How out of touch is Mitt Romney with the American Middle Class?

The revelation about Mitt Romney’s wealth and tax rate has left many in the middle class scratching their head and wondering does this man have a real understanding of how 160 million Americans have fallen into poverty or are scraping by on earnings that classify them as low income.  

http://www.census.gov/prod/2011pubs/p60-239.pdf

The other day he stated he made $375K last year in his words “not a lot of money.” It is not a lot of money considering Alex Rodriguez made more money from wages than he did, but to most members of the middle class its lottery size money. This of course was not his only income for 2011 he also made $21 million dollars just on his “blind trust.”

I have no envy or resentment of Mitt Romney’s wealth god bless him and his kind for all the luck and good fortune bestowed on them, but please don’t act like you and I are anything alike. Elizabeth Warren said it best when she started her Senatorial bid.    

http://youtu.be/hOyDR2b71ag

There is not a person in this country that got where they are by themselves. Mitt Romney said he received no help from anyone. That is hard to believe since his father owned American Motors and was Governor of Michigan. I am sure his dad did not let him take out student loans for his Prep School or his University and Harvard degrees?

George H W Bush was criticized because he did not know what a scanning devise was at a grocery store. This is much worse because Romney says he is a business man and knows everything in the world about how business' run, blah, blah, blah.

Romney knows nada, zilch, squat about what I or any other member of the 99% live like, or how we struggle monthly if not daily, for many of the poor of the poor. I bet he does not know grocery prices are up over 5% in the last 12 months. I bet he does not know, on average the middle class makes less today than they did 40 years ago in real dollars.   

The disparity between Mitt Romney and the rest of the country is growing daily. For a man like Mitt and his friends worrying about how next month’s fuel bill will be paid or picking between food and medicine, like so many of our elderly citizens have to do, is something they have never experienced, it is not in their schema, they have no reference points to make a connection to the real lives of the American people.

When you look real close at Mitt Romney’s wealth you see a man who has not wanted for anything in his life except one thing The Presidency of the United States and from what he has said in the past and what he has said recently, I hear a man who will say anything to get elected to that office.

  

http://youtu.be/qyp2QIGejq4

This is an issue with Blue Collar and White Collar American workers. There is no clear understanding on how he legitimately made his money. What services did he perform and for who? It has come to light via his 2011 tax return that much of his money is hid in off shore in Caribbean and European Banks. Mitt has criticized President Obama for wanting to be like a European Socialist but who had Swiss bank accounts.

A review by the Los Angeles Times/Tribune Washington Bureau found 23 funds and partnerships listed in Romney's 2010 tax returns did not show up or were not listed in the same fashion on Romney's most recent financial disclosure, including 11 based in low-tax foreign countries such as Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and Luxembourg. 

I am sure Mitt Romney follows the letter of the tax code, using every advantage he has to reduce his tax burden just like many Americans do. The problem lies with his investments, those European and Caribbean Banks he has stashed money in, are using his investment money to possible hurt the United States. Just like American banks use investor’s money for projects that will grow our country, the European banks could be funding projects that have short term and long term affects on our economy and work force. This is very evident in factories and work forces being re located in Eastern Europe and Mexico.

I do not think George Romney would have moved  American Motors to Mexico to make more profit but it is very obvious Mitt Romney would and that comes down to loyalty not only to the American worker but in America. It is not in America’s best interest to have factories and plants being moved to other countries as part of an outsourcing program to increase investor’s capital gain. Romney’s profit at all cost attitude leaves a big hole in the hearts of the American workers who have lost jobs because of people just like him.
 

When it comes down to brass tacks a man’s word and his convictions are all he has. If you take away the starched white shirt and suit Romney has neither. A man who would not blink at any deal that made his cronies and himself money. That right there is the rub. I do not want a suit deciding my fate or the fate of any other member of the 99% as President of the United States. I want a person who has morals, convictions and principals. Mitt Romney has broken his social contract with society and the middle class and we owe him no favors.

