A Win for the Middle Class

President Obama ran his last campaign on the central premise that, in order to truly achieve economic stability and fully recover from the Great Recession he inherited, we must ensure that everyone plays by the same rules and everyone pays their fair share.

As we start off the New Year, thanks to the steadfast leadership of President Obama, this campaign promise has become reality.

Although Congressional Republicans tried to delay a vote (which would have led to deep cuts in programs that benefit the middle-class, raised taxes significantly for 98% of families and 97% of small businesses, and provided a serious blow to our growing economy) around 11pm on New Year’s, the House finally voted to pass the “American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012”.

In sum, the bill provides much needed stability and fairness to our tax code, keeps in place important investments in education, infrastructure, and healthcare, strengthens the middle-class, and helps to reduce our deficit.

Here are some specifics (additional information can be found here ) :

= The bill permanently extends all of the Bush tax cuts for incomes below $450,000, while reinstating the Clinton-era 39.6 percent tax rate for income above this

= The bill permanently sets taxes on investment income (capital gains and dividends) at 20 percent for income above $450,000, while keeping the rate at 15 percent for everyone else. This is especially important since, as discussed previously in the Buffet Rule, the wealthiest have enjoyed significantly lower tax rates since most of their incomes come from these investments.  

= The bill extends certain middle-class tax credits that came as part of the President’s 2009 Stimulus Package. These include the America’s Opportunity Tax Credit, the Child Tax Credit, and the Earned Income Tax Credit

= The bill extends long-term unemployment benefits (for those 2 million + unemployed for longer than 26 weeks).

= The bill averted a scheduled, steep drop in Medicare payments to physicians

Although Congressional Republicans tried to continue putting millionaires ahead of the middle-class by holding our economy hostage until the very last minute, we must ensure that this new Congress puts the American people above politics and partisanship.

This was a long and hard-fought battle and, luckily, the American people won. Happy New Year!

Thank You

Over the last 5 and a half years, the pure passion and dedication I have seen from the people who have worked alongside me on this campaign has been unparalleled. But what united us was not just our love for President Obama but, more importantly, the idea that we all had a small role to play in how our nation moves forward.

For me, it all started when Jason Waskey asked me to volunteer for the then-Senator Obama’s campaign for Presidency. I was almost done with my senior year in high school and needed to find something to spend my time with. And although I was immediately attracted to the Obama campaign and what it stood for, what kept me engaged and motivated to give-up my life for this cause was Jason. For me, seeing someone sacrifice his life in support of a distant and, what appeared to be, an unreachable goal, was inspiring. And despite being told by almost everyone around us that we were fighting for a lost cause; that what we were doing is a waste of time, Jason's humbleness, focus, and steadfast direction gave me motivation to keep pushing on. I cannot thank him enough for the courage and inspiration he has given me throughout all these years. Although I have looked to him for these last few years as my boss (whether officially or unofficially), he is much more of a role model and a friend. I am truly honored to have met him in my life.

Throughout the first campaign in 2007-2008, I was fortunate enough to have met many more amazing individuals. I canvassed and phonebanked in the cold of Iowa and New Hampshire with Matt Verghese, Chris Wilhelm, Rob Yochem, Bill Romani, and Hans Riemer. I worked to organize students on college campuses with Alex Rischard, Sterling Grimes, Nina Anziska, Irina Zamyatin, Brittany McGrath, and Alexis Aduba.

Then we won the White House. From that moment on, I had the privilege to meet and work with more amazing people like Laila El Gohary (whose obsession with cats is borderline crazy, but always entertaining), Zeppa Kreager (who is one the best student organizers I have ever worked with and whose love for my lame jokes keeps me going), Scott Travers (who helped me organize college campuses across the state), Simone Lavine (who has been a great friend and has promised to give me one of her pet dogs), Victoria Zhao (who has a very bright future ahead of her), Jerusalem Demsas (who literally helped run my life these last few weeks), Jon Heintz (one of the hardest working people I have ever seen), Lilla Weinberger (who is one of the sweetest, most organized, and most loving people I have met on this campaign), and Becca Newman (whose support these last few weeks have been more meaningful to me than I can even put into words…and who I know is crying right at this moment).

