This may be my shortest entry yet, because it's just a fleeting thought. Details of Mr. Obama's economic plan are beginning to trickle out, and it seems that one of his ideas is to create a big government program to address our infrastructure. Hooray! New/repaired roadways, and I'm hoping new bridges, too! While that is a credible idea as far as our declining infrastructure is concerned, it is being touted as part of his ECONOMIC plan. The idea is that this program will not only fix some things that actually do need fixing, but it will create jobs! Lots of jobs! The American economy and the American worker will be rescued!
I just have one little question: Aren't road construction jobs (and manual labor jobs in general) in the category of jobs that we have been told that "most Americans won't do"? How is creating a bunch of jobs for which shady contractors will end up hiring a bunch of illegal aliens going to help the American worker?
I can't wait to see what else is coming!
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Why Obama Makes Me Laugh!
Okay, I've been silent for this whole political season, mostly because I was prepared to just not care. As someone who is not only morally conservative, but fiscally conservative also, John McCain was just not my guy. I saw him as someone who not only has reached across the aisle, but has bent over the aisle and coughed. When you add to that the fact that he was already the Republican nominee by the time that Texas voted in the primaries, so that my vote really didn't count, you pretty much have a recipe for apathy. (I've always believed that the primaries should be conducted the way the general elections are conducted: both parties, voting on the same day, for their favorite person -- not letting just a few states decide the presidential race. If that were the case, we might be looking at a totally different race now!)
So I was prepared to not care; in fact, I was prepared to not even vote and potentially let the other guys have a chance. I figured they would either do okay, in which case no harm/no foul, or if they messed it up, then I could be one of those people who blamed all of the problems in my life on the current administration. Then I actually started listening to what Obama was saying.
He spoke of everyone in America having a shot. Okay, I'm for that. Why wouldn't I be? Believe it or not, most average Americans lie awake at night thinking about how they are going to pay their bills or keep their kids safe; most people I know don't spend any time thinking about how they can keep someone down today. However, when I heard him say that every American who wants to go to college should get to go to college I just had to laugh. Was he kidding? I laughed because I know that with just a few exceptions, every American who wants to go to college can go to college. How do I know? Because my family has been there!
I must confess that neither my husband, nor I, attended college when we were young. We didn't realize at the time that you have to prepare for a career, or you end up with just a job. It took a few years of being broke all the time to realize that we needed to do something. There's the first key: we realized that we needed to do something. I wish that just whining about it had worked, but it didn't. So when my husband and I were in our thirties, we sold our little house, grabbed our two kids, and headed off to college so that my husband could pursue a degree.
During the college years my husband worked full-time and went to school full-time. He was a custodian for a church building. He mowed the lawn, cleaned the toilets, vacuumed, dusted, and fixed things when they broke. He worked hard in school. I can't tell you how many nights he came to bed at 2:00 in the morning, then got up again at 6:00 to get ready for work.
I did my part to help, too. I worked in a hospital kitchen, and then in a day care center, before finally getting a job as a secretary at the college. I took care of the kids, the house, the yard, and the bills, so that he could concentrate on his studies. I typed his papers at midnight. Our kids put up with wearing cheap clothes, not taking some of the expensive class trips that their peers got to attend, and getting the least amount of presents at Christmas of anyone that they knew. And they were pretty good sports about it!
Did our parents pay for my husband's schooling? No. Did he get grants or any special gifts for his schooling? No. So how did we pay for college? We took out student loans, which I believe are available to every American (with very few exceptions). When he got out of school we owed over $35,000. Our loan payments were initially $450 a month and it took us ten years to pay them off. We just got them paid off this year! But we did it! And so can everyone else!
I have listened to Obama evolve over the campaign cycle. The very first time I heard him explain where he thought middle class ended (and where his higher tax rates would begin), I KNOW that I heard him say "Seventy-five thousand dollars." I am convinced that this is what he truly believes, but his handlers realized that most people wouldn't agree with that, so "middle class" suddenly ended at $250,000. That way, most people would not complain because $250,000 seems like "somebody else". My mother noticed that during the last debate, Obama said that middle class ended at $200,000. Joe Biden, while out on the stump, recently said that middle class ended at $150,000, and yesterday Bill Richardson (while campaigning for Obama) said that under Obama's plan middle class ends at $120,000. Do you notice a trend here? I truly, truly believe that it will not be long before we end up back at the $75,000 mark. And that does not make me laugh.
