WASHINGTON POST NEWS ARTICLE EXCERPT 9/9/2011:
"The plan -- for the most part -- is a conventional stimulus, much like the one passed at the beginning of the president's term. It is designed to put more money into people's pockets and spur hiring over the next two years, all part of an effort to stimulate spending and reduce the unemployment rate. Many economists agreed that, if passed, it would do just that."
(FOOTNOTE): This plan was designed to put money in certain "privileged" citizens' pockets contrary to everyone's pockets"
The Democrats and the President did not want to label this jobs plan as a stimulus project, which is exactly what it is, because the previous stimulus plan was defined as a failure by the public and many economists. The second reason is: if the Democrats and the President had labeled this jobs plan as a stimulus plan, it is because they did not want to pay our senior citizens or retired veterans an additional $250 payment as they previously did within the stimulus bill of 2009.
In the present jobs bill, a majority of all the tax cuts and financial help mostly went to high wage earners ONLY who NOW pay federal income taxes, even though many of these identical wage earners have already received a tax cut through the Bush tax cut extension in the past. Additionally, on January 1, 2010, federal workers had also received a "permanent" 2.9 percent wage increase during this depression or deep recession that they now call it. Almost everyone in this Nation has now received some form of "financial assistance" within this Obama jobs (stimulus) bill, with the exception of our American poor, which also include our senior citizens and our disabled and retired U. S. veterans -- even though this segment of our population has previously paid over the years approximately 20 percent of their income each and every year in the form of local city taxes, state taxes, and federal taxes. These previous taxes include gasoline, tires, batteries, used or new automobiles and auto parts, telephone calls, home heating oils or natural gas, electricity, and of course any bus or air travel taxation fees when you go on a trip to your Grandma's house.
In 2009, our government provided our seniors and others with a one time $250 stimulus "tax cut" payment in order to cope with higher inflated retail prices that still remain in existence today. However, our present President and Congress today are trying to find any excuse possible NOT to repeat another $250 stimulus tax cut for our low income people who need it the most to reimburse those low income people for the taxes that they paid in 2010. The previous $250 payment for 2009 represented a small $20-per-month increase for one entire year that was quickly absorbed by high gasoline prices at the retail sector during this identical period that prevented these citizens from purchasing products at other retail locations to boost the economy.
During 2010 and 2011, our senior citizens were told by Democrat and Republican congress members that they could not pass a COLA (inflation payment) for the senior citizens of this nation. However, it is also a fact that these identical seniors were paid a $250 stimulus payment in 2009 based on the retail taxes they had previously paid, and this stimulus payment was also paid through the IRS as a tax reimbursement payment. It had nothing to do with a so called COLA payment. COLA payments are not tax reimbursements, they are for inflation trends. But our senior citizens have not been paid accurately for these identical inflation trends over the past ten years that has now resulted in income stagnation for our them, while in the interim, retail prices have not yet been stagnated.
The only thing that our Senior Citizens received from this present Obama jobs bill is the possibility that this Democratic President and Congress may put Medicare on the table for future reform cuts. The reason he gave in his jobs plan speech was that cuts or reforms may be needed due to higher healthcare costs, for which the President is partially to blame by not including a Medicare-For-All public option plan that would have helped fund the Medicare System with more paying members and at the same time provided competition that would have contained higher medical costs. In addition, the Democratic Congress at the time the National Health Bill was passed, did not enter a provision that would permit our U. S. citizens to purchase their drug needs from foreign sources, nor did they include a provision in the bill that would require that all drug prices should be negotiated prior to purchasing that is now practiced in veterans' hospitals. In retrospect to the previous, who are our politicians trying to protect or favor? Themselves or the drug industry cartel?
Why is it that our poor, disabled veterans and retirees are not part of this so-called economic jobs (stimulus) recovery program when it relates to more income through tax cuts when it is our low-income citizens who are now hurting the most? Additional income for these citizens to spend at the retail sector in an effort to increase spending at the retail sector will do the same if they are employed or not. In addition, middle class or union workers' monthly incomes may average approximately $40,000 per year in comparison to a low-income senior who may only receive $9,000 per year or less through their present Social Security payments. I also have been informed that many of our seniors who now fit into this identical low-income bracket are in dire need of assistance.
Does the government truly believe that "by not" cutting Medicare or entitlement programs for the poor that it "will financially help" these citizens during this depression? If our highly-paid working citizens now need a tax cut to "survive" or to boost their income today, it is therefore inconceivable that our low-income seniors today are also in desperate need of additional tax cut "income." Medicare or entitlement programs are not additional income programs to buy what you may need to survive or to sustain their livelihood at the retail sector. To the contrary, Medicare reforms or cuts will only provide seniors with additional "hidden" expenditures to receive their present medical needs.
Our seniors should now demand an additional $250 stimulus payment from their elected officials as soon as possible, in addition to any "artificial" COLA inflation payments that may be due to them in the near future. Throwing federal stimulus dollars into the business sector, financial institutions, military industrial complexes, and wars should not be a stumbling block for helping our elderly and poor who cannot help themselves due to their age or disability. If our present politicians will not listen to the needs of these unfortunate citizens today, they surely will regret it on election day.
It is inconceivable today that our seniors do not possess the financial clout in the form of political donations, but they damn sure have the voting booth clout at their disposal that history has proven to be reliable. Many of our politicians are now trying to replace the senior citizen vote with the illegal or legal immigrant vote, but they shall not prevail since they already know that many of our senior citizens are unhappy in regards to their previous political policies. I sincerely hope that our senior citizens will acknowledge this political threat and contact their elected officials as soon as possible.