GOP Values

I was watching “Up with Chris Hayes”  yesterday and Professor Melissa Harris Perry a MSNBC contributor made the comment that Newt Gingrich has stated the GI Bill after WWII was one of the most important piece of legislation the Congress of the US has ever written. The GI Bill was a major reason the Middle Class grew to record heights. It allowed the men and women who came home from the war to go to college and become the dentist, doctors, lawyers, educators and so on and on of America. It allowed for a more educated population which led to better paying jobs and the foundation of the modern American Middle Class.

The GI Bill was the greatest public investment in Human Capital. Prior to WWII the American worker was broken. The Great Depression had decimated the middle class and the American worker. People were in despair. Roosevelt had “fire side” chats via the radio with the American people to boost their spirits. The war gave the American people the self pride and national pride to launch the greatest counter attack in the history of war.  This pride was fueled by Nationalism and a very real treat of our existence from world dictatorships.

World War II not only showed the world, the power of the American people, it showed the American people they could accomplish anything.  The men and women who held this country together became our future leaders. Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, O’Neil, Dole, Reagan, all men who changed the face of America, turning it into a Super Power it is today.

The investment in Human Capital was just the first step in the growth of the country. The next step was the investment in the infrastructure of the land. The Interstate Highway System, the Inter - Coastal Waterway, bridges, dams, the electric grid, ports, and so on and so forth. The country grew and so did the middle class.

The politicians who rose to the leadership from both sides of the aisle worked together because it was good for America. The common good was more important than party ideology. The countries middle class grew, the rich got theirs and the total wealth of the country grew to an astonishing $160Trillion dollar, and the number of people who were left behind from the depression, who were still in poverty, shrunk to the lowest levels in the history of the country.

The end of the World War II also brought many African American men and women back home from war. They also felt the new found pride in self experienced by white America. They also came home from Europe and Asia believing the freedom they just helped the people of England, France and the rest of the allies win, would be waiting for them when they got home. President Truman integrated the Army before the war was over, the African American population wanted the same as everyone else did and while helping to rebuild Europe and Japan they experienced rights, privileges and freedoms never experienced before at home.

The recovery from the Depression, World War II and the Rebuilding of America and the rest of the free world, was all paid for. Americans were making great deals of money; home ownership was a real opportunity for many America. The industrial base of the country grew and as more money was made the USA grew to be the greatest economy in the history of man. All of this was made possible by taxes, hard work and leaders who cared about the American Dream for all of its citizens not just the few wealthy at the top of the economic chain.

The returning African Vets had a very rude awakening when they stepped back on American soil. Racism and bigotry were alive and well. I do not believe anyone thought segregation was just going to go away but the taste of respect and self worth was the fuel behind people like Jackie Robinson to stand up to the white establishment and say I am a man and I want the same as any other man.

The American Civil Rights movement was born and many people became threatened by the rise of the African American people and their fight for equality.  Old habits are hard to break and many white Americans had a hatred for black Americans based on nothing more than their completion.  

The divide between North and South was now defined by one issue and one issue only, race. The segregation of black Americans in southern states was the norm and many white southerners believed giving equal rights to black Americans would lead to their demise as a people. That fear and those anxieties were used by many in political power to foster the current Republican Party. 

This was very evident in the South Carolina primary and the results confirm my thinking. Newt Gingrich was approached by a supporter, “Thank you for putting that Juan Williams in his place” she said. That one sentence in response to Newt Gingrich’s flippant answer to Juan Williams’ question posed to him at a South Carolina debate, “Do you see how, when you say black children should become the janitors of the schools they attend because it will give them money, and a job is insensitive at best?” “No,” was his offhand answer along with yet another tirade on the subject of African American children growing up in neighborhoods where no adults work and how liberals have created a class of people who do not see a value in work or responsibility. The audience, at the debate venue went into raucous applause at his attacks on people in poverty, African Americans and liberal politics. 

Just what did that woman mean when she told Mr. Gingrich thank you for putting that Juan Williams in his place? What place is that? That place in the past where a black man could not question a white man? Is that the place she was referring to?

