It is now August 2009.  

Health care "reform" is still the burning issue but a comprimise seems to be in the works.

Unemployment will no doubt continue to rise with the watershed 10% rate quickly approaching.

The national debt has long since soared past the point where will ever be able to pay it off.   It actually seems likely that in the near future we will not even be able to pay the interest on it.

 $450 billion dollars every year in interest?!!.

I wonder if there would be so much talk of Medicare and social security "reform" if those hundreds of billions were available to fund these essential programs.

I think I'm becoming a pain to my friends.  All of my friends. 

The Republicans want to tear down President Obama for trying to "Socialize" medicine and not be aggressive enough on homeland security (read that as military spending) while bloating the deficit.   My democrat friends are shrill about all the funding we need to invest in fighting global warming.  THE ICE CAPS ARE MELTING!!!.  

Yet my constant refrain is that the national debt has gone up for the lat hundred years under every president. Republican and democrat alike.  Yes, even Ronald Reagan increased the debt during his administration.  I think the real danger to our Republic is that the annual payments on that debt will crush us long before Al Queda or climate change will.

I also firmly believe that the "neccesity" to pare down spending on entitlements like medicare and Social Security are smokescreens.  The solvency of these programs would not be threatened at all if the hundreds of billions paid to bankers and forgein bond holders were eliminated.  

The problem is the debt.  It's that simple.

So why don't we hear more about that?

Good question.  

I have my theories but enough for now.  If anyone has an idea, I would love to hear it. 

I'm looking into my crystal ball and I don't like what I see.

In their zeal to provide universal health care, the president and his party will expend so much money and political capital that when Social Security "reform" hits the table a "comprimise" will be called for, "in the interest of future generations"

Read that to mean the baby boomers will get short changed on the promise.  We worked hard for the last 40 or so years, eagerly reading the statements with our estimated future benefits and the age they will accrue.    

Our retirement plans already assaulted by devastating losses in our 401k's will be further eroded by the sell out of the benefits promised us, that we worked for and earned.

It is up to each one of us and AARP as our organized advocate to put the president and both houses of congress on notice that we will not be scapegoated.  Other means have been proposed to secure the system for the future.  

We demand that the retirement age, including early retirement not be raised and that benefits not be curtailed.