Soldiers Owe Their Souls To The Company Store

Everyday there is more news about the population being disappointed in how the government has handled things for the past eight years. We have had issues during these two Bush administrations with OutSourcing, inflation oil prices, doing an about face with abandoning Afghanistan and not getting Bin Laden, al Qaida and the taliban when we had the chance and the constant struggle with the economy. Then there was the cutting of the budget at the beginning of the Invasion in Iraq without the proper equipment or the number in man power that was needed for the rebuild. But something today has caught my eye that does need some discussion.

According to the ABC news in the article written by Joseph Rhee the pentagon debt collectors have inflated penalties and fees and have illegally collected money from the soldiers benefits or tax refunds which have caused serious problems for the soldiers and veterans. The money that was being collected was for the uniforms and ammunition that the soldiers have to buy while in service for their country.

Source:http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4591406&page=1

Foreclosures And The Middle Class

I just read a news article from USA Today where two of the writers, Brad Heath and Charisse Jones, have put the blame of the foreclosure crisis on the homeowners for getting homes they could not afford. But they are not the only economic writers who have fallen into that trap. It seems that every economic writer has concentrated the blame on the homeowners for not being able to afford the homes they bought. Since most of the apartment vacancy rate has dropped very rapidly and the costs are beginning to soar as well most of the homeowners who have fallen into foreclosure in Denver Colorado are having to move in with family. Of course the economic writers are blaming the homeowners who did fall into foreclosures for the rising cost and lack of apartments as well. Even though there has been an increase of States whose government officials were admitting that there has been an increase of homelessness in their states, it seems that very little if any is being said about it. Still many of the foreclosed homeowners are moving in with family in Denver and other parts of Colorado. Yet Colorado is not the only state hit by foreclosures and homeowners doubling up with family in single family homes. In Kalamazoo Michigan many people are doubling up and there were over 1,000 foreclosures of homes last year. Still every writer speaks of subprime rate loans, the aggressive lenders and the fault of the homeowner.

However, no one has ever tried to find out about the jobs. Has any of the 23,000 jobs lost in January, or the 63,000 jobs lost in February have anything to do with it? How about the OutSourcing of jobs with Bush and his administration giving Government Financial Incentives to Corporations to take jobs away from Americans and give the same jobs to workers in other countries? After all, my husband's job was outsourced in Jan 2002 and we have barely been able to hold on with temporary High Tech contract jobs that are becoming so few and far in between. When we first bought our home, it was a 30 year fixed FHA. My husband's job of 12 years with Rocketdyne was permanent and secure, his retirement was set, our medical insurance covered. Everything had been wonderful for his 20 years of experience and employment in his field, Until his job was OutSourced. Then it began. The ability to obtain another permanent secured job was becoming a thing of the past. Yet no one wrote about that. Since 2002, every year the jobs in his high tech field were fewer, farther in-between, and for a lot less length of time, which did pose a serious threat to our ability to hold on to our humble abode. My husband had taken those temporary high tech jobs OUT OF STATE and had to pay for living expenses in both locations, just so we can hold on to our home. We have even had to obtain one of those subprime loans just to stay afloat so we would NOT loose our home when the length in-between jobs was more than expected. Yet no one ever wrote about that. Recently, we even got a second refinance loan when it looked like we may be headed down the road to loss of ownership. Yet no one ever wrote about that.

No! It seems our problem is not that we bought a house we could not afford. No! What is our problem? If our home were to go into foreclosure, what would be the cause? Our plight would be that my husbands job was OutSource. It would be that the Secured Permanent jobs in the Hight Tech field are a thing of the past. It would be that the Bush Administration and the Republicans took my husband's job, send the job overseas, and gave his job to a foreign worker. In short, Bush and the Republicans have pulled the safety rug of security from under our feet and threw it to the wind.

Yet no one will write about that!