For the record…I believe in freedom of speech and you can believe what you want. This is my blog so it’s my views. If someone does not like my views, they don’t have to read it. I won’t read their blog if I don’t like them either…all is fair.
Anyway, here is why I am voting red instead of blue this election, quite different from my vote last year.
I know that I will have a lot of people read this post and disagree with everything I say and others will agree. That is our freedom…to be able to voice our opinion and have our own thoughts. I guess Facebook missed that part in the constitution as they started deleting all the negative status updates during the last 2012 debate last night. I have not heard of any negative status updates about Romney being deleted so if you have heard of any please let me know.
Here is what has happened in my MIDDLE CLASS home since 2008…
1. My husband had the same job from 2007-mid 2012 and we NEVER got a raise. We have actually claimed a small business loss (my home business) of nearly $2,000 since 2009. Our tax return has decreased just over $800 since 2009. our adjusted gross income has gone down and so has our tax return. That math does not add up in my opinion.
2. I had a $20 co-pay on my insurance pre-2008 election. I was so ecstatic to have the co-pay for well visits relieved around 2009. yay! Then I got some bills I have NEVER got before…for well visits! It least when I paid my $20 co-pay for well visits that was it. Now I get a bill every time I take myself or my kids to well visits. The smallest bill was for $79 and the largest bill was for $156. Now I don’t know about you but I would rather pay $20. I have so many medical bills right now it’s ridiculous. I also did have one over night hospital stay for myself back in 2011 and I even qualified for some grant money to pay for half of my bill and I still came out owing, out of pocket about $1700…that was half!
As of today I pay almost $300 a month in MINIMUM payments for my medical bills. Just when I get caught up and it’s time for a well visit again we have to add some more to the plate.
3. I have received a letter for the last 2-years from my daughter’s school saying that their school did not score as expected on some tests meaning they are below average. Now to be fair I have only had my daughter in public school for 2-years so I can’t compare what happened prior. I just keep hearing all the hype of what Obama has done for our schools and getting those letters were disappointing.
4. Government control is getting out of hand. They want to have their hand in everything. I feel like we are heading in the direction, back int he “old days” where they come around to your town and knock on your door for more taxes. My husband is getting a higher percentage of taxes taken out of his paycheck since 2009. WTF…we made under $50,000 a year and our taxes were hiked. I do a six month budget and it has gone up, but yet I keep hearing the current president bragging on how the middle class taxes have lowered? Um, only if middle class makes less then we do and only if we are considered higher class now at under $50,000 year. I have it in black and white in my pay stubs file.
5. My in-laws have been pushed off base for some medical care. This is medical care they have received for years on the Air Force base. In fact my in-laws have actually, for the first time ever, had to pay out of pocket expenses for medications and medical care. Come on…seriously?! This is how we appreciate our military buy taking their benefits away and the funding for the military to keep doctors on base etc? We would not be free without them. I use the word FREE loosely as our country is turning socialist not free, which isn’t that the opposite of what our military fights for in the first place?
6. I am one that likes to talk to someone when I need customer service. I hate it that we are a world that does texts and e-mails before a phone call. Drives me nuts. I am tired of getting customer service representatives, for US companies that cannot speak English, well! I have hung up on more agents in the past 2-3 years then I ever have. And come on…telling the foreign agent to answer the phone and give a American name does not make it better. More and more of my companies I call are guilty of this. Now if I lived in a different country or if I called a company that is from overseas then yes I expect to not understand them well, or at all…duh. But if it is a US company that is hiring overseas workers then I am sorry, that is not right. I don’t even like to call customer service anymore. I guess this is good for the company…frustrate enough people then I guess you get less complaints because they won’t call. Does this sound right? In the last 4-years there is/has not been jobs brought back from overseas. In fact I have seen more and more businesses fail and had more friends lose their jobs. I have had multiple friends file bankruptcy and foreclose on their homes. It has not gotten better.
7. I have also had a few people that were/are on unemployment say right to me “I got tons of time to look for a job because they just extended my unemplo9yment benefits for another XX amount of months.” One was an 18 month extension. One of those even told me that they were going to use that time to stay home and catch up on their soaps…yes that is true. When it came to month 16 she looked for a job, found one and went back to work, got fired again withing the allotted time and is now BACK on unemployment and she calls it “her paycheck from the government.” And she is proud as hell about that. OMG to me that is crazy. Someone has to pay for the unemployment, uh yes us who actively work. I don’t think I have gone more then 2-weeks, even staying home with my kids, where I haven’t actively tried to do something from home. My husband went on unemployment once for 6-weeks and we hated it. We felt so guilty taking the money and we were so happy to get off of it. We understood where the money comes from.
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The problem, as I see it, is that running for President is not what it used to be. I have not liked either side candidate for a few elections now. Even in this election I don’t love either of them, but I am going to vote for change and that change is not going to be the same as it has for 4-years. I am terrified of turning into a government run country. of course we need government but the way the current president is doing it is over kill. We need the government where we need them and not in everything.
I have had experience with socialized medicine and am still having issues with it with my family up north. There have been doctors that have treated my family that have said right to there face that if they could have more control over their patients, they would have been able to get help earlier and they would have not suffered so much. my Grandma is almost 100% bind in one eye because they had to keep pushing her appointment back from August to February, because she was not an “active citizen.” The doctor told her that if he could have seen her in the beginning, when she was originally scheduled, she would not be blind.
Someone else I loved needed a pet scan and fast because the cancer had returned. They scheduled her 8 weeks out, She was told that if she could come up with $5,000 cash then they could get her in within 2-weeks. Really, that is ridiculous. So where do you think the $5,000 went that got raised for her scan? To the government. More Government is not an answer to our health care here in the US.
