Give Me a Tax Increase!

In Nassau County on Long Island the headlines read 265 layoffs for county workers.  The layoffs certainly were not the people at the top making the big salaries but lower rung workers of the middle class who are struggling to make ends meet.  This unfortunate situation is occurring all over this country.  The claim is that county and state governments are broke and no longer have the resources to keep these people employed.  Sales tax receipts are down due to the recession and maintaining programs is just unsustainable.   But this is not the reason for the problem.   Programs can be sustainable if taxes were raised temporarily!

Think about it, Bush's tax cut was temporary for a period of ten years.  Obama extended it for two more years but it was still for a limited time.  So if a temporary tax cut is OK with the politicians, why can't we have a temporary, limited tax increase?  Not one job would be lost in Nassau County if they raised taxes slightly.  If everyone paid an extra $.25  a week those jobs would be saved.  Instead, 265 families will now be on the unemployment lines collecting money for doing nothing through no fault of their own.  It doesn't make sense!

When times are good and the government is raking in the tax revenue we should get a tax cut, but when times are hard we need to pull together as a community to prevent job loss by paying a tax. This tax increase would be in effect until the economy turns around.  The priority must be to keep everyone working because that keeps the marketplace healthy.  A slight increase would hardly be felt and could easily be absorbed by those fortunate enough to have a job.  People have gotten drastic increases in their health insurance payments, gas prices, and food costs without a complaint.  When we go to the pump, sometimes the price of gas goes up $.05 in a day!  We just pay the price and go on our way because we have just accepted this as a new normal. But if the government wants to raise taxes by a quarter percent, people are up in arms!

What if you knew that the tax increase would automatically be reduced according to the percentage of unemployment in the county?  Why can't taxes be adjusted in direct correlation to the unemployment numbers?  A rise in taxes doesn't have much of an effect on the economy because people will not change their spending habits because of a few cents more.  However, when you put hundreds of families out of work it takes its toll on the local economy, as well as the federal budget.  The psychological effects are devastating to hundreds of people's lives and their children.  Cuts at the local level hurt local, small businesses, the backbone of our economy.  When people are unemployed it causes a negative ripple effect throughout the community.

So raise my taxes and save people's jobs.  I'll gladly take one for the team with the understanding that when times get better there will be some relief in sight.  We need to pull together as a community, as a nation, and help each other in our time of need.  It must be done collectively, and it must be a temporary fix.  If we receive a tax cut during good times then we need to be adults about having a tax increase during bad times.  Stop whining about your taxes and start to think about those less fortunate people on the unemployment lines.  That is what being a patriot really means, not just waving a flag.  It is called sacrificing  for the greater good and that is what Americans do in times of crisis.  Wake up, America!  

The Mr. Businessman Solution, Not!

People in business are placed on a pedestal in this country.  They get the respect and adoration of the masses because they make money.  They are looked upon as gods in this country and if they can be successful in business they can solve any problem. Their influence is sought in education even though they have no experience in the field.  Their influence is sought in government even though running a business is not a democracy, perhaps it is more of a dictatorship!  We seem to make this giant leap that if you can make a business work, you can make a government work.  Nothing is further from the truth.

Very few business leaders have emerged to become president, and those that have were a disaster!  Herbert Hoover was a business man, as well as George Bush.  Both proved to be complete and utter failures running our government into the ground.  Sylvio Burlesconi is a billionaire who ran Italy into bankruptcy.  The list goes on and on and yet we still think business people can do a better job.  When you run a business you don't have to contend with the approval of a legislature, or a Supreme Court that tells you what you can and cannot do.  Policies have to be approved by the people and business people are not used to that.  Reality quickly sets in and they find they can't always get their way.

Donald Trump proclaims that he can solve all the problems in our government and force the rest of the world to respect us again.  His arrogance is beyond belief and that alone would be enough to cause concern. He is a school yard bully who thinks he can dictate respect around the world.  The sad part is that this blowhard doesn't even know that he is a pathetic little man who gets his way because he is rich and those tactics don't work in government.  The tough guy routine may work in business but in world politics there can be catastrophic consequences for such action.  Let's remember the shock and awe in Iraq which helped to bring our country to the brink of financial disaster as well as causing the death of young Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.

Now I hear the pundits proclaiming that Mitt Romney is just what we need because he knows how to create jobs.  Upon further investigation, we learn that as a broker of businesses he dismantled and sold off companies for profit and caused many people to join the ranks of the unemployed.  We do need a more efficient government, and we do need to cut waste, but we need to do this surgically, not with an ax.  Putting more people out of work right now is not a solution, in fact, it will exacerbate the problem.  Public sector jobs represent a large portion of the middle class market.  When you diminish the middle class market, it has a ripple effect throughout the economy.  Cuts are necessary but they must be done gradually and strategically.  The government can be made to run more efficiently first by cutting waste and fraud and by streamlining our military around the world.

We are in such a hole with our deficit but none of the Republican candidates are seriously willing to talk about increasing revenue.  They gave us the Bush tax cuts that were not paid for, the two wars, not paid for, the prescription drug plan, not paid for, and the Homeland Security Department, not paid for.  When they were in charge, deficits didn't matter.  The bailout money was also not paid for but at least we got a return on our money and the government even made a profit on part of it!  They painted us into a corner and now middle class public sector workers have to pay for their mistakes by losing their jobs?  If that is what Romney is pitching, I'm not buying it.

Every President is advised by a team of economists.  We don't need a businessman to figure out how to get out of this mess. We need a compassionate pragmatist who can slowly right this ship of state.  People's livelihoods hang in the balance.  Personally, I will not vote for anyone who will put people out of work.  Mr. Romney is not the answer to our problems.  Most polls show the American people understand that we need to get more revenue from the top one percent and corporations have to pay their fair share.  That's who will get my vote!  Wake up, America!

The Un-Civil War

There is a civil war going on in our country and it is starting to show up in Congress.  It is a war that is fought with words and the battle field is on cable TV and talk radio.  It started back in the eighties when the floodgates were opened by doing away with the Fairness Doctrine.  Conservatives were tired of being kept silent, tired of being polite, and tired of watching their tongue in mixed company.  They wanted to unleash their hate, venom, and true feelings in public without consequences.  What they said behind closed doors about blacks, gays, the lazy poor, unions, government workers, and bleeding heart liberals in general could now be expressed in public!

Their first major victory was a takeover of talk radio. AM Radio was a dying industry that was revitalized by conservative talk show hosts.  The more outrageous, the more listeners they would have. Nobody questioned what was being said because station owners were making money and main stream media thought nobody listened to the radio anymore.  Quietly, they amassed millions of soldiers in their war of words.  They tapped into fear, anger, prejudice, and a frustration that their listeners felt.  They fed into these strong visceral emotions and got a tremendous response from a certain segment of society.  Their words were divisive and mean spirited but that didn't matter, their ratings kept getting stronger and stronger, which meant more money for the radio stations.  After all, it is a business, it didn't matter what they were pushing!

Next, the expansion of the cable networks was fertile ground for the conservative movement.  Roger Ailes, the former head of the Republican National Committee, became the founding father of FOX News and quickly stacked the deck with right wing zealots.  He cleverly marketed the news station as,"Fair and Balanced", and it quickly became a legitimate news station surpassing CNN.  Republicans had their own news station in which they could enforce their talking points each day.  It was a 24/7 political advertisement for their platform, it didn't cost a dime, and and it changed the political landscape forever.  FOX News today is a propaganda machine for the right wing of this country!

