Private Buffoon: September 2012

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

I'm one of the 'victims'!

1. I attended public school (K-12; UT El Paso; Purdue) - yep, my education was subsidized by government (local & state).

2. It gets worse! I attended UT El Paso, Stanford, and Purdue using $$$ from G.I. Bill - a FEDERAL subsidy. (Oh, yeah - I earned grad degrees in math & statistics with the aid of government largesse.)

3. My late wife, Teresa, helped pay for her undergraduate education (B.S., Mechanical Engineering, UT El Paso) with Pell Grants. Upon graduation she was hired by Sandia National Labs and sent to Purdue for her Master's degree - paid for by the Department of Energy. More government largesse for undeserving poor folk.

4. Following six (6) years of breast cancer & chemo, my wife, Teresa, was forced to retire from Sandia National Labs - where she had worked as a mechanical & nuclear engineer for 25 years (among other things, working on our country's nuke arsenal). With her retirement she received Social Security Disability payments, and went on Medicare (tho', thankfully, she had excellent private insurance thru Sandia). Upon her death I received a $255 'survivor benefit' from Social Security. Yep - both of us sucking on the public tit - leeches on society.

5. We DID pay taxes - effective rate of 18% in 2006 (the last full year of Teresa's employment.)
[Yes - I STILL pay taxes on my huge fixed retirement income!]

... on one count, at least, Mitt Romney is right: there is absolutely nothing he can say to convince me to vote for him in this election!