Welfare...Well, I Care

First, as will become readily apparent, thanks to all American taxpayers for helping my family and I get through the 1980’s.

In 1974 I made the decision to enter the military and take advantage of the GI Bill. And in 1982, it was with great pride that I graduated college and moved to Colorado with my wife and two kids. Let’s see, 1982, does that sound familiar? Yes, the savings and loan crisis, in addition to skyrocketing interest rates.

So, less than 6 months after graduating college, I was laid off from the bankrupt big-box discount store’s management training program. This is where I feel a strong kinship to the young college grads of today. Since I was going to college full-time and didn’t work full-time, I had no work quarters accrued to draw any unemployment. Moving back to my Mom’s, in a neighboring state, wasn’t an option for a family of four.

Fortunately, my wife was able to find employment and I scrambled to find seasonal and part-time work. Remember, in 1982 a serious recession was taking place and the employment picture was not good. Take into account that the minimum wage in 1982 was about $3.80 per hour and you can see why we needed the safety net of public assistance. We were able to supplement our food needs with government staples, not the least of which was cheese and dry milk. We would mix a gallon of the mixed dry milk with a gallon of regular milk and get 2 gallons that way.

I tell this story because the Republicans seem to categorize anyone who needs public assistance as being leeches. My wife and I were working and were very grateful for the public assistance provided.  Today, our politicians want to polarize Americans against each other. They paint corporate welfare [tax cuts, tax credits and tax increment financing] as investing in job creators. However, after 10 years of “investing” there has been no job creation, just wealth creation.

Please think! If you have ever had to get an education loan or grant, you must vote for Obama. If you have ever received a farm subsidy, you must vote for Obama. If you have ever had to stand in line to apply for unemployment, you must vote for Obama. If you have ever received a government-backed home loan, you must vote for Obama.  In 2012, we are coming out of the worst economy since the Great Depression, caused by over-zealous Republican tax giveaways and financiers who were given a blank check by lack of government regulation. It takes more than 3 years to come out of that kind of fiscal irresponsibility. Our government is for all of us, not just for the wealthy.

People on welfare are not the drain on our nation’s economic well-being as the Republicans want us to believe. Repubs simply want to suppress the vote on those who have had to request government assistance, while they take control of the government. Tea Party Repubs are using communist party tactics similar to what was used in USSR. Only 4% of the USSR population was communist but since only a certain number of people could vote, the communist party took over. We need to take our country back.  Vote for Obama; Forward….Together.

My Campaign Speech (If I were running for Prez)

I’m a nobody from Nebraska. My first exposure to the democratic process began as a 12 year old on a summer day in 1968. We walked the few blocks to the depot near the railroad tracks. The crowd surrounding the depot seemingly grew to twice as large as the population of this tiny farming community. Some were on the roof of the Lazy L Hotel on the corner of Highway 30 and Washington St. I was standing near a rope line, strung along some steel fence posts, kind of fidgeting with the knot of the rope. I looked up for a moment and on the other side of the line was a large gentleman, wearing sunglasses, arms crossed, looking down and shaking his head. Soon, a train draped in American flags, slowly rolls to a stop in front of the depot. After several introductions, Robert Kennedy steps to the microphone and gives a speech that cut the umbilical cord of my political birth. It would help my narrative if I said I remembered every word, but I don’t remember the speech. However, I embrace the memory of his stance to raise up the poor, his voice against discrimination and war and for equal rights and peace.

All these years later and many of the same themes of our lives and politics are the same. Our economy is recovering from years Republican mismanagement. Years of unbudgeted wars, unfunded educational promises and unfunded prescription drug programs. We question the wisdom of government versus the wisdom of market-driven, profiteering corporations. Which entity has the interest of over 300 million US citizens at heart? Our lives are intertwined through, rail, state and interstate highways, airlines, waterways, electrical grids, cell towers and the internet. Does a corporation have our collective interests, beyond profits, as its goal? Or is that the government’s pursuit?  Despite the lack of progress in Washington, I trust our government to invest in our interests more than any corporate mission statement. We who sat on the sidelines during the 2010 elections saw the result of our inaction. Voting does matter. The Republicans in state houses across the country don’t share the same social, economic, cultural, or foreign policy views as common-minded, common sense Americans. The Republican-led assault on our individual rights is an affront to our constitution. 