To all my summer fellows; all my fellow staffers; anyone who’s ever “liked” my million annoying Facebook statuses; anyone whose read my blog posts; and anyone whose had to put up with my emotionally charged rants about how much I love President Obama…all that there is left to say is THANK YOU.

I want to thank all my brothers in the Crew for providing me with the support I needed to help get me through all these years.

I want to thank the awesome members of the A-Team (Chuck, Alli, Amanda, and Andrew), who had to put up with my loud-mouth for 15+ hours a day.

I want to thank my sister (Anu Jain), who has made me one of the proudest and happiest elder brothers anyone could ever wish to be. Her resilience, humor, smarts, and creativity has been inspiring.

But most importantly, I want to thank my wonderful parents (Indu and Palav Jain) for allowing me to pursue my passion and dream. Without their full support for the work I have been doing on this campaign, I would not be where I am today. Period.   

My experience on this campaign has been one of the most humbling, most inspiring, most gratifying and most rewarding feelings of my life. And I thank every single person who’s helped along this fantastic journey.

Now, all we can do is move FORWARD!   

VOTE

The reason I support the President is because of all the progress we've made. When he came into office, he literally inherited the WORST economy since the 1950s. We were losing over 750,000 jobs a month. The unemployment reached 10.2%, the financial system was in shackles, and the American auto-industry was literally going bankrupt.

Since taking office, however, we now have:

1 - A stronger financial system (making sure that American taxpayers never have to bailout another bank again, and making sure that banks have enough money in reserves to cover any losses investors will incur. This also strengthens capitalism because it makes sure that no one cheats the systems and plays by a different set of rules).

2 - A stronger economy (we've had 3 years of consecutive private sector job growth, added 5.2 million jobs to people who did not have it 4 years ago, and dropped the unemployment rate to under 8%).

3 - A stronger national security (ending the Iraq War and using those savings to rebuild our domestic economy; refocusing on Afghanistan; reducing the worldwide nuclear arsenal after passing the START Treaty with Russia; isolating Iran to levels never seen before; killing Osama bin Laden; and improving the world image of the U.S.)

4 - A stronger student loan system (making it cheaper for students to pay for their college by removing the middle-men in the loan system). Obviously granting higher access for education provides greater wealth and prosperity for our nation.

5 - A stronger American Auto-Industry (saving 1 million American jobs; making sure to step in and bailout this industry when there were no private lenders willing to assist. More importantly, however, we didn’t just loan this industry bailout money. We made sure they repaid their loan AND improved their fuel standards which saves people thousands of dollars at the pump every year).

6 - A stronger healthcare system (prohibiting insurance companies from having a monopoly on a person’s health; strengthening Medicare for our seniors; making sure that at least 80% of all insurance premiums you pay go to actual treatment and not just administrative costs; saving the average American family $1000 in medical costs; ensuring that people don’t get their coverage dropped for a preexisting condition; and allowing young people under 26 to stay on their parents’ plans).

7 - Home foreclosure rates are at their lowest in 4 years (and we’ve made it easier to refinance).

8 - Consumer confidence is at its highest in years (which is a leading factor for businesses hiring and selling their goods on the marketplace).

9 - Taxes are the lowest in years (18 business tax cuts; the payroll tax cuts saves the middle-class family $1000 a year)

But it all comes down to ideology: Romney believes that government has no role. Obama believes that government should help when needed.

Profit is the bottom line. You need to cut costs and increase revenue. But to do so, you need to make the right investments. Just as a business can’t just layoff all its employees and sell all its cash-generating assets—even if it meant greater short-term profits—we cannot allow gutting programs that help the American working class and create jobs.

For those who argue that we need less government involvement, it was the Bush administration’s lack of government regulation and oversight that caused us the economic crisis we are currently in. And those are the same policies Romney is advocating for.

When companies stop hiring or are deregulated to a point that unfairness occurs, we need the government to enact policies that allow the free market to occur. This, in turn, actually strengthens capitalism by providing predictability, stability, and fair competition to the market (which is why we illegalize monopolies) and prevents fraud that hurts companies who play by the rules. Yes, as conservatives say, we need to emphasize personal responsibility. But when you have a system that favors the rich through corporate tax loopholes and “too big to fail” companies that hold the economy hostage, government is needed.

