Bargain Government

I spent nearly all my savings a year and a half ago when my A/C broke down.  It had been costing me from $200 to $1600 a year on repairs for the nine years I had been living here.  The new A/C cost $5,000.  At the time, I was taking home $1,300 a MONTH for my full-time position with Charleston County, SC.

But I figured I would have peace of mind for a couple of years.

Not so.  My A/C died a few weeks ago, which should not have happened.  A faulty part was replaced, which was under warrantee.  The cost:  $157.  Apparently, half that was to get the guy out here, and the other half was his hour of labor.

Not that I don't appreciate it.  But I am one of many who are struggling to make ends meet at real jobs that really underpay, if you are basing the salary on the cost of living.

Jim Demint and the other corporate conservatives that are grinding our government to a halt don't have a clue what it is like to have to decide whether to repair the car or the leaking roof, and how long it is feasible to put up with the pain in your tooth or another body part, in the hope that it will magically go away, because you just can't afford it.

I laugh when I'm told I can pay the bill in installments.  Like I'm going to be able to find the money if it's in smaller piles?

It infuriates me to hear Demint and Boehner and all the rest of those high living prostitutes talking about lowering the debt, when what they are really doing is trying to force us to pay more to private corporations than what the government does on a shoestring.

And about that shoestring.  When the government doesn't work right, it's because it doesn't have the funds to do the jobs that they need to do.  Blame the regulators?  How about giving them adequate staff to guard the henhouse?  Amtrak not running efficiently?  Let's put some money into it, and see what can be done.  And oh, the schools!  Not enough teachers, classes too large, and we have to listen to those congressional creeps call a bill with emergency funding for teachers' salaries a bailout for the teachers union!

And then complain that government isn't working!

Well, it's still the best bargain in town, but if someone doesn't step up and pay their fair share, the town isn't going to be much of a place to live.