The crux of the debate is the value of the shareholder against the value of the stakeholder. The compensation chasm that has been drudged over the years was caused by CEO with payment packages dependent on daily fluctuations in the stock values. The value of the shareholder took precedence over the value of the stakeholder. Shouldn’t employees that are closest to the customer, the “face” of the company be much better paid? How dare any plutocrat tell a service worker to get a real job! Indeed, our nation’s farmers, those who grow our food, the true “family” farmers are shut out of the direct payment farm subsidy programs by agribusiness companies located hundreds of miles from a center pivot.

Be silent no more. When you sit down for breakfast tomorrow and look at your eggs and bacon. Ask yourself; are you the chicken or the hog?  We are emotionally and financially tied to our employers, our communities, and our co-workers. Did CEO cut jobs from a stockholder value perspective so that their prized chickens didn’t run down Wall Street and put their eggs in a different investment. We the hard-working middle class sacrificed our lives to move to communities and build our homes and grow our families, and educate our children. Yet when recessions hit, like 2008, millions of our jobs were sent to slaughter like your breakfast hog.

The financial sector put short-term quick profits above long-term socio-economic responsibility. Many companies folded over the years and took pensions with them. Are these institutions that squandered our pensions and received taxpayer relief the same institutions speculating in oil futures and driving up fuel costs?

Republicans don’t want smaller government; instead, they want an intrusive monarchy where tax collectors go the hinterlands collecting taxes from unrepresented subjects. They want to roll back the clock where there is no EPA to monitor the lead and mercury in our drinking water or fine companies for permanent oil sheens on our waterways and oceans.  They want to roll back the clock so that there are no federal regulations to stifle corporate greed and to promote social good. They want to roll back the clock to a time when our mothers, sisters and daughters are forced to wear scarlet letters on their chests! Republican men, what are you thinking… with? This head our….that head. Their goal is to create a social caste system so that our right to vote and our citizenship is always questioned because of our socio-economic status.

While banks were seeking the pot of gold over the derivative-driven rainbows, we in the lower caste were hit with a torrential downpour of unregulated banking ineptitude. Have you recouped all you lost in your 401k during the big recession in 2008? Most had to cash in their 401s to pay bills, to simply survive day to day buying gas and food and paying rent or mortgages. Many of the same banks that were bailed out continue to seek ways to increase banking fees. When you are a few days late on a credit card payment or go a modest $40 to $50 over the credit limit, they will increase the interest rate from 12% to 22%, creating a legacy customer. Just pay more than the minimum payment, they tell you.  Yeah, right! The 10% increase in the interest rate just ate up any extra you can afford and stretched the payoff from 10 years to 20 years. Shame on congress. You allowed banks to lobby you to take away usury laws. You penalized credit card customers into becoming a long-term captive market.

The other day, one of the Koch brothers characterized this election cycle as the mother of all wars. That reminded me of a lesson I learned during Marine basic training. It was early in the training cycle and we were preparing for our first 3 mile unit run. Each man was put into an assigned spot in the formation and we needed to stay in that spot during the run. So, we’re running along, eventually some of the men start to fall back, not able to keep the pace. The drill sergeant wants us to turn around to go back for those not able to keep up. However, some of us, eager to impress, keep running. Survival of the fittest, right? No so much! The drill sergeant stops us, puts us back in formation with those who fell back, now set to lead us on the run. After a number of 4 count pushups, the drill sergeant impressed upon us that on the battlefield, no Marine is left behind!  We are only as strong as our weakest body and when we strengthen the weakest, we as a unit are stronger.

Ladies and gentlemen, at this time in history when our fellow citizens are falling back in finding a job; are falling back in how to pay for gas and health care and child care and mortgages, I will circle back for you! I will circle back for you Wisconsin. I will circle back for you Michigan! I will circle back for you Ohio and Indiana! I will circle back for you Florida, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Arizona! No citizen will be left behind on the battlefield of economic warfare! America…we lead with you!

I’m a nobody from Nebraska. The rail depot that once stood in my small, south-central Nebraska hometown is gone. The Lazy L is no more. When I go back to visit Mom, I sometimes walk over the pedestrian bridge that now spans the railroad tracks and look down where my life intersected with Robert Kennedy’s. His voice seemingly resonating that no matter your socio-economic status you are somebody with a vote. America, is what you’re seeing in the Republican led state houses acceptable American behavior? Republican or Democrat or Independent; moderate or conservative or liberal, this is our call to arms.  Our votes shape our destiny!  Let’s shape our destiny together! God Bless You and God Bless the United States of America!