God Help me but politics are forcing me out of control.

[BigPoppy]

Guys you know I love to talk and I try to be a decent guy when I do it, but man this election year is killing me. The President and the Senate, and the congress are using our children and disabled as pawns and leverage tools to have there own agendas met. I could not believe that the Schip was not going to be approved by the president. Has he no idea on how hard it is for the working poor. My son in law works for the city of Horse cave his take home pay is a little less than 500 dollars every two weeks, they live in a city apartment complex and their rent is $457.00 a month as long as they do not exceed the average use of utilities. This year with the extra air conditioning was about another 50 a month. Now add car insurance telephone service and food for four, and gas to go in the tank. That normally leaves them with about 20 dollars to splurge on and go by a couple of white castles. My daughter worked until she became chronically ill. The State assitance they recieve now which pays for office calls only not meds, when she has to have a pain shot it cost her 50 bucks a throw, This cost is almost covered by the bank of mom and dad. On November 1 all of this goes away according to the law he earns to much money to qualify for any kind of medical card. they can not afford the co pays on the city insurance plan since it is such a small town. The city coverage runs 50 bucks a week, not all that bad right but remember they only have 500 dollars that did not go to rent. now take that out and three hundred is not much for gas food and just making a living.

President Bush said people should start a medical insurance savings account. Where the money coming from? We are told social medicine is a bad thing it seems a doctor is only as good as the amount of money he may charge you for his services. I mean that would mean we would be like comunist or something. In the three years in Germany I watched a very healthy nation leading the way in medicine, when I needed some test ran the Army sent me to a german hospital At that time the army did not have a CAT scan machine. There were no lines around the block no one waiting for days to get in the hospital. When a young soldier was injured on manuveres and was bleeding badly I ask a local hospital to look at him due to the distance to a med team of our own they did not blink he was taken care of and they even fed both of us at meal time.

I am so mad at all of this election from top to bottom. The canidates each and every one has forgotten who they work for, or who they are supposed to be working for. There Has been no new funding for the VA for 2008 yet.
We have veterans from Iraq who are dieing in the hospital at Fort Knox The VA is being down sized at an alarming rate. Soldiers getting out are not getting counciling on their rights and privilges when they are being discharged.

We are told Social Security is going to be broke by such and such a year, and yet we want to take money out of the SS funds and spend them else where.

Please I am not asking you to vote one way or the other, but if you are unsatified as I am join me in writing each and every one of these folks and tell them hey I do not want to have to send my grandaughter to have go to Iraq to get free medical treatment. I don't think that is fair for a working poor person can not recieve help and yet a drug addict and alchoholic can draw $700 a month and 350 for each kid and $400 in food stamps and have their house rent paid.
I do not care what one canidate did as a lawyer did when he was not in office it was his job, like it or not a lawyers job is not to protect the truth but to protect his client reguardles of guilt or lack there of. When Fox showed the clip of Eastern Kentucky schools witha 500 dollar budget for books for the whole school I wrote the governor and got a letter saying there had been a mistake made and that there had been a check for $10,000 dollars being delivered to that school that very week.

Lets tell them if they want to make a difference lets see their faces on Cspan a little more often! congressional meetings with 20 or so people there and yet we pay them to be there. Lets see some laws past that it is illeagle for elected officials to be paid to appear at funtions for special interest groups. There should be a law that elected officals cannot give jobs away as rewards for raising campaign monies, like the Secratary of Labor.

We have just a few weeks we must start making a loud and clear statment, wether you agree with the points I made or not, we have to shake these folks up and make them resposible to us.. Speak out, speak out often, and speak out LOUD!!!

[Dave Stewart]

The root of the problem you are expressing here about your daughter's family's income is the shrinking middle class in this country. The politicians on both sides (left and right) have sold our country out in order to line the pockets of their contributors. Have you heard that "sucking" sound yet that Ross Perot mentioned when he was running for president? You should have heard it loud and clear...it keeps sucking more and more middle class jobs out of the this country and those that are left are being taken over by illigals that will do the job for much less money and no benefits. They don't need the benefits...the government is taking care of them...too bad they won't take care of your daughter and her family who are trying to work as best they can to make ends meet. It is a story being told over and over in this country every day and every day it gets worse. Voting for this person or that person is not going to solve it....none of them want political reform to eliminate the special interest monies....to even mention the words political reform means political suicide to any politician now days. As for Bush's comments about starting a savings account for medical problems...it just shows he is out of touch with the realities of what is happening to the working people of this country...it is probably hard to relate to what it means to worry about paying one's rent and buying groceries for the kids when every barrel of oil being sold is making you richer.

