Survival and Sustenance

by Caroline Freedom Ross

"The White House estimates the deficit will be $482 billion when the next president takes office on January 20. [Leon, President Clinton's budget director and chief of staff] Panetta said that figure could jump to $700 billion because of the bailout [of mortgage and credit market companies].... Scott Hodge, president of the Tax Foundation, a non-partisan research group, estimates the [past] 10-year cost of extending ... tax breaks at $1.5 trillion.... Jason Furman, a top economic advisor to Obama, insisted the current financial crisis only 'magnifies the importance of a plan to grow the economy.' Thomas 'Mack' McLarty, Clinton's first chief of staff, recalled that a larger-than-expected deficit in Clinton's first term caused him to revise some of the tax cut he had run on. President George H. W. Bush reneged on his pledge not to raise taxes because of the deficit he inherited from Ronald Reagan."
-- Kathy Kiely and David Jackson, USA Today, 9/23/08

The author has been studying in classes, books and on-line what emergency preparedness means in the ways of household stock and action as our country veers between natural and manmade tragedies like Katrina, terrorism threats such as those experienced during the Gulf Wars and actual attacks like 9/11, potential disasters such as the Year 2000 programming scare, and socio-economic instabilities of infrastructure and politics, most particularly related to banking and oil production and its distribution. Her informative recommendations, which she has followed in protecting her family from potential harm by planning for a period of upheaval as long as three months in duration, is partly gleaned from FEMA and Sharon Astyk. She's a member of ACR's Board of Directors and has been a contributor to the site for quite a few years, as well as an entertaining personal friend of ACR's Chairperson/Publisher since first meeting during an early performance in Jonesborough at Music on the Square by her very talented and pleasant musician/writer husband, Alan.