Tea Party to blame for bad deal

"The budget deficit is not the biggest obstacle to our prosperity. Lack of jobs and growth is. And the largest threat to our democracy is the emergence of a radical right capable of getting most of the ransom it demands."

– Robert Reich (Click here to read his entire blog posting)

I can't say it any better than Robert Reich stated in his blog today. We went from one crisis – the debt ceiling debate – to another much more disturbing and potentially prolonged reality. Without smart investments, a fair tax code and visionaries instead of obstructionists in Washington, I don't see how America will move forward culturally, economically or educationally. The Tea Party, and those who back it, are blinded by a single issue in which they see no gray areas or alternative solutions. And, for now, they have won.

The Tea Party pridefully doesn't listen to experts like Mr. Reich. They cling to the idea of there being simple answers to complex problems. In fact, any kind of facts, scientific proof or sense of economic reality totally escapes these extremists on the right, who truly seem averse to educating themselves about subjects that require an open mind and a little bit of studying. (See Sarah Palin's dumbest quotes.) They took a nugget of truth – Washington needs to manage its money better – and turned it into a movement that honors some of the least-capable politicians to have ever been elected to state or national offices. These people, with the help of ratings-hungry conservative talk-show hosts, fueled this current, self-inflicted crisis and drove somewhat responsible politicians to a "solution" that does little or nothing to inspire true growth and confidence in America. The only positive thing this deal does is to avoid a sure overnight catastrophe.

Whether the debt ceiling/deficit reducing deal passes the House and Senate is almost moot now. Jobs aren't going to come back as a result of this pending deal, which is exactly what Republicans wanted in order to insure that Obama does not get re-elected in 2012. Remember, the main goal stated by these current Republicans isn't jobs or the economy. It is making Obama a one-term president. No one who goes into a voting booth should ever lose sight of the fact that when the country was down, and people were out of work, the Republicans chose to prolong the agony of many Americans in favor of playing politics. That is a fact – stated on the record in 2010 by top-ranking Republicans – not my opinion.

There is no compromise or country-first angle in this debt ceiling deal. This is a Tea Party-driven pact with budget cuts that will surely hurt the most vulnerable Americans. When it fails, and jobs don't return, voters need to remember whose deal this really was and put the blame where it has belonged for the last 10 years -- on the far right, the right that continues to protect the wealthiest individuals and corporations on the planet while asking the rest of us to sacrifice everything from our paychecks to clean water.

Breaking my limited ties to Twitter

I rarely log into my Twitter account. I never liked tweeting. But this morning, before work, I decided to sign on. Much to my surprised, I was hacked, if that is even the right term.

Yup, someone was tweeting rants in my name. And before you start accusing me of going all Anthony Weiner on you, while the rants were not the kind of things I want said in my name, there were no inappropriate pictures or other personal material. Someone just apparently wanted to make a point about a topic that is not worth even mentioning here. And they made it over and over and over again by linking to related topics on the net. Needless to say, I did not share these views.

After deleting several of the rogue tweets, I just decided to leave the Twitter universe -- deleted my account. It's a useless venue for me. I wasn't following many people, nor did I have any interest in what they said 90 percent of time. Just seems like a lot of gloating and trivial content.

I doubt I will miss Twitter. This hacking episode reaffirms my position that while social media does some good, it's mostly a useless hazard that brings down everyone from politicians to regular folks just innocently trying to stay connected. Twitter in particular, even more than Facebook, seems particularly high on risk and low on value.

A voice that does not need silencing

Whether it's because of my Brooklyn bias, sense of historical perspective or political views, I have to say that the calls for Rep. Anthony Weiner's resignation seem premature.

Yes, I know what he did. It was juvenile. Men, especially under the age of 50, do a lot of juvenile things. But put into context with Sen. Ted Kennedy driving off a bridge and causing the death of a woman, or President Clinton's real-life shenanigans in the Oval Office with an intern, Weiner's cyberspace exploits with a handful of strangers seems pretty tame to me. Unsavory, yes, but not the end of the world. Both Kennedy and Clinton went on to serve the country well. I don't see why Weiner can't do the same.

