There’s an African proverb that predicts “When elephants fight, the grass suffers.” I thought about the proverb as the gridlock on the debt ceiling issue continues in Congress and decided to change it up for the situation: When the elephant and donkey fight, the grassroots suffers. The showdown between the Democrats and the Republicans is sure to end with working class people getting kicked by the donkeys and trampled by the elephants.

The debt ceiling is subterfuge for giving more tax breaks to the wealthiest in this country. But there is the growing reality the Republicans, including their belligerent Tea Party members, are willing to take us all down if they don’t get what they want. The conservative Republicans can’t seem to deal with the Tea Party’s intractable ideological positions even if they want to compromise.

Many people were appalled when President Obama announced the unthinkable. As part of the negotiations with the GOP on the issue of raising the federal debt ceiling, the President would put Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare on the chopping block. The three programs affect a huge swath of the American population. Of the millions of people that rely on Medicaid for access to basic health care services, two-thirds are women, adding another dimension to who will suffer from the “painful” decisions to be made by the Congress.

Although the announcement caused shivers across the nation, it is not a new stance. Obama has repeatedly said (including during his presidential campaign) that he was willing to use the three sacred cows as bargaining chips. It seems that the President is willing to give up a whole lot for a little bit. Cuts could be made on the so-called entitlement programs for minor changes in closing the loopholes benefiting private jet owners. Lest we forget, about $500 billion was already cut out of Medicare in Obama’s health care plan.

I keep hearing from both parties about the need for “shared sacrifice.” If we weren’t suffering so badly, this would be some kind of cruel joke - especially in light of the recent mega profits by energy corporations and others like Ford Motor Company.

It is no secret that a number of U.S. corporations pay NO taxes. These include Bank of America, General Electric, Boeing, Goldman Sachs, etc. Some of these names you may recognize as recipients of the 2008 and 2009 federal bailouts, in addition to their ongoing tax breaks and subsidies. According to the government’s own records, corporate taxes amount to only about 9% of federal revenues.

That leaves people like me and you sacrificing to make up the whopping difference. When it comes to the financial pain that working families and the middle class have endured and can expect to endure in the future, the levels of pain for black and brown families have escalated.

The Economic Policy Institute has analyzed the dismal data. The ever-widening wealth gap between blacks and white remains stark. In 2004, the median net worth of white households was $134, 280 compared with that of $13,450 for blacks. In 2009, for every dollar of wealth the average white household had, black households only had two cents. In a recent PEW report on the wealth disparities between whites over blacks, household worth for Hispanics wasn’t rosy either. It doesn’t take a math genius to figure out whose future is at stake here.

Unemployment and housing foreclosures have disproportionately affected black folks. The unemployment rate for young, black males is astronomical but even educated blacks are taking a hit with the downsizing of corporations and governments; their unemployment rate is almost twice that of their educated white counterpart. That same ratio exists for the foreclosure rate. The black middle class expanded during the last couple of decades but those gains are vanishing.

Some feel that it is somewhat of an irony that the quality of life for African Americans has been decimated under the first black president. Dr. Cornel West has even called out the President for being the “black mascot of Wall Street.” If President Obama truly believes, as he often articulates, that a rising tide lifts all boats, his programs and policies have to reflect the reality that the boats of black folks are sinking - and sinking fast. Education, social services and jobs for working people should be his priority.

The President says both parties will feel pain from any compromise. That pain needs to come from the kind of organized fightbacks by the people for whom there seems to be no representation on Capitol Hill. In Wisconsin, recall elections are imminent of those elected officials who trashed the rights of public sector workers through legislation signed by Republican Governor Scott Walker. Other fightbacks target financial institutions like the Bank of America which has engaged in insidious practices that have left thousands of people homeless or in devastating financial straits.

This kind of organizing must get bolder and bigger. For those of us who are tired of being the “grass,” it’s time to stop our pain and cause some political pain for those who are inflicting it upon us.

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member, Jamala Rogers, is the leader of the Organization for Black Struggle in St. Louis and the Black Radical Congress National Organizer. Click here to contact Ms. Rogers.