Remembering The Forgotten Americans

As your Senate representative to DC, I will 100% remember the FORGOTTEN AMERICANS; Not by throwing taxpayer monies at problems, but by legislation that will facilitate and promote pathways to restore them to their rightful place as sovereign members of society:

In my own career experience, I have witnessed declining opportunities and wages due to a multitude of factors.  Some necessary, some self-inflicted and the rest taken not by gunpoint, but one piece of legislation at a time, one seemingly meaningless  rule at a time.

One such necessary factor was the deregulation of the airline industry.  This happened a few years prior to my entering the aviation field, but while still in college, the impact was acutely being felt by new entrants in aircraft maintenance and ramp workers via 2-tier wages.  Older employees kept their hefty “A-tier” compensation packages while new “B-tier” employees received a less generous package.  Nonetheless, it did open up airline travel to the masses with varying degrees of success.  Some airlines did not survive deregulation, to whit Braniff, Pan-Am and TWA among others.  An indirect consequence of the drive to reduce costs is that quality control and safety gets short shrift.  While this problem cannot be blamed on deregulation, it does amplify the problem.

An example of self-inflicted causes would be the unions unwilling to be reasonable, greedy some would say, in their negotiations with manufacturers.  This caused the big 3 auto manufacturers to reduce costs by offshoring an ever increasing share of their production.  I was born in Detroit and for the last phase of my childhood grew up in Flint, Michigan. Yes, that same City of Flint with the recent water quality problem.  It breaks my heart when last visited to see both cities blighted by the exit of factories and loss of good paying jobs.

But more insidious are the regulations and tax policies, often at the behest of Wall Street and the Central Bank, which cumulatively drove manufacturing out of our country.  In 1991, Ross Perot warned us that with passage of NAFTA, there would be a huge sucking sound as factories fled to Mexico and beyond.  Meanwhile, economists sang praises of the coming “services” industries that would take the place of factories.  They neglected to tell us that with “Services”, there would come a decline in wages and standards of living.

Then came the vicious downward spiral, where semi-skilled workers, lacking manufacturing jobs struggle to earn a “living wage” doing jobs that should only be for teenagers and senior citizens looking to supplement their social security working at fast food restaurants. Then having sent good jobs abroad, the politicians’ solution to this ‘crisis’ is to raise minimum wages.  And around and around goes the economic nonsense.

Every community across Iowa and America has its own unique tale of woe as a result of globalization, unfair trade practices and outsourced labor.  While globalization is here to stay, it does not mean that we cannot compete effectively while putting America first – they are not mutually exclusive.  Instead of catering to Wall Street’s every greedy whim, our legislation must put America First by protecting the needs of Main Street.

As an industry, perhaps no one is as abused as farmers and ranchers.  You may recall the story of rancher Cliven Bunch, a few years ago when federal agents faced off with him and his friends.  Or when the EPA harasses them over water–recall that Obama redefined ditches, tank ponds as part of the “navigable waters”.  Thanks to China Joe Biden, OSHA is now getting into the act, not only on the mandatory vaxx, but how farmers work.

But it doesn’t end there, even domestic policies are deliberately destroying opportunities, security and the wealth of the forgotten Americans.  A case in point, our Veterans. 

Did you know that regulations prevent a soldier from applying for and taking a job in the government sector immediately upon leaving service?  What good are the +5 or +10 (for the disabled) Veterans preference points, if one must wait 6 months after separation?  It’s rather hypocritical of politicians who automatically say to a Vet, “Thank you for your service”; show it, don’t say it.  Yet they are responsible for inane rules, because they wouldn’t want a Vet to benefit from “corruption/nepotism/insider advantage”, while they enrich themselves from insider knowledge.

Equally outrageous, our politicians have no problem converting our military bases into housing for illegal aliens, yet relegate an estimated 40,000 Vets to be homeless, living on the streets.  This is not the thanks they deserve for answering the call to serve!  There is no reason that the homeless Vets cannot be rehabilitated by temporarily housing them on bases, in proximity to VA clinics and proactively cooperating to restore and reintegrate these forgotten Vets as productive members of society.  And for too long, the VA has not been held accountable for the well-being and health of our Vets.

The above is but a short list in the long train of abuses heaped upon us by our so-called betters.  They call themselves “our leaders”, obfuscating their true role as our representatives.  More egregiously, how can they claim to “lead” when most of them have never followed?  This is no different than their incessant referral to America as a democracy instead of what we really are, a Constitutional Republic!  Either they are craven liars or they really don’t know any better. Neither option is good for Constitutional governance.