My world is far from hunky dorry... yet I'm grateful for what we're getting...

I have a son out of work, a daughter underemployed, two sisters that have lost their homes to foreclosure, my home is underwater by 50%, I didn't get a raise for the past two years but everything I buy is far more expensive than it was, my car is 8 years old and I commute 42.2 miles round-trip every day and it's sounding mighty taxed running along on those may-pop tires, gas is $3.35 a gallon in my neck of the woods, I work in a professional office and my suits are tattered, but who can afford new? Shoes? Pft... I just had three pair fixed so I can get more miles out of them. I have two floors in my house that are in dire need of repair, and let's not even speak of plumbing. Oh, and my health insurance just TRIPLED! For the first time in 40 years I have to check my checking account and the calendar before I go to the grocery store, and most of my holiday gifts will be hand made because I'm trying to help my family through hard times and I cannot afford much more than that.

There are twice as many homeless in the park when I walk the dogs... the line at the food bank goes all the way around the block. There are twice as many homeless on the streets of Downtown Los Angeles, and the crowds at the various rescue missions are huge.

Fancy that... all that adversity and I still see full well the battle we've been waging, the battle the President has been waging, and the obstructionism that I have never seen with any other President in all of my life.

I have nothing. Not a goddamn fucking thing. My retirement account is gone, my savings are gone, my IRA, my 401k... all fucking gone to help feed and clothe family. And I'd do it all again in a heartbeat.

Hunky dorry? Not a chance.

All of that and I still see that joining in with the Republicans on this mass flogging only helps the Republicans. Oh, I have plenty of rage. But it's not blind.

After watching today's presser, it's clear to me that Obama feels our pain and is doing the best he can with what he's been dealt. I'm not sure what people expect him to do, unless it's the above-referenced running roughshod, which would be as disgusting and as vile as it was when BushCo did it.

I am proud to recommend...

:hug:

Thank you so much! I needed that.

It sure makes one look at things differtly when it hits home. I hope we all can endure the next 2yrs.
Hang in there!

We all need to pull together and stay strong. I'm so glad you got what I was trying to say:)

:hug:

op. I don't think any of us knows what President Obama is facing every morning. How he makes it through each day is beyond me.

Not for all the gold in the world. How he manages to do his job and not spank us every day is beyond me. He's not perfect. He feels he could do things better... he says it all the time.

We can't save everyone today. A few today, a few more tomorrow... that's about all we can hope for with this great big wall of "NO" in front of us.

We can't just throw the baby out with the bath water.

If the President were to force through (i.e., 'run roughshod') changes that would benefit the nation as a whole, THAT would be as 'disgusting and as vile' as the crap that Bush forced through when he was president.

Right. Gotcha.

The end does NOT justify the means. It's called doing the right thing. It's called setting an example. It's called being able to look yourself in the mirror, to be able to look your kids in the face.

Signing statements and executive roughshod is best left to Republicans. I won't be party to that kind of ridiculousness. I hated it when Bush did it, and I'd hate it even more if Obama pulled that crap.

Quick fixes never stick. Doing the right thing means taking the high road and taking the appropriate steps. If things aren't fixed at the core, they aren't really fixed and they can easily be overturned. Drawing a line in the sand is temporary... I'd rather see things set in stone so that once it's fixed, my kids and any grandkids I might have some day don't have to go through this bullshit again. Anything less is so selfish I can't even make my mind go there.

I don't agree with your assessment of the situation, however. You see it as principled, I see it as craven.

Do you honestly think Bush is the only president (Dem or Repub) to use signing statements?
Do you really believe that this President is fixing things 'at the core'? Do you honestly believe that he is setting anything in stone so your kids and grandkids won't have to go through it again?

I don't believe any of that, but I'm glad that you are content with it, though. It obviously makes you feel better to think it's the best solution.

Than all the preceding presidents... combined!?!

Yes, to the next two questions. He's a pragmatist, and he's not stupid. Sacrificing improvement because it isn't idealistically perfect is ridiculous. We could all be sitting sanctimoniously in soup lines right now. How would that help?

Who said anything about content? I'm in a world of hurt right now... not much makes me feel all sweetness and light as you suggest.

I'm not sure what people think is possible here... and I think that's the core problem. Expectations and reality are clashing big time! The brick wall built by the party of NO should just magically fold because Obama tells it to? What the hell is that about? It's not reality based thinking, I know that much.

to capitulation. Here you are saying proudly that the President is a Pragmatist, when moments before you stated that "The end does NOT justify the means." Do you even know what Pragmatism is? It is a system in which the ends fully define the value of the means. You are in utter contradiction.
The President himself claims to be 'faith based' and in fact says that straight people are 'sanctified by God' and others are not. So you present the Faith Based Pragmatist, and you seem not to even see the irony.

