General Music Chat

I'm going to scower all government programs, and watch and wait for any and all new programs that will get me free stuff.
I'm applying for EVERYTHING.

I won't stop until I have more income and benefits coming in by just sitting and playing music, than I do now as a productive worker.

You called down the thunder, well, you got it!

not to sound too cynical or bitter, but I don't see where all this "free" stuff is.

As you know, I have a special needs child. I make $45k a year, and my wife has had to stay at home for the last 9 years to take care of our daughter, so we have only that income. We are at best the "working poor", we don't have a flat-screen TV, we have a 32" gigantic tube TV that I bought for cost when I sold them ($200 back in 2001). We don't have new fancy cars, mine is a 1993 coupe that runs like crap. Yet, we live check to check. We've cut so much out of our budget and still can't make ends meet that I recently dropped my healthcare because I couldn't afford to USE it. Paying $275 monthly premiums to have something that I can't use borders on insane. If I were to have a heart attack or some other major health crisis, my health insurance would have bankrupted me anyways, as I really couldn't afford to pay out of pocket the $3000/$6000 (depending on services) deductible + $400/day co-pay to be admitted to a hospital.

Anyways-
We had our daughter on SSI disability. They ran it like nazis, constantly having me take days off to come into the offices and show them pay stubs, constantly recalculating our benefit amount (based on how many pay periods per month) and constantly changing the rules. At the end of it, we were getting a whopping $127/Month, that I lost by having to take a minimum of a day off work to go prove crap to them.. and at the very end, they recalculated 3-YEARS back and decided that I owed them $650. They then kicked us off SSI because I couldn't pay it.

Because she's disabled and in "special ed", we are required BY LAW to apply for every possible welfare/state benefit there is. There's a site called PA Compass that we have to do this through, ANNUALLY. Every year, they turn us down for every single thing.

My wife got a job last winter and was let go after 6 months, they turned her down for unemployment because she didn't make enough money to qualify.

PA has "CHIP" benefits for kids, free coverage except upper middle class, who pays a small fraction of the premium, but the benefits are 100% medical, dental, and scripts- no copays or deds, ever. Guess what. If you make less than $24,000 (estimate), -OR- you have a disabled child, you are not eligible for chip and get dumped into medicaid, which SUCKS.

The leeches in this system are the people who refuse to work, yes, but those cases are the exceptions, not the rule. The other leeches are the middle and upper classes who designed the system to work for them, and yet deny the poor and working poor the same benefits.

I don't get where the right wing in this country thinks that everyone on welfare is lazy and won't work. Most people on it are the polar opposite and can't wait to get free of it. I'm forced into it because of my daughters condition, and it's the worst thing ever, but more importantly and my point here is that it's biased against the poorer people in the country, and encourages them to not work. We need the old system back (before clinton) that aided people in getting off the system.

The leeches in this system are the people who refuse to work, yes, but those cases are the exceptions, not the rule. The other leeches are the middle and upper classes who designed the system to work for them, and yet deny the poor and working poor the same benefits.

that.

I don't get where the right wing in this country thinks that everyone on welfare is lazy and won't work. Most people on it are the polar opposite and can't wait to get free of it. I'm forced into it because of my daughters condition, and it's the worst thing ever.

i don't get it either. it's just a fine job of reprogramming that the powers that be have pulled off convincing so many otherwise intelligent people that everyone on welfare, SSI, unemployment, or food stamps are working the system. sure some are. but everyone? c'mon.

sorry to hear of your woes Kramer. obviously you and your's have the right stuff. hang in there and keep fighting the good fight.

not to sound too cynical or bitter, but I don't see where all this "free" stuff is.

As you know, I have a special needs child. I make $45k a year, and my wife has had to stay at home for the last 9 years to take care of our daughter, so we have only that income. We are at best the "working poor", we don't have a flat-screen TV, we have a 32" gigantic tube TV that I bought for cost when I sold them ($200 back in 2001). We don't have new fancy cars, mine is a 1993 coupe that runs like crap. Yet, we live check to check. We've cut so much out of our budget and still can't make ends meet that I recently dropped my healthcare because I couldn't afford to USE it.

Anyways-
We had our daughter on SSI disability. They ran it like nazis, constantly having me take days off to come into the offices and show them pay stubs, constantly recalculating our benefit amount (based on how many pay periods per month) and constantly changing the rules. At the end of it, we were getting a whopping $127/Month, that I lost by having to take a minimum of a day off work to go prove crap to them.. and at the very end, they recalculated 3-YEARS back and decided that I owed them $650. They then kicked us off SSI because I couldn't pay it.

Because she's disabled and in "special ed", we are required BY LAW to apply for every possible welfare/state benefit there is. There's a site called PA Compass that we have to do this through, ANNUALLY. Every year, they turn us down for every single thing.

