I don't get it. I just don't. So Republicans are STILL demanding 100% cuts in the national economy to bring down the debt WITHOUT asking a SINGLE penny from the richest among us for additional revenue. What part of the economy do they not understand? How can they sit there and be so bold faced as to demand protection from taxes from the richest among us while asking what used to be the middle class (which is, for all intents and purposes, as extinct as a dodo bird) to pony up even MORE? They have the GALL to say that we have it too easy, that the poor and middle class need to make the greatest financial sacrifices when we have already borne the greatest burden for our financial mess in the first place. I'm at a place where I have almost no disposable income left. I have just enough to pay the bills and even then, it gets tight sometimes when an unforeseen expense comes into the picture. Gas prices shot up this past year and with my 600 mile per month commute to and from work, it's getting tight. Gas prices are a dollar more per gallon now than they were a year ago. That's a lot and takes a considerable chunk out of my wallet. Food prices have soared as well because of increased gas prices. I've taken to cutting as much as I can out of my budget so that I have at least something resembling discretionary income, which amounts to maybe a few dollars a month to save in case of an unforeseen expense. I have cut back to eating two meals per day, breakfast and lunch, no dinner, because it's just too expensive to try to buy enough food to eat three times per day. I pay the smallest amount possible on bills because I want to be able to keep some money in reserve in case I need it. I'm getting tired of just getting by while billionaires hide their fortunes in offshore tax havens. The 4 story building in the Cayman Islands that serves as a shell address for over 18,000 corporations is costing the US over $100 billion per year in lost revenue - ONE HUNDRED BILLION - and yet the Republicans keep crying that these same billionaires and corporations are job creators. Oh yeah? So where are all the jobs they are supposed to be creating, huh? Why is unemployment a whopping 9.2% and in reality, is closer to over 15% when you count discouraged workers and those who are only working part time when they would rather have full time employment? Why are corporations sitting on top of billions, nay, trillions, of dollars that they are not spending to create jobs? And yet these TEA Partiers cry that to tax these corporations and make them pony up their fair share is going to kill jobs. What a bunch of crap! The rest of us have made huge sacrifices, are stretching our dollars until they scream, are living pay to pay with little free money to spend, and we have to protect billionaires from paying a little extra to help our sagging economy?
I don't get the whole TEA Party thing, either. They have this ridiculous idea that teachers, policemen, firemen and other public servants make too much money. Hell, they think EVERYONE makes too much money and would probably be content to see everyone working for Wal-Mart wages. I almost want to ask them, OK, if you want to see teachers laid off, who's gonna teach your kids? If you want to see policemen laid off, who's gonna protect your communities? If you wanna see firemen laid off, who's gonna put out your house fire? I don't get these people's anger at the world, unless it's just a bunch of angry white people who feel threatened by the increasing diversity of our country. And even then, so what? I mean, sure, it makes me mad that companies would rather hire undocumented immigrants and pay them ridiculously low wages instead of hiring people for real wages. That's just a function of exploiting a vulnerable population and greed, plain and simple. I don't know what can be done about immigration reform, frankly, and that's a subject that is going to have to be tackled in Washington and in state houses across the country. But to demand that everyone get paid lower wages, end unions as we once knew them and give up whatever few scraps the working people have left seems so counter-intuitive that I can't understand how anyone can get caught up by all this hysteria. And that's what it is, fear mongering by a few people who want to whip people up into a frenzy and make them think that they are being unfairly targeted by the government to pay taxes for services they are not receiving. It's all such a load of crap. Why aren't they pissed off that the top 1% hold more wealth than the bottom 50% combined? They need to redirect their anger at the fat cats whose money is being safeguarded from paying taxes that could serve the greater good. But I don't have faith that people will do anything about that. Most folks just want to be left alone, sit on their porch, have a beer and watch their 52" flat screen plasma TVs with a gazillion channels of pure broadcasted drivel. The lion's share of the people in this country could care less about what is going on in government, sadly, which is why nothing's ever going to change and why things will continue to be an absolute mess and why the middle class is but a few years from utter, total annihilation. When the rich have ground us under their heel and re-created the old European system of aristocracy and serfs, maybe then people might wake up and pay attention, but for now, most folks are too stupified by all of their electronic distractions to really care. And that's a crying shame.
