My son, an excellent high school music teacher, lost his job this year when the people of New Jersey did the same thing last November that the nation did this November. They were angry because Corzine could not fix everything at once and the so they dumped him. Enter Chris Christie who immediately went after the teachers and the teachers union. Massive layoffs of teachers and support staff in every school district in the state went into effect, and this is just round one. The wealthiest in the state got about 4 Billion in tax breaks and guess what? Even with all these cuts taxes did not go down and unemployment went up. Go figure.
Taxes, taxes, taxes thats all the republicans talk about and the people keep allowing them to take actions that are in direct conflict with the needs of the masses and still people vote for them. But with all the cuts in services, jobs etc. the promise of tax relief never happens. Now, in New Jersey we have all of these highly educated people out of work and many of them like my son are about to see their benefits expire.
Well I pay taxes and have for a long time and I want my taxes to be used for the general good. I paid into unemployment all my life and fortunately never had to collect and I do not resent someone else collecting because politicians and business people alike don't seem to get it or just don't seem to care. If they are not going to take steps to create jobs they need to have the conscience to help ease the burden of these people who are not politically connected or do not have the ear of the government.
With this just the first round of school cuts in New Jersey, the likely hood that my son will find a job again is remote at best and he currently looking for a new line of work. So as he tries to pull his life back together and take care of his family I am glad the president made the compromise. He has little political support in Congress because of the November elections (and not much before) and I would rather see him act in the interest of the
people who currently have no one to help them out. We are all in this together, lets work together not undermine each other.
Republicans are heartless bastards who have for the past 2 years done everything in their power to take Obama down and with him the rest of the country. When you have to go up against the likes of them there is not a whole lot of wiggle room and having punished the dems in the last election because some folks felt they did not get all they wanted, while others felt they got too much, it can and will get a whole lot worse before it gets better and they don't care. So what ever Obama can get done to help the least fortunate of us I say good. It may not be everything I want but something is better than nothing. That lesson is being learned the hard way for many in New Jersey.