Now that they controlled the air waves, the next step was to organize ground troops.  Dick Army and the Koch brothers put their money behind the Tea Party movement and in an off-year election, made inroads into the fabric of our government, the House of Representatives.  They know that the House controls the purse strings in this country, and nothing gets done without money.  This was their opportunity to derail the Obama administration by denying him any legislation.  After bankrupting the country for eight years under the Bush administration, they suddenly decided that the deficit was too large and no new revenue would be allowed.  Even though every legitimate economist agreed that the government needed to spend our way out of this historic recession in order to avoid a worldwide depression, they refused to play ball.  Even the polls favored the democratic position of taxing the top 2% to create a jobs program, but they were still playing rope-a- dope, stalling the President's agenda.

This all sets the table for the election of 2012!  They know that most people are ignorant, easily swayed by bumper sticker slogans, and the President will take the blame for the "failed"economy.  Their plan to to take over the country altogether is almost complete!  They are almost there!  All they need is the cooperation of the ignorant on election day, people who will vote against their own self interests, and their mission is complete.  They will have won the un-civil war!  Unless enough people see through their plan.  Wake up, America!

Polls Ask the Wrong Questions

The polls say that most people think we are overwhelmingly on the wrong track in this country and that makes Obama look bad for the next election.  It is assumed that it reflects poorly upon the President.  His approval rating hovers around 41% to 44%, worse than any other President at this point in time.  And yet, Obama is defeating his opponents in one of the most Republican conservative states, South Carolina!  This clearly contradicts the polls, so maybe the polls are asking the wrong questions.

When people answer the question of whether the country is on the right or wrong track, why do we assume it is all about Obama?  Personally, I think the country is on the wrong track but it has nothing to do with Obama and everything to do with a dysfunctional Congress and a Supreme Court that is composed of ideologues  rather than legal experts. President Obama is facing an unprecedented obstructionist opposition party that will stop at nothing until he is driven out of office.  Gone are the moderate Republicans that can find compromise.  Compromise has become equated with weakness and arrogance is now what people respect.  At no other time in our history has the media been so influential in forming the opinions of our people.  A lie or half truth gets repeated 24/7 on cable news programs or talk radio and in a few days it becomes dogma.  Obama is experiencing a full court press from all sides, even his own party , because he is willing to compromise for the good of the country.

When asked about approval rating, it is hard to answer in the affirmative because this President is handcuffed by a dysfunctional government.  He lives in the land of no and nothing he says or does is going to change that.  His opponents know that they can make him an impotent President because they control the purse strings.  Included in that approval rating poll are the people on the left who think that this president is too accommodating towards his opponents.  Obama, by nature, is more of a gentleman than a thug, more of a professor than politician, and more of a centrist than a liberal or conservative.  Unfortunately he lives in a world of thugs, politicians, and extremists.  For example, the debt ceiling crisis was a defining moment for his Presidency.  If Obama had stood up to his Republican opponents and shut down the government, his poll numbers would be much higher today.  If he drew the line in the sand on extending the Bush tax cuts, he would have gained more favor with the left and his approval rating would be much higher today.  So maybe the question the pollsters should be asking is," Would you have a more positive view of this President if he did less compromising?"

President Obama is probably one of the most intelligent, hard working Presidents we have ever had.  He has less of an ego than most and he puts the good of the country before himself.  He is a different breed, thinking of those less fortunate citizens who would be harmed by shutting down the government.  He thinks of those who are unemployed and puts them before his poll numbers.  He is a good and decent man living in a world of slime.  Some on both sides were turned off by his push for universal health care in his first two years.  It either wasn't enough or it went too far.  In reality, he had to make it happen at that moment simply because he had a Democratic Congress, and even at that it is not everything he wanted.  Is it better than the status quo?  Will it save people from personal bankruptcy, will it save lives?  Will it save a middle class family a small fortune by insuring their children until the age of twenty six?  Absolutely!  Is it perfect?  Absolutely not, but it is a start and Obama made it happen because he made it a priority.

Say what you want about this President, his heart is in the right place.  His priority is the safety of our country not the poll numbers.  Osama Bin Ladin along with most of the leaders of Al Qaeda were his top priority, unlike the last Republican President.  And he did it without water boarding anyone.  I know I sleep a little better knowing that we are much safer now from the threat of terrorism.  He deserves the credit because he made it a priority.  The Stock Market has nearly doubled in his time as President and about half of all Americans who have invested in the market have benefited financially.  We were losing eight hundred thousand jobs a month and after Obama's economic rescue we have steadily gained jobs each month since.  He stopped the hemorraging and the job numbers would have been much better if he had a cooperative Congress.  Detroit is back in business because of his actions and our government has made a profit on the money that was paid back by the institutions.

So maybe the pollsters are asking the questions in the wrong way.  Maybe they should restructure the wording.  Instead of asking if you approve of the President's performance in the last few years, maybe we should ask if we approve of the effort this President has made since he was in office?  I firmly believe he would score much higher in the polls.  He is the man in the arena and he has put up a good fight.  President Obama has earned a second chance in my humble opinion.  He has survived a barrage of criticism from both sides and his opponents offer no feasible solutions to the very complex problems we are facing. When you compare Obama to the embarrassing selection of Republican opponents, it is no contest.  We should be thankful he is willing to run again!!!  Wake up, America!

Bipartisan Deep Dark Secrets

There are certain tweaks we can make to our government to make it functional, effective, and efficient but it will never happen because both parties benefit from the status quo.  Both parties are so entrenched in a system that has forgotten that the majority rules in a democracy and it should be illegal to game the system.  Eventually, if we continue to be dysfunctional it will bury us.  We are being destroyed from within, we don't need to wait for terrorists to do us in!

First, we have lobbyists controlling Congress, not the people.  There are certain lobbies that spend hundreds of thousands even millions per day to peddle their influence in Congress.  We all know that it is legalized bribery and these lobbyists own certain Senators or Congressmen.  Lobbyists are actually writing the laws on the Congressional floor that will favor their industry or position.  We need to outlaw this practice once and for all and put these people out of business.  Our country has been hijacked by the highest bidders.  Doing away with lobbyists should be a goal that both liberals and conservatives can agree, but it will never happen because both are guilty of drinking from the well.  It is like heroine for politicians and they just can't get off the juice!

Next, they need to go back to the original intent of the filibuster.  Presently, nothing gets done because you now need a filibuster proof 60 votes in the Senate to get anything passed.  Conservatives love to throw around the fact that Obama had a Democratic Congress for the first two years and didn't pass what he wanted.  Now the Democrats did have control of the House and the Senate but didn't have the 60 votes needed in the Senate to make it filibuster proof.  They never tell you that part because it doesn't suit their argument.  Nothing gets done if you don't have the 60 votes in the Senate but most people don't even know that.  Democracy works with a simple majority of 51 votes, but not anymore!  The filibuster rule has forced our government into a coma, but both parties hide behind it and claim that the other is ineffective.

Another convenient gimmick both parties use to game the system is gerrymandering.  They draw the lines of their Congressional districts in such a way that it almost virtually assures that the district will remain in their hands.  So there is no need to compromise or cooperate because no matter what they do they are almost assured of reelection.  Congress has a 9% approval rating but 75% of incumbents get reelected and it is all because of gerrymandering.  Short of exposing yourself on the internet, politicians can do just about anything and still get reelected.  Both parties do it when they are in power and it needs to stop.

Finally, both parties are guilty of insider trading, making a fortune on decisions that are made in Congress.  They are privy to information on decisions reached in Congress that can affect an industry and they act on it by buying or selling stocks connected to that industry before it reaches the general public.  It is not illegal to do so but it should be.  Our representatives come out of Congress worth millions because they are trading on inside information.  If it is illegal on Wall Street, the people who make the laws should be held to the same standard.