Why am I not laughing? Because this year, the very same year that we finally got our student loans paid off, is the year that my husband finally reached the $80,000 mark. That's right: over ten years after graduation, and with ten years of paying monthly student loan payments behind us, we finally have a little money to spare. But now that our ship is finally coming in, I feel like our pier is going to collapse. Obama wants us to "spread the wealth around".
There's a little something that I must tell you here: I am fat. I love chocolate and I love soda. I love food, in general. Oh, I have bought some exercise videos, but alas, I have learned the hard way that you can't just watch them in order for them to work. You actually have to exert yourself. So, I'm fat. My behavior has consequences.
Life is like that. If you do not prepare for a career, you will end up with just a job. Behavior has consequences. If you have five children by three different men (to whom you are not even married) by the time you are 24, you will have a harder time making progress in the financial area. Behavior has consequences. If you had rather get high or drunk than study or work, then life will be harder for you. Behavior has consequences.
I once read a little saying that I liked: "If you will live like others won't for a short time, then you will live like others can't for a long time." (I sure wish I had read that when I was in high school.) I understand that there are some people who are dealt a bad hand: health problems or mental illness sometimes can get in the way of having all of the things that someone might desire. I have no problem with tax payers helping those who truly cannot help themselves (although I think that churches and other organizations do a better job -- think FEMA and hurricane Katrina). Our family actually has chosen to donate to several different causes in order to help those who can't help themselves. But there are a lot of people who just don't want to make the sacrifices necessary to make life better.
And now Obama wants to take money from us to help them make it happen. Now that we are finally starting to see some reward for all of those years of work, I'm supposed to help pay the bills of someone who doesn't want to work? Now that we have finished paying for my husband's college degree, we are supposed to pay for someone else's? I don't think so!
If Obama and his supporters really feel that strongly about it, let them give up some of their money. I heard that Obama's house has six bathrooms. Six bathrooms! It sounds to me like he has a little cash to spare, yet his aunt lives in a slum in Boston and his half-brother lives in Africa on about $1 a month. Some "brother's keeper" Obama turns out to be! And while we're at it, if all of those Hollywood stars who love Obama really care about poverty, why don't they sell their mansions, buy "regular" houses, and donate their excess to the poor or create some scholarships? Maybe they could try living on let's say...$250,000 a year? I think it's really funny how generous some people are with someone else's money!
I have participated in early voting, so my vote has already been cast. It wasn't that I was voting for McCain; I was voting against Obama.
So I was prepared to not care; in fact, I was prepared to not even vote and potentially let the other guys have a chance. I figured they would either do okay, in which case no harm/no foul, or if they messed it up, then I could be one of those people who blamed all of the problems in my life on the current administration. Then I actually started listening to what Obama was saying.
He spoke of everyone in America having a shot. Okay, I'm for that. Why wouldn't I be? Believe it or not, most average Americans lie awake at night thinking about how they are going to pay their bills or keep their kids safe; most people I know don't spend any time thinking about how they can keep someone down today. However, when I heard him say that every American who wants to go to college should get to go to college I just had to laugh. Was he kidding? I laughed because I know that with just a few exceptions, every American who wants to go to college can go to college. How do I know? Because my family has been there!
I must confess that neither my husband, nor I, attended college when we were young. We didn't realize at the time that you have to prepare for a career, or you end up with just a job. It took a few years of being broke all the time to realize that we needed to do something. There's the first key: we realized that we needed to do something. I wish that just whining about it had worked, but it didn't. So when my husband and I were in our thirties, we sold our little house, grabbed our two kids, and headed off to college so that my husband could pursue a degree.
During the college years my husband worked full-time and went to school full-time. He was a custodian for a church building. He mowed the lawn, cleaned the toilets, vacuumed, dusted, and fixed things when they broke. He worked hard in school. I can't tell you how many nights he came to bed at 2:00 in the morning, then got up again at 6:00 to get ready for work.
