Disclaimer: The Retirement Choice Act is not a true piece of legislation, but it should be. I present my ideas with legislative titles, because it gives a name for people to rally behind.
We can all agree that Social Security needs some help. There are a handful of debatable ways to handle this time bomb of fiscal catastrophe. First, we need to deal with the fact that it’s not sustainable. According to current projections Social Security will run out of funds by 2037. We also need to make sure Congress doesn’t use the money for anything other than our retirement. Third and last, we should be given a choice as to what happens with those funds. It’s our money after all. View full article »
Well, I just made up the title, but it works. So here is the issue, the Department of Health and Human Services in the federal government gauges the poverty line with a formula using the cost of groceries as a third of your monthly expenses. They then peg the cost of these groceries to the Consumer Price Index. I have no issue with how they calculate the cost of our milk (rice milk for me) or other food stuff. Where I see major issue is in how much of our budget is calculated as food, never mind gas, rent, and health care. Furthermore, this calculation has left us with a poverty line of $15,130 for a family of two. Who really believes two people can live off of $1,260 a month? That wouldn’t even cover mine and my wife’s student loans, let alone food or a roof. 
Sometimes the best ideas are backed by facts and easy to implement. Guess what, this is one. I like giving these legislative ideas titles on occasion. The True Fat Labeling Act would mandate labels to show fat content based on calories not weight or portion size. Why you might ask? Well, for one the current system is terribly deceptive. So deceptive it should be illegal. It fools people into thinking they might be eating something healthy when they definitely are not. The weight or portion size of the food you eat tells you almost nothing about its nutritional value.
