- The price of a gallon of gas has more than doubled from around $1.45 to nearly $3.00.
- The Consumer Price index has risen by 26% from 147.2 to 200.6.
- The Federal Minimum Wage has increased 17.4%... all the way to $5.15 per hour and has remained unchanged since 1997.
- The number of persons without health insurance has risen from 15.2% to 15.9%.
- The national debt has nearly doubled from 4.7 to 8.6 TRILLION DOLLARS and is increasing by an average of 1.23 Billion Dollars a day.
- Attempted to change our constitution from a document that defines our liberties into one that restricts them with their Federal Marriage Amendment.
- Created the "USA Patriot Act", effectively eliminating our first and fourth amendment rights as US Citizens.
I admit I'm not a very politically minded person. I almost always vote and I try to keep myself informed about what our government is up to but I really just can't throw myself into politics. To me it's kind of like football... when it comes right down to it, I simply don't care... so when I started thinking about writing a new blog it surprised me when my thoughts started towards politics. See, the problem is that for years now I've been under the influence of "Organized Religion" and I've fallen into the trap of just listening to what was said from the pulpit and not bothering to engage my brain. What a waste of ballots I've been.
You've read the list above... have you figured out what it is yet? It's a short list of things that come to my mind when I think of all the accomplishments of the GOP since they gained control of both The House and Senate in 1994. This is the party I have voted for almost exclusively since I was enfranchised. Those six points, as well as many others not listed, are my fault because I didn't think for myself instead of listening to some egomaniac with his own agenda.
This last election was different. This time I really started looking into what my elected officials were doing. Are they serving my interests and those of my neighbors or are they serving the interest of big business? When I started making that my criteria instead of just whether or not they are pro-choice or pro-gay-rights, I discovered that most of the candidates backed by organized religion don't give a rat's ass about their constituency. They care about their constituency's employers. They leave the minimum wage at $5.25 an hour because that helps businesses make profits. They allow the major oil companies to charge outrageous prices for a gallon of gas because it allows those companies to post record profits... in spite of their whining that it's not their fault that gas prices are so high. They allow our nation's largest private-sector employer to provide such piss-poor health insurance that a huge percentage of their employees are on public assistance healthcare in spite of having full-time jobs.
This is the group that's touted from pulpits across America as "God's Own Party", the GOP.
So to those Wal-mart employees who suffer so that the Waltons can live fat... and to those who cannot afford to drive their car to work anymore... to those stuck in minimum-wage jobs and wondering everyday how anyone could ever survive on $5.25 an hour. I'm sorry... I've voted irresponsibly and behaved stupidly. It won't happen again.
To those who walk into a voting-booth, pull the curtain and vote a straight Republican ticket because your preacher told you to... Pull your head out of your ass. It's a LOT easier to breathe out here!
And remember... since you started reading this, our National Debt has increased by $2,665,000.00.
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