Did you hear the one about the three biggest lies?
 1- The check is in the mail.
 2- The dog ate my homework.
 3- There will be NO increase in your Social Security because the cost of living hasn't gone up.

The first two lies always get a laugh or two because they have been part of the repertoire of many comedians, the third one isn't funny at all.   Hope and change rhetoric aside, our electeds showed no mercy on retirees living on a very fixed income.  They didn't help the retirees cope with today's sharply rising prices by having the flexibility and humanity to modify the original Social Security COLA plan to adapt for sudden sharp changes in the price of food, gas, etc.  By coincidence, those are the very items that are affected when greedy commodities traders use the very food that feeds you and your family and fuel that heats your house as chips in a giant game of American roulette.   You've never heard of American roulette? The rules are simple, when commodities traders gamble, they win and we lose.

The sad thing about our economy is that retirees aren't the only ones on a fixed income.   The majority of Americans haven’t seen a raise in years.  You can say that they are on a de facto fixed income.   Their employers wouldn't thing twice about raising the prices of the products they manufacture or sell, but won't pass that profit on to their hard working employees.  Salaries are static but prices rise!

Now on to a group of people that make the folks in the above categories look well off by comparison, the unemployed.   They are subject to intense financial pressure and are scraping just to get food and perhaps remain in their homes.   Sharply rising prices could be the last straw for many of the unemployed, especially the 99ers, those out of work, through no fault of their own for 99 weeks or more. Thanks to compassionate hope and change politicians, the 99ers have to survive on ZERO income!

The thing that bugs me is that early on in the fiscal crisis, politicians from BOTH parties gladly opened America's coffers to bail out the banks and Wall Street to ostensibly avert a “depression”.  The banks and Wall Street are now doing just fine, thank you.   Their high fliers are making the big bucks and for them, it's a beautiful world.   While they party on, a large number of us are in a depression and see NO way out! While everyone rushed to bail out the bastions of American wealth and power, no one will lift a finger to bail out the ordinary American.   Let's hope we never get that kind of change again!