…to post my extreme dissatisfaction with the United States House of Representatives for leaving all of us working people in the lurch, wondering if we will have enough left over to make ends meet in the new year. THEY have gone on vacation, secure in the knowledge that their transportation to and from work and home is paid for (by tax payers), that their health insurance (paid for by tax payers) is ready to go if they get a boo-boo while skiing on vacation, that their homes are not under foreclosure, their refrigerators have enough food, their winter jackets are warm and their hearths are cozy.
Not so for us, the tax payers. We pay them to do a job, and they have not done it. We pay them to monitor, adjust and rethink the infrastructures that allow us to benefit from OUR hard work. But WE, the tax payers, the WORKERS are seeing our real incomes erode, whether from job loss, cutbacks in hours, increases in costs to work (transportation being an important one), increases in the cost of food, clothing and medicine. Increases in the necessities.
Granted, the intended temporary decrease in payroll tax places a greater burden on the social security system in the future. But at this point in time, raising that back to the original amount creates a current, real, measurable, and potentially devastating hardship for those of us who are close to the edge. And those who are already having to put off buying groceries, or pay the light bill, or wait to seek medical care? It will hit them, too.
The less money we have in our pockets for the necessities, the less we have (obviously) for luxuries. Let’s face it: Right now, our economy depends in great measure, on people having money and time to spend on luxuries — movies, dinner out, consumable goods, leisure activities and supplies.
So the House of Representatives thinks they have earned a vacation?
Let’s give them one next November. Let’s give them a nice, long, extended vacation where they will have time to search for a new job. Maybe if they feel the pinch of insecurity they will have more compassion for those of us who are already searching for jobs, or feeling insecure in our jobs, or employed but wondering how to afford the increased costs when income is stagnant or declining.
UPDATE: December 27, 2011
So the House pulled its head out of its posterior long enough to pass the two-month extension that the Senate had already passed. Before going on vacation. What chutzpah! So now we have two more months of congressional ineptitude and posturing to contend with while people who are more interested in campaigning to keep their seats try to figure out how to squeeze the citizenry of the United States even dryer.
Here’s an NPR story on what’s going on Congress Really is as Bad as You Think.
I’d wish us all a happy new year in a few days, but I just don’t feel that optimistic.