Personal Reflections of a Middle-Aged Man

Before I begin, I want to wish a happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers and people who act as mothers to all of us. May today be a good one for you in whatever fashion the day takes for you.

From now until the election I am going to start off with these numbers, which I want you to keep in mind as you vote from now until November. These numbers are 290 and 67. The 290 represents how many U.S. House of Representatives members it takes to override a presidential veto (all Representatives are up for reelection this year). As you may have garnered, it takes 67 U.S. Senators to override a presidential veto (35 Senators are up for reelection with 22 of those being Republicans—the ones we have to concentrate on the most). These numbers are very important this year at the ballot box because it will take this number of votes to help right this vast ship of a country from what appears to be a vast amount of theft from we taxpayers by the current administration, to curb what appears to be unlimited power by the Republican regime, and to help move us back on the path of a true democracy in which all people’s voices can be heard at the ballot box, not just the ones elected officials want to be heard. Help make this happen throughout the primary and general election cycle this year.

Back to $64.56.

That was the cost of filling up my tank this past week. Thankfully the price had dropped from $4.19 to $3.91. The station closest to my house fluctuates its price on sometimes an hourly basis; we watch it to try and time it for the lowest price.

As I was starting my car up, my mind wandered to thinking how many hours I had to work to pay for that tank of gas. In all transparency, we are blessed in that the cost of filling up for us is not a major financial hit (yet), but more an annoyance because I know this is an inflated cost. On the other hand, because I truly feel for my fellow Americans, and because of how poor I grew up, I worry about how gas prices are affecting all of us in the working class.

Let’s start with some facts.

The average price of gas nationwide is around $4.55. The highest average price, as one might imagine, is $6.14 in California. The lowest average price is $3.95 in Oklahoma.

The average minimum wage in the U.S. is $11.80 an hour, with the national minimum wage still being at $7.25 an hour.

The poverty wage of the U.S. is $16,320 for a single member household.

842,000 U.S. workers are earning $7.25 or less per hour.

39 million U.S. workers are earning less the $15.00 hour. On average, since it always depends on where you live, a living wage would $22.08 an hour.

At a minimum, 13 million of these workers don’t have access to public transportation, meaning they must drive to work every day.

What this translates to, just on gas for transportation, not car maintenance, not car insurance, not parking, not rent, not groceries, not utilities, well you get the picture, a large portion of wages (after taxes) is going to fill up the tank.

For someone earning $15.00 an hour, after about a 22% tax rate, they bring home $11.70. To fill up their tank, and we’ll go with the Oklahoma cost, would be, with a tank of on average, 14 gallons, $55.30. Meaning, this person must work almost five hours to pay for that tank of gas. If they are earning the minimum wage, they would have to work, with an after tax wage of $6.52, about nine hours to cover the cost of that tank of gas. Think about the hardship of this person if they are working at a place that limits them to just enough hours to keep the company from having to cover insurance, which is usually around 27 hours a week. Meaning this person may actually have to work two or more jobs in two or more different locations, which means they need to fill up even more. Thus eating even more into their cost of living, remembering we aren’t even including the higher cost of rent, food, and utilities.

If this doesn’t make you mad. If this doesn’t cause you to feel empathy for these millions of working families. If this doesn’t make you want to hold the Republican regime(s) accountable, then I don’t know what will.

This crisis of living day-to-day is just one of the many things that should make you mad as hell as we move into the November election. We also have the Epstein files which still haven’t been released fully and for which no one has been held accountable. We also have the unwarranted war against Iran which is putting many of our loved ones in harm’s way. We also have the enrichment of the already billionaire class through tax breaks and possible manipulation of the stock market. We also have the awarding of government contracts to Trump children. We also have the extreme gerrymandering where politicians are choosing their voters rather than voters choosing politicians as should be done in a functioning democracy. We also have the rolling back and dismantling of our science community who have helped to keep us safe and healthy for decades. We also have hateful rhetoric coming straight from the White House. We also have elected Republicans at every level obeying the Trump regime over actually honoring the Constitution. We also have a U.S. Supreme Court acting in partisan and political ways to advance the Republican agenda, not what is good for the country, and I might argue that goes against the Constitution. And so on, and so on.

We, you, have the power to stop all of this nonsense. As many say on social media, if our vote didn’t have power, they wouldn’t be working so hard to suppress and stop us from voting if our votes didn’t matter.

If you want to be able to live freely and affordably, use your vote to speak up. It is up to us.

Vote wisely!