(ThyBlackMan.com) All this talk about tax cuts is falling on deaf ears for the more than 14 million unemployed folks in this country. I’m sure many of them are saying we gave the Wall Street bankers their bailout; we extended tax cuts for the one-percenters; and we continue to send billions to other countries to help them out of their financial woes. So where is the help for the unemployed and the people who have been evicted from their homes, many of whom are now living in cars and even worse? I am sure they are asking themselves when their relief will come. Tax breaks don’t mean a thing if you don’t have a job.
Extending the unemployment benefits is the least our government can do, but living wage jobs would be much better. It is so sad that we have turned into a two-tiered society, the “haves” who want even more, and the “have-nots” who can’t get a job. 
What is our government doing? The latest disclosures of net worth, salaries, and millionaire status among members of Congress are truly eye-opening; or should I say “eye-popping and “jaw-dropping”?
We elect and send folks to Congress to represent us but they, sooner rather than later, start representing themselves and become millionaires in the process. Recent stats pointed out that one-half of the members of Congress are millionaires. In addition, the median net worth, excluding home equity, of House members more than doubled between 1984 and 2009, to $725,000 from $280,000, according to an analysis of financial disclosures by the University of Michigan’s Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Meanwhile, the net worth of the median American family dipped to $20,500 from $20,600, The Washington Post reports. (Newsmax.com)
As Marvin Gaye said, “What’s going on?” Certainly everyone should be able to earn as much money as he or she can via honest means, but it seems to me this system is all jacked-up now as it pertains to folks making financial decisions that drastically affect poor people, while they are living lives of luxury unaffected by those decisions. Isn’t there some kind of moral imperative in this scenario somewhere?
Are we so enamored by politicians, so enthralled by the emotions of politics, so engrossed in the symbolism of politics, and so caught-up by the hype of politics to notice what is happening to us? How is it that we elect folks to lord over us, to make rules for us, and to preside over us, and all the while they are getting richer and richer and we are getting poorer and poorer? Something is definitely wrong with that picture.
Look at Black people in this country and how we relate to the political system. Since Obama was elected we have heard cries of neglect, oversight, marginalization, and even abandonment of Black folks by this administration. We have engaged in discussions on whether we can say anything critical about Barrack as it relates to where Black people stand in the latest political landscape. It has been suggested that we should just sit back and take it because, after all, he is the “first” and he can’t do or say certain things on our behalf. Mistake!
Bob Law, national radio personality and community activist in New York City, recently wrote an excellent article in which he cited, “It was on May 7, 2011, that the National Institute for Latino Policy announced that the White House initiative for Educational Excellence for Hispanics swore in several new commissioners and held their inaugural meeting at the White House convened by Executive Director Juan Sepulveda. However Blacks are told that it would be unfair to expect such an effort on behalf of Black students since the President is the President of all Americans. In accepting that logic, Blacks may be the only group in the nation reluctant to pursue a strategy that will address the very real needs of their own group.” What that says to me is that same old Black mantra, “By and by, when I die…”
Closer to home is a more important issue: What do Black folks get from local Black politicians? The same thing we say about Obama can also be said, in most cases, about our local royal ruling class. Many of them make a decent living, have good pension plans, get large expense accounts, and all the other accoutrements that come with being elected to public office. On the other hand, Black people and poor people seldom get to share in the fruits of their labor. It’s the same as the national scene: High unemployment, which means tax cuts offer nothing in relief.
And so it goes; politicians talk about our needs but we continue to need to the things they talk about. Until work is plentiful again, all this rhetoric about tax cuts for the “working” people will continue to fall on deaf ears among the unemployed.
Written By James E. Clingman
Official website; http://www.blackonomics.com/
