Webster Griffin Tarpley
Tarpley.net
September 30, 2012
According to most public opinion polls, Democratic presidential
candidate Barack Obama is slowly increasing his advantage over
Republican challenger Romney, both in the national popular vote as well
as in the contests for the swing states which will provide the key to
the Electoral College and to final victory on November 6. According to
many of these polls, Obama is gaining because he is seen by the American
public as more likely to maintain what remains of the US social safety
net, as compared to the reactionary Republicans Mitt Romney and his
running mate Paul Ryan, who have both made clear that social programs will be subjected to deep austerity cuts.
Every day, the Obama campaign fills the airwaves with television ads
portraying Romney as a heartless plutocrat who has no interest in or
comprehension of the daily struggles of working people. The implication
is often that Romney cannot be relied on to preserve Medicare, Social
Security, Medicaid, food stamps,
and other government programs which poor and unemployed people need to
survive. In particular, Obamas advertising targets the so-called Ryan
Plan for the federal budget, which would remove the federal guarantee
(or entitlement) of medical care for senior citizens, and replace it
with a voucher good for a sum of money which would usually not be enough
to pay for the medical procedures older people require. They would have
to pay the difference themselves, and many simply cannot.
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