Orwell Is Alive And Well

[kentuck]

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0409-24.htm

<snip>
What Congressman Sanders did find surprising was the Orwellian nature of the testimony from Secretary Gutierrez and the shameless degree to which the Bush Administration is prepared to turn truth on its head. In his prepared opening remarks, Secretary Gutierrez stated that America is experiencing "tremendous economic prosperity." Really? What America is Secretary Gutierrez living in?

Has the Secretary visited with any of the 21.9% of children in America who are living in poverty? Or did he mix us up with Denmark where virtually 100% of children live poverty-free lives.

Has the Secretary visited with any of the 4 million Americans that have entered the poverty ranks since President Bush was first elected, or is he only attending cocktail parties at country clubs with the rich and famous?

Has the Secretary visited with any of the 5 million Americans who have lost their health insurance since President Bush was first elected?

Has the Secretary ever met any of the 3.5 million Americans who will experience homelessness this year including 1.35 million children and 500,000 veterans?

....more

[RPM]

1. and he has set up shop in America...

:scared:

[kentuck]

2. I liked Bernie's response...

"Mr. Chairman, let's look at the facts. Over the past 4 years, poverty has gone up. Today, over 4 million more Americans, 36 million overall, are living in poverty than was the case 4 years ago. Sadly, 21.9 percent of U.S. children live in poverty, only slightly better than Mexico where the childhood poverty rate is 27.9 percent. Mr. Chairman, compare that to Denmark, where only 2.4 percent of children live in poverty.

Today, over five million more Americans do not have health insurance, 45 million in all, than was the case four years ago, and the United States is the only industrialized nation on earth that does not have universal health care.

Over 14 million American families today are paying more than 50 percent of their income on rent. There are now over 20 million Americans with incomes so low that they had to enter the food stamp program in order to feed their families.

Last year, more than 1.6 million American families went bankrupt, up from up from 289,000 in 1980. 90 percent of these bankruptcy filings were the result of a lost job, a medical emergency or a divorce.

Real (inflationary-adjusted) wages have gone down over the past 2 years. The new jobs being created today pay 21 percent less than the jobs that are being lost. In my State of Vermont, those numbers are higher. The new jobs being created pay 29 percent less than the jobs we are losing.

The gap between the rich and poor in the United States more than doubled from 1979 to 2000. Today, the richest 1 percent have more money to spend after taxes than the bottom 40 percent. Meanwhile, millions of workers have not seen any increase in the minimum wage in years.

[AzDar]

3. OMFG!! Can that be CORRECT? 21.9% of American children living

in poverty? We need to take our country back, folks. NOW!!!

[Nikki Stone 1]

4. I had actually heard 25% not long ago, but 21.9 is bad enough

This has been out there for awhile. The 80s and 90s saw a dramatic increase in the amount of children in poverty because real wages went down during this time. It's only going to get worse since the market now seems to be totally divorced from joblessness. We are in a "jobless recovery" which means that Wall Street is making money, but Americans are unemployed, underemployed, and not as mobile employment-wise as before. We will see more of this as more and more middle-class jobs are sent to other countries.