My wife got a job last winter and was let go after 6 months, they turned her down for unemployment because she didn't make enough money to qualify.

PA has "CHIP" benefits for kids, free coverage except upper middle class, who pays a small fraction of the premium, but the benefits are 100% medical, dental, and scripts- no copays or deds, ever. Guess what. If you make less than $24,000 (estimate), -OR- you have a disabled child, you are not eligible for chip and get dumped into medicaid, which SUCKS.

The leeches in this system are the people who refuse to work, yes, but those cases are the exceptions, not the rule. The other leeches are the middle and upper classes who designed the system to work for them, and yet deny the poor and working poor the same benefits.

I don't get where the right wing in this country thinks that everyone on welfare is lazy and won't work. Most people on it are the polar opposite and can't wait to get free of it. I'm forced into it because of my daughters condition, and it's the worst thing ever.

First of all I am sorry that your daughter has this condition! I couldn't imagine having to live with your problems for even one day! IMO your situation is the kind that SSI benefits and the like SHOULD help. As a conservative I say that US right wingers are bitching about the BAD APPLES that cause the system to scrutinize the situation making it so hard on the ones that need help the most such as your family. No we don't think EVERYONE on welfare are taking advantage of it. Thats what liberals want you to believe. You sir are being manipulated! Having said that aren't we all in one way or another?

Well Zip I don't think you qualify for gubment cheese. Your music is cheesey enough.


I kid, I kid.

No we don't think EVERYONE on welfare are taking advantage of it. Thats what liberals want you to believe. You sir are being manipulated! Having said that aren't we all in one way or another?

"what liberals want you to believe"...really, jeff??

i can think of at least yahoo on here who daily bleats about how EVERYONE on any gov't program getting "relief" is a worthless parasite.

so, is he doing that as part of some liberal smear campaign? no, face it.....there's PLENTY of right wingers who feel that way.

No we don't think EVERYONE on welfare are taking advantage of it. Thats what liberals want you to believe. You sir are being manipulated! Having said that aren't we all in one way or another?

"what liberals want you to believe"...really, jeff??

i can think of at least yahoo on here who daily bleats about how EVERYONE on any gov't program getting "relief" is a worthless parasite.

so, is he doing that as part of some liberal smear campaign? no, face it.....there's PLENTY of right wingers who feel that way.

Wow Mark, because one guy on a musical forum says those things there's plenty? Your kidding RIGHT?

just giving you an example.... and he's someone you respect. let's face it, sadly he's not the only one w those views.

Well romney was sorta right to bring up the 47% statistic (which I argued against at the time). Not that I agree with romney at all, because that number only makes sense when you add in all government programs such as college grants, state and federal job sites, job training, vo-tech, etc.. and many other normal and acceptable social systems.

BUT, where I agree that romney was right to bring it up is that much of that 47% in the middle and upper classes don't need it. It's a fact that the less money you have, the more you pay, for nearly everything, as you don't have the means to buy in bulk, shop around, cash discounts, 0% interest deals, etc..

If romney had explained that it's not the poor and working poor who are abusing the system, he would have pissed off his base, but also would have been far more accurate. To please his base, he intentionally kept that point vague, leaving the listener to assume he was talking about the poorest.

My example about PA chip is just one of many systems that are gamed towards the middle and upper middle class, which incidentally WAS most of the voter base when these programs were enacted.

It's interesting that now the "poor vote" overcame that again in 2012, and now the 2008 election can't be dismissed as a fluke.

I'm interested to see if either or both parties wise up to the new voter base - over here the suppression efforts actually galvanized many and got far more voters out than would have voted in the first place.

I don't expect anything to change, regardless of who won the elections, federal, state, or local. All are candidates who have been vetted by the corporate/money party. A few greens won some small victories, so there's that. Not enough to make any difference though.

not to sound too cynical or bitter, but I don't see where all this "free" stuff is.

As you know, I have a special needs child. I make $45k a year, and my wife has had to stay at home for the last 9 years to take care of our daughter, so we have only that income. We are at best the "working poor", we don't have a flat-screen TV, we have a 32" gigantic tube TV that I bought for cost when I sold them ($200 back in 2001). We don't have new fancy cars, mine is a 1993 coupe that runs like crap. Yet, we live check to check. We've cut so much out of our budget and still can't make ends meet that I recently dropped my healthcare because I couldn't afford to USE it. Paying $275 monthly premiums to have something that I can't use borders on insane. If I were to have a heart attack or some other major health crisis, my health insurance would have bankrupted me anyways, as I really couldn't afford to pay out of pocket the $3000/$6000 (depending on services) deductible + $400/day co-pay to be admitted to a hospital.

