Ok so here I go with my big gamble to try and help all my friends on both sides of the aisle, what I see as the key facts that are controlling our lives and our futures.  My goal is that by learning the facts we can draw the best conclusions.

Here are my conclusions that I draw from the facts:

• Politicians behavior and decisions are heavily influenced by Lobbyists.
• The Healthcare industry is a major influence on politicians decisions.
• For most Americans, those making around $50,000 or less, their real income is dropping and is unlikely to improve much in the near future.
• Social Security is becoming much more important for most Americans as retirement income from other sources becomes less.

The politicians and media have little interest in doing what is best for us and because most of us have little time to get real facts on what is actually happening to our country. The major problem is sifting through the deluge of lies and distortions from both parties and the absence of the facts that control our lives now, and the trends that will do so in the future.

Democracy doesn’t work if the voters do not demand the facts to base informed decisions on. We are not demanding them, so we are not getting them! Politicians need to be addressing the real issues.

Here are the Facts I use to support my conclusions:

Here are some of the facts as far as I can check them, please anybody who feels they need changing let me know. I would be interested in what conclusion you draw from the facts. I will introduce a few at a time, hopefully this will identify what we should be holding our politicians accountable for.

Facts for today – More to come, give me your thoughts.

• Lobbying – Spending 2013 $3.24bn, 2014 $3.20bn, 2015 $2,39bn.
• There were 11,165 lobbyists in 2015, 436 Representatives and 100 Senators. Lobbyists spend an average of about $6m per year per politician.
• 2015 Top contributors – Chamber of Commerce $64m, American Medical Assocn $24m, National Assocn: of Realtors $23m, Blue Cross Blue Shield $18m.

The Retirement crisis. People with no 401k savings or any other retirement plan.

A 2015 Government study shows about 30% of households aged over 55 have no retirement plan or savings.

• The income trend for households earning $51,000(median US household income) or less, is very little increase over the last 10 years. The top 5% incomes have seen an increase of around 30% in the same period. Real median household income dropped 8% between 2007 and 20013.

1/10/2016