As for the VA being broken...this country has never provided very well for it's soldiers after they got off active duty....through out history veterans have had to fight to get any help from the people that used them. How many drives have you seen to collect monies or other items to send to the active duty troops over the past few years....lots and lots of them....churches, civic groups, merchants, industries...they all have them. How many drives have you seen to collect things for the troops in the VA hospitals...?? I am not saying it is not good to support our active duty troops...god knows I was one of them for 26 years...but how do we not support those that made the real sacrifice while they were on active duty?

Bottom line here is the system is broke.....and I don't know about you but I don't see anyone in the wings that is willing to do what it will take to fix it.

[BarkelyPup]

Guys I can agree with you on the fact that vets (God Bless them all) are not as well taken care of as they should be. We should do all we can to honor and take care of the Brave for the service they have provided. Now on the topic of health coverage I Respectfully disagree with you guys. Big Poppy I am sorry to hear of you daughter's illness. I truly am, however I don't feel that it should be put on the backs of tax paying Americans to pay for it either, and this goes the same for illegals getting free health care. I'm 32 and grew up about as poor as one could. Put myself through college and now lead a pretty comfortable life with a wife child and one on the way. Now with all that said if it were one of my family members that was sick. I would do all I could to ensure that she got the help she needed. No shame in working two jobs. Maybe your son in law should think of that. The problem in America is that everyone wants someone else to take care of thier problems Heck we will use the word blame someone else for them. When times get tough we as a Society had better toughen up because if you think its bad now, just wait. Untill the Local Communities of this country start reclaiming it things will only worsen. We must quit looking for someone else to point a finger at and take some responsiblility. Now I know that we have people in this county that are not going to be able no matter what to fend or take care of themselves and I am all about helping them. But I would guess when your son inlaw and Daughter stood up to get married they said "In Sickness and in Health". Don't you think it should be honored? I can't believe I'm repeating the words of a Democrat but as JFK said "ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country". The end.
By the way I hope your Daughter gets better.

BP

[roadrunner]

Big Poppy
Why the president did what he did ( and I agree with). The congress expanded a good program to people making 83,000 eligible for the program. They did this knowing that the president would have to veto it and he will look bad. He has a task force ready to work with congress to bring this program back for the people like your son in law but our politicians are more interested in making the other side look bad they have lost sight of the people they are suppose to represent. I wish we could throw them all out and start over with decent politicians.

[BigPoppy]

You are right there is nothing wrong with working 2 jobs, except when the job you have has you on a 24 hour call. He is also a member of the volunteer fire department, the DART team and the Hart county search and rescue team. He has been trying to get sponsered into the police acadamy for four years now. As for my daughter wanting to ride on the back of the tax payer, she started work at 14 baby sitting and at K mart at 15 and worked all through high school and three years of school after that she countinued to work up until a year ago so that makes fifteen years that she has been a tax payer, and many times she did work two jobs. They take scocial security out of our checks, so that in the advent you become sick or injured you are covered by at least some degree, this is not welfare it is insurance that you pay for. And as far as a family member helping out another I spent 250 dollars on one office call for her at an urgent clinic. I am not advocating welfare I am saying our medical coverage is wrong. When elected officals have 7 dollar co pays and people on Social Security and 70 or 80 years old can have co pays of 50 to 100 dollars depending on the drugs they need. we need to rethink this. President Bush has had nearly 8 years to come up with some form of a working program but he dropped the ball to chase another game. but he did how ever make the decision to make prime venders not have to negogiate prices for anything and that includes drugs. I do not think people should be used as barganing chips if your party won't play with me I am going to take your toys away from you. I am glad at 32 you have all the answers. I seem to remember at 32 I had all the answers too. thanks for your well wishes and I hope that you never have to face one of your children while they are in pain and don't want to take money from you or their own bank account because their baby is having a birthday and if they go to the hospital they will be broke. Once again you sound like a very lucky and strongly driven young man, that is a rare quality these days, but be certian that you look at all angles of a problem you will see there are many traps and loop holes just waiting for one wrong move.

Dennis

[BarkelyPup]

Big Poppy,
I did not mean that you should not help your child at all and I appologize if I came off like that. It sure is a shame that the adults and I use that term loosley in Washington, can't just do what needs to be done. The Idea of Social Security started with good intentions but then it started being abused. I come from Eastern Kentucky an area of the State that I deeply love. I worked at Winn Dixie in High school and part of college and would barely make enough money to buy my lunch and here would come the artists on the DRAW and they would buy the finest meats and all the good stuff when I would be eating potty meat and crackers. I guess I could be a little bitter accually more discusted than bitter. I went to school with some of these folks and there wouldn't be crap wrong with them, they didn't work and they lived like Kings and Queens. Well maybe not like Kings and Queens. But I did not mean you should not help out your Daughter or at least I didn't mean to sound like it if I did. Heck family is all you really have and they must stick together and that goes back to the Local community taking our Country back. As far as my political veiws I am a very conservitive Repub. God, Family and Country. I am assuming you are a Demo. Maybe you and I can run together. At least from reading your posts it seems that we can respectfully and peacful like agree to disagree without tempers flairing. If we win first law I'm enacting is to disband the media. 2/3 of the worlds problems right there. One thing that I do not agree with is the total everybody gets insurance. Someone is going to have to pay for that other than the person getting the health coverage. Looks like another form of welfare. I may be wrong (I usally am if you don't believe me just ask my wife) but thats how it looks to me. I am all for lend a hand not do for if that makes sense or I guess I could say help those who need helping. Great posts by the way. This is much better than move on dot org.

God Bless,
BP

[Dave Stewart]

Just for the record..I too grew up poorer than crap....I too worked my ass off to get out of the poverty stricken hills of W.Va. I also served my country for 26 years and while doing so as a young troop worked other jobs, picked up soda bottles along the road so that my wife and kids could eat because the government did not see fit to pay the military folks enough money to live on back in those days. I could have taken food stamps etc...we were entitled to them by our income level...but we refused to do so because we could work. I don't consider myself a Democrat or Republican..I consider myself an American.

[BarkelyPup]

Well said Dave Stewart. Well said. And by the way thanks so much for your service. And just for the record some day I hope to shake your hand for it when I get you to show me how to catch them big suspending sows you have down on the big lake. But really thank you for your service our Country. I will say I consider myself a Repub because Mostly of Pro Life but the left in this country has changed what America used to be. Take Bill Clinton for example. You have the man running the most powerful nation in the world and he goes and screws around with some intern and cheats on his wife and it is percieved as AOK. Now that is a real leader. Teddy R. said that if you want to come to this country to be an American you must speak english and embrace American values. If you do anything else you are not an American and I must tell you that Dems opened that door. Do you remember back in June of 1988 during the Iran Contra hearings. A young senator asked Col. Oliver North ''Sir is it true that you just installed a $60,000 dollar Security system in your house. North replied back Yes I did. Senator said Are you affraid. Col North said yes I am for both my family and My life. Senator says who are you affraid of. Col replies osama bin laden. He is the most evil man I know and we need to kill him. Senator replies back he can't be that evil and laughs at Col North. He says don't you think that is a little excessive. North replies back No sir I dont. That Senator was Al Gore. You do the math there. I agree the Military's pay is way too low. On a side note I used to work over in your home state of WV in Cabin Creek. Worked on a strip mine up there.

BP

[spinnerbaitguy]

Another of the many problems is kinda related on some level to what Dave Stewart said .I believe that the problem is that our politicians ONLY see them selves as Democrats or Republicans . The popular "thing" is to not view ourselves as AMERICANS , but as members of the "world community" . Make no mistake , the cultural meltdown has begun . The lines defining what we are and who we are from a historical standpoint have been blurred for several years now in public schools . (This is why it is dangerous for the government to mandate school curriculum, hence KERA) . Regardless of whether you're on the right or the left , this upcoming election could well be a defining moment in this country's history . We must not only vote the party (R or D) but must inform ourselves on the issues .
I personally think it's time to vote out the entire establishment , from the White House to the dog house and start all over .Career politicians who are "in bed" with special interest groups are poisoning our future . Lower contribution amounts to bare bones or eliminate them altogether , seriously look at term durations , during campaigns stop the "Current Affair" mentality and stick with issues .Liberal media has blurred the lines of what is show business and what is news .How is it that Britney or Lindsay can make it onto the NBC,ABC,CBS,FOX etc . national news reports ??? That's not news...but it becomes difficult to determine which is news and which is entertainment .If you roll it all together and let a "credible" news caster tell the story.......well.....maybe it's news .
The Oliver North thing , as much as I'd like to believe it........http://www.snopes.com/rumors/north.asp
I would like to believe the stories about the Budweiser driver who ,after 911 ,took all the inventory off the shelves after Arab owners laughed at the attacks, but it didn't happen .( see snopes.com also )
I am conservative by nature and by conviction , but I have seen that conservatives , as well as liberals WILL misrepresent the facts in order to creats a spin on the truth .(make us look good , while making the other guys look bad) .If you don't think these are the facts , please look at the stories mentioned earlier . This is not an attempt to gain advantage for one side or the other , it is an appeal to the AMERICANS to open your minds and eyes . We are being manipulated and jerked around for political gain .
I hope I haven't offended anyone as this was not my intention .I know some of you see this .The rest just go along with whatever someone else tells them or with whoever has the most slanderous commercials .It's wrong .The bible speaks to corruption on many fronts . Is there not a righteous man left in the city ? (just my thoughts)

