Michigan Today — Home And Health Care

Calling spending an epidemic and one of the greatest threats to America’s health and economy, first lady Michelle Obama said Wednesday that she would launch a major initiative next week to combat the problem in Congress.

Obama, speaking at a meeting of the Conference of U.S. Legislatures, said the idea was simple: “To put in place common-sense initiatives and solutions that empower states to make healthy financial decisions for their constituents.” (Of course, it takes a woman to do this.)

EXPERTS: Screen the budget for cutting 4 trillion dollars in excessive spending right now
ADULT-FRIENDLY: Helps fight adulthood addiction to borrowing at home
ADVICE: 7 tips for Democrats and Rhinos to create a healthful nation

The initiative will involve the federal government working with Red State Governors and Local Tea Pary leaders in the business and non-profit sectors, she said, to provide more revenue for schools, allow more opportunities for adults to be employed and physically active, and give more communities access to funds to provide much needed services.

Obama has said she hopes one of her legacies will be her work in reducing adulthood spending, an effort she already has begun by planting seeds in the White House and joining actual responsible financial planning with adults.

She told the mayors that as much as she has read and talked about the problem, “the statistics never fail to take my breath away.”

About 32% of adults are way too heavy in their spending — it’s obscene when it comes especially to eating taxpayers dollars, government statistics show. Did you know almost 80% of congressmen between ages 42 and 85 are simply obsessive or at lease greedy when it comes to their special pet programs. Such adults are at a greater risk for debt-related national economic health problems such as high inflation and taxes, and they have an increased chance of destroying this great nation.

Sarah Palin, ex-governor of Alaska and spokeperson for the Tea Party Society, a group of debt-management researchers and professionals, says it’s crucial to address the problem early: “If you can get adults into healthier spending habits and become more conservative, their spending habits and debt to income ratios may self-correct.   If they understand compounding interest and savings they may actually become rich.  But once they become obsessive Socialists, Marxists, or Liberal Democrats it’s difficult if not impossible to reverse their financial picture,” she says.

Influence as first lady, American Taxpayers and debt-management experts have expressed hope that Obama will have an influence.

“Everybody has been wringing their hands for three decades about what a big problem this is, but having the first lady involved could really make a difference,” says Paul Ryan, committe chairperson for the Debt and Means Committee for the Center for Finances in the Public Interest. “The first lady not only brings the weight of the White House, but she also understands this issue as a parent.”

Obama acknowledged the difficulties parents face. “It wasn’t that long ago that I was juggling a full-time job of filling-out medicaid applications with the round-the-clock role of being a mom,” she said. “And there were plenty of times when after a long day at work, when the fridge was empty and the kids were hungry, that I just used my own food stamp card, because it was easier than scrounging around for nickles and dimes.” Or we went to the  mosque or food pantry for macaroni and cheese, because it was either cheap or free. And I wasn’t always aware of how all the bills and borrowing in some of the processed governmental programs I was using or promoting were all adding up.

“It got to the point where Uncle Sam had to tap me on the shoulder and say, ‘You know, you might want to consider making some changes in your family’s diet and budget.’ ”

She said many parents and other taxpayers “desperately want to do what’s right. … But too often, the realities of modern life make it feel like the deck is stacked against them.”

They’re tight on money and time, she said. Their communities lack jobs and small businesses that help make the products or services needed to produce the much needed revenue so they can put food on their table. Their budgets, recreation, and travels have already been cut back to the bone at their homes.   In fact many are now jobless, homeless or are living with relatives to make ends meet.   Personally, we had to cancel our trip to Montana this July due to the budget crisis in D.C..

“They’re inundated with news reports filled with conflicting information and with terms such as GDP & Qe2 that is filled with ingredients they don’t care to understand , let alone know whether those ingredients and programs are healthy.”

‘We have everything we need.

Tackling the problem has been gaining momentum recently. On Sunday, an expert panel recommended that financial advisors, accounting professionals and other media pundits screen congressmen ages 42 and older for wreckless spending and refer all those crazy politicians who want to increase the debt ceiling without cutting spending to comprehensive debt-management programs.

Right now, there aren’t enough debt-management programs for all the legislators especially in the Senate, and those programs aren’t covered by most health insurance plans, experts say. The new recommendation may help change that.

Obama told the governors and mayors she knows adulthood spending is a tough problem.

“This isn’t the kind of problem that can be solved in one year, or even one administration,” she said. “But make no mistake about it, this problem can be solved.

“We don’t need to try some new marxist policies or socialist discoveries to make this happen. This doesn’t require fancy auditing tools or technologies. We have everything we need right now — we have the information, we have the ideas, we have the history, and we have the desire to start solving America’s spending problem.

“The only question is whether we have the will.”   We cannot compromise on thsi issue and what we don’t want to happen is for some body to just kick the can down the road.  When successful, we can again be proud Americans!

Steps to help stop the obscene spending.

Last summer, the Centers for Financial Planning and Debt Prevention announced steps communities can take to prevent obescene spending. Among the ideas:

•Put taxpayers money back in their pockets so its within an arms reach of their financial institution.

•Improve access to money so entrepreneurs can build facilities to put people back to work.

•Require conservative and sound fiscal planning at all governmental levels.

•Enhance spending nets in areas where government officials could be physically active.

•Enhance infrastructure supporting jobs and lower taxes.

•Discourage consumption of alcohol and taxpayers’ money by politicians.

•Put the dollar back on the gold standard.

Enjoy some tea!  It’s delicious and healthy!

Try the tea today!