by Tina
The Social Security Administration reported findings today that are more than disturbing: more than 50% of American workers earn Less than $30,000 a year. That’s just a tick above the poverty line meaning the middle class is disappearing as fast as the incredible shrinking woman. It’s a sad state of affairs. Incredibly most of the big news outlets report this horrendously bad economic news without holding President Obama accountable and without mentioning the Obama administration’s economic policies at all!
Where do the media focus their attention? That’s no mystery. They’ve focused on that terrible villain, the small business man who, they say, doesn’t pay his minimum wage workers enough. This is an example of how the media controls the narrative to control our politics and to give the Democrat Party a distinct advantage. Has it occurred to anyone that those business owners are also wage earners and in many cases part of the 50% of workers earning less than $30,000 a year? Does it occur to anyone that when the economy is bad it is bad for middle class business owners too? Middle class business owners are America’s largest employers. When they are barely getting by, going out of business, or failing opportunity for higher wages and jobs will just not be forthcoming!
The one major thing that has killed economic opportunity for the middle class is radical progressive Democrat economic policy. Government spending and increased regulation and taxes do not stimulate economic activity. Electing another Democrat as president next year would be disastrous. The candidates for President on the Democrat ticket are both progressives with an agenda of spending and increased power in government. Both want universal healthcare, expansion of government provided education, and additional environmental regulation. Both believe that power vested in the few in Washington DC is preferable to power beig vested in individual lives.
If Americans want to see prosperity and increased opportunity again we must do two things. We must vote for conservative candidates and we must begin to demand accountability from those who represent us and from those in media. When the citizenry believes that raising the minimum wage is all that needs to be done to create prosperity, and when the people and policies that have given us this lousy economy are protected from scrutiny and accountability, Americans are the big losers!
Let us not forget that Obumblecare has been responsible for many more part-time jobs than full-time jobs, yet the unemployment “statistics” numbers do not differentiate.
And there are 3 types of untruth: Plain old lies, damned lies, and statistics . . . . . .
Epic fail!
Small businessman? Who walmart the number one employer? what world do you live in? All those jobs lost by the last Republican admin? They are Obama’s fault? A republican congress that consists of a Tea Party coup demanding laws for their donors?
The failure of conservative policies and the Tea Party Coup in Congress is to blame. Where are all those jobs the Bush tax cuts created? Where did the deficit come from? And why has the deficit been cut down tremendously?
Keep telling yourself these lies cause no one else believes it.
Small business? Your party supports corporations who want all small biz gone. Wall Street is running the country and both Republicans and Democrats allow it. People who collect socialist gov checks telling workers they know what is going on in the workplace today is hypocrisy.
Are you wearing clothes made in America? Read your food packages was it made in America? Look at everything you buy and then tell me about American Jobs.
Are you yelling out about the Chinese dumping Steel in America? Or when Arnie used Chinese steel for the Bay Bridge? Shouting out at overpriced goods made to break for investor profit?
Trickle down economics has destroyed the middle class and it only took about 40 years. Reaganomics the failure of the century! Oh those poor CEO’s making millions a year are quite the cats meow!
Retired people have no business talking about a workplace they never saw. You had it good. Fascism is here and it must go!
Your boy Trump would actually have more money if he just saved daddy’s money.
Dewey I want to thank you for illustrating just how ignorant (not stupid) most of the citizenry is. Your opening remark is amazingly ignorant!
A small business is defined as having less than 500 employees by SBA. For purposes of government different types of business may have up to 1500 workers and still be considered a small business.
Walmart employs about 1.4 million Americans. (Walmart numbers from 2010 census)
So no, Dewey, Walmart is not a small business and your snide remark is unworthy and a slap in the face to the many men and women who do own and operate small businesses in America and employ a lot of people.
Jason Nazar wrote a piece for Forbes listing 16 facts about small business. Maybe you could learn a thing or two:
That should give you some idea of the contribution of small business to the middle class.
Of course things haven’t been so rosy for entrepreneurs in this economy. As Wynton Hall reported in January of this year over at Breitbart:
Jobs lost because of the housing crash and recession are not Obama’s fault, although as a congressman he did bear some responsibility.