People in poverty, African American, immigrants and in general anyone who is not white, straight or thinks differently than they do, have been the punching bag of the GOP this primary season all the while GOP candidates have spouted Family Values, the American Dream, and ultra right wing ideology.

The disdain for Barack Obama and his family has its roots in that same thinking as the woman in South Carolina.  How dare a black man think he can tell a white man what to do or question his authority?  The hatred and I mean hatred, which is felt for Barack Obama has no other explanation.

His policies are not much different than most moderate Republicans. Obama’s foreign policy is basically a mirror image of Bush’s. All the time lines for the pull outs of Iraq and Afghanistan were set in stone long before Obama came to office and most conservative military observers have nothing to complain about when it comes to Barack Obama’s defense plan for the country. Obama has accomplished so much more than the Bush administration ever did in world affairs. He did get OBL and he showed how to help the Libyan Insurgency over throw Qaddafi without using ground forces or having any casualties.

The Affordable Care Act can’t be a reason to hate a person, can it be? Mitt Romney and the Republican think tank The Heritage Foundation not only supported mandated health insurance, Romney brought the same philosophy to Massachusetts in his own mandated health care law. Just the use of the term "ObamaCare" is a derogatory synonym for the ACA and meant to demean the President.

Maybe it’s the deficit, but then Bush ran up almost $10Trillion in debt with unfunded wars, a Medicare Prescription Drug Plan,Tax cuts for the wealthy and the Wall St. bailout? The rich are living better than anyone in this economy and have been for a long time. The top 10% have not felt the sting of a recession and Obama has not touched the tax code at all. The rich are still making money hand over fist with no stop in sight.

So what is it? Why do many in the GOP hate Barack Obama? There can be only one conclusion and that conclusion is, the hatred projected at Barack Obama, is caused by the color of his skin.  I am not saying all people who call themselves Republican or Conservative fall into the hate group, but I am saying many in the GOP both in their leadership and in their rank and file are flat out bigots, racist and reactionary.

The GOP talks a real good game when it comes to Christian and Family Values. Last time I read the teachings of Christ, hate, segregation and discrimination would be against the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. They have convinced many poor and middle class white people that they, the GOP is the defender of everything Christian, the defender of babies, the defender of the Constitution, and the defender of the status quo.

Bob Dylan sang many years ago “some people don’t have much food on the table and they have to cut something.” That something is black people. Poor whites just had to put down someone because rich white folk put them down and no one wants to be below or equal to ex slaves.

That thinking has been used by white politicians since before the Civil War creating animosity where there was none, developing the thinking of superiority and promoting class warfare.  Hard working blue collar white folk have been used by the GOP for the last 50 years, telling them they can be rich like them and they too can experience the American Dream like they do. Unfortunately the only dreams poor whites have experienced are bad dreams where factory close and blue-collar jobs are shipped overseas by the same GOP leaders who use Capitalism and free trade to explain their anti labor behavior.

Over the last year the GOP has tried to reverse worker gains made by the New Deal and if they could I am sure the Civil Rights act, the Clean Water Act and any legislation that helped create the country it is today. States like my current home State of Tennessee have instituted voter ID laws that have infringed on the voting rights of the elderly and poor of all races. The sole purpose is to disenfranchise voters. Studies have been made and the data is in, the number of people committing voter fraud is less than .01% of votes cast. In today’s electronic age does anyone really believe elections will be rigged by people at the polls? The threat of voter fraud is much more likely to come from one person with a computer. 

The GOP sees the hand writing on the wall. Their numbers are dwindling and they know it. The complexion of the country is changing, and they do not want to share in the wealth, status or power. These laws are nothing more than a new form of Jim Crow.

The country was bleeding when Barack Obama became President and it was his policies that stopped the hemorrhaging. The economy is coming around. The country has seen almost two years of employment growth and we all know there is much more to do and the country is far from out of the woods. The GOP has tried as hard as they could to stall the economy and force Obama out of office on the backs of a shrinking middle class and an ever growing number of people living in poverty.

