I don’t know what neighborhood Mrs. Eleanor Johnson lives in, talking about all this booming economy that Republicans are “deflecting” by talking about what a disaster Obamacare is, because the U.S. Department of Commerce says something completely different about the economy we live in.
“The typical American family’s income has fallen every year since 2007, the year the Great Recession began, for a cumulative decline of 8.3 percent. Median income is also down 9 percent from its record high of $56,080, set two recessions ago in 1999.”
The median income is $56,080. That means that there are incomes higher, and some lower. Lumped together, it comes to 56k. In the economy that Barack Obama has run, not only have incomes fallen, but his economy has hurt Black Americans harder than any other racial demographic.
“The median income for black households was $33,321 last year, less than half the median income for Asian households, who had the highest median family income at $68,636. The current federal poverty threshold for a family of four is $23,550.”
President Barack Obama can tout “progress” in the economy all he wants. Are you feeling it?
I’ll tell you where the deflection is occurring. It’s the Democrat line that Republicans want poor people to vote against their best interest. Ostensibly meaning that economic principles espoused by Republicans would be harmful to the poor, and Blacks. And worse, that Republican’s don’t care about the poor, or Blacks. You know, it’s the race card, class and wealth envy that Democrats habitually use to divides this country. Especially around election time. And it is a very effective tactic. Must be when you consider that over 90% of African Americans continue to support the man responsible for the obstacles we all face. Trickle down poverty.
Because the Pensacola News Journal doesn’t always keep links to articles, and for full context of the above, below is her letter as appeared in the Pensacola News Journal January, 6, 2014.
GOP deflection
In this new year, Republicans have to keep hammering Obamacare so people won’t notice the following facts:
1) Corporate profits are soaring; the stock market has hit record highs.
2) The U.S. now produces as much oil as it imports.
3) General Motors has reported three consecutive years of profitability with 2012 net earnings of $4.9 billion; Ford’s predicting 2014 its best year ever.
4) The job and housing markets are steadily improving.
5) Iraq is allowing U.N. inspections of its nuclear program.
But hey, let’s keep focused on Obamacare so people will vote in Republicans so they can reverse all the above, limit the vote, involve us in more foreign wars, cut taxes for the rich, and plunge us back where we were when Republican Bush left office – teetering on the brink of a depression.
– Eleanor Johnson
Pensacola Beach
Link: GOP deflection
I had a point-by-point response to that too!
Yes, Elenaor is right. We should care for our citizens. That includes the government. This administration likes poor people so much it is making more of them. She pointed out just how this is happening.
1) Stock market is doing fine thanks to the Fed printing money, holding the interest rates for the banks to zero or near zero, so those 1 percenters can make money in the market. You can’t buy a house or get a loan for zero or 1 percent, can you? Wall Street is doing fine, but not Main Street.
2) In 1977, when Jimmy Carter instituted the Dept. of Energy, to decrease oil dependency on imports, the U.S. imported 37.3% of our oil. It’s 50% now. And the administration, with help and pressure from the environmental lobby, mounts all kinds of resistance to energy development on Federal lands and the XL pipeline. Things that will decrease that dependency and help to make the U.S. an oil producer instead of an oil purchaser. Oil consumption has decreased over the last few years, not because of conservation but because of a depressed economy and high prices. The deflating of the dollar in “1” and high energy prices in “2” cause “the poor tax” (food, energy, and transportation costs) to go up. This hurts the poor more than anyone else. It’s PREBO and his party who really don’t care about its citizens. Well, not more than the power to control them.
3) GM is doing so well that they have stuck American taxpayers with a $10.5 billion LOSS. That’s how he cares for the citizens.
4) Job markets are struggling in spite of what this administration is doing, not because of it. Most jobs are low-wage, and are 2nd or 3rd jobs for citizens who used to have one job. The Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt that this administration festers on the economy from every angle, is the main impediment to turning our economy around and growing. If it were growing, there would not be calls for extending the unemployment extension over and over.
5) Iraq is too busy with al-Qaida taking back cities that ‘our citizens’ gave to them at a cost of thousands of lives (of our citizens), to even _have_ a nuclear program. Al-Qaida waited until, as promised, we left before re-inserting themselves in Iraq with the help of Iran. Who this administration just allowed to continue their uranium enrichment program while at the same time easing sanctions on them. Great plan.
Finally, Obamacare. The cause of millions more “citizens” losing the health insurance they liked, that they were paying for, than have enrolled in a government plan, most of which are subsidized by the citizens we care about. It’s so affordable that Unions and Congress can’t afford it and want government subsidies, i.e.: the citizens to pay for theirs too! It’s such a money maker, that built into it is bailouts for insurance companies to cover their losses for the next three years.Haven’t heard of this? Look it up. After that? Insurance companies either go out of business or start insuring other risks and get out of the health insurance business. THEN? We have the single-payer disaster that hasn’t worked well anywhere in the world but this President really really really wants. Fewer doctors, longer lines, rationing, all the “good stuff” that goes with it.
