my name is scott, and i'm an unemplyed american

[no_more_yesterdays]

So here I was, just minding my own business, providing for my family and just living the dream.
For 15 years I’d been running staffing agency territories and training the recruiters.
Things were great. In 2006 my wife and I sold the house we'd owned for 12 years, put a $250k down payment on a bigger place.
One day I’m checking my 401k online and almost 1/2 was gone!
What the heck!?
A little bit later, there's a foreclosure across the street. Same floor plan as ours - ends up selling for $100k less than what our 1st mortgage is. Doggone it!
I hear about judicial loan modification (cram down),and that congress is going to help straighten things out.
I learn that it used to be that way until congress changed it in 2005..... hmmmmmm, I wonder if they knew something……
Well, cram down doesn't pass, and I make a point of seeing which congressman / senators voted against it.
Start playing the lost docs game with chase mortgage on a mortgage modification. (Still trying 18 months later)
As unemployment rises, I reduce office expenses, but in the end I get laid off.
Re Career at 50 – whoohoo!
I hammer the marketplace, trying to get work, but the recruiting agencies aren’t expanding yet.
Am shocked when congress goes home for the Memorial Day weekend without extending unemployment benefits. But oh well, they'll get it right when they come back......
July 4th rolls around.
Still trying to get a job.
I’m hearing comments from republican congressman/senators that as one of the unemployed, I’m lazy, spoiled, spending my money on drugs, should take a lower paying job, and am just milking the system.
House passes unemployment extension in the final hours, but senate has already left for the 4th of July holiday..... Hundreds of thousands of Americans suffering in the worst economy and they go celebrate 4th of July?
What the heck?
I read that republicans block the extensions because it'll add to the deficit. Been hearing a lot of republicans screaming about the deficit and how our current President is on some crazed spending spree, so I go to to see what it was when our President took office.
Almost 11 trillion.
Look up the current deficit and see it’s 13 trillion.
I get curious, what was it when president bush took office? - I look it up on
- almost 6 trillion.
Wait just a cotton pickin' second, something’s not right here....
I go to website and see that our congressman republican Darrell Issa voted against :

- Modifying mortgages in bankruptcy
- Extending unemployment benefits
- All of the stimulus funds to get economy going
- Regulating the subprime mortgage industry

Ok, I’m pretty angry now.
I read his voting record further.
I get angrier.
I vote for the democratic candidate in the primary - Howard Katz.
I begin reading more on Darrell Issa and I find out he's the richest man in congress, has held this “protected seat” for 10 years and read lots of articles surrounding a "less than ethical" background.
My one vote isn't going to be enough I figure, so I write to the democratic candidate Howard Katz, tell him our current congressman's voting record does not reflect the best interests of my family and could I volunteer to help his campaign.
Never done anything like this before, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to be tossed around like a ragdoll and then have my character insulted.
I begin to take things personal.
I am starting to see how the political game is being played for power and that millions of Americans are the chess pieces.
I begin hearing republicans speaking about making medicare cuts and reducing/eliminating social security to shrink the deficit but tax cuts to people making over $250k are ok and we should do that.
What in the heck is going on?
i can't be the only person seeing something is wrong here.

I don't know if we'll unseat Darrell Issa.
With a lot of help, luck, and good winds, we'll replace him with someone whose positions and values reflect the needs of our new current reality and not his political fame.
Things have changed, for me, and millions of other Americans like me.
I’m not afraid of our future.
I’m not nervous about our future.
I’m angry.
And I’m going to do whatever I can to send that message.
Please visit our candidate’s site.


If you can donate anything -we have to pay the rent, buy signs, buttons, we have to advertise,etc.
It's an all volunteer staff, and if you want to help we sure could use it.
I hope you'll do what you can to send a message to congress this November.
They’re not watching out for us.
One vote isn't enough
And by the way,
"I stand with the President of the United States"
Always have before, always will.

Even the republican ones.
That’s my President

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Welcome to DU, Scott!

Thank you for your activism!

This is a great post. Many people just give up and fall back. Not you.

We tried to throw Jane Harmon out down here, and failed.

:yourock:

[girl gone mad]

2. Unfortunately, the WH lobbied to kill cramdowns.

Time and again, this administration has made economic decisions which solely benefit a select group of financial elites.

Here's to hoping they will change course while it's still just a little too late..

[patrice]

3. I know that unemployment benefits help, but they are NOT a solution, they're hush money, to shut

people up, and to be able to say, "See, we did what we were supposed to do for the unemployed by providing unemployment benefits".

Unemployment benefits are a temporary bribe to distract us from the fact that Americans use other Americans and then throw them away.

[virgogal]

4. Just curious----how much money did you make on the house you had for 12 years?

[kelly1mm]

5. why don't you start your own staffing agency or some other business?

With your experience of "For 15 years I’d been running staffing agency territories and training the recruiters." you should be good to go.