Sharing My Pain With Jeff Merkeley

I just mosied on over to the facebook page of Jeff Merkeley, the new Senator from the great state of Oregon. Jeff wants us all to share our horror stories about what the GOP budget cuts will do to us. Emphasis, of course is on Planned Parenthood, college students and the Wisconsin public employees. However, he did extend this invitation:

"Real people's livelihoods are at stake - we can't let the GOP pretend budgets are only about numbers. Share your story so Jeff can fight for you."

So I shared my story. It went like this:

"I'm 68 years old. The COLA on my Social Security hasn't increased for two years running. But my gasoline has increased. And my food has increased. But they tell me those aren't taken into account when calculating the COLA because they're "too volatile." Well guess what: when gas jumped seemlingly overnight from $2-something to $4 a few years ago. that was volatile; when it came down to $3 and stayed there, that's not volatility; that's the cost of living going up!

I know we all have to pull in our belts during this crisis, because after all, the guys who plundered our national treasury are your colleagues' contributors (and maybe even yours), and surely our esteemed Senators and Congressmen aren't going to take their plunder away from them. But while you're all coddling the super-rich and the vulgar-rich, please keep in mind that unless you keep their grubby hands off the Social Security program, many of this country's seniors are going to take it in the chops. And a lot of us aren't too old to get out there and raise a good old fashioned, geriatric-hippie fuss."

To all my geezer friends and family: get ready to hit the streets!