It's About Good Paying Jobs, Stupid
It's About Good Paying Jobs, Stupid
None of the Presidential candidates and the Press are talking about what I want to hear.
I want to hear about their plan for good American jobs. I want to hear about affordable higher education. I want to hear about punishing employers of illegal aliens. I want to hear about securing our southern border. I want to hear about making
health care affordable. I want to hear about a wonderful America for my children and grandchildren. I want to hear about preparing America for the next generations instead of taking points made for the latest election. I don't want to give the extremely wealthy more by reducing efforts for the middle class and poor. I want to hear about the American Dream. I want to hear the truth. I want to hear about an affordable energy plan. I want to hear about the survival of the planet. I want to hear about a good international politics plan including dealing with terrorists that we can be proud of. I want to hear about a fair smart international trade policy.
I do not care that a contributor changed sides or that a candidate went into someone
else's state and reaped a lot of contributions. I don't care that someone said something politically incorrect about Mormons. The press should speak up on the issues. We do not need the Press to provide the public with soap operas. As Sargent Friday said, "just the facts...". Let's make the candidates work for the votes by expressing their plans and ideas instead of propaganda. I want the Press to expose the propaganda. I want to also know what makes them think they are qualified for the job?
The Press should be tough and but fair, not lollipops when they interview and report. It is up to the Press to help get the issues on the table.
It seems they are all spreading manure. Mushroom politics. We all know that to grow mushrooms they require to be kept in the dark and fed manure. American voters are not mushrooms. I am not a mushroom. Are you?
We do not need 4 or 8 more years of chaos. Most of us think we made a mistake selecting the current president because his approval rating is so low. Let's not do that again. Let's get the agendas out into the open this time.
Alice is Alive in the White House Wonderland
All American citizens have become Alice, a character trying to make sense of what does not make sense. The primary difference is that Alice was a fictional character and we are living it.
"A girl named
Alice is bored while on a picnic with her older sister, who is reading aloud. Alice takes interest in a passing
white rabbit that is dressed in a waistcoat and muttering "Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!" She follows the rabbit down a
rabbit hole, then finds herself falling down into a dreamlike world. As she continues to try to follow the rabbit, she has several adventures. She grows to gigantic size and then shrinks to a fraction of her original height, meets a group of small animals swimming in a sea of her own (previously shed) tears, and gets trapped in the rabbit's house when she enlarges herself again. After meeting the
Duchess, she carries away a baby which changes into a pig, then meets the
Cheshire cat, which disappears, leaving only its smile behind. She joins the
Mad Hatter and the
March Hare at a never-ending
tea party, goes to the seashore and meets a
Gryphon and a
Mock Turtle, and finally attends the trial of the Knave of Hearts, who has been accused of stealing tarts. Just as Alice defies the
Queen of Hearts, the dream ends and Alice wakes up at the picnic with her sister."
American citizens have a standard or at least expectations of our government. But we have seen very low standards and expectations haven't been met by this White House.
How can one man turn everyone in a Presidential Cabinet or other cabinet level officials into boobs? How can so many Generals be incompetants? I do not understand this.
How can the Department of Defense act so incompetently? Why was the after war so unprepared in Iraq? I can understand things going badly after one year, maybe two. But how come the war after 4 years is going so badly? How can they cut Veterans Administration budget when there is so many additional needy Veterans because of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars will be seeking benefits there? How can these wars last longer than WW II? Why do we have the scandal about the Veterans hospitals? After 4 years of war in Iraq, how come there are still shortages of equipment overall and especially in Iraq?
Housing is becoming unaffordable. Where is the affordable housing? Adult children return to their parents homes because they cannot afford to live anyplace else. Much of the rental stock was converted to coops and
condominiums over the last few decades but not much was replaced as rental property. And America grew 50% in population since 1968. Most of America is also priced out of buying property also.
American Education is falling behind at all levels. We have as many as half of the students in some categories dropping out before high school. We are graduating students from high school that are unprepared for today's jobs. Many graduates are illiterate. College and University studies are too expensive. It is also too expensive for older college graduates to return to school to be retrained in something that would lead to a new job.
Health costs are out of this world. Consumers and employers are complaining. Members of the health community are also unhappy. The federal government is the largest
payer of health costs with Medicare, Medicaid, federal employee, disabled, and retiree insurance including veterans. Where are the economics of scale...there are none. Why is America the only major country in the world without a national health plan? Why is there so much administration expense required today to oversee today's health plans? How can individuals that are paid providers by the federal government justify salaries of a million dollars or more each year? How come there are so many different prices charged to insurance companies and much higher prices to consumers by the drug companies, hospitals, and doctors? How come there are so many uninsured Americans?
Where are the good paying American jobs? America lost millions of good jobs during this administration. Minimum wage still has not been increased in a decade. Too many jobs that paid 3 or 4 times minimum wage a generation ago are only paying 1 or 2 times minimum wage today. Millions of illegal aliens are being exploited while taking American jobs. American citizens are being fired because they will not work for the lower wages and fewer benefits. There is no effort to stop the bleeding of American jobs overseas. Americans are replaced on the job in America by aliens.
The American dream is getting further away for more Americans each year. The Golden American Goose is being cooked by this administration. The American economy is driven by the American consumer. Much of the recent spending was driven by borrowing on home equity. As good paying jobs become scarcer, fewer Americans will be able to afford much more than basic living expenses. Far too many of our recent college graduates have excessive student debt.
Honesty. Americans expect honesty. It seems that the white House cooked the books about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, which brought the second Iraq war. It also seems that the White House cooked the books about leaking national secrets to out a CIA agent. White House leadership is playing dumb and called for committees to study the Walter Reed Hospital scandal, even though they were the ultimate executive staff to oversee it and to budget for it.
Token numbers of employers have been arrested for employing illegal aliens. The number is far reduced from recent previous Presidents. This Administration approves breaking of the law to hire illegal aliens.
It seems that White House leadership is great at telling a story. They are terrific spinners. They are experts at playing possum. And they can really dance. But what we have received in reality is different. The administration seems to believe they have godlike powers to do whatever they want or to magnify the powers of the executive.
This administration reduced funding to Veterans and student and other social groups to fund the reduced taxes for the very rich.
I am afraid that this administration will cause future powers of the executive to be restrained. It may even cause constitutional changes because too much authority seems to be placed there. It remains to be seen how much additional oversight will be made by this current Congress. The recent previous Congressional oversight led by Republican majorities were excessively lacking.
What a relief it would be if we could all wake up like Alice and find we have been dreaming.