Setting a bigoted tone, attacking people in poverty or using the filibuster to stop the recovery is not just wrong, it is un - American. The GOP has abdicated any serious consideration from the middle class and none at all from people in poverty to have them elected for any position of leadership. I know there are many conservatives out there who believe in true conservative principals and not the rhetoric coming from the current GOP leadership.  I also know the number of people who think like them are dwindling, they are dinosaurs and that thinking is old, out dated and seen its day.

Morality, Greed and the GOP

This past and present political season has me thinking about God and Morality. I was born and raised Catholic. I was an Altar boy, sang in the choir and up to the day I went to college I went to Mass on a regular basis. Once I got to Saint Leo College I stopped going to Mass all together.

I had long thought out disagreements with the church, which were developed at Saint Augustine’s HS. Just like St. Augustine questioned his faith and God, I was taught to question by the St. John De Baptist De La Salle Brothers who presided over the institution, and I did.

I questioned everything and the theology and philosophy classes I took in college only made me question even more, but one thing was never in question. The central tenet of Christianity “Love thy Neighbor as thy self” never wavered. The belief we are all god’s children and we are all equal never slipped from my consciousness.

I was taught Christ walked with the poor, the defenseless and the sick. I was taught Jesus wanted the Jews to be kind to one another, and not take advantage of others.

My morality was formulated then and it has never wavered. I have always tried to be a good person. I have not always succeeded but I try. That belief, in trying to be a good person, also means, not getting over on another person. Growing up in the neighborhood I grew up in, if you tried to get over on people the word spread quickly and that became your reputation. There were behaviors that controlled much of the anti social behavior of those who skirted those Christian morays.

The story of Jesus kicking the money lenders out of the Temple has always stuck in my head. Who were the money lenders? They were the bankers of the day. Jesus felt the activities of the bankers was defiling gods place. This was used by Catholics years later in their Anti Semitic years. Being a banker, dealing with money, lending was all considered the jobs of the “Jews” The Antisemitism expressed by this profession has traveled through time for two thousand years. Of course the antisemitism was and is wrong, but what was Jesus saying about the profession and what is about the profession that for years Gentiles would not enter into its trade?

In “A Christmas Carol” Dickens makes Scrooge and Marley as evil greedy merchants of money. In the movies and other arts people who deal in money are all depicted in very negative lights. Of course the depictions were exaggerations as all depictions are. Bankers and people who lend money are no more evil than any other profession. I have known bankers and none had horns or tails. They were all decent people doing a job and a service.

At one time interest on loans was illegal. Loans were made just like personal loans have been made for years. The transaction was simple. I borrow one hundred dollars from you today I promise to pay you back by a certain date and I promise to give you one hundred and one dollars back. The charge for the money was a flat fee. It was simple, the borrower and the lender knew what they had to pay back and the lender knew what his profit would be. It was not exorbitant, excessive or usurious. Bankers and others dealing in money left unchecked gained the reputation of “Loan Sharks” squeezing every drop of profit out of borrower. These practices have been deemed morally wrong for some time now.

Christians, Jews and Muslims all have laws dealing with business and money. Ethics courses in universities teach fairness and promote moral business practices all across America. I can understand why some on the right are so afraid of Sharia law. In Muslim Banks the interest rate on lending is fixed at 1% by the Koran. Fairness and ethical business practices are principals in all three religions.

So when did unscrupulous banking and lending principals take over the normal ethical banking and lending principals? Just when the paradigm shift from ethics to profit at all cost happened I don’t know and I am not sure if anyone could put their finger on one moment in time that we could all say the point of ignition for the blaze of greedy bastardly behavior by many in the industry was? But we can’t. The corruption has been growing for years.

Today those “Greedy Bastards” as Dylan Ratigan calls them in his latest book by the same name http://www.dylanratigan.com/ are now so influential in the governing of America that the politicians who represent the American people are bought by those “Greedy Bastards.” The American government is stagnant because those with wealth have stacked the deck against the American Middle Class and diminished the chance of people in poverty from moving up in status by buying off the politicians Americans send to Washington to represent them and their interest.

