Barack Obama The Man that Destroyed American and Called it CHANGE

New Year in America: A portrait of social misery

By Tom Eley
5 January 2010

The new decade finds the US working class suffering a level of social misery not seen since the Great Depression. Unemployment, poverty, hunger, utility cutoffs, homelessness, foreclosures and bankruptcies have become common experiences for millions.

But unlike in the Great Depression, when limited reforms were put in place in response to the crisis, the Obama administration, Congress, and state and local governments are taking no serious measures to provide relief. On the contrary, the two parties of big business are exacerbating the crisis through budget cuts at the state and local level and the federal government is preparing new austerity measures.

Unemployment: At over 10 percent, the official US jobless rate reached in October and November was the highest since June of 1983. A broader measure of unemployment, taking into account those who have fallen out of the official workforce, reveals that something approaching one in five workers is unemployed or underemployed.

The economy has not added jobs since December 2007, and in that same time span has lost 7.2 million jobs overall. Coupling these losses with population growth—the economy must add about 150,000 jobs per month to break even—the net jobs deficit in the period is well over 10.5 million.

It is widely acknowledged that most of the jobs lost will not return for years, if ever. Even by the optimistic forecast of the Federal Reserve Board, the jobless rate will remain above 7 percent through 2011. Those without jobs face long periods of unemployment, the most recent figures showing that 38.3 percent of the unemployed have been without work for 27 weeks or longer.

Data for November show that all 50 states have witnessed an increase in unemployment since the end of 2008. Michigan continued to have the highest official jobless rate at 14.7 percent. Detroit, its principal city and the longtime hub of US auto production, had an official unemployment rate of 27 percent. The real rate approaches 50 percent, a number in line with the worst levels of big city unemployment during the Great Depression.

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In California, 12.3 percent of the official workforce was unemployed in November. The most populous US state had by itself shed 617,000 jobs over the previous year.

What remains of the US social safety net is woefully unprepared to meet this crisis, with jobless benefits reaching well under half of unemployed workers. In December nearly ten million workers in the US were receiving jobless benefits, not quite half of these in the form of extended or emergency relief. There were some 5.6 million workers who had both exhausted their unemployment benefits and given up looking up for work.

Those fortunate enough to keep their jobs in 2009 saw their hours, wages and benefits cut, even as employers drove up their productivity. In real terms, average weekly wages fell by 1 percent last year, while worker productivity was ratcheted up by 8.1 percent in the third quarter and 6.4 percent in the second.

Foreclosures and bankruptcies: Increasing numbers of unemployed and financially stressed workers have been unable to meet their mortgage payments. During the third quarter, the number of US homes in foreclosure surpassed one million. In October, a survey by the Mortgage Bankers Association found that about one in ten mortgages was at least one payment behind, while 4.47 percent were in the process of foreclosure.

Most of the recent increase in foreclosures has occurred outside of the subprime loan market, among households that had previously qualified for loans based on stable employment and income.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that filings for personal bankruptcy rose to 1.41 million in 2009, up by almost one third. The newspaper called the increase “a surge largely driven by foreclosures and job losses.”

Poverty and hunger: Poverty and hunger, already on the rise in 2008 before the brunt of the economic crisis hit, have intensified.

Analysis of the 2008 US census using criteria favored by the National Academy of Sciences shows that 47.4 million Americans, 15.8 percent of the population, were living below the official poverty line. The official government tally recorded 39.8 million people in poverty in 2008, or 13.2 percent of the population. One in five US children was living in poverty in 2008, according to the official data.

The real poverty rate is far higher, since the income threshold set by the government—$22,000 for a family of four—is absurdly low.

Judy Putnam, a spokesperson for the Michigan League for Human Services, discussed with the World Socialist Web Site her organization’s new study “Michigan by the Numbers: Hard Times Continue.” According to Putnam, 22 percent of the state’s children under five are growing up in poverty. For African American children, the figure is 45 percent, with half the children in Detroit growing up poor.

“Many of those who would have received cash assistance in past recessions are not getting it now,” Putnam said. “Only a third are getting cash assistance compared with two-thirds before ‘welfare reform’ in 1996. All of these folks who need assistance have been squeezed off the safety net. People in Michigan are heavily dependent on food stamps and, if they qualify, for unemployment benefits. But unlike previous recessions only the very, very poor qualify for cash assistance.”

The evidence of widespread hunger in the US is unmistakable. In December, the National Conference of Mayors released a study of 27 major cities conducted between October 2008 and September 2009. The report revealed the largest increase in those seeking food assistance since 1991.

