David Calamoneri: And are public education, taxpayer-paid police, and fire departments examples of "socialism"?

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION
by David Calamoneri

After reports of 651,000 more jobs being lost in February, the national unemployment rate is now officially 8.1% and climbing. Unemployment is over 10% in California. Michigan's is at 11.6%. Seeing lines of suits going around the block at "job fairs" make one realize that the Obama Administration, and the 111th Congress, extension of unemployment benefits was a good idea, as was increasing funding for food stamps. A record 31.8 million are now in need of them (an increase in 700,000 last month). Helping millions of children get health care through SCHIP helps American people, who have children in need of medical attention, while they face the recent economic downturn. Spending billions in "stimulus" on health care may also help in curbing government costs. If health care was either provided for or really made affordable by the end of a year or two (a dream of President Obama's), it would not only help families, hit hard by lay offs, foreclosures, et al. to not have to choose between medicine or food, but also dramatically lower spending by state and local governments, and businesses who provide insurance. Not to mention the whole easing of the strain on the majority of the American people who are paying in some fashion for their own health care or don't have any at all (emergency room visits of the uninsured cost of all taxpayers money).

Isn't that who government should be in the business of helping? The majority, if not all, of the American people. A budget that cuts taxes for 95% of working families in the United States is more than making good on a campaign promise. It is also a good start at making our government change its focus from helping the wealthiest 10% or less and the military to helping the majority of the American people and the military. Defense spending is something that's not going to go down. The Obama budget proposes $75 billion more in '09 and $130 billion in '10 for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, failures 43 failed to finish. It is a change from the last 8 years to actually include war spending in the budget.

The stock market has been nose diving (with the exception of the uptick with Citi's profit news) with every jobs report, report on consumer spending, or on the housing industry (12% of Americans with mortgages are in foreclosure). Reports stating that the FDIC, which insures the money you have in the bank, may become insolvent, and AIG, the world's largest insurer, needs another huge chunk of money to keep insuring the millions it currently does, haven't helped ease Wall Street's slide. Neither has news that GM is no longer viable and may go bankrupt or that GE is in some real tough shape. In the past, perhaps the 80s, when unemployment was this high and the market was falling, the Fed cut interest rates, which encouraged lending and borrowing. Problem is the Fed dropped those to zero before Barack Obama even took office.

President Obama's budget represents a real change in how and on whose behalf the United States Government spends, but there have been other marked changes from the past. The government seems hesitant to let Senator Leahy further a truth commission to investigate the laws failure 43 and his minions "may have" committed in prosecuting their war on the noun terror (see warrantless [FISA included] wiretapping, torture at American detention centers, extraordinary rendition). This is a marked change in Congress's willingness to investigate a former president's extra-marital affair and real estate deals he and his wife were involved in before they became the First Family. The release of the "shocking" to some memos from failure 43's minions explaining how, in the words of another President, "when the president does it that means that it is not illegal", further evidence the fact that for the last eight years (at least the second half of 2001 through 2007), we were ruled by a "unitary" executive with no checks and balances whose concern for the Constitution was not to uphold it, but to figure out how to get around it.

But while we debate whether or not the truth is important and whether taxpayer money should be spent to help the majority of the American people, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Israel it did something wrong and did so publicly. Her words were not as strong as Obama's National Intelligence Council pick, distortions of which have made his stepping down the right move. The State Department also announced that it will meet with Iran and Russia, when it comes to supporting NATO's effort in the Afghanistan War. The Obama Administration has also reopened talks with Russia, offering to ease up on the missile defense shield in Poland for some help in getting Iran to not build a bomb such as the thousands that we and Russia currently possess. On the domestic front, President Obama is reversing failure 43's decision's on stem cell research and science, endangered species, the office of "drug czar" being cabinet level, and carbon dioxide as a pollutant. (Does that mean we won't be allowed to exhale?). And of course, combat troops will start leaving Iraq in September.

I'll leave you with a few things I just don't understand:

Why is it, only Jon Stewart of the "liberal media," tore up CNBC for their "cheap populism" rallying the losers on the "trading floor" while assailing the "losers" who have lost their homes?

How can you care about the Dow going down and be against bailing out big companies?

Hasn't the Dow been dropping since October 2007?

Did you know that $3.8 billion in "earmarks" in the $410 billion budget is .01% of the total bill and that 40% of those "earmarks" came from Republicans? I guess that's why 8 R senators joined all but 3 D senators.

Does everyone who makes $250,000 a year own a small business?

How do tax cuts touted by most on the Republican side, help poor people making less than a taxable income, if any income at all? Anyone making under $250,000 will see their taxes cut or at least not go up with the Obama budget. Anyone over that will have their tax rate raised by a whopping 4.6%.

How can you complain about the wage of an assembly auto worker that works 40 hours a week and not have a problem with the salaries of upper management of major corporations?

Does anyone's health insurance allow them to choose any procedure they want and/or any doctor they want?

Does anyone remember that failure 43's "choice" for the second highest office in the land went to a CEO of the biggest no-bid contractor the U.S. employs? The ethical bar for the current administration is exponentially higher.

Are the Green Bay Packers communist because they are "owned by the community"?

And are public education, taxpayer-paid police, and fire departments examples of "socialism"? Big Hat Tip to M.M.'s movie Sicko for that one.

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION

David Calamoneri
Hoboken, NJ

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