As you all know Virginia's nut job of an AG has filed a lawsuit against the HCR bill. On top of that the GOP is now running on repealing the bill (how they plan on getting a 2/3 majority to overturn an Obama veto beats me). Now I understand that wingnuts like Cuccinelli and the majority of the GOP hate the thought of spending a single penny on helping another human being but I cannot get it through my head why he and his likes want me to go uninsured.
I am a 22 year old college student. I have lived in Virginia all of my life and am very proud of that fact. I will be graduating this coming December with a BS degree in Biology with a license to teach secondary education. Up until last year I was not worried at all about finding a job. However, now Virginia has cut $700 million from its education budget (but hey no new taxes!) I am becoming very worried about finding a job. I am also worried because I will be graduating in the middle of the school year. The chances of me finding a full time teaching position with benefits at that time will be non-existent. What does this mean? It means that I will have to go somewhere in the neighborhood of 7 months uninsured (that is if I am lucky enough to get a job for the 2010-2011 school year) as I will be dropped from my parents insurance plan once I am no longer a full time student. This is why I am extremely excited about the passage of the HCR bill. Now, starting in September of this year I can stay on my parents insurance plan until I am 26 meaning that I will have plenty of time to find a job and my own health insurance. That is unless Cuccinelli and his Republican friends have their way.
While I know that there are countless people out there who are in a much much worse off situation than I am, it still pisses me off like nothing else to see a nutcase AG and the GOP literally fight against me being insured. I laugh at the fact that they talked so much after the '08 election about firing up the younger generation and bringing them to the dark side yet they are now actively fighting against us having a safety net if we happen to not find work right out of college. Trust me, I have no intentions of being a dependent of my parents until I am 26, however, who knows when I will be able to find a secure job as a teacher especially with a governor that seems more concerned about re-opening rest stops than fixing the budget meltdown.
I know this is a boring ranting diary but I just wanted to get it off of my chest. It's going to be a long 4 years in Virginia with Cuccinelli as AG. In the first 3 months he has already fought EPA, told my university they cannot not discriminate against homosexuals, and is suing the federal government. What a great way to spend our tax dollars.
Oh, and Ken, thank you for helping to drive any potential young voters away from the GOP.