Utah Ground Report: Did hopeychange ever come to the beehive state?
Dear HillBuzz,
Well, this is a Ground Report. And you don’t get much more “On The Ground” than by looking into what’s going on in your own family and your own household. I wanted to give all the HillBuzzers a glimpse into how Obama’s Era of HopeyChangey has affect my family’s life (and I highly doubt that this is limited to my own family) -
My family owns a ranching business here in western Utah and they’ve been self-employed since they were married. Also, my parents had a lot of money tied up in real estate over the past fifteen years and they figured once all their real estate ventures were done, they could put that money away toward retirement. Just as they were about to get out of real estate and sock their money away and enjoy their ranch and their grandchildren, the housing bubble burst and most of the business went down the tubes. We were able to salvage some of it, but it ruined my parents’ credit and our family lost a lot of money.
It is now three years later and we’re still slowly recovering. We’ve been lucky to find some investors and new customers to help us get back up and running, but the fact is that people are too scared to put any money into any kind of investment – whether that is real estate or stocks or whatever. And what we do have isn’t quite where we need to be. I’m not much of an economist, but when I go visit my parents and I see my mother worrying if she’s going to have enough money to get my younger siblings school clothes or even have enough gas money to get to the grocery store, I see red. My mom had impeccable credit before the economy went bad and now she can’t even get a small loan to get a decent used car (which she desperately needs). My dad has been working really hard to get the business back on track and he’s been blessed with some success, but most everywhere he goes for help, he hears the same thing – There’s money out there, but nobody wants to invest because they don’t like what Obama and the Democrats have done and are doing to the economy, so they’re sitting on whatever money they’ve got until things get better. Which doesn’t look like is happening anytime soon.
Meanwhile, my mom stares blankly at the news proclaiming that the economy is going to get worse before it gets better. I can’t take it anymore, to be quite honest. My mother stayed home when my siblings and I were growing up and I credit her with the many good things that have happened to me. I am grateful that she sacrificed to ensure we were taken care of and she deserves so much more than what she has now. And she didn’t even do anything wrong. She’s tried to find a part-time job now that the kids are older, but there are none to be had (not in the little town where my family lives). My parents paid all their bills on time, paid their taxes and played by the rules and now they’re getting slapped for it. Compare that to Congress, especially the Democrats under Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi – they couldn’t be arsed up to pass a budget for over two years. They got the country downgraded so now it’s even harder for honest people to get by. They’re punishing my parents and many others like them for doing what’s right while they get away with their selfishness, laziness and downright stupidity in handling our taxes.
I know the point of a Ground Report is to report on what people in my part of the country are saying, and I know I got personal here, but for me, this upcoming election <i>is</i> personal. I cannot stand four more years of financial uncertainty and worrying if my parents are going to be taken care of – if they’ll even have a house or land to continue working the cattle ranch that has been our family’s bread and butter since before I was born. I am tired of people like me and my folks being branded as racists/sexist/homophobes by the Democrats, the media and their mindless Kool-Aid drinkers just because we want to pursue our livelihoods and get the government out of the way (don’t even get me started on the onerous regulations farmers and ranchers have to deal with). We aren’t a big-time corporation and I’ve never even seen a private jet (except on TV) – but because we own a business and have a few employees, we’re lumped in with those evil rich people who kill puppies and eat kittens.
And we don’t deserve it.
Every time I see Obama giving yet another speech about “shared sacrifice” and the “rich” having to pay this mystical “fair share,” I want to go up to him and tell him just how much of a “fair share” my family has paid and that we’re still paying because of his insane spending practices, his shenanigans with health care and playing politics with the economy.
I want to ask him: could he live in my shoes – watching my family suffer and pay for his failed policies? Could he handle the stress and the heartbreak of something in the house or the car getting broken and knowing you didn’t have the money to repair it because it’s either that or buy food for the week? Oh, right, he’d just tell us to get on welfare and let the government take care of it. With money the government doesn’t have to spend on that crap.
Obama likes to put blame on other people rather than accept responsibility, but if I were ever to meet Obama, I would walk up to him – as calm and politely as possible – and say “Mr. Obama, I blame you.”
If any Republican presidential candidate said those words to Obama and actually meant them, that person would have my vote. That person would probably have a lot of people’s votes.
(Hmmmm… you know, Sarah Palin would say those words. In fact, I think she’s said them already. Multiple times. In various incarnations. I’m just going to leave that here for now).
- CJ in Utah
© 2011, Kevin DuJan. All rights reserved.
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Thanks for your post. I'm sorry your family is going through such a tough time. The difference between your family and a Democrat family is that you're not asking anyone for a handout or expecting the government to create a program to help you out. You just want the economy to get better so that you can pull yourselves up. I wish you all well.
I can empathize with your parents! I have a job and I've always lived debt-free or close to it, so I do have positive cash flow, but I have pretty much put any future plans out of my mind. I've been selling off investments that I made that were supposed to produce retirement income, because this administration has deemed most blue-chip investments as "enemies" that need to be taxed or regulated into submission. I pulled money out of a money market fund that was paying less than 1/10 of a percent interest – it actually was costing me more in fees than I was earning in interest. I really have very few options for investments, and the unknown costs that will be associated with Obamacare when it is fully implemented in 2014 have me scared half to death. I've lived thru the Carter era and the recessions that occurred during Bush One and Bush Two's presidencies, and as long as government got out of the way, the economy separated the wheat from the chaff and turned around in 18 – 24 months. Obama has extended the misery for 36 months, with no real end in sight (other than 2012 and a good housecleaning!)
I so agree with CJ in Utah. My husband and I and our parents had bank accounts and sound credit ratings. I could call myself lucky that after my husband lost his computer programming job to downsizing in New York to overseas consultants, that we were given a stay of execution for our real estate taxes. We were given 18 months to come up with a good portion but we are building to meet that important debt obligation. But there are so many of us. But I dare say we truly represent the middle class conservative voters. I will continue to hope that we can successfully return to a more prosperous America. Truly, IN GOD WE TRUST!
what happens in the USA is happening elsewhere. The same tone regarding people not wanting to invest. It is happening in Australia as well… but what can we expect with a watermelon in charge.
Don't give up! There are many of us who own businesses and homes who are strieving to survive to get beyond the next election. I believe in America (at least the one that I grew up in) and I know that we can still recapture it. Each one of us can make a difference in our communities that will resonate throughout the country!
What ever happened to 'earning' things through hard work and effort? I was raised to believe that I wasn't 'entitled' to jack diddly squat and if I wanted something, I had to work for it.