In November, the United States Department of Agriculture reported that a record 49.1 million Americans, one sixth of the population, lacked dependable access to adequate food in 2008.

Also in November, Feeding America, a national food assistance organization, released details of an economic impact survey of some of its 63,000 member food charities. It found that between summer 2008 and summer 2009, demand for food charity rose by over 30 percent nationally.

Many of those reliant on food assistance have no other source of income, a new analysis of state data by the New York Times reveals. Six million Americans, or 1 in 50, report no income beyond what they receive in food stamps through the joint federal-state Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

According to a recent study published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, about half of US children will rely on food stamps at some point during their childhood. The figure is 90 percent for black children.

Homelessness and utility cutoffs: With a bitter cold snap settling over much of the nation last week, those suffering homelessness and utility cutoffs found themselves in dangerous conditions.

The caseload of the government’s Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) increased by 25 percent in 2009, and is projected to increase by another 20 percent in 2010.

Among the 27 major cities surveyed by the US Conference of Mayors report, 19 reported an increase in family homelessness between the autumns of 2008 and 2009. The largest increases were in Dallas (20 percent), Boston and Kansas City (22 percent each), and Charleston (41 percent).

Across the US, shantytowns reminiscent of the “Hoovervilles” of the 1930s have emerged. People in these encampments live in tents or shacks built of old wood, scrap metal, cardboard and other waste, with no running water, electricity, plumbing, or garbage removal.

An indelible scene took place in Detroit on October 5, when an estimated 50,000 city residents formed a long line stretching around the Cobo Hall convention center after hearing rumors that the city was dispensing assistance for utility bills and housing payments. City officials said only a tiny fraction of those seeking assistance would receive help.

Conditions of the youth: The economic crisis has exacted perhaps its greatest toll on the youth. All of the data related to hunger, homelessness and unemployment show that young people are disproportionately affected.

A study by the Pew Research Center published in November shows that one in ten adults under the age of 35 has moved back to his parents’ home as a result of the recession. Overall, half of those aged 18 to 24 now live with their parents. Only about half of young people have jobs, the lowest figure on record dating back to 1948.

A recent study showed that less than half of students graduate on schedule after signing up for a two- or four-year college program, and that most who quit or delay their studies do so on account of economic hardship.

Those who do graduate enter the worst market for degree holders in 30 years, and with record levels of student debt. The average college graduate in 2008 carried a burden of $23,000 in student loan debt, while the unemployment rate for college graduates aged 20 to 24 reached 10.6 percent in the third quarter.

Meanwhile, one in ten male high school dropouts, ages 16 to 24, is currently either in prison or juvenile detention. Among black male high school dropouts, more than a fifth are incarcerated, a study by researchers at Northeastern University shows. For the population as a whole, the Justice Department recently reported that 1 in 31 US adults is behind bars or on probation or parole.

The response of the government: The response of state and local governments to this social catastrophe is drastic reductions in social services and job cuts, under conditions where the Obama administration refuses to provide emergency aid to help cover budget deficits.

The total deficit of the states from 2009 to 2012 is now estimated at $460 billion, a figure that is likely to grow as more state capitals adjust estimates for rapidly declining tax revenue.

”Anything and everything’s on the table,” said Todd Haggerty, a policy associate with the National Conference of State Legislators. States have “cut the fat, cut the muscle and are now cutting bone. The easy decisions have already been made.”

The fiscal situation confronting the states is expected to deteriorate sharply next year when funds from the federal economic stimulus package, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, are exhausted.

Like the states, the federal government faces a fiscal catastrophe, with cumulative US budget deficits expected to top $10 trillion by the end of the new decade, according to the Obama administration’s rather optimistic forecast. Cuts in spending must be put in place, in part, to convince creditors, especially China, that the US “can get its finances back in order,” the Wall Street Journal wrote Monday in a feature on the annual gathering of the American Economic Association.

The response of the Obama administration is to call for an unprecedented program of fiscal austerity and sharp cuts in social spending, to be announced in his State of the Union address early next month and outlined in the new federal budget proposal shortly thereafter. Obama’s repeated insistence on the need for Americans to reduce their consumption—even as trillions more are allocated for the banks and for ever-expanding wars in Central Asia and the Middle East—is code language for a deepening of the assault on the working class.

The discussion of possible deficit reduction measures includes regressive taxes such as a national sales tax and sweeping cuts in entitlement programs on which millions of people rely, such as Medicare and Social Security.

Such measures are on top of the administration’s health care overhaul, which will reduce costs for corporations and the government while slashing benefits and increasing out-of-pocket expenses for millions of working people.

