Aug 22, 2010 By Pam Mayse 4 min read

In the last couple days Congress voted, and Obama signed the latest so-called jobs bill. Forget the fact the bill also cuts the federal food stamp program by about $12 billion and the student financial aid program by $82 million, as a means of paying for the bill.

Thirteen of every 100 Americans now get food stamps to help them eat. The food stamp program has seen record increases in numbers of needy people every month for the past 18 months. In February 2009, 32.6 million were in the program, but as of May 2010, a whopping 40.8 million were using the program.

Food stamps were

providing a person $4.50 per day for food, on average. But once the cuts go into effect, that number will fall below $4 per day. What do you

spend per day to eat? A family of four will now see their food stamps cut by $59 a month, to pay for the so-called jobs bill.

Unemployment, meanwhile, according to reports in the media, looks to be heading upward again to a national rate of 10 percent. Unemployment is well higher in many areas of the country, already.

Would it be logical to assume the need for help, via food stamps, might increase again? Nobody seems to be discussing the thousands of earmarks also included in the so-called jobs bill.

I have an idea. Let’s put all the board members, all the union bosses, all of those in executive level government, everyone on Wall Street and all the corporate employers on the food stamp program.

How many can there be? Only 1 percent of this nation owns two-thirds of the nation’s wealth. If we take the over 15 percent now eligible for food stamps, off the food stamp rolls, and put that 1 percent on the rolls, we could save literal billions of dollars in so-called entitlements. Of course, in order to qualify for being on the rolls, the 1 percent would have to also to give up their money in order to become eligible for the aid. There are eligibility rules, you know.

That would free up billions of dollars to raise the paychecks of working people. Reports showed that the American worker, today, is earning $5,300 less dollars per year, in comparison to cost of living, than was paid in 1977.

Essentially, the average working people work for a 1977 wage, today, but are expected to pay a 2010 cost of living. That is, those still with a job in the labor force work for 1977 wages today. Tell me again why the economy is in the tank?

If we put the wealthy 1 percent on the food stamp rolls, and take the over 15 percent now in poverty off the food stamp rolls by bringing back good paying jobs, that would be redistribution of wealth, with which, I bet, we all could live..

I’ll bet the economy might even get back on track. Everyone knows the middle class has always been the nation’s number one economic engine. In fact, they are 70 percent of our national economy. They just don’t have a job or a livable paycheck, anymore. The wealthy used to create jobs in this country, but in the past four decades they have just taken jobs out of the country, or handed them to illegal alien labor, who are forced to work for pennies on the dollar, in comparison to our cost of living, driving down wages for all, while creating a whole new population in poverty.

Why is the economy in the tank? Could it really be that the nation’s economic engine, the middle class, is broke, busted, and disgusted due to unemployment, under-employment, and lower-than realistic wages?

Could it be that government couldn’t figure their way out of a paper bag, if you gave them a road map, flashlight, and crew to point their way? Nevermind the fact, out of the $787 billion taxpayer – funded so-called economic stimulus, there is over $300 billion sitting idle, unused.

But Congress did not hestitate in taking 26, or was it 28, more

billion from the taxpayers to make sure teachers, cops, and more don’t get laid off? What is wrong with this picture? We already know what’s wrong with government, and that is the so-called progressive

Republican and Democratic factions that have infiltrated the Republican and Democratic parties, whose agenda is so anti-American it’s pathetic.

Please don’t confuse the word progressive with the word progress. They are two totally different beasts. We have watched over the past 40-some years while band-aid after band-aid was applied to problems in need of major surgery. The bleeding has never stopped, and the wound has never healed. Our country does not need so-called fundamental change. Our country needs restored

. It’s time we get back to the future!

Pam Mayse is a resident of Uniontown.