I am huge not huge fan of Karl Rove or his tactics; however, I saw him interviewed this week (post-election). He did not bash Obama. In fact, he stated that Obama ran a clean, well disciplined campaign. He had been predicting a McCain defeat for some time. It doesn?t matter if you like Karl or not, he is a brilliant strategist. He believes in winning by any means necessary. Let's face it folks, most politicians are very ambitious people. You have to possess somewhat of an ego and ambition to put yourself out there like that. So, for a politician that wants to win Karl is your guy. The most interesting point that Karl made during the interview was this. He stated that most presidential candidates are clueless to the realities of the job. They make hundreds of promises to millions of people. Only the winner gets to face the reality of the position. According to Karl, Mr. Obama will have the shock of his life when he receives his first classified intelligence briefing. You can make all the promises in the world (with good and honest intentions), but it all gets trumped by national security. There are things in place that the average person, including elected officials, are clueless about. These things are there to keep this country safe and somewhat stable. The United States in no different than any other developed country in this regard. There are agencies at work that presidential candidates don't know exist. They have their jobs to do. And just like the men and women of the military, I appreciate their service and dedication. Many of these folks risk their lives every day for our freedoms.
So candidates may promise many things, but some things are in place for a reason. These things are unchangeable, even by the Commander-in Chief. This is not a conspiracy theory. Mr. Rove should know, he has been there and done that. He did not go into a whole lot of detail, but let's just say, there are checks and balances outside of the Executive, Legislative and Judiciary Branch. On a different note, I was silenced years ago on the issue of social welfare. I believed just about everything Mr. Reagan told us. Okay I was na?ve. Some of you may remember the reference he made to the Chicago welfare queen that bilked the government out of $150,000. The following information was cited from another source: (He cited a Chicago Welfare Queen who had ripped off $150,000 from the government, using 80 aliases, 30 addresses, a dozen social security cards, and four fictional dead husbands. The country was outraged; Reagan dutifully promised to roll back welfare; and ever since, the Welfare Queen driving her Welfare Cadillac has become permanently lodged in American political folklore.
Unfortunately, he would never provide references or sources and it seems that it wasn't really true. The media searched for this welfare cheat in the hopes of interviewing her, and discovered that she didn't even exist. As a bit of class warfare, however, it was brilliant. It diverted public attention from insider traders in their limousines to Welfare Queens in their Cadillacs, even though the former were stealing thousands of times more from the American people than the latter. Just one example of the cost of white collar crime would become apparent a few years later, when President Bush bailed out the Savings & Loans industry with $500 billion of the taxpayer's money -- enough to fund 20 years of federal AFDC. )
Questions of class warfare aside, there is no evidence that there is a significant problem with welfare cheating. In 1991 less than 5 percent of all welfare benefits went to persons who were not entitled to them, and this figure includes errors committed by the welfare agency. (1)
Nor are people getting rich off welfare. The two largest welfare programs are Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and food stamps. In 1992, the average yearly AFDC family payment was $4,572, and food stamps for a family of three averaged $2,469, for a total of $7,041. (2) In that year, the poverty level for a mother with two children was $11,186. (3) Thus, these two programs paid only 63 percent of the poverty level, and 74 percent of a minimum wage job. There are other welfare programs, of course, but they either pay a minuscule fraction of these two programs, or, if larger, are collected by only a small percentage of welfare recipients. The typical welfare recipient remains among the poorest members of society.?
I was asked to serve on a taskforce during the nineties to develop a ?Welfare to Work initiative for our community?I had not moved back home to KY yet. Our taskforce spent six months researching the state and national welfare programs. No offense to anyone, but I had always assumed that most welfare recipients were black females. At that time 1993, 70 percent of the recipients were white families, I couldn?t believe it. I never viewed myself as racist up to that point. But the media, Hollywood, and my social circles had always given me that impression; it was a stereotype that I bought in to. I heard it so much that I thought it was a fact. I also thought most were lazy black females that had a multiple children. Keep in mind, I had always personally known some lazy white males and females with multiple children, some in my own family. I was just ignorant to the facts. I worked with men, women, black, white, Hispanic and Asian. There were politicians, IT professionals, doctors, electricians, teachers, factory works, plumbers, lawyers, social workers and preachers on this taskforce?30 of us in all. We worked with local, state, and national level professionals daily. We all came away with a better understanding of the broken system. Most of the folks we interviewed by phone and in person wanted to be self sufficient.
Most stated that it was only expected to be very temporary. But too many became enslaved into the system because they could not afford adequate childcare, transportation or insurance. I now know that I was an ignorant racist. I really felt that white males were smarter than white females. We had always trumped them in math, science, and any class that required hard thinking and problem solving. I held the same negative views of blacks academically. I always thought black males were superior athletically. But then I realized there were very few females back then in any of my math and science classes, but those that were there usually got very high marks. I didn?t go to school with any blacks. So I really didn?t have an accurate way to base my views. They were based on my bias and ignorance. I can now say that I am a recovering racist. Just like an alcoholic, I don?t know if I will ever be cured. But I have been willing for over 15 years to work on it. My SAT was 1340 and A?s came pretty easy, but I was very ignorant to many facts. It seems that the president ?elect has his work cut out for him. At this point, the people have spoken, I will give him my full support until he proves he doesn?t deserve it. I don?t base my views of him on his race. After all, he is half-white?just kidding. Really, I am just kidding! If he can pattern his policies on the values he was raised with, he will prove that the conservative ideology is what got him where he is. He and his wife did not rely on hand outs to get where they are. He states that his grandparents worked hard to put him through school. He and Michelle worked their butts off to get the best education. They did not rely on this broken system. The Democrats for years have preached FDRs New Deal and Johnson?s Great Society. Hard work and education pays off. The Obamas are living proof of this. We need big business; they are the stimulus for economic growth. We cannot over tax them or force them oversees so they can remain competitive. Capitalism works?GW messed up. He forgot about small government. He forgot about cutting government spending. He and Congress over the past 8 years, not two, have almost bankrupted this country. Once Obama gets his briefing, we can see what tunes he will sing to us. Maybe, just maybe, he can see the mistakes of others and provide the type of leadership that will start a recovery. National security is still priority number one. I won't rant anymore today...I promise!
Carl
