TURDS EVERYWHERE YOU LOOK! OHIO HAS ITS' SHARE OF TURDS!
There is not a day that goes by in this great nation that we don't see, hear or experience the corruption from our government officials. Here in the great State of Ohio, we are rated fifth in the nation by the Department of Justice in their Report to Congress on the Activities and Operations of the Public Integrity Section for 2006. This report is required to be submitted pursuant to Section 603 of the Ethics in Government Act of 1978.
Ohio Congressman Robert Ney pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit multiple offenses, including honest services fraud, and to making false statements to the United States House of Representatives. Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty to conspiracy and honest services mail fraud involving a Member of the United States House of Representatives, and tax evasion. During 2006 the Branch assisted United States Attorneys' Offices in the handling of vote fraud matters in Ohio, as well as other states.*
In 2006, the Section of the Elections Crime Branch of the U S Department of Justice worked with the United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Ohio to obtain the conviction of Ohio fundraiser Thomas Noe for making $45,400 in unlawful conduit campaign contributions. Noe pled guilty and was sentenced to 27 months of imprisonment.*
Federal public corruption convictions by district over the past decade show that Ohio has 538. And that's just the ones they wanted to catch. You have to really tick someone off in Ohio to get convicted of public corruption because most of the time, our government officials just look the other way.*
But the one thing you don't see on the list of federal public corruption convictions are the attorneys that cause so much of this corruption. A few years back, I was called into a major law firm that I was associated with by a newly made partner that I will call Mr. W. It's seems Mr. W. was slightly ticked off that I was trying to hold the Attorneys and Justices in the State of Ohio accountable for their actions and inactions on behalf of the disabled. Mr. W. wanted me to know that I had it all wrong. That I was an idealist who just didn't understand our United States System of Government, particularly the Judicial Branch.
He point blank informed me, "that it is not about truth, honor or justice. It's about what we want to make it about." You see, I had it all wrong. I believed for a good part of my young adult life that the government was about what I was taught in high school. But I was wrong. I have since had about 15 years of post graduate political education that clearly demonstrates that the Judicial Branch of the United States Government is about COLD HARD CASH!
Don't believe me. Pick a municipal, county or Supreme Court Justice in Ohio. Then, scan the attorneys that practice consistently in the so-called "random" assignment of cases before that judicial candidate. Next, go to the Secretary of State of Ohio's website: http://www2.sos.state.oh.us/portal/page?_pageid=34,56478,34_56508&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL
Make sure you allow yourself some time because you need to search, search, and search some more. The best place to start is on the "Candidates Committee" tab and select the "Contributions to Candidates." Open that up and just plug in your attorneys last name and see who and how much they contributed to your sitting judge.
Don't stop there, you know there are pacs and such. Places where attorneys can contribute to their own pacs and then make second, etc. donations to the judicial candidates. Sometimes, candidates and attorneys run for offices they know they have no hope of winning, and some don't even want the offices, but this candidacy allows them to accept legally campaign contributions that they get to keep if they don't spend it, as a reward for, perhaps possibly throwing a case in someone's favor or allowing them to use the funds for a different race.
Next go to the "PoliticalAction Committee/PCE" tab and open the line that says "Contributions to PACs and PCEs." Again, plug in your attorneys name and see what comes up. Don't ignore same or different addresses. When you get to the year, open each year up in a different window. Then open up the contributions, the other income, the expenditures and in-kind contributions, etc., making sure to copy what is relevant. In many instances, their wives (that don't work) and employees, make large donations to their PACs and PCEs and then make separate donations to the candidates. Sometimes they use multiple office and house addresses.
If you are real industrious, start searching the other states for your attorneys operations and their political donations from out of state. In some instances, they leave off a letter or two of their name, like Kelsey to Kelsy or similar such listings. You have to be determined, but when corruption exists and you don't understand why or how you just got screwed in court, FOLLOW THE MONEY!
These donations often total thousands of dollars. The Judges and Justices of the Courts of Ohio want the citizens of Ohio to believe that these donations mean nothing to them and don't influence their decisions. The very donations that buy them their next job and feed their families. They want you to believe that they are above human nature and can sit in judgment of these cases that they have a conflict of interest in.
Few bother to recuse themselves, because after all these TURDS and the TURDS they serve have sold their souls and could care less about the appearances of improprieties and the Code of Professional Responsibility that they swear to uphold when they receive their license to operate. They operate in Ohio with impunity, because they hide under a cloud of "CONFIDENTIALITY" under the Ohio Disciplinary Counsel, which is just more of the same. The Appearance of Integrity is more important than the TRUTH! It is a quid pro quo environment that polices itself with the same lack of integrity that Nixon and his staff exhibited.
The corruption in the State of Ohio knows no political party. It occurs on both sides of the aisle and is most only called into question when someone from outside the state who has even more money is offended or when the offending party fails to play the game the way it is set up and makes them self a target for the wealthy and politically powerful. Some may say that these Turds are the exception rather than the rule. It is not to say there are not some very decent and honorable attorneys and justices, but do your own searches and make up your own mind.
The real question is whether President Obama through the United States Justice Department can receive the enema of change and flush out these TURDS before our government is bankrupt and hold these offending parties accountable.
Let's see if OUR ENEMA OF CHANGE CAN FLUSH OUR SEA OF CORRUPTION through a filter of the United States Justice Department and flush out those TURDS so that real change can occur leaving a SEA OF REAL INTEGRITY. Now here is a health care plan.
