Two Years in Office: Obama, Fiasco President (Part IV—Final)

With Obama: Social Decline

In the United States, 43 million people receive food stamps. The number of people who received food stamps in the U.S. increased 16 percent in 2010 when compared with 2009. This means that 14 percent of the U.S. population receives food stamps, approximately one of seven of its citizens.

In some states, such as Tennessee, Mississippi, New Mexico and Oregon, one of five people receive food stamps. Washington D.C — with the largest concentration of poor African-Americans in the country — heads the country, with 21.5 percent of the population living on food stamps. This highlights the continuation of “social racism” during Obama’s presidency.

The previous data matches the September 2010 census results conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, which shows that the poverty rate could reach 15 percent of the population. Social institutions criticize the official measurement methodology of poverty used in the U.S., because it includes only pre-tax income and excludes medical, transportation and labor expenses. Senior citizens, adults over 65 years of age, were the demographic group experiencing the largest increase in poverty, reaching 16.1 percent. Poverty also increased among working-age adults, ages 18 to 64, as well as for whites and Hispanics.

The unemployment rate, after maintaining an average of 9.6 percent throughout 2010, closed at 9.8 percent in November of that same year — although in January 2011, it was announced that the poverty rate in December of last year had dropped to 9.4 percent. Peter Morici, an economist at the University of Maryland, explained that the situation continues to be disappointing, because that alleged drop in the unemployment rate is, in part, due to the reality that “260,000 adults dropped out of the labor force and are not longer counted as unemployed by the government.” There are still 14.5 million unemployed. If you include part-time workers (who work only half a work day or less) and those who stopped looking for work, the unemployment rate in December would really be closer to 17 percent. That’s without taking into account the million or more undocumented immigrants who lost their jobs in the last two years and are not included in the official statistics.

Meanwhile, those lucky enough to return to work are taking, on average, a 40 percent salary cut. These cuts could become permanent because the affected employees may have to begin over again and move up the career ladder. If, with any luck, these new jobs come with health insurance, it will only be after several months.

In February 2010, it was said that “With an unjustified optimism, on average, economists projected the creation of 1.4 million jobs in 2010. Meaning that, in the best case scenario, the unemployment rate will slowly decrease.” This “best case scenario” did not become a reality in 2010; on the contrary, the unemployment rate went up and, once again, the “economists” polled by the Wall Street Journal had predicted incorrectly. During the first week of January 2011, Bernanke testified that “The economic recovery that began a year and a half ago is continuing, although, to date, at a pace that has been insufficient to reduce the rate of unemployment significantly.” According to Bernake, the head of the Federal Reserve, the unemployment rate will be at historic levels (6 percent) in four to five years (2015-2016). Could this be a case of unfounded optimism, once again?

Children’s well-being worsens in the United States

Although the overall poverty rate affects 14.3 percent of the population, between 2008 and 2009 the poverty rate of children in the U.S. under 18 years of age increased from 19 percent to 20.7 percent. One out of five children in the U.S. lives in poverty. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, reminds us that his organization has been telling us throughout a decade that “One in four children in our country now lives in a family that runs out of food sometimes.”

“The series of Report Cards (from UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre) bases its premise on the conviction that ‘the true measure of a nation’s standing is how well it attends to its children — their health and safety, their material security, their education and socialization, and including the families and societies into which they are born. Its common theme is that protecting children during their vital, vulnerable years of growth is both the mark of a civilized society and the means of building a better future.’”

According to Report Card 9 (by UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre — September 2010), when it comes to inequality in child well-being in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) 24 richest countries, the U.S. always falls with the group of countries that have child inequality higher than the OECD’s average. When it comes to material well-being (family income, available educational material and usable living space for children in the home), the U.S. ranks second to last out of all 24 countries (Slovakia ranks last). The U.S. ranks 19th in educational well-being and 22nd in health. The U.S., Italy and Hungary have the highest levels of inequality when it comes to infant health. The U.S. is one of three OECD countries ranked in last place when the three dimensions of inequality in child well-being (material, educational and health) were averaged.

When President Obama took office, he promised that he would ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which has been in effect for 20 years, with the goal of advocating for and protecting the rights of children worldwide. After two years in the presidency, Obama has not kept his promise, and the U.S., along with Somalia, continues to be one of two countries in the world that has not done so.

President Obama disregards international agreements and treaties

It would require several volumes to enumerate all the violations the U.S. has accumulated against the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The U.S., under the leadership of Obama, systematically violates Article 1, which agrees upon the right of self-determination of nations. The U.S. violates it flagrantly in Afghanistan, Iraq and several other countries where it intervenes openly or covertly. It does not honor Article 6’s second protocol, which guarantees the right to life and condemns the death penalty. It honors it neither domestically nor internationally. The U.S. is one of the few countries in the world that executes children and the mentally ill. The worst violation of the right to life is the result of the two large wars waged at the beginning of this century. There have been between 700,000 and 1.2 million deaths in Iraq and maybe more than hundreds of thousands in Afghanistan, as well as millions of displaced, refugees and missing in both countries. The U.S. also infringes on Article 7, which stipulates the prohibition of torture or cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment — as well as Articles 9, which guarantees the right to liberty and security, and Article 10, which address the rights of those arrested and of prisoners. The U.S. does not honor them in Guantanamo or in the hundreds of prisons in war zones or subcontract-complicit countries.

The U.S. Patriot Act and other similar laws violate Articles 12, 13, 14 and 15 of the Covenant, which stipulate the liberty of movement within a territory of legal aliens, the rights of legal aliens concerning expulsion, judicial procedures and rights of all citizens and the retroactivity of laws. Not to mention Articles 18 and 19, which reiterate the importance of habeas corpus, the right to the inviolability of the home and the privacy of correspondence and transactions. Meanwhile, the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act puts an end to liberty of thought and expression.

With his speech in favor of preemptive war, President Obama violated Article 20 of the Covenant, which prohibits war propaganda. Since Nazi Germany, no other government has created as much war propaganda as the United States. President Obama made a speech in favor of war after receiving a controversial Nobel Peace Prize.

In respect to international treaties or agreements, the U.S. refuses to sign the Mine Ban Treaty, also known as the Ottawa Treaty. The U.S. also voted with New Zealand, Canada, and Australia (all oppressors of indigenous minorities) against the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. In the General Assembly of the U.N., the U.S. spearheaded a vote against an international moratorium on the death penalty and allows the death penalty in several of its states. The U.S. is the only country that executes the death penalty in two countries at the same time. The scaffolds of Iraq belong to the United States.

After his two years in office, Obama’s electoral campaign, appealing to hope and promising change, has been revealed as a monumental fraud. Under Obama, as with Bush Jr., we continue having, at the apex of the world, a horde of unscrupulous generals who are partners and shareholders of a militaristic industry, coordinated by Bob Gates from the Pentagon and a crew of dishonest speculators who lead global finance by mutual agreement from Wall Street, the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury. If we don’t stop them, no one will be left to see “the ashes dance.”