Dear President Obama,
I understand that you compare the current budget compromise to a family living within its means. But I don't think you understand what that means to someone like me.
I receive Social Security Disability. My income was $11,000 last year. I receive $918 a month, for the third year in a row, in spite of the cost of fuel and everything else going up dramatically. I supplement that with an occasional music gig and some freelance writing, but I don't think that altogether amounts to another $1500 per year.
I am able to live decently because of government programs that I supported for many years by paying taxes on income and payroll taxes. Besides my $918, I get a little less than $70 a month in food stamps. I also receive a Rural Development mortgage subsidy that has allowed me to stay in my home after becoming disabled. Since the raise of my SSD to $918, my mortgage payment is now less than half my income. I think it is somewhere around 40%, perhaps a little more.
I have Medicare which is also subsidized. Since I have had cancer twice since I started to get Medicare, and before that I lived without insurance for about ten years, this has been a blessing to me. Because I get this assistance, I get Medicare for my medications as well. I spend more than $20 a month on prescription medications, and also need aspirin and calcium supplements. I spend perhaps five months a year in the donut hole. Without the state Medicare assistance, I don't think I could afford my medications. Since I live in Arizona, I don't know how much longer that assistance will be available.
My car, a 1993 Honda Civic, died soon after the Giffords shooting. I needed a car for less than $1000. In the past few years a shuttle bus began running from my community outside Tucson to the city's bus service. Thanks to this, I was able to keep medical appointments during the month I was carless, and to look at cars. I found a 1984 Toyota Cressida that drives but gets lousy gas mileage. But the cost of the car and the repairs it needed immediately came to less than $900.
I also needed a new vacuum cleaner. I put it on layaway, then a friend lent me the money to bring it home, and I am paying her in two more installments, which is faster than I had planned, meaning less available cash for the next couple of months.
So about that shared sacrifice thing. I think I have sacrificed last year and this by not getting a COLA. If I have to sacrifice my home, I will be homeless because my current mortgage payment is lower than the rent for most apartments, even smaller ones. If I have to pay more for my medications, some of them will have to go. Without food stamps, I don't know what I will do.
I am 63. I would not be able to get a job in this economy that would make up for the cost of gas to get there. I will be more assertive looking for writing jobs - with more experience now writing for publication online, e-lance might actually be possible.
I allow myself some small luxuries from time to time. Books, an occasional lunch out, an occasional piece of inexpensive silver jewelry, especially if I can spread out the payments. I also give to charities, one or two $5 donations a month, food for the local food bank. I haven't bought clothing except to replace underwear for over a year.
But I already cannot buy the tools I need for yard work. I already can't pay a plumber to check out my leaky toilets. I already have not been able to get my dog her shots. I already have a boarded up window that has been that way for several years.
I have no credit cards. I have a pre-paid cell phone, which I use mostly for long distance calling.
What else should I sacrifice?
President Obama, I wish John Boehner could live my life for a few months. I would like to see those in Congress who find it hard to live on $174,000 a year try to live on $11,000 just for a couple of months. And I think I am better off not giving my opinion of the bankers who got us into the economic disaster that has devastated so many, and the salaries and bonuses they are reaping from the suffering they sowed.
I would feel better if some of these people had to share some of the sacrifice.