*All statistics are taken from the United States Department of Justice's Report to Congress on the Activities and Operations of the Public Integrity Section for 2006.
NEXT WEEK: We will see how this one goes! ?
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Showing posts with label stimulus package. Show all posts
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Friday, April 3, 2009
CURSES TO THE TAX DAY TEA PARTY
USE APRIL 15, 2009 FOR MORE PRODUCTIVE THINGS:
I debated all week long what this week's topic would be. There were so many to choose from amidst the falling economy, poverty, discrimination and the list goes on. For weeks now, we have heard about the debate concerning President Obama's budget. All the yelling going on, particularly from the far right about how unfair it is to raise taxes on the rich. Most of those yelling purport a belief in a higher power than themselves, stating they tithe to the churches they attend, and wanting to keep more for themselves. The wealthys' answer to all of this is to throw an old fashion tax day, April 15, 2009, tea party.
Apparently, this is the way it works. If you are making a net taxable income of $500,000.00 per year, that is after you have written off all of your exemptions, expenses, write-offs, business trips, mileage, and so forth, you now pay a 36% tax or $180,000.00 in taxes, leaving you with a paltry sum of $320,000.00 per year to exist on. Under President Obama's plan, the current tax breaks would cease to exist raising this tax to 39% of those individuals that make over $250,000.00 per year after write offs. On a net income of $500,000.00 a year this tax would be $195,000.00 leaving the wealthy with only $305,000.00 per year in livable income.
OH MY! HOW WILL THEY ALL CONTINUE TO EXIST! Remember, this net income is after their business reinvestment income, their donations to their own foundations, their expenses for trips abroad for business of course, and any other loophole they can find to exempt income. After exemptions, their real tax rate is more closely to 15 to 20 percent, and some are not even paying that. It is apparently enough to send Rush Limbaugh fleeing from New York for his life!
These same people yell and complain that their tax dollars are being misspent, used for Medicaid (you know, all those lazy disabled and elderly people that no one wants to hire and are expected to miraculously exist without income or job on usually less than $500.00 per month or $6,000.00 per year, some not even making that.) Their answer to that is for you to show up at their Tax Day Tea Party to protest the taxes that they pay.
First of all, don't waste your time. No one likes to pay taxes, but in truth, they are a necessary thing. Even Christ recognized that there was a need for government and stated, "to render unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar." Taxes pay for useful things like the police, fire departments, city, village and township maintenance workers, schools, colleges, day care, hospitals, judges, courts, sewers, clean water, roads, and, yes, government benefits and services. Where would you be without these things? And even if you didn't have need for these things today, can you imagine the lawlessness in our society without these things!
Don't you think their time would be better spent on trying to limit the income of people that make more than ten times the average person, than trying to stage a tea party to protest what we already know is necessary. Were the poor, lower and middle class families suppose to save for their retirement by investing in wall street, insurance companies, and banks that have already proven their inability to be trusted? And what about all the corporations that have sold us worthless or dangerous products, managed by these same wealthy executives. I am not against people making more money because they have worked a little harder, or gone to school by being blessed by an education, but don't you think there is something horribly wrong when you make more than ten times the average person and it is still not enough?
Is there no limit to their greed?
These same people talk about a sense of welfare entitlement. Isn't it the same mentality to talk about corporate welfare or a sense of entitlement to exorbitant amounts of income? Do you know how hard many laborers, construction workers, tradesmen, nurses, Walmart workers, child care workers, teachers and care takers work who struggle to make barely above minimum wage to five figures, all the while paying their fair share of taxes without the benefit of the corporate loopholes? Certainly, no less hard than the wealthy!
I helped prepare taxes today for a 28 year old man who made a little over $12,000.00 in income working three different jobs, and, after deductions and exemptions allowed, this poor man had to pay almost $1,100.00 in taxes. That is criminal, yet he acknowledges he has a duty to pay. He already didn't make enough to live on. He has no hopes of immediately finding a job that will pay a livable wage in this economy, and must put off any hopes of a marriage, family, or college for the immediate future. Yet there are those that have a net income of $305,000.00 and they want you to show up at a Tax Day Tea Party!
For all of you tithing church goers, do you really believe that someone who makes $12,000.00 per year in income should pay taxes of $1,100.00 and tithe $1,200.00 with a net income of $9,700.00 per year while you have a net income of over $200,000.00 per year to live on? Which cardboard box did you want Christ to move in to and in what park is he allowed to set up a tent? What happened to, "whom much is given, much is expected?"
Don't talk to me about a Tax Day Tea Party. I am too, too busy advocating for those people that were promised jobs by the wealthy. The wealthy who promised to reinvest their bailout riches to create jobs for the mass populations and loan money to struggling home owners, while in reality the wealthy have been hiding and hoarding those riches at the expense and the tax dollars of the masses.
Maybe instead of throwing tea into the harbor on tax day, we should throw the wealthy recipients of tax bailout dollars! Now that's a real TAX DAY PARTY!
NEXT WEEK: CAN THE GREEDY SWIM IN HIGH TIDE AND FOR HOW LONG?
