First and foremost, I believe that every citizen of the United States should have equal rights and Responsibilities.

I believe that any citizen in power is responsible to make all the changes they can for the better of all citizens. This is my health care proposal.  All health care coverage would be based on a sliding scale fee for all citizens.  You would get standard deductions for each family member and regional cost of living adjustments.  My argument…How long do you think the wealthy/powerful would wait before using their influence to lower health care costs if they had to pay more for it?  We would all benefit from it.  Please note that I said citizens.  Does this mean that the poor live on the backs of the wealthy?  Not for long I bet.  The wealthy have both the means and ability to make the changes that the middle class and poor do not and from what I have seen the wealthy generally do not hesitate to oppress and take advantage of those lower classes.  They can and do take money from the poor to build their coffers.

I Believe that if you enter this country illegally or do anything illegal as an alien, you should never be offered citizenship. As long as the United States is in crisis immigration should be limited. I believe that we should open our borders to only those who could benefit our country.  Someone with a job, needing an education, having an education in a needed area etc…at least until the economy improves.  If you are not a citizen you should not qualify for Social Security, Welfare, or any other entitlement.  If you are illegal and attempt to seek entitlement you should be evaluated for life or death crisis and sent right back to your country or origin for any needed treatment.  If your children are legal and you are not you have the choice to go back to your country and with or without them.  English should be the legal language.

I believe that all able bodied US Citizens should work. This means that if you can’t find a job you will be required to spend some extra time shoveling the old man next door’s walk or picking up groceries or just visiting with the elderly lady down the street.  You could mentor the young mother next door and offer babysitting while she did her volunteer time.  Young mom could take her children for a walk and each with a small bag to pick up garbage and cans along the roadway.  Cans can be theirs to keep and cash in.    If we all spent some time helping one another and doing what needs to be done we would be spending less time crying over what we don’t have and demanding entitlements we don’t deserve.  It is a proven fact that persons who feel useful have higher self esteem, suffer less depression and are more interested in the world around them.

I believe that US Citizens should have first priority for jobs with veterans topping that list. US Businesses that export jobs should be subject to a foreign employee tax that cost them as much as the United States workers would require.

I believe we should have equal trade agreements. The United States will only buy from those countries who allow us to sell equal amounts to them without all those import fees that makes our products unattractive.

I believe that our Government should outlaw “Parties”.  We all have the responsibility to look up our representatives voting history and attempt to plow through rhetoric.  Determine who is saying what.  You can find your reps history on the internet.  Just Google their name.  Right now parties seem to encourage partisan behavior.  It’s like watching a kindergarten playground with boys against the girls.

I believe the citizens of the United States should determine by vote congressional pay and benefits at the beginning of each term. Right now Congress is voting in future pay raises that can be enacted at a future date by simple inaction so it is not on their record.  Take a look and see how many of your reps abstained from voting on the new January pay raise.  That would include future benefits.  Once elected to office our congress is set for life even if they do a terrible job in a short 4 years.  They don’t have to pay for health care and receive a salary most of us could live very, very well with.  Many of us would be shocked if we knew actual numbers.  Congres/wo/men should submit pay raise requests and a monthly expense reports to a citizens oversight committee that is NOT appointed.

I believe that our education system is broken and parents and only parents should determine the best system to educate their child. Those parents should be allowed to spend their child’s portion of the education moneys on the educational style that would most benefit their child.   More money, more money is not going to get us better educators. Teachers who stop parenting and start educating with the support of the parent who is involved and chooses their child’s school will get us better educators.  Parent, Child and Educator should all be held equally accountable.  Let’s be creative.  Why shouldn’t a parent who works a second shift schedule be able to choose a second shift educational system for them?

He quotes, “The unemployment rate fell to its lowest level since August, primarily because a department survey of households found a sharp increase in the number of Americans with jobs. Analysts expected an increase to 10.1 percent.” Christopher noted here that “Seasonal Adjustments” were used in calculating.  Basically that means that the entire year was added and divided by 12 to come up with an average rather than actual figures.  Hmmmm.  Do you think when the numbers are up next summer that they will use “seasonal adjustments” to artificially lower them?  Some how I doubt that.

What happened to all of those people on extensions that fell off the unemployment roles?  Congress had approved the extensions but then didn’t approve to fund the extensions for more than a year at a time.  They missed funding it in December when it was so critical while we were all distracted by the health care bill which wasn’t and so therefore we wonder if the move was a political slight of hand so they could say Unemployment levels have dropped.   Did they forget about all those people who fell off the rolls because they used up their unemployment and there were no more extensions available?    Or did they want the people to forget?  Of course unemployment will decline and continue to decline as long as unemployment doesn’t provide a safety net for those people who are un or under-employed.  Michigan provides small amounts of help.  You can get small amounts of grocery help if you are on unemployment and believe me, it’s not enough.  No affordable medical coverage is available while you are on unemployment and once off the rolls plan on loosing your dignity, your home, your car and anything else you aren’t able to sell before any assistance is forth coming.  If you become homeless there is even a risk of loosing your children.  It is terrifying and scandalous.  Anyone out there have ideas for those of us who “fell off” the roles and therefore are no longer considered unemployed?

The jobs that are added are mostly minimum wage.   Perhaps all of our lawmakers should try to live on $7.25 per hour.   Cost of living rose 2.7% last year, and general wages rose about *2% but jobs declined by *6%.   Minimum wage didn’t recognize the increase at all.   Do the math.  It doesn’t add up. I should note here that government pay increased by 3.7%, a full 1% above the cost of living increase.  I would just like to make enough to meet the cost of living.

Bills have been submitted, such as H.R. 156 which would have prevented congress from receiving a pay raise in 2010.  It sat in the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee since its introduction on January 6, 2009.  H. R. 201 would have provided that no automatic pay adjustment for Members of Congress shall be made in the year following a fiscal year in which there is a Federal budget deficit. It got stuck in the same committee and you will find that most if not all of the bills submitted that would regulate congressional pay according to Washingtonwatch.com met the same fate.  Just in case you wanted to know I have listed the committee members below.  Please write them and vote accordingly!

Democrats

• Chairman, Edolphus Towns, New York
• Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski, Pennsylvania
• Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, New York
• Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, Maryland
• Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich, Ohio
• Rep. John F. Tierney, Massachusetts
• Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay, Missouri
• Rep. Diane E. Watson, California
• Rep. Stephen F. Lynch, Massachusetts
• Rep. Jim Cooper, Tennessee
• Rep. Gerald E. Connolly, Virginia
• Rep. Mike Quigley, Illinois
• Rep. Marcy Kaptur, Ohio
• Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, District of Columbia
• Rep. Patrick Kennedy, Rhode Island
• Rep. Danny Davis, Illinois
• Rep. Chris Van Hollen, Maryland
• Rep. Henry Cuellar, Texas
• Rep. Paul W. Hodes, New Hampshire
• Rep. Christopher S. Murphy, Connecticut
• Rep. Peter Welch, Vermont
• Rep. Bill Foster, Illinois
• Rep. Jackie Speier, California
• Rep. Steve Driehaus, Ohio
• Rep. Judy Chu, California

Republicans

• Rep. Darrell Issa, California, Ranking Minority Member
• Rep. Dan Burton, Indiana
• Rep. John L. Mica, Florida
• Rep. Mark E. Souder, Indiana
• Rep. John J. Duncan, Jr., Tennessee
• Rep. Michael Turner, Ohio
• Rep. Lynn A. Westmoreland, Georgia
• Rep. Patrick T. McHenry, North Carolina
• Rep. Brian Bilbray, California
• Rep. Jim Jordan, Ohio
• Rep. Jeff Flake, Arizona
• Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, Nebraska
• Rep. Jason Chaffetz, Utah
• Rep. Aaron Schock, Illinois
• Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, Missouri
• Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao, Louisiana

Operator: 911 What’s your emergency?

