The Liberal Version of the Hunger Games
Welcome to the Liberals' version of the Hunger Games, America; unapologetically brought to you by our Progressive friends in the Democrat Party, whose economic policies have lifted a record number of Americans from the middle class and plopped them face down -- into poverty the past five years.
I know. This makes no sense, considering they claim they are the party for the folks, insisting they are fighting to expand the middle class. Forget what they say for a moment and take a look at what they've done the past five years. It seems the only things they've expanded are the size of government, welfare rolls, homelessness, unemployment, and the number of people who no longer believe anything that comes out of their mouths, thanks to Obamacare.
Now a third quarter U.S. Census report, "Income, Poverty and Health Insurance in the United States: 2012" reveals Americans' real median income has plateaued the past three years, flat-lining at a rate much lower than it was in 2007. In a nutshell, President Obama's first term offered American households a 4.89 percent, or $2627 decrease in the real median household income. According to CNS News, the real median household income was $53,644 in 2008 and has dropped every year since.
In addition, the number of people in poverty has increased by more than 6-1/2 million. In 2008, there were 39.8 million people in poverty, and in 2012, around 46.5 million. Despite all their Keynesian economics hocus-pocus, including an $831 billion stimulus spending spree, auto industry bailouts and the never-ending production of paper money, the poverty class, rather than the middle class, has been strengthened.
While running for president in 2008, Barack Obama promised his economic policies would "foster economic growth from the bottom up" and would end what he described as the "tired, worn-out, trickle-down ideologies we've been seeing for so many years."
With 46.5 million people now living at or below the poverty line, the only thing Obama and Democrats have fostered is more welfare system dependents. And the Democrats' trickle-down poverty is spreading across the globe, according to a November 19 report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development stating, "…there is also a risk that tapering of asset purchases by the U.S. Federal Reserve could bring a renewed bout of instability." Way to go Democrats!
And no surprise, a Pew Research study back in April found that, under Obama's policies, "the rich [are] getting richer and the poor [are] getting poorer." The study found Democrats' policies "have produced a greater concentration of wealth, with the share of wealth held by the top 7 percent rising to 63 percent in 2011, up from 56 percent in 2009." Obama did tell Joe the Plumber he liked the idea of spreading wealth, but failed to specify to whom it would be spread.
Pew also points out what most Americans already know: the housing market is not doing well under Democrat Party stewardship. In fact, Reuters says home ownership sank to a 17-1/2 year low in July. A recent National Alliance to End Homelessness analysis found that between 2011 and 2012 the homeless population showed little improvement. Most incriminating is the number of children without a home increased by nearly 2 percent and the homeless who are part of a family rose by 1.4 percent during the same time frame.
Democrats can jibber-jabber all they want about the plight of the middle class, but it would be wise for Americans to take a look at what Democrats have done for them in recent years. To them, is a better description -- considering we have a 20-year high poverty rate coasting at 15 percent, and the highest number of poor Americans since the government began tracking poverty 54 years ago. Without a doubt, Democrats are nudging Americans closer to a Hunger Games-like existence with each policy they enact.