Reply #103: Not sure I'd describe what I've had in my life as 'financial security.' [View All]

[laughingliberal]

I lived on $200 per month during nursing school and it was some sort of minor miracle I didn't starve to death. Many days, I was hungry. The day I graduated, I owned my nursing school uniform, 2 pairs of frayed and worn blue jeans (not a fashion statement in those days), 2 pull over sweaters and 2 tee shirts, no winter coat. I had never had a car and I walked and took the bus to get to school. I had a fair amount of student loan debt, also. Not as much as some due to living on nothing and a scholarship I managed to get for my last year 2nd to having the highest GPA in my class.

I had to declare bankruptcy in my 30's over medical expenses. I lost everything in a flood in my early 40's. Once the for profit corps took over our industry, I worked longer hours every year for wages that were not keeping up. I, generally, had a side job on my days off (meaning I really never had any days off). I've never taken a trip out of town that was more than 5 days and I think that's only happened twice. As I said, I lost everything in a flood in my early 40's. I had to relocate to a state where I had some friends I could stay with until I could regroup. My car and my home were destroyed in the flood (along with most of my belongings). The insurance paid the value of my car and left me owing money on it. I had to pull my meager savings at that time to relocate and take care of expenses until I had my nursing license in the new state and found a job.

My life has always been more or less a paycheck to paycheck existence. I went without many things and was putting what I could into savings (which wasn't much) in hopes of retiring some day. I met my husband shortly after the flood and he had just lost everything in a divorce. We picked ourselves up, buckled down, put in grueling hours, and started saving and paying down our debt. In 2005, we had paid off all our debt and managed to save a down payment for a small home we could afford on a couple of acres of land. I was putting back everything I could in a 401k. We were making it and could, for the first time, breathe a little. A year and a half after we bought the house, the housing market tanked and his business slowed to a crawl. We were struggling but reworked our finances as best we could to try to weather it. At the end of 2007, he was diagnosed with cancer and I lost my job. By pulling our savings and tapping ever LOC we had, we managed to keep my COBRA premiums paid long enough to finish his cancer treatments. Other than keeping the insurance paid, it's been subsistence living ever since. I don't know what you call 'financial security' but any security we ever had was dependent on us being able to keep dragging ourselves out there for long days doing grueling work and we were never secure enough to weather any big storms. Having enough to feed ourselves and pay our health insurance for six months is not 'security' for a couple in their 50's.

I am not being manipulated by people 'exploiting my anger and fear.' I thought the deficit commission was a horrible idea and was relieved when the Senate defeated the amendment to create it. I was appalled that President Obama then created it by executive order. Whether that constitutes, 'leading the attack on SS,' or not, I can say, I can't think of a valid reason to have created this commission if he is committed to keeping our benefits intact. And I certainly can't see someone who is against cuts to SS appointing Bruce Reed as Executive Director of the commission and Alans Simpson as co-chair. The timeline he established (giving them a deadline of December) is suspect, also. It is conveniently after the election so we will the vote will be made within weeks of the election by a group of lawmakers who have all either just been elected and are, therefore, safe for a couple of years or who will be polishing their resume for a job in the private sector. I am not happy that all I have heard him say, lately, is that he will oppose privatization. That is a good thing. But it worries me he has not said he'll oppose cuts to benefits. I've seen some here say he has said some 'modest changes' are all that would be needed. But who knows if he considers raising the retirement age to 70 'modest?'

I can't speak for others but I don't have a goal of 'taking shots' at President Obama. I do have a goal of seeing him change the way he's been doing a lot of things. I don't like the attacks on 'the left' I've seen come out of his administration. The regularity with which I see them engage in these attacks do lead me to believe they don't have much use for us or our ideas.

I would like to see a little more indication that they are aware of the struggles of people like me (and you, for that matter) and that they have some ideas of how to turn this around for us.