Schauer's Senior Forum in Jackson

This afternoon we were among those present at what was to be an hour event, but surprisingly went a little more than 10 minutes overtime. This rarely happens. Another rarity was that he didn't have as many hand picked folks ready with questions as is usual in his format. He did his regular half hour warm up with a little added information from his "non partisan" advocates. One for AARP and the other for a group I hadn't heard of before but professed to represent 10,000 to 12,000 Michigan seniors. It was all self serving, with lots of statistics, etc. on handouts which he also repeated.

The interesting thing was that during the Q/A time there were comments made around us such as "With all this free stuff, who is going to pay?"

I was pleasantly surprised that the Congressman called on me early and that I was able to make the point I wanted to about the taxes of middle America being raised starting RIGHT NOW with the deductions for medical costs having been raised. This year all out of pocket costs over 7 1/2% of the gross were deductible. Next year and in the future it will only be those over 10% of the gross.

I shared that our income is less than 25% of the #250,000 which qualifies one as being wealthy and that I had to write a check for estimated taxes increased to accommodate the tax increase. So our taxes started this month. That is a tax increase!

You're not going to believe this, but he said he didn't think that was in the bill and that perhaps I should spend less time at the tanner. (No, it didn't make sense to me either.) I think I can live with him better as a liar than just plain stupid. Although we know logic isn't his strong suit.

The best thing was, however, five, count 'em 5, people referred to increased taxes after that point and spoke of me as "that lady" to be sure he understood what they were talking about. This was probably a surprise to much of the audience, but they certainly picked up on it.

He also wanted to "put to rest" the misinformation and rumors and ridiculous claims of some bloggers who are concerned with a civilian security force and putting micro chips in people. Chuckle, chuckle.

The best part of all was that outdoors as we were leaving a very nice young man asked us if we would like to sign the petition to get Schauer's name on the ballot. I didn't hear one person say yes or stop to sign. Rather, there were comments that you can imagine all close to "You've got to be kidding."

He is as bad as Obama in his low opinion of his constituents. He doesn't think we are smart enough to know when someone is trying to put something over on us.

See you at the Tea Party on the 15th?
God bless...........