Last week seemed to be the week for bad news in our house. Not only did the tax deal pass, without any help for the 99ers, or any real, tangible plan to create jobs, included; but we also found out that my husband is going to need another major surgery - soon.
This will be his third surgery in a year. First there was the sextuple bypass surgery last February. Then there was the aneurysm repair at the end of April. There was also a third hospitalization beginning on Thanksgiving day for a bleeding ulcer. As we learned last week, the ulcer was caused by three tumors on the outer wall of his stomach. Those tumors are the reason he will need another operation - which is likely to take place some time in late January or early February (depending on when they get all the testing and preparation done). If the surgery is done before February 12, it will be the third in exactly one year's time.
Complicating all surgeries is the fact that my husband is a hemophiliac. He's also diabetic, and has other complications like diverticulosis, anemia, sleep apnea, and acid reflux. So the idea of surgery is always a very scary prospect. The fact that this must be an open surgery (can't be done laparoscopically) just makes it all the more daunting. Even if we assume that everything goes perfectly (and I refuse to consider any other possibility), he is facing a long and very painful recovery.
Yes, I know what I'm not talking about. Naturally, there is a risk for "the big C". At the moment the GI doctor thinks the tumors are benign, and I'm fervently hoping he's right about that. We won't know until they are removed though, as doing a biopsy would have posed too much of a bleeding risk. So for now we just don't know, but we can hope - and I plan to cling to that hope until I'm given a reason not to.
Of course, this presents a huge problem for us financially as well. We are already in debt to the hospital for well over $9,000 in copayments from his first two surgeries (after Medicare paid its share). That's not counting the bill for the most recent hospitalization, which hasn't come in yet - or the charges that will be added for the new surgery. That's also not counting what we pay out in copayments to his doctors and for his medications. And, of course, I'm a 99er. Our monthly income has been cut by about 60% from when I was working 2 years ago, first by the drop from a salary to unemployment, and now by the loss of the unemployment as well. All we have left now is my husband's disability check.
It's so easy for those who have jobs or substantial incomes to say "just get a job", but they haven't walked a mile in our shoes. They haven't sent out hundreds of resumes and applications, only to have most of them ignored. They haven't been told over and over again that they are "overqualified" to do the job they've done all their lives. They haven't had to figure out how to find and keep a job while also being the sole caretaker for a seriously ill spouse. They haven't had to face the reality that the care they give that spouse is not considered "work" or worthy of compensation - even though the insurers and government programs would gladly pay a total stranger to do the same job (but with less compassion or conscientiousness, because it's not their family member).
The coming year is going to be one of the biggest challenges of our lives. Somehow I have to get both of us through the medical nightmare that is about to begin, while also keeping us afloat financially - all without a job and without any help from unemployment or the state.
The other day a friend posted a question on her Facebook page about what New Year's resolutions we were making. My answer was simple: I resolve that my husband and I will survive 2011. I have no idea how, or where we will be in 12 months, but if both of us are still breathing, still standing, and still together, that will be a "win".
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Friday, December 17, 2010
A little about me
So, now that I've vented my frustration with the tax deal, the GOP, and the completely dysfunctional Congress; I thought I should explain why I started this blog.
As I mentioned, I'm a 99er. I was laid off in January 2008 from a data entry job at a local wire mill. I wasn't earning all that much there, but combined with my husband's disability income, it was enough for us to live on. We kept the bills paid, ate out once in a while, and could afford to take trips to NY or CT for visits with family fairly often. Our only debt was our car loan. We used debit cards for everything, so we never got in trouble with credit card interest. We are renters, so we never had anything to fear from the mortgage crisis or the housing bust. We didn't have any investments, so the fall of the stock market did not affect us either. In fact, the only thing that ever gave us pause was $4 gas, but we managed even then.
Maybe it wasn't the "American dream" - but it was certainly good enough for us. We had all we needed (if not everything we wanted), and we were comfortable with the way things were. Then I lost my job.