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Shaping up to be the most corrupt
administration in American history:

• Obama’s team: Not the “best of the Washington insiders,” as the liberal media style them, but rather, a dysfunctional and dangerous conglomerate of business-as-usual cronies and hacks
• In the first two weeks alone of his infant administration, Obama had made no fewer than 17 exceptions to his “no-lobbyist” rule
• Why the fact that the massive infusion of union dues into his campaign treasury didn’t trouble him in the least reveals Obama’s credibility as a reformer
• The lack of unprecedented pace of withdrawals and botched appointments -- and how getting through the confirmation process was no guarantee of ethical cleanliness or competence, even as Obama’s cheerleaders were glorifying the Greatest Transition in World History
• Inconsistency: How Obama, erstwhile critic of the campaign finance practice known as “bundling,” happily accepted more than $350,000 in bundled contributions from billionaire hedge-fund managers
• How Obama broke his transparency pledge with the very first bill he signed into law -- helping make hostility to transparency is a running thread through Obama’s cabinet
• Michelle Obama: Beneath the cultured pearls, sleeveless designer dresses, and eyelashes applied by her full-time makeup artist, is a hardball Chicago politico
• Joe Biden: It’s not just that he lies, it’s that he lies so well that you think he really believes the stuff he makes up
• Treasury Secretary Geithner: His ineptness and epic blundering -- including how he nearly caused the collapse of the dollar in international trade with a single remark
• The appalling story of Technology Czar Vivek Kundra, the convicted shoplifter in charge of the entire federal government’s information security infrastructure
• Obama’s “Porker of the Month” Transportation Secretary, Roy LaHood: An earmark-addicted influence peddler born and raised on the politics of pay-to-play
• SEIU: Responsible for installing a cabal of hand-chosen officers who exploited their cash-infused fiefdoms for personal gain and presided over rigged elections -- in the process, becoming all that they had professed to stand against as representatives of the downtrodden worker
• How Obama lied on his “Fight the Smears” campaign website when he claimed that he “never organized with ACORN”
• ACORN: How the profound threat the group poses is not merely ideological or economic -- it’s electoral
• ACORN’s own internal review of shady money transfers among its web of affiliates: How it underscores concerns that conservatives have long raised about the organization
• Liar, liar, pantsuit on fire: How Hillary Clinton has already trampled upon her promise not to let her husband’s financial dealings sway her decisions as Secretary of State
• How even a few principled progressives are finally beginning to question the cult of Obama -- even as Obama sycophants in the mainstream media continue to celebrate his “hipness” and “swagga”

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GET THIS BOOK!

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Obamanomics: How Barack Obama Is Bankrupting You and Enriching His Wall Street Friends, Corporate Lobbyists, and Union Bosses

BY TIMOTHY P CARNEY

Editorial Reviews

Obama Is Making You Poorer—But Who’s Getting Rich?

Goldman Sachs, GE, Pfizer, the United Auto Workers—the same “special interests” Barack Obama was supposed to chase from the temple—are profiting handsomely from Obama’s Big Government policies that crush taxpayers, small businesses, and consumers. In Obamanomics, investigative reporter Timothy P. Carney digs up the dirt the mainstream media ignores and the White House wishes you wouldn’t see. Rather than Hope and Change, Obama is delivering corporate socialism to America, all while claiming he’s battling corporate America. It’s corporate welfare and regulatory robbery—it’s Obamanomics.

Congressman Ron Paul says, “Every libertarian and free-market conservative needs to read Obamanomics.” And Johan Goldberg, columnist and bestselling author says, “Obamanomics is conservative muckraking at its best and an indispensable field guide to the Obama years.”

If you’ve wondered what’s happening to America, as the federal government swallows up the financial sector, the auto industry, and healthcare, and enacts deficit exploding “stimulus packages,” this book makes it all clear—it’s a big scam. Ultimately, Obamanomics boils down to this: every time government gets bigger, somebody’s getting rich, and those somebodies are friends of Barack. This book names the names—and it will make your blood boil.

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Obama Is Making You Poorer—But Who’s Getting Rich?

Goldman Sachs, GE, Pfizer, the United Auto Workers—the same “special interests” Barack Obama was supposed to chase from the temple—are profiting handsomely from Obama’s Big Government policies that crush taxpayers, small businesses, and consumers.

