[Rickm505]

Sailaway21, I'm really curious. May I ask who pays for your health coverage?

I pay for my own and have changed providers and reduced benefits because of financial considerations. Despite this, I consider myself fortunate to have insurance. You've seen the figures about how many Americans do not.

In the mid '80's I was a good little republican and wanted all of our unions gone asap. I was wrong...

I'm older and wiser now. Any system must have checks and balances in order for it to work properly. As union membership decreased this balance was upset. The scales tipped too far in benefiting large multinational corporations. The economic environment we all share today is not as good as it was 20 years ago in this country by any standard of measurement. Whether it's health care, wages, disposable income... pick your chart or graph. We are not better off today.

As I mentioned earlier, I'm older and wiser these days and I may add an unaffiliated voter. The disparity between rich and poor is squeezing the middleclass out of existance. I'm a member of this demographic so I take exception to this trend. There have been a couple of articles on this subject and you might benefit by reading them. There have also been some whispers that "Republican's aren't done until all of FDR's programs are undone"

We live in a democratic system of government and people can change what they don't like at the poll. However, have you noticed that politicians regardless of political party always take care of their campaign contributors and the Pac's always get their man. Very little legislation is passed these days that actually improves the lives of the middle class.

When a system doesn't work any longer we have to change it. It's just common sense and in this election cycle there are only two guys that seem to grasp the problem, coincidently one from each party. Neither has any chance of winning their party's nomination because neither is accepting PAC money.

What all this boils down to is that our lives can't improve until election reform truly is realized or PAC's banned. Our country was founded on the basis of one man, one vote for a government for the people by the people. Although this is the law of the land, I would argue that what's happening today is very different.

Just my humble opinion.