I did my part to help, too. I worked in a hospital kitchen, and then in a day care center, before finally getting a job as a secretary at the college. I took care of the kids, the house, the yard, and the bills, so that he could concentrate on his studies. I typed his papers at midnight. Our kids put up with wearing cheap clothes, not taking some of the expensive class trips that their peers got to attend, and getting the least amount of presents at Christmas of anyone that they knew. And they were pretty good sports about it!
Did our parents pay for my husband's schooling? No. Did he get grants or any special gifts for his schooling? No. So how did we pay for college? We took out student loans, which I believe are available to every American (with very few exceptions). When he got out of school we owed over $35,000. Our loan payments were initially $450 a month and it took us ten years to pay them off. We just got them paid off this year! But we did it! And so can everyone else!
I have listened to Obama evolve over the campaign cycle. The very first time I heard him explain where he thought middle class ended (and where his higher tax rates would begin), I KNOW that I heard him say "Seventy-five thousand dollars." I am convinced that this is what he truly believes, but his handlers realized that most people wouldn't agree with that, so "middle class" suddenly ended at $250,000. That way, most people would not complain because $250,000 seems like "somebody else". My mother noticed that during the last debate, Obama said that middle class ended at $200,000. Joe Biden, while out on the stump, recently said that middle class ended at $150,000, and yesterday Bill Richardson (while campaigning for Obama) said that under Obama's plan middle class ends at $120,000. Do you notice a trend here? I truly, truly believe that it will not be long before we end up back at the $75,000 mark. And that does not make me laugh.
Why am I not laughing? Because this year, the very same year that we finally got our student loans paid off, is the year that my husband finally reached the $80,000 mark. That's right: over ten years after graduation, and with ten years of paying monthly student loan payments behind us, we finally have a little money to spare. But now that our ship is finally coming in, I feel like our pier is going to collapse. Obama wants us to "spread the wealth around".
There's a little something that I must tell you here: I am fat. I love chocolate and I love soda. I love food, in general. Oh, I have bought some exercise videos, but alas, I have learned the hard way that you can't just watch them in order for them to work. You actually have to exert yourself. So, I'm fat. My behavior has consequences.
Life is like that. If you do not prepare for a career, you will end up with just a job. Behavior has consequences. If you have five children by three different men (to whom you are not even married) by the time you are 24, you will have a harder time making progress in the financial area. Behavior has consequences. If you had rather get high or drunk than study or work, then life will be harder for you. Behavior has consequences.
I once read a little saying that I liked: "If you will live like others won't for a short time, then you will live like others can't for a long time." (I sure wish I had read that when I was in high school.) I understand that there are some people who are dealt a bad hand: health problems or mental illness sometimes can get in the way of having all of the things that someone might desire. I have no problem with tax payers helping those who truly cannot help themselves (although I think that churches and other organizations do a better job -- think FEMA and hurricane Katrina). Our family actually has chosen to donate to several different causes in order to help those who can't help themselves. But there are a lot of people who just don't want to make the sacrifices necessary to make life better.
And now Obama wants to take money from us to help them make it happen. Now that we are finally starting to see some reward for all of those years of work, I'm supposed to help pay the bills of someone who doesn't want to work? Now that we have finished paying for my husband's college degree, we are supposed to pay for someone else's? I don't think so!
If Obama and his supporters really feel that strongly about it, let them give up some of their money. I heard that Obama's house has six bathrooms. Six bathrooms! It sounds to me like he has a little cash to spare, yet his aunt lives in a slum in Boston and his half-brother lives in Africa on about $1 a month. Some "brother's keeper" Obama turns out to be! And while we're at it, if all of those Hollywood stars who love Obama really care about poverty, why don't they sell their mansions, buy "regular" houses, and donate their excess to the poor or create some scholarships? Maybe they could try living on let's say...$250,000 a year? I think it's really funny how generous some people are with someone else's money!
I have participated in early voting, so my vote has already been cast. It wasn't that I was voting for McCain; I was voting against Obama.
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