Campaign finance reform is at the root of many of the problems in Washington but until we can all agree that everyone plays by the same rules, nothing will change.  The Citizens United decision in the Supreme Court set us back fifty years!  When you give corporations equal treatment as private citizens under the first amendment you are opening up the floodgates of corruption.  Once again, it is the organization with the most money that gets to control the game.  Both parties feed from the trough and refuse to change the rules because money is the mother's milk of politics.  As citizens we need to reform the system and hold both Democrats and Republicans responsible for the corruption that goes undetected by society.  The party that makes these reforms part of their platform would certainly get my vote. Wake up, America!

What If?

What if Republicans actually tried to give President Obama what he wants?  The President proposed another jobs bill that would tax those who make over a million a year so that the bill would not add another penny to the deficit.  Why not try it out?  What are the Republicans afraid of?  Success?  If it succeeds, it is good for the country.  How could any Congressman be against that?

Think about this.  If the jobs bill fails and the country goes into a deeper recession, it finally solves the problem of the effectiveness of government spending during financial hard times.  If it fails to stimulate the economy, and doesn't create jobs, they would almost be assured of a victory next year.  Obama would be a complete failure and the people would finally see that government spending doesn't add up to a hill of beans!  And if it does create an estimated two million jobs, Republicans can take credit for the success because their cooperation made it happen.  It is a win, win for Republicans and for the country if it works!

Let's put it all on the line.  Why are they so afraid?  Give the President what he wants and let him hang himself if it fails.  Once and for all, we will see if raising taxes on the wealthy will truly hurt the economy.  Personally, if the economy takes off, wealthy people will only benefit and make even more profits than they are making with the present stagnant economy.  I don't think they will be opposed to an increased market for goods because more people are working.  An increased market is more desirable than a tax cut!  So that is the question I would like any Republican to answer.  What if they cooperate with this President?

I think we all know the answer to the question.  We all know that they will not cooperate with this President for a number of reasons.  First and foremost, they hide behind a pledge they took to a lobbyist, Grover Norquist.  It doesn't matter that times have changed and there is a new reality because of a world wide economic crisis.  They will remain faithful to a non-elected lobbyist rather than do anything that remotely raises taxes for the wealthy.  They are cowards hiding behind an outdated pledge and they simply refuse to do what the majority wants them to do according to the polls.

 The other major reason they won't do it is because they can't give this President a victory even if it is good for the country.  They must make him look ineffective and weak in order to make him a one-term president.  After all, that is their one stated goal, not to help the people that are suffering the most.

This President is not a reckless man.  He wants to do the responsible thing and actually pay for any new government spending.  Republicans, on the other hand, passed the Bush tax cuts without paying for them, conducted two wars without paying for them, passed a prescription drug plan without paying for it, and expanded government with the Department of Homeland Security without paying for it. It is criminal to be that irresponsible with our tax dollars.  And yet, this same party now wants to make cuts to the social safety net that affects the poor and middle class rather than raise taxes on the wealthy.  If hypocricy were a crime they would all be in jail.  Wake up, America!

Who Pays the Price?

Just think for a moment who is paying the price for the financial meltdown in this country?  The Stock Market has rebounded and Wall Street is doing just fine.  No one went to jail for fraudulently selling worthless derivatives, or offering mortgages to people who had no means to pay them back.  The bonus money never stopped even when they were using tax payer dollars to sustain them.  In fact, the rich got richer because they were too big to fail.  So who really paid the price?

Our government had to spend trillions of dollars to avoid a complete financial meltdown of epic proportion.  All of a sudden, deficits did matter and the Republicans who drove up those deficits for years under Bush found religion!  They saw this as an opportunity to finally gut the social safety net of the New Deal and break the backs of the public sector unions all under the guise of government spending being unsustainable.  Not a penny more in taxes would be added because that would hurt the wealthy who benefited the most from this Great Recession.  Without revenue they were able to make cuts to teachers, social workers, law enforcement, and fire departments across this country.  Basically, it was these middle class jobs that got cut first.  Collective bargaining was eliminated in certain states.  It was a dream come true for Republican Governors!

In the private sector, the battle cry was," Just be thankful you have a job!" This crisis was an opportunity to put off  any wage increases for years, hire cheap labor, even get free labor from college interns!  All the while, they were maximizing their profit margins and the CEO's were getting even larger bonuses.  Once again, it was the middle class working stiff who had to be thankful for the crumbs that fell off the table.  While the cost of energy, health insurance, and education increased, salaries remained stagnant, which translates to a loss.  Unions made concessions and took wage freezes to prevent job loses, especially in Detroit.

Finally, services were cut for the poorest of the poor.  Public transportation was cut or the fares increased dramatically.  Rents increased, homes were lost, and jobs were not being created but rather exported to countries with cheap labor.  The private sector increased their profit margins while laying off American workers.  So the answer to the question originally stated is that those people who were least responsible for the calamity, the poor and the middle class, paid dearly for the antics of the financial industry.  The Republican Party continues to protect and defend those people who caused this blight on our country.  Shame on them and anyone who votes for these morally corrupt politicians.  Wake up, America!

What an Embarrassment

What a sad commentary on the Republican Party!  I have never seen such a pathetic group of candidates to be considered for the leader of the free world.  We are the laughing stock of the world and late night TV is thrilled because the material writes itself.  Between their brain freezes, lapses in memory, scandals, and extremist viewpoints, they would be lucky if they got elected dog catcher.  They are tripping over each other to see who can be more conservative because the extremists have hijacked the party.  By doing so they have driven away the moderates and the centrists needed to win the general election.

The lineup of front runners has made the Republican brand tarnished to say the least. First there was "The Donald" who was leading the pack with the support of the Birthers.  Trump doubled down on President Obama's birth certificate insisting that he was not born in this country.  When the state of Hawaii finally produced it, he was still skeptical which made him look even more foolish.  Next was Michelle Bachmann who won the straw poll in Iowa.  She makes Sara Palin look like a  history scholar.  She was knocked off by Rick Perry who embarrassed himself in almost every debate.  His brain freeze moment will go down in history!  After Rick came Mister" 999" Cain.  He also had trouble thinking because there were a lot of things 'twirling in his head.'  Women came out of the woodwork with all kinds of sexual harassment claims and affairs.  And now Newt Gingrich has taken the lead.  He has more baggage than an ocean liner.  Newt was kicked out of Congress, cheated on his wife while she had cancer, and will flip flop his position to suit the audience.

Through it all, Willard Mitt Romney has been consistently at 20 to 25% which means the overwhelming majority of Republicans really don't like him.  He is either not conservative enough, too Mormon, or too much of a flip-flopper.  Maybe he is all three!  Willard has changed his position so many times that he makes Newt look stable!  Hanging over his head is the fact that his health care bill in Massachusetts is identical to ObamaCare.  The Health Care Law is the number one target of Conservatives in this country and they just won't come out for Romney.

What has happened to the Republican Party?  These people have made a mockery of the electoral process.  The Republican brand is also leading us down the road to financial disaster because of their stubbornness concerning raising revenues on the wealthy. They completely disregard the will of the general public.  Every poll shows that the people are in favor of raising taxes on those who can afford to pay more.  But they won't budge because of a pledge to a lobbyist, Grover Norquist.  The party that got us into this financial quagmire refuses to cooperate with our President purely for political reasons.  People are suffering out there, losing their homes, their life savings, their pensions, and they still refuse to govern.  They have no soul!  They have sold out to extremist, right-wing Americans, and are out of step with mainstream Americans.  Wake up, America!

