So tired of this…

Maybe I should go back to bed. It does look inviting now that I have read a few blogs and then I remembered some of the stuff I read and thought about yesterday as well. What a jumbled mess in my brain! I received the AARP magazine for this month and it didn't take long to get me riled up as I read about the elders that are just hanging on and all because of health care issues and the fact that the government won't help Social Security recipients because they aren't poor enough. All because a bureaucrat, during the 1960's, used figures from 1955 to determine the poverty level for Social Security. That was when food made up 1/3 of the average budget. And the average meant average no matter where you lived. The figures used means that close to 8% of elders live below the poverty line while if figures were used that more accurately represented the costs of what it takes to live in this century, the number would double. And there isn't a politician around that will allow those 1955 figures to double. They would rather keep a lid on it and ignore it than acknowledge their own failure to represent all of their constituents.

Then, the Wingnuts want to abolish Social Security and Medicare altogether because they claim we need, as a nation, to become self –sufficient again. So what do we do with all of those for whom self sufficiency isn't an option? Ignore them until they die? And the self sufficiency, is that the same self sufficiency that we Americans had in the 1930's when there wasn't a job to be had? When a poor family had to exist on handouts from churches and better off neighbors? If there were any.

And then I finished reading the Good Soldiers by David Finkel. Tragic. Brutal. But it should be read by all. Especially now that we are further engaged in a pointless war in Afghanistan while Iraq seethes, ready to erupt once more. Who will take care of that when it happens?

And the money! It's an incredible amount that is being spent for war. Our defense budget is 10 times larger than the closest four rivals…combined! What and who are we scared of? And can't we find something better to spend it on?

Speaking of money, the Right Wingnuts are talking as usual about how we need to lower taxes and reduce government yet there is no mention of reducing our defense budget which would make all arguments about tax cuts go away in an instant. We would have to argue about how to spend the surplus. And there is no mention of the immense drain on taxes caused by the Farm Bill, that bloated piece of legislation that supports 'farms' with huge subsidies. And the money from those subsidies goes most often to stockholders in ConAgra, ADM, Cargill, Monsanto, the kings of Agribusiness. It doesn't go to the small farmer…if any are left. What would happen if we took some of that money away and spent it on ourselves? Heck, take it all away and let these people compete on the world market. Oops! I forgot, these Agribusiness companies are already international. The subsidy we give them is just icing on the cake.

I give, I'm all ranted out and nothing has changed nor will it.