Barack Obama’s campaign bus has had a pretty rough ride recently. Some of the jostling has been caused by a struggling economy, and some is courtesy of an aggressive, newly formed Romney/Ryan Ticket. But a few of those bumps are the result of the president driving that big, heavy vehicle over members of what were once his core constituencies.
Let’s start with senior citizens. Generally a solid Democrat voting bloc, word is now out the ironically named “Affordable Care Act” reduces funds to Medicare and hits Medicare Advantage very hard.
The amount of money cut from the federal program is over $700 billion dollars. Information about the Independent Payment Advisory Board having the power to make “cost saving” changes in Medicare policies without going through Congress first is beginning to filter into the discussion.
Wait until seniors learn that almost all the so called “savings” come at the expense of professionals providing them life sustaining services. Doctors and hospitals are projected to take reductions in their reimbursements. MD’s are scheduled for 30.9% cut in their Medicare payments by 2013. Medicaid could soon be paying more.
Golden-agers are not only getting screwed with their venerable health program they’re getting the short straw with Social Security. When Congress passed, and the president signed, a 2% reduction in the FICA Payroll Tax, they deliberately took desperately needed money from an ever shrinking “Trust Fund”.
Hundreds of billions of dollars has been funneled away from that retirement program and into the pockets of younger voters. This reduction in funds has not been “paid for”. In other words, the money is gone.
Perhaps treated even worse than Democrat, senior citizens, are the party’s most faithful constituency…..African Americans. The latter mentioned can be counted on for at least 90% of their vote, and President Obama got 95%. But, what did that get them?
For openers it got them a presidential change of heart and mind on gay marriage. This particular flip has been a big flop among Black Baptist ministers and many in their congregations.
The outrage was such a group of church leaders publicly and strongly rebuffed Mr. Obama on his new, conveniently discovered, position. Barack’s new friends in entertainment and the media cheered the switchero and, more importantly for him, sent the kind of money those church leaders and their considerable flocks could never match.
Much worse than a change in social policy is the effect Mr. Obama’s economic policies have had on the well-being of African Americans. They’ve suffered the highest rate of unemployment among all the ethnic groups and the numbers of their youth not working is astronomical.
In the midst of this kind of despair what did the president do?
He effectively granted working papers for hundreds of thousands of aliens, previously considered illegal. The distressed job market now can expect an influx of workers, many of whom will be in direct competition with African Americans either trying to hold on to a job or find one.
This “amnesty” will undoubtedly make things even tougher for the struggling black youth.
The trick for President Obama is to keep the people he’s rolled under the bus from feeling the weight of it’s wheels. Perhaps he can find some way to either anesthetize or hypnotize them. What he can’t afford, is to have senior citizens and African Americans gain a complete, objective, understanding of how badly his policies have hurt them. They’d make him a one termer.