I debated all week long what this week's topic would be. There were so many to choose from amidst the falling economy, poverty, discrimination and the list goes on. For weeks now, we have heard about the debate concerning President Obama's budget. All the yelling going on, particularly from the far right about how unfair it is to raise taxes on the rich. Most of those yelling purport a belief in a higher power than themselves, stating they tithe to the churches they attend, and wanting to keep more for themselves. The wealthys' answer to all of this is to throw an old fashion tax day, April 15, 2009, tea party.
Apparently, this is the way it works. If you are making a net taxable income of $500,000.00 per year, that is after you have written off all of your exemptions, expenses, write-offs, business trips, mileage, and so forth, you now pay a 36% tax or $180,000.00 in taxes, leaving you with a paltry sum of $320,000.00 per year to exist on. Under President Obama's plan, the current tax breaks would cease to exist raising this tax to 39% of those individuals that make over $250,000.00 per year after write offs. On a net income of $500,000.00 a year this tax would be $195,000.00 leaving the wealthy with only $305,000.00 per year in livable income.
OH MY! HOW WILL THEY ALL CONTINUE TO EXIST! Remember, this net income is after their business reinvestment income, their donations to their own foundations, their expenses for trips abroad for business of course, and any other loophole they can find to exempt income. After exemptions, their real tax rate is more closely to 15 to 20 percent, and some are not even paying that. It is apparently enough to send Rush Limbaugh fleeing from New York for his life!
These same people yell and complain that their tax dollars are being misspent, used for Medicaid (you know, all those lazy disabled and elderly people that no one wants to hire and are expected to miraculously exist without income or job on usually less than $500.00 per month or $6,000.00 per year, some not even making that.) Their answer to that is for you to show up at their Tax Day Tea Party to protest the taxes that they pay.
First of all, don't waste your time. No one likes to pay taxes, but in truth, they are a necessary thing. Even Christ recognized that there was a need for government and stated, "to render unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar." Taxes pay for useful things like the police, fire departments, city, village and township maintenance workers, schools, colleges, day care, hospitals, judges, courts, sewers, clean water, roads, and, yes, government benefits and services. Where would you be without these things? And even if you didn't have need for these things today, can you imagine the lawlessness in our society without these things!
Don't you think their time would be better spent on trying to limit the income of people that make more than ten times the average person, than trying to stage a tea party to protest what we already know is necessary. Were the poor, lower and middle class families suppose to save for their retirement by investing in wall street, insurance companies, and banks that have already proven their inability to be trusted? And what about all the corporations that have sold us worthless or dangerous products, managed by these same wealthy executives. I am not against people making more money because they have worked a little harder, or gone to school by being blessed by an education, but don't you think there is something horribly wrong when you make more than ten times the average person and it is still not enough?
Is there no limit to their greed?
These same people talk about a sense of welfare entitlement. Isn't it the same mentality to talk about corporate welfare or a sense of entitlement to exorbitant amounts of income? Do you know how hard many laborers, construction workers, tradesmen, nurses, Walmart workers, child care workers, teachers and care takers work who struggle to make barely above minimum wage to five figures, all the while paying their fair share of taxes without the benefit of the corporate loopholes? Certainly, no less hard than the wealthy!
I helped prepare taxes today for a 28 year old man who made a little over $12,000.00 in income working three different jobs, and, after deductions and exemptions allowed, this poor man had to pay almost $1,100.00 in taxes. That is criminal, yet he acknowledges he has a duty to pay. He already didn't make enough to live on. He has no hopes of immediately finding a job that will pay a livable wage in this economy, and must put off any hopes of a marriage, family, or college for the immediate future. Yet there are those that have a net income of $305,000.00 and they want you to show up at a Tax Day Tea Party!
For all of you tithing church goers, do you really believe that someone who makes $12,000.00 per year in income should pay taxes of $1,100.00 and tithe $1,200.00 with a net income of $9,700.00 per year while you have a net income of over $200,000.00 per year to live on? Which cardboard box did you want Christ to move in to and in what park is he allowed to set up a tent? What happened to, "whom much is given, much is expected?"
Don't talk to me about a Tax Day Tea Party. I am too, too busy advocating for those people that were promised jobs by the wealthy. The wealthy who promised to reinvest their bailout riches to create jobs for the mass populations and loan money to struggling home owners, while in reality the wealthy have been hiding and hoarding those riches at the expense and the tax dollars of the masses.
Maybe instead of throwing tea into the harbor on tax day, we should throw the wealthy recipients of tax bailout dollars! Now that's a real TAX DAY PARTY!
NEXT WEEK: CAN THE GREEDY SWIM IN HIGH TIDE AND FOR HOW LONG?
Friday, March 20, 2009
WHAT IF GOD CAME BACK AS DISABLED!
Would You Recognize Him?
Today, everyone is talking about the remark that President Obama made on Jay Leno's Tonight Show last night, Thursday, March 19, 2009. President Obama in a momentary lapse of judgment made a remark that his bowling skill was to be compared to the Special Olympics. I can't pretend that the remark was not disappointing. It was. However, the remark pales in comparison to the discrimination and disparate treatment suffered on a daily basis by this nation's population of Differently Abled!
As a parent of a special needs adult daughter, who happens to be Deaf, Visually Impaired, and Mentally Challenged, along with some other minor ailments, I can tell you from flat out experience, that the population of the Differently Abled have been the target of far worse abuses than the President's remark.