The housing crash was a result of democrat policies (Carter and Bill Clinton) and a refusal by Democrats in Congress to heed the warnings of George W Bush for six long years. White House Archives, October 9, 2008:
President Bush also remarked on this bubbling problem in his State of the Union addresses every year.
Dewey you are either ignorant about conservative policies or just an activist spewing the progressive crap that passes for serious dialogue.
Republicans champion small business and fight for small business owners and entrepreneurs who take a risk to start a business.
Republicans in the House passed 372 bills, many of which would help small business. Follow the link to view all 372!
I’m not sure you even know what a deficit is much less where it comes from. As it turns out every president has them since every president has presided over expanding budgets that congress always manages to exceed…government spending just keeps growing beyond the budgets…and that is where deficits “come from.”
Deficits have come down in large part because of the sequestration agreement which forced budget cuts…the debt has also slowed if I’m not mistaken. the big problem with big government is that they spend and manage our hard earned dollars so badly and the waste and abuse is horrendous. Which is why conservatives prefer a smaller, leaner federal government per the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution:
It might be that Arnie had to use Chinese steel for the Bay Bridge since unions helped to destroy the steel industry in America with unreasonable (greedy) demands for pay and benefits. Unions never consider the expenses involved in running a company nor do the average citizen. They look at the gross revenue and think that’s the end of it. Employee expenses have become the biggest expense of any business and the companies in emerging markets around the world, like China, had labor so cheap American steel couldn’t compete.
We live in a different world and we had better learn to compete if we want to see American products, other than tech, shine again.
Don’t preach to me about buying American products until you gain some understanding of what it takes to produce them!
The middle class was not destroyed until the last seven years. The recession officially ended in summer 2009. Obama policies, progressive policies have been implemented over that time. Reagnomics had NOTHING to do with decimating the middle class. You can scream and holler all you want but it will not change that fact.
CEO’s will make millions a year no matter what! Get over it!
People with money will make money under any economic policy. Get over it! They just adjust their investments.
The middle class, however, only has a chance to advance when the economy booms. It boomed under Reagan. It boomed under Clinton after the republicans blocked Hillarycare and Bill cooperated with Gingrich and cut tax rates. It held steady, to the degree it could after the trade center came down and in a time of war under Bush. It has not recovered after the recession ended in 2009 under progressive policies put in place by Obama, Pelosi and Reid. Since the Repubicans took Congress, Democrats and Obama have obstructed all efforts to change those policies.
Once again this month we are expecting to see negative growth (.9%). It’s impossible to create jobs without strong growth. Growth has averaged 2% and less for all of Obama’s term.
You sound angry Dewey. But you’re filled with just enough information to make you dangerous. It’s a da*n shame you don’t have the smarts to understand what works or the slightest idea about the things that really should make you angry!
Tina, I’ve never seen this country in worse economic shape. So many retirees lost their life savings in the real estate implosion and stock market crash, leaving them barely making it after spending a lifetime of saving for their retirement years.
I don’t blame Walmart for this, like the Dewey’s of this world. That’s a stupid and short sighted assumption that misses the mark. In almost all cases where people lost their money, our government was involved. They were involved as watch-dogs and they were totally oblivious as pirates looted company coffers. Or they were co-conspirators, aiding and abetting in the fleecing. The banking/housing scandal is a prime example of the failure of government to regulate a sound economy while encouraging unsound banking practices to suit the liberals in office.
If this stuff had happened in China I guarantee you the criminals and the incompetents would have been executed…here, they were not even prosecuted!
Some of them are promoted. Others are given a “special assignment.” Barnie Frank and Chris Dodd were given the reward of regulating the banks even though it was they who opposed the reforms that would have prevented the crash…then they retired with full benefits.
Everyone thinks of big giants like Walmart as “set for life.” Luckier than others. The truth is this is life. People move up and down and so do companies.
