Voice for the plebs

Citizens ought to value it most extremely when they are been asked to give their opinion.  In a community of men, each individual of that community should be fully accounted for and be taken into consideration. Wanting to know what they think or what they want to have done is presenting an openness and willingness to listen but assumes also that something is wanting to be done with those ideas.  Wanting to listen  to the ideas of the population and being prepared to react according those reactions it creates the most democratic system when everybody can have his or her say without any negative or adverse effects.

A way to bring out your voice to the government

Everybody should be able to give their own opinion.  The administration which gives that possibilities at her population must be supported in her initiatives of openness.

In the United States of America everywhere the 44th President President Obama goes, he gets the same message: Americans just want folks in Washington to work together to build an economy that works for the middle class, not just the wealthiest – and is based on rewarding responsibility, hard work and fairness.

That’s why the President has proposed the American Jobs Act, a set of bold but common-sense measures that will put up to 2 million Americans back to work and more money in the pockets of working Americans. In it the President’s plan will cut in half the taxes paid by businesses on their first $5 million in payroll, targeting the benefit to the 98 percent of firms that have payroll below this threshold. Eliminating payroll taxes for firms that increase their payroll by adding new workers or increasing the wages of their current worker (the benefit is capped at the first $50 million in payroll increases) should give more opportunities to get more people back at work. As part of an extension of unemployment insurance to prevent 5 million Americans looking for work from losing their benefits, the President’s plan includes innovative work-based reforms to prevent layoffs and give states greater flexibility to use UI funds to best support job-seekers including work-sharing and innovative entrepreneurship and wage insurance programs.
The American Jobs Act of 2011 puts more money in the pockets of working and middle class Americans by cutting in half the payroll tax that comes out of the paycheck of every worker, saving typical families an average of $1,500 a year. Also it shall put more people back to work, including teachers laid off by State budget cuts, first responders and veterans coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan, and construction workers repairing crumbling bridges, roads and more than 35,000 schools, with projects chosen by need and impact, not earmarks and politics. It will repair and refurbish hundreds of thousands of foreclosed homes and businesses in communities across the country.

To ensure that the American Jobs Act is fully paid for, the President will call on the Joint Committee to come up with additional deficit reduction necessary to pay for the Act and still meet its deficit target. Unfortunately, Republicans in Congress keep blocking this bipartisan proposal, putting their party before their country.

The American people understand that the economic crisis and the deep recession weren’t created overnight and won’t be solved overnight, but they can’t wait for Congress to act. Therefore President Obama is moving ahead with executive actions to strengthen the economy, help middle class families and move his country which belongs to many ethnic groups and people from all sorts with and without jobs, healthy but also unhealthy, forward.
The economic security of the middle class has been under attack for decades, but the last few years they got to face really hardship times. That’s why President Obama believes the country need to do more than just recover from this economic crisis – they need to rebuild the economy the American way, based on balance, fairness, and the same set of rules for everyone from Wall Street to Main Street.

As should also happen in Belgium, we should come to an attitude were we can work together to create the jobs of the future by helping small business entrepreneurs, by investing in education, and by making things the world buys. The President understands that to restore an American economy that’s built to last we cannot afford to outsource local jobs and encourage reckless financial deals that put middle class security at risk. It does not go up that the financial market can rule the country and take the savers and small earners hostage.

We can not wait longer and should be moving now. The purpose of the American Jobs Act of 2011 is simple: put more people back to work and put more money in the pockets of working Americans. And it will do so without adding a dime to the deficit.

The legislation includes specific offsets to close corporate tax loopholes and asks the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share that more than cover the cost of the jobs measures. The legislation also increases the deficit reduction target for the Joint Committee by the amount of the cost of the jobs package and specifies that, if the Committee reaches that higher target, then their measures would replace and turn off the specific offsets in this legislation.

Last week Barack Obama was in Nevada to discuss concrete steps they’re taking, like removing caps for deeply underwater borrowers and eliminating fees, so that homeowners can refinance their mortgages and save money. He also announced new initiatives that will help put veterans to work in community health centres. And he’s proposing to offer immediate relief to college students by making it easier to manage their debt while they get on their feet.