Far too many are forced onto the Medicaid and Supplemental Social Security roles because far too few want to be in their presence. They suffer from rationed health care and, some states, imposed a CO-payment on their prescription drugs while they live on less than $700 per month and most live on less than that. With their meager incomes or food stamps, they are forced to buy food that is less than nutritious and, for the most part, have no allowance for luxury items like toilet paper, soap or sanitary napkins and often are forced to choose between food and prescriptions. They are continually the victim of abuses and scams by, not only the private sector, but the systems of different governments internationally. They are looked upon as leaches off the financial system of most governments, while their abilities and contributions are either ignored or not valued at all.
We spend far too much money creating programs that provide jobs for politicians' friends and relatives off the backs of the Differently Abled. We provide workshops that pay them $65 per month in Ohio, and, then, the staff spends the day selling them back snacks and soda pop to take their $65 back to the state at $1.10 a can of pop and a $1.00 a candy bar. These programs do little to enrich or improve their lives and are nothing more than baby sitting services, with wild stories of events that go unreported in the interest of the state.
I announced the column topic last week prior to the President's remark based on the experiences that my daughter and others like her encounter on a daily basis that causes people, both sympathetic to the unsympathetic, to literally run away in fear when they encounter someone with such severe challenges. Each time it occurs, my heart breaks for her. And the place it occurs most is the very place it should occur the least: church, where she really loves to be.
It is not that most people intend to be rude or mean (some do), it is more that they are out of their comfort zone than anything else. Others can't be bothered, and still others are repulsed by her presence. I always sit back in amazement that no matter how she is treated, she always welcomes people into her life with a smile and, more often than not, a hug. When people are downright rude or mean to her, I stand back in awe in her ability to forgive, again ready to welcome that person in her life.
There are some well intentioned people that struggle to include her in their life activities, but they are few and far between, and I'm always grateful and thankful that they at least tried. They are more the exception than the rule.
So as long as people are uncomfortable with the Differently Abled and continue to under employ them and force them onto public benefits with all the same wants and desire that you yourself possess, they deserve a living wage benefit, not a program that pays someone else to benefit off of them.
Don't be too hard on President Obama for his momentary lapse in judgment. President Obama and his wife Michelle have spent a lifetime working on behalf of the poverty stricken elderly and disabled or Differently Abled and have done more on their behalf than Sarah Palin or the Republicans have ever done. It was the Republicans that convinced America that the people on Medicaid and Supplemental Social Security Income were lazy and just didn't want to work.
For the most part, the Differently Abled were forced onto these roles and live on a fraction of poverty and are unable to find a job, while the masses convince themselves with myths that they get everything supplied by the government. I'm here to tell you it is not true and that most are left struggling for survival and suffer horribly at the hands of society. Their families are punished a life time for these disabilities as their resources are re-allocated without due process of law to provide reduced benefits, and, far too often, these benefits are politically doled out.
Is this the way you would treat God? For those that have faith, didn't he say what you do for the least of those you do for me! For those that don't believe in God, is this the society that you want to live in? A society where greed and legal trickery rules the day while truth and justice are laid to rest? Remember, there for the grace of God go I.
You are an accident away from being Differently Abled! President Obama, we forgive you! Now help us!
Next Week: Lost Cost Premium Insurance with High Deductibles is NO INSURANCE AT ALL!
Today, everyone is talking about the remark that President Obama made on Jay Leno's Tonight Show last night, Thursday, March 19, 2009. President Obama in a momentary lapse of judgment made a remark that his bowling skill was to be compared to the Special Olympics. I can't pretend that the remark was not disappointing. It was. However, the remark pales in comparison to the discrimination and disparate treatment suffered on a daily basis by this nation's population of Differently Abled!
As a parent of a special needs adult daughter, who happens to be Deaf, Visually Impaired, and Mentally Challenged, along with some other minor ailments, I can tell you from flat out experience, that the population of the Differently Abled have been the target of far worse abuses than the President's remark.
Far too many are forced onto the Medicaid and Supplemental Social Security roles because far too few want to be in their presence. They suffer from rationed health care and, some states, imposed a CO-payment on their prescription drugs while they live on less than $700 per month and most live on less than that. With their meager incomes or food stamps, they are forced to buy food that is less than nutritious and, for the most part, have no allowance for luxury items like toilet paper, soap or sanitary napkins and often are forced to choose between food and prescriptions. They are continually the victim of abuses and scams by, not only the private sector, but the systems of different governments internationally. They are looked upon as leaches off the financial system of most governments, while their abilities and contributions are either ignored or not valued at all.
We spend far too much money creating programs that provide jobs for politicians' friends and relatives off the backs of the Differently Abled. We provide workshops that pay them $65 per month in Ohio, and, then, the staff spends the day selling them back snacks and soda pop to take their $65 back to the state at $1.10 a can of pop and a $1.00 a candy bar. These programs do little to enrich or improve their lives and are nothing more than baby sitting services, with wild stories of events that go unreported in the interest of the state.
I announced the column topic last week prior to the President's remark based on the experiences that my daughter and others like her encounter on a daily basis that causes people, both sympathetic to the unsympathetic, to literally run away in fear when they encounter someone with such severe challenges. Each time it occurs, my heart breaks for her. And the place it occurs most is the very place it should occur the least: church, where she really loves to be.