Half Truths Are Lies

I have to admit that I watch Fox News on a regular basis.  I do it for a number of reasons.  First, when I'm on the treadmill it helps me to walk faster because it gets my blood boiling.  Next, I watch it for a good laugh because, after all, it is pretty funny every time they say,"Fair and Balanced".  Fox News is a 24/7 Republican  commercial run by the former head of the Republican National Committee, Roger Ailes.  It is pure propaganda TV and sadly, our troops shed blood fighting against governments that used propaganda techniques on the masses.  Lastly, I watch Fox so that I can know what my Fox watching friends are going to say before they say it. They parrot what they hear on Fox like talking points and then you hear them around the restaurant table.  It's good to be prepared.

Lately, I've been hearing a great deal about the 50% of the people who pay no taxes.  When you hear that, they normally assume that these people are the freeloaders, minorities and immigrants, who game the system while the rest of us pay for it.  It sounds  like class warfare but that happens only when you want to raise taxes on the rich!  These are the people who pick up their welfare checks in limos.  Basically, they want these people to pay their fair share but not the wealthy because they are the job creators.  How is that working out for us so far?  They are still taking the tax cuts but I don't see the jobs!

Here is where a clarification is needed.  First of all they rounded up.  It is more like 47% who don't pay federal taxes.  Half of those people have incomes that are too low to pay taxes.  They may be hiding it just as some wealthy people do along with corporate loopholes.  Let's face it, every class of people game the system if they can.  About 22% are seniors citizens on Social Security and about 15% are the working poor who qualify for earned income and child care credit.  The remainder of the 47% includes corporations who pay no federal income tax, such as GE, Citigroup, BOA, Boeing, Exxon Mobil, Valero and Chevron.  Not only do they pay no taxes but we subsidize many of these companies and have bailed them out with our tax dollars when they mess up!

You never hear about that on Fox.  They want their viewers to get angry at the little guy who is not paying their fair share, not the wealthy.  It is much easier to turn people against the minorities and the immigrants rather than their constituents.  Feed the hate that is already out there!  They are the easy targets.  Fox is like the bully on the playground picking on the weakest kid.  The profits being made by the oil companies, insurance companies, financial institutions, along with the salaries and bonuses their CEO's make, are obscene but you will never hear about that on Fox News.

So for my friends who watch Fox, remember to take what they say with a grain of salt.  You don't always get the complete picture because they have a conservative agenda that is obvious.  Mainstream media may have a  left wing bias but Fox is in your face!  There is really no comparison.  And if their bias was equal, a conservative bias is no better than a liberal bias.  If you are against slanted news, they should be just as angry about the conservative slant, but they are not.  So please don't be so hypocritical.  Wake up, America!

What a Difference a Year Makes

Recently, I was informed of an overnight success.  A science teacher was teaching his subject in the South Bronx with minimal success.  Only 55% of his students were passing the state regents in that particular subject area.  He was discouraged and disappointed in the results.  The next year he was transferred to a better district in Queens.  He used the same lesson plans from the previous year and really didn't change his teaching style one bit.  Miraculously, his success rate increased to a 90% passing rate.  According to the data, he became a super teacher overnight!  He went from receiving an incompetent evaluation to master teacher in just one year!

This particular story, which  happens to be true, crystallizes the ludicrous notion that teachers should be evaluated according to test scores.  Teachers have always been evaluated by administrators.   Principals can come into your classroom at any time to observe your teaching style.  In the past, before a teacher received tenure, the principal customarily made three formal observations.  Over the years, that has increased to at least six observations by several administrators including the superintendent.  This apparently didn't satisfy the politicians who wanted hard cold numbers to substantiate good teaching and the witch hunt began!

Feeding into the public's thirst to get those overpaid, fat, lazy, public servants out of the profession, our good Governor Cuomo wanted teacher evaluations to include how many students passed the NYS tests.  That number should count for 40% of a teacher's evaluation, but the courts knocked it down to the original agreement of 20%.  In reality, test scores measure the ability and effort of students, and the only thing they can evaluate is the program of study being offered by the district not the teacher.

Administrator know who their good teachers are.  These are the educators that offer parents and students a learning environment that they are satisfied with.  When administrators get an overabundance of complaints concerning a particular teacher, perhaps what should be considered is a peer review.  Using retired master teachers to evaluate a troubled classroom would add a different perspective to the evaluation process.  A master teacher could intercede and first do an analysis of the general make up of the class.  If there is a large percentage of special needs children along with discipline problems and ELL students, that has to be taken into consideration.  Those are the factors that put a drag on the class and can affect learning.  The composition of a class can have a detrimental effect on those students who want to learn.  And yes, the teacher can be at fault in which case the master teacher would act as a coach or mentor until the classroom environment improves.

A peer review system is much more comprehensive than looking at percentages and would constitute a much more equitable approach to teacher evaluations.  Simply looking at a number tells you nothing about the ability of the teacher, however, it speaks volumes about the ignorance of our politicians.  Teachers, more than anyone, want to weed out incompetence.  We truly care about our students, and want them to become productive citizens.  The future of our country depends on it.  It is the reason why we became teachers in the first place.  We, above all others, would never protect incompetence and we above all others, have the ability to recognize it.  Wake up, America!

The Teacher As a Doormat

Teachers are good little soldiers.  We do what we are told even if it is against our better judgement.  If we speak up to the powers that be and let them know that a program won't work, it falls upon deaf ears.  There had been times in my own career, which spanned four decades, that teachers were force-fed a new strategy for teaching a particular subject and  had to witness a generation of students lose ground before another fad appeared.  If you want to know what is wrong with our system of education in this country, place some of the blame on the complacency of the public school teacher.  In retrospect, I should have made more noise, and organized my colleages to demand more of a seat at the table.

If you present a methodology that is opposed by the majority of you teachers, it is doomed to failure.  Superintendents and building administrators don't understand that statement.  They think they can mandate a system of learning to their faculty and it will just happen.  Applying this business model to education just doesn't work.  The teacher is entrusted with an awesome responsibility that takes place behind closed doors.  They cannot be monitored every minute of the day.  There is a blind trust that takes place in those classrooms and teachers cannot sell to their students what they believe is wrong.

So now we are being judged on the test scores of our students as if that is the true measure of a good teacher.  In reality, testing may be the measure of the materials and methodology forced upon us by the administration.  Maybe they should be judged by those test scores.  After all, teachers just deliver the program, material, and text selected by the administration, we are just the worker bees.

Testing was once used to evaluate the programs of study chosen by the district, not the teacher.  Teachers do the best they can to deliver kowledge to their students, however, when students don't have any interest in learning, don't cooperate, don't do their homework, don't have the ability or background in some cases, don't study, and don't care, is it the teacher's fault?   If a doctor prescribes medication and the patient refuses to take it, does the doctor get judged because the patient does not improve?  The idea of evaluating teachers on the scores of their students is just as absurd.

Teachers constantly evaluate their students on material covered in their classrooms.  They don't need a state test to let them know who is learning.  When a student is doing poorly, teachers inform the parents and administrators that there is a problem.  It is called a progress report or report card!  When parents refuse to take responsibility for their child's lack of effort and when the school does not allocate the resources to grant a struggling student extra support, why should the teacher be the one to be evaluated?  Teachers know if there is a problem with learning within the first week of school and they don't need a state test to figure it out.  When the student, parents, and school district are not doing their jobs, why should the classrom teacher be the only one held responsible?

Evaluating teachers according to state test scores is so wrong on so many different levels.  Some students will fill in any answer to be the first one done, some will fill in any answer because time is running out, and some will just leave it blank because they don't care.  Meanwhile, a teacher's career may hang in the balance.  Applying this business model to the teaching-learning process is a disgrace, and it shows a lack of respect for the profession.  But teachers will just passively accept this new model without objection.  They shrug their shoulders and feel powerless.

