No, my wages and retirement have only gone down last two years of

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Joe is looking out for Joe, not Bob, Bill, and Brad who are looking for a "good job." Joe will help Joe if he's making that much, believe you me!

Am I missing some bigger picture? I'm serious with that question.

Last night Barrack mentioned how he's against the raising of the retirement age. Hillary didn't really speak to it, but I got the impression that she also doesn't want to see that happen. Is there some reason other than AARPs very powerful lobby? I mean, in the 60's, the average life expectancy was about 70 years, now it's close to 78. Why shouldn't retirement age be raised? We are not only living longer, but we're living healthy longer. I do realize that not all will remain healthy, but for those there is disability also.

SS is in so much trouble, it just seems to me to be a no brainer that by raising the retirement age, even by just a couple of years, some of those problems can be lessened.

You can't "take" your pension and 401K out of the stock market if you are not retirement age. We are stuck with whatever the companies we work for invest in. my husband and I have some choices about where we invest our 401K but they all involve mutual funds, stocks, bonds, etc.

That's where DH is. Forced to retire because of no work (road construction). The stimulus money went to 2 cities in my state. The rest of the state got nothing towards road construction or very little.

We didn't get last year's stimulus check because we owed taxes and they put the money towards that. Now he's getting screwed out of the $250 because he wasn't retired when this happened. Never fails.

Aaaagggggg!!!! I know, I shouldn't of done it. But I just HAD to take a peek. And what I saw was almost too depressing for mere words to describe.

So, this afternoon I logged on to my 401K, just to see how the poor thing has been faring these past coupla weeks. It started hemorrhaging pretty badly a couple of months back, lost first 1/4, and then about 1/3 of its value. But oh, my GOD..... today it's down just a few dollars shy of being only HALF it's former value. A mere shadow of its former self. Now there's not even enough money left in it to buy a decent used car.

I guess now there's only one thing left to do when we reach a point in our lives when we can no longer work, and need to retire. That would involve a gun and a single bullet. Well, mabe 2 bullets. (My aim is pretty bad.....)

Senator rips ex Exxon CEO's retirement package

By Tom Doggett Tue Apr 18, 4:53 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Amid record oil prices and soaring gasoline costs, Exxon Mobil's $400 million retirement package to its former CEO is a shameful display of greed that should be reviewed by Congress and investigated by federal regulators, Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan (news, bio, voting record) said on Tuesday.

Dorgan said he wants Exxon Mobil officials to appear at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing to explain how the corporation justifies giving its former boss, Lee Raymond, such a huge retirement package.

He also said the

Securities and Exchange Commission should investigate the deal that appears to shortchange shareholders.

There can be no more compelling evidence that the price gouging and market manipulation which has produced record oil prices is out of control, and is working to serve the forces of individual greed and corporate gluttony at the painful expense of millions of American consumers, Dorgan said.

Dorgan's criticism of Raymond's financial package came on the same day that U.S. crude oil prices hit a record high of more than $71 a barrel at the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Higher crude oil prices are helping to push of up gasoline costs. The Energy Department reported prices jumped 10 cents over the last week to a national average of $2.78 a gallon, up 55 cents from a year ago.

President George W. Bush said on Tuesday he was concerned about the impact high gasoline prices were having on families and businesses.

Exxon earned the wrath of many lawmakers when it reported more than $36 billion in profits last year as energy prices paid by consumers soared.

Dorgan said he will push to win passage of his legislation that would impose a windfall profits tax on big oil companies and rebate that money to consumers, unless the companies used their earnings to explore for and produce more energy.

I think a sensible public policy would insist that the big oil companies either invest those windfall profits in things that will increase our own domestic energy supplies, or we should return some of that money to consumers, Dorgan said.

Using them to drop $400 million dollars in the pocket of a big oil executive is simply unacceptable, he added.

Exxon Mobil has defended Raymond's retirement package, saying it was pegged to the rise in the company's profit and market capitalization that occurred during his tenure.

On a weekend when we are all preparing to celebrate our independence, some of us can get ready to kiss that very same independence goodbye.

If Bush stays true to his "base" and the Democrats are unsuccessful in what I hope will be a very aggressive filibuster (if the candidate does turn out to be someone who is unwilling to substitute the Constitution for the Bible), we will have conservatives chipping away at our independence: controlling our lives, our deaths, defining which God is "politically correct," who people with the "wrong" orientation are "allowed" to love, etc., etc., etc.

I wonder how much "independence" we will have left to celebrate on July 4, 2006.

I heard the above comment in either an ad or in the debate itself and I almost flipped. You don't hear much about it yet, but it will come out sooner or later (and hopefully sooner).

Our kids will tell stories about us working six days a week, all hours of the day and night to stay at home with them. About how we had no health insurance, but somehow we managed to pay those hospital bills. How the mortgage broker tried to get us to refinance one more time, but we saw through the scam. How did we ever make a car payment for 5 years without going crazy? How we competed with workers in a virtual world and still managed to out produce them. Maybe they will think that we were pretty tough too. I think we are!

unless I want to work until I'm 70 or 80. What kind of mind will i have then? Will I be able to figure out what a doc is saying?

I'll probably be one of those homeless people in another 10 years unless they straighten out all the problems. I certainly will not be able afford the taxes we pay on our property, even though it's free and clear of a mortgage. At tha rate they expect taxes to rise, I'll be out on the streets.

The O will not be able to stop it. There's too many factors changing the economy. I'm just hoping things wil l straighten out, but I no longer have any faith in our government, no matter who runs the country. The so-called respresentaves are only out for themselves in the past few years and it doesn't matter who's in charge.

Write your congressmen or senators and what do you get? A "canned" letter that they will take your suggestions "under consideration" and "are doing whatever they can to fix the situation". I'm tired of it. It's the same old, same old.

O has reneged on some of his promises already. He spoke in all those other countries when he was running for prez (and isn't there a law against going to a foreign country to make promises(?) if he becomes president? He smoothed over so many countires that they thought they were finally going to get a prez that would straighten out the U.S. and all of a sudden, he is for Israel and against the Muslin terrorists communities. "Scuse me, butl lying to other ountries doesm't cut it.

I can only hope that O will keep some of his other promises bvut I don't see how he can with the economy the way it is at this pointl So all those people who voted for O with the hope of change (remember those who stated they would not have to worry about their mortgage, etc.), it ain't gonna happen.

O is a smooth talker and I almost fell for his ideas, but when I started to really think about it, there's no way he can accomplish all he plans to do, even in 8 yeras.

Well, I'll get off my soap box now. These opinions are mine and mine alone. You may not agree with my thoughts, but there's no reason to bash me for my honest opinion.

According to the chart you posted, it took 5 years for it to take effect. People don't have 5 years. They are drowning now.

Some of the stimulus package plans have government programs in that supposedly are to be taken over by the states after 3 years. How can the states absorb these $$ when they're drowning already?

Now, this morning, I heard on the news that they may be nationalizing some banks and, no, it wasn't Fox. I also saw a clip where O was being interviewed by Tim Russert in 1996 and O stated he was NOT going to run for president in 2008. He was elected as a Senator of Illinois and that was going to be his job. He flipped pretty quick, didn't he?