Monday, October 10, 2011

Social Inequality II: Why Occupy Wall Street Crowd Seems to be getting Confrontational?

Keywords or Terms: Republican Whitehouse; Democratic Whitehouse; Wall Street Bail Out; Political Stooges; Corporate Executives; Unemployment; Deficit Hulk; Job's Bill; Legislative honor; and, Getting America back to Work.

From the start of this recession - which coincided with the rise of unemployment and huge housing foreclosures, trading on Wall Street was clocking 10,000 points daily - the relationship between the Republican Whitehouse and businesses, especially the financial sector, was super cordial as one of the Wall Street men headed the United States Treasury. The Business's interest was more than protected and when the economy was about to go into a tail spin, bills were drafted with implicit blessings of the Republican Whitehouse to bail out the financial sector. The Bush Whitehouse did not encounter denials by Democrats, nor did the bills held ransom by Republicans as the Senate did to the Democrat’s Whitehouse bill to create jobs, yesterday. The vote was 50-49, with all Republicans opposing the plan to create jobs for Americans, and two Democrats who are facing probably the worst reelections bids in recent time, Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Jon Tester of Montana, identifing with Republicans. For many who have been keeping a watchful eye on the nation's unemployment rate, the spread of the vote on the Jobs' plan, was both socially and politically repugnant. First, the vote angers and next, it astounds many who thought the Republicans will be more circumspect, considering the unblinking unemployment rate in the past three months.

Prior to the economic melt down, bankers were smiling with the loose rules of financial industry governance and the oil industry was moving with exploration and drilling activities without restraints regarding industrial safety and environmental conservation. As the Republican Whitehouse at that time perceived it, it was their turn to bid the work of corporate America. The nation thought everything was okay as the deregulated environment afforded any type and form of deals, many of which were hurting the whole economy. With the deregulated financial sector, consumer credit was super easy and many households went on the spending spree. In that environment, no corporation was sitting down on billions of dollars as we now have and investments were a daily occurrence because there were no rules to the game. Some big, bulky and unfathomed deals came out during those times and no congressional  bills were out to regulate the excesses of financial behaviors. Today, with millions of Americans unemployed and over four million homes in foreclosure, Republicans have not seen the need to support a plan to create jobs immediately for the hurting population.

The question for Republican Senators, or any Senator for that matter, who have failed to get behind the jobs bill, is: At what cost will the nation’s unemployed get a brake from the indecisiveness of politicians or, to what extent are the lawmakers ready to make the American households endure further hardships? At what time will Republicans stop playing games with the lives of many Americans? The Republicans deregulated economic environment and reckless expenditures on two wars in the last decade led the nation to abyss, and now Republicans are un- willing to bend over to rebuild a future for millions of Americans. Republicans want to further slow down the pace of the lukewarm jobs' creation hoping to get a Republican Whitehouse next year; but the truth is: you never can tell if the voters will ever forget this let down on the jobs' bill. The gross national product will get a hit at the end of this year and would continue, as long as Americans are not producing enough to ginger economic growth. Unemployment is unlikely to decline, even with a Republican Whitehouse, because it takes a while before another jobs' bill passes under a different administration; and, all that dream of having a Republican in the Whitehouse, may just end up being a dream as long as the average American continues to believe that his or her welfare is of little concern to those lawmakers in congress.  For now, Unemployment is delivering a pain to majority of Americans that politicians will be seeking votes from next year; and, I believe, they will hardly forget!

In the after glow of the 2010 November sweep of Republicans in the House, Democrats pondered if their lukewarm attitude to the Republican obstructionism had not cost them the House. Republicans should not be surprised if a similar experience come to pass in 2012 election because of the failure to help millions to get back on their feet. Now, in case Republicans are interested, a rider to the current jobs bill, where the federal government buys over all the bad mortgages and let the home owners under siege remain in their homes, paying a restructured monthly mortgage that is within their income, will be in order. Just like the government ate up the failures of the financial sector when the economy was about to tail spin, this focus will allow the mopping up of the excess homes on the market, rekindle the building industry and create jobs for the masses. The ominous rise of the nation’s deficit from this endeavor that worries fiscal conservatives could be defended on the basis of the potential social upheaval that may deluge the country due to the protests from the Occupy the Wall Street Crowd; and closely by Keynesian economics theory.

