I ask myself why our system is set up in a way that penalizes those of us that work hard, and rewards those of us that do the bare minimum. Why is it that the richest among us get richer, while the rest of us tread water to stay afloat? Getting health insurance and other state benefits would be a breeze if we would just stop working and apply for state assistance. I have actually had people tell me that a state caseworker has told them to take some unpaid time off to bring them to with-in the income guidelines! This is not an isolated incident; I have heard many people say that they have gotten the same advice. This advise is, of course, “off the record".
Off the record or not, this is a persistent and serious problem. The middle class is constantly bombarded with this type of issue. When kids go off to college, they are left wondering how they are going to pay for it. Again, there is a gap between those of us that get full funding and those that get nothing at all. It is this gap between the poorest and the richest that many of us fall into and can’t get out of without going backwards. It is an "all or nothing" system.
Many of the poorest people stay poor because they are content “playing” the system, while the middle class is stuck because they make too much to qualify for benefits that might help them get ahead. Of course if you were born into money you would be set because it is true what they say, “it takes money to make money.”
Don’t take me wrong, there are poor people out there that truly need the help that our welfare system provides in its current state and that don’t abuse the system but there are many on state assistance who go around bragging about how they get all this help and don’t have to do anything. Many of these same people are buying “toys” like snowmobiles and ATVs, all while drinking, doing drugs, and smoking a pack or two of cigarettes a day. I was recently behind this guy in a convenience store that literally bought them out of his brand of cigarettes. While cashing out he said, while laughing, that he should get a discount for buying so often. After he left the store the cashier muttered under her breath that she couldn’t believe that he asked for a discount on cigarettes when he was spending food stamps in the store every day!
It is people such as that that give the welfare system a bad name. We need to figure out a way to discourage this type of person from staying perpetually in the system. We need to revise the system to provide incentives to move forward, not backward and that rewards those of us that work hard everyday to stay off the system. We need incentives and encouragement for those of us that take a leap and start a business; maybe offer more grants to get started. Of course, a grant shouldn’t be offered unless there is a solid business plan in place and the entrepreneur has invested their own time and money into the venture.
Maybe the welfare system should be set up so that benefits go out in the form of a loan, rather than as a free “no obligation” benefit. If there was a commitment to pay all or even part of it back once you got back on your feet, maybe there would not be “career” welfare recipients dragging the rest of us backwards.
Another idea, maybe have a prorated benefit system so that if a family needs just a little help they can get it. On the other extreme, some of societies richest have found admirable ways to spend their money on charity and for the good of society such as Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. Bill Gates started The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Warren Buffett donated almost 40 billion dollars to the foundation. "I don't believe in dynastic wealth", Warren Buffett once said, calling those who grow up in wealthy circumstances "members of the lucky sperm club.” I recently heard an interview with one of his sons where the son stated that his father had never given him any money and he knew better than to ask because it was his father’s belief that his kids should grow up independent of him and make themselves successful of their own accord.
Of course, it is a very small percentage of the wealthy that think in this way. There are many more that try to buy seats in Congress so that they can work on their own agendas, like cutting taxes for the rich, putting more of a burden on middle-class. There are even a few such as Rupert Murdoch that have bought a large percentage of the media sources such as newspapers and TV stations in order to control what news the bulk of people hear.
Our welfare system in the United States has many issues; I think that we can all agree on that. We need to work together, revise the system and make it so that it allows everyone more equal opportunity. I do realize that we will never have a perfect system, but I hope that our system can be changed to better help those of us that are “stuck” in the middle.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Saturday, October 9, 2010
National Foreclosure Freeze
As the economic recovery takes hold there are still major problems in the housing market. Everyday people that had been paying their mortgage payments are now finding that they can't because of a job loss. Many more homeowners are just a lost paycheck away from getting behind on their payments. The initial wave of foreclosure was based in part to payments that were adjusted up because of deceptive lending practices and from borrowers not reading (or maybe not understanding) the fine print.
Recently though, there have been allegations that many of the largest banks didn't read the fine print themselves and that mortgage applications were signed in mass quantities to expedite the process! Now there is concern that many of these same banks have filed false affidavits in thousands of foreclosure cases and are foreclosing on homeowners without due process.
Bank of America just became the first bank to institute a nation wide foreclosure freeze while it reviews its procedures. Hopefully, more of the big banks will follow suite and do the same. It seems that it is only fair that they would be bound by the same contracts that the rest of us are. After all, one would expect that they would have known what was in the fine print that they had put there! The U.S. Senate Banking Committee will be holding a hearing looking into the matter on November 16th.
