Toast! It’s even buttered!
What exactly were you expecting?
Seriously, I wish everyone happy celebrations this evening, and send my thoughts of peace, wellness, and happiness to all my readers and all living things. May 2008 be a year where good things come into your life!
Ok, now then, about John Edwards. I support Mr. Edwards. Well, alright, in a world where Mr. Kucinich is considered “unelectable” I support Mr. Edwards. I think he is the best of the top-line candidates. But nevertheless, I do not agree with every one of his positions — I’m one of those darned “free thinkers” — and that brings me to his commentary the other day entitled “Rallying the middle class“. This piece is timely, since according to polls, Americans consider the economy and health care to be top issues. His first four paragraphs are pretty much right on, revisionist history about the golden age where working hard would magically put your family ahead aside. I especially like when he says “How long will we let big corporations and special interests dictate the direction of our country, while middle-class Americans suffer?” Then we get into the four legs of the table he wants to rebuild the middle class upon. I’ll take them one at a time if you don’t mind.
The first thing we need to do is create more jobs and make sure those jobs pay enough for people to get ahead. As president, I will end the failed NAFTA trade model and pursue a trade policy that ends tax loopholes for companies that send American jobs overseas. I will also invest in renewable sources of energy to create new industries and good-paying jobs. I will make sure work pays by raising the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour, and I will build career ladders to help low-wage workers move into better jobs. I will put the government back on the side of working people by strengthening organized labor. And finally, I will reform our tax code to make sure that the people who need tax breaks – our middle-class families – are the ones getting them.
Ok, I can’t argue with creating more good-paying jobs. Investing in renewable energy is a win-win cause: it reduces our dependency on fossil fuels while creating high-tech development jobs and good wage manufacturing jobs too. Someone’s got to build the solar panels and windmills! Now, although I am an advocate of a higher minimum wage, I am a little nervous about taking it all the way to $9.50. That’s higher than any state’s minimum wage. I hope there is a plan to do it in stages. That would bring the annual pay of a full-time minimum wager to about $19,000. As for tax breaks, I still believe in radical tax simplification that includes making the poverty line the standard deduction and caps itemized non-charitable deductions at three or four times that level.
The second thing we need to do is give families the tools to build a secure financial future. In today’s economy, people cannot rely on their employers for their long-term retirement security, so as president I will create Universal Retirement Accounts that can be taken from job to job. To respond to the mortgage crisis, I will pass a tough new national law to prevent predatory lending abuses, and I will rein in credit card and other abusive lending practices by creating a new consumer watchdog agency.
Again with the “we can fix that with a special account!” business. Is there some reason we can’t simplify the law to get what he wants with the IRA accounts that many people already have? Can’t we make a way for employers to contribute directly to our IRAs instead of a separate 401k program (which is incidentally controlled by that employer)? This would get more retirement funds in place, give Joe and Jane Average fewer accounts to keep up with, which would in turn make them less subject to fees on those accounts, and would even curb the retirement account issues that plagued employees of Enron and WorldCom. Oh, and speaking of reinventing the wheel, I bet there already is a consumer watchdog agency that should have reined in abusive lending and credit practices. And I bet they have been underfunded for the last 7-20 years.
The third thing we need to do is remove the burdens that weigh families down. We need to help people balance their work and home lives by making sure that workplace policies keep up with changes in the economy. As president, I will expand early-education programs, provide paid leave and sick leave to all workers, and expand job protection under the Family and Medical Leave Act. I will also expand opportunities to attend college through my “College for Everyone” program.
Well, workplace policies that are at least not family-hostile seem like a good thing. Got a plan to make large corporations think twice about transferring people across country — making them abandon ties to their communities, straining relationships with extended family, forcing spouses away from jobs, leading to fractured educations in their children, and contributing to the housing bubble? Work on that. As for “College for Everyone”, I think that devalues a High School education. Not everyone needs college! I support a “money should not be a barrier to college” program instead.
The fourth thing we need to do is create universal healthcare in America. Not only are healthcare costs putting a huge strain on American families and our competitiveness in the global economy, but our broken healthcare system that leaves 47 million Americans without healthcare is also a moral disgrace. I have proposed a healthcare plan that calls for shared responsibility among people, businesses, and the government, and will ensure that every man, woman, and child in America has access to affordable, quality coverage.
Alas, when he says “universal healthcare,” he does not mean “Medicare for All”; he means “mandatory health insurance.”
In closing: information overload; more write-downs on the way?; a maternal health issue you need to know about; faith is great, but it takes money to pay the bills; the AeroCivic; and finally Jim Cramer, English Teacher? Happy New Years.