In the last five years, I have racked up over $10,000 in medical bills. That's just me, that doesn't include the $6000 accrued by my wife. This is with insurance, mind you. Beyond that are the student loans to pay off, plus the obvious credit card debt.
My wife and I are like most Americans who try their best to pay down their debt and "get square" with their lenders. Like half of America, we are true blue Democrats, and for those who have read my writings, big supporters of Barack Obama. We have made our small contribution to the campaign, giving a nominal sum for a T-shirt and a few bumper stickers. But we are in a position, like most in this country, who cannot contribute in large sums like lobbies or corporations. We cannot afford, on our incomes, to give more to a candidate than we pay month to month toward our own personal debts.
So why am I being asked to pay off the debt of the Clinton campaign? Why am I being asked by my own nominee to give money to the woman who is not the nominee and continuously put herself deeper into debt knowing she could not win. She knowingly accrued an ever growing hole in her pocket without thinking of the future consequences (which goes to show that Democrats made the right decision in choosing Obama). And now she has the audacity to ask those who did not support her candidacy to pay off the debts of her egotism.
We cannot afford gas for our commutes, food for the dinner table, insurance for our ills, yet we are asked to deepen our own debt to lessen a millionaire's own financial shortcomings? If you pour money into a slot machine and continue to lose, all the while convinced you will win, the casino is not going to reimburse you when you finally crap out. Take the gamble, pay the price.
Write a new book, go on a speaking tour, do what you must to work off your own damned debt, Senator, and stop insulting the hard-working middle-class you so vociferously fought for. Hell, go get appointed to a board of directors somewhere and then retire a year later; the severance package will most certainly pay off those campaign loans.
As for Senator Obama, take the hint as shown by your supporters' response to your plea to help out Hillary: less than $100,000 has been given for her debts since you clinched the nomination. Don't alienate those who got you where you are. Just concentrate on how you'll make it easier for us regular citizens to ease our own debts.
Hillary, this is why you will always be a polarizing figure: you have no real grasp on reality. Go back to Chappaqua, your multi-million dollar mansion, and your focus on the job you do have.
Showing posts with label money. Show all posts
Showing posts with label money. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
$3 Trillion
I'm generally not the one who passes things on, but as I was perusing the new issue of Vanity Fair (no, not for the Miley Cyrus pics), I found myself reading the letters to the editor, not a section of magazines I frequent. One letter in particular piqued my interest, and it's intent, of putting things into a surprising perspective about the Iraq war, worked. Well enough that I felt the need to pass it on and offer my thoughts.
"...if I were to give someone $3 trillion and tell him that he had to spend $100 million each and every day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, and then told him not to come back until he had spent each and every penny, said person would not return for approximately 82 years. Think about it. Eighty-two years' worth of spending $100 million each day."
I have yet to encounter one singular individual who supports this war. I have yet to encounter one singular individual who supports his tax dollars funding Halliburton or Blackwater. I have yet to encounter one singular individual who thinks we haven't spent enough money building infrastructure 12 time zones away. Politics is a land mine. But there comes a time when you have to cast your voice out amongst the cacophony and hope it somehow gets heard. It is no secret I'm an Obama supporter, but this topic transcends the election and hits at a deeper core. This is about American children being shortchanged in their education to pay for corrupt Iraqi police forces. This is about the lack of comprehensive health care for Americans while we build new Iraqi hospitals for victims of our invasion. This is about building and securing oil pipelines and refineries for big oil while domestic prices keep rising. This is tantamount to treason against the American people as a whole. Not to delve into hyperbole, but the use of funds in all aspects of this war has been criminal. Of all that $3 trillion, we still can't provide the proper armor and equipment for our troops? How can we ask our own citizens to invest the kicker checks they just received into our own economy when the goverment itself refuses to invest so? How can we blithely go along with budgets for domestic services for an overseas country that are triple our own?
