Are You Kidding Me, Obama?

This is why I voted for McCain. Sorry. I have to say it. Because I am pissed. Seriously pissed.

First look at this.

Now let me tell you. I was making jack. John was a deputy jailer for the county in which we lived and Evan was a very young infant. He had started the job, then brought home info on benefits for me to go through and decide on. And insurance coverage for our family of three would have cost him over $800 per month. When he only made $9 an hour. I made $8 an hour because I picked up a job--any job--that had health benefits because of this. And so we were part of the working poor. We both had jobs, we had benefits, but we didn't make enough to live on. What's a girl to do? We got a little bit of help from public assistance programs, but not much because we were an "intact family". Meaning I married my Baby Daddy. Our last names all matched.
So frustrated with both the lack of help and the lack of income, and hating that I wasn't self-sufficient, I did the only thing I knew to do: I went back to school. It wasn't easy. The last time had done the whole college thing was when my mother was dying. And I failed miserably at it, which was a wonder because I excelled in anything academic growing up. So I was scared and nervous and had to figure out how to be a student all over again, but this time with little Evan on my hip. But I did it. And now, as a result, I make enough that the idea of my family ever needing assstance again is laughable. What happens if there isn't enough money for what we want these days? Well, I just work more. And Uncle Sam takes more. There was one month where I worked so much that I paid $4500 in federal taxes in one month.

I'm not preaching about welfare. I've been a recipient, so how could I? But I think it should be limited. Not given so freely and for so long. We happen to live in one of the only upwardly mobile societies on the planet, and if you need welfare or food stamps for that long, you have had time to do something to improve your situation. And when Obama was running his game at election time and preaching about "change", there were only a few of us who stopped and thought, "Hmmmmm, that's great and all, but who the eff is going to foot the bill for all of that change
?" It may seem cruel to say, but when my family needed benefts, I took that $8/hr job scrubbing toilets at a doctor's office to get them. And when I didn't like that we didn't have some of the things our neighbors did, I worked my ass off to get them for us. But I had to have help to do this. I used the programs for the purpose in which they were intended: to gain self-sufficiency.

Now I am a part of the middle class. And when we start doling out all of these promises, it is with my dollars that we do so. I was an investment for the government. I got the help, and within my first year of work in my field, I paid more in taxes than I ever recieved from all forms of assistance combined. And I continue to pay those taxes year after year. If I want to sell a house, I know that I can put a little money into it to make improvements and then I can expect to make a profit on my little investments. It's the same with people. It's just basic business math.

So let's make promises and give out free healthcare. Let's create even more ways for the government to offer aid. Let's keep spending. But let's take away the only way the low-income peeps have of earning more and becoming a more contributory party in our society. Let's fuck with the ability for these same people who are eligible for food stamps/ medical cards/ welfare to get an education so they won't need food stamps/ medical cards/ welfare. On what planet does that make any sense? Because while it's crass for me to say this on the fricken internet, I honestly don't care right now because it's not like I am going to see you to my grocery store or something: A mother-effin' Pell Grant helped me get my $80-90K/ year job. Of which the governmnt gets about $3oK a fricken year. Of course it would make more sense for the government to keep me working scrubbing toilets somewhere for chump change. Of course. And that's what eliminating Pells would have done to me back then.

And so I am pissed. And feeling more "Tea Party"ish than ever. Of course I thought I heard him say this about Pells during his address this past week, but I had been sleeping off a 12 and heard it in a fog on the cusp of awake and asleep, and so thought I was hearing things. And then I realize it's true, that I really did hear it. There's that old saying, and apparently Obama's never heard it, but it has been stuck in my head ever since I realized this fool really said that:

Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, but teach a man to fish and he can eat (pay taxes/ generate revenue/ support his family) for a lifetime.

Let's not teach anybody to fish anymore. We'll just keep handing out fish, day after day after day. Gimme a break.