Democrats and Republicans Aren't Addressing Issues

Pick up the paper, go online to news and social media websites, or turn on the television any hour of the day and you will see a plethora of stories and ads on political ideology related to racism, women’s rights in the work force, abortion, religious persecution and attacks, hate crimes, and gun violence, gun rights, and voting rights. But on the part of both Democrats and Republicans, there is no substance to the arguments, they only pay lip service to these and other more serious issues plaguing America. The question is, at what point does the government start taking real action on major problems the majority of Americans face every day regardless of race, age, color, culture, or sexual identity.

Domestic violence is increasing.

It is commonplace to hear that wives and girlfriends, children, and community members have been kidnapped and even killed. Sometimes victims simply disappear. The results of a study released in 2019 examining gender differences and homicide showed a rise in domestic violence murders since 2014, after 40 years of a steady reduction. The FBI’s 2019 Missing Person Statistics reflect the same troubling trend yet laws are not changing at the federal level to deal with the problem, and there has been no increase in resources for women to escape violent situations. Sexual assaults' have also increased against children, women, gays, and even males although many are still not reported because the legal system has not changed in how investigations are conducted or how victims are treated in court. Too often victims are portrayed as being the cause of the attack and the government has done nothing to change this. There aren't even any public service announcements or public awareness campaigns regarding this issue.

Designer drugs and pills laced with fentanyl are killing Americans

In a report dated August 10th of this year, USA Facts reported that more than 90,000 people died of drug overdoses in 2020, a record high according to provisional estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). On August 29th, 2021, a middle class Wichita, Kansas parents received a phone call that their son was at a friends house getting emergency treatment for a drug overdose. The sixteen year old died and his mother later stated publicly that they had to see the machine pump her son’s chest violently as he was taken out of the house, a sight she hopes other parents will never see. A week prior a woman was found in rural Sedgwick County, KS, also dead of an overdose. This has become commonplace all across the country with no end in sight.

The Federal Drug Enforcement Agency is now calling the use of fentanyl laced pills an epidemic. On September 30th agents seized 1.8 million fake pills laced with fentanyl. While Republicans and Democrats argue over immigration and Trump’s wall powerful Mexican cartels are finding new ways to create and smuggle the deadly drugs across the border that are killing youth and adults among all economic and social groups. There is a need for more agents and some kind of strategy to attack the problem. Democrats talk about the opioid crisis but have done nothing to about it. And Republicans don't even acknowledge there is a crisis at all.

Food and fuel are the public’s lifeline

With semi's and trains having to pay record prices for diesel and other types of fuel to transport goods, companies are passing their costs down the line, causing a rise in food prices and other goods and the cost of gasoline at the pump is astronomical. Some Americans drive up to an hour or more one way to make it to work and sometimes get stuck in traffic especially in states like Florida, California, Texas, the metro area of Kansas City, KS and Missouri, and Colorado to name a few. Rural areas where there are few or no jobs force residents to drive long distances to the city.

Americans will soon be heating their homes with the arrival of winter. In the North East states like Ohio a large number of homes are heated with oil. Heating bills are expected to skyrocket. OPEC controls how many barrels of oil are produced daily and have cut back on production, which has forced the increase in price for all petroleum products beyond diesel, gasoline, and heating oil. Other countries like Russia and Iraq have followed suit.

A recent article on CNBC called natural gas the “new oil” as multi millionaire and billionaire investors gobble up stocks in petroleum companies which is driving the cost of gasoline even higher. The United States has huge oil storage facilities full of oil yet the government has yet to release any to help the public’s pocketbook. The green energy jobs Biden and progressives promised have yet to be created to build solar panels, wind turbines, and other types of green energy producing technologies. Yet Biden shut down a number of oil producing wells in a token gesture.

Whether it is buying a house or finding a place to rent, a growing number of people are finding it nearly impossible to find something affordable. For instance, my thirty-two year old son’s one bedroom apartment rent in KC, Missouri increased $50 per month to $832 not including renter’s insurance and utility costs. His electric bill has risen and he is worried about how much his heating costs will increase. Gasoline is $3.06 per gallon and he works in Kansas. With a salary of $54,000 in IT operations, his housing cost along with a car payment, food, etc. takes a bigger chunk out of his monthly paycheck. More families on a fixed income like seniors, the disabled, veterans, or those whose wages leave them below or barely above the poverty level are having to choose between rent and utilities or food with no end in sight.

Time to look beyond COVID and stimulus

In the beginning, the stimulus payments were a lifeline for tens of millions of Americans. The economy has been slowly recovering and elected figures should work on ending the need for stimulus funds by coming up with ways to slow inflation, lower the cost of gasoline at the pump and other energy costs, then develop solid much needed policies and pass legislation on the aforementioned and other issues, all of which would help the economy grow even more and make Americans of all ages safer. In the end taxpayers of all ages will bear the cost of paying the hundreds of billions of dollars back at some point down the road.

While there is a growing number of Americans wanting an end to stimulus payments for those making over $100,000 a year now that more families are back at work or working from home many are okay with the idea of giving those on Social Security, SSI, SSDI, and Veterans one last payment of $1400 as most didn't qualify for the monthly child care payments of $200-300 per child. There are also a lot of families whose children are of school age and if children are over the age of 6 that have no need for childcare, or a parent(s) are at home with the children. The only exceptions are parents who work at night and can’t be at home.

In conclusion, it is okay to address social issues but elected officials at the local, state, and federal level need to start addressing the other problems facing this country. It is time to end politics as usual and the 'my way or no way' mentality practiced by the two political parties. The citizens of this country deserve more than what they are getting with the current political climate. We need solid, common sense, realistic solutions to help solve America's ills.