Let Them Eat Cake, Say The States...and the Feds

I am pretty certain that there has been something of a loss of compassion for the nation's poor in the U.S. in the years since Ronald Reagan won his 1980 landslide.  Having lived through these years and having a serious income-changing life event happen to me during them, I got front row seats.  The "welfare queen in a Cadillac" did its job.  So did the passions surrounding the issue of illegal entry into our country, the difficult economics households faced who needed incomes from two working adults where formerly one would do (yes I'm old enough to remember THAT!) and policy decisions made by people who genuinely believed that the long-term income transfer of wealth into the coffers of the extremely wealthy in our country was somehow good for the economy.  

And it was nice for an awful lot of folks to be given the chance to believe that they not only needed, but deserved, to enjoy services, administration, and even functions such as our national defense provided by government but at the same time should have low or no taxes to pay since (again somehow...a strange little wave of a magic wand here) this is what it took to keep the economy going.

Now that the economy is starting to unravel just a bit, I personally think it's time to question a lot of the assumptions we've had about what is good for it.  But old habits die hard.  The first thing we see (and possibly the last thing I'll see, since I'm on the list of those most vulnerable) is the needs of the poor and of at least part of the middle class for some kind of assistance becoming greater just as the federal government is dogged by an historic amount of red ink and the states are choosing to cut (and destroy jobs as well as reduce the spending power of the lives of those who depend on benefits -- meaning a blow to customers which will result in less business which will probably result in more layoffs, and circle the drain down and down we go) rather than assist and stimulate.

The big red-ink state of California, while not wanting to raise taxes of any kind for  funds for assistance or even for continuing to provide state services for that matter,  is yet willing to waste all kinds of money caused by the delay in passing a budget.  Sometimes idiocy becomes impossible to even describe properly.  Probably California voters now need to take a very serious look at their 2/3 requirement for passing of the budget by the legislature, since these deadlocks are proving so expensive as well as dangerous to both many citizens of the state and its economy as a whole.

Anyway, in my house the wage earner has been unemployed since mid-November.  Brother, can you spare a dime, because there will be nothing but more pain from the elected officials of California.  I vote for cessation of their salaries and benefits until they pass a damn budget, but I'm not in charge.  Anyone unwilling to compromise and who is proud of it should be facing a recall right now, AFAIC.

A sample of the less-than-cheerful economic news:

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Ok, that's enough.  But the point is that it is a terrible time to be economically vulnerable for any reason.  Single parents, those who have been laid off with no prospects for jobs in sight, the chronically ill...we're all scared, and sometimes it seems not only does no one care, but we are truly invisible.  The funds...the borrowed funds, that is...are not being trickled down in our direction.  

Yes, I do believe people will lose their lives over this.  But we already have an estimated 18,000 - 25,000 per year who lose their lives due to our horribly unfair health care delivery system, and few know or care about that.

But don't let me ruin your Groundhog Day...!