I probably shouldn't even post on this thread, I spent 99% of my waking hours during my working years just concentrating on what was ahead of me to get done for the day, week, year, etc.. For that reason I just trusted the government to do the right things as directed by the group of people and a Big Kahoona we elected to handle such matters.

Looks like I had my head in the sand or up somewhere else far too long. Since my somewhat retired years have come along that actually give me time to read more than the headlines and the obituaries in the daily paper I've begun to realize that a lot of things happened that I should have paid attention to, inflation for instance, it crept up on me. We get our monthly check from Uncle Sam, it is automatically deposited for us. In the beginning, five years ago, of our social security years we just used it for ordinary living expenses plus a few little odds and ends with some left over when the next check came. That's all changed, now we have to watch the balance and usually kick in a bit from savings before the next check comes.

The people at SS said we didn't need a cost of living increase because there wasn't any inflation, WOAH!, where does he buy his Wheaties? We are fortunate to have some other assets to carry us along covering what our SS checks dont, but there are a good number of older people we know who have nothing but their SS to live on. A wide variety of reasons for their situations, illness, low paying jobs that contributed little to their SS accounts, addictions to alcohol, gambling, etc. What ever their reason, this is no time for finger pointing criticizing them for not having an adequate SS income, what has happened has happened, we cannot as a society be so inhumane as to punish them by withholding basic needs.

We must somehow continue to fund SS, Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps, WIC, Rent Subsidies for the elderly and poor, etc. to care for those who cannot care for themselves. Defense and Armed Services, Highways, bridges, etc., etc., must be maintained too. I don't know this as fact, but my senses tell me their probably is enough fraud, price gouging, etc. to cut those costs quite a bit too.

Ok, that's my little sermon on what must be taken care of, now how to do it? I don't know how, and I doubt that our esteemed President and his cronies on either side of the aisle know how either. I think Carl Sagan was the first man to introduce me to Billions, and Billions, now Trillions and Trillions. The debt ceiling showdown of a week ago was nothing more than a charade to make one or the other look good at election time, why else would Obama want it to extend past the 2012 elections, even I'm smart enough to understand his second grade school yard strategies there.

Nuff from me.
Frank.

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