From my FB posts, you may think I'm so rabid about Obama because of the GOP's medieval policy on Women's Rights (i.e. birth control and abortion rights), but it goes so much farther than that. I will not post any more political items on FB after this...I PROMISE, but just look at my position.
Background:
None of the above will affect whether the sun comes up or not in the morning. Here are the problems I have with the Republican Platform and why I'm gonna have to back Obama in 2012.
WOMEN'S RIGHTS
I'm a mother and a grandmother. I have a sister and nieces and girlfriends. The GOP Platform is not only threatening to reverse Roe v Wade, it will make birth control illegal. WHITE DADS, Look at your daughters and granddaughters? What kind of future do you want for them?
OBAMACARE
ROMNEY vows to repeal ObamaCare the minute he hits the Oval Office. See, that confuses the hell out of me since ObamaCare is based on Romney's healtcare plan in Massachusetts (that's doing quite well, thank you very much).
You may think, "Well, it takes forfuckingever to repeal anything in D.C., but all they have to do is quit funding it. No repeal, just take the funding away and it implodes.
From what I can tell from the law, link to follow, it doesn't raise taxes, it reduces the deficit by $130 billion in 10 years, allows 123 million Americans to be able to afford healthcare. The personal mandate has no teeth, so the fines won't be collected. There are tax incentives for small business, families in the poverty level and
MEDICARE, MEDICAID, AND SOCIAL SECURITY
Under ROMNEY's plan, Medicare will eventually go to a voucher program, costing seniors an estimated $6k a year for healthcare, if they can find it. I can just imagine my mom trying to find healthcare at age 80, and it makes me sad.
When you say Medicaid, you think poor black people, right (I know you do). Medicaid helps poor children, who don't have a choice, stay healthy. Medicaid also helps seniors in nursing homes and children with disabilities. One of my daughter's friends has a brother with Huntington's disease, and though he was supposed to have died 10 years ago, he's still kickin' it. Her infant son was recently diagnosed with Huntington's, and trust me, they don't have the money to fight this illness on their own. If ROMNEY is elected, chances are she'll lose her Medicaid and her son will have a greatly shortened lifespan.
Social Security, I'm not sure of. He hasn't said (not that he's said much about anything).
IMMIGRATION
We should have strong boarders. But if Romney goes the way of Arizona, all you have to do is be brown to be pulled over to show "Papers, please." I've got a lot of Hispanic friends that were born in Texas and can't speak a lick of Spanish, but if Romney is elected, I sure hope they have their "papers"
EDUCATION
My daughter graduated from high school in 2005, and she's a smart kid. But I'm telling you, education-wise (science and math), the class of 2005 is dumb as a bowl of mice. I always told my kids that the only thing you get for free in life is 12 years of education...and by God, No Child Left Behind has been worth every penny. If you can fog up a mirror, you can get your high school diploma. Do you guys remember David Z? He made a career of being a senior....didn't it take him 4 years to get out of 12th grade?
It took me 8 years to pay off my student loans for a job that paid so little that I couldn't afford to take the job that I had studied for!
My daughter and both nieces will be paying until eternity on their student loans.
ROMNEY wants to cut education, reduce available Pell Grants and supports private "colleges" (like University of Phoenix).
OBAMA wants to invest in education, provide MORE Pell Grants so that our kids can go to college, parent won't go broke paying for it . In addition, student loan repayments will be linked on a sliding scale based on the student's income. So we'll actually have more primary care providers (lower on the pay scale than hear surgeons). Obama wants to reward good teachers. Under ROMNEY, good teachers with more tenure would be let go for teachers who just graduated themselves. I'm all for new teachers, but we need MORE, not less teachers.
THE ENVIRONMENT (sans eye-roll)
Yeah, I've never chained myself to a Redwood and I'm not real fond of owls, but I like to know that my water isn't flammable, and the air I breathe won't kill a canary. I want to know that the New York subway will remain above-water, that the people living on Pacific atolls don't have to relocate or drown, that the polar bears will be safe.
I want to know that my eggs are salmonella-free, my beef isn't so full of antibiotics that my natural immunity won't allow me to fight a common cold. That Monsanto won't introduce a newer and improved GMO that will make me glow in the dark.
I don't want crude oil in my lobster or a gas well in my backyard. I don't want to have to move to Montana because my state is underwater.