Recently though, there have been allegations that many of the largest banks didn't read the fine print themselves and that mortgage applications were signed in mass quantities to expedite the process! Now there is concern that many of these same banks have filed false affidavits in thousands of foreclosure cases and are foreclosing on homeowners without due process.
Bank of America just became the first bank to institute a nation wide foreclosure freeze while it reviews its procedures. Hopefully, more of the big banks will follow suite and do the same. It seems that it is only fair that they would be bound by the same contracts that the rest of us are. After all, one would expect that they would have known what was in the fine print that they had put there! The U.S. Senate Banking Committee will be holding a hearing looking into the matter on November 16th.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Obama's Chicago Speech
I heard a truly great speech today. It was a speech that hit on points that I have been thinking about a lot myself. The speech was President Obama in Chicago campaigning for his friend Alexi Giannoulias' Senate campaign. He was both funny and serious at the same time, reminding his audience about where we were but a few short years ago, "Two years ago, you defied the conventional wisdom in Washington-because they said you couldn't overcome the cynicism of our politics. You couldn't overcome the special interests. You can't make big progress on big issues. Can't happen. They said, no, you can't. What did you say? Yes we can. You said, yes, we can"
He goes on to say that after the last election, it was his hope to pull together Democrats and Republicans and tackle the problems, "That was my fervent hope because we may be proud Democrats, but we're prouder to be Americans. And there are Republicans across the country who feel the same way." Obviously that didn't happen, instead most of the opposing party has said no to every suggestion, dragging their heals and trying to make things even more difficult. "And they spent the last 20 months saying no-even to policies that they had supported in the past. They said no to middle-class tax cuts. They said no to help for small businesses. They said no to a bipartisan deficit reduction commission that they had cosponsored. And when I was for it, suddenly they were against it. If I said the sky was blue, they said no. If I said there were fish in the sea-no. Their calculation was if Obama fails, we win. They were very explicit about it."
As he goes on, he draws a mental picture of the Republican Party figuring that since they knew it was going to take years to get out of the mess that President Bush had got us into, it was better politically to just wait it out until people were losing patience and then come in and blame it all on the Democrats to try to win back the Congress.
He likened the recession to the Republican Party driving the car into a ditch and then leaving it for the Democrats to push out and get back on level ground. "We put on our boots; it was muddy, it was hot. There's bugs. But we pushed and we pushed and we pushed. And every once in a while we'd look up and see the Republicans up there, looking comfortable, fanning themselves-sipping Slurpees. And we'd say, why don't you come down here and help? And they'd say, NO! But you're not pushing hard enough. You're not pushing the right way. And we just kept on pushing. And finally, we got the car up on level ground. Finally we got it on level ground."
"Now it's gone through some trauma, so the fender is all dented, needs a tune-up. But it's on level ground, it's pointing in the right direction. And suddenly, we feel this tap on our shoulder, and we look back and it's the Republicans. And we say, what do you want? They say, We want the keys back."
Now that the economy is stable the Republican Party wants to take back over after doing almost nothing to contribute to the recovery even when President Obama tried to reach out to them for thoughts and cooperation. The economy is slowly getting better and we need to have even more patience while things work their way out. We need to get people motivated to vote in the upcoming election, no matter what political party they are for. If people don't vote they lose their right to speak out when things don't go the way they want. You can view the complete speech at http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/10/07/remarks-president-reception-alexi-giannoulias.
He goes on to say that after the last election, it was his hope to pull together Democrats and Republicans and tackle the problems, "That was my fervent hope because we may be proud Democrats, but we're prouder to be Americans. And there are Republicans across the country who feel the same way." Obviously that didn't happen, instead most of the opposing party has said no to every suggestion, dragging their heals and trying to make things even more difficult. "And they spent the last 20 months saying no-even to policies that they had supported in the past. They said no to middle-class tax cuts. They said no to help for small businesses. They said no to a bipartisan deficit reduction commission that they had cosponsored. And when I was for it, suddenly they were against it. If I said the sky was blue, they said no. If I said there were fish in the sea-no. Their calculation was if Obama fails, we win. They were very explicit about it."
