We, in the USA, do have the power to shake up the government every two years for the house of representatives and 18 years for the senate, 1/3 get elected every 6 years and every four years for the president. But unfortunately our fear of change fanned by the rhetoric of already elected officials leads us to keep sending the same old group of chowder heads to Washington after every election. We really have no one but ourselves to blame for the rotten government that we have.

BTW, there was no increase this year to social security benefits. There have been only four times this has happened in forty years and all four times have been during the current administration. Increases are supposed to be tied to the CPI and since oil prices have been so low over the last year the CPI hasn't risen enough to trigger a benefit increase. The only problem is I don't drive very much now that I am retired but I do eat food and pay rent. Prices in those categories have continued to rise which means I have less disgressional money to work with this year.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.