Yeah, Weiner lied. But since when is a politician lying such a crime or surprise? It's what some politicians do to make a living. Frankly, I rather Weiner lie about his personal Twitter romps than mislead the American people about tax cuts for the wealthy somehow creating jobs for you and me. I rather he lie about his inappropriate photos than lie to us about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. That lie cost a lot of lives.

We are all flawed. Some of our flaws and quirks can ruin lives. But to say that Weiner's lies about tweeting women mean that he must not have any credibility related to trying to get help for 9-11 emergency workers, well, that is simply absurd.

Weiner, like Kennedy, is often on the correct side of fairness. He speaks for the underdogs, the working class. He was born in Brooklyn and had to earn his way in life. This New Yorker is not like Donald Trump. While the congressman appears to have a Big Apple ego, it doesn't seem to prevent him from showing empathy for those in need.

According to some polls, Weiner's constituents in New York still support him despite the Twitter scandal. That does not surprise me at all. If you're in a middle or lower class neighborhood in his district that lies in Brooklyn and Queens, you probably aren't too concerned about Weiner's personal life. He hasn't committed any crimes, unlike a few Republican politicians who have been in the headlines recently. What you are concerned about living in those places, however, is whether or not someone is fighting for you in Washington, trying to get you a fair shake in the workplace and bring a better health-care system to people on the fringe.

To me, the real immoral leaders in Washington aren't the ones who occasionally get tripped up by simply being human. The immoral politicians are the ones who don't care about the elderly, the environment or the jobless. They vote to end unemployment benefits and put the economy in further peril by playing political games with the debt ceiling. The politicians who should resign are the ones voting to end Medicare while cutting teaching jobs and lining the pockets of their most wealthy contributors. These are the real creeps. Even if all creepiness were equal, I would always prefer the creep who is doing more good than harm.

Weiner can text and tweet all he wants as far as I am concerned. I'm not married to him, nor do I seek his spiritual advice. As long as his votes are in line with creating a better, more humane society, and he does not break any laws, I don't really care what he does in his personal life. Unlike a lot of right-wing hypocrites who flaunt their own holier-than-thou claims of virtue, Weiner pretty much sticks to the issues of governing when conducting public business. He does it in a flamboyant style, which is in part why this has gotten so much attention. But sometimes it takes a loud voice to drown out the real bullies in Congress. Weiner, like very few others, has that ability and personality to standup to the powerful. He's forceful and articulate. Like many New Yorkers, he's quick on his feet. He's not an intellectual train wreck like Sarah Palin, at least not in public view. He's smart enough to know when he's made a major blunder. Palin, and her army of airhead followers, wear stupidity like a badge of honor. She's a money-making machine whose central focus is herself, not her country or fellow citizens. Everything about her is as phony as her eyelashes. But I digress...

Do I wish Weiner would not have done what he did? Of course. I also wish Mickey Mantle wasn't an alcoholic. But Weiner's tweeting, like Mantle's flaws off the baseball field, is not a deal-breaker in my mind. Mantle did not cheat in hitting all those home runs. And Weiner, at least as far as we know as of this writing, did not neglect his duty to protect and represent his constituents. Can others in Congress truly make the same claim?

Just because someone doesn't get caught behaving badly doesn't mean they aren't doing something personally offensive to someone. And even if they are as pure as the driven snow, that alone doesn't make them fit for representing me, you or anyone else. We have to start judging political leaders by their votes, legislation they introduce and intelligence. We have too many problems and too few visionaries willing to stand up for common decency and logic. Weeding out people because of some trivial and personal matter isn't good for the political process.

Read another opinion on the Weiner saga.

