Social Security Broken...

What’s the harm in having hearings to see what the options are regarding Social Security reform? How can anyone in his or her right mind think it can remain the way it is now forever? Many who are opposed are afraid that their benefits will be cut. There are people like me who feel they will never see a dime when they retire. Means testing is a really bad idea. Expecting people to pay in and then be told they already have enough money to live on so they don’t get check. Who will decide what is enough? Why should someone who has made the decision to invest in IRA and 401K accounts pay for the person that spent all they made, ran up huge debts on their credit cards, and used their house like a piggy bank? Do they need to raise the age that a person can begin collecting? I think the investment account option may be a good solution. This way the money can grow unlike now where Congress spends all the money that is left over after benefits have been paid out. It will also keep money going into the stock market to help offset the money being taken out of retirement account by those already retired. Can we believe that it will be broke by 2045? What if in 5 years they tell us… “Opps… it will be broke in 2020, we made a mistake”? Congress would be doing us all a favor to create a committee to look into the options…

Ask your Doctor...

Ask your doctor if this is right for you. This is what we have heard in TV commercials for a few years now. The doctor then gets lots of “trail samples” that they can try. If your doctor thinks that this is not a good drug for you to take, you go to another one that will. This is such an unethical practice that the pharmaceutical are doing. How many of these commercial even tell you what the drug is supposed to cure. In most cases when they list the side effects it is worse than what the drug is supposed to cure. So the plan is to get you hooked on whatever drug you can get from your doctor all the while lobbying Congress to get Medicaid and Medicare to include them in their coverage. I have no doubt that the pharmaceutical companies had a huge part in the Senior Prescription Drug Plan disaster. I am not upset when Vioxx was pulled from the market. These companies had to know that when you “hook” millions on a drug there would be negative consequences with some people. All these companies have done is to create a whole new group of ambulance chasing lawyers…

Stingy...

Stingy?? So this is what the U.N. thinks about the tsunami relief that the U.S. Government has pledged. They felt this after the initial $16 million dollar pledge. I think we can all recall that the day after the tsunami struck the death toll was estimated to be between 3000 and 6000. As the reality of the devastation and loss of life the pledge grew to $350 million. That amount does not even take into account the 20 Navy ships and dozens of cargo planes and helicopters. Throw into that the $215 million that has been pledged by U.S. companies and individuals. I also found it odd that as “hated around the world” as the United States is, who was the first call for help went to? Stingy? I sure don’t think so…