Dropped Connection

Remember the song, Dry Bones? 
(Some people think the song is Dem Bones so I am not the first use it politically.)

Basically it’s a children’s ditty about how all our bones are connected to one another.

A slight leap of intelligence and we realize anything that affects one bone therefore affects them all.

This concept is the same whether we are talking about a human body or a modern society.  Anything that harms one sector must have an affect on another.  Sometimes that affect may be small at first but have far reaching complications later on.

So it is not hard to realize that the lopsided rules and regulations being approved, or ignored for that matter by Congress these days may have a deleterious affect on our nation’s middle class.  And the damage to that group could in turn come back and harm those currently benefiting.

You may pick and choose any number of decisions over that past few years to see just how things are shaping up as the proverbial class warfare struggle continues.  And with the wealthy class holding all the ammunition the war is likely to end with a whimper not a shout.

First the Supreme Court allowed corporations to act as individuals with regards to campaign donations.  They may now fund advertising campaigns to bring down or promote any candidate they see as favorable to their cause without fear of being found out.

Without getting into any legal discussions I merely ask one moral question, if they are not doing anything wrong then why are they afraid to come out of the shadows and let the public know just who they are?

Clearly the law is allowing corporate shills to hide in the closets of the lobbies.

But while many feel the activist 'Conservative' court committed a major boner the dastardly deed has been done.

Then we take on the sticky subject of health care for the average citizen of America.

When the proposal that all Americans should have access to affordable health care and insurance was introduced the corporate world quietly went crazy.  They instituted a frenzy of misinformation.

Using a network of people who did not need health reform they disseminated such lies as calling the much needed legislation ‘Obamacare’ and continue to do so to this day.

They hired people to spread lies through grass roots groups claiming that discussions with your doctor when you get older will lead to ‘death camps.’

The Senators and Congressmen who stood in front of crowds and bemoaned the end of the world if the masses were allowed affordable healthcare were themselves covered by free lifetime insurance paid for by the very people they were lying to.  And to add insult to injury they would continue to receive this free perk for themselves and their families for the rest of their lives.

There is a familiar and apropos word for people who say one thing while doing another, hypocrite!

Physics teaches us that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.  When you push on a wall it does not fall down because it is actually pushing back.  In order for that to change one side must give in.  You may stop pushing and walk away or perhaps the wall will give in first and topple under the pressure.  Either way the forces exerted cease.

But what if we succeed in destroying the wall and later find that we needed it?  The time and effort to replace it will be greatly magnified.

Lawmakers will tell you that it takes time for results to be seen whenever new legislation is put in place.  And this is true as long as we realize the variable involved is time.

The health reform law does not fully go into effect until the year 2014 because the powerful lobbies of the insurance industry needed time to misinform the public as to its merits.  And they are using their time wisely by planting seeds of malcontent among the very people who would benefit by its implementation.  And the fertilizer they are using comes directly from the corporate shills in the Republican Party as well as many elected Democrats secretly on the payroll.

Remember the joke about the Pope telling his disciple what he is allowed to do during sex with his partner.  Upon hearing the Pontiff's admonition the man retorts, “Hey, you don’t play the game you don’t make the rules!”

Our elected officials do not play the game when it comes to:
Finding affordable health care;
Worrying about their retirement funds;
Making sure their family is and will be taken care of;
Or any of the many other things that keep the tax paying public awake at night. (And by saying 'tax-paying public I am  leaving the wealthiest 1% of the country out for obvious reasons.)

Once these self-serving public servants are elected into office they are set for life.  They play a different game, one we know as 'keep-away' where the monkey in the middle is truly the middle class.  They keep us away from them and vice versa.

On the surface this may seem fair since any rulings they pass down will not hurt nor benefit them.  An impartial judge and jury is essential to a Democratic way of life.

But impartiality is lost when tampering is involved.

And the tug of war between the need of the middle class and the greed of the wealthy is being unfairly influenced when one side pumps millions upon millions of dollars into the arena.  At that point the game is no longer fair and the outcome is no longer in doubt.

Our nation’s real unemployment rate is just under 17% and many people have been out of work for two years or longer.

The corporations are pointing to uncertainty and fear about rising taxes as the reasons they are not hiring new workers.  They seek tax breaks and assurances that they will not have to pay for the health insurance of their employees going forward.

Yet these same corporations just reported record profits of 28%!

So where exactly is that excess cash going?

Some of it is finding its way into the aforementioned ad campaigns and much more of it is being pocketed by the giddy greedy wealthy owners.  These bankers, CEOs, and board members can not believe how lucky they are to be living the wet dream of of a lifetime.

Through fault of their own they are being allowed to create great wealth with fewer full-time employees and receive tax breaks in doing so.  They continue to hire cheaper labor overseas while bemoaning the possibility of fair taxes being levied on their increased profits.

So where will it end?

Will our government finally come out of the corporate closet?  Will they merely rename the White House ‘The Office of the CEO’ and Congress the ‘Board Room?’

Maybe.

But instead we should think of America as a living entity, an organism comprised of many important organs.  Each of these connected to one another through an intricate nervous system and held in place by a unique skeletal system.

The middle class is the backbone of that society.  You may place the wealthy anywhere you like on that skeleton as long as you remember the connection!  Because if their bones become so heavy they will break the back.

As you can see I guess have a bone or two to pick with our current leadership.