The politicians who make these rules have never taught in a classroom.  Most administrators have had very limited time in the classroom.  In fact, the commissioners, Board of Regents, and the Secretary of Education have no experience teaching or very little time in the classroom.  Yet these are the people we have making the rules that will affect our classrooms, our jobs, and ultimately our students.  After all this testing, why is it that colleges need to offer remediation to incoming freshmen and the SAT scores continue to decline?

More testing is not the answer, it is the problem.  Pretesting, test preparation, state testing, and the actual testing in the classroom is rediculous but teachers will just follow orders like good, little soldiers.  Until teachers rise up in protest, nothing will change.  We need to express our outrage more vocally through demonstrations at school board meetings and PTA meetings.  We need to inform the public that testing our children is not in their best interests, in fact, it is hurting our students.  Overtesting is a detriment to learning and should never be used to evaluate teachers.  We are turning our children off to the joy of learning because of all this testing and we have managed to suck the joy out of teaching.  Wake up, America!

Finally, the Principals Have Principles

Perhaps it is the spirit of the Occupy Wall Street protesters, but it is certainly praiseworthy that the principals of Long Island are taking a stand.  For too long educators have been at the mercy of politicians and commissioners who have very little experience in the classroom.  They make the rules for the new teacher evaluation system using a top down business model which doesn't work with educators. These administrators at the local level deserve credit for courageously and respectfully objecting to the use of student testing to evaluate teachers.

Tying test scores to the competency of a teacher is a ridiculous idea.  There are just too many variables in a each classroom and even more from district to district.  It is no surprise that students from affluent districts do better on state tests. Wealthy districts can supply their students with more test prep material, support staff, and parents who can afford private tutors.  Does that mean their teachers are more competent?  Those districts also have fewer students with special needs and/or English as a second language.  Within a school, some teachers just end up with better students due to parental requests, while other teachers get students who are less capable or whose parents are not involved.  Both teachers and administrators alike understand that when your job depends on a reading and math score, the other subjects take a back seat.  In the end we only produce excellent test takers and the love of learning is lost.

Teachers need to support these principals who dared to speak up against an injustice.  Educators across this land need to become more vocal and voice their opinions at PTA meetings, school board meetings, staff meetings, and in editorials.  They need to demonstrate publicly in Albany and let their representatives know that this evaluation system will not be tolerated.  If every teacher in the state signed a petition protesting this evaluation system, we could send a clear message to Albany that we are mad as hell, and we are not going to take anymore.  It is time to rise up and be heard.

We Are the 99%

My wife and I recently took part in the Occupy Wall Street demonstration at Times Square.  It was a very enlightening experience.  There were signs expressing all kinds of protests:  against racism, war, corporate greed, lobbyists, the bailout of banks, everything but the common cold!  They are not united in their complaints but they are united in their frustration, anger, and impotence.
                           
These young people have put themselves in tuition debt and credit card debt with no possibility of a job.  They will remain slaves to that debt for a lifetime. They see a world with no future for themselves in which they are powerless. They see a world in which the rich get richer and the poor get poorer and the extremes are growing more polarized.  They see a disfunctional government that pays no attention to their needs so they have decided to take it to the streets.  They are circumventing the system and  they are powerless no more.  The whole world is watching, paying attention, and, as in the past, the establishment eventually will respond if they are smart about it.

So they have our attention, which is the whole purpose of their demonstration.  Now what are they going to do about it?  First, they need to take it directly and specifically to the corporations and banks that are raping the public, laying off American workers, outsourcing jobs, all while making record profits which pleases Wall Street not Main Street.  In numbers there is power.  Corporations can't survive without the support of the people.  They need to carefully target specific, greedy corporations and, through the power of the internet, organize a boycott of their products.  For example, Bank of America has levied a five dollar fee for using a debit card each month.  People need to withdraw their savings and deposit their nest egg in a bank that is consumer friendly.  Just as Netflix reversed their policy when they lost 600,000 customers, so will BOA!!!
By signing up millions of frustrated people who are out of work, they must use the power of the internet to organize boycotts monthly, and redirect people to alternative companies that are consumer friendly.

Most Americans support these young people, as witnessed from the growing number of middle-aged and gray-haired protestors I saw at the Times Square rally.  It is not difficult to find people today who are not outraged by what our financial institutions did to this country.  American tax payers bailed them out to avoid a total financial meltdown and they repaid us by hoarding profits, outsourcing jobs, and foreclosing on homes of the unemployed or underemployed.  Corporate America has no moral compass, or patriotism, for that matter.  They worship at the altar of their bottom line.  That is why the boycott of their products is the most powerful weapon of the 99%.  We need to change the way we do business in America and not give in to the corporate blackmail demanding a rollback on government regulations.  The Republican Party is doing their dirty work so they will keep the economy weak to favor their cause.  In the meantime, people are suffering, losing their homes, and even starving while they play their games and hold on to their two trillion in profits.  Wake up, America!

Hit'em Where It Hurts

The Occupy Wall Street prosters now have our attention.  Everyone has an opinion from the President on down.  Now it is time to act intelligently and do something meaningful.  If they really want this to become a movement they now have to take it to the next level.   People feel powerless and these young people have proven that people still have the power to change the world by hitting them where it hurts, their pocketbooks!
Just marching and holding signs won't accomplish a thing but it has gotten the attetion of the media.
Let us take a page from from the playbook of Gandi and Dr. King.  They need to organize boycotts, peacefully targetting greedy corporations that arrogantly keep giving huge bonuses by cutting their workforce or sending jobs overseas.  They need to get to the heart of their anger.  There isn't a person in this country who is not angry about how the financial sector was bailed out with our money and then were made fools of by using our tax dollars to give the fat cats their bonuses.

Take a lesson fron Netflix.  Netflix raised their prices at a time when people are really hurting.  Customers dropped them like a hot potato and the stock plummeted.  600,000 people cancelled their subscriptions.  Without even being organized people managed to turn the tide on the company and forced them to reverse  their policy.  Without the support of the people these corporations will fold like a map if their profits begin to be affected.

So let's start with Bank of America who plans to apply a five dollar per month fee to use a debit card. If the protesters organize a movement to withdraw their savings from Bank of America and direct people to banks that don't charge a fee, I can almost guarantee that their policy would change in a week.  We need to target the corporate abuse one by one and have us act on it.  We need to focus anger on specific corporate greed if we want to make a difference. Companies should be boycotted for sending jobs overseas, taking obscene bonuses while laying off workers, and evading taxes by moving their headquarters off shore.   Organized, targeted efforts can and will change the way we do business here.  Wake up, America!

Boot Straps? They Don't Even Have Shoes!

The Republican philosophy of rugged individualism is part of American folklore.  It's John Wayne and apple pie all rolled into one and it is easy to sell to the American voters.  It makes a good soundbite and it plays upon our sense of the underdog who can overcome all obstactles in this country.  It might even be true in a few isolated instances but, for the most part, it is simply more an American myth today.

There was a time when immigrants came to this land of opportunity, worked hard, lived frugally, and saved every penny.  It was a common story in almost every immigrant family who came here in the twentieth century.  In my own family, my father earned a meager living during the depression, made less than a dollar a week, and was able to survive.  Later in life, with just a high school diploma earned at night, he owned seven houses and never made more than twenty two thousand dollars a year.  Yes, you were able to pull yourself up from your bootstraps without government assistance.  He accomplished the American dream because he was smart, industrious, and frugal and he was in a very small minority among his friends and family.  When my parents passed on, each of their three children were given a house with no mortgage.  No one in my circle of friends was as fortunate as I was.

