On a Personal Note...

Dear Mr. President,

I've been contacting you frequently of late with my thoughts regarding the nation's debt limit "crisis". Today, I'd like to express my concerns on a somewhat more personal level.

My wife and I form a middle class family unit. We are definitely in one of the bottom tranches of what can be considered middle class - my salary is a little less than $100,000 per year, and my wife gets a whopping $650 per month from Social Security. I have good health insurance coverage through my employer (and thanks to Hawaii's health insurance laws), and my wife is covered by Medicare.

Mr. President, we are hurting. Five years ago, we were able to make our mortgage, utility and consumer credit payments, buy groceries and gasoline, and occasionally splurge a little on small luxuries. We both drive older, paid-for vehicles. In those five years, my salary has increased less than 3% in total, while nearly all of our costs (food, utilities, insurance, fuel) have increased by 15% or more. At this point, we are lucky to have as much as $100 left in disposable income at the end of the month after paying bills and purchasing necessary food, fuel, etc.

Economists might say that inflation has been low, but they factor housing costs into their calculations - and we don't buy houses every year. In fact, the equity in our home has shrunk by at least 30% since 2005. The fact is (and as you know, especially in Hawaii where a small increase in fuel prices gets multiplied into an increase in the price of everything) that the cost of everything we need to live has been going up while our income has been steady, which translates to a net decrease in disposable income for people like us.

Right now, my wife's Social Security income, small as it is, is the only thing that is helping us keep our heads above water. Yet, you now say you are willing to consider cutting even that meager amount. Mr. President, we and those even less fortunate cannot afford any reduction in our income - especially while the top 1% of earners in this economy are amassing over 90% of the wealth.

Please, Mr. President, please defend these minimum safety-net programs. They are, literally, the difference between life and death for many of our citizens. Don't throw away the legacy of FDR, JFK, and even LBJ for some short-term political gain.

(Out of space again - this 2500 character limit is junk.)

Malama ka aina. Malama na kanaka.