End times? Not what I expected

The world didn't end yesterday, but my and my wife's little corner of the planet was certainly rocked with a trip to the emergency room -- coincidentally, right about the time we were all suppose to be feeling the doomsday earthquakes. We're not out of the woods yet, but hopefully things will work out. Once again the universe is teaching us how fragile human beings are and how we need to manage stress and treasure our loved ones. More details at an appropriate time.

PART TWO (May 26, 2011)

My wife, Ana, experienced a rapid heart beat last Saturday. It lasted for a good part of the morning and into the afternoon. Her visit to the emergency room that evening included various tests. All but one were negative. She had a very high concentration of a specific enzyme that indicates the heart was severely stressed within the last 24 hours, meaning there could possibly be significant damage to the heart muscle. That set off all kinds of alarms in the ER. She was admitted later that night. She is out of the hospital now and has various appointments and tests lined up with a cardiologist. As of today, there does not appear to have been any permanent damage to her heart, nor does it appear that she had a heart attack. We're grateful for that, but the tests will continue as there are some lingering problems.

This racing heart thing isn't new for her, but it's been dismissed in the past by doctors who were baffled by it and concluded it was nothing serious. I believe everyone, including us, figured it had something to do with stress. Each episode usually came about during high-anxiety times but went away within minutes of striking. Then came last Saturday. The racing heart led to breathing problems, dizziness and other troublesome reactions. The stress level of the previous few weeks leading up to that day was off the charts. In hindsight, this attack was not a surprise. As the doctors told us, extreme fatigue and chronic worrying does all kinds of destructive things to the body.

Like most folks, we've had a lot of anxiety for at least three years. A lot of it relates to the toll the recession has taken on our lives. At 50something, the body does not deal with the stress or anxiety in the resilient manner it did at 20something. So if this turns out to be stress related -- and it very well could because Ana is an otherwise very healthy woman -- it will be time to make some internal and external changes in our world, which include distancing ourselves from toxic situations and people, and processing better what we can't filter out. There is good stress and there is bad stress, and right now we have too much of the latter. We bite the bullet in order to survive day to day, but that strategy may have to be altered.

Getting sick is one of the forgotten byproducts of the recession. You mostly read about savings accounts having been depleted, careers being destroyed and homes falling into foreclosure. Unfortunately, all of these things take a toll on the mind and body. So first comes the economic collapse, then comes the physical and personal problems that we are all prone to.

In a way, we are hoping this was caused mostly by stress and that no further invasive procedures or potent medications are necessary. We can rearrange our lives -- make various sacrifices in order to alleviate some of the pressure -- but we can't turn back the clock to better times when her job was manageable and my career helped us save for the future. I would rather deal with the risk and challenge of creating a less pressure-filled life than for either of us to end up on an operating table. We need to change the lens in which we view ourselves and our situation -- control what we can control -- and live more in the moment. And we need to somehow do all of that without putting more pressure on ourselves in a year that has already included Ana being a donor for her leukemia-stricken brother and the sudden death of my daughter's 16-year-old sibling.

Unpredictability of the "end times"

I'm waiting to see if the world is going to end in a few hours.

I went for a jog this morning and am getting my haircut later this afternoon. Besides that, I have no grand plans for this sunny Virginia day other than to check out CNN around 9 p.m. ET. The end is suppose to start with a major earthquake, somewhere around Australia. Hopefully, CNN hasn't been hit too hard by layoffs and still has some competent reporters down under.

You all have heard the latest "end times" story by now. No need for me to repeat the theory or even link to it. You can believe whatever you want, of course. Go about your business or wait in church for the mega earthquakes to erupt. Remember, this is strictly a Christian-based scenario, so all other denominations are exempt as far as I know.

Frankly, I don't think the world is going to end today. Not in the Biblical sense. You see, if there is a God, he probably is going to take us out at our lowest point, when we just become hopeless morons roaming a planet that we thoroughly trashed. We're close but not quite there yet.

