The CHANGE in our Pockets

Six months have passed since the spirit of change swept over this country consuming even more conservative voters like myself. The words were spot on, the ideas seemed like just the thing to cure our ailing country, and hope was in the air. The candidate of change went on to become the President of change, but unfortunately for the American people the only change we saw was the dwindling change given to us at the local 7-Eleven. Six months into this and the only change has been in our now sky rocketing deficit.

I’ve been away for awhile, focusing on my new job, driving two hours daily to make ends meat, and trying to focus on my family. Many things have changed for me, my wife’s cancer, my job, but the country has kept on going deeper and deeper into a debt it cannot afford lead with the same incompetence that has gotten us this far. Some of you might ask “What’s your beef with Obama?” “What’s he done that’s so bad”, in fact he’s doing pretty good considering he inherited a mess. Well I believe in judging someone on their actions. I believe a leader should have his yes be a yes and his no be a no. I believe that a leader should be held accountable for his/her campaign promises, and well, I’m finding him lacking.

My first gripe has to do with the most obvious, his and Senator McCain’s only shared promise, the end of Lobbyists and Pork Barrel Spending. This is a big one for me because I actually thought Obama’s plan to go through the budget line by line and evaluate our spending was a good one. Unfortunately that never got done. Instead he’s almost quadrupled our deficit since taking office. Obama has presided over some of the craziest bills to ever go through Congress. Bailout after bailout to companies who have been rewarded for negligence and poor business practices. Our government has now expanded the welfare system to include corporations who have been pounded into the ground from the top down by mismanagement. Corporate welfare has bailed out the banks, the automobile industry, the insurance industry, and now even states are lining up for their share. All of this from a man who promised to cut spending in half by the end of his term. As for the lobbyists, well he didn’t exactly get rid of them, no he hired them. In fact Obama has appointed well over a dozen lobbyists to work in his administration. As if hiring lobbyists wasn’t bad enough Obama then went and hired Timothy Geithner, a known tax evader, as our Secretary of the Treasury. Isn’t this the same person who said that paying our fair share of the taxes was patriotic? So does that make Geithner a traitor, or is it only patriotic when we in Middle America pay taxes?

In addition to President Obama’s broken promises regarding Lobbyists and Spending, Obama then went on to break yet another promise, his Healthcare promise. Oh I know he’s fighting hard to get his idea of healthcare for all passed, but it’s not the same proposal he initially promised. Obama initially proposed an alternative healthcare system which would be open to anyone who did not have, or could not afford healthcare. I can remember it like it was yesterday “If you’re happy with your plan, keep it” In fact he’s espoused that same notion several times during his attempt to get this bill passed. The problem that most Americans don’t seem to understand is that this healthcare bill would have been plausible had we not already bailed out several companies and spent ourselves into a deeper hole. The problem with Obama care is that we simply CAN’T AFFORD IT! We can’t afford to drop billions more into a system when we don’t have the money to pay our current expenses. We’ve mortgaged our children’s future already to bailout the banks and the auto industry, we just don’t have any more to spend. One of the biggest thing issues during the campaign was personal finance and fiscal responsibility. We were told by both sides repeatedly “Americans need to learn to live within their means”, well does that not apply to our government? Should our government not try to live within its means? Just because we have the ability to print money, does not mean that the money has any real value. It’s sort of like the child who wants a toy the parent can’t afford, when told the usual “We don’t have the money” the child naively says well just write a check you have plenty of those. Yet President Obama keeps pushing for his healthcare bill scrambling to find money to pay for it by any means necessary. During the campaign Senator McCain had the idea to tax health care benefits as income, and Obama jumped all over him. This was one of the main reasons for me not voting for McCain, but now it seems that even a plan that was once foolish is not above Obama’s desire to see this bill passed. Yes folks one of the plans to pay for this fiasco is to charge our benefits. My worry is that this bill will pass, with all of its 700 pages of pork, and my private insurance plan, which gives me great service, will be edged out by a less costly plan, with less real benefits.

All in all President Obama has been a severe disappointment to me. If he continues his current path, I doubt that he’ll make a second term. Personally I’ve chalked this one up to a bad decision on my part, a lapse in judgment, a wasted vote. I’ve come to see him for what he is, just another politician who will tell you exactly what you want to hear as long as he needs your vote. I’m now reverting to an earlier idea I had to vote out every incumbent until we’ve cleaned Washington of all of its filth and corruption. I would like to see nothing more than every Congressman, Senator and President on the unemployment line with everyone else. Washington needs new blood before it sucks all of ours dry.

Struggling in a new economy

I know it’s been awhile since I last posted, but much has changed. I recently felt first hand the effects of our current economic state, and have also learned that where there strife, there is always hope. Recently the company I worked for had a layoff in which my department, as well as quite a few others were affected. The company went through what I have termed their own version of the fall classic. Since being acquired by this company they have had about 3 layoffs, each coinciding with the Holiday season. Why any company would choose this time of year to inform its employees to look elsewhere for work is beyond me. Either way, the deed was done and it was time to start looking.

Worried by countless stories of high unemployment rates in the U.S., and a slowing economy, my future looked bleak. I immediately set out, like any responsible family man would, and began the search for work. I spoke to a close friend, who is a recruiter by trade, and asked her to look over my resume and offer any pointers. With great advice regarding my resume, and even more advice on how to find a job quickly, I started the task of registering with all of the major job sites. My first day on Monster, Dice and CareerBuilders yielded several openings in the Software Development field. I updated my resume on each with my latest batch of skills, and set to work sending them out, not too confident that I would hear a response. By the next day my search had returned no less than 4 call backs, and one scheduled interview.

My days have become a mixture of job searches, resume submittals, and answering phone calls from would be employers and various head hunters. My nights have been spent working on independent development for a side project, and the few hours left have been spent doing some much needed work around the house. I have garnered some hope from all of this, which is a result of the many call backs that I have received. Unfortunately the common theme seems to be that no one is actually hiring before the first of the year. Everyone is putting their feelers out and looking for potential employees, but no on is actually ready to seal the deal and hire someone before January 1st. So I’ll wait and wait, and hopefully find something that will benefit both me and my next employer. I am confident that I’ll find something soon, but I just don’t like to be without work for too long.

I have noticed that it is considerably harder to find work when you’re out of work. Because of the economy, companies feel it only right to try and offer you less than what you’ve become accustomed to. Some have even gone as far as to offer me positions in places much too distant to be viable. As anyone who knows me can tell you I’m not a patient person, so the whole waiting thing has gotten me worried. Luckily I’ve gotten great support from family and friends, who have tried to help and set me up with interviews or contacts. I will attempt to keep this site updated as much as possible, but please understand if I don’t.