Basically I don't want to leave a burned earth for my grandkids, and whether you believe in global warming or not the climate IS changing. Asthma rates are up. How many kids did YOU go to school with that were allergic to peanuts? I'm not sure what we've done to our kids, but something's happening...to our kids and to the climate.
TAXES and the Economy
Romney wants to give the rich MORE tax cuts ($6 trillion out of the gate). In addition, he wants to add $2 trillion more to defense spending than the Pentagon even wants. That's $8 trillion in the red before the sun goes down on his first day in office. So where's the money coming from?
In closing, remember the awe we felt when we landed on the moon? Remember, back then we had heroes, we had something to aspire to. We knew if we applied ourselves and kept out of trouble, there wasn't anything we couldn't be or do. Our parents told us that and they provided a foundation so that we could! That's what I told my daughter, and it's the only time in my life (other than the Santa Claus thing) that I lied to her. I'm not sure what she's going to tell my granddaughter.
The middle-class is not a four-letter word. Our economy does better when we have a strong middle class. The middle class is where small business is spawned. If you have a stronger, educated, employed middle class you automatically have more revenue, because people with jobs pay income tax. The middle class is where our innovations came from. I'm tired of "sucking hind tit" in innovation, science, technology and mathematics. I want music and art to once again become an important part of K-12 education. I don't want to have to learn to speak Manduran. I want everyone to have a chance to thrive or fuck-up, whatever they want to do. I want talented people to be able to contribute to America's strength and prosperity. I want smooth roads and safe bridges and the money in my pocket to drive on them. I want ALL of us to be able to dream again about what is possible, not be shackled down to living one paycheck from homelessness and too worried to have a sentient idea during the day, much less a dream.
Read this stuff over, think for yourself and then decide. Then drop me a note and let me know:
Background:
- I've voted primarily Republican since my 2nd Presidential election. My Dad, a Blue Dog Democrat, was there for the first, so I voted straight Democratic ticket, since he showed me how to work the voting booth.
- That being said I'm not political and I generally base my voting decisions on "the lesser of two evils. I voted for W both times, but truthfully if John Kerry hadn't reminded me of one of those weird trees in The Wizard of Oz, I might have voted Democrat in '04.
- I have always believed that there should be a big, BIG wall between Church and State. I don't want the church dictating federal law and I don't want Government dictating religion.
- I think we need to do something about illegal immigration. We should put those who are criminals and non-achievers back on the first bus to Juarez. However, I know a lot of people who had the good fortune to be born on the "right" side of the border that I would readily swap for a productive intelligent "illegal".
- I'm basically Pro-Life, but I don't think my opinion should keep you from being Pro-Choice. I've always thought (in my warped way) that we should apply the 3-strike rule to abortions. After your third, we take your uterus - you cannot use it responsibly.
- I think pot should be legal. We're spending $6billion a year to protect our borders - the drug cartels are raking in the dough, border violence is through the roof. Legalize it and tax it.
- I don't give a rat's ass how many guns you have; you need to be prepared for the Zombie Apocalypse. But something needs to be done about multiple round mags and the easy availability of assault weapons. For me it's like getting your driver's license. Unless you're Ray Charles, you can get you Class C license. Granted you have to pass a test for a Class C, and any idiot without a criminal record can pretty much get a gun - so the comparison is not that much the same, but I digress. So, let's compare an assault weapon to a semi. You have to go through training and obtain a CDL license to drive a truck. I think you should do the same to purchase an assault weapon, and then baby, Arm Up 'cos the Zombies are coming.
- I think LBG have the right to be as miserable as the rest of us. Legalize gay marriage.
None of the above will affect whether the sun comes up or not in the morning. Here are the problems I have with the Republican Platform and why I'm gonna have to back Obama in 2012.
WOMEN'S RIGHTS
I'm a mother and a grandmother. I have a sister and nieces and girlfriends. The GOP Platform is not only threatening to reverse Roe v Wade, it will make birth control illegal. WHITE DADS, Look at your daughters and granddaughters? What kind of future do you want for them?
- I used Planned Parenthood when I was a teenager, because I was embarrassed to go to the family doctor, but basically, I was bleeding to death each month. Yeah, Planned Parenthood put me on the pill, but it worked. I was able to function and be a teenager.