So before going out and voting TODAY, please take some time to look at the facts. This is an election of a generation and will be decided on by just a handful of voters. Make your voice heard!

The Forty-Seven Percent

My parents, both immigrants from India, started their lives in America as part of the “47%”. 

In other words, despite working hard to provide for their family, they were only barely able to make ends meet. They were not “victims” of big government, and they did not fail to “take responsibility” for their lives. They were members of the working poor, where they paid their payroll taxes but didn’t earn enough to pay federal income taxes.

My mother came to America when she was 18. She worked a full-time job at a nursing home for minimum wage ($3.25 an hour) while enrolled full-time at a community college. To help pay for her education, she also took student loans. After graduating, she got married to my dad and found work at a computer company for meager salary of $20,000 a year. While I was born and my father struggled to find work, my mother became the head breadwinner of our family. After seven years of working hard, however, the company laid her off because of downsizing. She then had to survive off unemployment benefits for 6 months as she had her second child, my younger sister.

My father came to America 6 years after my mom. Coming from a small village in India, he had nothing in his pockets except the hope to make it big in a generous nation. After struggling to find work, he finally decided to start his own small business selling small gift items in local outdoor flea markets.

Today, my parents are successful small business owners. And they understand that when demand for their products is decreasing, you must make the right investments (even if it means greater deficits in the short-term) in order to achieve strong growth and prosperity in the future.

As the case with President Obama, my parents’ story is part of the larger American story. Both my parents took personal responsibility for their own lives. Yet despite how hard they worked, they were just barely able to make ends meet. So when they looked to big government for help, they didn’t consider themselves “victims”. They looked toward the only other person that would assist them in their time of need when there was no one else: Uncle Sam.  They didn’t expect government to solve all their problems, but they did deserve some relief.

My parents understand the difficulties the “47%” face. They understand that in addition to their hard work and perseverance, they could never have achieved success without the help of others. What they cannot understand, however, is why Governor Romney criticizes President Obama for providing that same relief to so many Americans in a time of need, as if it were wrong to help these hard working people.

President Obama inherited the worst economy since the Great Depression. Yet despite relentless opposition from the other side, he’s put his political career on the line to find compromise and provide stability to a fragile nation. He has fought for families like mine to ensure that we grow our middle-class and help everyone achieve the American Dream.

For those unemployed, Obama extended unemployment benefits. For those underemployed, he’s lowered costs for healthcare, credit cards, student loans, and home mortgages. For those employed, he’s lowered taxes and made our financial system stronger to strengthen people’s job security. For those who hire American workers, he’s lowered small business taxes 18 times.

President Obama has also worked to reduce our deficit by making the right investments, ending a costly war in Iraq, enforcing new financial regulations, and asking everyone to pay their fair share.

If elected president, Mitt Romney has promised he will replace Obamacare (essentially keeping everything but the thing that pays for it); repeal the Dodd-Frank financial reforms (which ensures that banks have enough capital on hand to cover investor’s losses); and keep the Bush tax cuts on the wealthiest 2% (because it worked so well in the past?), all somehow while balancing the budget without increasing spending (despite Obama’s willingness to cut $10 in spending for every $1 in revenue).

This is why this election is so important. Because as the President has said, “This isn't just another political debate. This is the defining issue of our time. This is a make or break moment for the middle class, and all those who are fighting to get into the middle class.”

The Leader We Deserve

The conventions are over, and the debates are approaching. But as voters decide which campaign message to approve, it is important to take a look back at President Clinton’s speech from the DNC, where he made the point that, “Since the 1960s…our economy produced 66 million private-sector jobs. So what’s the jobs score? Republicans 24 million, Democrats 42 million.”

Clearly Democrats, although in power for a shorter time, created better conditions for job growth than Republican administrations. But why is that?

It’s because Democrats understand that no one in this country is completely self-reliant. Although my parents started their own business and “built that”, they understand that in addition to their hard work, they also needed a society that invested in great teachers and rewarded those who play by the rules.