It is not that most people intend to be rude or mean (some do), it is more that they are out of their comfort zone than anything else. Others can't be bothered, and still others are repulsed by her presence. I always sit back in amazement that no matter how she is treated, she always welcomes people into her life with a smile and, more often than not, a hug. When people are downright rude or mean to her, I stand back in awe in her ability to forgive, again ready to welcome that person in her life.
There are some well intentioned people that struggle to include her in their life activities, but they are few and far between, and I'm always grateful and thankful that they at least tried. They are more the exception than the rule.
So as long as people are uncomfortable with the Differently Abled and continue to under employ them and force them onto public benefits with all the same wants and desire that you yourself possess, they deserve a living wage benefit, not a program that pays someone else to benefit off of them.
Don't be too hard on President Obama for his momentary lapse in judgment. President Obama and his wife Michelle have spent a lifetime working on behalf of the poverty stricken elderly and disabled or Differently Abled and have done more on their behalf than Sarah Palin or the Republicans have ever done. It was the Republicans that convinced America that the people on Medicaid and Supplemental Social Security Income were lazy and just didn't want to work.
For the most part, the Differently Abled were forced onto these roles and live on a fraction of poverty and are unable to find a job, while the masses convince themselves with myths that they get everything supplied by the government. I'm here to tell you it is not true and that most are left struggling for survival and suffer horribly at the hands of society. Their families are punished a life time for these disabilities as their resources are re-allocated without due process of law to provide reduced benefits, and, far too often, these benefits are politically doled out.
Is this the way you would treat God? For those that have faith, didn't he say what you do for the least of those you do for me! For those that don't believe in God, is this the society that you want to live in? A society where greed and legal trickery rules the day while truth and justice are laid to rest? Remember, there for the grace of God go I.
You are an accident away from being Differently Abled! President Obama, we forgive you! Now help us!
Next Week: Lost Cost Premium Insurance with High Deductibles is NO INSURANCE AT ALL!
Friday, March 6, 2009
LIVING WITHIN YOUR BUDGET
DOES THE SYSTEM REALLY WANT OR ALLOW YOU TO DO THAT?
These days, we hear plenty about budgets. The President's Budget, the Congressional Budget, the State Budget, the Municipal Budget and, yes, your budget. We hear screams from the right side of the aisle saying, you the citizen, should live within your budget. If you are struggling, these days, many on the right believe that it is your fault. You were somehow irresponsible with your money, spending it frivolously, or perhaps purchasing things from the many wealthy business owners on the right that kept telling you that you needed to buy their merchandise and on "CREDIT." Almost daily, you hear someone say we need to get the credit markets flowing again. This week, I want to examine the full possibility of those accusations.
Let's take the young man or woman, who is married, and two children. For the purposes of this study, we will have one worker, while the other stays home and attends to their children. If he or she is working, one (usually she) is statistically making less than the counterpart, and they have to spend almost what the second partner makes on extra clothing, child care expenses, and, don't forget that extra tax bracket; reducing that second income to almost nothing.
Let's say that we have an average factory worker (nonunion) or, Walmart, McDonald's, or Burger King worker making an average of $12.00 per hour. That figure in some of these instances is high. Most of these workers struggle with less. Now on a 40 hour week, 52 weeks per year, this worker would earn approximately $24,960.00 (just enough to put him or her above the poverty level to make them ineligible for government benefits, but not enough to get ahead. Now out of the $2,080.00 per month, the Federal Tax (Income and Social Security 15%), State Taxes (15%), and local tax (municipal 2%) on this income is approximately $672.00 leaving them with a net income of $1,408.00 for a family of four.
Next, you hear about this family of four living beyond their means. Well, let's examine that.
According to the Ohio Administrative Code 5101:4-5-01, last amended October 1, 2008, the average family of four is allotted a maximum food stamp allowance of $584.00 for an entire month. And, if many of you reading this are honest, you have to spend much more than this to eat healthy. This amount buys pasta, pasta, pasta. This leaves approximately $824.00 left.
Now with that remaining $824.00, we have to pay rent.
According to the 2009 HUD Fair Market Value Statistics for the Cuyahoga County area of Ohio, the average and fair market value rent for a two bedroom structure is $694.00 ($740.00 for Franklin County, Ohio). There are those out there that would say, you can find places to rent less than that. Places they would not live themselves and places where the crime statistics are altered daily. Now you are left with $130.00 to pay for your heating costs, electrical costs, phone costs, bus passes or car expenses, household goods insurance, state mandated car insurance, medical insurance premium, USE tax (sales tax), medical Co-pays (many can't even afford to use their health insurance after paying for it), dental care, life insurance premiums, used clothing, and so on. Many would say you need to take on a second job to make ends meet and many do take on second jobs, along with increased taxes, increased child care expenses, increased work expenses and, God forbid, an emergency occurs. There is no possibility to put away enough money for most emergencies, hence high interest, easy available credit cards. You now have been forced into a credit situation.
