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Several weeks ago while Paul Ryan was campaigning, he brought his mother on stage. I was really touched as he extended his arm to her as she came up on the stage. I could see in Ryan's eyes his love for his mother. I was very impressed, as I have seen so many selfish, self-centered adult children of aging parents that do not give a hoot about their aging parents (rarely call or visit them). It says a lot about a person who treats their mom well!

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Oh give me a break.
Sorry but this just hits me all wrong. It's like the statement:
Hitler LOVED dogs. It's says a lot about a person who treats his dog well.

All politics is showbiz kiddo.

Bobbie.
Sole caregiver to her mom with Dementia for over five years.
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Good morning Bob, She's not talking about politic, you know it! Love your thered.
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Bobbie, my exact reaction: Give me a break. What does that person think Ryan is going to do, shove his mom off the stage? She is his pawn, to pander to people like that poster. Meanwhile, people actually struggling with care for our elders are going to be screwed after we are done giving our true all to wiping their behinds, losing our jobs to care for them, losing our health. I can barely summon up enough strength today to go to the Medicare website to shop for the best drug plan for my family member. Now the R party is telling me that when I am 88, like my mother and with no daughter like me (I have no kids) to do it for me. It's very easy to give an arm to help a healthy mother who plays golft, owns two homes and probably asks very little of her son. Here is the real issue: do you want to elect someone who has taken action to help those on the middle and lower rungs of life (due to no fault of own own, contrary to statements made to wealthy donors in priviate) or do you want to wait around for some scraps to trickle down to you after the wealthy keep and get more tax cuts? As someone who has waited around for siblings to trickle down help as they enjoy vacations, life, etc. I think I'll stick with the one who already demonstrated an effort to help my needs and my elderly ones needs directly
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Correction, I said Ryan's mother played goft, I was incorrect, it is tennis, a much more athletic game than golf. Anyone on this site playing tennis with their mom or dad this a.m.?

(PHOTOS: Paul Ryan and his mom)

Douglas — who spends her winters in nearby Lauderdale-By-The-Sea — plays tennis and works out every day, Ryan said, and she appeared spry as the two walked hand in hand toward the stage
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Go figure! I'm in central Mass. and there is or was a state funded program that paid individuals that are out of work and caring for a family member. I called to apply the first year I was out of work. I was told the waiting list was long, but put my name on it. ^ months later I called to see where I was on the list and was told there was no $$ left and that all of the $$ went to the eastern part of the state where Boston and most of the politicians hang out. Then I was told that all of the $$ went to family members of politicians and the wealthy that had connections.
Let the Republicans back in office and we will disappear into a huge black hole!
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Whitney---I'm SO SORRY we have posters such as the insensitive ones above. YES..you CAN tell by the look in a son's/daughter's eyes if they actually CARE about their elders. SO MANY don't..my SON is one. I've never been able to count on him for ANYTHING but grief, hatefullness and DISRESPECT. Some of the above comments are very disrespectful. I apologize for those people. It is bullying behavior. Those who posted should LOOK UP bullying behavior and educate yourselves on it. I am WITH YOU, WHITNEY!!!!! We have God in our hearts and cannot be hateful/rude and insensitive to others.
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Besides...there are more appropriate threads for political discussions. If you want to BASH somebody....go there!!
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2much2cover---I think everyone should READ the OBAMA care plan to see EXACTLY what will happen to Medicare, our elder parents' care and US. It is available online. You will then see exactly what Obama has in store.
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Ryan WAS a primary CAREGIVER to his grandma. He wants to KEEP medicare for our elders-----Quote---The Wisconsin congressman said he saw Medicare’s benefits firsthand as a child when his grandmother, with Alzheimer’s, moved in with his family. “My mom and I were her two primary caregivers,” Ryan said before shifting to his mother and the promise of Medicare for her. We NEED medicare for our elders!! Tell me, which caregivers would OPPOSE this??
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Teachergear1: As a resident of Florida, I know what the R plans are for the social services programs. Cut as deep as possaible and make it as hard as possible to obtain benefits. Just like they are trying to make it hard for certain demographics to be able to vote. And women to obtain birth control so they are not children born who suffer from lack of care and neglect. And woman can control their own personal lives. And your comment about bullies. The poster of that topic put that out as a political statement. Otherwise she would have also mentioned how much Obama cared for his mother and grandmother and Biden for his mother. Bullying is taunting people so they either have to fight back or flee and continued to be bullied. Last year Obama lost his grandmother and the following was reported.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama suffered a heavy loss on the eve of the election that he hopes will win him the White House. Madelyn Dunham, the grandmother who helped raise him, died from cancer in Honolulu. She was 86.

