Give Myself Permission to Voice My Opinion

Believe it or not, this is actually part of my living out loud. Today I'm giving myself permission to voice my opinion. I used to be a very opinionated person. Some people might say I still am. But I actually keep most of my opinions to myself. I've learned most of the time people don't want to hear my opinion, they just want to be heard. And I also don't like to be told my opinion is wrong. But today, today I HAVE to express this opinion. And you can tell me it's wrong if you want, but you probably won't change my mind.

I think this is one of the VERY few times I have used my blog for something political but it's my blog and I can do that.

The government, in an effort to reduce spending, let an extension on unemployment "expire". To about 93% of the country that means nothing. They are not effected nor do they care. But to that 7% it is life altering and devastating. Right now in Washington DC they are deciding if they should reinstate those payments. I hear it's passed the senate.

Let me interject here, I am not sharing this for any pity or handouts. In fact that's the last thing I want- so don't do it!!!

We are part of that 7% that is deeply effected. Doug lost his unemployment pay this week. I've been thinking about this. It sucks! It sucks bad! Yes, I work. I earn enough that I make our house payment and can pay for a few other things. Probably about 1/4 of what our needs are. And when I say needs, I mean needs. Doug's unemployment made up part of that other 3/4. On paper we always come up short, somehow, I believe through divine intervention (usually through earth angels), we have not bounced a check or not been able to feed our family or lost our house or had our electricity turned off.

What I'm really thinking about now is the effect this political game is having on our economy and how far reaching that will be. I think about our own little family and what this means to us. It means I am pulling Katie out of voice lessons (the only extracurricular thing any of my kids are still involved in). This is too bad for Katie, she comes alive when she sings. But her teacher it's taking her income away too, and she also has an unemployed husband. For groceries we will use only what is in our house and what we can forage from my mom's house. There will be no trips to the store or to take the kids to their friends house that take extra gas. There is a whole stack of medical bills sitting here that will not be paid for a while. This is just a drop in the bucket of our money that is not being spent. And our little family is just a drop in the bucket. I think about how much this effects the economy, it's a snowball. And there are thousands of other families out there in the exact same predicament. Because of the trickle down or snowball effect I think many more than just that 7% are going to be impacted by this decision.

I know that our government needs to curb spending. And I know that there are no easy answers and honestly, I'm not offering any. I don't get paid $174,000/year to come up with those ideas. But if they really want to stimulate the economy and they really want to help their constituents, there ought to be something else they can cut. Maybe their salary? I bet they could survive on a few thousand less dollars.

Now don't start in on me about living on welfare. As a person who works with payroll almost everyday of my life, I don't believe unemployment is welfare. I know how much employers pay for unemployment benefits for their employees. In some industries, like construction, employers can be paying as much as 10% of your wage for unemployment insurance. And that's exactly what it is, insurance. We've paid into it for 20 years and we will pay into it for another 25 years. I also don't believe that it should be a long term solution for an unemployed person but it's not. And it's not for someone who is not doing everything in their power to get back to work. So, there it is, my opinion. Take it for what it's worth. But I feel better getting it out there.