God bless Obama for defending the middle class

April 23, 2012 admin Anti-Regulation, 0

To the editor:

It was with disbelief that I read Harry Hurley’s column this week (“Romney needs to focus on Obamacare”). It is indicative of the continued misinformation that is spread in this election year to try to confuse the middle and working classes into voting for Romney against their own interest.

He said, “Anyone being honest has to acknowledge almost every measurable statistic is worse now than when Obama took office.”

How disingenuous. Informed Americans know that Obama took office as the economic disaster created by the Bush administration’s policies was in free fall. They remember things like not having the guts to ask us to pay for the Iraq and Afghan wars – just cutting taxes, and creating the Medicare Part D prescription program (a good idea, but again he did not have the guts to ask for a tax increase to pay for it). They also remember an anti-regulation attitude that resulted in the housing collapse and destroyed the economy, which was still getting worse when Obama took office.

So it is not honest to start counting from the day Obama took office.

But since the bottom, the policies of the Obama administration have had an excellent record of job creation, brought back the American auto industry, and even the stock market is back strong and getting stronger.

So please, spare me the attempt at discounting the Obama success. It is just not true. Those of us in the middle class who can see through this right wing gobbledygook will not buy it.

He says that his man Romney should focus on “Obamacare” because it is already a “disaster” and the individual mandate, which he calls a “blatant” violation of the U.S Constitution. He also says that the Obama agenda is “pure European-style socialism.”

The single biggest risk to the financial security of middle class Americans is getting a serious illness or in a serious accident, without health insurance. This can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and bankrupt the average citizen very quickly – probably ruining the rest of their life. Not to mention that our current system, allows insurance companies to deny or drop you when you most need health care.

Finally, through so called “Obamacare” we can no longer be denied or dropped. This takes off the table forever the worry of going broke because of lost insurance. All other industrialized countries have done this and we must do it, too. It is not only moral, but cost effective. Also the individual mandate is a Republican idea, so we can at least thank Mr. Romney for doing the right thing in Massachusetts. (We can move there if we lose our insurance).

As to the idea of a European-style “disaster,” Mr. Hurley should look at the debt and unemployment rates of Germany, France, and Scandinavia vs. the United States. They have high taxes, but low unemployment and debt, and an excellent quality of life for the middle class. It is only countries like Greece and Italy, which did not raise taxes enough to cover this improved quality of life, where there are debt problems. These countries mismanaged their budgets just as the Bush administration did. Their problems are because of mismanagement, not the “dreaded socialism” scare words so often invoked by ideologues like Mr. Hurley.

Gob bless the president for having the guts and commitment to do the things that most benefit the middle class.

Jim Souder

Mays Landing

Anti-Regulation

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