Today I make ten times what my father earned and can't match his accomplishments.  Times have certainly changed.  Immigrants today still work very hard for very little money but their expenses are astronomical.  The cost of rent, food, transportation, utilities, and medical expenses are cost prohibitive.  Their salaries are barely covering basic needs.  There is simply nothing left at the end of the week.  Yes, they live frugally  as my parents did, but they never get ahead.  Like most of the working poor today, they barely make ends meet.  Why?  When you look at the data for the last fifty years it is obvious.  The rich got richer and the poor got poorer.

So today, when people need it the most, Republicans want to dismantle the social safety net.  They manipulated the economy in favor of the upper class with their supply side economics, and continue to protect the wealthy against higher taxes at the expense of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other social programs like unemployment insurance.  Why should the wealthy pay for these programs that they will never use?  Today the deck is stacked against the poor and lower middle class.  They don't even have the shoes, never mind the bootstraps. Comparing America before Ronald Reagan and after are two different worlds.  Look at what has happened to our country.  Wake up, America!

It's About Time!

The protesters on Wall Street may have started with frustrated young people who have no job prospects, but if you look closely the crowd has changed.  As the movement spreads I see more and more people with gray hair, middle class professionals, and labor union members who are out of work.  Finally, people are getting angry about corporate greed in America and it is about time!

For years now I have been asking myself, "Where is the outrage?"  Where is the outrage over a war in Iraq that was not necessary?  Where is the outrage over driving this great nation and the world to the brink of a depression?  Where is the outrage of conducting two wars, expanding government in the  form of Homeland Security, passing a prescription drug plan that lines the pockets of pharmaceutical companies, and selling people junk mortgages they knew they couldn't pay back.  All of this was done without paying for it and nobody went to jail.  It was reckless, irresponsible, and immoral but nobody said a word until now.

Corporations are sitting on over two trillion dollars of profit, their stocks rise everytime they announce layoffs, and they send jobs overseas.  They are the so-called job creators who are not creating jobs in America.  These are the same people who took a bailout from the taxpayers and then proceeded to take their annual bonus money on our dime.  Every year since, the bonus money gets larger while they continue to layoff workers.

No one has been prosecuted for this injustice either.  We have become very complacent in this country and it seems like we just accept whatever we are told.  At any other time in history a preemptive strike against a country that had nothing to do with the attack on 9-11 would have resulted  in war crimes against Bush and Cheney. Yet the American people just shrug their shoulders and re-elect the people that were responsible. 

Everyone agrees that it was deregulation without any oversight by the Republican, Cox, of the S.E.C. that caused the meltdown of the Great Recession.  Yet now, the Republicans want to do away with the regulations passed by the Obama administration.  They want to go back to the ways of doing business that got us into this mess in the first place.  It is beyond reason that they actually took back the House in 2010!

So I am very proud of these young people on Wall Street who are speaking for all Americans who are frustrated with our system.  Finally, someone stood up and said, "No more!"  Hopefully, this movement will grow stronger as more and more people lose their jobs. It may just have an effect on the way people vote on Capitol Hill.  I remember another time when young protesters actually stopped a war.  It can sway public opinion and open people's eyes to what is happening to our great nation.  Wake up, America!

Don't Assume, Google!!!

Start to Google the so-called experts that you read about in education.  It's fun!!!  I started at the top.  I Googled the Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, and I found out that he has no real teaching experience.  Of the last nine Secretaries, only two were teachers.  Most people assume that people at the top who make decisions for millions of students have the experience to back it up.  We assume they are the experts, that is how they got the job!

Next, I Googled the NYS Board of Regents.  Surely, they would all be experienced teachers.  They are very learned people but only five were in education.  Of those five, three were classroom teachers, but two of them taught in private schools.  Only one had public school experience.  Mayor Bloomberg was harshly ctiticized for appointing Cathy Black to head the largest school district in America.  She had no experience in the field of education.  He later appointed a person who taught two whole years in kindergarten, and he was praised for his appointment!  Joel Kline, his first appointee to the position, was a lawyer who never taught a day in public school.

Finally, I wanted to attend an educational conference sponsored by the NY Times.  They listed a dozen prominent  people who would be sharing their ideas on how to fix public eduation.  I Googled all the members and, much to my surprise, most had no real teaching experience and those that did spent only a few years doing the job.  Most were lawyers, scientists, business executives, college professors, you know, people that we respect in society.  Absent was the lowly public school classroom teachers.  After all, what would they know about fixing the system?  They are the problem!!!

Education is too important to leave the decision making in the hands of teachers.  This is the attitude that has prevailed in this country.  You must have several letters after your name, or you must be a successful business person, or you must be a real professional, like a doctor or lawyer, to have any gravitas in education.  If you are an experienced classroom teacher in the public school, you have no credentials.  College professors get the respect because they are learned  experts but who do they teach?  They teach the top students in our country and most of the time, they pontificate through lectures which is the worst way to learn.

So how is this working for us?  It's not.  How about trying something innovative and let the lowly classroom teacher have some say in policy making?  Let's reward innovation among successful public schools and those lowly teachers who know what works.  That would make too much sense.  Wake up, America!

The "Failed" Presidency? Not So Much...

Republicans always preface their language with the word,"failed'.  It is always the "failed presidency" or the "failed" economic policy.  Obviously, if they all say it enough it will become a fact unless the media calls them on it.  Sadly, they rarely do. Republicans are masters of manipulating the masses and use every propaganda technique available to sway public opinion.

Now that the Obama Administration has knocked off another Al Qaida operative, al Awlaki, the threat of a terrorist attack is extremely diminished.  He has made the country and the world, for that matter, that much safer and we owe him a debt of gratitude.  What the Obama administration did in two years, the Republicans couldn't do in eight years.  The difference is Obama made it a priority while, for Bush, it was unimportant.  Obama's foreign policy is far from a failure.  Aside from the victory over Al Qaida, his highly criticized support of the downfall of Gadhafi has proven to be a success.  He continues to support Israel as every other president has done but you would never know it by the response of the far right here and in Israel.  Iran is increasingly isolated while the Russians continue to reduce their nuclear arsenal.  He is keeping his word on Iraq and Afghanistan, two very serious wars he inherited.  Maybe we are asking too much of this President, maybe we are asking for perfection.  He is not Jesus.
Obama's economic policy is far from a failed policy.  Private sector jobs have grown every month since his policies were put into place.  About half of Americans are invested in the Stock Market which has doubled since the Great Recession.  If it weren't for the default threat in Europe, the Japanese tsunami, and a number of other natural disasters we have encountered, the market would be even higher!  Obama single-handedly saved the auto industry and actually made money for the taxpayers when the loans were paid back.  Even the bailout of the financial institutions made money for the taxpayers.

We are expecting far too much from the recovery from this recession in which eight million jobs were lost.  It is childlike to think that we could have recovered faster.  When you view this in the backdrop of the Tea Party victory in 2010, it is amazing we are doing as well as we are.  The Republican obstructionists have completely unhinged the recovery.  Their cuts to government have resulted in millions of lost jobs in the public sector.  These are middle class jobs in state and local government, education, law enforcement, clerical positions, etc.  While these middle class jobs are gone, they stubbornly insist on preserving the tax cuts for the wealthy.  It is nothing short of immoral for the poor and middle class to be punished for the antics of the financial industry.  The insult is that Republicans want to do away with regulations when it was the lack of regulations that got us into this mess!

Why are we not hearing about the failed policy of the tax-cutting Republican Tea Baggers?  After all, we ultimately will have twelve years of the Bush tax cuts and that has not created the kind of jobs growth we need to fully recover.  In fact, job growth has slowed since the Tea Party victory of 2010.  So where are the jobs?  The wealthy job creators have made record profits because of lower taxes, but have not produced the jobs.  That sounds like class warfare against the poor and middle class to me, and we are losing the war!