'

happy to recommend.

We need to pull together, and soon, or we're really doomed.

:hug:

:yourock:

Sid

:hug:

Thanks for the inspiration.

Thank you for having an open mind and for getting it!

He could, in all actuality, take away the whole hostage situation with UI extension. Simply pay for that extension out of surplus stimulus money. Bonus, since this is what Mitch McConnell wanted him to do last summer, he could actually claim bipartisanship.

Then what is left, the tax cuts, plain, pure and unadorned. And since the overwhelming majority of people favor discontinuing the tax cuts for the rich, it would be an easy fight. Send Obama out into the field to hammer those vulnerable 'Pugs who will be up for election, people like Snowe and Collins, go into their home state and hammer them for their ways. You will get their votes. This has happened before and it can happen now.

All it takes is for the President and Congress to actually stand up and fight.

Without Congressional buy-in? That won't happen.

You haven't a clue. Clearly. There's no such beast as an this mythical "easy fight" of which you babble.

It is a farce.


I'm happy if you're comforted by your sense that he "feels our pain".

As for what people expect him to do, I probably speak for many when I say we expect him to live up to his campaign promise to let the incredibly bad Bush-era tax cuts expire for the richest 2%.

That's not running roughshod.

Where do you get this mythical tax increase on the lowest wage earners BS?

Cleary you are clueless if you think he can single handedly, without Congressional buy-in, allow those tax cuts to expire. Dream on.

Every major news source has reported that the elimination of the Making Work Pay tax credit will result in an INCREASE in the amount of taxes owed by individuals at $20,000 and families at $40,000. That increase is not offset elsewhere in the scheme.

Perhaps you've been out walking the dogs in the park and feeling warm and fuzzy instead of paying attention.

The tax cuts expire. That means NOTHING needs to be done.


If you think things are rough now, wait until the IMF comes in to bailout the U.S. like they've done in Greece and Ireland.

I have been paying attention, very close attention actually. You must have a lofty IQ and great resources in who's who since you seem to think you know more than the rest of us. Seems the jury is still out on the replacement.

http://moneywatch.bnet.com/investing/blog/against-grain/tax-deal-making-work-pay-credit-out-payroll-tax-cut-in/835/

The parsing of the tax deal reached between President Obama and Congress has focused on the two-year extension of the main features of the Bush-era tax cuts, including lower rates on earned income and much lower rates on dividends and long-term capital gains. Receiving less attention is one of the larger and more egalitarian tax breaks of the last two years, the “Making Work Pay” credit.

Whether or not the credit - worth $400 each year for individuals earning $75,000 or less, double for married couples filing jointly - would be extended was a subject of some consternation. Alas it was not part of the deal. There is something in the agreement to replace it, but whether taxpayers should feel better or worse or neither about it is up for debate.

And it appears it didn't really help too many people anyway:

http://www.bankrate.com/financing/taxes/making-work-pay-credit-to-end/

To actually claim the credit, taxpayers have to fill out a new form, Schedule M, when they file their annual tax returns. That was very confusing, since they already had seen the credit's effects via reduced payroll taxes.

So lots of folks ignored Schedule M. Or they filled it out wrong.

The bottom line was that the Making Work Pay credit's good intentions and tax savings were undercut by the confusing administration of the tax break.

I'm sure we'll see the same this coming 2011 filing season. I'm hoping, though, that the hassles will be a little less, since we dealt with it this year.


I still have my fingers... and I can walk my dogs and think at the same time. I'm pretty sure you could too if you tried, and you really should.

you have an incredible ability to put your thoughts into words.

And the ability to listen and think even when you are angry.

Empathy, wisdom, passion, intelligence.

Material things come and go.

Thanks for this excellent post.

K&R

:grouphug:

Thank you so much.

:hug:

I think one of the major problems society has right now is the addiction to material things. They really do hold us back. I have several things that have held me back. I gave up a piano once long ago and it broke my heart, for example. Yet, here I am. Still alive and well... for the moment!

wow.... there is a lot there. makes me so grateful myself. i am so tired, just reading the post.

i agree with you. good op.

Never could fully recover after that and now I have nothing, but I still think people have the right to complain if they feel the POTUS is in error. I think standing lockstep with someone out of duty is admirable, but foolish in the long run when they would rather work with the enemy. If he wants to alienate half his base, then he can. You are far from alone and I trust you hold out hope for Obama, which is great because hope (thankfully) is free.

The BFEE put us all in this shithole and some of us forget where the stink came from.

. . . to the letter. :hug: