Can We Afford This?

I might as well be honest about it.  I am, to say the least, not a fan of President Barack Obama.  There is no use in hiding it. 

There are a lot of things I could say about him, a lot of attacks I could make.  But here’s an argument neither side can counter:

We can’t afford this guy.  Period.  He is too expensive, and I don’t mean his constant golf playing.  He has never seen a government program he doesn’t like; his administration and handlers are doing a wonderful job of hiding reality of the massive deficit and debt from the American people, who seem more than willing to ignore it as long as gas prices stay below $5.00.

But whether he gets on for four more years, God forbid, or someone else, probably Romney, wins (and I’m not sure how I feel about that), one thing is certain.  We are going to have to suffer before this gets better, and perhaps it won’t.  The way we have lived is unsustainable.  I am willing to live more frugally; it's my lifestyle.  I can live meatless Mondays.  I can ration gas.  I can wear layers to keep my house at 60 degrees.  I can stay away from the mall.  I’ve done this all my life, and thus we have no debt, almost own our home, have put a son through private college, etc.   But me doing this for my own sake is going to have to be replicated 320 million times for us to have a future as a country.

I have begun to despair about the Judeo Christian nature of our country.  Some of it was a myth anyway, but some of it was based in truth.  We can complain, rightly, about how disrespectful our current president is of the Judeo-Christian/Bible-based faiths, but we elected him, and we may elect him again. 

My mother told me last night she was “in poverty.”  She owns her home (although half of it belongs to the reverse mortgage people, a situation I simply can’t get my head around); she feeds her little dog meat.  She keeps her heat at 76.  She has very little savings, she lives on Social Security, and at 83 she can’t buy much (but doesn’t need to).  But she has a car, insurance, and plenty to eat.  In the past three years she has had heart surgery and a hysterectomy and didn’t pay anything out of pocket for them.  This is poverty?  Well, yes, by federal government standards, it is. 

The American view of things is so unreal.  Not that I want to give it up, but it is time to wake up.  The inability of my son to find a job with his background and degree tells me something is drastically wrong.