So the next time you hear anyone say this president is a failure, call them on it.  Certainly, not everything he has done has been a complete success, but we are much better off than when he took office.  If he had a cooperative Congress, we would be in much better shape.  It is our inability to function as a governemnt that is causing the lack of confidence in this country and around the world.  We are heading for a double dip if the Republicans continue to win in the next election.  God help us all.  Wake up America!

Obama Beats the Alternative

Yes, I'm disappointed in Obama.  He is not an FDR, he is not a leader of men.  He is not what we respect in America.  He is not a cowboy, he is not arrogant, he is not a "my way or the highway" kind of guy.  But look at the alternative.

Republicans are very good at criticizing, obstructing, and mocking the President, prefacing everything he has done as," failed".  But what do they offer as an alternative?  Tax cuts do not grow the economy or create jobs.  Give a middle class person a tax cut and it gets absorbed into the cost of gasing up their car, paying off credit card debt, paying for thier increase in health insurance, or catching up on a mortgage payment.  Those are all helpful but they do not create jobs.  The extra money doesn't buy a new car or refrigerator it just makes the insurance, banking, and oil industries richer. Trickle down economics doesn't work.  So if you look beyond their simplistic tax cut philosophy, what else do they have?  Less government, cutting the social safety net when people need it the most, and breaking unions which directly affects the middle class workers, all result in cutting jobs for the middle class worker.  This, in turn, lowers demand locally and has a ripple effect on the small businesses throughout the country.You can give a small businessman all the tax cuts in the world but if demand is not there, he is not going to expand his business.

 We need to grow our way out of this deficit, but large corporations are sitting on trillions in profits watching our nation go down the drain.  Obama has been handcuffed by the Republican House because they control the purse strings.  They've got him boxed in and by capitulating to them he has become impotent as a leader.  We have lost faith in our President when we most need him but he really is the only game in town.  There is no alternative unless you want to see this country, and the world for that matter, fall into a deep, dark abyss.

It is simply counterproductive to trash Obama at this point in time.  We appear to be a dysfunctional government as the rest of the world looks to us for solutions.  Consumer confidence is also negatively impacting our economy because of the lack of cooperation between Democrats and Republicans.  We are shooting ourselves in the foot because of the politics of obstruction.  Republican know if they can play rope-a-dope for the next few months, Obama will be blamed for what they have created.  In the meantime, how many more people will slip into poverty, lose their homes, or go bankrupt? 


  So I'm disappointed, but he still beats the alternative.  Stop bashing Obama and start to realize that the opposing party is devoid of ideas, heartless, and will dismantle government which will turn us into a third world country in a decade.  Wake up America!

The Help Helps Us All

  This movie, The Help, helps us all to remember a special time in our history when African Americans put their lives on the line to change the conservative culture of the South.  Even though the story is fictious, it captures the spirit of that time and reminds a new generation of the sacrifices Black Americans endured.  They fought against a conservative southern culture that treated them like second class citizens a hundred years after slavery ended.  In the movie you witness the roots of modern conservativism and wakes us up to the realities of what is happening today in our society.  Conservatives today would like nothing more than to gut government programs that help lift African Americans out of poverty.

African Americans during the Civil Rights period put their lives on the line to make it better for future generations.  We owe them a debt of gratitude for their courage but we also owe them a better world.  Otherwise, it was all in vain. Sacrificing your life for something you believed in is something very few people would do today.  Sadly, people wear their conservative philosophy like a badge of honor even when it includes prejudice.  That conservative southern culture has just repackaged itself today and is still trying to undermine struggling African Americans with substandard public schools, housing, and health care. 

Perhaps it is most important for young African Americans to see this movie as a source of pride in their heritage.  These wise black woman wanted a better life for their children and they knew that education was the way out of poverty. Too many young African Americans today have forgotten that message and get left behind when it comes to their education. 

It seems everyone today has forgotten the many themes of this movie and need to be reminded of our history again.  Most people today are complacent about the issues of prejudice, class warfare, and social injustice.  We need to have the courage to stand up for our convictions, for what is right and decent again, and we need our leaders to do just that.  Modern day conservatives are winning today because we have forgotten that right is might.  If you want your day in the sun, be prepared for a few blisters.  Draw on the courage of the women depicted in this movie.  Wake up America!  

Obstructionists Win, Win, Win!!!

It is a win, win, win for Republican conservative obstructionists!!!  There is absolutely no reason why they should give Obama an inch and he knows it.  Having the economy tank for the next year is the greatest political ploy they could ever hope for.  It is worth way more than any political cartoon or advertisement.  The pain and suffering inflicted on the massas only helps their cause.

The first win  for Republican obstructionists is that high unemployment and economic crisis will get Obama out of the White House.  If there was any meaningful dip in the unemployment rate, people would tend to give him a second chance.  Without it, Obama is extremely vulnerable.  So the Senate and the White House will give the Republicans complete control over our lives.

The second win comes by destroying public sector unions and eliminating collective bargaining at the state and local levels.  The public embraces this one because they hate unions anyway for the pensions and benefits that the private sector doesn't have.  So you have the rise of Republican Governors who are arrogantly throwing their weight around making cuts to the middle class public sector because the States are broke.

The third win comes in the way of destroying the social safety net which they have been trying to do for years.  Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are programs that cost too much now and must be modified.  Universal Health Care must be overturned and this is the time to do it.  They get everything they ever wanted and they do it by "starving the beast" and never raising tax revenue in any way, shape, or form.

There is no incentive for Republicans to cooperate with Obama even if it means destroying America's economy along with the rest of the world.  By controlling the House they control the purse strings with no regard for the effects on the poor and the middle class.  Their goal is complete political control and no one can stop them.

Sadly, there is no one in the Democratic Party who will expose them for what they are.  No one will challenge them, openly debate them, and take them on.  People are too complacent today to even demonstrate against them.  They are masters of manipulation and politics.  They are so good, they get people to vote against their self-interests!  Game over, they win, and we all lose.  Wake up America! 

Pyromaniacs of Politics

Republican conservatives started a fire under the leadership of President Bush and now they insist on watching our house burn to the ground rather than taking the necessary steps to put it out.

 President Clinton left Bush a surplus which, he insisted, had to be returned to the people.  Instead of paying down the debt, he initiated the ten year tax cut foolishly extended by Obama. A wise leader recognizes when the situation has changed and sadly, 9/11 was the beginning of our odyessy.  Two unpaid wars, a new branch of governemnt in Homeland Security, the housing crisis caused by deregulation, and a prescription drug plan  that was not paid for, set our house on fire.  Republicans ran up the tab under Bush which culminated in The Great Recession.  Bailouts, stimulus, and debt ceilings raised routinely were all necessary steps to put out the fire but we continued the same policy of tax reduction. 

Now our house is starting to collapse with a downgrade and the fire spread to Europe causing the flames to feed off each other.  Yet Republicans continue to act like it is 1999 and we need to return tax dollars to the people.  They won't even discuss closing loopholes on major corporations or having the wealthy pay their fair share.  They call these people the job creators, but they are sitting on trillions in profits and they are not creating jobs, at least not in this country. 

They refuse to raise revenue in any way and insist on cutting our way back to a balanced budget.  The polls say we need to raise revenue, the chief economists say we need to raise revenue, Standard and Poor's downgrade happened because we didn't raise revenue, and it's not even on the table because they all took a middle school pledge to Grover not to raise taxes.  It's like saying we're not going to use water to put out this fire.

