Tidbits

I have thoughts for more developed thinking, but haven't had much leisure to write as my job is requiring me to work more hours than I think are appropriate. In this, I feel a lot of solidarity with the working class, where it is now common for both parents to work, or for one parent to work two and three jobs. This explains why there is no outbreak of political activism among the working class, which comes home and turns on the dribble of cable news, if they get any news at all.

Our largest corporations are making more by paying people less. Michael Cembalest, chief investment officer of J.P. Morgan Chase, asserted in his bank's regular report that "U.S. labor compensation is now at a 50-year low relative to both company sales and U.S. GDP." Corporate profit margins are now at 13%, compared to just under 11% in 2000. (Source, editorial by Harold Meyerson of the Washington Post entitled: "Corporate America's Chokehold on Wages.")

Our Democratic President has now agreed to 1) raising the age at which one can begin to be covered under Medicare, 2) reducing the inflation adjustments to Social Security so that the payments will be less likely to keep up with inflation. He seems to be inching further toward the Republicans on a couple of points of principle: 1) "Across the board" means million dollar tax breaks for billionaires and peanuts for the average American, 2) "Tightening your belt" only applies to the middle and working class.

Quote from the blog of Robert Reich, July 15: "A recent paper by Cornell political scientist Suzanne Mettler surveyed how many recipients of government benefits don’t really believe they have received any benefits. She found that over 44 percent of Social Security recipients say they “have not used a government social program.” More than half of families receiving government-backed student loans said the same thing, as did 60 percent of those who get the home mortgage interest deduction, 43 percent of unemployment insurance beneficiaries, and almost 30 percent of recipients of Social Security Disability."

Most of what passes these days for tax cuts is disguised corporate welfare.

Obama is now governing further to the right than Mitt Romney did when he was governor of Massachusetts. The democratic electorate is all about jobs, and Romney might well defeat Obama if he should manage to get the nomination. When is the last time you heard Obama discuss a plan for creating jobs?

A couple of poll results in today's Plain Dealer show what Obama is banking on. 66% of Americans want the President and Congress to compromise on raising the debt ceiling. 55% of Americans are more concerned with the deficit than they are with an economic crisis caused by the failure to raise the debt ceiling. So Obama works to be the leader of compromise and the leader in fighting the deficit. It's a center-right position.

Obama knows that people like me will never vote Republican, given the influence of the Tea Party and the whole right-wing propaganda machine on even a moderate Republican like Romney or Huntsman. It is urgent to get the Supreme Court out of the hands of Thomas and Scalia. Even after his recent betrayals, I am still confident Obama will do that.

Interesting also that the poll in the Plain Dealer doesn't ask people what they think about Medicare and Social Security being reduced. That's because Obama, the leader of the Democratic party, is himself leading the way in negotiating those reductions.

I am a regular reader of Paul Krugman's blog: "The Conscience of a Liberal," affiliated with the New York Times. He is my specialist on economics. For Krugman's take on the now rejected Obama-Boehner agreement to raise the age when you can join Medicare, go to http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/23/what-obama-was-willing-to-give-away/. Best point: by sabotaging and mocking any attempt to reduce the cost of private health insurance, and by raising the age when people can begin Medicare, the Republicans are ensuring that a group of people in their 60s will go without insurance for a couple more years. Many people in their 60s are already doing so. They wait for Medicare to begin treatment of chronic conditions.

The obvious fix for healthcare is to allow any body who likes to sign up for Medicare at any age. Between 3 and 5% of the cost of Medicare goes to its administrative costs. From 15 to 20% of private health insurance costs go to administrative costs. Its one of numerous examples where government does a better job than the private sector. (Numbers from Democracy Now, but I've heard similar statistics from many other sources.)