Fiscal Madness

So the US is now 1.4 trillion dollars in debt. That's a whole lot of money. It's almost 6 times Singapore's estimated 2008 GDP. Most of it is the result of the economic crisis, the Bush era tax cuts and stimulus plan and the Obama stimulus plan. If someone owed that much money, I would imagine they would want to "tighten up" their belts but not the Obama administration

In light of the fact that there will be no Cost of Living Expenses Adjustment this year (since everything is cheaper this year than last), Social Security is not increasing it's monthly payment to the elderly. The monthly payment is tied to inflation to ensure a certain standard of living for the seniors. So if prices actually fell this year, there shouldn't be any increase in payments. Sounds fair right?

However, since the elderly are a disproportionately influential voting bloc (i guess being retired means that they have the time to go out and vote and nothing else to do but pay attention to politics), the Obama administration is talking about giving them another bonus $250 this year. Their basis for this payment? To compensate them for the lack of an increase in their monthly Social Security payouts. Think about this. For no rhyme and reason, the Obama administration wants to pull 13 billion dollars out of their asses to pay for an unjustifiable cause. And to top it off, they do not have any plans to come up with this sum other than borrow. This is untenable position. My father taught me not to spend more than I can earn but it appears that politicians are willing to sell the future to buy votes in the present.

I am no fan of the G.O.P. but I wonder how different is this administration different from the past? Instead ofTerri Schiavo, you have COLA for seniors. It makes one wonder if politicians are all painted with the same brush but just show different colours... It's disappointing.

The Winds of Change

So it's been a really cool year. Summer was more like a warm Spring, with the number of >30°C dagys countable on both hands. It was kinda nice to be able to escape the heat and humidity. But now, it's Fall and I think the weather has no intention of ever becoming warmer than normal this year. It's early Oct and it's already 10°C... Ugh.

It's my 6th year in the Midwest and ever winter never gets easy to handle. But I guess that makes the nice, sunny days all that more precious. Perhaps the changing of the seasons is also analogous to my changing life. I just did my first solo project, which means I have an increasing responsibility. I like that. It keeps the mind engaged and busy. Idle minds just turn to things that I cannot write on this (relatively) SFW blog.

Also, I like to think that I have started a new chapter in my social life. Moving up the real estate ladder and trying to meet more people (or at least, meet people more). This can only bode well for me. So let's see how it goes.