Making Census Of It All Part 1
May I borrow you for a few minutes? I know time is money so I'll return the loan when I cash my next unemployment insurance check.
The experts say the "Great Recession" came to an end last year. Huh? The national unemployment rate is 9.8% according to the US Labor Department. In practical terms; counting those who have run out of benefits plus the severely underemployed and those who have given up pounding the pavement and banging their heads, the rate is closer to 20 percent.
Millions of families have lost or at risk of losing their homes. Foreclosures and property auctions are on the rise. Food pantries remain overwhelmed with requests for assistance.
In 2010 some people facing financial insecurity turned to groups such as the Tea Party Movement. They demanded the feds keep their hands off "guns and bibles" to paraphrase Sarah Palin in an April speech on the Boston Common. "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition" I get. (The song was written as a response to the attack on Pearl Harbor). But do the TP'ers think they can shoot and pray their way out of this economic mess?
Three years ago, the bottom fell out of the global economy and private sector markets. The response: on one hand, massive government payouts in the form of "stimulus" money. The best being the subsidy for laid off workers paying COBRA to keep their health benefits, in my opinion.
But that subsidy is over and done and the fight to extend unemployment insurance benefits took on a "Twilight Zonesque" veneer as Republicans forced President Obama and Congressional Democrats to hand over huge tax breaks to the wealthy in exchange for a few more months of UI.
Says James Carroll:, "If a just society is defined by the relationship between the well off and the very poor, we have big trouble. US Census data for 2010 show the widest rich-poor income gap on record."
In Europe, thousands hit the streets daily to protest cuts to the social safety net. In America, on the other hand, elected officials - and many of our neighbors, my friends - can't call for public austerity fast enough.
Because all those unemployed, hungry, and disaffected people need to start tightening their belts. In order to save money and bail out corporations too large to fail.
In fact, belts have gotten so tight blood flow to the brain has been restricted. That may explain all the tea flingers and their notions about Obama being the Anti-Christ.
The President's following a dangerous economic and foreign policy path - he calls it non-partisanship; others say the "military industrial complex" has never been stronger in Washington - but he's not the son of Satan. (That moniker is reserved for several members of the GW Bush cabinet).
So what of a liberal/progressive answer to the Tea Party enthusiasts? Union leaders, along with allies in the immigrant, GLBT, and environmental movements are taking tentative steps towards a unified response.
And it hasn't yet received a lot of press, but the folks at the Backbone Campaign, the Center for Media and Democracy, the Alliance for Democracy, and Move to Amend, have begun coordinating political actions through The Coffee Party.
Make mine French Roast with a bit of 2% milk.
The experts say the "Great Recession" came to an end last year. Huh? The national unemployment rate is 9.8% according to the US Labor Department. In practical terms; counting those who have run out of benefits plus the severely underemployed and those who have given up pounding the pavement and banging their heads, the rate is closer to 20 percent.
Millions of families have lost or at risk of losing their homes. Foreclosures and property auctions are on the rise. Food pantries remain overwhelmed with requests for assistance.
In 2010 some people facing financial insecurity turned to groups such as the Tea Party Movement. They demanded the feds keep their hands off "guns and bibles" to paraphrase Sarah Palin in an April speech on the Boston Common. "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition" I get. (The song was written as a response to the attack on Pearl Harbor). But do the TP'ers think they can shoot and pray their way out of this economic mess?
Three years ago, the bottom fell out of the global economy and private sector markets. The response: on one hand, massive government payouts in the form of "stimulus" money. The best being the subsidy for laid off workers paying COBRA to keep their health benefits, in my opinion.
But that subsidy is over and done and the fight to extend unemployment insurance benefits took on a "Twilight Zonesque" veneer as Republicans forced President Obama and Congressional Democrats to hand over huge tax breaks to the wealthy in exchange for a few more months of UI.
Says James Carroll:, "If a just society is defined by the relationship between the well off and the very poor, we have big trouble. US Census data for 2010 show the widest rich-poor income gap on record."
In Europe, thousands hit the streets daily to protest cuts to the social safety net. In America, on the other hand, elected officials - and many of our neighbors, my friends - can't call for public austerity fast enough.
Because all those unemployed, hungry, and disaffected people need to start tightening their belts. In order to save money and bail out corporations too large to fail.
In fact, belts have gotten so tight blood flow to the brain has been restricted. That may explain all the tea flingers and their notions about Obama being the Anti-Christ.
The President's following a dangerous economic and foreign policy path - he calls it non-partisanship; others say the "military industrial complex" has never been stronger in Washington - but he's not the son of Satan. (That moniker is reserved for several members of the GW Bush cabinet).
So what of a liberal/progressive answer to the Tea Party enthusiasts? Union leaders, along with allies in the immigrant, GLBT, and environmental movements are taking tentative steps towards a unified response.
And it hasn't yet received a lot of press, but the folks at the Backbone Campaign, the Center for Media and Democracy, the Alliance for Democracy, and Move to Amend, have begun coordinating political actions through The Coffee Party.
Make mine French Roast with a bit of 2% milk.
posted by I.B.I.S. Radio at
8:44 AM
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