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In the remaining days before the midterm elections, Americans have heard the media and our political leaders shout talking points of “underage page scandal,” “corruption” and “cut and run.” One political party is fighting to hold on to power even though it has lost the support of many Americans. The other political party is trying to figure out how to sell a message that connects with the electorate.
Many polls show the American public is fed up with the status quo and support change in leadership and the direction our country is headed. Unfortunately, the one statistic every poll fails to mention is our nation turning a blind eye to millions of Americans losing the ability to reach the American dream.
Soon after the results of the elections are revealed, many seasoned politicians are expected to announce their intentions to run for president in 2008. Some political experts believe a presidential candidate will need a minimum of $200 million to successfully operate a national campaign. A report by the FEC reveals that more than $1 billion was spent for the entire 2004 election. An astounding amount of money spent to win power of the government seems miniscule in the face of a quietly growing number of Americans being left behind.
From 2001 to 2005, the U.S. poverty rate has jumped from 32.9 to 37 million Americans as reported by the U.S. Census Bureau. A recession, a terrorist attack, continued outsourcing of American jobs and depressed wages have been major factors causing this alarming reality. In five years, more than 4 million Americans have fallen into poverty while our political parties have been more interested in demonizing each other with character assassinations and arguing who is better fit to defend our country from a terrorist attack and weapons of mass destruction.
The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina revealed a weapon of mass destruction hit the United States already. The weapon of mass destruction was poverty.
Politicians continue to point fingers blaming each other for the baffled response to the disaster but refuse to address the underlying problem as to why people in New Orleans were stuck in the city. Many of the people who rode out the storm remained in the city because they had no financial means to get themselves out of the path of destruction. They were stuck and had nowhere to go other than hunkering down in the Superdome.
These staggering realities reveal that cutting taxes for the past five years at a cost of more than $2 trillion may be a positive political message to sell to the public but they have failed to create an “ownership society” as some of our leaders have hoped. Tax cuts will not solve the problem of poverty because the problem with poverty is institutional.
12.9 million children in the United States live in poverty and many rely on federally funded school food programs just to have enough nourishment to make it through a day of school. Education is seen as an important tool to help lift people out of poverty. It seems rather difficult to concentrate in class all day when you are more worried about whether you will be able to eat dinner when you get home from school.
Relying on property tax revenues to pay for the majority of educational costs, poorer neighborhoods with lower property values are not able to keep up with the national trend of increased costs of education. An institutional problem like this creates a never-ending cycle that fails to lift people out of poverty and actually keeps them downtrodden.
Solving the problem of poverty is a difficult issue with no perfect solution. It is not about raising or cutting taxes. It is about addressing a problem that has become institutionalized and condoned through immoral behavior and actions by our nation’s leaders who focus their time on political rhetoric rather than solving problems.
During the time it took four million Americans to fall into poverty, Congress increased its annual salaries by more than $20,000. If the men and women of Congress believe their hard work deserves such reward while doing nothing effective to fight poverty, shame on them. If the American people re-elect leaders who gave themselves pay increases while refusing to take the first step in the fight against poverty by increasing the minimum wage, shame on us.
The minimum wage has less purchasing power than it did in 1951, when adjusted for inflation. Five Nobel Prize-winning economists recently joined 650 of their peers calling for the minimum wage to increase in a report released by the Economic Policy Institute. They believe it will benefit the overall economy and many poor Americans struggling to earn a decent wage.
The real “scandal” and “corruption” coming from Congress is the inability to effectively address millions of Americans who have lost their voice to cry out for help in the face of greed as they see the American dream slipping away from their grip. And without the American dream, America loses everything it stands for.
Submitted 10-26-2006
MALIBU, CA
