This ought to be good….
Oh wow! What a surprise he says that “people understand that job creation investments, when made wisely, are an effective way to reduce poverty,” and then it all falls apart.
“Congress should be making more of those investments. The era of austerity, when lawmakers experimented with cutting everything in sight no matter the human consequences, has to end. It hasn’t created jobs; it hasn’t led to a stronger workforce, and it certainly hasn’t brought anyone out of poverty. Punishing the poor is a rhetorical trick, not a serious policy idea, and it should stop now.”
I have just a few questions Congressman Grijalva:
When was the era of austerity? Ummm, I must have missed that one. Of course if it began and ended over 50 years ago, I did miss it. Was it during the Great Depression? No, couldn’t be that, that was when we were introduced to the alphabet soup of spending , SSA, WPA etc.
Okay, forget it. Let’s get to the next question; it should be easier…
The austerity that never happened, in your opinion didn’t create jobs, hasn’t led to a stronger workforce, hasn’t brought anyone out of poverty….. but…but… are you saying that the War on Poverty, The Great Society has?
You can’t be saying that right? I mean you wouldn’t be writing about poverty if it was no longer a problem, right?
You and I agree; “punishing the poor is a rhetorical trick, not a serious policy idea, and it should stop now.”
So let’s do that. You stop tearing their families apart with social engineering that makes it more lucrative to shove a man out of his house, and we will take you seriously. Until then, your determination to keep the oppressed, oppressed and owing to you, simply makes your words and sympathy for the poor, incredible.
I loved the fact that you believe “We should start treating our economy like an engine of progress again rather than a playground for dangerous and unpopular theories.” Brilliant! Now, we have found common ground.
So as Bono pointed put recently that “Commerce is real.” He said it! Bono said, “Commerce and entrepreneurial capitalism take more people out of poverty than foreign aid.”
I would imagine then that the same would be true about federal aid! It makes sense doesn’t it? It would follow, right?
I would imagine that if you were to stop punishing your people with boycotts and trying to stop those engines of a vibrant economy like Rosemont Mine and the Keystone Pipeline there would be a few more people taken out of poverty!
If Bono and Milton Friedman can agree that, as Milt, he deserves to be known by his first name only, too… he is … in my universe as significant as Cher, Prince, and Che… but I digress. Bono and Milt agree, as Milt put it that “the record of history is absolutely crystal clear: that there is no alternative way so far discovered of improving the lot of the ordinary people that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by a free enterprise system.”
I know you say you want to “focus on the growing income gap between the very wealthy and everyone else in this country.”
But, sir, I am pretty sure wealth redistribution failed in the former Soviet Union and it really never caught on in China even….so can we focus on jobs first and foremost as you say you want to?
You say that “Poverty, in the vast majority of cases, is not the result of laziness.” I don’t agree completely… the American people are not lazy… most of them want to work.. so get out of the way!
You say “We can’t keep treating it (poverty) as something to be ashamed of.” I disagree! Wholeheartedly! You should be ashamed for working to keep people out of work!
You say that poverty is “a consequence of bad policies that need fixing, not a mark of failure.” BS! It might be a result of bad policies but it is your failure! Yours! Own it. Take responsibility… Oh that’s right you don’t believe in personal responsibility.
You write:
“Our skewed incentive structure rewards being rich more than it rewards honest effort. Don’t believe me? The richest 1 percent of Americans currently control 39 percent of the country’s wealth.”
Right! Because you have done everything in your power to squash the small business owners who are the innovators, the biggest employers in this country! It is only the corporations any more that have the money to fight, to circumvent your regulations!
Get a grip! Are you kidding me? You ask, “When so much money is concentrated in so few hands, how much is left for everyone else? How can our poorer neighbors hope to achieve economic independence when so much is taken by so few, who then demand tax cuts no matter what shape the country’s in?
If we weren’t paying such incredibly high taxes, we could be spending it employing more people. That’s how it works… Of course most people are losing their jobs now because employers will not and cannot be able to afford Obamacare… more people at risk.. more people in poverty.. that is how your logic is adding up.
“The idea that we should make the lives of poor Americans as difficult and miserable as possible to motivate them to try harder is a cruel fantasy that has no place in a modern democracy,” you say. Punishing the less fortunate to teach them a lesson is simply not an acceptable, let alone realistic or effective, way to govern. Yet it’s what we’ve been doing, in various ways, for years.”
No, stop lying. You have kept them in poverty and on the plantation so that they have free time to go out and collect ballots from the other people in poverty during election time. It works for you when your people aren’t working.
Okay, you don’t want to debate the issue any longer. Your mind is made up. No more discussion. That’s fine, we see your line in the sand. We understand now. Clearly.
You are determined to remain unmoved by the human face of poverty. You are committed to ignoring the suffering children except when you can use them as human shields in your war against this country.
You say “It’s time to stop playing games,” and that “Neglect is the last thing our economy needs.”
Again, we agree. So stop playing games, stop trying to destroy our free enterprise system, and let’s get Americans back to work by getting out of the way.
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