I probably should have seen it coming. My primary role at work was tracking the performance of the mill workers by entering the production numbers from each worker's daily tracking sheet on each shift into the database and then running the reports. Primarily this was used as a tool for performance improvement, and the worker's performance averages determined their raise at their next review.
In the month or so prior to my being laid off, there were less and less sheets, and less production on each sheet. It wasn't that the workers were slowing down though - it was that the mill was not getting enough orders to run a full shift. That's never a good sign.
Since then, many other mills, factories and other "blue collar" businesses (the primary type of employment in this part of PA) have either cut shifts or shut down completely. The unemployment rate in Pennsylvania is around 8.8% right now (which, of course, only counts those still able to get unemployment benefits). It's not over either - not by a long shot. Just last night there was a segment on the local news about another company that is closing it's doors, leaving a couple hundred more Pennsylvanians out of work.
In a way, though, the workers at that facility are the lucky ones. Thanks to the tax deal, they will be guaranteed at least 13 months of unemployment benefits - and the way things are here in PA, they are likely to need every one of those months. But what happens to them when those 13 months are over? What happens to all those who still have some tiers of unemployment left, but will become 99ers long before those 13 months end? And what happens to all those like me, who already used up their 99 weeks, but still can't find a job - not for lack of effort or will, but because there are no jobs to be found?
I may be late to the game, as there are many 99ers who have been without unemployment benefits for many months already. But I wanted to document this journey I am embarking on, in part because so many people are clueless about what the 99ers are facing, and in part because I still hold on to one small hope...
The hope is that maybe someone in DC or the media will read what will be documented here, and perhaps it will nag at their conscience just enough that they might actually champion the 99ers instead of treating us like an embarrassment they'd rather not be reminded of.
I have news for the folks in Washington and those in the media who have stopped talking about us as well. We are not going away. We are at least 4 million strong, and our numbers grow every week as more and more of the unemployed max out their 99 weeks of benefits. We may be poor, but we have no intention of being silent!!
As I mentioned, I'm a 99er. I was laid off in January 2008 from a data entry job at a local wire mill. I wasn't earning all that much there, but combined with my husband's disability income, it was enough for us to live on. We kept the bills paid, ate out once in a while, and could afford to take trips to NY or CT for visits with family fairly often. Our only debt was our car loan. We used debit cards for everything, so we never got in trouble with credit card interest. We are renters, so we never had anything to fear from the mortgage crisis or the housing bust. We didn't have any investments, so the fall of the stock market did not affect us either. In fact, the only thing that ever gave us pause was $4 gas, but we managed even then.
Maybe it wasn't the "American dream" - but it was certainly good enough for us. We had all we needed (if not everything we wanted), and we were comfortable with the way things were. Then I lost my job.
I probably should have seen it coming. My primary role at work was tracking the performance of the mill workers by entering the production numbers from each worker's daily tracking sheet on each shift into the database and then running the reports. Primarily this was used as a tool for performance improvement, and the worker's performance averages determined their raise at their next review.
In the month or so prior to my being laid off, there were less and less sheets, and less production on each sheet. It wasn't that the workers were slowing down though - it was that the mill was not getting enough orders to run a full shift. That's never a good sign.
Since then, many other mills, factories and other "blue collar" businesses (the primary type of employment in this part of PA) have either cut shifts or shut down completely. The unemployment rate in Pennsylvania is around 8.8% right now (which, of course, only counts those still able to get unemployment benefits). It's not over either - not by a long shot. Just last night there was a segment on the local news about another company that is closing it's doors, leaving a couple hundred more Pennsylvanians out of work.
In a way, though, the workers at that facility are the lucky ones. Thanks to the tax deal, they will be guaranteed at least 13 months of unemployment benefits - and the way things are here in PA, they are likely to need every one of those months. But what happens to them when those 13 months are over? What happens to all those who still have some tiers of unemployment left, but will become 99ers long before those 13 months end? And what happens to all those like me, who already used up their 99 weeks, but still can't find a job - not for lack of effort or will, but because there are no jobs to be found?