God probably isn't going to torch the place until we've torched ourselves a tad more. I suspect we still have some work to do in that area -- maybe lob a few nukes at each other or, at the very least, wipe out the fish from the oceans. We need another world war or two, not over oil, but over drinking water. Yup, that's what future wars will be about, according to some observers. Water.

Our simply becoming more obnoxious by the year isn't necessarily going to piss off God enough to say "OK, I am done with y'all." Our growing sense of entitlement, bad manners and worsening driving habits are annoying but not worthy of a good Rapture.

According to the Bible, Jesus wasn't much of a fan of wealthy folks but I doubt he'd blow up the place because the rich are getting richer during the last three decades while the rest of us are going broke. That little Gulf of Mexico/BP thing ... well, probably not good in the eyes of the "maker." I mean most people don't want kids walking on their newly sodded lawns or freshly sealed driveways, so can you imagine how God feels when we wreck an entire body of water and most everything He put in it?

Fortunately, God gives us more than our fair share of mulligans. But we're certainly pushing our luck, particularly in recent years where humans behaving badly, from all segments of society, is becoming the new global norm.

When the tigers go extinct and little Johnny can no longer read or write a complete sentence, I think we'll be on the edge of Armageddon. Until then, there is still some hope.

Any signs of optimism for mankind will likely come in various forms, probably starting with a decline in Fox News ratings. Perhaps people will begin using their turn signals again. Young men may pull up their pants at least to mid-buttocks. Employability will be based on competency, not age, race or gender. Young (and not so young) women will stop using the word "like" five times in every sentence. These are the subtle signs that I will look for in order to feel that we're back on the right path.

Here's another reason the world will probably not end tonight. God has to give us more than just a couple extra weeks on the planet than he gave Osama bin Laden. Fair is fair, right?

Personally, I am thinking we need at least another year to begin to correct our course. That will put us right around the next major doomsday prediction -- the 2012 Mayan calendar's last call. If by then Rush Limbaugh remains on the radio, Rep. Paul Ryan's proposed budget is still under consideration by Republicans and cell phones haven't been banned in nice restaurants, well, maybe we deserve to perish.

I am not sure that any god, Christian or otherwise, will ever end the world. I suspect we will do that on our own. It will probably be a slow and painful process. The real end times may even go unnoticed for decades or be mistaken for something else (economic problems, political strife, climate change, dwindling SAT scores, etc). Eventually, after enough religious zealots have cried wolf for their own selfish purposes, we might all discover that the wolf is not a god. Indeed, the wolf might be us.

Hyping the death of a terrorist

As I was driving home from work today, I heard a caller on a radio station say that in the course of his and most people's daily lives, the killing of Osama bin Laden isn't going to make any long-term difference. He spoke of other more pressing priorities and cautioned people and the media (including the dismissive talk show host who obviously wanted to hype the killing) not to make more of this than it deserves.

You know what? He's absolutely right.

It has been a good several days for President Obama. He proved he wasn't born in a foreign country or on another planet by releasing his long-form birth certificate. Then yesterday, he confirmed that he was indeed a patriot and a darn smart strategist by directing the military mission to kill bin Laden in a targeted manner rather than bombing the heck out of the hideaway in Pakistan. It's nice to have a president with guts and brains. Obama's not getting much credit from all the usual idiots, but I think the taking out of bin Laden pretty much sealed the deal for the 2012 election.

Well, maybe sealed is too strong of a word.

Bin Laden swimming with the fishes doesn't really do a lot for me. It's mildly satisfying at best but won't influence my vote. We have worse threats both in the international world of terrorism and in our own domestic backyard. I want my president focused on getting us out of wars and into jobs. I want a fair president who doesn't rob the poor and middle class in order to give to the rich. I want a visionary as a president -- a person with a sense of fairness, honor and respect for the planet.

