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Townhall
The
Orphaned Middle Class
Victor
Davis Hanson
Dec
26, 2013
On
almost every left-right issue that divides Democrats and Republicans
-- as well as Republicans themselves -- there is a neglected populist
constituency. The result is that populist politics are largely
caricatured as Tea Party extremism -- and a voice for the middle
class is largely absent.
The
problem with Obamacare is that its well-connected and influential
supporters -- pet businesses, unions and congressional insiders --
have already won exemption from it. The rich will always have their
concierge doctors and Cadillac health plans. The poor can usually
find low-cost care through Medicaid, federal clinics and emergency
rooms.
In
contrast, those who have lost their preferred individual plans, or
will pay higher premiums and deductibles, are largely members of the
self-employed middle-class. They are too poor to have their own
exclusive health care coverage but too wealthy for most government
subsidies. So far, Obamacare is falling hardest on the middle class.
Consider
the trillion-dollar student loan mess. Millions of young people do
not qualify for grants predicated on either income levels, ancestry
or both. Nor are their parents wealthy enough to pay their tuition or
room-and-board costs. The result is that the middle class -- parents
and students alike -- has accrued a staggering level of student loan
debt.
Universities
are of no help. Their annual tuition costs have usually gone up
faster than the rate of inflation. On too many campuses, vast
increases in well-paid administrators, and lower teaching loads for
tenured professors -- as well as snazzy new campus recreation
facilities -- were all predicated on students obtaining more federal
loans and going into astronomical debt to pay for those less
accountable and far better off.
Illegal
immigration also largely comes at the expense of the middle class.
The supporters of amnesty tend to be poor foreign nationals who
desire amnesty. Corporate employers and the elites of the
identity-politics industry do not care under what legal circumstances
foreign nationals enter the United States. Instead, the two kindred
pressure groups seek cheap and plentiful labor and plenty of ethnic
constituents.
Lost
in the debate over "comprehensive immigration reform" are
citizen entry-level job seekers of all different races who cannot
leverage employers for higher wages when millions of foreign
nationals, residing illegally in the U.S., will work for less money.
Likewise, few worry about would-be legal immigrants without political
clout who have played by the rules and are still waiting in line for
a chance at U.S. citizenship...
Read
the rest of the article at Townhall
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