These policies aren’t a substitute for the American Jobs Act, but they will make a difference.
The best ideas for growing this economy won’t come from Washington – they’ll come from Americans. and Barack Obama wants to hear their voice heard in the government.

More than 750,000 people have already used a new feature on WhiteHouse.gov called We the People to create and sign petitions calling on the Obama Administration to take action on a range of important issues. Learn more about We the People here:

The President’s changes to the student loan program will make it easier for graduates to make their payments and avoid default.

It’s also a great example of We the People at work.

In the past month, thousands of citizens signed a petition about student loans. These individuals rightly pointed out that the weight of this debt is preventing graduates all over the country from achieving their dreams.

Barack Obama - Black & White Caricature - Image by DonkeyHotey via Flickr

It’s a message received loud and clear and one that President Obama – who spent almost a decade paying off his own student loans – understands. Also as a community organizer in Chicago, before earning his law degree, he became confronted with many situation which today needs the attention of the government. One of those was his struggles as a young adult to reconcile social perceptions of his multiracial heritage. Having used some drugs himself and having seen the damage it has done to many he has his ideas how to fight it and make those users back into productive individuals. Now he does not have to “push questions of who I was out of my mind.” any-more, but has to get the derailed back on track. At the 2008 Civil Forum on the Presidency, Obama identified his high-school drug use as a great moral failure. (Hornick, Ed (August 17, 2008). “Obama, McCain talk issues at pastor’s forum”. CNN.com. Retrieved January 4, 2009.) As director of the Developing Communities Project (DCP), a church-based community organization originally comprising eight Catholic parishes in Greater Roseland (Roseland, West Pullman and Riverdale) on Chicago’s far South Side he had as a community organizer from June 1985 to May 1988 enough time to see a lot of problems and to find enough solutions, also as consultant and instructor for the Gamaliel Foundation, a community organizing institute working throughout the Midwest.
From 1994 to 2002, Obama served on the boards of directors of the Woods Fund of Chicago, which in 1985 had been the first foundation to fund the Developing Communities Project; and of the Joyce Foundation. (Chassie, Karen (ed.) (2007). Who’s Who in America, 2008. New Providence, N.J.: Marquis Who’s Who. p. 3468.)

As president, Obama signed economic stimulus legislation in the form of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009 and the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act in 2010. Other domestic policy initiatives include the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act and the Budget Control Act of 2011.

A new report shows that the American investments in student financial aid have made a big difference for families, but too many students still struggle with debt. The President announced clear actions to help young people who are doing everything right and living up to their responsibilities, but having a hard time making loan payments while the economy continues to recover.

Barack Obama signing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act at the White House

The sick have to be taken care in the financial system as well. Barack Obama in 2009 signed the reauthorization of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to cover an additional 4 million children currently uninsured and as such took care of the protection of the weaker ones. On July 14, 2009, House Democratic leaders introduced a 1,017-page plan for overhauling the U.S. health care system, which Obama wanted Congress to approve by the end of 2009. After much public debate during the Congressional summer recess of 2009, Obama delivered a speech to a joint session of Congress on September 9 where he addressed concerns over his administration’s proposals but he had to face this abominable deadly terror for communism which is baked into the American soul.

For the unemployed (peaking  in October 2009 at 10.1%) could decrease but lots of people in smaller cities or in the auto-mobile industry came into very difficult living conditions and the economic outlook for many has become unusually uncertain. Although an April 2010 survey of members of the National Association for Business Economics showed an increase in job creation (over a similar January survey) for the first time in two years, 73% of the 68 respondents believed that the stimulus bill has had no impact on employment.

But he did not only think of the weaker or non able to speak humans. Nature had to get a voice as well. On September 30, 2009, the Obama administration proposed new regulations on power plants, factories and oil refineries in an attempt to limit greenhouse gas emissions and to curb global warming. Obama promised that by 2015, the United States would have 1 million electric vehicles on the road and by 2035, clean-energy sources would be providing 80 percent of U.S. electricity.

So what else do you have? What’s the next issue you think needs attention?  Make sure your voice is heard in our government:

http://www.WhiteHouse.gov/YourIdeas

They can’t wait to see what you have to say.

