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Dubya, Now It's
Personal
April 4, 2001
by Liz Peel
I have never liked George W. Bush. Before last November,
I fervently hoped that he would lose the election and that
the presidency would pass on to Al Gore. After doing a little
research into his background, I honestly became scared of
the man. The general condition of Texas while he was governor
made a testament as to what a poor president he would make.
His history with the electric chair, family connections to
the Nazis and short-sighted, judgemental views about anyone
who needs public assistance (combined with his personal irresponsibility)
testified that he had the potential to ruin our great nation.
I firmly resolved to vote for Al Gore and to convince as
many people as possible to do the same. Then the mess in November
started. Al Gore won the popular vote. Al Gore had the most
votes in Florida, but Katherine Harris, brother Jeb and five
regrettable members of the Supreme Court declared Shrub the
winner. I became very depressed at this point and loudly decried
the theft of our presidency to everyone who would listen.
I joined Internet think tanks and protested the mass media's
blatant favoritism. I emailed legitimately elected officials
and signed petitions by the dozen.
I was horrified when I heard that Bush's first act in office
(which has thankfully been contested) was to slash funding
for groups which provide essential health care for women and
children overseas. I was mad then, but it was all just politics
to me.
Meanwhile, my personal life was in turmoil. While I made
too much money to get welfare, I certainly didn't make enough
to pay the outrageous $1200/month costs of child care. There
is a program in my county to help working families pay for
daycare, but it is extremely overburdened and underfunded,
with a long waiting list. My family helped me for a few months,
babysitting three days a week so that I could hold down a
part-time job. In late February, they were no longer able
to help me and I lost my job. I then became qualified for
welfare, but after I filed my application, I was told that
I would have to wait six weeks to recieve any kind of assistance,
even though I could have been back to work the next day if
I had had childcare.
About that time, I became very depressed and withdrew from
political activism. I still received a few email newsletters
and occasionally signed petitions, but remained quiet for
the most part. A few days ago, I received a bulletin which
broke down the proposed tax cut. As I had already known, our
richest citizens are set to receive the lion's share of the
benefits while middle class families get enough to eat at
McDonald's a couple extra times each month. Those who, like
myself, are currently at the bottom of the income scale get
an extra package of ramen noodles every two days or so.
Then, I visited an informative website about what programs
are going to be cut to allow for the tax cut. The childcare
assistance program in North Carolina will be cut by $200 million
if the tax cut passes through Congress. When I heard this
news, I was devastated. I have done a lot of research on the
childcare assistance program and called every available government
official to bring light to the situation and push for more
funding. The programs which serve the county where I live
are hard-pressed to help the families which are already enrolled.
Statewide, almost 15,000 children are waiting for safe, affordable
daycare.
A $200 million cut would be an unmitigated disaster. No families
would be moved off of the waiting list in the forseeable future
and many families would be dropped. Those parents would then
lose their jobs and be forced to apply for welfare. The economy
is sagging, both in NC and nationwide. A tax cut that gives
to the rich at the expense of the poor isn't going to revitalize
it. Cutting badly needed social programs so that people who
are able to work, receive paychecks and spend them, have to
sit at home moping about (like the media's inaccurately sterotyped
welfare recipient) is only going to make things worse. Much
worse.
I am a nursing student and a Certified Nurses' Aide. There
is currently a nationwide shortage of both nurses and aides,
as anyone in the health care profession and many who have
sick or injured family members knows. Most CNAs and many nurses
are single parents who rely upon childcare assistance programs
to stay employed. If those programs are cut, these people
will no longer be able to work and healthcare facilities will
become chronically understaffed. Patients will suffer from
injuries and illnesses, such as bedsores, infections, broken
bones and dehydration, which are completely preventable in
many cases. Similar problems will occur in every industry
which employs parents at salaries too low to pay for childcare.
George W. Bush's tax cut is more than just another payback
to the rich. It is more than an economically unwise plan.
It has the potential to hurt hundreds of thousands of working
American families. In addition to cutting the childcare program
in NC, the cut will sap funding from domestic violence and
child abuse prevention programs, limiting resources for victims
of abuse and thus limiting the number of children who can
grow up in violence-free households.
This tax cut strikes at me personally, limiting my ability
to work, be a good role model for my children and contribute
to society. It strikes at my children, making it much harder
for them to have safe care while I am at work. It strikes
at my friends who also need the childcare assistance program
to keep working and provide for their families. It strikes
at the residents in the nursing home where I worked, because
short-staffing puts them at risk for numerous injuries.
This is more than politics now, and I will not sit idly by
while it harms me and those I care about. My silence is over,
Dubya. I'm fighting again, and this time it's personal.
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