Holy s**t!!

Ok, so I am not any kind of political activist, but on a recent trip to my sisters blog, I decided to look at another blog she had a link to (I am so nosey its scary!!). Well, on this blog it had the cost of the war (which I have seen before) but then it had a link to see what could be done with the money that has been spent on the war, and let me tell you, it was amamzing. For what the war has cost us, we could have built over one million new public housing buildings, gave over 100,000 children insurance, and given away almost 200,000 scholarships to kids to go to public collages for the full four years!! Needless to say I was floored!

Being a person who does rely somewhat on help from the government, I wanted to throw the computer out the window for a number of reasons. Now, I am not saying that I should be getting more and that is why I was so mad...I know that I am VERY lucky to be getting what I am getting and I don't take it for granted. What got me the most is that I know people who are struggling and can't get any help because of recent "cuts". For example, there is a woman who I work with who has a son that is 4 years old and requires special needs care. Now, she is doing the "right thing" and going to school, as well as working 32 hrs a week (nights, no less) and trying to provide a good life for her son while making ends meet. Now, she receives some assistance with her child care, but on a recent visit she was told that she may not qualify any longer because of her income. Now, my question is (and I would love to get the opportunity to ask GWB this), if she pays the full amount for child care, she will barely have enough to live, therefore discouraging her from wanting to work a "full time job", therefore, forcing her to cut down her hours at work and once again putting her in a position to rely on the government and once again making her feel like crap for not being able to provide for her son!!!

This is just one example of the viscous circle that people go through. I could sit and talk about many more, but I don't have the time and the energy to do that. I know that my blog is not read by the "big man" so it won't make too much difference, but I just had to get on my soapbox for a minute and do a little vomiting!!