Election News
This NYT story about fundraising makes me laugh. Towards the end you get to the funny part, which is the part that Lewis is always saying ... you can't say (rich) people who make money are "out of touch" with America and then ask them to give you money. You can't raise taxes on their income, investments and stocks and then ask them for more money to help you get elected. And you can't say people who want boats and jetskis are out of whack with the reality of the American dream and expect people who have those things to support your vision of the American dream. I don't know about you but traveling around on a grey hound bus (something I am POSITIVE this President has NEVER done) and staying at a HoJo is not my idea of "living." I'll take a stay-cation over that any day. And I've ridden a grey hound bus.
I'm still not convinced that he can or will lose. There are a great number of people who like collecting unemployment, and the government loves giving it to them, even erroneously. Even with unemployment at 8.2% (still), general unemployment closer to 15%, and college grad unemployment at a scary 16.8%, I still think there are people who like his brand of division.
Seriously the economy in this country hasn't been this bad in decades. I don't know how Jay Carney or the President can get out on that podium everyday and say it's getting better with a straight face. Manufacturing is the lowest it's been in three years. I've already shared the jobs numbers. States continue to face huge budget shortfalls, mostly due to pensions and other committments. And I don't even want to get into what AHA and expanded Medicaid in state's is going to do to budgets, doctor supply, and quality of care.
To be honest the negative-ness of the economy doesn't touch me. We live in Texas. Which is one of the only states to have positive economic growth in the years since the crash in '08. Some of that is natural gas / oil based, but the price and demand for oil has dropped and even with that our unemployment is 6.9% ... not great, but better than the national average.
Do I think Mitt Romney can (or would) fix any of these issues? Yes and no. I think his more friendly business practices would loosen up purse strings from corporations and they would hire. I also think that if some of the tenants of AHA were changed / lifted (the "penalty" on businesses that don't offer healthcare for employees for example) it might encourage people to add head count. No one's going to add a job if it's going to cost them more to do it than it will bring in. And hiring someone, for a small business, is almost always a risk. Lessening that risk would encourage more hiring.
But do I think Romney will "repeal" AHA? Probably not. Because life just sucks that way. Of the major problems I have with AHA, the biggest is that I'm positive we are going to lose our coverage, and our benefits are going to get taxed as income. I'm less concerned with the second part, but majorly concerned about the first. I've started to go into the why of this several times on this blog and I always delete it. It's too personal and none of the bleeding hearts out there care about my plight they only care about the mother of 5 on a single income with no spouse. Because we've been responsible and made good decisions we get no consideration and our issues are deemed unimportant. It's like we've been able to achieve what we have because we cheated or got "lucky." Sure. If luck means working 70-90 work weeks, never taking more than 2-3 days off, and working for commissions. Sure. That's luck.
It makes me very crazy.
I'm still not convinced that he can or will lose. There are a great number of people who like collecting unemployment, and the government loves giving it to them, even erroneously. Even with unemployment at 8.2% (still), general unemployment closer to 15%, and college grad unemployment at a scary 16.8%, I still think there are people who like his brand of division.
Seriously the economy in this country hasn't been this bad in decades. I don't know how Jay Carney or the President can get out on that podium everyday and say it's getting better with a straight face. Manufacturing is the lowest it's been in three years. I've already shared the jobs numbers. States continue to face huge budget shortfalls, mostly due to pensions and other committments. And I don't even want to get into what AHA and expanded Medicaid in state's is going to do to budgets, doctor supply, and quality of care.
To be honest the negative-ness of the economy doesn't touch me. We live in Texas. Which is one of the only states to have positive economic growth in the years since the crash in '08. Some of that is natural gas / oil based, but the price and demand for oil has dropped and even with that our unemployment is 6.9% ... not great, but better than the national average.
Do I think Mitt Romney can (or would) fix any of these issues? Yes and no. I think his more friendly business practices would loosen up purse strings from corporations and they would hire. I also think that if some of the tenants of AHA were changed / lifted (the "penalty" on businesses that don't offer healthcare for employees for example) it might encourage people to add head count. No one's going to add a job if it's going to cost them more to do it than it will bring in. And hiring someone, for a small business, is almost always a risk. Lessening that risk would encourage more hiring.
But do I think Romney will "repeal" AHA? Probably not. Because life just sucks that way. Of the major problems I have with AHA, the biggest is that I'm positive we are going to lose our coverage, and our benefits are going to get taxed as income. I'm less concerned with the second part, but majorly concerned about the first. I've started to go into the why of this several times on this blog and I always delete it. It's too personal and none of the bleeding hearts out there care about my plight they only care about the mother of 5 on a single income with no spouse. Because we've been responsible and made good decisions we get no consideration and our issues are deemed unimportant. It's like we've been able to achieve what we have because we cheated or got "lucky." Sure. If luck means working 70-90 work weeks, never taking more than 2-3 days off, and working for commissions. Sure. That's luck.
It makes me very crazy.
Comments