Are You Better Off Now?

Ronald Reagan once famously asked during the 1980 presidential campaign, “Are you better off now, then you were four years ago?” He won the election, because plain and simple people were not at the beginning of the 1980’s. Today we are being asked the same question about our current president and, by association, the Republican Party after eight years of their rule. The answer is a short and sweet unequivocal no.

We are involved in a war with no end in sight that is costing American taxpayers billions of dollars a day with a national debt that is spiraling out of sight and no way to pay it back, not at this time. But, do not worry about it; we can pass this debt on to, well, no one. With debt that high, out of control, no end in sight to the cause for the debt, and it being financed with foreign money the problem is going to come home to roost long before the debt can be passed on to the next generation. The mantra of the Bush Administration has been to cut taxes and spend more money, with John McCain picking up the same drum beat. John McCain the presidential candidate who says we could be in Iraq for another 50 to 100 years. We could not afford George W. Bush’s policies and we cannot afford McCain’s either.

Eight years ago I was able to pay for a college education out of my own pocket, study abroad in Europe, pay a car note, credit card bills, and live on my own without a roommate or a spouse. It is eight years later and in the last eight years I have since graduated from college upon which it took me three and half years to find a job and career worth having because the job market was not providing me with enough job opportunities to find decent employment, in the mean time, I saw the economy contract to the point where it affected my income and financial security. Two years ago I had to make a tough financial choice that I would not have otherwise been forced to make because credit laws had been changed in favor of the banks and creditors. While that was going on the housing industry entered into a Ponzi scheme in order to finance homes to people who should and would have otherwise been turned down. As a result, for me, buying a house or condo, has been pushed back yet even further while the credit crisis straightens itself out and I work out my own finances that were ruined because of harsh credit changes. At the same time I have watched food prices, gas prices, and other daily necessities sky rocket, even though my income has gone up, with no thanks to Bush’s economy, but my own tenacity, I still am having a difficult time finding my way through the financial wilderness. Without proper governance put in place average people like myself who have worked hard all of our lives, and doing the right thing still are struggling in the American utopia.

It is eight years later and I am being asked, are you better off? I am not better off, I am getting by and I am hearing yet again that it is just my perception from the Republican candidate John McCain. Well, John, come out of your seven houses and live my life and then tell me it is just my imagination. Your tax cut and spend policies, along with denial that Americans are better off now sound more like the rantings of a delusional, out of touch old man.