Americans Held Hostage

The sickest and the oldest

by politicians who continue to give us false information about a Medicare drug plan that:

• was misrepresented in the first place
• was voted down but held into a three hour vote while its proponents twisted arms and made bribes to get more votes
• is so confusing most can't understand it and 40% still need more information before selecting a plan
• is a sell out to insurance and drug companies,
• is forcing small and rural drug stores out of business,
• imposes an unrealistic deadline with uncompromising restriction
• Confused about new drug benefit, pharmacists and administrators stick patients with the bill

by a system that allows pension plans to disappear

The poorest

• By misrepresented and/or ignored hikes in utility bills, by tying relief to the war budget, and the resulting depletion of heating assistance before winter ends
• by politicians whose math skills and logic are like Representative Conaway's (R-TX), whose response to "60% of those eligible last year got assistance and prices are up an average of 35%" is "the cost is up less than 50% percent and funding was doubled, so there isn't a problem"
• cuts to social programs at a time when real income of the average household is dropping and record numbers of people qualify for those programs due to loss of jobs and inflated prices without equal compensation in salaries

The most distraught

Ø      by politicians who insist we've done enough for FEMA's misplaced, and who refuse to understand that bills without funding and earmarks without action do nothing to help people

Ø      by politicians who are removed enough from reality to stand on the floor and announce there are no problems, while reports of the exact problems they deny are being made, as they speak

Ø      by red tape holding up FEMA relief

Ø      by a slow response to getting hospitals rebuilt in Louisiana (thousands of Vets driving long distances to get health care since the VA hospital flooded after Katrina)

Every Citizen

• by politicians who continue to award contracts to Halliburton, knowing they have wasted more than $100 million dollars of our money
• by the politicians who ignore Pentagon reports and 97% of the recommendations federal auditors offer regarding Halliburton
• by politicians who don't admit that giving George Bush more power will erode the system of checks and balances and toss our democracy out the door.
• by tacking heating and hurricane assistance to Iraq and Afghanistan budget
• by misrepresenting a social security crisis in order to privatize social security and leave people at the mercy/gamble of a fluctuating stock market (once again benefiting corporations instead of individuals)