Skipped Parkrun. Song of the Month.

 Click HERE to view today's https://www.parkrun.us/depotpark/results/latestresults/parkrun  results. Melissa and i skipped the event this week. If we feel better and the weather cooperate, we'll consider returning to it. in the meantime I ipicked the 1984 alternative rock son How Soon is Now, bythe Smiths, as my Son of the Month fo January. I really enjoy hearing it over and over...Morissey's lyrics are profound...

Rep. Mulvaney's Senate Hearing for Budget Director

This morning I was watching on C-Span the Senate hearing for Trump's Budget Director nominee, Republican Representative Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina...appropriately conducted by the Budget Committee.  Mulvaney is a Tea Party conservative who entered Congress on that movement's popular momentum in the elections of 2010.  He is described as a hawk on fiscal restraint and has expressed concern about the federal government's ability to financially make ends meet in the not-to-distant future.  These concerns were repeated during today's hearing as Rep. Mulvaney mentioned that the trust funds for Medicare and Social Security would dry up in nine and seventeen years, respectively, if nothing were done about them.  And that, if nothing is done to change our spending practices, the entire federal spending would be going to paying the interest from our accumulated national debt and nothing else by around 2044 or 2054.  So how does one go about fixing things?  The nominee explained that there are five "levers" in Social Security that could be pulled in small degrees that, when done together, would make a major difference in the program's total cost, including things like raising the minimum age and imposing income caps for receiving benefits, to mention a couple.  The panel also asked Rep. Mulvaney about Donald Trump's repeated avowals during the campaign that he would not cut either Medicare and Social Security, and how would that square off against the nominee's views in favor of reform...after all, hadn't he once described the Social Security system as a "ponzi scheme"?  Mulvaney pointed out that the troubles with these programs have intensified because the ratio of people paying into the system to those receiving benefits has drastically gone down...now it's 2:1 and continuing to dwindle...and that is what's making it unsustainable, especially as the massive baby boomer generation ages and goes into retirement.  Also, people's increasing life expectancy, while generally speaking is a great thing, at the same time is placing a much heavier burden on Medicare and Social Security...

I just turned sixty last October and my wife is just a few years behind me, so we are very much concerned with what will happen with Medicare and Social Security during the next few years.  Everyone agrees, both Democrat and Republican, that something needs to be done...but the latter have pretty much forsaken the notion of raising taxes in order to adequately maintain their funding.  I'll continue to follow how these programs are changed over this Republican-controlled Congress and Presidency.  I will say that Mick Mulvaney did an excellent job of presenting and expressing himself...although the committee's ranking member Senator Bernie Sanders described him as being "out of touch" with his views, he also complimented him by calling him a "straight shooter".  With the amount of "alternative facts" being pushed by the new administration, this is refreshing to hear...

Signed Up at the Senior Recreation Center

I turned sixty a little more than three weeks ago, which makes me eligible to join the Senior Recreation Center, just a few blocks down the road from where I live here in far northern Gainesville.  I first found out about it because it is also my voting precinct...I was looking forward to finally meeting their minimum age requirement.  Oh, did I not mention that it is free for members?  Well, about an hour or ago I signed up and got my membership card.  I don't know how often I'll go there and what all I'll be doing...I guess time will tell.  I do like their computer room, as well as that front lobby area with the comfy-looking chairs.  There are a lot of classes and programs that they hold during their 8am-5pm weekday hours, including yoga, tai chi, bridge, chess, dancing, and so on.   They also have an exercise room, but alas, only one treadmill.  That's all right, I can run around my neighborhood...and besides, I still have that Gainesville Health and Fitness membership with their hellacious number of treadmills...

This Senior Rec Center looks like a good place to meet others and develop some friendships.  For someone with a reclusive nature as myself, this might be a healthful place to hang around.  I don't know when I'm going back, except that I KNOW I'll be there this coming November 8...to cast my ballot...