Please visit The Whitehouse

+

Please do find:

• The full Job Act: Whitehouse governement Legislative reports: American-jobs-act.pdf
• The White House Fact Sheet: The American Jobs Act
• The White House Blog: Weekly Address: We Can’t Wait to Create Jobs (Video) Transcript | Download mp4 | Download mp3
• American Jobs Act By the Numbers: $1.1 Billion
• 
• The Whitehouse interactive map shows how the American Jobs Act will help the several states. > interactive state-by-state map
• The White House Blog: The American Jobs Act by the Numbers: 1,500
  Following the Senate vote on jobs for teachers and first responders, President Obama made clear that blocking action on getting Americans back to work is unacceptable.
  President Obama intends to keep working with Congress to bring up the American Jobs Act piece by piece.

++

Related articles

• Benefits of American Jobs Act of 2011 detailed in new Schools.com series (prweb.com)
  “The American Jobs Act could potentially give thousands of students all across the country the opportunity to get the most out of 21st century technologies,” said Seth Restaino, Schools.com spokesperson. “Additionally, students are learning in a safe and healthy environment, which is important for not only their well-being, but to minimize distractions as well.”
• Americans Favor Obama Jobs Plan by 45% to 32% (Gallup)
  While fewer than half of all Americans favor passage of a jobs bill similar to Obama’s, a solid majority of Americans who are following news of the bill very closely, 57%, want to see it passed.
  +
  Democrats’ support is more widespread than Republicans’ opposition. This — combined with independents’ greater likelihood to favor than to oppose the bill — results in the overall 45% to 32% tilt in support among all Americans.
  +
  Republican leaders have already objected to many parts of the bill, and 6 in 10 rank-and-file Republicans across the country say they would want their member of Congress to vote against the bill. But 4 in 10 Republicans either don’t have an opinion on the bill or say they favor it, and this, combined with the plurality support from independents and the strong support among Democrats, gives the bill its overall positive footing.
• GOP strategy: Root for failure (politico.com)
  President Barack Obama is offering middle-class Americans sensible bipartisan solutions to help get the economy moving again, as the Republican presidential field continues pandering to the most extreme elements of its party in the important early primary and caucus states.

• John Kline: Obama student loan plan a ‘mistake’ (politico.com)
  The chairman of the House Education Committee says President Barack Obama’s use of executive authority to ease student loan debt is “a mistake” and just one of many examples of the administration “bypassing Congress.”

• Social Security appears on deficit panel agenda (politico.com)
  In private conversations, and now in public, the idea of changing the social program as part of a deficit-reduction deal is gaining some traction — a move that has been politically unthinkable for years.

