The Benefit of the Economic Recovery Program!

The only thing shovel ready is the snow!!!

See excerpts from the "5" Star reviewed book, a must read, on Amazon at:
Essays From a Fed-Up Middle Aged, Middle Class American" By: Andy Strum
http://www.amazon.com/Essays-Fed-Up-Middle-Class-American/dp/1453640460/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1298477778&sr=1-1

Hey Mr. President; Thanks for the Valentine's Day Gift; A Legacy of Debt.

Thanks for the Valentine’s Day gift Mr. President; A legacy of debt for my children and grandchildren.


We’re going to continue to spend more than we take in. A constant policy of Washington (click link to see chart).
http://www.heritage.org/budgetchartbook/growth-federal-spending-revenue

We’re going to push this plan out 10 years, also a constant policy of Washington. Going out 10 years is just Washington’s way of avoiding or taking ownership of the problem. Little in Washington remains intact over a 10 year period.

We’re going to disregard the findings of a commission assigned to study the debt problem. In Washington, results of studies are only trumpeted if they agree with the politician’s personal agenda.
In one case we’re going to add billions of dollars to education. (Remember, for every billion dollars spent 200,000 families have to pay $5,000 in taxes.) The cost of college education is rising much faster than the rate of inflation. Nothing is being done to lower the cost. The government is just making it easier for students to borrow to pay for the cost. Economics 101 teaches that if there is more money to purchase a good or service the price of that good or service will increase. Politicians need to take Economics 101.

Money will be added to the public school system. The reason, they say, is that our children need to be better educated. Since when did adding money equate to a better education. The cost of public education has been rising for years and paying for it has become a strain on many families. Wouldn’t it make more sense to find out why, after years and years of adding money to the educational system we still don’t produce well educated children? Shouldn’t we find out what the problem is before we ask the American people to fund a program that isn’t working?

This type of thinking is commonplace in Washington. Throwing money at a problem solves the problem. It’s time to make government employees and elected officials productive, and responsible to do the job they were hired or elected to do.

In the mean time, I’m going to have another glass of warm milk.


See excerpts from my Grandpa's book on Amazon:
Essays From a Fed-Up Middle Aged, Middle Class American" By: Andy Strum
http://www.amazon.com/Essays-Fed-Up-Middle-Class-American/dp/1453640460/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1297787552&sr=1-1

Are you sure grandpa wore this when he was my age???

No matter what our kids and the new generation think about us, WE ARE AWESOME!!!! OUR LIFE IS LIVING PROOF!!!! To Those of Us Born 1930 – 1979. TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED THE 1930s, 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's!! First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can and didn't get tested for diabetes. Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-base paints...We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had baseball caps not helmets on our heads. As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, no booster seats, no seat belts, no air bags, bald tires and sometimes no brakes. Riding in the back of a pick-up truck on a warm day was always a special treat. We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and no one actually died from this. We ate cupcakes, white bread, real butter and bacon. We drank Kool-Aid made with real white sugar. And, we weren't overweight…WHY? Because we were always outside playing...that's why! We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on…No one was able to reach us all day. And, we were OKAY. We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride them down the hill; only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem. We did not have Play stations, Nintendo's and X-boxes. There were no video games, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet and no chat rooms. We had friends and we went outside and found them! We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. We would get spankings with wooden spoons, switches, ping pong paddles, or just a bare hand and no one would call child services to report abuse. We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever. We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes. We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them. Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law! These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever. The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all. If YOU are one of them, CONGRATULATIONS! You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good. While you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave and lucky their parents were. Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?

---Attributed to author Roy Lee Wells

Read more from my grandpa:
Essays From a Fed-Up Middle Aged, Middle Class American" By: Andy Strum
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=andy+strum&x=7&y=13

Just Your Typical Small Businessman! (Time to plant the winter wheat)

A man owned a small ranch. He risked it all to make it work and to provide for his family. He hoped one day to expand his ranch, be very successful and employ many of the local residents.
The Federal Department of Labor claimed he was not paying proper wages to his help and sent an agent out to interview him.

"I need a list of your employees and how much you pay them," demanded the agent.

"Well," replied the rancher, "there's my ranch hand who's been with me for 3 years. I pay him $200 a week plus free room and board.
"The cook has been here for 18 months, and I pay her $150 per week plus free room and board.

"Then there's the half-wit. He works about 18 hours every day and does about 90% of all the work around here. He makes about $10 per week, pays his own room and board, and I buy him a bottle of bourbon every Saturday night. He also sleeps with my wife occasionally."

"That's the guy I want to talk to ... the half-wit," says the agent.

"That'd be me," replied the rancher.

Please visit the Amazon website, click on link, to see excerpts from:
Essays From a Fed-Up Middle Aged, Middle Class American" By: Andy Strum
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=andy+strum&x=7&y=13