Soon there will be new motto for our country. “E pluribus
Unum” will soon be replaced by “every person for themselves”.
In one fell swoop this racist Congress turn back the clock
on the poor and middle class by twenty years. There is no explanation for why
blacks die at disproportionate rate when white cops engage with black men. Syndicated
columnist, Nicholas Kristof, wrote that young black men are 21 times
more likely to be shot and killed by police than young white men. If this is
true of law enforcement it seems logical to me that the same attitude would be
found in the legislature and the executive branch of our Government. Congress
has been persistent in their defiance of President Obama’s agenda. The
Republican’s have gone so far as to close down the government. Now we are faced
with both Houses having a Republican majority.
Passage of the Omnibus Spending Bill which funded the
Government for the next fiscal year has provision that should frighten most
middle class and underprivileged Americans.
The bill includes language that would gut Union pension
plans up to 40%.
The Senior Journal reported; “This last minute backroom deal
would, for the first time, amend the pension law to allow the earned vested
benefits of retirees to be cut,” leaving millions of retirees negatively
affected. The next pension check they receive could be $60 on every $ 100 they
anticipated receiving. Driving this point home, if the average retiree already
vested in their pension program, receiving $300 a month, can now anticipate
that soon that same check will be $180 per month. The Kline-Miller amendment is a disaster for
millions of retirees according to the Los Angeles Times.
Low income families have also been target in the new funding
bill. The Huffington Post reported, “Congress
did manage to trim a few areas of the budget. For example, the Special
Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, commonly
referred to as WIC, was on the receiving end of a $93 million budget cut. WIC provides low-income mothers
and children with vouchers that can be exchanged for food which meets certain
nutrition guidelines, although I imagine they'll be handing out a few less
vouchers after this deal goes through. If you're a family that depends on WIC
to put food on the table, this is terrible news.
Congress found money to fund banks that make bad deals when
using FDIC secured savings or we are once again in the business of guaranteeing
gamblers that when they go to the roulette table their losses will be covered
by taxpayers’ dollars. No surprise but this part of the bill was authored by
Citibank the same people who brought us the last bank failure that cost the
American taxpayer $600 billion dollars.
This is a different America from the one I knew as a child.
For a long time we have been warned about the squeeze on the middle class and
the growing division between the haves and the have not’s but we have ignored
those warning and the last election cycle was proof of our indifference.
Today, we have a black President but he is crippled by the
institutional racism found on the Hill. I feel ashamed for my Country.
Today, we have cops killing black men for selling cigarettes
on the street and ignoring his cries; “I can breathe” a cry he made 11 times.
Today, we have a cop who shot and killed a preteen black boy
carrying a toy gun. A cop who did not pass weapons training in his previous
position but was put on the streets of Cleveland with a live weapon.
Racism is alive and well in this Country. I thought that
with the Civil Rights Amendment and 50 years, we would elect a black president
and trust him to guide this Country but I was wrong.
We are in trouble. The World is in chaos. The World cannot
afford an America in turmoil. America must be the moral conscience for World
leaders. Unfortunately, we look more like a dysfunctional family than
leadership with a moral conscience.
If we are not careful, we will become a caliphate of the
rich and the entitled.
What should we expect for the average person?
A Walmart existence with substandard salaries that when
combined with government handouts will offer basic survival and no more. Who
will lead the caliphate? The Koch
Brothers Sheldon Adelson, Michael Bloomberg, George Soros names you know
because they are behind the charge to widen the dearth between the rich and
poor.