As he goes on, he draws a mental picture of the Republican Party figuring that since they knew it was going to take years to get out of the mess that President Bush had got us into, it was better politically to just wait it out until people were losing patience and then come in and blame it all on the Democrats to try to win back the Congress.
He likened the recession to the Republican Party driving the car into a ditch and then leaving it for the Democrats to push out and get back on level ground. "We put on our boots; it was muddy, it was hot. There's bugs. But we pushed and we pushed and we pushed. And every once in a while we'd look up and see the Republicans up there, looking comfortable, fanning themselves-sipping Slurpees. And we'd say, why don't you come down here and help? And they'd say, NO! But you're not pushing hard enough. You're not pushing the right way. And we just kept on pushing. And finally, we got the car up on level ground. Finally we got it on level ground."
"Now it's gone through some trauma, so the fender is all dented, needs a tune-up. But it's on level ground, it's pointing in the right direction. And suddenly, we feel this tap on our shoulder, and we look back and it's the Republicans. And we say, what do you want? They say, We want the keys back."
Now that the economy is stable the Republican Party wants to take back over after doing almost nothing to contribute to the recovery even when President Obama tried to reach out to them for thoughts and cooperation. The economy is slowly getting better and we need to have even more patience while things work their way out. We need to get people motivated to vote in the upcoming election, no matter what political party they are for. If people don't vote they lose their right to speak out when things don't go the way they want. You can view the complete speech at http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/10/07/remarks-president-reception-alexi-giannoulias.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Has Obama Let Us Down?
As an Obama supporter, I have been finding myself growing weary of constantly defending him. I have been asking myself if he is the right guy for the job. Having read some of his books, I can tell you that his philosophy seems to be genuine. I believe that he is trying as hard as anyone to be bi-partisan and that he really does want to make the changes that his supporters want. He is just hitting some snags midway through his term such as a falling level of public support and a midterm election approaching that appears to be going to the other party.
His support is falling due in part to the length of time that it is taking for the economic recovery to take hold. People are growing tired of waiting for results. You have to remember that we knew that as painful as it was, the recovering economy was going to need time to heal. It took time to get to where we are now and will probably take even longer to get back to the way things were before. Results will not be instant and change doesn’t happen overnight or even over a couple of years. We need to bear with it and have faith that Obama is doing a good job, regardless of the way it may look right now. He has, after all, fulfilled more of the campaign promises he made during his campaign than most of the elected ever do, and this is the change that we elected him for.
Obama has accomplished some great things as our President such as getting a credit card bill passed that protects consumers from predatory lending, signing into law the “Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act” which expands a worker’s right to sue their employer over pay discrimination claims, passing the SCHIP expansion that expands health care benefits to cover 4 million more low-income children (Bush vetoed a similar bill), and among other things, passing the health care overhaul bill (The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) that expands insurance coverage and protects people from having their insurance dropped because they are sick. He has also put policies in place that make government more transparent by banning lobbyist’s gifts and that restrict the hiring of lobbyists. He has also made it policy to publish the White House visitor logs and other records.
I do admit that it is still to be seen how all this plays out over the next few years, but I for one am going to stick it out knowing that these are some of the things that I wanted to be accomplished. A little support goes a long way. You just need to take a look back, try to visualize your thoughts at the time of the last election, and know what is right. Just because the media is making this into more than it is, doesn’t mean that we have to give up. Obama has not let me down.
His support is falling due in part to the length of time that it is taking for the economic recovery to take hold. People are growing tired of waiting for results. You have to remember that we knew that as painful as it was, the recovering economy was going to need time to heal. It took time to get to where we are now and will probably take even longer to get back to the way things were before. Results will not be instant and change doesn’t happen overnight or even over a couple of years. We need to bear with it and have faith that Obama is doing a good job, regardless of the way it may look right now. He has, after all, fulfilled more of the campaign promises he made during his campaign than most of the elected ever do, and this is the change that we elected him for.
Obama has accomplished some great things as our President such as getting a credit card bill passed that protects consumers from predatory lending, signing into law the “Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act” which expands a worker’s right to sue their employer over pay discrimination claims, passing the SCHIP expansion that expands health care benefits to cover 4 million more low-income children (Bush vetoed a similar bill), and among other things, passing the health care overhaul bill (The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) that expands insurance coverage and protects people from having their insurance dropped because they are sick. He has also put policies in place that make government more transparent by banning lobbyist’s gifts and that restrict the hiring of lobbyists. He has also made it policy to publish the White House visitor logs and other records.