Wages have been stagnant by design for three decades. Between the United States Labor Department and the Federal Reserve, this was all engineered and planned. All the while over the last eight years, gasoline prices increased and that made prices increase on everything from milk to every product you buy, including utilities. Don't you remember George Bush, Sr. saying less is more, all the while he and his wealthy friends got more and more. You were suppose to be at home enjoying more family time on less resources. Don't listen to what he says, watch what he did and does! More is more. And what about Barbara Bush, after Katrina, standing in the middle of the Houston Astrodome and stating, "It's not like they're not use to being poor," referring to the Katrina victims. While Barbara Bush is recovering from heart surgery, at least she, personally, could afford the insurance paid for on the backs of the tax payer and afford the insurance co-payments, subsidized by her tax payer supported pension. I suppose with her reasoning, she would state it is not like the poor are not use to eating the lower cost pasta, at least they are not starving (maybe developing more heart disease and getting obese, but hey, they are not starving). I suppose with her reasoning, she would state that it is not like the poor are not use to being unhealthy and sick (We, the wealthy have made sure of that).
Don't forget it is the wealthy that look down their noses at the poor and think that people that have to file bankruptcy are somehow less hardworking or less than intelligent because they didn't have any health insurance, or car insurance, or life insurance (didn't they know they were going to die while they were struggling to live), all the while they knowingly paid them barely enough to exist upon while they got wealthy off the backs of other people.
Recently, I had a middle class secretary state to me that it was right to pay people that worked at fast food restaurants or department stores a lower wage because, after all, these were never meant to be jobs for adults to live on, just jobs to subsidize some kids' pay check. Ms. Secretary, the next time you are in Walmart, Kmart, Burger King, McDonald's, etc. look around at the workforce. These are the jobs many adults are forced to survive on. Thank God Ms. Secretary that you still have your job. These are the jobs that move America. All the while the average Burger King worker was being paid $14,000 per year (less than poverty wage), their parent corporation, Goldman Sachs handed out bonuses (BONUSES) to their top corporate executives totaling over $6.5 billion dollars, enough to pay each one of their workers an additional $18,000 per year, all the while many of their employees were forced to have their health care subsidized by the tax payer in the way of Corporate Welfare. The higher we are, the more it hurts when we fall!
The problem really is that the system, after years of corruption and greed, is at its' breaking point. People like Bernie Madoff have been allowed to operate by the wealthy in a climate of quid pro quo (You do for me, and I do for you). The reason Bernie Madoff will have a Plea Bargain or DEAL is because there are so many complicit in his actions, that they don't want him to name names. For $60 billion dollars, I am sure that many politicians, judges, lawyers, etc. benefited from his actions and, therein lies the Plea Bargain. Do they really want you to live within your budget? You have been strategically and economically enslaved by this nation for years. There is always that cardboard box, right?
Next Week: With all the baby boomers retiring, who had the vested interest to allow or engineer the stock markets to crash and insurance companies to fail?
These days, we hear plenty about budgets. The President's Budget, the Congressional Budget, the State Budget, the Municipal Budget and, yes, your budget. We hear screams from the right side of the aisle saying, you the citizen, should live within your budget. If you are struggling, these days, many on the right believe that it is your fault. You were somehow irresponsible with your money, spending it frivolously, or perhaps purchasing things from the many wealthy business owners on the right that kept telling you that you needed to buy their merchandise and on "CREDIT." Almost daily, you hear someone say we need to get the credit markets flowing again. This week, I want to examine the full possibility of those accusations.
Let's take the young man or woman, who is married, and two children. For the purposes of this study, we will have one worker, while the other stays home and attends to their children. If he or she is working, one (usually she) is statistically making less than the counterpart, and they have to spend almost what the second partner makes on extra clothing, child care expenses, and, don't forget that extra tax bracket; reducing that second income to almost nothing.
Let's say that we have an average factory worker (nonunion) or, Walmart, McDonald's, or Burger King worker making an average of $12.00 per hour. That figure in some of these instances is high. Most of these workers struggle with less. Now on a 40 hour week, 52 weeks per year, this worker would earn approximately $24,960.00 (just enough to put him or her above the poverty level to make them ineligible for government benefits, but not enough to get ahead. Now out of the $2,080.00 per month, the Federal Tax (Income and Social Security 15%), State Taxes (15%), and local tax (municipal 2%) on this income is approximately $672.00 leaving them with a net income of $1,408.00 for a family of four.
Next, you hear about this family of four living beyond their means. Well, let's examine that.
According to the Ohio Administrative Code 5101:4-5-01, last amended October 1, 2008, the average family of four is allotted a maximum food stamp allowance of $584.00 for an entire month. And, if many of you reading this are honest, you have to spend much more than this to eat healthy. This amount buys pasta, pasta, pasta. This leaves approximately $824.00 left.
Now with that remaining $824.00, we have to pay rent.
According to the 2009 HUD Fair Market Value Statistics for the Cuyahoga County area of Ohio, the average and fair market value rent for a two bedroom structure is $694.00 ($740.00 for Franklin County, Ohio). There are those out there that would say, you can find places to rent less than that. Places they would not live themselves and places where the crime statistics are altered daily. Now you are left with $130.00 to pay for your heating costs, electrical costs, phone costs, bus passes or car expenses, household goods insurance, state mandated car insurance, medical insurance premium, USE tax (sales tax), medical Co-pays (many can't even afford to use their health insurance after paying for it), dental care, life insurance premiums, used clothing, and so on. Many would say you need to take on a second job to make ends meet and many do take on second jobs, along with increased taxes, increased child care expenses, increased work expenses and, God forbid, an emergency occurs. There is no possibility to put away enough money for most emergencies, hence high interest, easy available credit cards. You now have been forced into a credit situation.
