You illustrate your bias in the second paragraph, you seem to think that the only way your mother could keep her house was through provision by the federal government. You also believe that your grandmother can live on her own only because of the wisdom of the federal government.

There are many ways to solve these two problems without involving the federal government. Don’t you advocate that people should invest in IRA’s and 401K’s? I can’t afford to invest in such vehicles – I would sure love to take the 14% of my income that goes to D.C. every year . . . I would be much farther ahead if all of my FICA taxes were to be invested in the market. SS will go bankrupt when I am 65, furthermore, the market would be more stable with new investments flowing into the market every payday.

The free, private market is not perfect, there are problems with it, but it is far preferable to the crooks in Washington taking care of our health care, education, retirement and the rest.

How has government done with SS? Well, for starters it allowed my mom to keep her house after my father died at 45 years old. It allows my grandmother to live on her own at 97. Will it be there for me? Probably not, but at least I know it. It’s not run correctly to balance the population growth, but it has done some good. Thank someone that some people are able to get it. All these people who lost 50% of their retirement funds because of the market lately will be thankful they can get it. Imagine if SS was in the market as GWBush had wanted? Scary.

The whole system is corrupt – neither party is immune. Only politicians who advocate less government involvement in private business can be trusted – simply because they desire less power for themselves. The rest have been corrupted by lobbyists of big corporations, political favors or are seeking to grow their power over the wealth of this country.

Look at the companies who are lobbying for nationalized health care – Walmart and others would like nothing better than to not have any pressure to provide health insurance to their employees – and Congressmen and our president would like nothing better than to take control of 1/7th of our nations economy under the guise of “doing it for the little guy”.

Speaking of airlines, Tom Daschle was Senate majority leader while his wife (!!!) was a lobbyist for American Airlines, Lockheed Martin and Boeing. Talk about a conflict of interest. Remember when our government was going to lease airplanes from Boeing for more than they would cost to purchase? Yep, Mrs. Daschle was part of that one. You can read more about her exploits here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1312338/posts Mr. Daschle made over $5 million after leaving office, as a “consultant”. Do you think he was not peddling influence? Do you trust people like this to run our financial system? Do you want people like this in charge of our health care?

David, I know that you trust government to solve all of our problems – poverty, disease, transportation, the environment and all the rest, however your trust is misplaced. (how has our government done with social security?) We need government to have as little to do with our daily lives as possible. Government should protect the weak and protect our soveriegnty as a nation.

You and me and our neighbors and friends and relatives can solve just about everything else.