Symbolic victories are just that -- symbolic. They don't lower gasoline prices. They don't get people back to work, slow down foreclosures or reduce crime. Symbolism doesn't cure cancer, stop corruption on Wall Street, educate young people or prevent oil spills. Those are far tougher problems that if solved would actually change millions of lives in positive, tangible ways for generations to come.

If Obama were to fail in his bid for a second term, it would probably be because of the sluggish economy. He can have bin Laden killed, show his birth certificate and rally young people into a frenzy in front of the White House, but if he doesn't address the economy in a meaningful manner, his re-election will not be a slam dunk. The caller on the radio, I suspect, represents how many Americans will feel once this feel-good moment from Sunday night wears off. As we enter the voting booth, we tend to focus more on what really matters in a practical sense. The demise of bin Laden won't get the potholes fixed. Nor will it stop people from trying to murder Americans.

The killing of bin Laden gives us immediate, primal satisfaction but doesn't put food on the table or teachers in the classrooms. As evil as bin Laden was, comparisons with Adolph Hitler by the media and others are absurd. Stopping Hitler changed the world. Killing bin Laden won't even prevent us from getting frisked at the airport.

We need a little perspective, folks. Seven or eight years ago this would have been a bigger story because bin Laden would have been perceived as a more viable threat. Now, as boxed in as he became, does anyone really think his death in 2011 is a game-changer in the lives of most Americans?

American aristocracy's stranglehold

"I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country."

- Thomas Jefferson, America's third president

Today is Thomas Jefferson's birthday. The above quotation has a permanent home on right-hand column of this blog's home page.

Unfortunately, we didn't heed Jefferson's warnings about corporations running the government. Not only did we give birth to an aristocracy, but that segment of society is all grown up now and creating havoc for the rest of us at a time when we desperately need to pull together.

In one corner are the lobbyists, the big corporations sitting on piles of cash demanding more tax breaks, and the politicians (mostly Republicans) who shake in their boots every time an obscenely overpaid CEO makes a threat. In the other corner are the rest of us -- folks without a whole lot of power just trying to get by, hoping that the worst corporations won't pollute our backyards, poison our foods or steal our retirement funds. If we're nice to them, maybe they'll throw us a bone and create a few low-wage jobs They have the funds to do better but won't, which is why no one should believe that cutting corporate taxes helps create jobs.

It doesn't take a liberal to charge what many large corporations prove every day, that hoarding profits is more appealing than expanding the payroll. So if these employers aren't creating much-needed jobs, why would we continue to give them tax relief? And if you think that new jobs aren't needed at many companies, ask any regular Joe or Jane employed in an office that has been devastated by layoffs whether they could use some extra help. The need is there, the business is there, but the will of the greediest executives isn't.

Not only have the corporations challenged the government, but they are the government. They have thousands of lobbyists twisting arms on Capitol Hill and even more lawyers finding tax and other legal loopholes so that they can make more money that they are becoming less willing to share or reinvest.

What do the rest of us have? One vote each and a political/social gullibility that is allowing for what Jefferson feared. We don't need a Tea Party. We need a Wake Up and Smell the Coffee Party.

The ones getting crushed by the modern-day Republicans and large corporations are the middle and lower classes, students, seniors and folks with serious illnesses. The Republicans hitched their wagons to the corporations and together sold middle America (and Fox News) on the idea that somehow they were on our side, even though they want to rob us of everything we've worked for in our lifetimes. While this new breed of CEO/Republican is despicable, our supporting and electing these aristocrats is totally on us. They can't do what they do if we don't buy into it.

On this 150th anniversary of the Civil War, I wonder if we're heading for class warfare. You see, the rich corporations and extreme right-wingers aren't just after our money. They want to change the entire social agenda of America and get rid of anyone who doesn't look or act like them. They want to be free to pollute in the name of doing business. They don't want to pay a dime for a new road or a new school unless it directly benefits them or their companies. They want to separate themselves from street crime but are perfectly willing to commit more damaging white-collar crime at every opportunity they get. Their silver-spooned vision for America is one that probably has all of our founding fathers stirring in their graves.