Me: (breathless and panicked) A big man just attacked us and is now chasing us in his truck.

Operator:  Stop in a public place and wait for help.

Me:  We WERE in a public place!  He attacked us because we stopped.  No one helped!  We will not stop until we get to your station.

Operator:  Well, Ma’am, Where are you?  You need to find a place to stop.

Me:  I’m on (insert street here) and there is no place.

About that time G slammed on the brakes and swerved and the truck flew past us long enough for me to read the license plate and I yelled it into the phone.

Operator:  Well if you are being chased, how did you get his license plate?

As I am watching the truck try to either run us over or run us off the road, I couldn’t tell which, I screamed into the phone, “did you get the number!!????”

Operator:  I want to know how you got his plate?

I am afraid I swore at her then.  I mean, why did she need to know that second?  Just in case we died that was the most important question in the world?  What?  All the skid marks from the chase wouldn’t tell them anything?  I wasn’t in the mood for what I felt was stupidity at that moment.  I was scared and to the point.  I am not sure exactly what I said but it wasn’t nice.  Something like “did you get the (insert swear word here) number!?  I won’t remember the (insert swear word here) number and I doubt we’ll be in a (insert swear word here) position to get it again. If you tell me you got the (insert swear word here) number and I live long enough, I’ll tell you how I got the (insert swear word here) number if it is so (insert swear word here) important to you!!!!!”  Well, she told me that she got the license number and I explained how we got it while flying at break neck speed down a busy 5 lane road.

The guy finally peeled off us as we turned on the street the police station was on.   I told the operator we were outside but we had to wait in the dark to be let in. We were let into the lobby and told we had to wait for an officer to show up.  G was bleeding and beginning to swell so I asked for a paper towel with cool water or ice.  No, I was told.  I would have to drive down to the store to get some.  Yeah right.  Go right back where we got mugged in the same bright yellow sports car.  We declined.  When an officer showed up a half hour later to take our report she asked…”What side of the street were you on?”

Why would that matter?  Well it seems that one side of the street was one jurisdiction and the other side of the street was their jurisdiction and it furthermore the construction closed the side of the street that was their jurisdiction which was where the assault started even though he had chased us well into their jurisdiction. So, after that long and reasonable conversation…. (Notice a trend here?) We were told to go back to the corner where we were attacked and wait for the police from the other jurisdiction.  WHAAAATTTT!???

We both looked at her like she was the one who got knocked in the head. She must have figured out that wasn’t a good idea and so offered to escort us until the other officer arrived.   After about 30 minutes or so the other officer showed up and took our report.  He told us to give the Detectives a call on Monday or Tuesday.  Why couldn’t they look for him now?  Who knows.  So we went home.  Took some pictures of the damage…aka my husbands face and crawled in bed exhausted from our ordeal.

The next day the panic remained.  What if the guy was in a gang?  What if he knew where we lived?  Didn’t it have to be on the police report?  I mean, even if the guy went to jail his homeys or pals or whatever they were now called could elicit their revenge and our kids were teens and home alone.  What about them?  So we decided not to follow up.

On Monday morning we got a call from the detective.  He told us that this was a bad guy and he wanted to get him bad.  Would we be willing to press charges?  It could have been a misdemeanor assault and all the questions we asked ourselves we asked the officer.  He would know where we lived because it would be on the court documents.  Jail time would probably be minimal and yes it was believed the guy was in a gang.  There were no guarantees that our family would be protected.  We declined.

I still think about that night.  Did we do the right thing?  We now carry pepper spray in the car and a small bat.  I also have a concealed permit.  Would any of that made any difference if I had it then?   I don’t know.  It is hard to speculate. Does the fact that our kids grew up unharmed make up for the crimes that this man committed against others after our incident?   Fear that prevents action allows things like the holocaust but it sure feels different when you have everything to loose.  So readers,  What do YOU think?