We, the members of the middle class, work hard, many times over 40 hours a week just to make ends meet.  We try to stretch our dollars to pay for the needs of our families.  These needs range from health care to educational needs to feeding our family.

            Our State economics have become even worse for our retirees, many live on fixed incomes.  Many of our honored retirees who have taken care of us, have more than paid their dues.  But because costs are always rising and they live on fixed incomes, many of them are forced to choose between buying food and purchasing their medications.

            It is becoming harder for the middle class to survive and almost impossible for our senior citizens to survive.  Neither group can afford private health insurance.  While the ship is sinking, our state government has been busy giving away our hard earned tax dollars not to the working class but to the illegal immigrant convicts who sit in our air-conditioned prisons.

            Our convicts, at our expense receive a roof over their heads, three square meals a day, entertainments, and all the access to health care that they went.

            There is something very wrong with this picture.  Why is the State of California looking the other way when our senior citizens can’t afford the rising costs of healthcare, while our convicts, at our expense are receiving high-quality healthcare.

            It’s time to reverse this inequitable trend.  Its time to stop this waste of public resources and turn it towards those who have earned the money.

            Prisons were meant to punish prisoners, not give them a better life than we’re living.  Prisoners should be made to work to pay for their own keep.  They should be denied any and all luxuries.  They should be given healthcare only when it is absolutely necessary.

            These cuts will save thousands of dollars which must be returned to the tax payers they were squeezed from.

Steve Fox