Saturday, October 12, 2013

So, the Government is shut down... Kinda...

The radio station's morning show I usually listen to on the way to work has been talking about this Government shut down and asked listeners to email them with how it was affecting them, if it was. They received numerous emails on the subject, but weren't flooded according to them. They have read a couple or three a day and it would seem that the people that make this country run are the ones being laid off while the people that bicker, bitch and argue are still getting paid for not doing a damn thing. Also, on a side note, besides the fact that they can't come to an agreement on the budget for various reasons, they set different policies for themselves than they do for the citizens they're suppose to be representing. Personally, I'm voting for whoever isn't in office right now, I don't care if I agree with my congressman or not, I'm not voting for him in the next election. I think that they should have term limits, and salary caps. Although I think that if the people really like who represents them, they should be allowed to run again after they've been out of office for a while, the President included. I also, believe that when their terms are up, their retirement pay should be diminished, just like everyone else in the country. Make them adhere to the policies they set for everybody else. Just like with Social Security, when you retire and get your SSI from the government and it's will be approximately two-thirds to three-quarters of what your average monthly earnings were. Granted, they're suppose to use the three years of highest earnings for that average, but there's no account for inflation or cost of living. Now, I know not everybody has to live of SSI, but a lot of people do. That's why we have the term, "Limited income". But, I digress, this government shutdown has affected many people and I empathize with them, I understand how hard it is to live when your income is cut off or diminished. Work is hard to come by with the economy the way it is right now, the news, analysts, and government are saying it's in a recovery stage, but I had been looking for work since September of 2011, didn't get hardly even a call back until March of this year, and it was a shitty job. I didn't get a sustainable job until about two months ago, and the pay is no where near what I'm used to, but it pays the bills and offers me more freedom. But, our congressmen and representatives are still getting paid, I believe they should forgo their pay until they get a budget in place and get the people that had to be laid off because of it back to work. These guys make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, just on their government pay, not to include the millions they already had and make in the private sector. Most of those guys didn't just rise up the ranks because they were excellent Mayors and Governors, it was because they already had the money to run million dollar campaigns and get their names out there and bash their opponents. I think that we should have just normal people in congress, people that actually work for a living and know what it's like to live under the rules they set. Instead we have politicians that their job now is to just make rules, and they have the habit of making rules for them different than the ones they make for themselves.