By
Frank V. Vernuccio, Jr., J.D.
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Frank V. Vernuccio, Jr., J.D., the editor-in-chief of the New York Analysis of Policy & Government, brings his 30 years of experience in government and professional writing and broadcast journalism to your audience. Vernuccio provides insights that captivate listeners.
The 2016 campaign is dominated by myths propagated by both parties.
Democrats continue to claim that they are a middle-class centered party. Judging by the policies both of the incumbent Democrat President and the candidates seeking to succeed him, little could be farther from the truth. The middle class and those aspiring to raise their incomes to middle class levels have suffered under the Administration’s actions, both those directly affecting the economy and others, such as Obamacare, that have significant indirect influence on the financial security of American workers.
Investors Business Daily notes that “After six-plus years of President Obama’s big-spending, tax-raising policies, middle-class families have seen their incomes decline and more families have fallen into poverty, Census data show. The Census Bureau’s latest annual report on income and poverty in America shows that there was little to cheer about in 2014. Median family income dropped slightly to $53,657, down from the year before. Every income group suffered losses, with the lowest fifth of households dropping close to 1%.
The overall poverty number barely budged. But it climbed by almost 600,000 among blacks in 2014, more than half of whom were under age 18.”
Politico adds to that: “Since 2009, median income in the United States fell almost 4 percent to just over $51,000. That said, the past six years have seen a series of hits to middle-class economic security in the form of radical changes in healthcare; decreased pension guarantees from companies; less job security; and volatility in financial markets that has made retirement planning challenging. Cap that off with the massive hit to financial net worth because of the bursting of the housing bubble and you have a recipe for roiling discontent. Washington, meanwhile, anchored by the Obama administration, is widely seen as having done precious little other than shore up the financial system and the banks in 2009……The statistics on poverty are just as unpleasant. In Obama’s first year in office, 43.6 million people — or 14.3% of the population — in poverty. By 2014, that number had climbed by more than 3 million, pushing the poverty rate up to 14.8%. The poverty rate among blacks was 26.2% last year, up from 25.8% in 2009.
Reuters reports: “Federal Reserve survey data show families in the middle fifth of the income scale now earn less and their net worth is lower than when Obama took office. In the six years through 2013, over the recession and recovery that have spanned Obama’s tenure, jobs have been added at the top and bottom of the wage scale…In the middle, the economy has shed positions…”
The Hill reveals: “ObamaCare also has induced many companies to scale back benefits and others to drop them entirely. Relying on data from filings that insurers made to state regulators, Ed Haislmaier of the Heritage Foundation found that nearly 5 million people lost employer-sponsored coverage during the first nine months of 2014.”
National Review writes: “Democrats will point to Obamacare, or the allegedly Affordable Care Act, as one of their great gifts to the middle class. The problem is that middle-class Americans notice when they’re paying more in premiums, co-pays, and deductibles, and the math suggests that the overall program is a bad deal for the middle class…”
Despite the many middle-income members of the Democrat Party, there is little representation for them among the top presidential candidates. Hillary Clinton’s policies are further to the left than those that marked the presidency of her husband. Senator Sanders is an admitted socialist.
The Republican Party’s myth is that it has continued to effectively oppose Mr. Obama’s policies. After taking a beating in the media when its opposition to the President’s budget demands caused an impasse with the White House that resulted in the federal government “shutting down” from October 1 to October 16 in 2013, GOP leaders have only mounted token resistance.
The same can be said for national security issues. Once a defining feature of Republican policy, the current party leadership has failed to push in any effective manner for a reversal of Mr. Obama’s devastating cuts to the armed forces and his essentially pacifist foreign policy.
Fury over the timidity of Republican leadership has produced a virtual civil war within party ranks.
The fighting has resulted both in the overthrow of House Speaker John Boehner, and the rejection of Jeb Bush’s campaign bid in favor of outsiders Donald Trump, Dr. Ben Carson, and Carly Fiorina.