Policy Changes Under Two Presidents

[Amazon D]

Get out of the war business (they call it "defense" even though no one is attacking us)

Stop allowing politicians to fund their pet projects (pay back their campaign contributors)

Change policies so that the transfer of wealth comes back to the middle class, the people who actually do create more jobs, through their spending

Stop stealing from taxpayer contributions made on their behalf (Social Security, Medicare...) and invest it instead

Bring back manufacturing to this country

These are a few of my favorite things... to reduce the debt.

DITTO + AMEN AWOMAN

[JessicaH]

Get out of the war business (they call it "defense" even though no one is attacking us)

Stop allowing politicians to fund their pet projects (pay back their campaign contributors)

Change policies so that the transfer of wealth comes back to the middle class, the people who actually do create more jobs, through their spending

Stop stealing from taxpayer contributions made on their behalf (Social Security, Medicare...) and invest it instead

Bring back manufacturing to this country

These are a few of my favorite things... to reduce the debt.

Yes to all 6 statements!

[RebeccaFog]

We "need" bases everywhere because we have to stick our damn nose in everyone's business. I doubt that if every adult American engaged in a massive protest in D.C. that anything positive would come of it. They would just send in cops and arrest people and maybe shoot a few of them as well. I don't see things getting any better. Call me a pessimist if you wish, but I think it's all downhill from here on out.

That is similar to how I feel. There will be no changes anytime soon. Maybe ever.

[AmySmiles]

Get out of the war business (they call it "defense" even though no one is attacking us)

Stop allowing politicians to fund their pet projects (pay back their campaign contributors)

Change policies so that the transfer of wealth comes back to the middle class, the people who actually do create more jobs, through their spending

Stop stealing from taxpayer contributions made on their behalf (Social Security, Medicare...) and invest it instead

Bring back manufacturing to this country

These are a few of my favorite things... to reduce the debt.

Absolutely yes.

[Julie Marie]

I created an Excel spreadsheet to see what all the money the government collected from me and my employer over the years for SS & Med would look like today had I invested it in something like an IRA.  It's set up so all you have to do is insert the amounts from the report that comes from SSA.  Then you put in the year you'll start collecting and it gives you back investment results.  I used interest rates based on the Consumer Price Index for interest each year from 1937 - 2010.  I ended up with about $300K from SS and $80K from Medicare. (see screen shot)  The average interest rate over my contribution years came out to around 4.5%.  Anyone with mediocre investing skills should be able to match that.  And with that I can buy a 20 year annuity that will pay me about $300 more per month than SS is willing to.

So I'm trying to figure out how our government managed to turn SS into fund that can't sustain itself.  Give me a hundred million retirement accounts and I'll bet I could invest it so one day no one would ever have to pay into it again.

If anyone wants to run their numbers. PM me your email and I'll send you the files.