I just received the message below from someone I know very well. I had to shake my head at their outrage over everything in this message and ask myself "Who is responsible for this?"
We are, each of us. We elected the folks in Washington that voted for these bills and enacted these programs because we listen to their song & dance and warnings-promises-scary messages that if we would only vote for them, they will fix these problems. So, we vote for them then we ignore them for another 2 or 4 or 6 more years until they come back with their dog and pony show again, "vote for me and I'll fix these problems". We do and they go back to business as usual and we go back to our ignorant bliss.
Right now in Washington, YOUR Congressman and Senator are arguing over nickel and dime programs while this country spends $10,000,000,000 PER DAY more than we have. For you numerically challenged that is TEN BILLION DOLLARS!
One side wants to take more money, by saying the RICH should pay more. They call it "Enhanced Revenue". Well, just who are those people they cal rich? It's everyone who makes money from any source.
Yep, that's right anyone and everyone who makes money is rich.
You have a job and pay taxes? YOU'RE RICH!
You have a job with a retirement plan? Then your retirement money is invested in the stock market, so. YOU'RE RICH!
Are you drawing a pension in addition to Social Security? (see above, it’s in the stock market too). YOU'RE RICH! You're not only rich, you're so rich we are going to take part of your retirement check AND reduce your Social Security because you had the audacity to earn more than we think you should.
You feel rich? By their definition you are and they want some more of it. But they only want to help the senior's and poor. They helped us so much, last year they removed $500,000,000,000 from Medicare by abolishing the Advantage program that we could opt for and pay for, among other things that "we had to pass the bill to know what was in the bill".
The other side says that everyone pays enough and they want to cut spending. They're half right, we do pay too much and the government spends too much. But what do they want to cut? Social Security and Medicare. Programs we paid for our entire working lives. I haven't heard any talk of cutting "Earned Income Credit" that little known safety net to help the working poor. Bull Shit, but more about this one later! We haven't heard about cutting money to foreign countries. We haven't heard about stopping corporate welfare. They don't talk about fixing tax codes or programs that might hurt the big money people who paid to get them elected.
And speaking about corporate welfare . . .
How many mortgage brokers went to jail?
How many bankers went to jail?
How many General Motors executives went to jail?
How many Chrysler executives went to jail?
They said these companies were too big to let fail. Who the hell let them get that big if the first place? So what did they do? They gave them Billions of our money and made them merge with others too big to fail. Doesn't that just make them bigger? I don't know of any of these regional or local banks that were too big to fail.
A few years ago, didn't they say AT&T and Microsoft were too big and force them to split up? Did they pay them to diversify? I don't think so. Why don't they break up these "too big to fail" businesses and reintroduce some marketplace competition?
By the way, of all those Billions we gave those companies, where is it?
>The banks shipped it to foreign subsidiaries. But they won't make loans in the USA.
>Chrysler was sold to an Italian company.
>GM issued stock to the US Treasury and used the money to pay back the US Treasury. (An IOU in lieu of a loan payment). Then spent a zillion bucks advertising that "We paid our TARP loan back" until someone with more brains than the US Treasury blew the whistle on them.
I WANT MY MONEY BACK!
I have sat back and watched for the last three years as this working poor game the tax system, lie and cheat to hit their maximum "refund". Many actually quit their jobs when they have reached that peak earning limit for the maximum refund, because once you earn more, you get less. In other words, Congress tells them this is what they want you to earn and no more. Because if you earn any more, you move into that category of Rich and they will take it away from you. They pay you to stay poor and more important dependant. Dependant on Whom, you ask? Them, the government, the social hand holders who need you to keep voting for them while they keep promising to fix things. The only thing they want to fix is their own entitlements to their jobs in Washington and then their lifelong pension.
When Pat owned her restaurant, we had trouble finding people to work for minimum wage. Why? Because in order to match the Federal and State assistance programs for rent, medical, food stamps, earned income credit, and utilities, we would have had to pay $40,000 a year. At that time that was close to what I made and worked my ass off. But if you earn minimum wage you loose almost all of the assistance.
