UNEMPLOYED POOR AND WORKING POOR

Recent  comments by various Republicans (e.g. Mitt Romney) expressing concern about the poor and some of the middle class would be heartening if true.  But of course this is just talk with no intention of doing anything about it.  What next?  Perhaps they will suddenly discover the merits of raising taxes on the wealthy?  But Republicans in general feel the poor are poor because they are lazy and that working Americans are overpaid.  Their solution for the poor is to cut benefits (like food stamps) so that they will be induced to find work.  And do you really think the Republicans will do something about off-shoring and automation of industry and other businesses that are holding back the wages of the American workers?  And then there are jobs that cannot be automated or off-shored which are simply passed on to the consumer to do (e.g pumping gas and washing windshields, etc.).*  If you think the Republicans really will do something to help the working Americans, I've got the "proverbial bridge" to sell you.  It is also true that Democrats do not know how to overcome the loss of jobs from off-shoring and automation though some jobs are becoming re-shored, though at an average of 23% lower pay.

The construction industry was decimated in the Great Recession, and it would have been a good time to do infrastructure improvements at minimum cost, as Democrats wanted to do, that would have benefited the entire nation and also provide construction workers with income.  Now the construction industry has recovered and infrastructure projects will be more expensive.  Republicans even refused to vote on the Senate illegal immigrant bill which would not only have provided thousands of construction jobs during the recovery to finish the double fence but also would have added 19,000 new Civil Service positions as well to shore up security at the border.  In contrast, Republicans countered with the Keystone XL pipeline as a jobs issue.  I am for the Keystone XL pipeline, but for environmental reasons, and it would have provided only a few 10s of permanent jobs though it would have provided perhaps an equivalent number of construction jobs as the Senate border security bill.

The lack of interest in modern-day Republicans to raising the minimum wage (many want to do away with the minimum wage all together), is telling.  If you can't do away with the minimum wage, at least let it be eroded through inflation, they feel.  And of course, they are for doing away with unions, the only recourse American workers have to facing the monopolies.  President Reagan's breaking of the air traffic controllers union was one of his main claims to fame.  His major liberal act was to make hospitals with emergency rooms take all comers regardless of their ability to pay, but, of course, he left it up to hospitals to find a way to pay for this.  The main attraction in Gov. Walker of Wisconsin, as a Republican presidential nominee, was his breaking of the state government workers unions, and he broke the unions to pay for the deficit he caused by lowering taxes on industry. (excerpt from a Wikipedia item follows):**

In January 2011, the state legislature passed a series of bills providing additional tax cuts and deductions for businesses at “a two-year cost of $67 million.”^[30] In early February, the Walker administration projected a budget shortfall in 2013 (Wisconsin functions on two-year budgets) of $3.6 billion^[31] and a $137 million shortfall for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2011.^[32][33] The Walker-backed bill proposed to alleviate the budget shortfall included taking away the ability of public sector unions to bargain collectively over pensions and health care and limiting pay raises of public employees to the rate of inflation, as well as ending automatic union dues collection by the state and requiring public unions to recertify annually.^[34][35] The bargaining changes exempted the unions of public safety officers, including police, firefighters, and state troopers.^[36] Walker stated that without the cuts thousands of state workers would have to be laid off.^[37]

The protests and demonstrations began following Walker's introduction of Assembly Bill 11^[38][39] to the Wisconsin State Assembly on February 14, 2011.

It would be nice to think that there are some Republicans concerned about the poor; however, when push comes to shove, they vote the party line, and, if it looks like they won't, then the bill is not brought up in the House (e.g., the Senate Immigration Bill).   I really don't understand the position of the Evangelical Christians concerning the poor as Jesus spoke about helping the poor all the time according to the scriptures.

* http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2015/01/more-on-plight-of-american-workers.html

** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Wisconsin_protests