So I was checking to see if Boehner, Cantor, and Ryan were in the House and passing the budgets that cause the deficit to explode again – they all were.

People forget that the iconic National Debt Clock was turned off after the debt started to be reduced under Clinton. It had to be re-started and an extra digit added when the Republicants took over the White House as well as Congress during the Hedgemony.

So, during the search I ended up at Dennis Hastert’s Wikipedia entry, and learned about a little perquisite that is given to former Speakers of the House – “archiving” money. Since Hastert resigned to become a lobbyist, according to the Chicago Tribune he has been receiving $40,000 per month to pay for office space, staff, and the lease on an SUV to “put his papers in order”. He is going suck up about $2.4 million during the five years that he gets this “assistance” and he doesn’t have to explain what the $6+K/month leased SUV has to do with “archiving”.

Did you know that the surviving spouse of one of the thousands of military people who were killed in the Hedgemony’s wars gets $1154 per month, if they can jump through all of the VA’s hoops.

Hastert gets a six-figure Congressional pension plus health insurance, and a surviving spouse is left just above the poverty line.

If they want to get serious about the deficit, this is the sort of gratuitous waste of money that has to end.

Canada is having an election and the leaders of the major parties [with the exception of the Green Party, because its leader is a girl and she asks embarrassing questions] finally had their French-language debate [after rescheduling because it conflicted with a National Hockey League playoff game].

The winner of the debate in the minds of many Canadians, according to the CBC, was a citizen who asked a direct question: Quebec woman becomes instant star after debates

The aftermath of Wednesday night’s French-language debate had the four political campaigns all spinning that their leader won, but it was a 53-year-old woman questioner who seemed to have won the hearts of many viewers.

Muguette Paillé, a 53-year-old unemployed woman from Sainte-Angèle-de-Prémont in Quebec’s Maurice region, asked the leaders about job creation, particularly for older workers, during the French-language debate.
…

Asked whether she feels she got an answer to her question, Paillé said she felt the leaders showed empathy, but what she wants is a job.
…

Paillé’s question to the leaders was: “The employment rate is very high in the region. Steady jobs are scarce. It is hard for someone like me — I’m 53 — to find work. So I would like to know how you intend to create jobs in Quebec, particularly in my region, and how it will help people over the age of 50 find permanent jobs.”

This proves that the leaders of the parties at the debate were correct in their assessment that including Elizabeth May of the Green Party, would have been a problem, because they got embarrassed by a woman who simply asked a question.