I wish that every elected Congress critter
was required to spend a minimum of 6 months:
1) Making minimum wage, preferably in a job that they would find distasteful.
2) Having to find their own health insurance and pay for it out of pocket.
3) With a new baby in the house and no paid family leave.
4) With a sick relative in the house, and no paid family leave.
5) With a chronic illness requiring a certain amount of leave, and no paid leave.
6) In a housing situation where one missed or late payment would leave them homeless.
This list is not exhaustive, of course.
Prior experience does not count. It's too easy to forget how hard it was. I know what it was like to live in poverty. Experiencing it again, now, would leave the fresh taste our lawmakers need to have in their mouths. Unfortunately, some people become less empathetic after emerging from poverty, with the attitude that they did it themselves, it wasn't so bad, etc. That's why it needs to be experienced now by the people deciding how the rest of us are going to make it.
I know it's unreasonable. But so is denying legislation to help people who have to live in those conditions for the foreseeable future.
I guess I'm just getting impatient with the "sausage making" and the lack of urgency displayed by all Republicans and a few Democrats.
= new reply since forum marked as read