As President Obama has learned, it is hard to fight the good fight when the opposition has the resources of corporate America behind it -- the same corporate America that shipped our jobs overseas and needlessly laid off more employees than it had to during the Great Recession. If citizens are going to continue to believe in trickle-down fairy tales and other flag-waving failed theories, then I fear we are done as a just and compassionate nation. When we lose our soul, we will lose our freedom and prosperity.

While liberals have often erred on the side of throwing too much money at social problems, new conservatives are shoveling money at corporations and saying, "Here, you guys lead us back to the mountaintop." Well, that is not what corporations do in 2011. Corporate prosperity and societal prosperity are two different things now. We've lost the balance between the two because the government, including some Democrats, have placed too much trust in businesses that are only concerned about their own bottom lines and executive bonuses. What is good for GM or a publishing giant like Gannett (my former employer) is not necessarily good for America. All the bailouts and profits have not put much of a dent in unemployment. The lack of taxes being paid by companies like General Electric or the government subsidizing of the oil industry are simply mind-boggling.

You can disagree with what I believe, but you can't ignore the fact that the rich are getting richer and the poor and middle class are getting poorer. Who is to share the blame for that seems rather obvious to me. On this birthday of one of our wisest, visionary founding fathers, and with all the political smoke-and-mirror games being played today, take a long look at those words above and then tell me that Jefferson wasn't spot on with his concern about excessive corporate intrusions.

Another loss for journalism, society

Bob Herbert's final column in The New York Times is essentially a summary of what I have been saying since I started this blog. Our failing economy (as well as many other societal problems) is the result of institutional and individual greed at the very top of our society. Unemployment, record deficits, pollution -- heck, the disappearing of pollinating bees -- can be directly linked to the worst instincts and actions of the most powerful people and greediest corporations.

However, we must also look at ourselves. Columns like Herbert's aren't as well read as they once were because people are not only moving away from reading quality newspapers and becoming apathetic about current events, they are morphing into imbeciles -- refugees of a worn-out, dumbed-down culture who are unable to hold political leaders and the mega-wealthy accountable. Self-inflicted ignorance, as much as anything, is the reason we're on the edge of figurative and literal extinction.

We let it happen -- allowed the rich and powerful fool us into thinking they were somehow on our side. All we needed to do was elect them or put them into the corner office. Then the money and jobs would flow. Well, all they've done for us is take our jobs and support each other in their lies. They lie about war. They lie about profits. They even lie about global warming.

There is no place left for aging writers and editors like Herbert. In this troubling era, when we need thoughtful commentators and smart, objective editors, we are tragically left with Fox News and large newspaper chains that only care about their own stock prices and reducing newsroom payrolls.

Click here read Herbert's last column.

A coalition of America and little else

The chart on the left shows the so-called coalition countries that are allegedly involved in enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya. Note the "deployment status." (Click on the chart to enlarge).

Despite the political distortions out of Washington about our taking a backseat in this latest military action, it is clear that once again the United States has no problem essentially going it alone to police the world. As the chart indicates, our launching of bombs in Libya has been non-stop while most other nations sit idle.

Folks, we're spending over $1 million for every Tomahawk missile that we propel into Libya. No matter how honorable our intentions might be, do we have the money to spend on another campaign of explosions that is likely to produce even greater costs as time goes on? This isn't even our fight.

The cost of deploying American jets and ships to the region is off the charts. And I take no comfort in the fact that a handful of countries are cheering us on from the sidelines as we empty our wallets again.

We're still trying to recover from the worst recession of our lifetime and dealing with a record deficit, and we're doing so while fighting three wars. Running a peace-time economy in war-time era is beyond stupid. How do you explain to a layoff-weary nation that we need to keep bombing foreign lands rather than pay for unemployment benefits or job-training programs at home?

