working class. Too many people are out of work and using the system to survive, so it needs to be brought under control and flushed out a little bit. Raise the age limits on social security so fewer people qualify or die before they qualify.  And don't forget to cut those taxes for rich people because they are so full of the christian spirit and always use the extra cash to create jobs for poor people.

As they take care of the rich, cut taxes and yank the safety net for women and children, these same legislators are rolling back the regulations designed to protect poor people in the future, allowing the pillaging of America to continue unabated. The financial gang rape of America  has never stopped amid this economic crisis and recession. The rich guys can still buy 100,000 dollar toilets to complement their designer desks in their little used offices located in the financial centers of the world. 

Greed is still good in America as we prepare to sell our stock exchanges to Germany and ship jobs over the ocean allowing consumers in the Far East to drive supply and demand, causing prices to sky rocket world wide.  Kasich has Ohio on the block. He's already costed out how much he can make by selling the Ohio turnpike. What's next, I-75 or 71? If he gets his way in Ohio, he will have a whole new pool of indentured servants to work the toll booths at $7.25 an hour, or less, if he thinks that's too much money for a booth clerk to make.

I guess I could stomach tightening my own belt even more if the pain were spread around equally. Equally, meaning Congress foregoes its own pay, automatic pay raises and health care while they wrestle with mine. Or, Congress takes measures to really force the banks and wall street to get off their golden piss pot and start funding the economic recovery of America. I mean these so called financial raiders had all the balls in the world when they were screwing people and laughing all the way to Aruba. Why are they suddenly so shy about making the one investment that would bring this country back. Wouldn't that be a win-win situation?

Don't you have to spend money to make money? Why are the banks being allowed to simply stockpile the money? What are they waiting for....all the poor people to die? It's certainly not for a "complexion change" on Capital Hill. The complexion paled visibly in this past election and the war on poor people got worse...literally broke out into the open.

Why won't Congress tell the boys in the backroom that it is time to give back and do their part? Don't they understand that by turning all of the world  into a  bankrupt ghetto it becomes a very dangerous place for rich guys with bling. People are marching on state capitals, now. Even Stevie Wonder can see the next target....the federal government and after that, the gated complexes of the rich but not necessarily famous. With all the cutbacks going on...there simply aren't enough police, security guards or mercenaries to go around to protect all the exclusive enclaves where rich boys hide.

The war on poor people has hit stride. Globalization of the job market is continuing unchecked...outsourcing of jobs is continuing unabated....wage freezes are spreading....health care costs are continuing to rise because the feds won't penalize the big insurance or pharmaceutical companies....what little regulation Obama tried to put in place is being rolled back...the corporate raiders and investments pirates are once again being unshackled....

Hell....we're going to have to start another war in order to recoup some of our losses. This one will be against Iran while riding shotgun for Israel and come with mandatory conscription otherwise known as the draft. After all, how else do you employe masses of poor people at a job that will routinely cull the herd, quietly, legally and in the name of patriotism.

Kill that deficit in no time at all....






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