Hoosier Dad

My birthday happens to fall on New Years Eve.  This year I will be turning 37.  So along with everyone else will be looking back on the year 2011, but I will also be evaluating my 37 th year on the planet to see how it went, what I can learn from it and what I can improve for next year.  I don’t know if most people do this on their birthday or if maybe I get a double dose of it since it falls on New Year’s Eve.  The point is, I go through a full self evaluation at least once a year. 2011 saw the fall of many dictatorships, too bad many of those will likely be replaced by more brutal dictatorships.  Our economy was stagnant (possibly for the first time in history).  Not up, not down, just blah.  Stagnant sounds worse to me than falling.  Once something settles, it’s hard to get it moving again.  2011 also featured the Millennial’s first real statement to the world via the “Occupy” movement, and that statement was: “Give to me, it’s mine, I ...

So the Senate (Dan Coats and Richard Lugar) passed a two month payroll tax cut extension.  –Whoopty freakin’ do.  I’m all for tax cuts, but not when your cutting deeper into  Social Security  to pay for it.  Seriously.  SS is predicted to completely run out of money in about 2036 and our answer is to put less into the fund so that it will run out of money sooner.  That’s like saying I won’t be able to make my house payment in a few months, so I should go buy a new car.  In 2036 my mom will be about 85.  That means SS was already likely going to run out on her, now it’s going to run out sooner.  $20 a week for 26 years is $27,040.  I don’t think that will be enough “savings” for me to support my mom when she is 85 and has no Social Security.  Which she paid for!!  What happened to her money?  Right, I remember, congress already spent it.  So congress has fed us a candy bar in hopes we won’t notice there’s no dinn...