• Mayors for #theAmericanJOBsACT (ynative77.wordpress.com)
  “Arizona has been hit—one of the two or three hardest states—in Phoenix in
  particular—with housing, lack of conventions, tourism, lack of jobs,” Gordon
  explains.  “It’s time to stop talking about it, it’s time to move forward.
  There’s plenty of time for everybody to do politics afterwards. But right now,
  in Phoenix, we have a lot of people out of work. We have a lot of children that
  are now homeless with their moms and dads that shouldn’t be.”
  +
  There’s a real sense of urgency right now. A lot of people have been out of
  work for a long period of time. Their savings are gone or practically gone. So
  they see where they thought they were going to be fitting in the American dream,
  and saying, “that may not happen to me anymore right now.” And so there’s this
  feeling of hopelessness that we’ve got to address, we can’t wait until the next
  election cycle. This is something the American people need today.
• American Jobs Act by the Numbers: $7.25 Trillion (whitehouse.gov)
  Nearly 11 million Americans are underwater on their mortgage, meaning they owe more to the bank than their homes are worth. In fact, homeowners have lost $7 trillion in home equity–the difference between the actual value of a home and the balance of what’s owed on the mortgage–since the peak of the housing bubble in 2005. This loss in home equity is devastating for a family’s financial security, and makes it more difficult to take out other loans, save for a bigger house, or build a nest egg for retirement. It also means families are making payments that are higher than they would be if their mortgage was based on the actual current value of their home, giving them fewer dollars to spend on other economy-bolstering goods and services.
• American Jobs Act by the Numbers: $7 Trillion (whitehouse.gov)
• Tea Time for the Occupation (abcnews.go.com)
  Increasingly, the United States is a place of less social mobility. If as a society we persist in continuing to favor the wealthiest Americans at the expense of the middle class, America as we know and love it will be no more. Like a river that’s been dammed up, legislative obstruction thwarts natural mobility. The Obama administration has tried to ease the burdens that a toxic economy has created for middle-class consumers, and Congress has blocked him at every juncture.
• Zig Zag Principle Offers Better Prescription for Ailing US Economy Than President Obama’s American Jobs Act (prweb.com)
  “There’s only one way we’re going to recover from this economic disaster, and it comes on the backs of American entrepreneurs,” Christiansen said. “Entrepreneurs have the most profound impact on jobs. But when the government starts influencing jobs, you get jobs that are not sustainable.”
• U.S. President Barack Obama „We Can’t Wait ” The White House (helmutzermin.wordpress.com)
  U.S. President Obama acted to dramatically reduce the time it takes for small businesses to get paid when they have a contract with the federal government, and eliminated regulations that will save hospitals and patients billions of dollars.
• Obama’s Plan to Bail Out the Middle Class (distance-education.org)
  The American Dream might not be dead yet—but it’s not feeling so hot.
  +
  Middle Class has slowly been squeezed out of that dream. According to the Economic Policy Institute’s most recent study, the top 1% of Americans made over 55% of the country’s wealth—and the bottom 90% made about 15% of that wealth. It’s clear that most Americans aren’t benefiting greatly with economic improvements, although they sure are being hit hard by the downturns. Many middle-class and even upper-middle class families today face rising health care costs, rising tuition, crippling student debt, unemployment, and mortgages they can no longer afford to pay.
• President Obama Provides a path to Refinance Student Loans and Gets His Groove Back.(wcntransmedia.wordpress.com)a video explaining how these changes will help Americans. Watch it to learn a little more about what today’s steps would do, and then make sure everyone you know who should hear about it does.
• Obama Campaign: President Changes Student Loan Program (gloucestercitynews.net)
  President Obama isn’t waiting on Congress to take action. He’s doing everything in his power, right now, to help bolster our economy and get folks back on their feet.
• Obama Announces Help For Student Loan Debtors (businesslawdaily.net)
  The option, available beginning in January, will allow participants to receive a 0.5 percentage point cut in the interest rate on some of their student loans. Approximately 5.8 million borrowers currently have both a Direct Loan (DL) and a Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) that require separate payments, making them more likely to default, the White House said.
• House Education chairman blasts Obama’s student loan program (thehill.com)
  The senior Republican on the House Education and Labor Committee is ramping up pressure on the White House to explain how it intends to pay for its student loan program, saying it will “leave the taxpayer holding the bag.”
• USW Supports U.S. Rep. Rahall Buy America Bill Called the ‘Invest in American Jobs Act of 2011’ (prnewswire.com)

Speaking on “Fox and Friends” Monday, Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.) criticized the president for bypassing Congress with an executive order and said his committee is still unsure what the program does or how it will be paid for.

• Occupy Church Manifesto #2 (pastorofdisaster.wordpress.com)
  If the church does not take seriously the sociological changes of the new generation they will simply be left as relics of a bygone day.
• In The Name Of The Republic (ramblingrhetoric.wordpress.com)
  In a direct democracy the people make decisions by collectively voting on proposals, as a opposed to a representative democracy where the people elected representatives to make decision for their constituents. While our politicians do not explicitly debate it in this manner, we have one party that consistently wants to put every proposal possible on the ballot and another that is content with voting being restricted to the election of representatives.
• Dems increasingly call it a ‘Republican Congress’ (thehill.com)
  Obama and his allies have started to deploy the phrase “Republican Congress” in what some experts see as a clear attempt to gain a political advantage.
  +
  Political scientists have said that Obama is using a game plan similar to that used by Presidents Truman and Clinton. Both won their reelection by railing about Congress. The difference, however, is that both chambers in 1948 and 1996 were controlled by Republicans.
  +
  “I think the Republican takeover of the House has clearly made John Boehner and [House Majority Leader] Eric Cantor [R-Va.] the face of Congress, and they have done everything to set themselves up as the foil to the president and Democrats in Congress,” said David Di Martino, a former Senate Democratic aide.