I'm Mad as Hell and I'm going to say something about it

In this time of political craziness, correctness and full out controversy; I wanted to just put something out there to illuminate MY position on some things.  

I cannot claim to know how to fix everything.  It's a damned if you do and damned if you don't sort of thing in some ways.  But what I do know is:

I fill out forms multiple times a year for my patients to have energy assistance.  Many of them are on fixed income, and if the power or heat gets turned off and they have a home oxygen concentrator; they could die.  Period.  I had one patient who had his power turned off; EMS went in there because he called with breathing difficulty and his O2 was at 72%.  For anyone that knows ANYTHING about oxygen; that's critical.  He ended up dying.  

I've had patients call and cancel their appointments because they can't drive and can't get anyone to bring them.  Medicaid will provide transportation to appointments, but Medicare won't.  So if the elderly that rely on Medicaid for doctor's visits get that take away?  Many of them have no other recourse.  So if they can't drive and can't get a ride, how do they eat?  Meals on Wheels.  A $3 million annual budget versus one trip to a fancy golf resort?  

Medicare will send people to your home for nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, etc.  But if you need nursing home care?  You have to be private pay, have a long term care plan, or Medicaid.  If Medicaid is cut?  We WILL see an increase in death and severe illness in the elderly and disabled.  

That's just the tip of the iceberg that encompasses my rage and despair at these people who have no clue what the REAL human condition is.  Get off of your asses in your ivory towers and spend a day in Gaston County where we have some of the highest poverty anywhere.  Where people are being forced out of their homes because they can't afford their healthcare premiums (Which are going to go up) and the donut hole (which was going to close under ACA) forces them to go without medication.  Nobody in this country should have to choose between medication and food.  

Some of the kids I have encountered eat breakfast, lunch and afterschool snack at school.  They are on free/reduced lunch and some days that's the only food they EAT.  There isn't enough food at home.  So we are telling them, sorry kid, go hungry. Sucks that your parents are pieces of shit and don't have jobs or can't take care of you.  Too bad.  

I got divorced when my son was in Kindergarten and my daughter was in 3rd grade.  I had to go back to work and had to use the ASEP program for my son.  Being a single parent with two young children was one of the hardest things I have ever done.  I went from a stay at home mom to a full time working mom literally overnight.  I relied on quality care for my son so that I could keep my job.  I could have honestly made MORE money had I sat home and collected government assistance.  But I didn't.  And I wouldn't.  

My daughter, as I have written about before, has gone through HELL and back.  She has overcome more obstacles in her 19 years of life than most people will EVER see.  Due to severe anxiety, there was no way that I was setting her up for failure by not helping her find the best place for her to succeed in her education.  She wouldn't have lasted a month at a huge college; so she ended up at an amazing private university.  Using grants and academic scholarships she has exceeded our wildest expectations and is on the Dean's List and the recipient of a Black Excellence Award, President of the Black Student Union, a Resident Assistant AND has a campus job as a Technology Coordinator at the library.  Gutting funding from low income students is going to make it even HARDER for them to succeed.  Not all of us have $1 million dollars to start our first company given to us so that we have a "leg up".  My daughter is majoring in Human Service Studies with a double minor in Criminal Justice/Social Justice and Poverty.  She wants to change the world, and this country is bound and determined to turn her into another statistic.  

My son is brilliant.  He may not be the brightest bulb in the box; but he can write code in 11 different languages.  Both of my kids are first generation minority college students.  Neither of their parents; nor my parents have a college degree.  One of the programs that will get scuttled is the My Brothers Keeper program.  It is a program for African American Males to get help with college.  But hey, let's just keep the cycle of poverty going over and over again.

Like I said, I honestly don't know how to fix things. I really don't. I don't think that everybody in this country should be given a free ride. I think you should have to work for things. I think that there should be some appreciation for the things that people are given. I don't think that people should take advantage of the system. But I also don't think that telling somebody's 75 year old mother or grandmother that feeding them a hot meal is something that has no measurable results. I don't think that telling a five-year-old or six-year-old whose home life sucks so bad that they may not have a hot meal that day and they're looking forward to what they get it after school, too bad you get nothing. I don't think that has no measurable results. I think that yes it is past time to look at where we spend our money and what we spend it on, but the budget that's proposed? That is just cruel.