At no time have I heard more people, people who claim to be Christian attack people in poverty. I have heard educated people, people who go to church every Sunday and say Jesus Christ is their Lord and Savior, yet they say poor people should not be educated, that they are all drug and alcohol addicted, that they don’t want to work, that they are good for nothing, that they are a burden on society, that they are vermin.  

The attacks on the people in poverty are record numbers. Republican politicians in many states have instituted drug testing requirements for unemployment, and other social services which include health care. In Florida the Republican Governor Rick Scott not only pushed through drug testing for his indigent citizens he did not think anything was wrong with granting his wife’s drug testing company the contract to test every welfare recipient in the State of Florida. 96% of all welfare recipients passed the drug test. The net savings for the State of Florida which was an excuse to push through the legislation was insignificant. (Catherine Whittenburg – Tampa Tribune: http://tbo.ly/pGP0Yv)

Many of the same GOP led States have also institute new voter ID laws citing potential voter fraud but in reality were created to limit the number of poor voters. Here in Tennessee the new voter law has resulted in a poll tax to vote. Citizens who have voted their entire lives have been denied voter registration because many elderly do not have voter ID and when they have tried to comply with the law they still have pay a fee for an ID the State says should be free.

The Republican Governors and State Legislatures have clearly over stated the need for such laws from the beginning. Most studies suggest there was no real need for the legislation and that the only real effect is in reduction of eligible low income voters. About 125,000 of the state's voters could be ineligible because they lack a photo ID. Tennessee officials began a state-wide campaign in October to let voters affected by the new law secure free photo IDs, but only 6,000 people have taken advantage of the free IDs.

(Debbie Hines www.Legalspeaks.com New Republican Data Shows No Need For Voter ID Laws http://huff.to/uzkCrt)

I see a Republican Party that is hell bent on returning America to the 1920’s pre - Social Security, pre - Civil Rights Movement, pre - New Deal. Today’s GOP talks a great game when it comes to “Family Values” the only family values they care about are the families of the 1% of Americans who control roughly 60% of the total wealth of the country.

If the Republicans cared about families, they would not be instituting austerity programs that’s only hurt the needy of the needy and increases the wealth of the 1%. The GOP talks a good game when it comes to topics of god but in fact the Republican Party does more to hinder the poor from getting out of poverty in the name of god than anything else they do.

The hypocrisy and the corruption that is born in the Republican view of America is the most pressing issue in our Country. Until we deal with “Pay to Play” politics and corruption, America will continue to drift aimlessly into decline.

Social Security, Medicaid, The New Deal and the Civil and Voter Rights Acts are the bedrocks of the American Middle Class. They are the reason the middle class grew to historic levels in the 50s, 60s and 70’s. Unlike the Republicans, I view these programs as the life source for people in poverty and the middle class to exist and to strive for prosperity.  

I wonder, just what Jesus would say about the state of Christianity in America? All I know there is not a lot of love they neighbor as thy self going on in Washington and a whole lot self promotion, greed and corruption.

 

 

Sex, Drugs and Rock n Roll or How Not To Run a Country

2011 comes to a close and it could not be any sooner. That seems to be the view of many Americans. I for one cannot wait for this year to turn the page.

Where to start; that has been my issue with trying to generate a coherent essay on America and where it is going as a country. Not that I have been brain dead more like over stimulated.

Yesterday I was driving to have lunch with a friend and it just all came to me. Where is America going? What is our Point? So many questions and not enough time, for sure.

Just what are we doing? I listen to the politicians and I talk to friends and coworkers and I see two different worlds, two different dimensions.

In 1973 when I graduated college, America was fractured by the Viet Nam War and Racial strife. The 60’s were exciting but they took a toll on America and our way of life. From the year I was born the economy and the middle class grew and grew. That all ended when the troops from Viet Nam came home and since then the middle class has seen its wages stagnate. In real numbers the middle class saw its wealth grow by 40% over almost 40 years. The middle class has seen its ranks diminish year after year.

