A few minutes into this Bill Moyers clip is some very moving Testimony before Congress, about what it means to be Middle Class and struggling, in today's America. In an economic system where most of the economic growth goes to the very upper income brackets -- while the rest of us must figure out ever more creative ways, just to make ends meet ...
Jacob Hacker & Paul Pierson on Engineered Inequality
Bill Moyers and Company -- January 13, 2012
[Sorry the clip from vimeo.com won't embed, please follow the above link instead.]
A partial transcript of this very sincere homemaker's testimony, is posted next ...
Here's a partial transcript Amanda Greubel's story, as covered by Bill Moyers this week:
BILL MOYERS: Amanda Greubel was invited to testify last summer at a Senate hearing on how Americans are coping in hard times. When the state cut funding for local school districts, Amanda Greubel and her husband feared they might lose their jobs. At the last minute, they were spared, although her salary was reduced by $10,000.
AMANDA GREUBEL: $10,000 might not seem like a lot to some people, but that loss of income required a complete financial, emotional and spiritual overhaul in our family. […] It means that even though I would rather shop at local grocers, I shop at Wal-Mart for groceries because that's where the lowest prices are. Sometimes the grocery money runs out before the end of the month, and then we have to be creative with what's in the cupboard - and that was a fun challenge at first, but the novelty wears off after a while. […] It means that most of our clothing comes from Goodwill, garage sales, and the clearance racks because we try not to spend full-price on anything anymore. It means that when my son brought me the snack calendar for his classroom and I saw that that month was his week to provide snacks for 15 classmates, I was scared because I knew that it would stretch the grocery budget even further. And we didn't have roast beef or pork chops in our house that month. […] This past spring our son was hospitalized for three days, resulting in $1000 in out-of-pocket medical expenses beyond what our insurance covered. Then a problem with our roof required $1500 in repairs. Even though we'd been setting aside money every month for emergencies like that, we still didn't have enough. And so we’ve spent the last few months catching up.
And finally, this change in our finances meant giving very serious consideration to whether it was even a good idea for our family to have another child. Thankfully, life has a way of reminding us through our son's brief illness and hospitalization that some things are more important than money and that we’ll figure it out.
BILL MOYERS: She told the senators how the sour economy has affected her students and their parents.
AMANDA GREUBEL: If my family with two Master's degrees is struggling, you can imagine how bad it is for other people.
The Hearing was entitled "Stories from the Kitchen Table: How the Middle Class are Struggling to Make Ends Meet."
Here is a youtube clip, specifically of Amanda's testimony.
And Congress wonders why the American People disapprove of their Job Performance, or the exceeding lack thereof. They continue to play political games, especially those of the Obstructionist persuasion, while the American people, continue to struggle to make ends meet ...