I don't get it. I just don't. So Republicans are STILL demanding 100% cuts in the national economy to bring down the debt WITHOUT asking a SINGLE penny from the richest among us for additional revenue. What part of the economy do they not understand? How can they sit there and be so bold faced as to demand protection from taxes from the richest among us while asking what used to be the middle class (which is, for all intents and purposes, as extinct as a dodo bird) to pony up even MORE? They have the GALL to say that we have it too easy, that the poor and middle class need to make the greatest financial sacrifices when we have already borne the greatest burden for our financial mess in the first place. I'm at a place where I have almost no disposable income left. I have just enough to pay the bills and even then, it gets tight sometimes when an unforeseen expense comes into the picture. Gas prices shot up this past year and with my 600 mile per month commute to and from work, it's getting tight. Gas prices are a dollar more per gallon now than they were a year ago. That's a lot and takes a considerable chunk out of my wallet. Food prices have soared as well because of increased gas prices. I've taken to cutting as much as I can out of my budget so that I have at least something resembling discretionary income, which amounts to maybe a few dollars a month to save in case of an unforeseen expense. I have cut back to eating two meals per day, breakfast and lunch, no dinner, because it's just too expensive to try to buy enough food to eat three times per day. I pay the smallest amount possible on bills because I want to be able to keep some money in reserve in case I need it. I'm getting tired of just getting by while billionaires hide their fortunes in offshore tax havens. The 4 story building in the Cayman Islands that serves as a shell address for over 18,000 corporations is costing the US over $100 billion per year in lost revenue - ONE HUNDRED BILLION - and yet the Republicans keep crying that these same billionaires and corporations are job creators. Oh yeah? So where are all the jobs they are supposed to be creating, huh? Why is unemployment a whopping 9.2% and in reality, is closer to over 15% when you count discouraged workers and those who are only working part time when they would rather have full time employment? Why are corporations sitting on top of billions, nay, trillions, of dollars that they are not spending to create jobs? And yet these TEA Partiers cry that to tax these corporations and make them pony up their fair share is going to kill jobs. What a bunch of crap! The rest of us have made huge sacrifices, are stretching our dollars until they scream, are living pay to pay with little free money to spend, and we have to protect billionaires from paying a little extra to help our sagging economy?
I don't get the whole TEA Party thing, either. They have this ridiculous idea that teachers, policemen, firemen and other public servants make too much money. Hell, they think EVERYONE makes too much money and would probably be content to see everyone working for Wal-Mart wages. I almost want to ask them, OK, if you want to see teachers laid off, who's gonna teach your kids? If you want to see policemen laid off, who's gonna protect your communities? If you wanna see firemen laid off, who's gonna put out your house fire? I don't get these people's anger at the world, unless it's just a bunch of angry white people who feel threatened by the increasing diversity of our country. And even then, so what? I mean, sure, it makes me mad that companies would rather hire undocumented immigrants and pay them ridiculously low wages instead of hiring people for real wages. That's just a function of exploiting a vulnerable population and greed, plain and simple. I don't know what can be done about immigration reform, frankly, and that's a subject that is going to have to be tackled in Washington and in state houses across the country. But to demand that everyone get paid lower wages, end unions as we once knew them and give up whatever few scraps the working people have left seems so counter-intuitive that I can't understand how anyone can get caught up by all this hysteria. And that's what it is, fear mongering by a few people who want to whip people up into a frenzy and make them think that they are being unfairly targeted by the government to pay taxes for services they are not receiving. It's all such a load of crap. Why aren't they pissed off that the top 1% hold more wealth than the bottom 50% combined? They need to redirect their anger at the fat cats whose money is being safeguarded from paying taxes that could serve the greater good. But I don't have faith that people will do anything about that. Most folks just want to be left alone, sit on their porch, have a beer and watch their 52" flat screen plasma TVs with a gazillion channels of pure broadcasted drivel. The lion's share of the people in this country could care less about what is going on in government, sadly, which is why nothing's ever going to change and why things will continue to be an absolute mess and why the middle class is but a few years from utter, total annihilation. When the rich have ground us under their heel and re-created the old European system of aristocracy and serfs, maybe then people might wake up and pay attention, but for now, most folks are too stupified by all of their electronic distractions to really care. And that's a crying shame.
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