Democrats understand that when 98% of Americans are suffering, the top 2% also suffer. Although my parents have been very fortunate, they understand that when the middle class has less disposable income, their business suffers as well.

Democrats understand that investments in education, infrastructure, and healthcare are good for everyone. Take healthcare as an example. Put aside the morality argument. Forget about the fact that for years, insurance companies placed life-time caps, dropped coverage, and overcharged patients in return for very little care. Purely economic, if a large chunk of your paycheck goes to paying medical bills, you’ll have less money to buy goods/services. Not to mention that insurance companies were neglecting 30 million new customers that they now have thanks to Obamacare.

Democrats understand that government can help when no one else is willing to. It took a strong national government to get us out of the Great Depression in the ‘40s. It took a strong national government to pass the Civil Rights Act in the ‘60s. And it took a strong national government to bailout Wall Street and save the Auto-industry to ensure that capital continues to flow and that we don’t slip into another Great Depression.

No one is arguing that our economy is fully out of recovery. The recent jobs report last Friday proved that. But facts are facts, and we should not forget that it was President Bush’s policies that got us into this mess in the first place, and those are the same policies that Governor Romney is advocating for.

Thanks to the leadership of President Obama, our financial system is stronger today than it was 4 years ago. Because of his Wall-Street Reform, taxpayers will never again have to bailout “too-big-to-fail” banks whose failures to cover their losses jeopardized our economy.

Thanks to the leadership of President Obama, our economy is stronger today than it was 4 years ago. We are no longer losing over 700,000 jobs a month, the American Auto-Industry is no longer failing, and unemployment is no longer above 10%.

Thanks to the leadership of President Obama, our national security and foreign policy are stronger today than they were 4 years ago. Every President in recent history has worked for nuclear control. But it was Obama who actually worked with Russia to sign the new START Treaty (whereas Romney argues that our biggest threat today IS Russia). It was Obama who repealed Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, proving to our soldiers that “love of country, not love of another, determines loyalty”. It was Obama who successfully worked with our allies to take down Gaddafi without any U.S. casualties (whereas Romney says we needed to act unilaterally without any regard to our allies). It was Obama who, even contrary to the advice of some in his own team, gave the order to take down Bin Laden (whereas Romney once said “It's not worth moving heaven and Earth and spending billions of dollars just to catch one person”). And it was Obama who ended the war in Iraq, as promised, and created a plan to end the war in Afghanistan (I’m not sure what Romney thinks since he’s been consistently flip flopping on this issue).

And thanks to President Obama, our nation’s healthcare system is stronger today than it was 4 years ago. First, it is NOT a government-run program (and for those that argue it is, I would examine President Regan’s EMTALA that mandated hospitals to treat patients regardless of their ability to pay). It is NOT a tax (just listen to Romney describe how the Individual Mandate is simply a penalty for those who don’t take personal responsibility to get insurance). And it does NOT increase costs, run up the deficit, or bankrupt Medicare (the non-partisan CBO estimates it saves taxpayers about $1000 a year, reduces our deficit by $200 billion, and saves Medicare recipients $6500 per year).

Time and time again President Obama has tried to work with the Republicans, even so much so that sometimes his own base was frustrated. But on every measure, even those which they have supported in the past, the Republican leadership has shown obstruction and bitter partisanship.

When Obama argued for a Stimulus, which Republicans have traditionally agreed to, they all voted against it. When Obama argued for the Individual Mandate in Healthcare, which was a Republican idea in the first place, they all voted against it. When Obama tried to reduce our deficit, Republicans signed a tax pledge and refused to compromise no matter how much Obama was willing to reduce spending.

So yes, I support President Obama, more now than in 2008. I support him because he truly puts partisan politics aside to work for the American people.

He is the kind of leader America deserves.

The Truth About Medicare

Medicare was designed as a guarantee that citizens over 65 will have adequate medical care regardless of how healthy or wealthy they are.  The Romney/Ryan plan would change this.

