THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XII, Issue # 30, February 13, 2010
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
OBAMA'S INVISIBLE HOMELESS & HUNGRY
By Alan Caruba
THE AMERICAN ECONOMY, CURRENT ECONOMIC PROBLEMS, & THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION'S PROPOSED "SOLUTIONS":
THE OBAMA-REID-PELOSI STATIST ECONOMIC POLICY AGENDA & ITS LIKELY IMPACT ON EMPLOYMENT IN THE
U.S.A. -- THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TAXATION & JOB CREATION -- SMALL BUSINESSES & GOVERNMENTAL ECONOMIC
REGULATORY POLICY
FULL STORY:
The most enduring images of the Great Depression from 1929 through to the beginning of World War II for America in 1941
were those of homeless people, hobo camps, and of soup kitchens to feed the hungry.
During the Reagan years, the media was filled with stories of the homeless, as if to refute any improvement in the economy
under a Conservative president. These days, however, as America’s national debt, or deficit, continues to spiral out of
control, the poor and the hungry remain largely unseen and, most significantly, largely unreported.
About the only thing one can find on the White House website with regard to homelessness are statements about the way
“green jobs” will solve the problem. The first stimulus package, however, increased the amount of money that the nation’s
food banks received in 2009. So, someone involved understood America has a problem.
The New York Times reported “a $100 million windfall of extra food…” Also reported was that “requests for
emergency food assistance were up by 30 percent in 2008 over the previous year,” but the financial crisis did not occur
until late into the last year of the second Bush term.
As the recession took hold, one food pantry organizer noted that “the next layer of people” were showing up; “a rapidly
expanding group of child-care workers, nurse’s aides, real estate agents and secretaries who are facing a financial crisis for
the first time.”
A recent study by Mathematica Policy Research revealed that, in 2009, more than 37 million low-income people were
receiving emergency food assistance through a network of pantries, kitchens, and shelters. Recipients represented “a
broad cross-section of America, including 14 million children and three million elderly.”
“Approximately 40 percent white, 34 percent were Afro-American, and 20 percent were Hispanic.” Though 36 percent of
recipient households had one working adult, ten percent were homeless.”
“Most of the organizations providing assistance in the network were faith-based,” and I can recall the outcry when the
Bush administration undertook to provide funding to these organizations.
While the media reporting seems limited to official government statistics, currently citing unemployment at 9.4 percent,
most observers believe that it is far closer to 17 percent and that figure would actually exceed the Depression era.
There were no safety nets in the 1930s. Ironically, the programs put in place, Social Security, and later Medicare, are now
all but bankrupt or soon will be. At the time they were instituted, there were approximately sixteen workers paying into the
system for every recipient, but now it is down to two workers per recipient and these programs represent both a high level
of taxation and an increasing drain on the nation’s economy as demographic changes increase the numbers eligible for
them.
Entitlement programs, along with defense, represent half of the nation’s annual budget. The proposed Obama budget is
widely regarded as bizarre for the amount of spending it proposes.
In its first year, the Obama administration largely ignored joblessness in order to pursue a vastly expanded Medicare
“reform,” whose details, whenever they became known, generated a massive backlash from Americans who rightly saw the
program as an effort to take over one sixth of the nation’s economy, putting it under federal control.
Political observers all say that the Obama administration will now “pivot” and concentrate on jobs as the major issue this
year. The Democratic Party-controlled Congress, however, is doing little to adopt the factors that contribute to job creation.
Virtually all economists recommend a reduction in the tax on U.S. corporations, currently among the highest in the world,
rendering them less competitive and unable to expand their workforce.
Beyond that, the great economic engine of small businesses have seen minimum wage requirements increase and a host of
other regulations that punish all businesses when they are forced to lay off or fire employees; both discourage hiring.
Meanwhile, huge pension and other benefits for unionized government-related jobs are bankrupting the states.
The “solutions” of the FDR years did nothing to relieve the Great Depression and are widely seen as having extended it.
These same “solutions” are being pushed by the Obama administration, particularly in regard to increased taxation at the
worst possible time.
For now, the homeless and hungry will remain invisible to most Americans, but the media will be able to ignore it for only
so long, and then it will have to be addressed.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Political Economy -- Philosophies, Systems, & Public Policies:
Government, the Economy, & Economic Prosperity
Alan Caruba writes a daily post at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com. An author and a business and science writer, he is
the Founder of the National Anxiety Center.
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity