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Monday, September 08, 2008
The Poverty Problem
Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
Guest article by David Krikorian – Candidate for US Representative. Ohio Second District
Poverty is affecting more Americans every day and the second congressional district unfortunately exemplifies this alarming trend. There is growing division in our country as the middle class shrinks and our population separates into the haves and the have-nots. Good jobs are hard to find while wages are not keeping up with living costs as the price of food and gasoline have risen sharply and health care costs are driving people into bankruptcy. Unfortunately these trends are getting worse and there seems to be little in the way of effective national leadership on these issues.
Three counties in the second district, Scioto, Adams and Pike rate among the poorest in Ohio. By far, it is the lack of quality employment in these and other areas that is the main driver of poverty. Throughout the campaign, people have continuously expressed to me their concerns about the lack of job opportunities and the high cost of food and gasoline. The elderly are particularly vulnerable to rising inflation because their incomes are fixed while their costs are rising
I see it in my district in cities like Ripley, Waverly, Georgetown and Portsmouth, where hardworking people are struggling with mounting job losses. Many companies are either shutting down or pulling back due to our declining economy or they have left behind American workers in favor of cheap labor overseas. Indeed, outsourcing has eroded the employer-employee trust that used to exist in the marketplace. We must reconsider our blind allegiance to trade agreements like NAFTA and the WTO. While I am in favor of free trade, these agreements benefit only an elite group and frankly are unconstitutional. Of course, we cannot simply shame businesses into staying on American soil and employing American labor. It is our responsibility to provide competitive tax incentives and reduced red tape that give companies practical reasons to stay in America and employ American workers.
American ingenuity is backbone of our nation, and we must call upon this same creative spirit to put Americans back to work. We must develop a comprehensive long-term energy infrastructure program that will simultaneously end reliance on imported energy and put Americans back to work developing and building our Investments in alternative energy sources such as nuclear and geo-thermal technologies could very well provide the manufacturing jobs of tomorrow. Instead of handouts like the stimulus handout packages Congress doled out earlier this year, we should have funded a transportation modernization program that would have created infrastructure jobs to build new roads, bridges, and rail systems strengthening American cities and towns.
As part of my campaign, I have had the opportunity to meet hundreds of small business owners. For most of these men and women, keeping their doors open can be a daily struggle. When I ask them what I can do to help as a member of Congress, the overwhelming majority of business owners tell me the same thing: cut taxes and reduce the red tape that forces small companies to adhere to the same rules as very large companies who have a much bigger say in crafting those rules. During a time of economic crisis, we must give small business owners extra incentive to grow their business and hire more employees. Burdening them with additional taxes increases the probability that they will not grow their businesses and potentially scale back.
Rural Ohioans are struggling as well. With each day, it becomes more expensive for Ohio’s farmers to stay in business because of high input costs. From fuel to fertilizer, the cost of running a farm has risen at a rate making it difficult for farmers to keep pace. The primary reason for this price increase across the board is the falling value of the Dollar. As the value of the dollar decreases, this causes the price of hard assets, like oil and other commodities to rise. The reckless money creation policies of the Federal Reserve for the benefit of Wall Street must stop so that Americans, both rural and urban, can afford to provide for their families.
We must keep taxes low across the board so that the newly employed have enough money to provide for their families and reinvest in the marketplace. The Federal government has grown too large and inefficient and should be reduced in size. Furthermore we must stop sending so much of our money overseas in the form of corporate welfare disguised as foreign aid. The welfare state has grown too large and too wasteful and only makes the situation worse by promoting dependence on the government. The enormous tax revenues that go to fund these institutions would be better spent by letting struggling Americans keep a larger portion of their paychecks.
Fighting poverty and working for a better Educational system are interconnected. Globalization and outsourcing are both realities of our modern world, and education is our greatest tool to combat their negative affects. Under the Bush administration, the United States government poured more money into Education than any other administration, and the results have been abysmal. No Child Left Behind has failed to meet any of the basic objectives for which it was created, and has instead created a more complicated bureaucracy than before. I would be in favor of keeping testing standards but I would vote to reduce the emphasis on penalty. I want to streamline and lessen the bureaucracy that currently exists within the educational system and put the money directly into the hands of the local schools where it can be put to use in the classroom I would continue funding Head Start and Title I because I believe that education is one of the few areas where our tax dollars should be spent. I firmly believe the best way to tackle the root cause of poverty is through education.
When elected, I will consistently vote to reduce taxes, develop energy and transportation infrastructure programs that put Americans to work, stop the ravaging effects of inflation and work to develop an educational system that meets the needs of the American people. Poverty is a complex issue, and no simple answers can replace hard work and compromise on the part of all Americans. I thank you for the opportunity to share some of my views on the subject, and hope that you agree that we are in desperate need of solutions in this country, not politics. For more information on my campaign, please visit our website http://www.krikorianforcongress.com
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