"She was one of those quiet heroes we have all across America," Obama said at a rally here, deviating from his stump speech. "I'm not going to talk about it too long because it's hard to talk about

and don't quote me from AMA. Doctors are out to make money. Do they seem to be suffering? I don't see it. and I don't fault them for that. But they made a ton of money off of Medicare and now the insurance companies are making things hard on them and govt has to cut back so they are feeling a dent in their discretional incomes. They are not the town doctors from the past who accepted eggs for payment from the farmers.
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and teachergear: The party that brought you Medicare and Social Security was the democrats. The preseident that got you more prescription drug benefits was Obama. The president that got many uninsured people and their adult children insurance was Obama. Ryan's statement about how he saw how Medicare helped his grandmother with Alz is not true. Medicare does not provide specific benefits for Alzheimer's patients, like in home care services or day care. Do you see Ryan or Romney talking about expanding social services programs to actually help those of us doing the hands on caregiving. and i'm not talking about offering a hand to your mother to boost your political stance with the clueless crowd.
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Oh and Ryan stating he was primary caregiver for his grandmother? How do you know that is true? Afterall, he is on record for stretching the truth: Below is a true news story:
Yesterday, Paul Ryan got in a little trouble for telling Hugh Hewitt in a radio interview that he had run a marathon in just under three hours. As I wrote, runners were skeptical, and eventually his claim was revealed to be untrue: he actually ran a marathon in just over four hours. Last night, Ryan gave The New Yorker a statement:

“The race was more than 20 years ago, but my brother Tobin—who ran Boston last year—reminds me that he is the owner of the fastest marathon in the family and has never himself ran a sub-three. If I were to do any rounding, it would certainly be to four hours, not three. He gave me a good ribbing over this at dinner tonight.”

Does the misstatement—or lie, or fib—matter? As James Fallows pointed out on The Atlantic, in one way it obviously doesn’t. It has no bearing at all on the republic how fast Paul Ryan ran. Ryan could also surely beat any of the other major candidates, or the Supreme Court justices, in a foot race. But in another way it is important: Is the potential Vice President the sort of person who lies congenitally? In that sense it matters.
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2much2cover----I believe I can quote whomever I wish. Please, do NOT tell me who I can and can't quote. That is another bullying tactic. Whitney did NOT put that out as a political statement. You are mistaken. This is a CAREGIVER forum where we SUPPORT eachother, vent if needed, get and give advice, etc. Whitney ...whom you've probably scared off (fleeing as you said) with all this negativity was referring to children who SHOW they care about their elders..if you read her statement she continued to say, and I quote, "I was very impressed, as I have seen so many selfish, self-centered adult children of aging parents that do not give a hoot about their aging parents (rarely call or visit them). It says a lot about a person who treats their mom well!" We saw that on national television. We did NOT see that from anyone else.
Now, as for your statement, "As a resident of Florida, I know what the R plans are for the social services programs. Cut as deep as possaible and make it as hard as possible to obtain benefits." Exactly where is this in Romney's plan? Just point me to it if you would. I"d sure like to see it because everything I've read does not indicate such. YES, I am fighting back for Whitney. I know bullying tactics VERY well. I've LIVED throught it.
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"Oh and Ryan stating he was primary caregiver for his grandmother? How do you know that is true?" I know it is true because I researched everything I could about him. If you look up his childhood to adulthood and what he has done, you will see too. That's funny about the marathon race and 3 hours V 4 hours. OMG! That was over 20 years ago. TOO funny. So, he was off ONE hour? That is too funny. That was an honest mistake and he admitted it, unlike Obama who consistently lies and has for four years now. I'm not talking about this anymore. I do not like being told from someone I do not even know, what I can and can't talk about. Bullying behavior. WHITNEY---most ppl aren't like this on this forum. Please don't FLEE because of it!!!
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teachergear1, quote whoever you want, just don't expect bright people here to remain silent about what you state. I am sick of that party twisting the truth and then when someone tries to show what liars they are they try to turn the tables and call the other person a bully. Isn't it interesting someone out of the blue weeks later when the event described occurs decides to post about paul ryan and his mom. That's electioneering to sway the minds of vulnerable people and it deserves to be called out. I've never seen anyone from the other side make such posts. But I have seen a lot of posts with hateful things about the president. So when such words are posted, you can count on me to respond. And it is not bullying, it's standing up for another side of the story. and regarding one hour difference in his lie about his race time. One hour in a race is a very big difference and any runner knows that. So when they talk about numbers and how they are going to save Medicare, I see the same lies. If his Medicare plan is not going to hit my generation hard while he protects the investors like himself, then why isn't he applying it everyone now?
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I told you that I would not discuss this further with you. I meant it. Research...educate!
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Direct quote from Romney: "There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what," Romney says in the video. "All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what … These are people who pay no income tax."