I understand Walmart is having to restructure. Between on line sales and higher poverty levels customers are not showing up to shop as they once were. So now they will have to try to catch up and compete with operations like Amazon. It won’t be easy. Amazon is a powerhouse.
We’ve been very blessed to live in America. Wouldn’t it be lovely if people would strive to do the best they can and be then happy with whatever they achieve? I’m so fed up with class envy and redistribution.
People need to get that life is a journey that doesn’t promise smooth sailing.
As for the retirees that lost their life savings there’s just no way to express how monumentally stupid the regulations were that led to the housing crash and there’s no way to express enough frustration for the stupid management of “the recovery” that never comes. Now that we’ve QE’d ourselves into a corner the consequences could be even more devastating. If it comes we’ll just have to depend on each other as best we can. What we’ve done to the younger folks is also unconscionable!
It occurs to me that our leaders aren’t just stupid or conniving, or agenda driven. Nope! They have to be totally unconscious, operating like zombies, to not see the desperate situation they’ve created.
“I’m so fed up with class envy and redistribution.”
Indeed. AKA “divide and conquer”.
“It occurs to me that our leaders aren’t just stupid or conniving, or agenda driven. Nope! They have to be totally unconscious, operating like zombies, to not see the desperate situation they’ve created.”
I respectfully disagree. I think they see the situation perfectly. For many, it has always been part of their plan. For the rest, they simply don’t care. Power is all that matters.
There is a growing under current of people who feel they have nothing left to lose. Combine this with others who have an entitlement mentality of something for nothing, and it is a dangerous mix. If this thing goes south, the pace will be breath-taking.
Ahh, Rep. Frank, father of the NINJA loan. No income, no job, no assets.
The future is here:
http://metro.co.uk/2015/10/19/samsung-to-make-robots-cheaper-than-any-human-worker-5447772/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/industry/11949767/Worlds-biggest-shipping-line-Maersk-slashes-profit-forecasts.html
http://www.thestreet.com/story/13325724/1/wal-mart-s-entire-business-model-is-being-smashed-to-pieces.html
RHT447 the consciousness I was speaking of would be total awareness. They know what they’re doing but they are also unconscious as to the full consequences of what they are doing. They are playing games with our lives as if there were no consequences beyond their own need for power. .
I agree too that if it goes south it will be swift.
A yes, Good ol’ Frank and Dodd, they had been on numerous occasions warned of the growing problems with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and the sub prime loans, and failed to do the responsible thing.
There really should a Accountably act to at least cause those politicians (who gain wealth through this) to stop and think about what their doing, and to be held financially responsible as well, might help stop this Crap!
Harold great idea. Given what they’ve done, they’d all die broke. That’s powerful incentive for future leaders to think before they act stupidly. As it is we can’t get a day in court much less accountability.
People are funny. How is it possible for someone to become so angry over data collection but yawn when a fellow citizen has been bullied, harassed, and denied her rights by the government. How can they not be absolutely furious that a private citizen would be treated this way and no one is prosecuted. How can they be nonchalant when a journalist is spied on and his parents harassed by that same government?
We put presidents in power and grant them the right to go to war and sign bills into law. We don’t always like their decisions but those actions are legitimate duties of the president. Abusing power, interfering with expression, harassment and bullying of citizens are not legitimate duties of the president or his administrators.
Obama is the worst president ever. He has led those under him by example and his example is that of a dictator. Lois Lerner thought she was entitled to use her office against private citizens. She’s only one example; there are many.
Fact Check presents a much more balanced view:
“The economy has now gained nearly five times more jobs under President Barack Obama than it did during the presidency of George W. Bush, and the unemployment rate has dropped to just below the historical average.
Real weekly earnings are up 1.7 percent, thanks in part to a plunge in gasoline prices.
Corporate profits have nearly tripled, and stock prices have soared.
On the other hand, the number of Americans receiving food stamps remains 45 percent higher than when the president first took office, and the rate of home ownership has dropped by 3.2 percentage points, to the lowest point in nearly 20 years.
