Friday, May 13, 2016

Perspective: Voters' Priorities Versus Senators' Priorities


 
If you wonder why the voters of both Political Parties are so upset with the Political Establishment as well as the Media this year, it is because both are completely out of touch with the Voters’ priorities, and the Voters know it.

 

The Voters’ priorities have been determined in poll after poll, and our Senators’ priorities can be found on line at govtrack.us.  We averaged eight polls of Voter priorities taken in 2015 and compared them with the priorities of eight democrat Senators and eight republican Senators which can be seen on the chart below.

 

The data confirm that the major goals of the United States Senators do not line up with the top priorities of the Voters. For example, the Senators’ priority for the economy, which means jobs, is only a quarter to half as important as the Voters’. On terror and healthcare, the Senators’ ratings are significantly lower than the Voters’.  On immigration, which also relates to jobs, the Senators barely acknowledge it. By contrast, it is interesting to note that as important as upgrading our infrastructure is claimed to be by the established Media and Political Parties, it not even mentioned in the top priorities of the Voters.

 

Also note that the Senators’ have substantially more low priority items in the All Other category, than the Voters. Among these low priority items are examples such as:  Global Hunger, Reduction of Heroin Addiction, and the potential Zita plague.

 

Because the Media and the Politicians really do not talk to the typical working class Voter, and we guess they do not study the polls, it is no wonder they are clueless about the Voters’ plight. What is worse, they don’t seem to care! That is why the Voters are so disgusted with the establishment and why they are expressing their dislike by turning out in record numbers to attend rallies and to vote for Donald Trump, on the Republican side and Bernie Sanders on the Democrat side.

 

                VOTER PRIORITIES VERSUS  US SENATORS

 
 
 
 
    Average of
    Average of
 
 
 
 
Eight Republican
Eight Democrat
Average of Eight Polls of Voters
Senators’ Priorities
Senators’ Priorities
 
 
 Percent
 
        Percent
        Percent
Economy
 
35
 
18
 
9
 
Terrorism
 
13
 
8
 
9
 
Health Care
 
12
 
8
 
9
 
Immigration
 
7
 
0
 
2
 
Tax Policy
 
4
 
14
 
8
 
Energy Issues
 
2
 
8
 
8
 
Education
 
1
 
4
 
5
 
Infrastructure
 
0
 
6
 
5
 
Sub-total                     
74
 
66
 
55
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
All Other
 
26
 
34
 
45
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Total
 
100
 
100
 
100
 

 

While the Politicians make flowery comments that something needs to be done about protecting jobs and decent pay, they seem to be oblivious of the fact that laws have been on the books for ages about protecting jobs from foreign competition and undocumented immigrants being hired illegally and providing equal pay for women. What is that all about?

 

Foreign Competition: law passed in 1897

Anti-dumping laws have been on the books, and the Secretary of Commerce can place countervailing duties (tariffs) upon items being dumped until the foreign competitor corrects the situation. Dumping means that foreign competitors are deliberately pricing their goods at a level where is impossible for US manufacturing to compete. Foreign competitors can manipulate their currency or they can deliberately sell below their full book cost. Many US jobs have been lost to foreign manufacture due to such illegal practices.

 

Illegal Immigrant Workers: law passed in 1986

Businesses that employ immigrant workers who do not have the appropriate documentation are subject to penalties including criminal prosecution. Quite often employers are getting away with illegally paying less to undocumented immigrants.

 

Unequal Pay for Women: law passed in 1963

Since 1963 it has been illegal for businesses to pay women less than men for similar work, hours per shift or similar responsibility with these exceptions: seniority, merit or where quantity and quality of production is involved.

 

Maybe our elite and blasé political class cannot read, or maybe paraphrasing what Rhett told Scarlet in Gone With the Wind,   Frankly, Voters we don’t give a damn!

 

WHAT  SHOULD THE POLITICANS BE WORKING ON

In addition to seeing that the laws on the books are properly followed, and based on the polling data of the Voter’s priorities, the Senators should be focusing on two broad categories:

  • Creation of living wage jobs
    • Encourage growth of the US economy
    • Health care that does not penalize business, and impede employment
    • Protection against Illegal immigrants and their taking of working class jobs
    • Tax policy that is globally competitive that does not penalize start-up and small business
    • Development of low cost energy by exploiting environmentally safe fracking
    • Education suitable for digital age workers
  • Protection of US citizens from radical Islamic terrorist attacks on US soil
  • Infrastructure

 

While infrastructure is not a priority of the Voters, a proper infrastructure program could play a major role in creating jobs for the unemployed who have lost their jobs to foreign or robotic competition and who lack the skills required for current living wage jobs. These displaced workers are probably on some government assistance right now.

 

We need a program similar to the Work Progress Authority (WPA) of the Great Depression. It should be a government and private industry partnersip to put these people to work improving our existing infrastructure of roads, bridges, railroads and airports as well as creating a new environmental infrastructure to capitalize on our huge supply of natural gas. Compressed natural gas (CNG) can replace petroleum as a fuel for the entire fleet of internal combustion engines, and by replacing petroleum, it can cut the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by at least 50%. You see, methane is a hydrogen rich fuel which when combusted produces two molecules of water and only one molecule of CO2.

 

Complete conversion of internal combustion engine fuel from petroleum to natural gas will require adding CNG tanks to millions of vehicles as well as the vast array of refueling stations spread across the Nation. Fortunately the work requires low skills which means that the unemployed worker pool will need virtually no training.

 

Pay for both types of infrastructure can come from funds the government currently provides the unemployed worker combined with funds private industry can provide to do the work. The sum of the two should equal $15 per hour as a minimum.

 

It will take at least a decade to complete both infrastructure programs which will provide the time needed for the work force to obtain the skills required for the new digital age.

 

In summary, the Voters are disgusted and fed up with the establishment of both political parties which have ignored the plight of the Middle Class for the past 30-40 years.  Worse the President’s and the politicians’ to prosecute  dumpers, and employers who hire undocumented immigrants and employers who pay women less than men for the equivalent job, is a dereliction of duty. Moreover, the fact that they are not insisting that existing laws be prosecuted has exacerbated the broad problem of below living wages for the workers.

 

The voters are also fed up with the lack of interest of what should be a watch-dog Media and their failure to hold the political establishment accountable. Truth be told, the Voters probably feel the Media is in cahoots with the political establishment.

 

We are witnessing something in the political arena that none of us alive today has ever seen, namely, WE THE PEOPLE are speaking out by going to the voting booth to express their frustration  with the political establishment, and they are willing to stand in line for hours to perform this act.

 

If the political establishment fails to listen to WE THE PEOPLE this time, they do so at their peril.