(Excerpt of my article in TheGrio)

The Republican party's 'Pledge to America', which was released yesterday, isn't adding up -- at least not for African-Americans.

It's not that the pledge has bad ideas on combating poverty, stemming foreclosures, reducing urban unemployment and strengthening education reform -- it's far worse than that. There are zero ideas, no mention of the issues whatsoever.

I guess the GOP took the old saying 'If you don't have anything to say, don't say anything at all' to heart. Yet if there was ever a time to talk about poverty, now would be it.

The U.S. Census released figures last week showing the percentage of families below the poverty line is the highest in a decade. And the percentage of uninsured Americans is the highest since 1987, the year they began keeping track. Sadly, it isn't surprising that black and Latino families in particular are bearing the heaviest burden.

Read full article here: http://m.thegrio.com/politics/black-issues-mia-in-gops-pledge-to-america.php