While it may seem noble to some that Republicans refuse to raise taxes on the wealthy and the corporations, most of us who invested in the Stock Market are losing hundreds of thousands of dollars, much more than any tax increase. A tax increase is looking good in comparison to the trillions being lost in the Market!  The consequences of a down market also include the loss of jobs, and a loss of consumer confidence which will just pour gasoline on the fire!

This Conservative philosophy of never raising taxes is burning our house to the ground.  When the economy is in free fall everyone suffers, even the corporations and the wealthy.  It is all heading towards economic armageddon and it is all in the hands of the House Republicans.  John Boehner bragged that he got 98% of what he wanted.  Look at what has happened since the debt ceiling crisis, is that worth bragging about?  Since they got 98%, they now own this problem and must take responsibilty for it.  But they won't, they'll just blame Obama.  They start the fire and then blame someone else.  They are the Pyromaniacs of poitics!  Wise leaders have the sense enough to realize when the situation has changed.  Wake up America!

The Refrigerator Repairman vs. the Sub

I'm a recently retired elementary school teacher who occasionally substitutes in my former district.  After thirty-eight years in the classroom I was making a comfortable salary thanks to my union.  I never really thought much about the courageous substitute teachers I met through the years.  For many of these professionals who had spent a fortune on their undergraduate education and even more attaining a Master's Degree, they were now relying on a salary of about $85.00 a day or roughly $12.00 an hour.  Now, I was one of them, but I had a comfortable pension to rely on thanks to my union.

In contrast to this scenario, my local appliance repairman charges about the same amount ---just to walk in the door!  Only to let me know that my refrigerator is shot and I need a new one.  I'm sure his training did not involve 5 years of college tuition.  After five minutes he makes more than teachers who spend seven hours in a school putting up with all kinds of torture that kids unfortunately inflict upon subs.  In fact, if subs work everyday at that rate, they will make a maximum of $15,300 annually before taxes. 

Why is there such a discrepency between the two?  It hit me like a lightning bolt.  Subs are not unionized and that is the pay scale for a non-unionized worker.  Elementary catholic school teachers do a little better as do private school teachers, but not much better. The one thing they all have in common is that they all spent a fortune on their education and they're all making a substandard salary because they are not unionized.

So to all those young people out there who think unions are a thing of the past and are no longer necessary, remember this little story.  Most people would like teachers to work for the simple joy of working with children.  They think it is a cushy job for glorified babysitters.  Anything a teacher makes is too much for most taxpayers.  If it wasn't for unions we would still be shoveling coal to heat our classrooms.  Unions have provided teachers with a living wage that allows many to continue their education in the summer. This enables them to stay current with best practices, improving their teaching skills, rather than having to cut lawns to supplement their income.  Wake up America!

Cutting Government at the Wrong Time

This debt deal has hurt the economy not helped it.   Growth comes about only when there is a market to sustain it.  As long as our government keeps downsizing, public sector jobs will continue to be lost, as well as buying power.  This is a formula for disaster. 

                                 

Can someone explain to me how cutting public sector jobs helps the economy?  How can laying people off be good for unemployment?   Unemployment is going up and local revenues are going down, so how does that help us out of the worst recession in the history of our country?

Republicans are engaged in fuzzy math again.  Their simplistic remedies of tax cuts plays well with the voters but make no sense.  Public sector jobs prime the pump in a time of high unemployment.  It is the remedy that sustained us during the Great Depression until the ultimate stimulus came in the form of World War II.  Again, our government spent money giving huge contracts to private sector companies for the war effort.  Ultimately, it was government spending that got us out of the Great Depression.  Did we all sleep through history class?

Why don’t we take a page out of the Clinton economic plan in the nineties?  Clinton raised taxes on the wealthy without a single vote from the Republicans.  He also cut government spending.  The result was the greatest economy in our history creating growth and surpluses.  We need to grow ourselves out of this recession not cut government expenditures.  

When you cut public sector jobs you hurt the middle class worker and small businesses.  If you own a small business, are you going to expand when hundreds of teachers, postal workers, and government workers are being laid off?  Small businesses, which are the greatest creator of jobs, are going to shut their doors because public sector workers keep the economy going.  They are the job creators, not corporations that outsource jobs to increase their profit margin.

It is going to have a negative ripple effect on tax revenues, too.  When you lay off thousands of public sector workers, they don’t buy houses, don’t dine out, and don’t take vacations which lower sales tax revenues.  Let’s not forget that all of those layoffs translate into more unemployment benefits that need to be paid out.   As a result, next year, state and local governments will be in greater deficit forcing even more public sector layoffs and our taxes will still increase!

Our goal as a nation should be to keep people working not laying people off.  If anything, we need more public sector jobs to employ the millions of young people out of work.  This is an opportunity to fix the problems in infrastructure, education, health care, and energy.  The private sector has demonstrated their unwillingness to invest in this country.  They would rather create jobs in other countries to increase their profit margin.  They are sitting on trillions of dollars and getting the job done with foreign workers.  Personally, I would rather have a tax increase and have all our sons and daughters working!   Wake up America!

  

The Failed Tax Cut Policy

We have lived with the Bush tax cut now for over a decade and it is clear it isn’t working.  President Obama has continued the tax cuts and the unemployment numbers have worsened. 

During the Bush tax cut years we put the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars on our credit card, we passed a costly Prescription Drug Plan that was not paid for, we expanded government with the Department of Homeland Security all without increasing tax revenue.  All of this culminated with the Great Recession in which tax revenues dwindled and government expenditures for a much needed stimulus program and unemployment benefits drained the system even more.  Our government lost even more revenue with the housing crisis which continues to be a drag on our economy.

The Tea Party has some people convinced that we need to cut taxes and government even more which will exacerbate the problem further.  Did they ever consider that our government will not be able to function without added revenue?  Tax cuts get eaten up with higher prices at the gas pump and paying off credit card debt.  Obviously, tax cut don’t create jobs and actually hurt the economy by putting more middle class public sector workers out of a job.   The private sector has not come to the rescue outsourcing jobs to other countries.

We need to increase tax revenues by having the wealthy Americans along with corporate America pay their fair share.  The extra revenue must be used to create jobs so that consumers will start spending again, buying houses, and getting off the unemployment rolls.  This will increase corporate profits and the rich get richer.   Wake up America!

Dump the Tea (Party)

Please don't do me any favors!  Tea Party people want to save the country by making cuts to government with no revenue enhancement.  Are these people economic experts?  Did they get any input into the consequences of such a policy?  Some even went so far to say that default would not cause any problems to our economy.

Look at what has happened to the Stock Market when Standard and Poors did a simple downgrade from triple A+ to double A+.  The Market reacted with a dismal drop, mortgage rates will rise along with credit card interest.  All of this is a reaction to the stubborness of a small group of irrational Tea Party members elected by a "mandate" of a small group of voters.

This chain reaction of making an issue out of a routine rise of the debt ceiling caused a drop in the stock portfolio of thousands of dollars to most Americans.  So the Tea Party prevented a rise in taxes on the wealthy and I'm out thousands of dollars in my portfolio!  I would have been better off paying a higher tax rate, so please don't fight so hard for most of the middle class people invested in the Stock Market!  We lost way more because of the irresponsibility of a few radicals in the House of Representatives.

Cutting government spending translates into cutting government jobs in the public sector.  This economy is too fragile to take such a position.  Putting more people out of work can never be a good thing during a recession.  Causing a debt crisis will put even more people out of work when their portfolios get trashed.

We need to raise revenue to be specifically used to create jobs along with closing the loopholes in the corporate tax structure so that it doesn't add to the debt.  This would allow our country to grow our way out of this debt crisis.  Wake up America!