(ThyBlackMan.com) President Barack Obama is adept at walking a tightrope. That’s what he did when he talked about the budget, chastising both Democrats and Republicans.
U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, chair of the House Budget Committee, is bound and determined to reduce the size of government. He will do it on the backs of the poor and the needy, and he will, if he has his way, eviscerate the role that government plays in providing a safety net for those at the bottom.
President Obama has to negotiate all of this. He is in charge – but then he isn’t. His bosses, the folks that he has to run stuff by, are not in his corner. He 
can’t appoint a Cabinet member without getting approval from people who openly oppose him. He has veto power, but there are but so many vetoes he can manage. He is in charge –he is not in charge.
Can’t understand
Add the matter of race. These Tea Party people seem committed to ideas and ideals, but there is a race component to the ways that they approach this president. I wonder what they want to take America back to, especially with this celebration of the Civil War that I cannot understand.
Back to the budget and the funding cuts, and the exaggerations about the many ways we are on a “spending spree.” The truth is that Bill Clinton racked up a surplus that George W. Bush spent profligately. Now, in the middle of an economic crisis, when spending is necessary to stimulate the economy, the same Republicans who encouraged Bush’s spending are now crying foul.
Republicans who are toeing the line on spending correctly note that we borrow about 43 cents for every dollar we spend. They don’t note that this amount ebbs and flows with the business cycle. Further, programs like Senior Community Service Employment, which hires poor seniors to work and earn, will be cut by nearly half, putting at least 50,000 poor old people out of work.
Why cut?
If we are really concerned about our budget, shouldn’t we be creating jobs, not eliminating them? There are 14 million officially unemployed Americans, half of whom have not worked for more than half a year. They are trying their best to survive. They aren’t paying taxes or anything else.
Why not put them to work, make an investment in their survival and indirectly in the survival of our nation? If we don’t put people to work now, there will be nowhere to work later. We are being battered by the rest of the world, and we refuse to make the same investment in the future that they have made. We are like greedy farmers eating our seed corn today instead of investing in tomorrow. And our young people will resent our decisions as we move into the future.
We spend more on the elderly than we do on youth. I am at the age when I look forward to the possibility of social security, but I do not look forward to the possibility that the young person who tends to me in a nursing home will drop me out of the pique she feels that I was part of a generation that did not invest in her future.
Respecting our president, I understand that he offers, in Cornel West’s words, “hope on a tightrope.” Still, what about our nation’s workers? Our students? Our young people? The elderly poor? Why has defense (which could be called an offense) been taken off the table when we speak of budget cuts?
Written By Julianne Malveaux
Official website; http://www.juliannemalveaux.com/
