Oh, one more question for Congress

Um, my credick cards are a little high. I've got 2 car payments and a large house payment. My Texas homeowners insurance just went up 30% because of Hurricane Ike. My Texas automobile insurance just went up 25% because Harris County has a terrible accident rate.

My electricity contract expires December 31, and the rate just went from 13.7 cents per kwh to 15.7 cents per kwh; not bad but my bill (on averaged billing) is (low for my neighborhood because of the extraordinary steps Nathan and I take to reduce it) $200/month now. So it's going up.

My homeowners association dues are going up on 12/31.

My escrow account on my house payment is going up to cover the aforementioned insurance increase, and Harris County, being broke, is going to remove the "temporary" tax decrease from last year (why are tax decreases ALWAYS temporary, while tax increases are ALWAYS permanent?).

Gas has abated for right now, but I'll bet that's a temporary situation. In any event, I drive to and from San Antonio almost every weekend now because of Mother, so my consumption has dramatically increased.

Meanwhile, on the workfront, people are not buying much ready-mix concrete (no credit...housing slowdown...states and municipalities broke...), so my "raise" (not to mention my "bonus") this year is that I get to keep my job. Oh, and the cost of all of my benefits is going up fairly dramatically, while the co-pays are increasing and the coverage is decreasing. Oh, and my deductible for next year is $400, not $300, and it's harder to satisfy---but that's GOOD compared to almost everybody else.

My question:

WHERE'S MY BAILOUT?