Monday, February 28, 2011

Monday Morning Musings

Our newly elected Congress has proposed a budget that largely will defund programs that serve the elderly, the poor, women and children. Agencies that protect and watch the environment, no money for you!

See, dear working class and you people still managing to cling to your middle class status, times are tough. We all must make sacrifices. We all must share the pain.

Unless, of course, you are in the top levels of personal income, then Congress stayed late over Christmas to make sure your tax cuts stayed in place.

You know, wink, wink, nudge, nudge, those tax cuts that President Bush implemented way back in 2001 so that the rich could create jobs for us poor slobs? Um, have you seen a vast upsurge in jobs over the past 10 years? Cos I haven't.

And, of course, the big oil companies aren't taking any reductions in the estimated four billion, yes, BILLION A YEAR in subsidies they get from the taxpayers.

And yet, WIC, which assists with specific, high nutrition food items for poor WORKING families is going to loose $758 million. Here is a factlet: an entry level soldier in the army who is married and has a child would have an income to qualify his family for WIC.

So, Congress has decreed that you can die for your country, but your country won't buy your child a gallon of milk.

I bet they all got yellow ribbons on their cars too.

And yet, Title X which provides pap smears, mammograms, birth control and STD treatment, including testing and counseling for HIV, they are losing $327 million.

I guess Congress thinks that if all those damn poor women just die of cervical and breast cancer, oh well.

And if they have more children because they don't have access to reliable birth control, well, then we can just vilify them even more, can't we?

Wonder if they participate in Komen runs for breast cancer awareness and wear pink ribbons?

Both these programs could be funded from the money given to oil companies. And more. Seriously, I'm beginning to think that they do just want all us poor people to just hurry up and die so we'll stop getting in the way of the profit margins of the corporate citizens they really want to serve.

Big corporations have the money to buy influence, but we are the people who walk into the voting booths and push the buttons.

Let's start to remind them of that.

If they get one or two emails, they hit delete and it never gets beyond the intern they hired to screen the mail. They start getting thousands, and they have to pay attention.

Come on people. Hit the link, follow the "contact" links, fill in the form. It's so easy, you don't even have to walk out to your mail box! Or spend money on a stamp. Just quick, before checking your email or twitter or facebook or favorite blogs, zip out a note to your representative and senators, tell them what you want them to do or not do.

Pretty please, with sugar on top????

Thor sez: Only you can prevent corporate takeover of government!

3 comments:

Sharon said...

I'm with you, Janet, I really am. There's just a limit I hit way too soon before I just can't click on another link to sign a petition or send another 20 bucks to MoveOn or the DCCC.

But I will. Because we have to stand up and fight the battles over and over again. I just wish the damn war would be over one of these days.

JanetLee said...

Sharon, I understand and I agree. I will do a petition occasionally and I have my list of charities that get the smaller and smaller portions I can mete out to them, even though my earnings are still creeping up each year, they don't seem to go to far.

That's why I primarily write to my representatives. It's free, it's easy and it puts my words directly to who I need to talk to.

Only problem I have is that in the reddest of the red states, I feel like the lone voice in the wilderness and I like to know that there are others out there with me, just every once in a while.

Sharon said...

Well, I'm in one of the bluest neighborhoods in one of the (if not actually "the") bluest state, so I'm not much comfort, I guess--but you are not alone. And I'm grateful that you do what you do.