Daily Agitator
We hear this from the politicians as they go about the word games instead of doing something about the problems……during the election it was JOBS…..and why the Obama admin could not create any……well, for 140+ days the Repubs have controlled the House they have create NO jobs and offered NO jobs legislation……well America…..yet another wasted VOTE……
Let me see….corporations get their tax breaks, financial markets get to keep gambling with taxpayer money, courts giving corporations the same rights as individuals…….so on and so forth….we all know the headlines by this point…..but what are the people, the middle class and poor, getting out of all this “shared sacrifice”? States are having to make drastic decisions….they will cut taxes on businesses and cut services to the poor……
The Center For Budget And Policy Priorities has issued a report……
* Monthly cash assistance benefits have been cut in several states. This is pushing hundreds of thousands of families and children well below the poverty line.
* Time limits for receiving TANF benefits have been shortened. California and Arizona are two of the states carrying out such measures, which have the result of cutting off thousands of very poor families from any aid. Other state legislatures are discussing shortening time limits from 60 months to as short as 18 months.
* Working families with low incomes face cuts in TANF-funded supplements in several ways. Michigan’s Earned Income Tax Credit (partially funded by TANF) is being slashed by two-thirds, for example, raising state income taxes for several hundred thousand low-income working families. This is part of a state budget that sharply cut taxes for corporations and the wealthy. In other states, families are having their supplemental TANF benefits cut or eliminated.
The report points out, “States are terminating or reducing benefits for some of the most vulnerable families, most of whom have very poor labor market prospects.” This is under conditions of a continued jobs crisis.
While the states are directly responsible for implementing the cuts, the federal government and the Obama administration are just as culpable. As the CBPP notes, “The TANF cuts are due in substantial part to the inadequacy of the federal TANF block grant.”
Despite the fact that the creators of TANF in 1996 gave assurances that a TANF Contingency Fund would be maintained to provide help during economic downturns, that fund was entirely exhausted in December of 2010 and additional money allocated by Congress for 2011 was so small that it has since been used up.
Now tell me where will the pain come from? That answer can tell more about the direction of this country than anything else you may hear in the media.
Once again we see who the politicians really want to help and who they consider “expendable”……..I know many say the class war is a myth dreamed up by disgruntled “Leftists”…..but it looks like a real possibility to me, if it is NOT already underway.
Good post – though I don’t think there is any “class war” and nor has there ever been in living memory – EXCEPT for the rather convenient one created and maintain by unscrupulous people on both sides of the financial divide.
Whilst I know that the UK is VERY different from the US, I have to say that, at my time of life at least, I don’t want to support the poor – certainly those that don’t try to help themselves and that’s probably a majority in the UK.
The problem is much more complicated than that, of course, but that’s my personal feeling. Take for instance the situation in much of Spain: MANY people live in what they term complexes – appartment blocks to you and me. However, a whole lot of these blocks are serviced on a VERY long outdated way – most importantly, the block will often have communal water and power supplies. Frequently (and I DO mean FREQUENTLY) some pay their maintenance and service charges and others don’t. Those who don’t are occasionally poor, though most can seemingly still afford satellite TV, drink, sometimes drugs and more. MOST who don’t pay simply don’t WANT to and many of those are quite rich. BUT, the snag is that, if the communal bill is not paid, the power (or even the water) WILL be cut off – to everyone – those who pay and those who don’t. THEREFORE, the assholes who don’t pay, or even TRY to pay are in my opinion simply thieves and cheats, since they are holding all the decent, hard working people to ransom!
THAT is how those who use welfare are frequently regarded and it’s the CHEATS who have created that feeling. If the poor went out into the streets and lynched the assholes who cheat, the rest of us might feel a lot better about helping them.
Sorry, but that’s pretty much how I feel these days…
Ok, You know that I feel pretty much as you…..but here in the US there is a concerted effort to screw the middle class and poor all in the name of cuts…..while the rich or the corporations if you will get all the benefits….not one of them is asked to contribute anything to the recovery and for that reason they are making out like bandits…but do not need a gun…just a Congressperson…..corporations get tax cuts and the poor lose health care…that is the answer….of course there are other examples but I would probably boar you death…..I agree all pay! Or in our case….all sacrifice…..and the blowjob on jobs is just cover for the dismantling of the system we have now…….Repubs have NEVER favored the middle class or the poor….why? They usually vote Dem….it is as simple as that and to me that smacks of a cloaked class war……
Exactly! But it’s a war of the rich against everyone else and I don’t see that has anything to do with class – not at least as we understand the term in the UK.
This is a blast from my past……the media here always refers to it as the middle class or the working class….like it is some sort of disease….but anytime a government acts in favor of one over the other then it could be called a class war….
What stinks is the stereotypes. All poor people are lazy. Bullshit. Yea some are but some are not! Some wealthy folks do their part as americans and some dont. But the wealthy using tax shelters overseas instead of contributing is just as damaging as welfare cheats. Gimme gimme gimme, take take take. Same thing.
True Phillip……and it will NOT change anytime soon……
I understand the feeling, but there’s nothing wrong with tax shelters. If someone earns money abroad and doesn’t import the money it’s NONE of the f*cking government’s business! THAT it just another version of legalised theft by the powers that be.
Not ALL people with some money in tax shelters are wealthy (stereotypes???) – in fact, if you look at the value of any pension YOU are paying for NOW, you’ll find that the same money would have been better secreted under your mattress – or better yet, put in a tax shelter and LEFT there for your old age!
Sorry, but once again, if I have to pay on the income I make overseas, then why do not corporations? Tax shelters are my point…..eliminate all tax shelters….some if not most are put in the code to help the economy…..they are NOT doing that…time to eliminate.
God, if we could just dump two USELESS wars, there would be more than enough for our people who are going hungry. 😡
Yep…but they would find another way to piss it away…..sorry to say….
Useless wars… Couldnt agree more. We are patriotic, we support our troops, and we destroy their morale in private. The threat of the right to shut down the government speaks volumes about how they feel about our soldiers, who are somewhat middle class. I know its alot to connect the dots but its an emotional subject for me. This “class war” does overlap into military families who seem to be “supported” with bumper stickers only.
Phillip….it is disgusting that private organization have to ask for money to help vets, especially wounded vets…..
YES! But THAT is the real point that most people (including the wealthy) don’t get..
Sure, many people quite rightly are sick of paying for lazy good for nothings but not all poor people are lazy and all the rest of the arguments for and against welfare etc. and we need both rich and poor in our societies…
Yet the REAL problem is that it is NOT the rich who drive the economy of an industrialised nation, nor is it the poor who hold it back (if welfare is properly managed and not subjected to foolish ideology) – the military is mostly a part of the middle class and it is THE MIDDLE CLASSES that drive it all – profits, production, decent behaviour, family life, national values – the whole bloody shebang! If you don’t look after THEM and their relative success within society, then you WILL eventually go bust – rich and poor alike – and the culture will drift into obscurity! It’s THAT simple and THAT serious!
He3nce our love affair with the military-industrial complex….of which Pres. Eisenhower warned of the consequences of depending too much on the M-IC
And the US is beginning to drift.
Yup.
Quin….speaking of the MIC have you seen this article?
http://theleftist.co.uk/wp/?p=386