Walter Ballin

I'm certainly opposed to cutting welfare programs that help the disabled and families with children who fall into circumstances where they would not be able to support their families, such as unemployment. I opposed the so-called "Welfare Reform Act" signed by President Clinton because it was too draconian. Under the act, too many people are being required to enter minimum wage jobs, rather than being encouraged to get an education so that they can enter good careers where they can make decent salaries. The taxes that those people would subsequently pay would more than offset what they were paid in welfare payments, if they were given more support to go to college and learn more so that they can enter good professions. Besides, I believe that a college education should be free for everyone anyway provided that people do some kind of service for our country, such as working with poor people, helping preserve our environment or some other kind of service.

However, I am opposed to giving welfare to people who choose to keep having one child after the other when they don't have the means to support them. Recently, I went to the Dept. of Human Services with a friend of mine who is BTW single with no children. She was applying for CMSP which is like Medi-Cal, because of a particular ailment that she needs treated. It's very difficult for childless single people who are poor but not considered poor enough by the system to get these benefits. Of course, what we really need is a Single Payer health care system. Anyway when I was there, I noticed a woman who was pregnant in the waiting room. There was a man with her, and every other word that came out of that man's mouth was a swear word. It is a total waste of money to be giving these people welfare. I'm sure that is one of the reasons why we have gangs and that there's so much juvenile delinquency. By doing this at the same time that we make it difficult for poor single people without children who need certain benefits, we're actually encouraging people to have more children. Our government needs to do a much better job of educating people about both birth control and abstinence. Our youngsters must be taught this in the schools, and these courses must be mandatory. No notes from the parents excusing the students from these courses! Also, there ought to be birth control pills for men to take. What to do with the children who are now being raised by incompetent parents? See my blog, "Making Decent Homes For Our Youth," posted on February 22nd.

Posted by Walter Ballin at 11:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hillary Clinton's Finance Chairperson and former Congresswoman and 1984 Vice Presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro stated on Tuesday March 11th, that Barack Obama would not be where he is now were it not for his race. Ferraro repeated those remarks after Hillary criticized her. What Hillary Clinton should have done was to immediately fire her! My family came to this country to escape Nazi Germany. From the time that I was a youngster, I was taught that one must stand up against racism. If Hillary Clinton cannot step up to the plate now and fire Geraldine Ferraro and make it clear that racism has no place in her campaign, should she get the nomination which I hope she does not, I will not support her as the Democratic nominee. If Clinton can't do the right thing, then this proves that it is she who is not qualified to be the Democratic nominee and to be the leader of this country! It's bad enough that Clinton said that Republican McCain would make a better Commander-In-Chief than Barack Obama, that she said that Obama is not a Muslim "as far as I know," and now this??? Well, hopefully we will get Barack Obama nominated and we won't have this issue to deal with.

Posted by Walter Ballin at 09:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Although I have been active in volunteer liberal Democratic politics for over 40 years, for a time between 1997 and 2004, I was registered in the Green Party. The reason that I left the Democrats during that period, was because I was very disappointed at President Bill Clinton for his failure to deliver universal health care, his signing of the awful Welfare Reform legislation of 1996, NAFTA, his failure to stem corporate mergers resulting in worker layoffs, and other issues. Our Democratic Governor at the time, Gray Davis, was also a disappointment and incompetent, which is why we had the recall in 2003 and ended up with Schwarzenegger. During the past few years that I lived in San Francisco, Mayor Willie Brown who was a liberal Democrat in his earlier career, sold out to the landlords, developers, real estate interests, and other corporate interests. So, I became a Green. I voted for Ralph Nader for President in 1996 and 2000. Now, had I known that 'Dubya' Bush was going to be as bad a President as he is, and in fact much worse than his father, and had I resided in a state in 2000 where the election was close, I would have voted for Gore.

Having said this, while I certainly don't dispute the right of anyone to run for office I don't agree with Ralph Nader's decision to run this time, nor do I think he should have run in 2004. Nader says that there is virtually no difference between the Democrats and the Republicans or between the likely Democratic nominee Barack Obama and the likely Republican nominee John McCain on the issues. I don't know what planet Nader and his running mate former San Francisco Supervisor Matt Gonzalez are on, but certainly Obama's views on the issues are much closer to Nader and Gonzalez's expressed views than McCain's. Nader says that he's running because too many people are dissatisfied with the major party candidates. However, I notice that there are numerous people who are excited and getting involved in Barack Obama's campaign. Many are people who have never been involved in a political campaign before. They're certainly not flocking to Nader and Gonzalez. I heard Nader say that he's running to "raise the issues" that the other candidates are not raising. Again, Obama's views while not exactly the same as Nader's, are still closer to his views. In our communities and on the Internet, one can find all to numerous organizations that are fighting for liberal causes that many of us believe in where issues are raised. I'm not going to name every one, but in Butte County we have the Butte County Health Care Coalition that's working for Single Payer. While Barack Obama's plan is not Single Payer, you can be sure that if he's elected health care advocates like us will be pushing him to propose Single Payer or to at least work with Congress to pass a legislation that will benefit everybody. Certainly no decent health care legislation will be enacted if we get John McCain. We have the Peace & Justice Center. If one is interested in Fair Trade, the Peace & Justice Center is the place to go. Then there are the labor and environmental movements, and many other organizations that work on issues that transcend Ralph Nader. Nader said that nothing gets done in this country without movements, but what movement has he started that has flourished during the past 8 years? And for one to start a movement, one needs allies and certainly does not need to make more enemies.

Ralph Nader, rightfully or wrongfully is blamed for Bush's selection(notice I used the word "selection") in 2000. Yes, I also blame Al Gore's lackluster campaign and the faults of the Clinton-Gore administration mentioned above. I doubt very much that this time around that anyone who chooses to vote for Nader would vote for a Democrat anyway, if Nader would not be on the ballot. I also doubt that Nader's votes will make a difference this time as they did in 2000. But suppose my guess is wrong? Suppose Obama would lose a couple of states to John McCain by very small margins, with Nader's votes making the difference? With the appointments of more Roberts, Alitos, Scalias, and Thomases to the Supreme Court, the gutting of labor and environmental protections, more cuts to health education and welfare programs, more outsourcing of our jobs, more tax breaks for the super-rich, more war in Iraq and perhaps Iran, Ralph Nader would receive much of the blame. Very few people will remember him for the good that he did many years ago, such as the construction of safer cars, the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency etc.

I don't doubt what Ralph Nader says he believes in, but his ego is much stronger than his beliefs.

Posted by Walter Ballin at 09:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)