I may be late to the game, as there are many 99ers who have been without unemployment benefits for many months already. But I wanted to document this journey I am embarking on, in part because so many people are clueless about what the 99ers are facing, and in part because I still hold on to one small hope...
The hope is that maybe someone in DC or the media will read what will be documented here, and perhaps it will nag at their conscience just enough that they might actually champion the 99ers instead of treating us like an embarrassment they'd rather not be reminded of.
I have news for the folks in Washington and those in the media who have stopped talking about us as well. We are not going away. We are at least 4 million strong, and our numbers grow every week as more and more of the unemployed max out their 99 weeks of benefits. We may be poor, but we have no intention of being silent!!
A Day of Mourning...
Well, it's official. The Obama/GOP tax deal has passed both houses of Congress and is about to be signed by President Obama this afternoon. For me, a 99er whose final week of benefits was paid out earlier this month, it's a day of mourning.
Mourning for the life we had just two years ago - a life that barely qualified as middle class, but it was enough. Mourning for the hope of finding a new job that has just grown dimmer because there is absolutely no reason to think that tax cuts which failed to produce jobs for the last 10 years (in fact, we consistently lost jobs every one of those years) will suddenly start creating them now. Mourning for the faint hope that the Democrats would stand up for the 99er's and refuse to let the deal pass without adding more weeks beyond 99 for us. And also mourning for our country, which has just seen nearly $1 trillion wasted on all the wrong things.
Two years from now, when this disasterous deal ends, we will not be better off than we are now. Everyone knows it, including the GOP. They just don't care. This has been proven, perhaps more this year than ever before. The Senate has become a virtually non-functional entity. Nothing can be done without the permission of the GOP, even though they are in the minority. And if anyone thought that was going to change after the tax deal was done, all you need to do is listen to the news for a half hour and you will see that isn't the case. They are still obstructing and objecting to everything, trying to run out the clock on the current session without allowing anything except their tax cut deal to be accomplished. Nothing else matters to them - not the welfare of their own constituents, or of the American people in general; not the economic crisis or national security - not even funding the military.
How can we call these people patriots? Doesn't a patriot put the welfare of his/her country before his/her own interests and desires? Aren't these folks bound by oath to serve and protect the Constitution and ALL of the American people, not just the special interests within their own party?
At what point does political gamesmanship turn into dereliction of duty? When can we start demanding that the GOP either do it's sworn duty or get the hell out of the way?
Mourning for the life we had just two years ago - a life that barely qualified as middle class, but it was enough. Mourning for the hope of finding a new job that has just grown dimmer because there is absolutely no reason to think that tax cuts which failed to produce jobs for the last 10 years (in fact, we consistently lost jobs every one of those years) will suddenly start creating them now. Mourning for the faint hope that the Democrats would stand up for the 99er's and refuse to let the deal pass without adding more weeks beyond 99 for us. And also mourning for our country, which has just seen nearly $1 trillion wasted on all the wrong things.
Two years from now, when this disasterous deal ends, we will not be better off than we are now. Everyone knows it, including the GOP. They just don't care. This has been proven, perhaps more this year than ever before. The Senate has become a virtually non-functional entity. Nothing can be done without the permission of the GOP, even though they are in the minority. And if anyone thought that was going to change after the tax deal was done, all you need to do is listen to the news for a half hour and you will see that isn't the case. They are still obstructing and objecting to everything, trying to run out the clock on the current session without allowing anything except their tax cut deal to be accomplished. Nothing else matters to them - not the welfare of their own constituents, or of the American people in general; not the economic crisis or national security - not even funding the military.
How can we call these people patriots? Doesn't a patriot put the welfare of his/her country before his/her own interests and desires? Aren't these folks bound by oath to serve and protect the Constitution and ALL of the American people, not just the special interests within their own party?
At what point does political gamesmanship turn into dereliction of duty? When can we start demanding that the GOP either do it's sworn duty or get the hell out of the way?
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