Even before he's been sworn in, Obama is talking tax cuts for the middle class, and budget cuts for the federal government.

But, while the middle class may come up winners in the long-term, the nation's poor will once again prove to be the losers, as US senators eye Social Security and Medicare with their cost-cutting axes. One democratic senator says, in regards to these two vital programmes which support the elderly and disabled of America: "There's going to be some unpleasant decisions being made."

Unpleasant for whom? US senators have total cradle-to-the-grave healthcare benefits, they can afford top-notch doctors, dentists, optomitrists, phycaitrists, etc., Their fellow countrymen and women living in or below the poverty level, do not have that option. Many of America's seniors and disabled, are forced to live on--entirely on their own, in many cases--on anywhere from $450 to $800 a month...in a land where the cost of rent, food, heat/utilites, transport and medical care, is skyrocketing every year that passes...and the yearly raises for the poor are shrinking and not keeping up with inflation.

So...the most vunerable Americans will be hungrier, be sicker and in greater pain, under Obama. So much for America's great new hope, the wonderboy will not be so wonderful for those who suffer...but then, very few wealthy Americans--and a huge swath of middle and upper-middle class Americans, are pretty thick...well, actually, downright stupid, when it comes to their knowledge of poverty within their own country's borders.

Poor people in America have died needlessly under Bush, how many will suffer and die with Obama in the Oval Office, remains to be seen.