Food Stamp Usage increases by 171% since 2000

Food Stamp Usage has soared by 171% since 2000.  In fact 1 out of 7  US residents are now on Food Stamps according to the CBO.  For the full story see below.

http://www.cbo.gov/publication/43173

Romney: Federal Pay Unfair

Coming from a guy who sheltered all of his investments overseas so he didn't have to pay taxes and he says Federal Pay is unfair. 

Voting them all out won't change anything

I know many of you are fed up with Congress.  However even if you could vote them all out they will just be replaced by other rich people whose votes will be bought out by Big Business.  The only way to change how Congress does business is by doing what I mentioned last week at
http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4674884197796452409#editor/target=post;postID=3116244565661116676

As Rome burns...Congress ignores the major problems with Social Security

There is an excellent article written by Bruce Krasting involving Social Security at the link below.

http://brucekrasting.blogspot.com/2012/04/on-social-security-2012-report-to.html

As pointed out by Bruce The Drop Dead Rate for Social Security Benefits is now forecast to be in 2033 while the Drop Dead Rate for the Disability Fund is now set at 2016.  What this means is that the Government will have to bailout the Disability Fund beginning in 2016.  For those below the age of 50 you are basically going to be screwed when you retire and try to get benefits at age 62 as there is a very good chance it will be severely limited by then.   

More government waste

Let's see...we have many unemployed in this country but we are sending government money overseas to train workers in other countries.  Simply amazing!!!  See link below.

http://dailycaller.com/2012/04/20/usaid-training-foreign-workers-for-english-speaking-jobs/

735 Billion and Counting

Through mid April the US Government is only 735 Billion Dollars away from reaching the debt ceiling which is around 16.4 Trillion Dollars.  At the current pace it looks like the Debt Ceiling will be reached right around election time if not sooner.

My Proposal to elect future members of Congress

Right now there is widespread corruption in the Federal Government.  This is due to how our election process has evolved for both the House and Senate.  The founding fathers never meant for a position in Congress to be a lifetime deal.  Sadly this is what US Politics has evolved into which leads to corruption as lobbyists for Big Business get whatever they want.

My solution to get rid of the corruption is to scrap the election process for all House and Senate members.  This would be replaced by a lottery system in which registered voters would be selected to serve either one term in the House (2 years) or Senate (4 years).   Also to make the process fair the number of Democrats...Republicans and Independents would be represented equally.  Currently the House has 435 members which broken down equally comes down to 135 members for each group.  In the Senate there are 100 members so that comes to 33 members for each group although one group would have to have one more member for each 4 year period to make it an even 100.

Furthermore each person that is selected must pass a test on the US Constitution after being selected.  If they can't pass the test then they may not serve in Congress.

Finally here is a list of other features of the plan:

1. No one may serve more than one term for either the House or Senate

2. Unless you have a good excuse each person chosen must serve if they pass the US Constitution test.

3.  People selected will be compensated by the Government for their time served which currently is set at  $175,000 per year..  The compensation will also provide for temporary housing...health insurance and etc. 

4.  The lottery system would be gradually phased in over the next 8 years using the mid term and presidential election years to allow for a smooth transition.   


I know this plan would drastically alter the political landscape that is now in place in Washington, however, I believe this is the only way to limit corruption which is now rampant in our political system.  It's not a perfect system by any means but it's better than what we have now which only allows the rich to be elected and stay in office as long as they like.

US Monthly Deficits since 1980

Here is a chart of the US Federal Government Deficits since 1980.   Both George Bush and Barack Obama are responsible for this mess.  However you have to give credit to Obama for one thing.  Every month since he has been in office there has been a Monthly Deficit..  Also notice February (point A) was a record for a Monthly Deficit.  This is going to bite us in the ass at some point in the future.

Why Federal Empoyees are under Attack

Stupid crap like this is why we are under attack as this is the public's perception of a Fed Worker.  See the video in the link below.

http://www.fedsmith.com/article/3374/entertainment-irony-political-reality-federal-workplace.html

Egan Jones downgrades the US

It's just a matter of time before Moody's and the S&P will follow suit although the probably won't do it before the November election..

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-05/egan-jones-cuts-u-s-rating-one-step-to-aa-citing-growing-debt.html

Weekend Stock Market Analysis for March 31, 2012

The Weekend Analysis is at http://www.amateur-investor.net/Weekend_Market_Analysis_Mar_31_2012.htm