Wages have been stagnant by design for three decades. Between the United States Labor Department and the Federal Reserve, this was all engineered and planned. All the while over the last eight years, gasoline prices increased and that made prices increase on everything from milk to every product you buy, including utilities. Don't you remember George Bush, Sr. saying less is more, all the while he and his wealthy friends got more and more. You were suppose to be at home enjoying more family time on less resources. Don't listen to what he says, watch what he did and does! More is more. And what about Barbara Bush, after Katrina, standing in the middle of the Houston Astrodome and stating, "It's not like they're not use to being poor," referring to the Katrina victims. While Barbara Bush is recovering from heart surgery, at least she, personally, could afford the insurance paid for on the backs of the tax payer and afford the insurance co-payments, subsidized by her tax payer supported pension. I suppose with her reasoning, she would state it is not like the poor are not use to eating the lower cost pasta, at least they are not starving (maybe developing more heart disease and getting obese, but hey, they are not starving). I suppose with her reasoning, she would state that it is not like the poor are not use to being unhealthy and sick (We, the wealthy have made sure of that).
Don't forget it is the wealthy that look down their noses at the poor and think that people that have to file bankruptcy are somehow less hardworking or less than intelligent because they didn't have any health insurance, or car insurance, or life insurance (didn't they know they were going to die while they were struggling to live), all the while they knowingly paid them barely enough to exist upon while they got wealthy off the backs of other people.
Recently, I had a middle class secretary state to me that it was right to pay people that worked at fast food restaurants or department stores a lower wage because, after all, these were never meant to be jobs for adults to live on, just jobs to subsidize some kids' pay check. Ms. Secretary, the next time you are in Walmart, Kmart, Burger King, McDonald's, etc. look around at the workforce. These are the jobs many adults are forced to survive on. Thank God Ms. Secretary that you still have your job. These are the jobs that move America. All the while the average Burger King worker was being paid $14,000 per year (less than poverty wage), their parent corporation, Goldman Sachs handed out bonuses (BONUSES) to their top corporate executives totaling over $6.5 billion dollars, enough to pay each one of their workers an additional $18,000 per year, all the while many of their employees were forced to have their health care subsidized by the tax payer in the way of Corporate Welfare. The higher we are, the more it hurts when we fall!
The problem really is that the system, after years of corruption and greed, is at its' breaking point. People like Bernie Madoff have been allowed to operate by the wealthy in a climate of quid pro quo (You do for me, and I do for you). The reason Bernie Madoff will have a Plea Bargain or DEAL is because there are so many complicit in his actions, that they don't want him to name names. For $60 billion dollars, I am sure that many politicians, judges, lawyers, etc. benefited from his actions and, therein lies the Plea Bargain. Do they really want you to live within your budget? You have been strategically and economically enslaved by this nation for years. There is always that cardboard box, right?
Next Week: With all the baby boomers retiring, who had the vested interest to allow or engineer the stock markets to crash and insurance companies to fail?
Friday, February 20, 2009
Poverty and the Differently Abled and Elderly!
Too often, the elderly and disabled (those that are Differently Abled) are forced to live in poverty conditions, mostly by system design. It is the moral shame of America. While some of the Differently Abled Citizens are gainfully employed, there are many more unable to work or unable to find gainful employment. Some that work are paid well below the poverty line or can only get part time hours and work with no less effort and no less wants or desires than our able bodied citizens. Those that must rely on Supplemental Social Security Income or Medicaid receive less than $600 per month, and, many receive a lot less. You see, for the most part, our society does not place much value on those that are not able bodied citizens. Supplemental Social Security Income or Medicaid does not refer to the lazy, it refers to the blind, deaf, severely hearing impaired, mentally ill, mentally challenged, the physically challenged, etc. Before you judge, remember you are an accident away from being Differently Abled!
The financial pie in this country is only so big. That's the whole job of the federal reserve. The federal reserve makes sure that the financial pie does not get too big. One half (50%) of the pie is allocated by system design to the top wealthiest 1% of the population. That leaves only one half a pie for the other ninety-nine percent (99%) of people. Forty percent (40%) of the remaining half financial pie is then allocated to the next ten (10%) percent of wealthy Americans. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to determine that the remaining 10% of the financial pie is allocated to what is left of the eighty-nine (89%) of the population.
In simpler terms, if there is $1,000 for 100 people to survive in total, in the American capitalist society, 1 person would get $500.00, 10 people would get $400.00 and the remaining 89 people would get $100.00 to split amongst themselves or $1.12 each. You see, the theory in America is that the top wealthiest citizens are somehow better, brighter, smarter, harder working, etc. than the rest and, they will then take their wealth and create jobs for the masses and, the wealth will trickle down. Well, the problem with this theory is that the top wealthiest citizens, along with the next 10% of wealthiest citizens, for the most part, are not only smarter, etc., they, also, happen to be more morally bankrupt, more greedy, more corrupt, etc. The wealth almost never trickles down, and if it does, they conspire along with the politicians to raise prices on those things the masses need, so they don't get too wealthy.