America has anywhere between 45 - 55 million people living in poverty. Do you know what it means to be below the poverty line? The poverty line is $22,000, for a family of four. Poverty Thresholds for 2010 by Size of Family and Number of Related Children Under 18 Years

  

In 2000 the United States had 40 – 45 million people living in poverty. The recession and the bank scandal have hurt the poorest of the poor.

Meanwhile the top 1% of wealthiest Americans has seen their wealth increase 275% over same time period.

I do not blame the Rich from getting richer. That has always been the case. I have heard “The rich get richer and the poor get poorer” since I was a little boy. I do blame the politicians for “Giving the House Away” as they say.  The rich have been raiding the cookie jar for a long time. Just recently the personal wealth of the member of the Congress of the United States was published. All of the members of the Senate are worth over a million dollars. This is family money from spouses as well as their own money. The members of the Senate marry as well as they invest.  In the House of Representatives, more than half reported income of more than a million dollars.

 http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57348729-503544/wealth-in-congress-climbed-as-others-saw-net-worth-stay-stagnant-reports-show/

Our representative government has morphed into the exact type of government the colonist fought the War of Independence over. No, there is King but we have an awful lot of one class of people running the country and not a lot of that good old representation going on.

The rich have increased their wealth probable by good investments and a great deal of help from Washington DC. The problem as I understand it is very simple. The rich are living as Dylan Ratigan calls it a “Platinum Citizens.” 

In the 1950’s during the Eisenhower Administration the rich paid an average top Federal Tax Rate of 91%.

http://politics.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474977623449

Our country is being run directly and indirectly by the wealthiest Americans. The 1% is the most represented single group of people in America. It is very understandable that they should get the lion’s share of the benefits of that representation. They pay dearly for the right to have the deck stacked in their favor.

This single issue is at the core of America’s problems. Every issue in this country can be traced to Washington DC and the misrepresentation of a democracy. The money spent to keep the rich in power is killing our way of life.

Just who is representing the 90% of Americans who lost 8% of their wealth over the same period Congress saw their own person wealth go up by 75%? People laughed in 1988 when George H W Bush did not know what a scan reader was at the grocery store. They said he was out of touch with the American people. The reason he did not know about the scan reader was because he never went to a grocery store. Nothing has changed, if anything it is worse. How many time have you hear a politician say something so off the wall you wonder what they eat for breakfast. The average member of Congress does not understand how families living in poverty or for that matter how the middle class exist. There is no connection. When they go to bed and reflex on their day, the lives of the poor are not the first thing on their minds.

I do not like the direction the country is going. The stagnation between the two sides of the same coin in Washington is not just hurting the economy it is hurting everyone except the 1% The racism and hatred shown for Barack Obama is like what I remember about JFK and hatred some Americans felt for our first Catholic President.

My vision of our country is so much different than the view of many of the people looking to be president. I do not see a just America. I see two Americas and the differences are wider than ever.

I don’t want a president who only thinks in terms of bottom line profit and loss. I want a leader who is led by his heart and brain not how much money he was able to make as a banker. My value system does not see wealth as anything more than a means to an end. I have never been impressed with money. 

Maybe it’s because I never had much or it could be my upbringing. I was always taught don’t take more than you need and leave the rest for someone else and that right there is my differences with the form of capitalism. 

There seems to be always a winner and a looser. For every deal made where someone gains a financial advantage there is a looser. That is the nature of the beast. When an American company closes a plant or factory and sends the work to a third world country where workers make pennies it has an effect on all of us, every single America.

The disparity of wealth was brought to light to many Americans via the Occupy Wall St. movement, progressive news outlets some mainstream media. This ever growing disparity will end this Republic if not regulated. The first thing we can do as a country is "Get Money Out" of Politics. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dylan-ratigan/get-money-out-join-100000_b_983427.html

If we do nothing this year but "Get Money Out" on the ballot across America we may do the single most patriotic thing to straighten the direction of the country.

Happy New Year