The "Nouveau Poor" - How They Can Be Heard And Actually Have "Clout"

We have reached the tipping point in the United States where the poor, disabled and disadvantaged are now second-class citizens. We have no rights, and America is feeding it’s prison systems with those who cannot afford proper legal representation. Prisons are being privatized, some co-owned by Dick Cheney and his cabal of criminal accomplishes - so incarceration for even the most minimal of crimes is helping to make hundreds of millions of dollars from those who profit on the misery of others.

Watch your T.V.’s, and you will see countless commercials for charity groups asking for donations to feed the starving around the world, protect wildlife, save the environment, and a host of other well intentioned endeavors. The amount of charities that cater to other countries is mind boggling when you understand that very few of these mainstream charity groups (except the United Way and Catholic Charities) has made an effort to help the poor and disadvantaged in our own country. In this author’s opinion, it is not “politically correct” to run commercials that reveal the plight of second-class Americans - and as with everything else in Congress and politics, nothing will ever be done unless there is a massive outcry from average Americans - those who are taking this financial crisis on the chin while the rich get richer off the misery of others!

While I and so many millions have had high hopes for President-Elect Obama, I fear those hopes may have been in vain. President-Elect Obama plans on using the rest of the 350 Billion to bail out more banks and financial institutions - and not one word has been uttered that suggests that Obama intends to help those Americans who need the help the most, and from what I have read, the “status quo” will continue as Obama bails-out the wealthy while ignoring the poor and disadvantaged that are the bulk of the American population.

Uphill climb seen for bailout funds in Senate

By Kevin Drawbaugh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A White House request for access to the final half of funding for the $700 billion federal financial industry bailout program faces an uphill climb in the Senate, senior U.S. senators from both political parties said on Tuesday.

Winning release of the money is “going to be a challenge because many who voted for TARP the first time are skeptical,” Illinois Sen. Richard Durbin, the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, said of the Treasury Department’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

President-elect Barack Obama is scheduled to speak to his former Senate colleagues at a lunch on Tuesday to urge them to release the final $350 billion for the bailout to help U.S. banks and financial services companies. (Emphasis added.) More

Furthermore, banks and financial institutions are providing huge contributions for Obama’s inauguration - another clue as to where his primary focus will be:

Bailed-Out Banks Donating To Obama’s Inauguration

Citibank executives, who are expected to ask for another billion-dollar federal bailout on top of the $45 billion in rescue funds they received in November, are trying to buy the goodwill of Barack Obama — or they just want to help the president-elect throw the best inauguration party in history.

Of the hundreds of banks and firms which have received bailout money, Citibank
employees have contributed the most to Obama’s inauguration fund — at least $113,000 as of Wednesday.

Yet, as the New York Times recently reported, many of the banks, including Citigroup, need more bailout money and have been fiercely lobbying behind the scenes for a major piece of the $350 billion second installment. Much More

I laud President-Elect Obama’s pledge to help distressed mortgage holders, but what about the rest of the country that is falling deeper in debt and having hard times in just feeding their families? Where is the help for them? It’s non-existent. K-Street lobbyists represent special interest groups and big business, which is nothing more than legalized bribery! While it is my opinion that “lobbying” is nothing more than bribery, which amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars per year, ask yourselves who is lobbying for the poor and disadvantaged in America? The answer is there is no such “lobby”. To have lobbyists to pressure Congress (or bribe them) costs billions of dollars (The total spent on lobbying of Congress and federal agencies was $2.55 billion. Data are from the Center for Responsive Politics and include all data made available through April 2007. HMO denotes health maintenance organization, and PhRMA denotes Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.) - so who is willing to pay the price to help the poor and disadvantaged in our country? Anyone reading this commentary knows the answer - money talks and Bullsh*t walks - or goes homeless and hungry.

In the middle of writing this commentary, I read an excellent, similar commentary that was linked to by Op-Ed News titled “The Growing Clout of the Nouveau Poor.” It’s an excellent Op-Ed, and while I agree with the author’s brilliant article, I disagree that the ” Nouveau Poor” have any “clout” whatsoever. The clout the author speaks of can only be obtained by those individuals (which is becoming the bulk of America) who this commentary references band together and make their voices heard, loud and clear, and since we have no “lobbyists” to present our case, it is only the people themselves who can organize and make themselves heard. Excerpts appear below, and in many respects, I agree with 90% with what she has written:

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