Gathering Storm Clouds

If there is any doubt that our political system is controlled by an elite who is completely removed from the bulk of the population, this response to the Ryan [budget] plan ended it. There is nothing at all serious about the Ryan plan. It is a naked attempt to redistribute yet more money to the country's rich at the expense of everyone else.
~ from 'Shock Doctrine': GOP Elites Point a Gun at the Middle Class by Dean Baker ~

So often, most of us don't pay THAT much attention to what goes on in DC. We realize that what the little people think or care about is not on the agenda. We realize that our elected representatives are going to do what they are going to do. A good deal of the time their decisions don't impact most of us to a significant degree.

But that may be about to change. With both the GOP and the Obama administration on board with the concept of "deficit reduction" and draconian cuts to the very programs the poor and middle class depend on, your life and mine may change significantly in a short amount of time.

With few champions left to stand up for our interests, there is a genuine possibility that Medicaid, Medicare and even Social Security will be eviscerated in the coming months. I don't know about you, but this prospect scares the hell out of me!

Medicaid is what is paying for my mental health services. These services are helping me to deal with some life long issues. If I didn't have Medicaid, there is no way in the world that I could afford to see my counselor more than once or twice per year! I would be stuck to deal with my Schizotypal Personality Disorder and autism on my own and I can tell you from past experience that I haven't done a very good job with either.

If Medicaid is severely reduced or eliminated and the same kind of hatchet job is done to Medicare, a lot of people are going to find themselves suddenly in a very bad place. What are poor people with a bad heart or cancer to do? Suffer and die in anonymity?

And what about Social Security? I don't have any kind of retirement account and our little family is too impoverished even to have a savings account. We barely get by month-to-month. What happens when my diabetic wife becomes too sick and/or too old to work? What then?

I feel like a person stuck on the Titanic after all the lifeboats have been lowered.