Oh My God

I am so sick and tired of listening to these idiotic statements made by the freshman and other Republican Congress People saying that the American People don't want tax revenues when everything tells anyone who has a brain or common sense that we want the people who are the richest in this country to pay their fair share of taxes.  The ridiculous tax breaks utilized by the big corporations and those on Wall Street are not even fair or available to the average American.  If anyone has seen "Inside Job" or "Too Big To Fail" he or she will see how the abuse of their power has destroyed the economy, all under the sanctions of presidents from Ronald Reagan through George W. Bush.  Now President Obama is trying to govern with what appears to be both hands tied behind his back with his ankles bound by the ideology that there is a certain class of people in this country who are "entitled", and most of us are not included in that class.  Does anyone see what the far right posturing did in Norway last week?  It is, as I've said before, scary.  I have worked for a paycheck for 42 years and am totally dependent upon Social Security and Medicare.  I raised my daughter on my own since she was 2 years old and paid $5,000/year for child care in order to work and provide for us.  I could only claim $480 of that on my income taxes.  I did not have a lobbyist or some secretive accounting practices that allowed me to write these expenses off under the guise of legal tax loopholes.  I sure wish I could have used that $5,000 over the 10 years she was in day care to invest, put in a 401k, etc.; however, with the crash of the economy in 2008, all of that probably would have been lost, and I'd still be in the same situation.  I got sick by no fault of my own.  I worked as long as I realistically could in order to continue contributing to the economy and pay my share of Social Security taxes, Medicare taxes so I would have access to them if I found myself in need of these benefits as I am now.  We need the Republicans to take a walk in the shoes of those of us who are paying their salaries and health insurance benefits, but I'm not sure they have the intelligence to understand it anyway.  And I am tired of them saying that since they won in November, they are all and powerful, when their campaigns were based completely on lies.  Just ask the people of Wisconsin, Ohio, and the FAA who are all suffering from buyers' remorse.

Yikes!

I am watching C-SPAN and the ridiculous voting going on in the House of Representatives.  They just held a vote to cut over $619,000 of the $1.5 million for the Congressional Ethics Committee.  Great, exactly what we need, less oversight in Congress.  Fortunately it didn't pass.  Then John Boehner had a press conference with his shadow Eric Cantor and several other members of the Republican caucus bragging how they have done their job.  What are they talking about?  They have passed a bill that would destroy our education system and social safety net that are of huge importance to middle class America.  I was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease in 2007, filed for my Social Security benefits in 2008, but had to wait until this last June to be eligible for Medicare, even though I have a disease that is, at this time, incurable.   I can assure you that the Wall Street executives, hedge fund mangers, and lobbyists from every corner of the country will never have to worry about their ability to have access to healthcare, in fact several generations of their families will not have this problem either.  John Boehner can cry all he wants about how he came from nothing to be Speaker of the House, but the days of "pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps" no longer exist for most of middle America.  Access to a decent education doesn't seem to be a problem for them either.  Who elected the Wall Street execs and lobbyists who have such a grip on Washington?  Not the American people; yet they all seem to be in charge, along with the huge corporations who keep profiting from sending jobs out of the country or using prison inmates to answer the phones for airline companies to take your reservation.   Still, we are stuck at their mercy.  How did this happen?  There is a vote going on right now to pass an ammendment barring funds for polystyrene containers in House cafeterias.  Oh my God, this is the important work being done by our elected officials while the American people are stuck in their quagmire of indecision over raising the debt ceiling.  They also had a vote on light bulbs.  Wow, these are matters of National importance?  This is what our tax dollars are being spent on?  Why can't the American people decide how our money is spent on things that are of vital interest to those of us watching this ridiculous charade. Is this what we went to the polls for?  The Republican Party is willing to destroy anything that may be helpful to middle America.   Why don't the people who have the weight have to help carry the burdens?  Instead, they would rather keep lining their pockets while our children who they are so concerned about, so they say, are suffering by having education
 drastically cut state by state.  There is an overwhelming imbalance in who gets what is this country these days, and most of us and our children will never have an opportunity to get out of this current state of affairs. 

What's Going On?

I have been watching the REAL news talk shows and am wondering what Grover Norquist's power is over, in particular, the TEA Party.  He stated while at Harvard that his goal is to make sure no Democrat can ever rule this country.  Why don't we just elect a king?  This is imperialism at its worst.  I wonder what would happen if a Republican who signed his "No Tax Increase" pledge decided to break the pledge.  Is he really that powerful?  And if so, who made him this way?  Has he threatened them with death?  Does he have an FBI list that would expose the people on the right?  It just proves that the Republican Party cannot think for itself.  It's easier to be told what to do than to have to decide as an adult a practical solution to serious problems facing this country.  That way they can place the blame on someone else and not takee responsibility for anything.  "Grover made me do it" is no excuse.  Why is his pledge so binding?  It is constipating the progress of the U.S. government to move forward with anything.  The explanation the Republicans give is that "this is what the American people voted for in November"; I disagree.  The Republicans ran on jobs, jobs, jobs and cutting spending, then took office and have spent time trying to send us back to the 1950's.  They are so Pro Life, but only BEFORE a baby is born.  What happens to that child after his birth seems to be of no concern to these so-called "Values" people.  Are they willing to help them if they are sick, poor, hungry or uneducated?  It appears the answer to that is no.  We clear thinking people should be concerned about how the voting laws are slowly changing to make it difficult (or nearly impossible) for anyone who  is not following the Republican mantra to register to vote.  This is definitely election tampering and discrimination.  The U.S. Constitution says each person has one vote.  If they are so glued to the Constitution, why doesn't it matter in this case?  The hypocrisy is, and should be, frightening.