Romney and Ryan both call for turning Medicare into a voucher system. Seniors would be given a certain amount of money each year to buy health insurance on their own. If that amount isn’t enough to pay for the kind of coverage you need, you pay the difference out of pocket. According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, this will force seniors to pay an average of $6,500 a year more for their insurance.

Because of the system in place today, Medicare's size allows the government to negotiate its rates. However, if it loses many of its healthier enrollees to private insurers (because they feel they can do without insurance), Medicare will likely lose bargaining power with its providers, making it harder and costlier for seniors who need healthcare.

Unlike the Romney-Ryan plan, President Obama’s plan actually achieves billions in savings without cutting payments to Medicare beneficiaries.

Prior to the new healthcare law –under the Medicare Part D program—seniors initially paid 25 percent of their medication costs while Medicare paid the rest. However, once they reached a certain spending limit (the coverage gap commonly known as the “donut hole”), beneficiaries were required to pay the full costs of their prescription drugs out of pocket.

What Obama’s Affordable Care Act (ie. Obamacare) does is make the program more affordable by gradually closing the donut hole and reducing wasteful spending by private insurers. This will lower premiums, increase savings, and extend the life of Medicare ( click here for more details ).

The Romney-Ryan plan, by contrast, achieves its savings by turning Medicare into a voucher whose value doesn't keep up with expected increases in healthcare costs -- thereby shifting the burden onto Medicare beneficiaries.

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan want to turn Medicare over to the private market. And as was the case before Obamacare, where private insurers dropped coverage for patients who had preexisting conditions and were deemed “risky”, seniors would face the same fate.

The underlining message is who should bear the burden. Time and time again, whether it is with Romney’s plan to lower the tax rates for the top percent (which means that taxes on the middle-class will be higher); or with Romney’s plan to decrease the size of the federal government (even when states are barely able to keep teachers police officers on payroll), we have seen the Republican Party shift greater burdens to people with less bargaining power.

But what Republicans need to understand is that we’re all interdependent on one another in all walks of life.

That is the choice in this election. 

The Need for Growth

"I came in and the jobs had been just falling off a cliff. I came in and they kept falling for 11 months and then we turned around and we're coming back. And that's progress. And if you're going to suggest to me that somehow the day I got elected, somehow jobs should immediately turn around, why that would be silly. It takes a while to get things turned around.”

-Governor Mitt Romney (Press Conference, 6/24/2006)

Although our economy has created 4.5 million new jobs since President Obama took office; although we have prevented another Great Depression; and although Democrats have been continuously fighting to create more jobs, we need to continue promoting policies that have been proven to work, and discontinue those that have failed.

Many of these failed policies stem from the notion that “government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”

Since our nation’s founding, we have depended upon a strong national government to open up opportunity, ensure equality, encourage competition, and keep our democracy strong. Thus, the only way to continue improving the state of our union is to understand that government is not the cause of our problems, but rather the solution to them.

The government shouldn’t decide who gets married. But in the same way that government needed to step in when certain states enacted the racist Jim Crowe laws that restricted certain freedoms to a minority group, we need a government that can stand up for all those who are discriminated against.

The government shouldn’t tell a business owner how to run his/her business. But if the actions of a company impedes on the free market opportunities of other businesses, as is the case with monopolies or companies that are “too big to fail”, then we need government to enact certain regulations that strengthen the principles of capitalism.

The government shouldn’t use taxpayer dollars to bailout certain industries. But when there are no private lenders willing to invest in an industry that creates millions of domestic jobs and is essential to the economic prosperity of a nation, we need government to step in and save jobs.

The government shouldn’t dictate how private health insurers treat their customers. But when insurance companies mislead patients and misuse premium dollars, we need government to “promote the General Welfare” of its citizens and strengthen the privately-run healthcare industry to provide access and affordable care to all.

And the government shouldn’t enact policies that raise taxes on the wealthiest. But when this class of citizens pays a significantly lower effective tax rate than the rest of society, or when their lower rates come at the expense of middle-class families, we need government to ensure that “everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules,” (Obama).

Clearly we are on the right track and we’re making progress. But in order to ensure that we continue to move this country forward, we need another term for President Obama and the continued leadership of the Democrats.