- Pregnancy spread like Ebola in my family. First my niece, then my daughter, then my other niece, then my other daughter, then the first niece (again!). Abortion wasn't even considered, all babies were born healthy, but...WHAT IF....
- my daughter, niece, granddaughter, finds out she's pregnant. Then she finds out that she has Inflammatory Breast Cancer (very rare, very aggressive). In order to receive treatment, they need to abort the pregnancy. Under Romney, they could not abort. Against the law. So I have to sit by and watch my daughter, niece, granddaughter, go through unimaginable pain and die and probably lose the baby anyway. Under Obama, I'd cry the loss of a little one and the pain that this horrible decision has caused my child, but I DIDN'T know that child yet. I KNOW my daughter, niece granddaughter and THEIR loss would leave a huge hole in our family, leave motherless children and increased burdens on the father who has to not only be the ONLY breadwinner, but try to parent a motherless child. You cannot tell me that there would not be an underlying, probably unconscious resentment for that child, no matter how much it's loved.
- My daughter, niece, granddaughter is pregnant. Suddenly at the beginning of her second trimester she inexplicably aborts. Under Romney, she might be jailed for murder, unless she could prove medically that the abortion happened "LEGITIMATELY".
- Women that don't have insurance use Planned Parenthood for cancer screenings. Romney wants to get rid of Planned Parenthood. Fine, but he's also hell-bent on revoking ObamaCare, so what the hell are women supposed to do?
- Women make up 49% of the work force. If a woman loses her job because of illness or pregnancy, how does the rent get paid? Who feeds the kids? There you go...another family on welfare.
- Republicans voted against the Paycheck Fairness Act. Equal pay for equal work. I was a manager of an auto parts store for many years. I had one of the higher-volume stores, but you know what? I found out that I made 2/3 what the guy at the store down the street with less than 1/2 my volume made.
OBAMACARE
ROMNEY vows to repeal ObamaCare the minute he hits the Oval Office. See, that confuses the hell out of me since ObamaCare is based on Romney's healtcare plan in Massachusetts (that's doing quite well, thank you very much).
You may think, "Well, it takes forfuckingever to repeal anything in D.C., but all they have to do is quit funding it. No repeal, just take the funding away and it implodes.
From what I can tell from the law, link to follow, it doesn't raise taxes, it reduces the deficit by $130 billion in 10 years, allows 123 million Americans to be able to afford healthcare. The personal mandate has no teeth, so the fines won't be collected. There are tax incentives for small business, families in the poverty level and
- When I go to the Emergency Room, I won't have to sit with 50 who use the E.R. as their primary care provider.
- Instead of paying $3k for an MRI (which my Dr loves to run every year), I might pay $2k, because the hospitals won't have to pad my bill to make up for the free healthcare they are currently providing.
- My daugter's healtcare is scheduled to go from $400 to over $900 a month in November. With Obamacare, I can put her on my insurance if she can't find coverage she can afford. My granddaughter's not covered, but my daughter is.
- My sister can finally afford adequate healthcare.
- God forbid, one of my grandkids should be diagnosed with a debilitating illness. Under OBAMA care, they can still get insurance (pre-existing condition) and my daughter doesn't have to worry about using her lifetime coverage in two years.
- Pregnancy is NOT a pre-existing condition.
MEDICARE, MEDICAID, AND SOCIAL SECURITY
Under ROMNEY's plan, Medicare will eventually go to a voucher program, costing seniors an estimated $6k a year for healthcare, if they can find it. I can just imagine my mom trying to find healthcare at age 80, and it makes me sad.
When you say Medicaid, you think poor black people, right (I know you do). Medicaid helps poor children, who don't have a choice, stay healthy. Medicaid also helps seniors in nursing homes and children with disabilities. One of my daughter's friends has a brother with Huntington's disease, and though he was supposed to have died 10 years ago, he's still kickin' it. Her infant son was recently diagnosed with Huntington's, and trust me, they don't have the money to fight this illness on their own. If ROMNEY is elected, chances are she'll lose her Medicaid and her son will have a greatly shortened lifespan.
Social Security, I'm not sure of. He hasn't said (not that he's said much about anything).