Every Federal program and budget gets an automatic increase every year. For the sake of argument, let's say that increase is 10% (I, know it may be 8.7745% or 9.45643%, but let's use a nice round number so you can follow this). Congressman R or Senator S proposes that spending be limited to only a 7% increase. Congressman L and Senator C runs to the TV cameras and cries that they want to CUT spending for Grandma and Grandpa by 3% and bimbo blond talking head goes on the nightly news and says Grandma will be eating ALPO because of these cuts and school kids will starve because they will be dumping two tofu veggies they didn't eat instead of three they didn't eat. (Nothing to do with they taste like shit because the food police have already been there).
So, what do we do? We wake up for a few days and call that Guy that promised to fix things and tell him to fix this.
So, I'm through ranting. How do we really fix this? We pray that those people in Washington finally get it. Any chance of that? Nope! They have already shown they don't get it. Some of them got our message last November, but some have already forgotten our message.
According to Congressman Jo Ann Emerson, "The Bible, the guide of our lives, is 1,291 pages and contains 774,746 words. But the Tax Code and its regulations which are referred to by some as, 'a person's worst nightmare come true' is 9,471 pages and over 7 million words." How stupid it that.
1. Repeal all 9,471 pages and adopt either the Flat Tax, no deductions or the Fair Tax. I prefer the Fair Tax, but don't really care which. One page is all it should take.
2. Pass a balanced budget amendment.
3. Comply with the Constitution of the United States. ALL OF IT!
4. Try every elected and appointed official for TREASON if they violate their oath.
5. Repeal the 17th Amendment to the Constitution.
California and the rest of the states can take care of themselves if we follow the above 5 recommendations.
...... ORIGINAL MESSAGE THAT SET ME OFF...........
Subject: What the HELL's wrong???
There are millions of Americans thinking the same thing. If we don't start taking care of our OWN, what's going to happen? If they are cutting the budget all over the United States' federal and state government programs, how can we afford to send so much money over seas to other countries.
The deserving people we help around the world deserve better but we truly have no way of knowing who actually benefits -- too many times the food, medicine, etc., is intercepted by the government and it never reaches the people it was intended for. I don't know who wrote this but it certainly gives US something to think about.
AMEN TO THIS
What the HELL's wrong???
WAKE UP AMERICA!!!!
Tuesday's Daily Bulletin paper, ran two articles on the front page side by side :
1- Calif's 20 Billion Dollar Budget Deficit
2- The Calif Supreme Court ruling that ILLEGALS can attend college and get benefits.
Why don't they just deport them when they arrive to register?
3- Last year they ran an article on the yearly costs to Calif Taxpayers from Illegals using Hospital Emergency Rooms for their general health care - At just one hospital the cost to tax payers totaled over 25 million a year
Someone please tell me what the HELL's wrong with all the people that run this country!!!!!!
We're "broke" & can't help our own Seniors, Veterans, Orphans, homeless etc???????????
In the last months we have provided aid to Haiti, Chile, and Turkey . And now Pakistan ......home of bin Laden. Literally, BILLIONS of DOLLARS!!!
Our retired seniors living on a 'fixed income' receive no aid nor do they get any breaks while our government and religious organizations pour Hundreds of Billions of $$$$$$'s and Tons of food to Foreign Countries!
They call Social Security and Medicare an entitlement even though most of us have been paying for it all our working lives and now when its time for us to collect, the government is running out of money. Why did the government borrow from it in the first place?
We have hundreds of adoptable children who are shoved aside to make room for the adoption of foreign orphans.
AMERICA: a country where we have homeless without shelter, children going to bed hungry, elderly going without 'needed' meds, and mentally ill without treatment -etc,etc.
YET......................
They have a 'Benefit' for the people of Haiti on 12 TV stations, ships and planes lining up with food, water, tents clothes, bedding, doctors and medical supplies.
Imagine if the *GOVERNMENT* gave 'US' the same support they give to other countries..
Sad isn't it?
