All That Glitters

[Daveparts still]

All That Glitters
By David Glenn Cox


Warning: the following article might contain criticism of Barack Obama. These criticisms will not be the standard right wing complaints of budget busting, or parentage, or origin of his birth, but frank disagreements with his policies and discussion of how they affect the working and unemployed people of this nation.

Yesterday the President unveiled his latest jobs program that can, at best, be labeled as the more of the same package. More tax cuts for business and those who need them the least. Like the cash for clunkers program, where only those who had the resources to purchase a new car received the tax advantages of the program. I’m not trying to argue that nothing is better than something, only that programs benefiting the affluent in the name of the poor are more akin to nothing than something.

Firstly, the last three months have been the worst on record for home foreclosures, averaging 300,000 per month. Manufacturing in the United States has declined for the last forty-eight months. Commercial property loans threaten to take the banks back to the dark days that we thought the banking bailout was supposed to end. The answer is more tax cuts for small business?

That term, small business, is a misnomer. We have this general idea of small business being the mom and pop jewelry store or dry cleaners, yet not all small businesses are created equal. Republican Whip Eric Cantor’s family runs a “Small Business,” building shopping centers. If you have a logging operation of less than 500 employees then you fit the government definition of a “Small Business” Likewise in oil and gas recovery; less than 500 employees? “Small Business.”

Know anyone with a family coal mine? Or a family gold mine? For most construction companies if annual receipts are less than $33.5 million, they are considered “Small businesses.” These are the people who will be able to take advantage of the President's tax cuts.

Who are the people who will not get the advantages of the President’s program? The homeless, the jobless, and hungry children.

The number of people seeking assistance from Franklin, Indiana’s Interchurch food pantry, which provides 50 families with canned goods each day, has increased.

"We are already serving 39 percent over what we served the same time last year and serving 79 percent over what we served in 2006. We are actually serving families that didn't need us before. Some of them were actual donors and now they're on the other side," said food bank supervisor Griselda Romero in Kern County, California.

“The wide gap between supply and demand combined with funding deficits has forced some food banks to turn away new applicants and cease distribution.”

“The Burton Senior Center in Burton, Michigan, this week stopped handing out food and turned away new applicants because of cuts to a federal commodity food program.”

Try to understand that I’m not saying the President is a bad guy, only that his solutions are misdirected. Imagine for instance a new Ferrari tax credit. It could be argued that it would help the economy, but the bulk of the benefit goes only to those who can afford to buy a new Ferrari. The hungry and unemployed of this country don’t have cash or credit to lay out now for the promise of tax reductions in the future. So who does? Who can afford to have new Pella windows installed? Or add insulation to the attic? Those suffering the most or the least?

It’s a trickle down jobs program. If we give tax breaks, which have been so wildly successful in the past, to “Small Business,” they will hire employees that they wouldn’t otherwise hire. Businesses will not hire anyone until they see a definite and permanent need. Construction companies let out contracts to sub-contractors who in turn hire employees, and when the contracts are over, so are the jobs.

Right now American banks can buy cash from the Federal Reserve; they can borrow one million dollars for $2,500. Problem is, they have no one that they dare lend it to. Two-thirds of all wealth in this country is based on Real Property, and the value of Real Property is in steep decline. Forty-nine states are struggling to balance their state budgets. Tax collection by the states slid 16.6 percent in the second quarter, meaning for every dollar budgeted the states are collecting 83.4 cents. The collective states' budget deficit is expected to grow to $350 billion in the next two years versus a $200 billion jobs program centered on tax credits.

The President’s bailout programs all seem to have the same modus operandi, they all leave the corporations in charge of making all the decisions. The GM/ Chrysler bail out program left GM and Chrysler to decide which plants to keep and which to dump onto the public ledger. The mortgage rescue package has left the banks in charge of who gets rescued and who doesn’t. We're seeing panic from frantic homeowners who claim that their files are lost and that they speak to a different person every time they call the bank and are given conflicting information. All while the foreclosures are still planned for the week of Christmas.

"We avoided the depression many feared," Obama said in a speech at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. But, he added, "Our work is far from done."

We did? Unemployment numbers are the greatest since the Great Depression, and home foreclosures exceed the darkest days since then, as well. Food banks are running out of food, but we offer tax credits to re-caulk the windows. Call it Home Depot welfare.

“Kroger, the nation's largest traditional grocery chain, reported Tuesday an $875 million third-quarter loss, largely because of a $1.05 billion charge to write down the value of its Ralphs division in California, which it acquired a decade ago. Even without that, its profit fell more than 25 percent.” You suppose that maybe more tax cuts might help?

I know that there are many out there with an undying faith in Barack Obama. I’ve heard it before, “I suppose you’d prefer John McCain to be President.” No, I’d prefer a Democrat to be the President be it Barack Obama or someone else. A President with Democratic ideas rather than rebadged Republicanism, because if he fails it will be blamed on Democrats.

“The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, it is whether we provide enough for those who have little.”

“Not only our future economic soundness but the very soundness of our democratic institutions depends on the determination of our government to give employment to idle men.”

“No Nation can long endure half bankrupt. Main Street, Broadway, the mills, the mines will close if half the buyers are broke.” Franklin Delano Roosevelt

[DemReadingDU]

1. it is whether we provide enough for those who have little

With all the fake feel-good propaganda, most people don't really see the depression we are in. I don't know how much longer this extend and pretend can go on, but eventually everyone will have their eyes opened to economic reality. And then, how we we provide for the many who have little.

Another good one, thanks.

[Lost Jaguar]

2. I dig the FDR quotes...

...that you often use in your pieces, my friend. I wish we had him now. I voted for President Obama, but I'm beginning to doubt that the pressure on his left, the vox populi, is inadequate amidst the din of big money's loudspeakers. Perhaps if he is reelected, he'll feel more free to move leftwards. What happens between now and then, however, may be dreadful.