It’s ironic that we are told over and over again, year after year, that we should “never forget” the dozens or hundreds or thousands killed and injured in disasters, both natural and man-made, but we are already forgetting what devastated, and is still hurting millions across the world: the Great Recession of 2008.
If it wasn't already clear what the Republicans in state and federal governments have been doing for the past 30 or 40 years, they have recently become so blatant and careless that their motives are fully transparent to anyone who takes the time to look.
The best recent example is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
This Bureau was designed as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. It’s single most important purpose was to keep banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions from ripping off their customers. You know, most of the people in the country.
The Dodd-Frank act was designed to protect ordinary consumers from things like charging fees for bounced checks that caused more bounced checks and more fees. Too many of us know about that.
Or credit card interest rates that changed from month to month, always going up, without any warning or explanation, or regulation. Late payment fees, early payment fees, and fees for incorrect amounts and incorrect dates or illegible signatures. Just about anything they could come up with.
Ditto for Mortgage Brokers, Payday Lenders, Student Loan holders, etc., etc., etc…
There’s so much more, but the bottom line is that the Consumer Protection Act was written to keep the various financial institutions from taking billions of dollars worth of fees and penalties from their customers, aka, consumers. By all accounts, it is working very well and getting record refunds to consumers who have made complaints. Thanks for the most part to Elizabeth Warren, Christopher Dodd, and Barney Frank.
Nothing in the Consumer Protection Act is actually punishing any company, corporation, or institution. National and international banks, financial institutions and Wall Street are still raking in profits at or above what they were before the recession.
The Act only prevents abuses to ordinary consumers. And, I say ‘ordinary’, because people with lots of money are treated much better. They’re not cheated (as much) because their business is more desirable. Also, they can afford to take their business wherever they want. The requirements for lower income consumers are pretty much etched in stone.
So what reasons would the Republicans in our state and federal governments have for trying to weaken the bureau, or any of the aspects of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act?
The only reason I can fathom is that they are receiving money and other favors from the very financial institutions that the Act was designed to regulate. There is absolutely no indication that they are working for the American public who voted them into office and are paying their salaries. None. It’s all about greed and self-interest. They are only fighting for themselves and their jobs.
And, truly, they have a lot to fight for. A job that pays $174,000 and up, per year with high quality, affordable healthcare and a variety of retirement, and other benefits. You can see the details here: http://www.senate.gov/...
And all this for working 135 days (Congress) and 136 days (Senate) in 2014. That’s even more that 2013, which was more than 2012. So, they’re working longer than before, but getting less and less done.
The median household income of the lower 99% of Americans was under $31,000 in 2012 and has gotten slightly worse since then.
(If you factor in the 1% of upper incomes, the median comes up to about $51,000, but that isn't a realistic calculation since much of the upper 1% are paid millions of dollars per year.)
Around 46 million Americans live below the poverty line, or 15% of our population. There is only one reason for those figures: they aren’t being paid enough by their employers. The government can do little to change this except raise the federal minimum wage. And I don’t need to tell you who is fighting to defeat that, do I?
The number of annual full time work days for most Americans is roughly 250, and that’s with national holidays deducted. Of course, many hourly and salaried people work overtime at their jobs, but the fact is that fewer and fewer salaried workers get overtime pay at all, and hourly workers are routinely cheated out of their overtime pay.
We won’t even go into the millions of people working multiple part-time jobs and getting no benefits at all.
So it appears that a majority of the men and women in our Congress and Senate, who are now Republicans, are fighting for their government jobs because those jobs allow them to further enrich themselves. And their friends and families. And so on and so forth.
And we are left with the minority of men and women in our government who care about the country as a whole. The ones who realize that a rising tide that only raises a few boats, will turn into a tsunami that will likely destroy all of us.
And the ones who care are mostly Democrats.
Since I have little patience with people who just bitch about things without offering solutions, I’ll end by saying that the only way to change our government, both state and federal, is to VOTE. Vote in each and every election.
I don’t claim to be the sharpest tool in the shed, so if there’s something I’m missing, please speak up.