Tweet
“The Economy is Not Obama’s Biggest Problem – It’s The Republican Sabotage of America
August 23, 2011 08:40 AM
by Eric L. Wattree
Atlanta Post
The economy is not President Obama’s biggest problem. The nation’s sluggish economy and lack of jobs are merely a symptom of the GOP’s reckless, all out assault on the American people. Part of that assault is purposely keeping unemployment high in order to keep the people miserable, hungry, and divided until the next election. Many progressive and independent thinkers clearly recognize this glaring fact, yet, Obama seems to be completely oblivious to it, or at the very least, failing to educate the American people regarding what is going on.
Our current condition is a part of the GOP’s “final solution” to an unwavering agenda that they’ve pursued since the days of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. They are determined to reverse “the New Deal,” and the poor and middle-class safety net provided therein.
The New Deal was a series of programs instituted by President Roosevelt between 1933 and 1936 during the Great Depression. The programs were designed to bring relief to the poor and middle class, help the economy to recover from the depression, and reform the behavior of the wheelers and dealers who caused the depression in the first place. So naturally, the wheelers and dealers were dead set against the programs then, just as they continue to be today.
Two of the programs that the corporatists hated most was the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Social Security Act – again, two of the very same programs that are under attack today. Corporatists were against these programs from their very inception for exactly the same reasons they’re intensely hostile to them now – they serve to loosen the corporate yoke from around the throats of poor and middle-class workers.
The Fair Labor Standards Act guaranteed a minimum wage for workers, established a 40-hour workweek and time-and-a-half for overtime. The act also prohibited “oppressive child labor.” Prior to the FLSA, companies could force workers to work for as many hours as they saw fit, without having to pay overtime, and they were allowed to pay the workers whatever crumbs they decided to throw their way. And since there was no such thing as social security, and families also had to support elderly family members, instead of sending their children of eight and nine years-old to school, they were forced to send them to work on oppressive and often life-threatening jobs in coal mines and such just so the family could survive.
<span style="font-weight: bold">These are the conditions that the GOP is in a fierce battle to hoist upon poor and middle-class American workers again. Hyperbole? I don’t think so</span>. Reversing the New Deal has been a primary goal of the Republican Party for over 70 years now, but New Deal programs, like the FLSA and Social Security, have been so popular with the American people that they’ve been politically untouchable. Clear evidence of that is the heat the Republicans received after it was revealed earlier this year that the GOP budget proposal included “modifying” social security and medicare – even the Tea Party turned on them. Thereafter, the huge Tea Party rallies that we saw last year all but disappeared. At this point the only thing that’s holding the Tea Party coalition together is corporate promotion. But in spite of the millions of dollars of corporate funds being poured into it, the movement has gone from a mighty roar to a whimper, at best.
But the GOP hasn’t given up. In the new global economy multinational corporations are now forced to compete with corporations based in countries that pay their workers less per week than the average American worker spends on lunch per day. As a result, the American middle-class standard of living has become a liability to these corporations, so they and their political allies have become bound and determined to address this issue “by any means necessary.”
So after the 2000 election of George W. Bush the GOP embarked on a long-term plan. If they couldn’t go after the New Deal politically, they decided to purposely ravage the national treasury, making it next to impossible to fund New Deal programs – Thus, the useless war in Iraq, and the huge Bush tax cuts for the rich.
<span style="font-weight: bold">Political Correction.org points out the following:</span>
<span style="font-style: italic">“. . . the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office dealt another blow to Republicans clinging to the notion that the Bush tax cuts did not help fuel the surge in deficits over the past decade. In a new report, CBO estimates a cumulative deficit of $6.2 trillion from 2002-2011; with a price tag of $2.02 trillion, the Bush tax cuts, including last year’s extension, are responsible for almost one-third of the shortfall.”</span>
<span style="font-style: italic">MSN Money goes on to say that when you combine the war in Iraq, the Wall St. Bailout, and the Bush tax cut to the rich, “George W. Bush’s presidency cost the country about $11.5 trillion, if we estimate liberally.”</span>
So the nation is not in the situation that we find ourselves by accident. The GOP is engaged in a plot against America that we’ve come to know quite well. They repeatedly use the same strategy. They circumvent the will of the American people by backing us up against the wall, then holding us hostage to get what they want in concessions. The hostages of this GOP tactics include unemployed workers, first responders, our troops, and now America as a whole. While poor and middle-class troops are out dying for this country, GOP politicians are at home plotting to cut their parents’ pay, and rob their grandparents of their social security and medicare in order to subsidize huge tax cuts for the rich – and what makes it even worse is the children of the rich beneficiaries of this gross assault on America are no longer even expected to fight and die for the country.