Words to chew on if you ever need help from him due to growing old or having a setback in life.
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Are you STILL playing this game of politics???? WOW. OK then... This is from YOUR state, Florida.

In 2012, there will be a landslide for any Republican because of Obama Care and the idea that the Democrats plan to deny healthcare to the elderly. The Democrats plan to strip $500 million out of Medicare to pay for part of Obama Care. Any elderly person living in Florida would have to be crazy to not realize that means they will be denied healthcare but still have to pay for it
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2much,
notice how she's screaming at you with caps and slams? (! is a 'slam')

Teacher, please calm down. I am sorry that you are disappointed in your son and I am sorry that you got bullied. You are not alone and I hope that you can take some kind of comfort in knowing that. Yelling at us isn't going to fix your past.

Yes, we are all caregivers, past or present. That, in and of itself is enough for us to bond together and not succumb to the pressures of politics.

For the record: 2 much, I do appreciate your position on the President and I don't trust or believe anything that comes out of romney's or ryan's mouth without fact checking it.
Same with the President. Sorry but I just don't trust people like I used to. That is why my affiliation is Independent and my position is Centrist. It's very easy to stand on the edges of something and throw rocks but much harder to stand in the middle and try to find the truth. Many times the truth is somewhere in the middle if we can only see it. It's hard because you are dodging rocks....

I'm old enough to remember when a Catholic was elected president and my mom had campaigned hard for Nixon. People said all kinds of nasty stuff about Kennedy after he was in office and my mom, a republican committeewoman, said: He's the President now. Let's get behind him.

Never in the history of our country have we seen the gamesmanship in our government that we have seen with this president. Yet, in spite of it all he continues on with grace, intelligence and a calmness that I respect.
I can't say the same about the opposition.
Wild eyed and screaming; if you can't get the facts straight then get the lies loud.

As far as education about these issues is concerned, one of the tools I recommend is Netflix and their amazing content of documentary film. There's film about both ends of the political spectrum and all that I ask of anyone is to do a fact check on anything that you see or hear.

Check out the Koch Brothers and how they fund right wing 'think tanks' like the Heritage Foundation and use a technique called the 'echo chamber' to drive home falsehoods for people to repeat and eventually digest as truth.
Why? Follow the money.

There's billions of dollars at stake here and if you think that these people carry our best interests you are a child in the woods.

Like ol' Dr Phil says: 'The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.'

Learn what Romney did as governor. I don't need to go into it here, it's all out there if you look in the right place. And make sure you understand who is paying for a documentary or a website and what their benefit is for championing either side.

So, if we bother to fact check ryan and romney and fact check the president we find that ryan and romney are way out in front with those little factoids and accusations that just aren't true. The reality that my education and research has brought me to is that I, as an individual, just can't support R&R and if poked at, will respond with the truth that I, as an individual, see.

R&R will be very bad for this nation and its people. R&R will not deal with our foreign policy in a way that will move this nation forward in a positive manner.
Remember Romney in London? He pissed those people off and they're our friends!

Consider this: Romney is a 'businessman' and War (that Obama is steadily getting us out of) is huge business. Ginormous business. Just look to Cheney and his ilk during the Bush administration's involvement. They blow it up so they can 'rebuild' it.
Big business. R&R scare me to pieces.

BTW, anyone seen Bush lately? Naw, he just beat up the car that is this country, caught it on fire, skidded it into a tree on the White House lawn and tossed Obama the keys.

There's a 'documentary' film (Obama 2016) that's been getting some noise and a friend of mine and I were talking on the phone and she was all excited about it and all I said was who produced it? She didn't know so I looked it up.
Produced by a LDS guy with an extreme right wing 'filmmaker/journalist'. Oh boy so you know that's going to be the truth. Not.
All I asked was for her to look up the facts before she parroted the points in the doc. She got offended and hasn't spoken to me since.

That's why it's so dangerous to get into a political discussion with unarmed people.

