The bitter truth about today's topic is that you likely haven't seen it covered - or if so, only briefly - in print, broadcast or web news this week. We're talking about the poverty problem in America, a topic that most media outlets seem too weak, spineless, or incompetent to properly cover. If we seem angry today, we are.
U.S. poverty levels have hit a fifty year peak, rising to 15.1%, or 46.2 million Americans. The poverty level has also been rising for over a decade - and American wage-earners have seen their lowest levels of Real Income since the end of the first Bush recession, in 1994.
Still, the gutless wonders that pass for media executives these days think that Americans don't want to hear about poverty, jobs, or politicians who are too cowardly to fight for American workers.
They are ninny-hammer idiots and cowards as well.
Americans DESPERATELY want to talk about jobs right now. More than that, Americans want EVERYONE... from the news media to their politicians, working to create jobs right now. Americans strongly favor President Obama's America's Jobs Act - as a whole plan - by nearly fifteen percentage points. When you dig into the poll numbers, and break the President's plan into smaller pieces, a supermajority of independent Americans - more than two-thirds - agree with the President's plans: to extend the payroll tax exemption for workers; to give federal money to state governments for teachers, firefighters, and police personnel; and to increase federal spending on roads, bridges, and repairing or replacing schools.
Americans aren't worried about their government spending money. They WANT their government to spend money, right now, to help create jobs. Americans are worried about this jobs crisis - a crisis that didn't begin in 2008, but in 2001.
The facts don't lie. For nearly sixty years, there were rarely more than three unemployed Americans for every job opening, and the ratio was usually below two-to-one. Since September 2008 - the beginning of the Lesser Depression - the ratio of jobseekers has never fallen below three-to-one. Near the end of the Bush Administration, it was as high as seven-to-one.
Since this current President has taken office, that number has slowly but steadily inched down.
Now, President Obama is out barnstorming the country, again doing everything he can to try to get even more Americans back to work. People in his administration may have even tried so hard to help create jobs, they may have applied a bit more pressure than they ethically should have, to try to get a solar power company in California to create jobs and help alleviate poverty.
What are the Republicans doing to fix America's jobs and poverty problem?
They're attempting to get the President investigated. Again. They're looking at using state laws to try and rig the 2012 Presidential elections. And of course, they're telling every lie they can think of to assure the American people that they're really working on the jobs plan - even though House Republicans haven't done a damn thing about generating jobs for anyone, and don't plan on doing anything anytime soon.
Even some House and Senate Democrats who understand how truly dire the situation is are going out on political limbs, even suggesting rules for the super committee that will keep the outcomes from the committee focused on legislation that will generate jobs in the public sector, and force or entice jobs to be created in the public sector.
The fact is, right now, there are also millions of Americans who are mad at the President. They're not mad because this horrible economy is his fault - in fact, they correctly blame Congressional Republicans for this economic disaster. However, they also recognize how dire the poverty and jobs situation in America is - and how few people in power are actually willing to deal with any of it.
The President is. Some U.S. House and Senate Democrats are, too. Sadly, it appears Congressional Republicans still believe that if they pretend not to see the poverty problem in America until next year's elections, they'll be able to blame the whole thing on President Obama.
All of us may have been blind to our poverty problem for far longer than we should have - but we hope Americans aren't stupid enough to keep believing we shouldn't do everything we can to fix it.
