So I have been absent for over a year and a half, partly because I've been busy, but mostly because I did not feel that I had anything to say that anyone would be interested in reading. Even if someone was reading. Simply put, I had a series of major changes in my life, all linked, and happening in what seemed to me to be a rapid succession of cause and effect. I was happy about none of it.
So what to do with my now empty days and nights?
My kitchen more or less BEFORE
Call all my friends and cry on their shoulders until they began avoiding me? Nah.
Write it all out here so my private life would be spooled on so many backup tapes and archived for a hundred years? Again, nah.
Maybe curl up in a fetal position on my bed at night and cry myself through it all?
Definitely, nah.
Instead I did something that I had been wanting to do for a very long time, but my ex and I could never agree on what was to be done.... I remodeled my house. Not that I could afford it, but thanks to some timely offers of deferred interest from some local do-it-yourself retailers, I pulled it off.
So days at work and working nights. It took eleven months. If I could have rustled up some more credit, I'd still be at it.
More or less AFTER
Some rooms got just paint, others got more. Ceiling fans, light fixtures, paint, furniture, drapes, floors, cabinets.. nothing was sacred. For the first few months, my right hand held little but a three pound sledge hammer. I had lived in this house for nearly nineteen years and had changed only the laundry room and a bathroom. Now those were the only rooms semi safe (although the bathroom did get a change of towels and shower curtain). The kitchen would be the biggest change. Lights, cabinets, floors, ceiling, counter tops... the works.
This would be my sanctuary, my therapy, the route to a new life. I would do it myself (which I did about 98%). I would not go down, and if I did, I was not taking anybody down with me.
"For sale, one country, used. Not cheap, but affordable with many perks for the right buyer(s). Spacious skies, with purple mountains, foreclosed farm land, and vast plains ready for development and exploitation. Beach front included on East,West, and partially Southern exposures(although the Southeast area is prone to storm damage). Current occupants are somewhat intelligent but remain lethargic and basically apathetic. Some inerudite members will trade claims to property and savings for sparkly promises. Greatest cooperation is won by letting them think that they are "in charge." A real fixer-upper. Previous management began some remodeling but disagreed over where best to make changes and never finished. Property is already subdivided and some plots have expressed a preference in being sold separately. New management interested in immediate liquidation of assets as business requires travel overseas. Sorry, all purchases must be made in precious metals, international stocks, bonds, or jewelry as the local currency is expected to have no value. Interested parties are requested to contact our brokers; the U.S. Chamber of Commerce or American Crossroads."
In the first 18 months of the Obama presidency, we have seen the Republican members of congress drag their feet, put out misinformation, and finally refuse to even discuss proposed legislation, all the while collecting their paychecks and publicly funded healthcare benefits.
We have seen disrespect for the President of the United States and the OFFICE of the President of the United States on a scale never before seen in modern America.
It’s one thing to disagree with legislation, and quite another to just stop it. No vote, just cause nothing to be done at all. That is not why you were elected and put in office. You are there to govern, to lead, and stating that your feel-bads got hurt, or you don’t like the game so you are not going to play, is not an option. Just like it’s not an option in anybody else’s job.
But refusing to play may be just what we get, if some Republican and Tea Party candidates are elected.
Republican candidates and House Republican Leader John Boehner have publicly stated, “No Compromises,” for the next two years. No compromises means no work. Well, at least no work for you or I, you know the people who pay these guys.
The very definition of a political government is compromise. You want this, I want that, let’s find something in the middle that we can both live with and maybe gets us both a little closer to our goals. The idea of “No Compromise” means no governing. No action at all.
And although many shortsighted people may think that this is a good way to stop what they may not agree with in this Presidency, what do you think is going to happen if and when the political worm turns?
Even if the Republicans were to take back control of both houses, even if President Obama looses his reelection in 2012, what do you think the minority party is going to do? The same thing? You bet.
No republican legislation will make it through Congress because Democrats will use the exact same tactics now mastered by the Republicans.
But its gets even worse. Utah's Tea Party-backed Republican Senate candidate, Mike Lee, talked about the possible “Inconvenience” of a government shutdown to stop what he sees as a run-away budget.
An “Inconvenience?” Really? Let’s see Mike, you might be inconvenienced if your paycheck comes a week or so late, but the healthcare for you and your family will continue. Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, the Post Office and other Federal Government agencies would come to a stop. Inconvenience? Putting people lives and livelihoods on the block to oppose a sky rocketing budget deficit?
Let’s pause and look to see just where that deficit came from.
When Clinton administration finished, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, they left a budgetary surplus of $86.4 billion in fiscal 2000. Again that was his last year in office and does not count any Social Security surpluses.
That was the budget condition that George W. Bush and the Republican held Congress inherited when Bush took office. In 2008, the last full year G.W Bush was in office, the Presidents budget request optimistically projected that the deficit for all of 2008 would total $410 billion.
I call his proposed budget “optimistic” because by October of that same year, 2008, the budget deficit had ballooned to 10.2 Trillion, that’s TRILLION with a ‘T’, dollars. This was not because of the 9-11 attacks, it wasn’t just because of the wars in Iraq and Afganistan, this was primarily the 700 billion dollar Government bailout of the banks and Wall Street.
And who had restricted the enforcement or eliminated the Federal rules governing those businesses? Obama? That would have been one hell of a trick as he would not take office until January 20th of the following year. It was George W. Bush and the Republican held congress.
According to the Treasury, the Bush administration added an average $500 billion dollars a year to the deficit, every year starting in 2003.
As I record this, the U.S. NATIONAL DEBT CLOCK is reading just under 14 Trillion dollars. That means with all the “wild spending” that President Obama and the Democrats are accused of, amounts to less than 4 Trillion dollars since October of 2008, four months before President Obama even took office.
And that does include Social Security, all the extra bailouts, and the stimulus package, which President Obama and the Democrats were forced to make to fix the fiscal irresponsibility of the previous administration.
What is the Republican war cry? “Cut the deficit!” How do they plan to do that? By extending the “Bush Tax Cuts” past their December 31, 2010 expiration date. .Those very tax cuts, right now, account for approximately 25% of the overall budget deficit, according to the Congressional Budget office. That’s about 3.5 TRILLION (with a T) dollars! Who has to make up the difference? You and I.
I’m not here to tell you who to vote for or who to vote against next Tuesday November 2nd. I’m saying that you should spend some time, not only listening to MSNBC or FOX News, NPR and others, but do a little digging of your own. Find the facts.
“But Chuck, how do you know all this stuff?”
I’m sitting in front of a computer connected to the internet and if you are watching this, so are you. Use Google, use Yahoo, use whatever is your favorite search engine and type in your questions. Or follow the links I have posted below. That will get you started.
But don’t just blindly believe what any politician is telling you. They are trying to get your vote and will say whatever they think you want to hear to get it from you. Don’t give that vote away cheaply. It’s yours, you earned it. You earn it everyday that you go to work, mow your lawn, take care of your family, and pay you taxes. You earn it the old fashioned way, by living everyday the best you can, as an American. Don’t let anyone sucker you out of it.
I found all of this in a little over two hours, and typed this up to boot.
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Where did I find all this stuff?
Federal Employeee Health Care Program. No waiting period for Congressional members or their families and no “pre-existing conditions” are refused.
http://www.opm.gov/insure/health/