I do admit that it is still to be seen how all this plays out over the next few years, but I for one am going to stick it out knowing that these are some of the things that I wanted to be accomplished. A little support goes a long way. You just need to take a look back, try to visualize your thoughts at the time of the last election, and know what is right. Just because the media is making this into more than it is, doesn’t mean that we have to give up. Obama has not let me down.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Can government help?
It has been said that government is not the answer to society’s problems. While this may be true in part, I believe that good government can go a long way towards looking out for the interests of individuals and families.
Look at the recent credit card law that was passed and just went into effect. The new law protects cardholders from devious and deceptive practices that credit card companies have been engaging in for years. Before the law was passed many credit card companies applied payments towards balances in any way that they saw fit and that increased their bottom line (which I guess if you think about it, really is just smart business). Many companies were also known to raise interest rates with little or no notice and charge interest retroactively on balances that were already paid (also known as double-cycle-billing).
Now since the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act has become law, these companies are being forced to play fair and apply payments to older, higher interest rate balances first. This allows people to have a fighting chance to pay down their balances. As a result the “0% interest for 90 days” type deals that a lot of us are bombarded with everyday might stop coming in the mail… big deal!
My point is that business can not self-regulate like many people claim it can. Look at what happened when business was allowed to de-regulate during the Bush administration. Banks and other financial institutions engaged in extremely risky practices and when it all came crashing down we were left holding the tab! Business needs rules and guidelines otherwise they will run amok over the rest of us on their way to higher profits. I do believe that there is a very fine line between too much government intervention and not enough; too much could possibly hurt the businesses and not enough could hurt the consumer. It is the ability to know were that line is drawn that is so important.
I think that the government really can help and really does solve problems when there is mutual collaboration and there are people involved that want to get things done. What we really need is a truly bi-partisan Congress, which can work together in implementing the people’s ideas; a Congress that is not just two parties divided, but a Congress of people working together.
Look at the recent credit card law that was passed and just went into effect. The new law protects cardholders from devious and deceptive practices that credit card companies have been engaging in for years. Before the law was passed many credit card companies applied payments towards balances in any way that they saw fit and that increased their bottom line (which I guess if you think about it, really is just smart business). Many companies were also known to raise interest rates with little or no notice and charge interest retroactively on balances that were already paid (also known as double-cycle-billing).
Now since the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act has become law, these companies are being forced to play fair and apply payments to older, higher interest rate balances first. This allows people to have a fighting chance to pay down their balances. As a result the “0% interest for 90 days” type deals that a lot of us are bombarded with everyday might stop coming in the mail… big deal!
My point is that business can not self-regulate like many people claim it can. Look at what happened when business was allowed to de-regulate during the Bush administration. Banks and other financial institutions engaged in extremely risky practices and when it all came crashing down we were left holding the tab! Business needs rules and guidelines otherwise they will run amok over the rest of us on their way to higher profits. I do believe that there is a very fine line between too much government intervention and not enough; too much could possibly hurt the businesses and not enough could hurt the consumer. It is the ability to know were that line is drawn that is so important.
I think that the government really can help and really does solve problems when there is mutual collaboration and there are people involved that want to get things done. What we really need is a truly bi-partisan Congress, which can work together in implementing the people’s ideas; a Congress that is not just two parties divided, but a Congress of people working together.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Elections and Social Networking
Getting out to vote is a subject that comes up every year at election time and it seems almost redundant to talk about it again. However, since the record turn-out of the Presidential Election of 2008 included a lot of younger voters who were inspired to vote based in large part on a “younger” political tool, the World Wide Web; I thought it was worth going back to it again. A lot of younger voters do not keep up to date on politics in the traditional ways, but instead get all or most of their news on the internet. They interact with the news and information at sites where they can comment on issues and have others respond (like this blog). This is changing politics in America for the better, in my opinion, with the political climate getting more progressive and new more liberal ideas getting considered and explored.
As the voting body gets younger because of “electronic politics”, candidates have to embrace the new ways of reaching out to them. Social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. are quickly becoming the new normal. While some may not like this, it is only going to become more prevalent as time goes on.
I myself have participated in some really good political and social discussions that have taken place on Facebook; conversations that wouldn't have taken place if the people were standing face to face. Most of the thoughts are fully written out, details checked, and maybe something new is learned in the process. I love having the internet at my disposal for these conversations because suddenly, with all the information in the world at my fingertips I am the smartest guy alive!