The average premium for a benchmark “silver” health plan in the Obamacare marketplaces rose only 2 percent this year, and consumers had more plans from which to choose. But the tax penalty for going without insurance will double.”
http://www.factcheck.org/2015/01/obamas-numbers-january-2015-update/
We have been healing from the recession, whether some like it or not.
Sounds rosy all right.
Unfortunately the number of jobs created is not keeping pace with the number of job seekers. So saying Obama created “five times more jobs” than Bush is nothing more than weenie words designed to fool the public. Your party of choice might want to rethink its stance on immigration.
The plunge in gas prices are a welcome benefit, unless you’ve lost your job as a result, but not directly tied to Obama’s economic policies.
Corporate profits have soared due to the printing of money and that doesn’t represent real growth in the company. It represents a growing bubble.
Obamacare insurance premiums are expected to rise in 2016:
I’ve seen guesstimates as low as 2-3% higher in some areas so won’t be the same for everyone around the country.
These hikes are attributed to several things but they certainly don’t represent the big savings we were promised. (Which we never bought anyway)
IBD:
That article covers several issues showing how Obamacare just isn’t working.
I wish the picture were different but I also know it could never be different with the policies now in place.
Government doesn’t create jobs or products. People do. We need policies that empower the people.
“Sounds rosy all right.”
No, it sounds rather mixed, exactly what one would expect after the country’s biggest recession since the Great Depression.
“Unfortunately the number of jobs created is not keeping pace with the number of job seekers. So saying Obama created “five times more jobs” than Bush is nothing more than weenie words designed to fool the public.”
Why? Unless there are five times more job seekers today than there were under Bush (unlikely), that still seems pretty good.
“Your party of choice might want to rethink its stance on immigration.”
Why? There is no evidence that immigration hurts the job prospects of American citizens.
“The plunge in gas prices are a welcome benefit, unless you’ve lost your job as a result, but not directly tied to Obama’s economic policies.”
How do you gauge that? Oh yeah: Anything good that happens under Obama isn’t due to his policies, but anything bad that happens is. What a sophisticated algorithm you’ve developed.
Increasing population is the reason most cited for the fact that job growth isn’t keeping pace with demand. You should also be reminded that a high percentage of jobs created is part time work (65% in 2013). The Washington Post reported in 2014 that “The number of people in part-time jobs jumped by more than 1 million in June to 27 million, according to the government’s data.”
There is evidence that companies are replacing American workers with immigrant workers. Common sense also tells us that a flood of foreign people has to result in more people dependent on government or more competition in the jobs market…no?
Chris don’t be a jerk. Gas prices are never driven by US policy. They are driven by world wide supply and demand and by cartels. Economies around the world are way down creating less demand. The green movement is trying to eliminate use of petroleum products and their efforts have had an effect on commerce. To the degree that Obama’s policies have kept our economy sluggish he has impacted gas prices helping to create less demand. Even as the price has come down consumers aren’t using more because they don’t feel confident…their saving their savings.
“Obamacare insurance premiums are expected to rise in 2016”
And? Premiums rise every year, and the growth in premium costs under Obama has been much slower than it was previously:
http://www.factcheck.org/2015/10/bush-misleads-on-premium-growth/
Now, this isn’t necessarily due to Obama’s policies either. But it’s also clear that Obamacare has not led to “sky-rocketing premiums” as you and other conservatives have claimed, and it should make everyone skeptical of similar claims in the future.
(Also, you guys literally opened with “DEATH PANELS! OOGA BOOGA!” So telling people their premiums are going to increase by 2-3% isn’t really all that scary anymore. You should never open with death panels. It left you with nowhere to escalate to.)
“Government doesn’t create jobs or products. People do. We need policies that empower the people.”
I’d wager the 17 million more people insured now due to Obamacare feel more empowered than they did before they had insurance.
Oh come on Chris! You remember the big promise used to sell the ACA to the people:
As the video clearly shows he repeated it over and over again.
It’s a bit disingenuous for you to now ask, “And?” when I mention premiums are expected to rise, especially since in some states they are predicting a 50% rise in 2016!
Factcheck said in the second paragraph, “Obama did not promise to cut premiums; he promised to cut the rate of growth in premiums.”
