I think it's no secret that I'm not your dream constituent, just as you're not the Representative I would have in mind. Just to get that out of the way, at first. But I wanted to write this diary as if we could get beyond twitter, or the two minutes allotted by your ultra-polite office staff. (Sometimes I wonder if they have to apologize for you a lot, but I did promise to get beyond snark for a bit while I write this.) Follow me below the fold for the thoughts of a pretty powerless person, sir.
First of all, I don't love drawing Social Security at forty. It is not that I sit around thinking myself superior to the poor slobs that work for a living while I have my feet up(although I mostly do have my feet up...footrests, you know.)It is hard to ever make the kind of money by myself that I would need to keep attendant services. That is part of the reason for the thousands of people who get on Social Security, the people who get off of it number in the single digits. Someday, I still want to be one of those people, but I'm not going to make it by the default deadline, and even though my place is boxy and every third plug doesn't work, I wouldn't want to lose it, and my check does keep the mortgage paid. Maybe I can camp out on one of your lawns.
I know many people who are sweating through the furlough, let alone a credit downgrade that will panic the markets and turn halting growth into an economic seizure of some sort.
My friend who is losing her Healthy San Francisco coverage would agree about the imperfections of the ACA, but she wanted more, not less, and we all watched relatively helplessly as things like the public option got bargained away to appease people like you, who decided early on that you could never be appeased...
Are we having fun yet?