What exactly is the middle class in the United States any more? I’m having a really hard time figuring that out. So many of my friends lost their jobs and homes over the past 8 years that I feel like I was thrown back into the stone ages. I really have done better than many people I know but I look at how my friends are struggling and I just have to wonder what we gained from the past 8 years. The gridlock in Washington disgusts me no end and I don’t see much hope for change in 2016.
You know, President Obama promised us “change” when he first ran for president but he hasn’t introduced much change. We got the healthcare law but that seems to be more about Obama’s legacy than actually helping people. When the Republicans refused to back down on taxing the wealthy to cover the costs of the Obamacare plan he threw the middle class under the bus and told us we either buy this crappy health insurance or pay higher taxes. That’s not the kind of change we voted for, is it? I don’t think that was what I had in mind.
I will give President Obama some credit where credit is due. He is the first US President in decades to not be plagued by scandals and accusations of corruption. That is a kind of nice change, although some members of his administration have done their best to draw fire from all quarters.
On the other hand, Obama has been a disaster for US foreign policy. Following on the footsteps of Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and George Bush in that department I thought Obama had nowhere to go but up. And yet his current quagmire (that his successors will have to deal with) is a lackluster, almost hands-off strategy against the Islamic State. There is almost nowhere to go but up from President Obama’s current position.
He promised to pull our troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq, and he has done that. But he forgot to win the wars and now we’re facing a greater threat from Islamic State than we were from Al Qaeda. Some people even say that Obama created Islamic State. I don’t get that logic but he has done just about everything possible to make the United States look weak and the terrorists look strong.
So we’re looking at a new election in 2016 and whoever comes into office will be elected in part on the plank of “at least he is not Barack Obama”. But that won’t be good enough because, frankly, we’re looking at a mighty strange field of candidates. There are so many Republicans chasing their party’s nomination I can’t count them all. I take that as a very clear sign that the Republican Party has no real leadership prospects and cannot figure out what it should be doing. They were once the party for common people, but now they just seem to be the party that opposes the Democrats.
On the Democratic side everyone is talking like Hillary Clinton will finally clinch the nomination but she has all those scandals that Obama avoided. People still bring up Monica Lewinski from time to time, and Hillary was the victim in that relationship. No matter what you think of her, she can’t seem to win a break from the past.
But let’s face it: no matter who wins, we’re all screwed if the people in Washington don’t get their act together and deal with the most important issues facing this country. I know we don’t all agree on what those issues are, but these guys can’t do anything right. I’d like to see them take decisive action on the following points.
Create Jobs for the Middle Class
I am not talking about low-paying minimum wage jobs. I mean, let’s put people back to work. I don’t know where all those jobs went but they did not come back. I don’t care how many job reports Obama points to. He has overseen the creation of millions of low-paying jobs.
Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton say they want to create jobs for the middle class. But how are they going to do that?
Legalize the Illegal Immigrants
These people are already here and they are already part of our economy. But they don’t pay nearly as much in taxes as they would be if they had some legal status. The Republicans keep complaining that we don’t have enough tax revenue to cover the deficit and social programs. Well, guys, here is your opportunity to bring in some more tax money.
Increase Taxes on the Wealthy
Republican economists have been coming out of the woodwork lately, saying that wealthy families pay a greater share of overall taxes than everyone else. But what they neglect to mention is that wealthy families pay a smaller percentage of their income in taxes than the rest of us.
You know what? I just want to see the needle move in the other direction. I don’t have to have a 90% tax rate on the wealthiest families, but the poorest people should not have to pay the same price for decent housing as everyone else if we’re not going to give them a decent income.
Everyone should live according to a reasonable minimum standard, not according to what their paycheck can afford. So if we tax the wealthy families they may cut back on some of their $20 million apartments without giving up too much in comfort and safety.
Stop Handing out More H-1B Visas to Technology Companies
These cheap corporations act like they cannot find any good employees in the United States. Every year they turn out tens of thousands of trained, experienced employees and replace them with less expensive foreign workers.
Eliminate Corporate Tax Loopholes
The theory behind tax breaks for corporations was that they would use that money to create more jobs, buy more equipment, etc. But when you look at how much money Apple is siting on ($178 billion) and how much money Google is sitting on I think it’s time to raise taxes on corporations. They are obviously not putting this money to work to create jobs and opportunity for Americans. Maybe if they had to hire more Americans and bring in fewer overseas workers they might help the economy rather than hurt it.
Do Something about Islamic State and Al Qaeda
These guys have it in for us and we keep falling back to let other people take the fight to them. But our allies on the ground are not nearly as good as we are at defeating these terrorists. It’s time to change the strategy because under the Obama Plan the terrorists keep getting stronger.
President Obama fell in love with drone strikes against terrorists but they don’t stop the flood of recruits swarming into the Middle East. And the drones haven’t done anything to stop self-radicalized Americans, Canadians, and Europeans from bring the war home. Now a lot of western countries have to worry about their own citizens being turned into mindless terrorist zombies.
We need to take decisive action against these groups before they become even stronger.
Am I asking for too much? I don’t think so. But someone let me know if we get a decent government in 2016 that can stop bickering long enough to do something important. And don’t get me started on asking for help with climate change. I have already realized I will not be retiring in Florida because I don’t expect it to be there.