Investigative reporter Timothy P. Carney digs up the dirt the mainstream media ignores and the White House wishes you wouldn’t see. Rather than Hope and Change, Obama is delivering corporate socialism to America, all while claiming he’s battling corporate America. It’s corporate welfare and regulatory robbery—it’s Obamanomics. In this explosive book, Carney reveals:

* The Great Health Care Scam—Obama’s backroom deals with drug companies spell corporate profits and more government control
* The Global Warming Hoax—Obama has bought off industries with a pork-filled bill that will drain your wallet for Al Gore’s agenda
* Obama and Wall Street—“Change” means more bailouts and a heavy Goldman Sachs presence in the West Wing (including Rahm Emanuel)
* Stimulating K Street—The largest spending bill in history gave pork to the well-connected and created a feeding frenzy for lobbyists
* How the GOP needs to change its tune—drastically—to battle Obamanomics

If you’ve wondered what’s happening to our country, as the federal government swallows up the financial sector, the auto industry, and healthcare, and enacts deficit exploding “stimulus packages” that create make-work government jobs, this book makes it all clear—it’s a big scam. Ultimately, Obamanomics boils down to this: every time government gets bigger, somebody’s getting rich, and those somebodies are friends of Barack. This book names the names—and it will make your blood boil.

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Praise for Obamanomics

“The notion that ‘big business’ is on the side of the free market is one of progressivism’s most valuable myths. It allows them to demonize corporations by day and get in bed with them by night. Obamanomics is conservative muckraking at its best. It reveals how President Obama is exploiting the big business mythology to undermine the free market and stick it to entrepreneurs, taxpayers, and consumers. It’s an indispensable field guide to the Obama years.”
—Jonha Goldberg, LA Times columnist and best-selling author

“‘Every time government gets bigger, somebody’s getting rich.’ With this astute observation, Tim Carney begins his task of laying bare the Obama administration’s corporatist governing strategy, hidden behind the president’s populist veneer. This meticulously researched book is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand how Washington really works.”
—David Freddoso, best-selling author of The Case Against Barack Obama

“Every libertarian and free-market conservative who still believes that large corporations are trusted allies in the battle for economic liberty needs to read this book, as does every well-meaning liberal who believes that expansions of the welfare-regulatory state are done to benefit the common people.”
—Congressman Ron Paul

“It’s understandable for critics to condemn President Obama for his ‘socialism.’ But as Tim Carney shows, the real situation is at once more subtle and more sinister. Obamanomics favors big business while disproportionately punishing everyone else. So-called progressives are too clueless to notice, as usual, which is why we have Tim Carney and this book.”
—Thomas E. Woods, Jr., best-selling author of Meltdown and The Politically Incorrect Guide™ to American History

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·         Hardcover: 256 pages

·         Publisher: Regnery Press (November 30, 2009)

·         Language: English

·         ISBN-10: 1596986123

·         ISBN-13: 978-1596986121

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ARE AMAZED AT HOW UTTERLY BRAZEN THESE CORPORATE OWNED POLITICIANS ARE?

GET THIS BOOK!

Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies

by Michelle Malkin

Editorial Reviews

In her shocking new book, Malkin digs deep into the records of President Obama's staff, revealing corrupt dealings, questionable pasts, and abuses of power throughout his administration.

From the Inside Flap

The era of hope and change is dead....and it only took six months in office to kill it.

Never has an administration taken office with more inflated expectations of turning Washington around. Never have a media-anointed American Idol and his entourage fallen so fast and hard. In her latest investigative tour de force, New York Times bestselling author Michelle Malkin delivers a powerful, damning, and comprehensive indictment of the culture of corruption that surrounds Team Obama's brazen tax evaders, Wall Street cronies, petty crooks, slum lords, and business-as-usual influence peddlers. In Culture of Corruption, Malkin reveals:

* Why nepotism beneficiaries First Lady Michelle Obama and Vice President Joe Biden are Team Obama's biggest liberal hypocrites--bashing the corporate world and influence-peddling industries from which they and their relatives have benefited mightily

* What secrets the ethics-deficient members of Obama's cabinet--including Hillary Clinton--are trying to hide

* Why the Obama White House has more power-hungry, unaccountable "czars" than any other administration

* How Team Obama's first one hundred days of appointments became a litany of embarrassments as would-be appointee after would-be appointee was exposed as a tax cheat or had to withdraw for other reasons

* How Obama's old ACORN and union cronies have squandered millions of taxpayer dollars and dues money to enrich themselves and expand their power

* How Obama's Wall Street money men and corporate lobbyists are ruining the economy and helping their friends In Culture of Corruption, Michelle Malkin lays bare the Obama administration's seamy underside that the liberal media would rather keep hidden.

•           Publisher: Regnery Publishing (July 27, 2009)

•           Language: English

•           ISBN-10: 1596981091

•           ISBN-13: 978-1596981096