Friday, October 1, 2010
Mudslinging 101
It seems that the closer the political race is the worse the insults fly. One guy will say one thing which usually does not pertain at all to the issues and the other guy usually comes back with something even worse. Just like a bunch of kids, anything is fair game. Come-on people grow up!
I was listening to my favorite morning radio station WAMC( http://www.wamc.org ) on the way to work Thursday morning when I first heard about the altercation between GOP candidate for governor Carl Palodino and New York Post editor Fred Dicker. Palodino was addressing the Business Council at the Sagamore hotel in Bolton Landing, New York. After the meeting Dicker started questioning Palodino about the recent allegations that he had made against Democratic candidate for governor Andrew Cuomo in which Palodino said that he had proof that Cuomo had had an affair while still married to his former wife Kerry Kennedy (as of right now no proof has been provided and Palodino appears to be backing down on the claim).
Things got extremely heated when Palodino accused Dicker of working for Cuomo and of sending a photographer to the house of Palodino's young daughter to take pictures of the girl who Palodino fathered out of wed-lock in his own affair. The two of them ended up having to be pulled apart and restrained! The comment that rings in my mind is of Palodino yelling "you keep away from my daughter or I'll take you out!". Is this really how we want our public officials acting? It's bad enough that a reporter can't keep his cool. Cuomo himself has been relatively quiet about the whole thing, saying that he would not "stoop to the gutter".
That something like this should happen is absolutely ridiculous. I couldn't believe what I was hearing! No, wait, I could believe it. I just don't know why it has to be like that. What ever happened to the politicians of old, a time when our leaders were real leaders in a truly bi-partisan way? We need to get back to that! Why does it have to be one political party versus the other?
I believe that aside from a few issues we all have the same core values, needs, and wants. We all want the best for our kids. We all want to be healthy and to be able to seek medical care when needed. We all get hungry, thirsty, sick, and tired. Somewhere there has to be a mutual consensus, a common ground that we can all reach together.
When people are unwilling to hear the other side or are unwilling to give a little, conversations will always die. There needs to be less of the "three guys in a room" and more of everybody included. What are the rest of us for if all of the decisions are made by a select few and the bills are voted on sometimes having never been read by the majority (and I don't mean the political majority)? Are they but pawns to be moved around by the party leaders as needed to accomplish a goal?
I was listening to my favorite morning radio station WAMC( http://www.wamc.org ) on the way to work Thursday morning when I first heard about the altercation between GOP candidate for governor Carl Palodino and New York Post editor Fred Dicker. Palodino was addressing the Business Council at the Sagamore hotel in Bolton Landing, New York. After the meeting Dicker started questioning Palodino about the recent allegations that he had made against Democratic candidate for governor Andrew Cuomo in which Palodino said that he had proof that Cuomo had had an affair while still married to his former wife Kerry Kennedy (as of right now no proof has been provided and Palodino appears to be backing down on the claim).
Things got extremely heated when Palodino accused Dicker of working for Cuomo and of sending a photographer to the house of Palodino's young daughter to take pictures of the girl who Palodino fathered out of wed-lock in his own affair. The two of them ended up having to be pulled apart and restrained! The comment that rings in my mind is of Palodino yelling "you keep away from my daughter or I'll take you out!". Is this really how we want our public officials acting? It's bad enough that a reporter can't keep his cool. Cuomo himself has been relatively quiet about the whole thing, saying that he would not "stoop to the gutter".
That something like this should happen is absolutely ridiculous. I couldn't believe what I was hearing! No, wait, I could believe it. I just don't know why it has to be like that. What ever happened to the politicians of old, a time when our leaders were real leaders in a truly bi-partisan way? We need to get back to that! Why does it have to be one political party versus the other?
I believe that aside from a few issues we all have the same core values, needs, and wants. We all want the best for our kids. We all want to be healthy and to be able to seek medical care when needed. We all get hungry, thirsty, sick, and tired. Somewhere there has to be a mutual consensus, a common ground that we can all reach together.
When people are unwilling to hear the other side or are unwilling to give a little, conversations will always die. There needs to be less of the "three guys in a room" and more of everybody included. What are the rest of us for if all of the decisions are made by a select few and the bills are voted on sometimes having never been read by the majority (and I don't mean the political majority)? Are they but pawns to be moved around by the party leaders as needed to accomplish a goal?
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