As the above video clearly shows this is a lie.! So much for Factcheck’s facts on this particular point.
Excuse me Chris but you are either tremendously inattentive or you just don’t care about the whole truth. Opposition arguments to Obamacare were pointed an specific. Reducing the opposition to one argument real crap play.
Obamacare put more people on Medicaid, subsidized others, and turned off a lot of young Americans who would rather pay a fine. Hot Air looked into why this happened:
Since those young people refuse to be coerced, and who can blame them, Obamacare isn’t functioning as planned.
Gallup found in April of 2015 that, “11.9% of American adults were uninsured in the first quarter of 2015.” CNS news comments:
There’s a lot of speculation about how many people remain uninsured and how many now choose to be uninsured but the point is the law isn’t working and certainly isn’t living up to the wild promises made to sell it.
“President Obama repeatedly promised that his signature health law, the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare, would reduce insurance premiums by $2,500 for the typical family.”
No, he did not, and the video you presented doesn’t show him doing that. Not even once.
Every clip of Obama throwing out the “2,500” number in that video is from 2008. As I’ve already explained to you–and which you already knew even before I explained it to you–there was no such thing as the Affordable Care Act in 2008, and Obama’s plan was very different from what became known as Obamacare. It is very misleading to repeatedly claim that Obama made these promises about the Affordable Care Act, when you know as well as I do that he was not talking about the ACA, but a totally different plan which never came to fruition.
Do you have any evidence that Obama ever made such a promise about the ACA?
If not, can I trust that you will acknowledge that Fact Check’s claim was correct, and that you will finally stop claiming that Obama promised that the ACA would reduce premiums by $2,500?
“Gallup found in April of 2015 that, “11.9% of American adults were uninsured in the first quarter of 2015.””
You’re missing the age old question, the one you’ve said liberals never ask: “compared to what?”
Do you know what the uninsured rate was prior to the ACA? Do you care? Does it matter to you that this is the lowest uninsured rate in 50 years? Is it possible for you you acknowledge that more Americans are insured as a result of this law, and that this is an improvement? Do you really think anecdotes about a few individuals whom the law didn’t work for outweighs the millions more who are insured?
“…there was no such thing as the Affordable Care Act in 2008…”
Chris healthcare was his signature issue and it doesn’t matter that the plan didn’t have a name or the details worked out. He got elected in part to deliver on that promise. You would hold anyone else to such a promise and you know it.
I’ll admit his remarks happened in the campaign. But I will also insist that the fact checker is playing with the facts in the same way you are. People believed he would deliver that kind of savings in his healthcare plan…period!
http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/flashback-obama-promised-lower-health-care-insurance-premium#.xtpXMzWg9“>Buzzfeed agrees:
“compared to what?”
Well compared to another promise regarding his plan for starters: :If you are one of the 45 million Americans who don’t have health insurance, you will have it after this plan becomes law.
And then there’s the little matter of “lie of the year: If you like your doctor (your plan) you can keep your doctor (your plan).
“Do you know what the uninsured rate was prior to the ACA? Do you care? Does it matter to you that this is the lowest uninsured rate in 50 years? ”
Good Lord Chris. It’s good that some people have benifoted from this horrible plan. But that’s not a very good selling point at this point when you stack up all of those harmed by it. People going without insurance and care because they don’t qualify for subsidies and the deductibles are too high. People that lost the plan or doctor they liked. Doctors retiring. And in 2013 the GAO reported that the ACA “will increase the long-term federal deficit by $6.2 trillion even though he told a joint session of Congress, ““I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits — either now or in the future.” See also Investors:
The anecdote is an illustration of the truth for many young people whether or not you are willing to admit it.
The point Chris, is that the problems we had prior to Obama, Pelosi, Reid being elected could have been fixed WITHOUT making this major overhaul.
This law was passed deceitfully. It’s been my experience that when the government doesn’t level with the people and when they act in secret the people not only get hurt but also reject what’s been delivered.
Frankly I’m surprised you still defend it.