You see, who would fight their wars? Who would do their manual labor jobs? Who would do their dangerous jobs (i.e., coal miners, welders, police officers, etc.)? Your feeling of enslavement is not imaginary. It is designed by the wealthiest American men and women from the best families. You know, families like Stanford, Madoff, Lay, etc. Oh, these wealthy people donate to charitable (mostly their own) foundations where they donate just enough money to causes to buy them more bang for their buck; a good name and a "good" appearance of a moral value system. They just don't donate enough to make a real difference for the masses. Occasionally, they will raise up a minority person or group for appearances' sake, but, by and large, it is without any real meaning. One has to look no farther than the make up of Congress to see that!
Next, you say, but we have a vote. Do you? When you go to vote, do you ever ask yourself who draws the boxes and inserts the names for whom you vote? Sure you have a choice between Candidates R and D, but what if you want X? Well Candidate X is not in the box and does not have the funds to be well known enough to have his name written in by enough people at the ballot box. Candidate X has not yet sold his soul to the system. The real vote and power is in who draws the box! The wealthy draw the box. The electoral college ensures the wealthy will control the box. Who selects the people for the electoral college? The wealthy do.
Change you say. When all of the players are the same, and when all of the fights and debates are all about the same old issues, is there really any change? While you may get to spend your $13 per week for the next year that may enable you to take your family to McDonald's, the wealthiest of Americans took their bonuses of several million dollars a piece, subsidized by your tax payer dollars, and then supported congressman to gripe about your $13 per week allotment and the possibility that you may get universal health care (corporate welfare - they get to keep more of the profits at tax payer expense). When you hear wealthy people talk about the horrors of redistribution of wealth, make note that they don't mind redistributing the wealth of the common man by way of tax subsidies, tax breaks, corporate tax credits, bailouts, stimulus, etc. It is time we redistribute the wealth to the masses.
It is not about Republican versus Democrat. It is about those that have versus the rest of us. Their greed and arrogance is appalling. Is it no wonder the nation is struggling to survive! We need to make sure our President hears our voices and give him the voice and support he needs to effect real change: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/ We deserve and will settle for nothing less!
Next week: Solar and wind energy at the expense of the masses. Who wins, who loses?
The financial pie in this country is only so big. That's the whole job of the federal reserve. The federal reserve makes sure that the financial pie does not get too big. One half (50%) of the pie is allocated by system design to the top wealthiest 1% of the population. That leaves only one half a pie for the other ninety-nine percent (99%) of people. Forty percent (40%) of the remaining half financial pie is then allocated to the next ten (10%) percent of wealthy Americans. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to determine that the remaining 10% of the financial pie is allocated to what is left of the eighty-nine (89%) of the population.
In simpler terms, if there is $1,000 for 100 people to survive in total, in the American capitalist society, 1 person would get $500.00, 10 people would get $400.00 and the remaining 89 people would get $100.00 to split amongst themselves or $1.12 each. You see, the theory in America is that the top wealthiest citizens are somehow better, brighter, smarter, harder working, etc. than the rest and, they will then take their wealth and create jobs for the masses and, the wealth will trickle down. Well, the problem with this theory is that the top wealthiest citizens, along with the next 10% of wealthiest citizens, for the most part, are not only smarter, etc., they, also, happen to be more morally bankrupt, more greedy, more corrupt, etc. The wealth almost never trickles down, and if it does, they conspire along with the politicians to raise prices on those things the masses need, so they don't get too wealthy.
You see, who would fight their wars? Who would do their manual labor jobs? Who would do their dangerous jobs (i.e., coal miners, welders, police officers, etc.)? Your feeling of enslavement is not imaginary. It is designed by the wealthiest American men and women from the best families. You know, families like Stanford, Madoff, Lay, etc. Oh, these wealthy people donate to charitable (mostly their own) foundations where they donate just enough money to causes to buy them more bang for their buck; a good name and a "good" appearance of a moral value system. They just don't donate enough to make a real difference for the masses. Occasionally, they will raise up a minority person or group for appearances' sake, but, by and large, it is without any real meaning. One has to look no farther than the make up of Congress to see that!
Next, you say, but we have a vote. Do you? When you go to vote, do you ever ask yourself who draws the boxes and inserts the names for whom you vote? Sure you have a choice between Candidates R and D, but what if you want X? Well Candidate X is not in the box and does not have the funds to be well known enough to have his name written in by enough people at the ballot box. Candidate X has not yet sold his soul to the system. The real vote and power is in who draws the box! The wealthy draw the box. The electoral college ensures the wealthy will control the box. Who selects the people for the electoral college? The wealthy do.
Change you say. When all of the players are the same, and when all of the fights and debates are all about the same old issues, is there really any change? While you may get to spend your $13 per week for the next year that may enable you to take your family to McDonald's, the wealthiest of Americans took their bonuses of several million dollars a piece, subsidized by your tax payer dollars, and then supported congressman to gripe about your $13 per week allotment and the possibility that you may get universal health care (corporate welfare - they get to keep more of the profits at tax payer expense). When you hear wealthy people talk about the horrors of redistribution of wealth, make note that they don't mind redistributing the wealth of the common man by way of tax subsidies, tax breaks, corporate tax credits, bailouts, stimulus, etc. It is time we redistribute the wealth to the masses.
It is not about Republican versus Democrat. It is about those that have versus the rest of us. Their greed and arrogance is appalling. Is it no wonder the nation is struggling to survive! We need to make sure our President hears our voices and give him the voice and support he needs to effect real change: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/ We deserve and will settle for nothing less!
Next week: Solar and wind energy at the expense of the masses. Who wins, who loses?
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