[BarkelyPup]

Hey that snopes site is pretty neat. However I saw that report on CSPAN or someplace like that. But I guess Snopes said it was false. By the way we had better keep seeing our selves as Americans and although we are a part of a global community we had better start getting back to the Old Days because I'm afraid that we are being slowly invaded and some Politicos are open the door for it.

BP

[DJD]

I'm watching the Republican Presidential Debate as I type this. Noone is perfect for the job of President so we have to choose the lessor of the two evils (D or R). I will choose down the party lines (R all the way)because Clinton and Hillary care is unacceptable!!
All politicians flip flop more than a bass on a hot front deck! The debate is funny at times i hope some of you guys are watching this.

[spinnerbaitguy]

The hierarchy that runs this country is more interested in "their party" (whichever party is in control at the moment) staying in control than in representing the will of the people or doing what will ensure our heritage and our longevity as a nation . I believe in calling and writing to our "representatives" and voicing my opinion . I think that doing nothing is as much of a travesty as supporting something that is corrupt . My (as well as your)kids and grandkids will suffer the effects of apathy if I(we) don't at least try .I am not so self serving to believe that I always know how things SHOULD or should not be , but I , like you guys have an opinion and a viewpoint , all of which are valid . Let's try to make sure that those we have elected aren't going along with their peers in order to de-rail the other side .Hold their feet to the fire .If they make poor choices or play a political game , get rid of them .
It has long been thought and believed(not by me, but by upper echelon folks) that European thought is more advanced and insightful than ours .I believe that with the inattention given to the borders that the powers that be desire us to be something similar to the EU (European Union) where nations align themselves as a single conglomerate .It appears that this is where we could be headed .La Republica de Norte America (the North American Repulblic) or something to that effect . BarkelyPup mentioned that we are being slowly invaded .According to current estimates , the number of illegal aliens is in the range of 15-20 million..........I gasp everytime I think about it . Yes I know the Mexican Government is crooked - yes I would want a better life for me and mine if I were a resident there but is a system of law which provides opportunity for folks to BECOME AMERICAN citizens .This doesnt mean invade this country and bring other cultures .It means to assimilate to THIS culture and embrace its history and laws and follow the rules .When someone sneaks across the border , the first act they commit is a criminal act .The way many of us were lead to believe in our early schooling is that committing a criminal act makes one....you guessed it.....a CRIMINAL . Yet our government has winked at this for years (not just George and the present Washington gang , as the liberal media would have us believe ) . Thats right men and women.....the invasion and the cultural meltdown has begun .
Anyway , I appreciate having the opportunity and the platform to be able to speak out .I am not a racist or unsympathetic to others who arent "like me" . I am a 49 year old proud American whose father was a veteran , like many of yours and like many of you . I appreciate what our fathers handed us freely at the cost of their blood and the blood of their friends .I will not try to shove my conservative views down your throat because we are brothers and your views are as valuable as mine . I don't expect everyone to agree with me and that's ok . Maybe it seems like I am narrow minded and "old school" .Seems that the older I get , the more important it is to be free and while change is the rule that we must all follow , I must be true to the fact that I am an American and that matters to me . Although I don't dwell on it , I am not sure I ever recovered from the day we were attacked on our own soil . I'm not sure I want to get over it .It just makes me more determined to try to BE an American , not just talk the talk .Let's try to ensure our elected officials do that as well .
Sorry for being so long .Thanks again .