Tina: “Chris healthcare was his signature issue and it doesn’t matter that the plan didn’t have a name or the details worked out.”
“Details?” You’re funny. It was an entirely different plan, Tina, one that relied on the existence of a public option that never came to be. Obama didn’t even support an individual mandate at the time he made those statements–and that became the cornerstone of the ACA!
Perhaps Obama could have made a statement that said, “The old plan would have saved you $2,500 a year, but this new plan doesn’t,” but sadly that’s not something I would expect any politician to do.
“Well compared to another promise regarding his plan for starters: :If you are one of the 45 million Americans who don’t have health insurance, you will have it after this plan becomes law.”
The ACA has not lived up to Obama’s biggest promises, that’s true. It still represents a huge improvement: 17 million more people insured, and the lowest uninsured rate in 50 years.
“And then there’s the little matter of “lie of the year: If you like your doctor (your plan) you can keep your doctor (your plan).””
I’ve already acknowledged that was a lie. Given the creative lies your side told about the law (“Obamacare bans mammograms for women of a certain age!” “A panel will decide whether my disabled son gets to live based on his level of productivity!” “”FEMA camps!”) it’s not really wise to judge the law based on which side told the most lies about it. We have to examine the law on its merits.
“Good Lord Chris. It’s good that some people have benifoted from this horrible plan. But that’s not a very good selling point at this point when you stack up all of those harmed by it.”
If one is capable of rationally weighing the costs and benefits–or, hell, even basic math–then yes, that is absolutely a very good selling point. Lowest uninsured rate in 50 years. 17 million more people insured. You have provided no evidence that there have been more people harmed than helped by the law. There are always winners and losers under any policy. But far more people have gained insurance under Obamacare than have lost it.
And the majority are satisfied with their plans:
“Contrary to what Republicans would have you think, most people who bought health insurance through the Affordable Care Act actually like their plans, a new survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation shows. Respondents generally rated shopping for plans as easy and rated their overall coverage as positive. When they didn’t, the key factor was the hot-button issue of high deductibles.
Overall, 74 percent of respondents who bought insurance individually rated their health insurance as “excellent” or “good” in 2015, up from 72 percent in 2014, the survey, published Wednesday, showed. When it came to being able to pick doctors and hospitals, 75 percent were “very satisfied” or “somewhat satisfied” with their choice of primary physicians and hospitals.”
http://www.ibtimes.com/obamacare-working-majority-satisfied-affordable-care-act-plans-except-those-high-1933027
“People going without insurance and care because they don’t qualify for subsidies and the deductibles are too high. People that lost the plan or doctor they liked. Doctors retiring.”
You’re right, these things never happened prior to Obamacare!
“The point Chris, is that the problems we had prior to Obama, Pelosi, Reid being elected could have been fixed WITHOUT making this major overhaul.”
Name the plan Republicans supported that would have decreased the uninsured population by the same number in the same amount of time that Obamacare has. You can’t, because there was no such plan. Do you really think if we hadn’t passed the ACA, Republicans would have implemented their own plan? No–Republicans didn’t care much about lowering the uninsured rate until the reaction to the ACA made it clear that they had to start caring. Do you think any of their alternatives would have insured 17 million more people within five years?
Chris you are incredible. The only thing that maters to you is that some people that didn’t have insurance do now. You don’t care what it costs everyone else or that it isn’t working in many ways, or that it represents a huge disruption in the plans of individual doctors and expensive forced changes for healthcare providers.
Republicans proposed several changes in the law to address problems pre-Obamacare but Democrats were he77 bent on government control. Government control allows for grand deceptions. The Weekly Standard 2015:
Obamacare is a train wreck.
Here’s commentary from the link provided in the Weekly Standard article:
Anyone interested in reading the details concerning this three legged plan can go here.
Daily Signal 2013:
Townhall 2014:
NYT 2014:
CNS News 2015:
A new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report says that under the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare, 30 million non-elderly Americans will remain without health insurance in 2022.
One of the main arguments the Obama administration made for passing the Affordable Care Act was that it would provide coverage for the uninsured.
USC Annenberg: