Help with reply to Houston Chronicle LTTE

[jedicord]

A lady wrote in and said she was tired of hearing about the bad news. She asked to hear about facts on the "good news":

Medicare savings seniors are now experiencing,
Decrease in taxes that allows small business to flourish,
Unemployment rate is lower than in many years,
How strong our economy is, and
How good things look for the future.

Any quick comebacks would be greatly appreciated. Since she asked for facts, I'd like to respond with them. I could just answer back "what a crock", but, you know...

[benddem]

1. my answers

Mortgage defaults are at an all time high.
Bankruptcies are soaring.
Average household income has dropped in the past year.
US Citizens have negative savings.
The uneployment rate for soldiers and marines returning from Iraq is 5 times higher than for the public at large.
The unemployment rate doesn't count the people who've given up looking for work.

[DinahMoeHum]

2. Re the unemployment rate, you should add. . .

"...given up looking for work or whose benefits have run out..."

:evilfrown:

[jedicord]

3. Good ones, thanks. Edumacation is goode! n/t

[theHandpuppet]

8. Don't forget our national debt

Now at $8,279,054,662,564.85 and has been rising $2.01 billion per day since September 30, 2005

Bush is selling off this country and driving it into bankruptcy!

[reichstag911]

4. How 'bout...

...small businesses are NOT flourishing; they're being gobbled up or undercut on prices so badly that they cannot survive in a Wal-mart world.

Any employment gains are at the expense of real income; the jobs to be had are largely low-wage service industry jobs, while the jobs we're losing are the higher-paid manufacturing type.

The future for today's children will include stagnant/declining heavy industry, a debt of $9 trillion and counting, and massive trade deficits which will ultimately result in higher interest rattes as we keep borrowing to buy foreign goods. Forget about a first mortgage 'til you're about 50, kids.

Since the cost of the medicare drug plan was grossly underestimated, and it includes provisions that preclude the government negotiating with Big Pharma for price breaks (in addition to outright handouts), the greatest beneficiary, directly and indirectly, is Big Pharma.

[MasonJar]

5. Where does she live...India? Jobs are certainly multiplying there.

The US just had to raise the debt level to almost 9 trillion. We have killed close to 100,000 innocent people, including many 1000's of children. We are giving away 300,000 acres of public land so that Bush and his have-mores...an action that will change the landscape of America forever. In this move some will make big money while the rest of us and the wildlife will reap the nagative impact. We have a voting system which cheats the American voter and has enabled the Republicans to steal three elections. (Does anyone really believe that the good folks in Georgia really believed that nonsense about their one-limbed Senator and Osama? Especially when we have since found out that the machines had been tampered with. We have made enemies of our friends. We have enriched the administration and its supporters in addition to the Pugs in the Congress. We have allowed the administration to spy on us and to enter our houses without a warrant. The list is unending.

[jedicord]

6. At first I thought she was being sarcastic, then noticed...

that her last name is Mitchell, and she's from The Woodlands, TX, a huge, mostly rich neighborhood/town developed by (ahem) George Mitchell, of the now bought-out Mitchell Energy and Development Corp.

I'm sure she's hurtin' for certain.:nopity:

[MadMaddie]

7. Tell her to stay in her rich gated community and to continue

to wear her rose colored glasses...drink her Pina Colada's and live in her imaginary world..

Because there is no good news when the US has soldiers coming home in body bags or come back mentally wrecked.

No good news that the Gulf coast is still in shambles and it's citizens are sufferning on US soil.

No good news that Her President can't give a coherant answer to why we are in Iraq!!

They are unbelievable!!!:banghead:

[Samurai_Writer]

9. Medicare savings seniors are now experiencing?

You have to be kidding me. I just had to spend a lot of time and energy getting my sister into a special program in Social Security to help with her Part D prescription costs. If I hadn't, she would have been paying $1300 a month, when her income is only $1000 a month.

[Debs]

10. The reason an Ostrich puts its head in the sand

Is to look for the good news to make up for the fact that was a lion he saw coming. What comes next is the lion EATS the ostrich