This was most certainly a political statement that was made by this thread this morning and 2much and I responded by calling out the bs.
Oh well, sometimes you can get away with it and sometimes you can't.

lovbob
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Thanks for your comments bobbie. I don't pay attention to the caps or the "teacher" telling me the discussion is over. And I don't care who they vote for. But when the vote is manipulated, whether by trying to enact laws to keep people from voting (anyone interested in this topic should look up what's happening in FL. The Republican lawmakers got a law passed that does all kinds of things to keep likely Dem voters from voting (cutting early voting times, making it harder to register) but guess what happened, the R party hired a firm to register their voters and now they found out they were the ones doing all kinds of illegal things (query this headline: 9 Florida Counties Report Faked Voter Registration Forms From GOP-Backed Firm)
I have friends and family who don't think the way I do. But we have intellilgent discussions on the facts and when it veer off into bs I speak up to them also. The important thing is to get actual unbiased facts out. If you want to vote b/c you think someone has good character b/c of the way you think he treats his mother based on a 1 minute public appearance go ahead. But don't post that bs on a public forum and try to play with other people's minds and not expect to get reactions like yours and mine. I just personally feel that one side plays dirtier than the other side does and twists the truth and facts more.
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teachergear: I'm not in your classroom. I'm in a public forum where someone, not me, posted some political bait that needed DISCUSSION. They posted it in a place called DISCUSSION. They did not post it on their WALL, which I would never visit and post anything there. Here is a sample of what the gov of fl does: query this headline. Drug Test for Welfare Recipients Fails to Save Money; Anyone Surprised?

Wasted money trying to trap what they consider "trash people". Meanwhile
elderly people in my state of all political affiliations are dying while on waiting lists for meals. My aide takes care of another an elderly woman who hates Obama, yet I send her meals b/c her children don't. I care about people, not just my mother and I want elected officials to do the same.
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Bobbie, you make another very important point about politicians working together. Look all all the millions of dollars being spent on negative campaign ads, political action committee that produce poison advertising. I am not a registered republican, yet my mailbox has been inundated EVERY OTHER DAY with two to three glossy mailings telling me how horrible Obama is and inciting fear which I know is not correct. I have not received ONE mailing from Obama, yet a general reminder from a demo PAC to go and vote. My phone and my mother's phone is ringing constantly, once or twice a day with republican messages about how the other side is going to take away medicare. my mother is woken up each time. When I think of this money being wasted it makes me think, these people want to cut waste for programs that help people but they sure know how to thow away money (which is not taxable by the way) to get themselves elected. These kinds of things influence how I'm going to vote.
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and when I used "waste" in the above sentence, I meant their idea of waste. I personally don't think it wasteful for my tax dollars (yes, I am working still and paying high taxes, higher percentage than Romney) to go to meals for the elderly, day care for poor children, birth control so we don't have poor children we have to pay for, the list goes on and on. Not only do these programs help people but they create jobs. That's another thing that annoys me, government does create jobs. In fact Romney admitted it when he said if elected president , he would create jobs. What needs to be done is to look at every agency, program etc and eliminate waste and there is plenty of it in the govt no matter what party is in office.
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I agree wholeheartedly.
lovbob
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Amen ladies!!!
I have to thank Romney for his healthcare in Mass. I now have health insurance. I do not have a monthly premium to pay because of my low income. Unfortunately, even though he brags about his "Romney Care" that he passed while governor of Mass., he opposes it for the entire country. His reasons do not make sense to me, but I guess he has to keep himself in favor with the party.
Yes, everyone is required to have health insurance in my state, but many choose to not have insurance and pay the penalty at tax time, because it is much cheaper than paying the monthly premiums. My husband's pay had dropped $170 due to a rise in health insurance premiums in the last 5 years he worked. I don't blame businesses or individuals for opting to pay the penalty rather than the ridiculous premiums.
I have many friends on AC that do not have health insurance because they are full time care givers. I do hope that after this election, they are able to get health insurance through their states as I have because of "Romney Care" in Mass. But alas, it will have to be called "Obama Care" wouldn't it?
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Gosh..I don't know where to start..so many things need to be addressed here. I guess we'll all just have to agree to DISagree. I'm not continuing on this thread because I don't like negativity. I DO however feel bad for Whitney. She did nothing wrong and it looks like two of you on here have made her "flee" with your harsh words and negativity. By the way ! is not a slam...it's an exclamation point..always has been, always will be. UNsubscribing from this sad, sad thread. Hopefully, if I see you two on another thread, you will be more civil and not run people off. Reactions like yours shock me. I personally feel that one side plays dirtier than the other side as well and twists the truth and facts more. See? We all have opinions. Goodbye.
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oh please
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