IMMIGRATION
We should have strong boarders. But if Romney goes the way of Arizona, all you have to do is be brown to be pulled over to show "Papers, please." I've got a lot of Hispanic friends that were born in Texas and can't speak a lick of Spanish, but if Romney is elected, I sure hope they have their "papers"
EDUCATION
My daughter graduated from high school in 2005, and she's a smart kid. But I'm telling you, education-wise (science and math), the class of 2005 is dumb as a bowl of mice. I always told my kids that the only thing you get for free in life is 12 years of education...and by God, No Child Left Behind has been worth every penny. If you can fog up a mirror, you can get your high school diploma. Do you guys remember David Z? He made a career of being a senior....didn't it take him 4 years to get out of 12th grade?
It took me 8 years to pay off my student loans for a job that paid so little that I couldn't afford to take the job that I had studied for!
My daughter and both nieces will be paying until eternity on their student loans.
ROMNEY wants to cut education, reduce available Pell Grants and supports private "colleges" (like University of Phoenix).
OBAMA wants to invest in education, provide MORE Pell Grants so that our kids can go to college, parent won't go broke paying for it . In addition, student loan repayments will be linked on a sliding scale based on the student's income. So we'll actually have more primary care providers (lower on the pay scale than hear surgeons). Obama wants to reward good teachers. Under ROMNEY, good teachers with more tenure would be let go for teachers who just graduated themselves. I'm all for new teachers, but we need MORE, not less teachers.
THE ENVIRONMENT (sans eye-roll)
Yeah, I've never chained myself to a Redwood and I'm not real fond of owls, but I like to know that my water isn't flammable, and the air I breathe won't kill a canary. I want to know that the New York subway will remain above-water, that the people living on Pacific atolls don't have to relocate or drown, that the polar bears will be safe.
I want to know that my eggs are salmonella-free, my beef isn't so full of antibiotics that my natural immunity won't allow me to fight a common cold. That Monsanto won't introduce a newer and improved GMO that will make me glow in the dark.
I don't want crude oil in my lobster or a gas well in my backyard. I don't want to have to move to Montana because my state is underwater.
Basically I don't want to leave a burned earth for my grandkids, and whether you believe in global warming or not the climate IS changing. Asthma rates are up. How many kids did YOU go to school with that were allergic to peanuts? I'm not sure what we've done to our kids, but something's happening...to our kids and to the climate.
TAXES and the Economy
Romney wants to give the rich MORE tax cuts ($6 trillion out of the gate). In addition, he wants to add $2 trillion more to defense spending than the Pentagon even wants. That's $8 trillion in the red before the sun goes down on his first day in office. So where's the money coming from?
- Medicare cuts (well, eventually abolishing it)
- Medicaid cuts
- Increased taxes on the middle class (they've got to come from somewhere, and the poor don't have any money, so good by nest-egg.
- No funding for Planned Parenthood, Early Kindergarten Programs, Free School Lunch Programs.
- Reducing funding or abolishing (not sure yet) on EPA, USDA, FDA.
- Cut funding to teachers, policeman and firefighters (marshmallows anyone? It's gonna be a hell of a fire!)
- Cut funding for transportation and infrastructure. You know that pothole down the street? Wait for it. Under ROMNEY, it will grow, and grow, and grow.
In closing, remember the awe we felt when we landed on the moon? Remember, back then we had heroes, we had something to aspire to. We knew if we applied ourselves and kept out of trouble, there wasn't anything we couldn't be or do. Our parents told us that and they provided a foundation so that we could! That's what I told my daughter, and it's the only time in my life (other than the Santa Claus thing) that I lied to her. I'm not sure what she's going to tell my granddaughter.
The middle-class is not a four-letter word. Our economy does better when we have a strong middle class. The middle class is where small business is spawned. If you have a stronger, educated, employed middle class you automatically have more revenue, because people with jobs pay income tax. The middle class is where our innovations came from. I'm tired of "sucking hind tit" in innovation, science, technology and mathematics. I want music and art to once again become an important part of K-12 education. I don't want to have to learn to speak Manduran. I want everyone to have a chance to thrive or fuck-up, whatever they want to do. I want talented people to be able to contribute to America's strength and prosperity. I want smooth roads and safe bridges and the money in my pocket to drive on them. I want ALL of us to be able to dream again about what is possible, not be shackled down to living one paycheck from homelessness and too worried to have a sentient idea during the day, much less a dream.
Read this stuff over, think for yourself and then decide. Then drop me a note and let me know: