What have I ever done to make your party hate me so much, Mr. Boehner?
I've worked for 161 quarters, according to the Social Security Administration, every single quarter since I turned 14 until I was laid off by AT&T last August. I went to college and law school (another story), studied hard and graduated, and spent over a decade paying back my student loans. Until 2012, I never collected an unemployment check, received SNAP benefits, etc. . I always paid my bills, contributed to my 401(k), never filed for bankruptcy. I raised and loved my nephew like he was my own child, after his parents died, and sent him to college and grad school. I went and still do go to church, have done charity work all of my adult life, voted in every election in which I was eligible to do so since I turned 18. I served 2 terms on a school board, 3 on the library board. I belonged to the group who started our local soup kitchen, food pantry and 'brown bag' food program for poor children in my town, so they'd have something to eat on weekends and over the summer.
That 401(k) I mentioned? YOUR party allowed Wall Street and the other banksters to destroy 94% of everything I'd scrimped and saved for 25 years to put into it, and recent health issues have forced me to spend the remainder, because I couldn't afford the COBRA payments to continue my health insurance from AT&T on the niggardly amount unemployment pays me. YOUR party also made it not only legal for AT&T to outsource my job, but profitable for them to do so. So now, this...
This week, YOUR party passed legislation that will cut SNAP benefits to people like me AND also passed legislation intended to de-fund AHCA! My monthly SNAP benefits are $200, not a huge amount, but with careful shopping, coupons and paying attention to bargains, I eat 3 nutritious meals a day. I received a letter today from the State of Illinois telling me that I will very likely qualify for Medicaid, starting 1/1/2014. Thankfully, my PCP, my rheumatologist, my orthopedist, my general surgeon and my local hospital all accept Medicaid, as does my pharmacy.
In the past 13 months, I've applied for over 200 jobs, including fast food, grocery stores, etc., and I've also sent out 500-plus resumes. The sad reality is that there are 3 people looking for every 1 job that's available nationwide, 4 looking for every 1 available here in Illinois. I suppose I COULD move somewhere else where the job market is a bit more robust, but that would mean abandoning my blind, widowed and childless 88 year-old aunt, someone I dearly love and physically care for on a regular basis. So, I have to ask...
What have I ever done to make your party hate me so much, Mr. Boehner?
= new reply since forum marked as read
If you do find out who wrote it, please let me know.
Hugs & encouragement my dear. 
Their is an illegal, unspoken, but VERY real bias against people 50+ in hiring. I believe it.
I don't wish my current situation on anyone. Maybe that's why I'm a Democrat, and why they aren't.
Thank you for the good wishes! It helps, knowing that people care!
When I see various politicians like Corey Booker, e.g., try to live on a 'SNAP/food stamp budget', I also notice that they're already liberals and progressives. It would be nice to see Joe Arpaio, Mitch McConnell or Paul Ryan try it, for a change.
They provide me with transportation to job interviews, the grocery store, the doctor's office, etc. .
One of my best friends (since kindergarten) occasionally stops by and brings a 40# bag of dog food, cat food or kitty litter, because she knows I have to pay cash for those things. At first, I tried to tell her she didn't need to do it, but she just laughed and said things like, "Consider it your birthday present" or "It's your Christmas present" or "It was a BOGO at Kroger's, so it didn't cost me anything". Even so, I still get a pie or cake on my birthday, and she bought me an expensive coffee maker 'for Christmas', when my old Mr. Coffee gave up the ghost in March.
One person, my now 80 year-old 8th-grade math teacher, dropped by the house to visit one day. I've always liked him, and we became friends when I moved back here last fall. We had a nice visit, laughing about old times and exchanging information about former students and classmates, my family, his family, etc . When he had to leave, I walked him to his car, and upon returning back inside I saw an envelope on the counter marked 'Bob' in his Palmer method handwriting. Opening it, I found a $20 bill with a short note that said, "Loretta (his wife) and I know what it's like to make ends meet on a tight budget, and we figured you could probably use this". I dissolved into tears, because I was dead broke, and my $19 water bill was due he next day.
Thank god for my friends!
... and haven't had the common decency to cease existing. 
Our nation is dying a slow motion death from inside. It is a self inflicted death caused by a singular cause, greed.
I understand your betrayal and likewise I'm a little bit frightened also
And just because you deserve it:
find a synonym for the word "niggardly".
I do think you should send this to Boehner. I also think you should submit
it as an Op-ed piece to your regional newspaper.
Wishing you the best, and hopefully, a turnaround in the employment situation.
I chose to go with my 'gut' in choosing 'niggardly', because it best expressed my feeling at that moment.
Sadly, I do think that's what Mr. Boehner, et al, would reply.
I don't want to register or even look at the hate-filled spew that probably makes up 99% of what's posted at places like that.
The responses from you and everyone here have done a great deal to lift my spirits and remind me that there are kind people left in this world.
You're absolutely right in thinking that they don't want to believe that people like me exist, because I don't fit into their world view, and they find facts to be VERY inconvenient.
They seldom publish LTE's, and when they do, they read like Tea Party propaganda pieces.
I might consider sending it as a LTE to the Chicago and St. Louis papers, if only because their readership probably knows someone like me.