This is a nation of immediacy. Everything must be delivered in a flash, from goods and services to soundbites from our leaders and entertainers. Our own government has adopted that same behavior, looking only at the immediate and ignoring the bigger picture. We only look to the present and not the future. "Someone will figure out how to pay for the education of our next generation, but, really, I'm busy right now so I can't be bothered to think about it." "We can't pull out of Iraq or it will collapse." If we keep pulling out of America, it will collapse! Our generation is already lacking in basic education and skills. Our refusing to fix it and fund it will only make it worse, and future generations simply won't be able to fix it because nothing will be left to fix and they'll be too stupid to know how. Reversing the tide of funding would only admit to a mistake and Americans don't admit mistakes, although electing a Democrat this fall would be a step in the right direction.
$3 trillion dollars is what we have spent on this war so far. Keith Olbermann ends every program with a countdown of how many days since W. procalimed "Mission Accomplished" (just over FIVE YEARS). Remember, it would take 82 years to spend $100 million a day and we've spent $3 TRILLION in those FIVE YEARS And every year kids across America have to share 20 year old text books with each other, forgo art education, provide their own equipment for extra-curricular activities and sports. If only we concentrated on re-directing those funds toward education and nothing else, just that, our next generation might have a fighting chance at righting our wrongs simply for having had a better education.
On the lighter side of this, on the page directly opposite this letter was an ad for Cartier jewelers
this blog may also be viewed at:
www.myspace.com/mcmuppet
don't forget to read Chicken's blog at:
www.myspace.com/chickenlovesmillie
"...if I were to give someone $3 trillion and tell him that he had to spend $100 million each and every day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, and then told him not to come back until he had spent each and every penny, said person would not return for approximately 82 years. Think about it. Eighty-two years' worth of spending $100 million each day."
I have yet to encounter one singular individual who supports this war. I have yet to encounter one singular individual who supports his tax dollars funding Halliburton or Blackwater. I have yet to encounter one singular individual who thinks we haven't spent enough money building infrastructure 12 time zones away. Politics is a land mine. But there comes a time when you have to cast your voice out amongst the cacophony and hope it somehow gets heard. It is no secret I'm an Obama supporter, but this topic transcends the election and hits at a deeper core. This is about American children being shortchanged in their education to pay for corrupt Iraqi police forces. This is about the lack of comprehensive health care for Americans while we build new Iraqi hospitals for victims of our invasion. This is about building and securing oil pipelines and refineries for big oil while domestic prices keep rising. This is tantamount to treason against the American people as a whole. Not to delve into hyperbole, but the use of funds in all aspects of this war has been criminal. Of all that $3 trillion, we still can't provide the proper armor and equipment for our troops? How can we ask our own citizens to invest the kicker checks they just received into our own economy when the goverment itself refuses to invest so? How can we blithely go along with budgets for domestic services for an overseas country that are triple our own?
This is a nation of immediacy. Everything must be delivered in a flash, from goods and services to soundbites from our leaders and entertainers. Our own government has adopted that same behavior, looking only at the immediate and ignoring the bigger picture. We only look to the present and not the future. "Someone will figure out how to pay for the education of our next generation, but, really, I'm busy right now so I can't be bothered to think about it." "We can't pull out of Iraq or it will collapse." If we keep pulling out of America, it will collapse! Our generation is already lacking in basic education and skills. Our refusing to fix it and fund it will only make it worse, and future generations simply won't be able to fix it because nothing will be left to fix and they'll be too stupid to know how. Reversing the tide of funding would only admit to a mistake and Americans don't admit mistakes, although electing a Democrat this fall would be a step in the right direction.
$3 trillion dollars is what we have spent on this war so far. Keith Olbermann ends every program with a countdown of how many days since W. procalimed "Mission Accomplished" (just over FIVE YEARS). Remember, it would take 82 years to spend $100 million a day and we've spent $3 TRILLION in those FIVE YEARS And every year kids across America have to share 20 year old text books with each other, forgo art education, provide their own equipment for extra-curricular activities and sports. If only we concentrated on re-directing those funds toward education and nothing else, just that, our next generation might have a fighting chance at righting our wrongs simply for having had a better education.
On the lighter side of this, on the page directly opposite this letter was an ad for Cartier jewelers
this blog may also be viewed at:
www.myspace.com/mcmuppet
don't forget to read Chicken's blog at:
www.myspace.com/chickenlovesmillie
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