If that’s not enough to support my thesis that the GOP has become the domestic enemy of America, now they’re after our children. Think Progress reported the following:
“Maine State Sen. Debra Plowman (R) introduced a separate bill that would extend the number of hours employers can require a minor to work. Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) backs this proposal.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) delivered a lengthy lecture where he claimed that federal child labor laws violate the Constitution. His Republican colleagues in the Senate rewarded him with a seat on the Senate Judiciary Committee — the committee with jurisdiction over constitutional questions.
Missouri State Sen. Jane Cunningham (R) introduced a bill which would “eliminate the prohibition on employment of children under age fourteen. Restrictions on the number of hours and restrictions on when a child may work during the day are also removed.”
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s (R) most recent brief attacking the Affordable Care Act relies heavily on a discredited Supreme Court decision striking down a federal child labor law that was overruled decades ago.
Judges Roger Vinson and Henry Hudson the two outlier judges who struck down the ACA, also relied heavily on this discredited anti-child labor decision in their decisions.”
So while we’re experiencing severe economic times, that’s far from America’s most serious problem. Our most severe problem is that we have a crazed Republican Party loose in the nation that’s already turned the state of Michigan into Michighanistan, a Democratic Party that’s all but useless, and a president who seems to be sleepwalking.
I think it’s about time that we wake up.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<span style="font-style: italic">Eric L. Wattree is a writer, poet, and musician, born in Los Angeles. He’s a columnist for The Los Angeles Sentinel, Black Star News, The Atlanta Post, and several other publications. He’s also a staff writer for Veterans Today and the author of “A Message From the Hood</span>.”
August 23, 2011 08:40 AM
by Eric L. Wattree
Atlanta Post
The economy is not President Obama’s biggest problem. The nation’s sluggish economy and lack of jobs are merely a symptom of the GOP’s reckless, all out assault on the American people. Part of that assault is purposely keeping unemployment high in order to keep the people miserable, hungry, and divided until the next election. Many progressive and independent thinkers clearly recognize this glaring fact, yet, Obama seems to be completely oblivious to it, or at the very least, failing to educate the American people regarding what is going on.
Our current condition is a part of the GOP’s “final solution” to an unwavering agenda that they’ve pursued since the days of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. They are determined to reverse “the New Deal,” and the poor and middle-class safety net provided therein.
The New Deal was a series of programs instituted by President Roosevelt between 1933 and 1936 during the Great Depression. The programs were designed to bring relief to the poor and middle class, help the economy to recover from the depression, and reform the behavior of the wheelers and dealers who caused the depression in the first place. So naturally, the wheelers and dealers were dead set against the programs then, just as they continue to be today.
Two of the programs that the corporatists hated most was the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Social Security Act – again, two of the very same programs that are under attack today. Corporatists were against these programs from their very inception for exactly the same reasons they’re intensely hostile to them now – they serve to loosen the corporate yoke from around the throats of poor and middle-class workers.
The Fair Labor Standards Act guaranteed a minimum wage for workers, established a 40-hour workweek and time-and-a-half for overtime. The act also prohibited “oppressive child labor.” Prior to the FLSA, companies could force workers to work for as many hours as they saw fit, without having to pay overtime, and they were allowed to pay the workers whatever crumbs they decided to throw their way. And since there was no such thing as social security, and families also had to support elderly family members, instead of sending their children of eight and nine years-old to school, they were forced to send them to work on oppressive and often life-threatening jobs in coal mines and such just so the family could survive.