The concerns over the reduction in deficit spending are in order. Unfortunately, worries over deficit spending during a bad recession fails to appreciate the stubborn realities of unemployment and rising poverty among Americans. Not that deficit spending is necessarily bad economics; however, when the national productivity and personal income are slipping to oblivion, radical economic measures and monetary policy are essential to shore up the whole economy. With inflation at an all time low, it is practically impossible that consumer savings are about to be eaten up; an issue that could logically be of concerns to deficit spending hulks. The challenge for now, is unemployment, if the number of people out of work spikes up again because of congressional indecisiveness, another recession that has been hoped against, is likely to materialize.  The Federal Reserve Bank is doing all it could to stabilize the market; however, congress needs to support infrastructural development spending as advanced in the jobs' bill. Any intention to fight against this proposal will only extend sufferings for the millions of unemployed.

The denials of the Democrat’s Job’s bill may burst Obama politically; however, no one is saying it is going to help Republicans either. The way the current recession has hit, it is likely that voters would throw out a whole bunch of congressional lawmakers who are currently hoping that voters would look away and punish just the party in the Whitehouse. One of the primary goal of the job's bill from the Obama's Whitehouse, is probably to revitalize the whole economy by increased federal spending in infrastructural development to create jobs for the millions of unemployed. Republicans may deny this opportunity by continuing their recalcitrance; however, the choice is still theirs to make a difference at this time. There is an opportunity for a re-vote on the job's bill in Senate. Hopefully, the dissenting senators will see the need to change their minds for the betterment of the welfare of many Americans.


In August employers held up recruitment out of fear of what is happening in the economy and congressional stalemates that have now become the order of the day in Washington DC. Businesses understand under-performance in the economy and are weary of uncertainties that may impinge their investments. This is why the uncertainties from the stalemate in congress is delaying recruitment of new workers. Home ownership among Americans have suffered a hit due to an under-performing economy. The home-ownership support promise from the Obama's administration has not turned out to prevent foreclosures. The fifty billion dollars from the TARP fund set aside to assist home owners were not administered by banks as expected. Commercial Banks continue to introduce different twists from what the government expected and there was hardly enough oversight for about eight months into the program. Commercial Banks have been hard nosed,  refusing to reduce the expected mortgage interest rates for home owners with home values under water; as they have not seen a financial interest in the government program. For example, only about 800,000 home-owners have been helped since the advent of the program. With over close to 4 million people behind in their mortgage payment today, it is rather difficult to find the quick housing recovery that is essential to an economic recovery and vice-versa. Some housing and mortgage specialists have indicated that unless this program is overhauled or the criteria for qualification for the program fine-tinued, the housing glut will continue to be a problem for the foreseeable future. This in turn will impinge on the economic recovery expectations.


It is a form of confirmed bias for Senators to ignore the importance of a change of mind to help rebuild the future of many. The tendency to latch on to political ideology may be appealing to many Republicans; however, many unemployed Americans do not find the latest ploy from these lawmakers as worthy of praise or appreciation. Many people are hurting and if the lawmakers do not believe this and are just ready to preserve themselves in their various offices, maybe it is time to re-evaluate how exactly they got into their offices and who are they obligated to at this time. Serving in political office is wanting to put the interest of the people first, before any other myopic interest, especially those of their political bank rollers. Obviously with the latest vote, one can assume that Senators who voted against the Jobs plan have other priorities in mind rather than serving  to help the unemployed.


Allowing other obligations to becloud common sense is tantamount to negligence. Allowing other inconsequential to creep into a decision to help the teaming millions of unemployed smacks of a dedication to serve; an oath taken by each lawmaker when sworn into office. It is hard to condemn the agitated or irresistible attitude of the Occupy Wall Street Crowd considering the latest development of vote over the Jobs plan as advanced by President Obama to help get many in this crowd back to work. Like I once said, there is still room for all those senators that voted against the plan to redeem their honor, by voting for this plan, so we can get American back to work!

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