Anyways-
We had our daughter on SSI disability. They ran it like nazis, constantly having me take days off to come into the offices and show them pay stubs, constantly recalculating our benefit amount (based on how many pay periods per month) and constantly changing the rules. At the end of it, we were getting a whopping $127/Month, that I lost by having to take a minimum of a day off work to go prove crap to them.. and at the very end, they recalculated 3-YEARS back and decided that I owed them $650. They then kicked us off SSI because I couldn't pay it.

Because she's disabled and in "special ed", we are required BY LAW to apply for every possible welfare/state benefit there is. There's a site called PA Compass that we have to do this through, ANNUALLY. Every year, they turn us down for every single thing.

My wife got a job last winter and was let go after 6 months, they turned her down for unemployment because she didn't make enough money to qualify.

PA has "CHIP" benefits for kids, free coverage except upper middle class, who pays a small fraction of the premium, but the benefits are 100% medical, dental, and scripts- no copays or deds, ever. Guess what. If you make less than $24,000 (estimate), -OR- you have a disabled child, you are not eligible for chip and get dumped into medicaid, which SUCKS.

The leeches in this system are the people who refuse to work, yes, but those cases are the exceptions, not the rule. The other leeches are the middle and upper classes who designed the system to work for them, and yet deny the poor and working poor the same benefits.

I don't get where the right wing in this country thinks that everyone on welfare is lazy and won't work. Most people on it are the polar opposite and can't wait to get free of it. I'm forced into it because of my daughters condition, and it's the worst thing ever, but more importantly and my point here is that it's biased against the poorer people in the country, and encourages them to not work. We need the old system back (before clinton) that aided people in getting off the system.

This Is what Govment cheese is for. As Tax paying Americans it is understood. In reality, well, would you call this Obama CARE? I Wouldn't. You should get all your expenses met to raise your child to her greatest potential. Keep being a father as you are and don't let the "system" get you down. I would rather have a daughter with special needs than a daughter expecting more than I could give her.

Well Zip I don't think you qualify for gubment cheese. Your music is cheesey enough.


I kid, I kid.

A steady diet of govt cheese.
While I'm living in a van, down by the river.

...where you shot your old lady.

...where you shot your old lady.

"down by the river"

"and my dog ran away"

while I was in my van"

down by the river

not to sound too cynical or bitter, but I don't see where all this "free" stuff is.

As you know, I have a special needs child. I make $45k a year, and my wife has had to stay at home for the last 9 years to take care of our daughter, so we have only that income. We are at best the "working poor", we don't have a flat-screen TV, we have a 32" gigantic tube TV that I bought for cost when I sold them ($200 back in 2001). We don't have new fancy cars, mine is a 1993 coupe that runs like crap. Yet, we live check to check. We've cut so much out of our budget and still can't make ends meet that I recently dropped my healthcare because I couldn't afford to USE it. Paying $275 monthly premiums to have something that I can't use borders on insane. If I were to have a heart attack or some other major health crisis, my health insurance would have bankrupted me anyways, as I really couldn't afford to pay out of pocket the $3000/$6000 (depending on services) deductible + $400/day co-pay to be admitted to a hospital.

Anyways-
We had our daughter on SSI disability. They ran it like nazis, constantly having me take days off to come into the offices and show them pay stubs, constantly recalculating our benefit amount (based on how many pay periods per month) and constantly changing the rules. At the end of it, we were getting a whopping $127/Month, that I lost by having to take a minimum of a day off work to go prove crap to them.. and at the very end, they recalculated 3-YEARS back and decided that I owed them $650. They then kicked us off SSI because I couldn't pay it.

Because she's disabled and in "special ed", we are required BY LAW to apply for every possible welfare/state benefit there is. There's a site called PA Compass that we have to do this through, ANNUALLY. Every year, they turn us down for every single thing.

My wife got a job last winter and was let go after 6 months, they turned her down for unemployment because she didn't make enough money to qualify.

PA has "CHIP" benefits for kids, free coverage except upper middle class, who pays a small fraction of the premium, but the benefits are 100% medical, dental, and scripts- no copays or deds, ever. Guess what. If you make less than $24,000 (estimate), -OR- you have a disabled child, you are not eligible for chip and get dumped into medicaid, which SUCKS.

The leeches in this system are the people who refuse to work, yes, but those cases are the exceptions, not the rule. The other leeches are the middle and upper classes who designed the system to work for them, and yet deny the poor and working poor the same benefits.

I don't get where the right wing in this country thinks that everyone on welfare is lazy and won't work. Most people on it are the polar opposite and can't wait to get free of it. I'm forced into it because of my daughters condition, and it's the worst thing ever, but more importantly and my point here is that it's biased against the poorer people in the country, and encourages them to not work. We need the old system back (before clinton) that aided people in getting off the system.

Idaho is a different animal. I've been a designated payee for a woman for SSI - not much to it.
Just keep records and fill out a form once a year.