<span style="font-weight: bold">These are the conditions that the GOP is in a fierce battle to hoist upon poor and middle-class American workers again. Hyperbole? I don’t think so</span>. Reversing the New Deal has been a primary goal of the Republican Party for over 70 years now, but New Deal programs, like the FLSA and Social Security, have been so popular with the American people that they’ve been politically untouchable. Clear evidence of that is the heat the Republicans received after it was revealed earlier this year that the GOP budget proposal included “modifying” social security and medicare – even the Tea Party turned on them. Thereafter, the huge Tea Party rallies that we saw last year all but disappeared. At this point the only thing that’s holding the Tea Party coalition together is corporate promotion. But in spite of the millions of dollars of corporate funds being poured into it, the movement has gone from a mighty roar to a whimper, at best.
But the GOP hasn’t given up. In the new global economy multinational corporations are now forced to compete with corporations based in countries that pay their workers less per week than the average American worker spends on lunch per day. As a result, the American middle-class standard of living has become a liability to these corporations, so they and their political allies have become bound and determined to address this issue “by any means necessary.”
So after the 2000 election of George W. Bush the GOP embarked on a long-term plan. If they couldn’t go after the New Deal politically, they decided to purposely ravage the national treasury, making it next to impossible to fund New Deal programs – Thus, the useless war in Iraq, and the huge Bush tax cuts for the rich.
<span style="font-weight: bold">Political Correction.org points out the following:</span>
<span style="font-style: italic">“. . . the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office dealt another blow to Republicans clinging to the notion that the Bush tax cuts did not help fuel the surge in deficits over the past decade. In a new report, CBO estimates a cumulative deficit of $6.2 trillion from 2002-2011; with a price tag of $2.02 trillion, the Bush tax cuts, including last year’s extension, are responsible for almost one-third of the shortfall.”</span>
<span style="font-style: italic">MSN Money goes on to say that when you combine the war in Iraq, the Wall St. Bailout, and the Bush tax cut to the rich, “George W. Bush’s presidency cost the country about $11.5 trillion, if we estimate liberally.”</span>
So the nation is not in the situation that we find ourselves by accident. The GOP is engaged in a plot against America that we’ve come to know quite well. They repeatedly use the same strategy. They circumvent the will of the American people by backing us up against the wall, then holding us hostage to get what they want in concessions. The hostages of this GOP tactics include unemployed workers, first responders, our troops, and now America as a whole. While poor and middle-class troops are out dying for this country, GOP politicians are at home plotting to cut their parents’ pay, and rob their grandparents of their social security and medicare in order to subsidize huge tax cuts for the rich – and what makes it even worse is the children of the rich beneficiaries of this gross assault on America are no longer even expected to fight and die for the country.
If that’s not enough to support my thesis that the GOP has become the domestic enemy of America, now they’re after our children. Think Progress reported the following:
“Maine State Sen. Debra Plowman (R) introduced a separate bill that would extend the number of hours employers can require a minor to work. Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) backs this proposal.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) delivered a lengthy lecture where he claimed that federal child labor laws violate the Constitution. His Republican colleagues in the Senate rewarded him with a seat on the Senate Judiciary Committee — the committee with jurisdiction over constitutional questions.
Missouri State Sen. Jane Cunningham (R) introduced a bill which would “eliminate the prohibition on employment of children under age fourteen. Restrictions on the number of hours and restrictions on when a child may work during the day are also removed.”
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s (R) most recent brief attacking the Affordable Care Act relies heavily on a discredited Supreme Court decision striking down a federal child labor law that was overruled decades ago.
Judges Roger Vinson and Henry Hudson the two outlier judges who struck down the ACA, also relied heavily on this discredited anti-child labor decision in their decisions.”
So while we’re experiencing severe economic times, that’s far from America’s most serious problem. Our most severe problem is that we have a crazed Republican Party loose in the nation that’s already turned the state of Michigan into Michighanistan, a Democratic Party that’s all but useless, and a president who seems to be sleepwalking.
I think it’s about time that we wake up.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<span style="font-style: italic">Eric L. Wattree is a writer, poet, and musician, born in Los Angeles. He’s a columnist for The Los Angeles Sentinel, Black Star News, The Atlanta Post, and several other publications. He’s also a staff writer for Veterans Today and the author of “A Message From the Hood</span>.”