There have been multiple issues with socialized medicine that have hit me way too close to home. I do not want it and will fight against it, because I have lived it!
Our health care system does need work but adding more government control is not it. Before Obama care I could actually afford to give my family well-visits. The birth of my first child before Obama care was about $1500 cheaper, out of pocket, then my last child born in 2009 during Obama care. I have kept file folders of bills to prove it and we had the SAME insurance company for both.
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I don’t declare a party because I just don’t support one side enough to do that and feel good about it. I now and will always claim independent.
For me this would be the perfect candidate. Again, this is for me and maybe if I would have been born in the US I would run for office but unlike others I won’t fabricate a birth certificate to do so. Yes I believe the current president fabricated the certificate. Come on people, if it takes 2-years to show a certificate then something is fishy. The current president keeps trying to get on Romney’s case for not wanting to show his tax return, but he would not show a birth certificate. Hmmmm, deep thought. Anyway here are just a few things I would like to see in a future candidate.
1. Let people marry who they want an get benefits if they want to have kids. Gay or straight who cares, we are all people and all children deserve to be taken care of. Besides, that would help the economy too. People pay big bucks for weddings. This would only help money be put back into our businesses. A free country means we are free to be who we want to be so get over it people and let people live their lives how they want.
2. Keep government to where it is needed. They don’t need to have their hands in everyone’s cookie jar. This is not freedom. Ever heard of Hitler…power is addicting.
3. Make health care affordable and not just for the poverty stricken. Everyone deserves affordable health care.Obama care is not doing this…sorry but my bills in the mail say , uh no!
4. Quit showing commercials and sitting in a debate and attacking the other candidate. Just shut-up and tell me what you are going to do…I don’t want to elect a bully. Good lord both candidates have been doing this way too often in this election. The debates have actually left me with a huge knot in my stomach…all they do is attack each other and the interruptions…good god, how old are you, and didn’t your Mother teach you that it is rude to interrupt? There is better tactics then interruptions.
5. Don’t promise a specific time line for things. The president now said 3-years for the economy, and a 2008 and 2012 for our military release, and Romney said 2014 for our military last night in the debate. Don’t make promises you can’t keep and then make excuses in the next election why none of the promises have been kept. Be honest and say “this is my plan…and we hope it works. IDK, but date promises don’t happen…ever! Let your first 4-years decide if you will be back for years 5-8. You HAVE to make a difference in the first 4…period!
6. Everyone needs to do their share. If you can work then do what you need to do to work. Don’t make it easier to live off of the state. All that does is raise our taxes. Make the max time you can be on unemployment shorter then it is now and have a better system for those to prove they are looking for work.
7. Before you spend Trillions of dollars on traveling around the world, take care of our local issues first and then venture out into the world. We have Skype and other means to talk around the world before our taxes get hiked up for long trips.
8. Actually do what you promise to do and quit hiring someone to talk for you…write your own damn speech and speak from the heart and actually answer the damn questions that are asked. Not one candidate did this well in the debates. They just went on attacking each other. neither actually gave detailed plans for anything, they just said they had them.
I could go on but my point is that we need the best from both sides and we have yet to have a candidate run that has it, in my opinion.
The election has become a place to become famous and powerful…that was not the original intent. If you want fame and fortune then go be an awesome actor. Run my damn country fair and in a way that everyone is taken care of.
Well anyway, I am sure I will lose some readers, gain some readers, who knows. This is just my opinion and a place where I am allowed to write them.
If you don’t like them, you don’t have to come back. If you do like them then we think the same. Either way that is my vent.
I voted blue in the last election and this time I am voting red. For me voting blue in 2008 was a very big mistake. I did not realize that until about 2-3 years ago what a mistake that was. But live and learn. Who knows if my vote will even matter but at the end of the day it least I studied and went with what was in my heart, and I will do that again. Now if whomever wins will actually do what they say then that will be a big plus.
Peace and happy voting, whichever side you are on, I wish you well.
Just another side note. Please vote if you are of age but please don’t let anyone tell you who to vote for. Don’t vote on just one issue. Study the issues, watch the debate and make the decision for what fits you. If you are not going to study and just vote because tells you who to vote for then please don’t go out and vote.
View Comments (3)
I have already voted because we are not going t be in town on election day. Great Post Tawna!! Happy to see you are voting red!
Looking for coupons, I happened upon your blog. First and last time visitor.
Thumbs up on nearly every word !!
I did not vote blue in any elections for at least 10 years, probably more...I may have in the distant past but the parties have changed a lot since I was in my 20s and I find current conservative values are my values...
for example, I will give money to others for their benefit if I want to and I do not like the gov't collecting taxes to give money to others to buy Tic Tacs and Pepsi and potato chips for years and years. Someone able to collect on housing and food and heating etc benefits for more than a few months means the system is broken! I believe that gov't assistance is for only those who fall on hard times, not those decide to not work or decide to work minimally.
I agree with every one of your points except the marrying to obtain benefits part. Here is my reasoning. If a person's job does not offer health care, keep pounding the pavement to find one. If an unmarried partner wants to stay at home but wants health care coverage, that is a conscious choice that was made. Accommodation needs to be found, such as a policy bought directly from a company; if unable to because of, say, preexisting conditions, they need to choose between no coverage or no staying at home. I think that it may be either a law or possibly an unbreakable rule that kids are covered as long as they are yours.
I LOVE your closing: Study the issues, watch the debate and make the decision for what fits you. If you are not going to study and just vote because tells you who to vote for then please don’t go out and vote.