We bomb countries and don't seem to leave after we do, yet at the same time talk about possibly reducing Social Security benefits to save what we spend in a matter of weeks in Afghanistan, Iraq and now Libya. Republicans slam health-care reform but won't say boo about the expense of the war against the Taliban -- the longest war in our nation's history -- a war that is not winnable. There simply seems to be no fiscal worries whatsoever when it comes to flexing our military muscle, even when we're not at risk of being attacked.

It is truly amazing that ever since the U.S. got rid of the draft, Americans have lost interest in protesting something that is just as ill-conceived today as it was during the Vietnam era. We're still losing lives in no-win conflicts, but since no one is forced to serve anymore, well, the deaths and financial costs are just not on our radar screens.

We can't pay for basic domestic services anymore, but we can apparently fight a third war while coalition partners like Spain stand "ready to participate" in the attack. Ready to participate?

Yeah, right.

I never thought President Obama would drag his feet in getting us out of Iraq and Afghanistan, especially when we could use the money to employ teachers and rebuild infrastructure at home. But he has. What is more shocking is Obama's selling of this operation in Libya as something it is not. We're paying the check again and that is shocking at this time, in this economy and with this president in charge.

The media covers the Libya story as a military operation but says little about the battles we all face on a daily basis on countless American Main Streets. Reports fail to put Libya into context because there is no context for the average American. Additionally, the media, like the politicians, seems to have a tendency to take its eye off the ball. And the ball is and will continue to be the economy.

Source: Chart compiled from The Washington Post

Recession's most powerless victims

More homeless children and a poverty rate that will likely hit 25 percent in the not-so-distant future -- that is what is emerging from America's so-called economic recovery, according to a 60 Minutes report last Sunday.

A new generation of Americans will be raised in sketchy motel rooms, parked cars and worse places. These are the children of the previously stable, hard-working middle class -- not kids born into decaying urban neighborhoods or to transient families on perpetual welfare. These are the kids who would have gone to college or trade school and become taxpayers themselves one day, helping to pay down the national debt that we've created for them. They have parents who were accountants and teachers, writers and secretaries -- responsible folks who played by the rules, only to find out the game was fixed (and still is).

Parents have been unable to find comparable work for a variety of reasons. Age discrimination, companies stubbornly sitting on piles of cash, politicians using joblessness as venom ... we know what's happening. The point is, kids are now paying the price for a lack of political will to fix the damn problem. We will all be feeling the effects of this institutionalized neglect for a long time. The backbone of this country -- the middle class -- has all but been broken, and few people have given more than lip service to a problem, that if addressed, might also mend or prevent other social and financial problems.

What did we think was going to happen to the families who depended on the 8 million-plus jobs that were lost since 2008? Whatever modest employment gains have been made recently don't even keep pace with the number of Americans who are entering the job market for the first time. Underemployment figures are worsening. Men and women are accepting lesser jobs that don't pay enough for them to live on, let alone enough to raise a family. What will be the mindset of this generation as it grows into adulthood in the back of a Dodge Caravan?

The new norm for millions of Americans is an unfolding tragedy that will transform the United States in ways that go beyond the despair of mass homelessness or the expanding federal debt. The spirit of millions of people -- young and old -- is being shattered with each foreclosure sign that goes up and each rejection letter that is received by a desperate jobseeker. Tax collections are shrinking as layoffs continue. Yes, people are still getting laid off, although you'd never know it based on the lack of news coverage.

The unemployed and underemployed are slowly being forgotten by a society increasingly distracted by celebrity news and other trivial matters reported by mainstream media fighting for its own financial survival and making decisions based on ratings rather than sound news judgment. A free press is only beneficial to a democratic society if it lives up to its responsibilities and the citizenship shows more of an interest in being informed on important topics.

At a time when things are getting bleaker for young and old -- as kids who were once riding their bikes along pristine sidewalks are disappearing from the suburban landscape and Baby Boomers are abandoning retirement dreams -- we could use more informative reports like the one on 60 Minutes.